Transcript Chapters 24 + 25: World War II

CHAPTERS 24 + 25: WORLD WAR II
American History
Mussolini, Fascism, and Italy
 After returning from World War I,
Benito Mussolini created fascism
 Believed in strong nationalism, that
the nation was more important than
the country, that individualism made a
country weak, and a country’s strength
was based upon its leader, expanding
territory, and building its military
 Backed by the Fascist militia, or
Blackshirts, Mussolini marched into
Rome, where he quickly became
premier due to members of
parliament an the king resigning,
quickly destroying democracy and
establishing a dictatorship
Stalin and the USSR
 After Vladimir Lenin died, a
power struggle existed
amongst Communist
followers
 Josef Stalin became
dictator in 1926
 In 1927, Stalin began a
massive campaign to make
the Soviet Union
industrialized
 8-10 million people died due
to the Soviet’s zero
tolerance-zero oppression
policy
Hitler, the Nazis, & Germany
 A vet of World War I, Adolf Hitler joined the
National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi
Party), which was nationalistic, anticommunist,
and against the Treaty of Versailles
 Attempted a coup from Munich, but was
imprisoned
 After his release, he focused on getting Nazis
voted into parliament, the Reichstag
 With Nazis in parliament, they voted to make
him chancellor

Was appointed in 1933
 After becoming chancellor, he authorized new
elections and ordered his paramilitary force, the
Storm Troopers, to crack down on Socialist and
Communist parties
 The Reichstag, primarily Nazi, voted to make
Hitler president and dictator
 After being voted in, Hitler began building his
army, violating the Treaty of Versailles
Tojo, Militarism, and Japan
 Hit with economic strife from the
Great Depression, military leaders
and their supporters argued that
democracy was bad for Japan, and
the only way it would get out of the
Depression was to conquer east
Asia, starting with Manchuria (in
China)
 The Japanese army invaded
Manchuria in 1931, assassinated
the prime minister, placed Hideki
Tojo in charge, and continued its
goal of conquering east Asia
Franco, the Falangists, & Spain
 In Spain, General Francisco
Franco led a rebellion after a
combination of Republican,
Socialist, and Communist party
official were elected to the
parliament
 Was backed by the Spanish Fascists
(Falangists), army officers,
landowners, and the Catholic Church
 The Spanish Civil War attracted
international attention
 USSR sent arms to the government
 Germany and Italy sent tanks and
supplies to Franco
 The U.S. stayed neutral
Isolationism in the U.S.
 Observing these dictatorships forming across Europe,
the U.S. decided to stay neutral in order to avoid
international commitments that may lead to war
 Stayed neutral for further reasons:
 All debtor nations decided not to pay back their war debts from
World War I
 The Nye Committee-investigated profits from arms
manufacturers from World War I, which created speculation that
businesses encouraged the U.S. into war
 From the Nye Committee, the U.S. passed the Neutrality
Act of 1935, prohibiting the selling of arms to any
country at war
 Another act, the Neutrality Act of 1937, was passed,
requiring that if nations at war wanted American goods,
they had to send ships to pick them up, and pay cash
only
The forming of alliances
 After the Spanish Civil War,
Hitler and Mussolini signed an
agreement pledging to
cooperate on several
international issues
 The following month, Japan
aligned with Germany and
Italy
 Anti-Comintern Pact: agreement
to share information of
Communist countries
 These agreements were the
beginnings of the
establishment of the Axis
Powers
Roosevelt and
internationalism
 Roosevelt believed in internationalism, or
committing to trade with other countries in
the pursuit of preventing war
 Many Americans wanted isolationism,
however, so he adhered to their requests
 Once Japan began a full-scale invasion of
China, the U.S. decided to help China
 Since neither country declared war on each other,
the Neutrality Acts did not apply
The Anschluss
 Hitler’s first strategy was to re-unite
German speaking peoples in Austria
and Czechoslovakia
 Thought the only way to expand was to
unify everyone under one empire
 Would also gain food supplies, defenses,
and soldiers
 Hitler threatened to invade Austria if
Nazi party members weren’t given
important positions
 Austrian chancellor quickly did so, in fear
of Hitler
 The Austrian chancellor tried to place
the unification under democratic vote,
but fearing the results, Hitler sent
troops and announce the Anschluss, or
unification, which was accepted by the
Austrian peoples
The Munich Conference
 Hitler’s next goal was the
Sudetenland, an area in
Czechoslovakia with Germanspeaking peoples
 The Czechs resisted Hitler’s goal,
with the back-up of France and the
Soviet Union, in case Hitler invaded
 To avoid another war, British prime
minister Neville Chamberlain went
to Munich and granted Hitler
appeasement, or giving concessions
in exchange for peace
 Promised Hitler the Sudetenland if he
promised not to take the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
 Despite his agreement, Hitler
invaded and broke up
Czechoslovakia soon after
Danzig and the Polish
Corridor
 After taking the Sudetenland,
Hitler desired Danzig, a portion
of Germany separated by Poland
at the end of World War I
 Hitler also desired to build a
highway and railroad across
Poland to connect Germany with
Danzig and East Prussia
 Knowing appeasement had
failed, Britain and France
declared that it would back up
Poland if Hitler invaded
 Encouraged Poland to refuse
Hitler’s demands
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
 While Hitler was preparing to
invade Poland, he was also
preparing to negotiate with
the Soviet Union in order to
keep the peace with them
 Germany and the USSR signed
the Nazi-Soviet Pact, which
kept the Soviet Union out of
the war if Germany were to go
to war against Britain and
France in exchange for Polish
lands
The war begins
 On September 1st, 1939, Germany
invaded Poland, followed by an
invasion from the Soviet Union from
the east
 Two days later, Britain and France
declared war on Germany
 Germany used a new type of
warfare, blitzkrieg, or lightening
war, to take Poland
 Used tanks to encircle positions, while
aircrafts bombed positions and dropped
paratroopers to cut off supplies
 On September 27th, Warsaw was
taken, and October 5th, Poland
surrendered
The Fall of Norway, Denmark,
and France
 After taking Poland, Germany moved towards Denmark
and Norway in order to take its rich iron ore production
 Attacked in April, 1940, and had both countries within a month
 Hitler then turned his attention to France and getting
around its protective wall, the Maginot Line
 Did so by going around it through the Netherlands, Belgium,
and Luxembourg
 France and Britain expected tanks to come through central
Belgium, but the Germans went through the Ardennes
mountains in Luxembourg and eastern Belgium instead
 Easily broke French lines and headed towards the English
Channel
Dunkirk
 With Allied troops trapped in
Belgium, the only way to save the
remaining soldiers was to evacuate
them by sea
 All sea ports in France were taken,
except for Dunkirk
 Hitler stopped his advance, which
gave the British three days to rescue
its soldier
 Took home 338,000 French and British
troops
 By June, France surrendered to
Germany
 Germany installed a puppet
government (Vichy France) in order to
keep a close eye on it
The Battle of Britain
 Germany, surprised by Britain’s unwillingness to surrender,
prepared to invade across the English Channel
 Since the British air force would destroy any transport ships coming
towards them, the first strategy was the defeat the Royal Air Force
 Began bombing ships in the English Channel, then Royal Air Force bases
 When the Luftwaffe accidentally bombed London, the British
retaliated by bombing Berlin
 Hitler, infuriated, then focused on bombing London in order to
terrorize the civilians into surrendering
 Londoners held their spirits high, despite the bombings
 With the use of radar stations, the Royal Air Force was able to find
incoming German aircrafts, and send fighters to intercept them
 With continued damage to the Luftwaffe, Hitler canceled the
invasion in October, 1940
American support
 While staying neutral, the U.S. still
supported Great Britain and the Allies
 The Neutrality Act of 1939 was
revised to state that if a country at
war wanted to buy American
weapons, it had to pay with cash, and
send its own ships to pick up the
cargo
 In an attempt to help Great Britain,
Roosevelt found a loophole in the act
and asked Churchill, in exchange for
battleships, to build bases in
Newfoundland, Bermuda, and islands
in the Caribbean
 Debates on whether to help the Allies
or not was the focus of the election of
1940, which Roosevelt won
 Promised to stay neutral, but help Allies
Edging towards War
 With British funds running out, the United States offered to help
Britain gain arms
 The Lend-Lease Act allowed the U.S. to give arms to Britain, if Britain
promised to pay rent or return the arms
 With the invasion of the Soviet Union from Germany, the Lend-
Lease Act applied to the Soviets as well
 With German U-boats patrolling the Atlantic and sinking British
ships, the U.S. declared the western hemisphere as a hemispheric
defense zone, with the U.S. patrolling the Atlantic and revealing
locations of German submarines to the British
 Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, promising
peace and freedom after the war between the two countries, and
that the U.S. would find an incident which would get them involved
in the war
 German U-boats and American destroyers began confronting each other
in the Atlantic
Japanese tension with the
U.S.
 With its alliances with Great Britain, the U.S. made policies in
order to protect British colonies in Asia from Japan
 Supplying Britain with warships so it could send some to its colonies in
Asia
 Export Control Act, which gave the U.S. the power to restrict the sale
of strategic materials, or materials used for fighting a war
 Included steel, scrap iron, and oil, which Japan needed from the U.S.
 The U.S. began sending lend-lease materials to China to help in
their war effort against Japan
 Despite aid, China failed, and Japan moved closer to raiding
Hong Kong and Singapore, which belonged to Britain
 Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets from the U.S. and sent Douglas
MacArthur to the Philippines to mobilize its defenses
 In order to gain more oil and resources for the war effort, Japan
not only planned to attack British ports, but American ports as
well
Pearl Harbor
 Even though Japan negotiated with the
U.S., the military decoded messages
that made it clear that Japan was
secretly going to attack the U.S.
somewhere
 On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese
attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl
Harbor

Destroyed 21 ships, 188 airplanes, and
2,403 lives
 The following day, the U.S. declares
war on Japan
 Tired of the Atlantic battle, tied by the
alliance, and hopeful that Japan easily
defeat the U.S. then help with
defeating the Soviets, Germany and
Italy declared war on the U.S. 3 days
later
The war effort in the U.S.
 The U.S. war effort was twice as productive as the
efforts in Europe, and five times as productive as in
Japan
 Instead of having companies bid for war contracts, the
government signed cost-plus contracts, promising to
pay the company whatever it cost to make the product
plus a guaranteed percentage of the costs of the profit
 Allowed the companies to make more money
 To convince more companies to convert, the
government gave the authority to the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation, loaning money to companies in
order to participate in cost-plus contracts
War production
 The automotive industry built tanks, aircrafts, jeeps,
and trucks, as well as artillery, rifles, mines, helmets,
pontoon bridges, cooking pots, and other pieces of
military equipment
 Shipyards began mass producing battleships,
submarines, and liberty ships, or basic cargo ships
 Welded instead of riveted, in order to make the ship more
sturdy and powerful
 Roosevelt established the War Productions Board,
which set priorities and production goals and to control
the distribution of raw materials and supplies
 Clashed with military agencies, which caused the creation of
the Office of War Mobilization, which settled disputes
Building an army
 After Germany invaded
Poland, the U.S. expanded
its army to 227,000
 In 1940, Congress passed
the Selective Service and
Training Act, allowing
anyone who applied to the
armed services to serve
 Basic training was quick and
efficient and broke barriers,
but many soldiers didn’t
know how to do basic things
in battle
African Americans in the war
 African Americans desired to win
victories both at home and abroad
against racism during the war
 Double V campaign
 Since African Americans were a
huge part in Roosevelt’s reelection, he ordered the armed
forces to start recruiting African
Americans
 Many all-African units were
successful and pivotal during the
war effort
 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee
Airmen)
 761st Tank Battalion
 614 Tank Destroyers Battalion
Fall of the Philippines
 Hours after Pearl Harbor, the
Japanese attacked American air
bases in the Philippines
 American forces retreated to
the Bataan Peninsula, where
they held their ground for 3
months
 Japanese forces took Bataan,
and the surrendered Americans
were forced to march 65 miles
to a P.O.W. camp
 Bataan Death March
 The last of the Filipino
positions, Corregidor, fell in
May 1942
The Doolittle Raid
 Before the fall of the Philippines,
Roosevelt wanted to boost American
morale by bombing Tokyo
 Short-range bombers were unable to
be launch from aircraft carriers
because of Japanese ships preventing
the carriers from getting anywhere
close to Japan
 A military planner suggested using B25 bombers for the job, and having
them land in China after bombing
Tokyo
 Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle
headed the operation, which was
successful
 The Doolittle Raid
Battle of the Coral Sea
 Japan desired to cut off
American supplies coming
from Australia
 Sent three carriers to block and
invade New Guinea
 The Americans sent two
carriers, the Lexington and
Yorktown, to engage the
Japanese
 The two launched an all-out
airstrike, resulting in an
American victory and a pull-out
of the Japanese fleet
Battle of Midway
 The second strategy of the Japanese
was to defeat the American fleet at
Midway while depleting their supply
lines from Australia at the Coral Sea
 The Japanese launched an attack
against the Americans, not knowing
the Americans were ready for them
 Barraged the carriers and aircrafts with
anti-aircraft fire, along with
dogfighting in the skies and bombings
in the sea
 The Japanese retreated, losing four
of its major carriers, and resulting in
an American victory
 Major turning point in the war, and an
end to the Japanese offensive
Strategy for Europe
 By 1942, the Germans did away with the NaziSoviet Pact and began to invade the Soviet Union
 Stalin, appreciative of the Lend-Lease supplies
from the United States, urged Roosevelt to send
troops to open up a Western front in order to
distract the Germans from advancing further into
the Soviet Union
 Churchill declared that the British and American
forces were not ready for Europe, so instead sent
forces to help out in North Africa to give troops
more experience and to protect Egypt
 Suez Canal was vital to the transportation of goods from
British colonies to Europe
Battles in North Africa
 The German Afrika Corps, led by Erwin
Rommel, was successful in taking North
Africa until the British forced them to
retreat at the Battle of El Alamein
 The Americans invaded Morocco in
1942, taking Casablanca and moving
east, taking Algiers, Oran, and Tunisia
 The British moved west from El
Alamein, with the goal of trapping the
Afrika Corps between the Americans
from the east and the British from the
west
 After a loss in the Battle of Kasserine
Pass, General Dwight Eisenhower
appointed General George Patton in
charge of the Americans in North Africa
 Quickly pushed the Germans out of Africa
in 1943
Battle of the Atlantic
 After declaring war on the U.S.,
German submarines made their way
to the American coast, sinking
merchant and cargo ships along the
coast
 The loss of so many ships convinced
the U.S. to set up a convoy system,
where merchant ships would travel in
groups and be escorted by navy
warships
 The Germans sunk 1.2 million tons of
shipping, but the Americans built up
1.1 million between May-June 1942
 Along with building up shipping,
American airplanes and warships used
radar, sonar, and depth charges to
help locate and sink German
submarines
Stalingrad
 In May, 1942, Hitler launched an offensive
that would try to capture strategic oil
fields, farmlands, and industries in the
Ukraine in order to alter the Soviet
Union’s economy
 Hitler desired to take Stalingrad because
it was a major railway city and was
located on the Volga River

Would cut off resources the Soviet Union
needed if the city was taken by the Germans
 Stalin ordered the Soviet troops to hold
the city at all costs, and not to surrender
or retreat
 Major reinforcements came in by
November, trapping all the German
forces involved
 Major turning point in the war because it
placed the Germans on the defensive for
the remainder of the war
Women during the war
 Many women began
enlisting in the armed
forces
 Women’s Army Auxiliary
Corps, which became the
Women’s Army Corps
 Others, specifically married
women, worked in factories
and industrial plants in
order to keep the flow of
the work force while their
husbands were away at war
 “Rosie the Riveter”
Minorities during the war
 African Americans were not being hired for
defense jobs because of discrimination from
factory owners
 A. Philip Rudolph threatened to gather African
Americans and march on Washington in order to make
a statement
 Roosevelt issued Order 8802, which became the Fair
Employment Practices Commission, which made
discrimination towards hiring illegal
 To help in the harvest of crops, the U.S.
government introduced the Bracero (worker)
Program, which allowed 200,000 Mexican
farmworkers to come to the U.S. to help
Changes in American society
 Because of the economic boom, the
South and the West became major
industrial regions in the U.S.
 The Sunbelt
 To accommodate workers moving
across the country to their new
jobs, the government allocated $1.2
billion to build new houses for them
 Racial tensions and violence
erupted in the North and West
 African Americans migrating to the
North
 Mexican Americans and juvenile
deliquents in the West
 Zoot Suit Riots
Japanese relocation
 After Pearl Harbor, many Americans were angry with and
suspicious of Japanese Americans
 Many thought they were spies
 Succumbing to pressure, Roosevelt signed an order that the
War Department could declare any place on the U.S. a military
zone and remove anyone from that zone
 War Department declared all West Coast a military zone and sent
Japanese Americans to internment camps
 In Korematsu v. United States, Fred Korematsu argued that his
rights had been violated by being detained
 Decision was that it was essential to detain Japanese Americans not
because of race, but because of “military urgency”
 Despite this, many Japanese Americans fought in the war
 442nd Regimental Combat Team-most decorated
 After the war, the Japanese American Citizens League helped
those who lost property during their internment
Life in Wartime America
 To keep low and avoid inflation, Roosevelt created the Office of Price
Administration and the Office of Economic Stabilization


OES regulated wages and price of farm products
OPA regulated other prices for goods
 To prevent strikes, the War Labor Board helped mediate negotiations
between workers and owners
 To make sure necessary supplies were available for the war effort, the
OPA began rationing, or limiting the availability of, many household
products

Households were given ration coupons to cover the purchases of their goods
 “Blue points” and “Red points”
 Many planted victory gardens in order to grow their own food, and
rationed off spare metal parts, grease, and oils for the war effort
 To pay for the war, along with raising taxes, the government issued
war bonds for citizens to buy
The next phase
 At the Casablanca Conferences,
after the successful North
Africa campaign, Roosevelt and
Churchill insisted that two
things happen
 An invasion of Sicily from the sea
 Continued bombing of Germany
to weaken their military, industry,
economy, and moral
 The bombing campaign on
Germany increased, resulting in
damaged railroads and airplane
factories, and a shortage of oil
Invasion of Sicily
 Dwight D. Eisenhower was placed
under control of the invasion, while
Generals George Patton and Bernard
Montgomery were placed on the
frontline
 The use of the DUKW as an amphibious
vehicle was successful in transporting
troops and supplies
 Patton quickly took the western half of
the island, then headed east, while
Montgomery took the southern end of
the island, causing the Germans to
evacuate
 Because of the unsuccessful defense of
Sicily, Mussolini was placed under arrest
and out of power
The Italian Campaign
 Desperate to have Italy still in play,
Hitler advanced into Italy, taking all
lands north of Rome, and placing
Mussolini back into power
 Instead of fighting the Germans at the
heavily fortified city of Cassino, the
Allies landed at Anzio, behind enemy
lines
 Were surrounded by the Germans from
Cassino
 After five months, the Allies broke
through Anzio and Cassino, forcing the
Germans to retreat
 After two weeks, the Allies took Rome,
but fighting continued until May 2nd,
1944
The Tehran Conference
 After the success of Italy, Roosevelt
and Churchill wanted to meet with
Stalin to plan an invasion of Europe
 The meeting came to several
conclusions
 The Soviets would begin a massive
offensive while the Americans and
British invaded France
 The Americans and Soviets would break
up Germany in order to prevent another
world war
 Once Germany was beaten, the Soviets
would help the Americans defeat Japan
 Roosevelt wanted to begin an
international organization that would
keep peace in the world
Operation Overlord
 Hitler knew the Allies would invade France, but did not know
when or where
 Fortified the coast of France, just in case
 Since the Germans thought the invasion would take place at
Pas-de-Calais, the Allies set up rubber tanks and fake tents
along the coast across from Calais
 The invasion would not be in Calais, but in Normandy
 Several conditions had to occur for the invasion to be successful
 Low tides to help the soldiers see obstacles
 Had to occur at dawn so the gunners could see their targets
 The night before had to be moonlit for paratroopers to see their
landings
 Weather had to be good
 Upon these conditions, the date of the invasion was set at June
6th, 1944
D-Day
 7,000 ships with 100,000 soldiers
set sail for Normandy
 Stormed five beaches (Utah,
Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno)
 The storming of Utah Beach was
quick and successful
 Not heavily fortified by Germans
 The storming of Omaha Beach
was difficult
 Heavily fortified by Germans and
took a while for the Americans,
British, and Canadians to advance
past the beach and take down the
forts
 At the end of the day, the invasion
was successful
Island Hopping in the
Pacific
 The Pacific Fleet’s strategy was to
advance through the central Pacific by
hopping from island to island, while
General MacArthur’s troops would
advance through the Solomon Islands,
take New Guinea, and launch and invasion
in the Philippines
 However, many of the islands were made
of reefs, and sometimes the water wasn’t
deep enough for amphibious vessels to
land on
 The solution to the problem was the use
of the amphtrac, or an amphibious vessel
that had tank tracks on it

Made island hopping safer for Marines, and
operations more successful in the Marshall
Island
Battles toward the
Philippines
 While Nimitz took key positions in the Mariana Islands
that would now be used for storing B-29’s, MacArthur
headed towards the Philippines
 His first campaign was at Guadalcanal, and from there,
jumped 600 miles from other islands to take New
Guinea and Morotai, the last stop before the Philippines
 Troops assembled at Leyte Gulf, while warships headed
north to stop incoming Japanese crafts
 Japanese took this chance and attacked Leyte Gulf with
warships and kamikazes, or suicide planes
 The Americans held the Japanese off, and fearful more ships
would come, the Japanese retreated
Advance from Normandy
 From the landing in
Normandy, the Allies had to
combat the Germans, who
were defending their
positions behind hedgerows,
or walls covered in shrubbery
 Defenses ended by continuous
Allied bombings
 After breaking out of
Normandy, the Allies, along
with French resistance, were
able to liberate Paris in
August, and advance to
points 20 miles outside of
the German border
The Battle of the Bulge
 In a last offensive, Hitler ordered
troops to cut off Allied supplies
coming into Antwerp, Belgium
 The Germans were met with Allied
resistance, causing the offensive lines to
bulge outward
 The Americans held the Germans off
from taking Bastogne, a town with
many interconnecting roads
 General Patton advanced through a snow
storm in 3 days to help the Americans
who had been surrounded by German
troops
 With taking Bastogne and
continuously bombing German fuel
depots, the Germans retreated,
leaving the Americans a path to invade
Germany
The Holocaust
 Once the Allies crossed into
Germany, they found
evidence of the Nazis
committing genocide
against the peoples of
Europe
 The Holocaust, or what’s
referred to be the Jews as the
Shoah
 Once the camps were
liberated, the Allies
discovered the atrocities and
the history behind what the
Nazis were doing inside of its
own country
Nazi ideology
 Once the Nazis came into power,
they desired strongly to
implement the political
ideologies of Hitler
 They persecuted against anyone
who opposed them, the
disabled, Gypsies, homosexuals,
and Slavic peoples, but most of
all, the Jews
 The Nazis believed that the Jews
started World War I and the
Depression, and that they were
generally evil and money
grubbing, greedy businessmen
The Nuremberg Laws
 As soon as the Nazis took power, they immediately deprived
German Jews of their rights
 The Nuremberg Laws
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





Took away German citizenship to Jews
Banned marriage between Jews and Germans
Defined Jewish heritage by having at least one grandparent Jewish
Prohibited Jews from running for or holding public office
Forbade Jews from employing female German servants under age 35
Compelled Jews with German names to adopt Jewish names instead
Required all Jews to have a “J” on their passports to identify them as
Jewish
 Banned Jews from practicing law or medicine and from operating
businesses
 The Nuremberg Laws resulted in many Jews being jobless, but
some still desired to stay
Kristallnacht
 On November 7th, 1938, a young Jewish
refugee, forced to deport to Poland,
shot and killed a German diplomat in
retaliation for the treatment of Jews
 In response, Hitler order propaganda
minister Joseph Goebbels to stage
attacks against the Jews
 The attacks came to be known as
“Kristallnacht” or “The Night of Broken
Glass”
 Resulted in 90 Jews dead and hundred
injured
 Afterwards, the German secret police,
the Gestapo, arrested hundreds of
others, releasing them only if they
moved from Germany and gave away all
their possessions
Jews begin to flee
 When Hitler took power, many German Jews fled
from Germany and headed to neighboring countries
 Albert Einstein and Anne Frank
 Many tried to immigrate to the United States, but
were met with limitations
 Nazis limited Jews to taking anything more than $4 outside
of the country
 Many refused to accept Jewish immigrants
 High unemployment made immigration unpopular due to
the threat of immigrants taking jobs
 The U.S. restricted visas on anyone who was going to be a
financial inconvenience to the government
 Jews weren’t allowed to leave Germany with much money, so
this applied to them
The Final Solution
 On January 20th, 1942, German
leaders met at the Wannsee
Conference to discuss the “final
solution to the Jewish question”
 The solution was to round up the
Jews, along with other undesirable
races, and place them in
concentration camps, where they
would work in forced labor
conditions until the died of
exhaustion or illness
 Others, including the elderly, the
infirmed, and young children, would
be placed in extermination camps,
where they would be killed in large
gas chambers
 Ex. Treblinka and Auschwitz
V-E Day
 While the British and American forces fought to liberate
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France, the Soviets were beginning a massive offensive against
the Germans
When the Battle of the Bulge ended, the Soviets were
attacking from the eastern front, while the British and
Americans were attacking from the western front
Breaking through German barriers, the Allies reached Berlin in
April, with the Soviets entering first
Knowing the end was near, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in
his protective bunker
His successor, Karl Doenitz, wanted to surrender to the British
and Americans while fighting the Soviets, but Eisenhower
requested an unconditional surrender
On May 7th, 1945, V-E (Victory in Europe) Day came, and the
war in Europe was over
The war against Japan
 While the war in Europe had
ended, the war against Japan
was still underway
 President Roosevelt, before
the surrender of Germany,
had suffered a stroke and
died, leaving Vice President
Harry Truman in charge
 He continued to press on with
the war against Japan,
immediately sending troops
finished in Europe and willing
to continue to fight to Asia to
fight the Japanese
Iwo Jima
 Bombers being sent to Japan from
the Mariana Island bases did not
have enough fuel to accomplish
the mission
 The next task for the Americans
was to take a closer island and
turn it into a base for the bombers
 Chosen island was Iwo Jima
 On February 19, 1945, 60,000
Marines landed on the rugged
island, attacked by heavy
Japanese artillery
 More than 6,800 Marines died
before the island was taken by the
Americans
Okinawa
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Now that the B-29 bombers were able to lift
from Iwo Jima, the bombers reached Tokyo,
unleashing napalm, or jellied gasoline, onto its
targets, spreading fire and destroying vast areas
Thinking Japan was far from defeat, the
Americans decided to invade Japan itself, and
develop the island of Okinawa into a base for
supplies
The Americans invaded Okinawa in April, with
the Japanese taking positions in the mountains
instead of on the beaches
More than 12,000 Americans died before
Okinawa was taken in June, 1945
After Okinawa, the Japanese were willing to
surrenders, as long as the emperor was still in
power

Americans viewed the emperor as the one who
began the war, and Truman wanted to test his new
weapon on the Japanese, the atomic bomb
The Manhattan Project
 In 1939, the Americans discovered that
the Germans had found a way to split
uranium, harnessing enormous energy
 Fearing the Germans might harness this
energy as a weapon, Leo Szilard had
Albert Einstein endorse a letter to
Roosevelt, suggesting a weapon that
could hold this energy could be
constructed
 Convinced from British research on the
atomic bomb, Roosevelt set up a secret
program, code-named the Manhattan
Project, to develop and test such a
weapon
 Led by General Leslie Groves and J.
Robert Oppenheimer, the Americans
detonated the first atomic bomb on July
16, 1945
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and V-J
Day
 In order to prevent further American
casualties, Truman ask the Japanese to
surrender, or face utter destruction
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They refused
 On August 6, 1945, the Anola Gay
dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima
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Destroyed 76,000 buildings, and killed
between 80,000-120,000 people
 On August 9th, 1945, “Fat Man” was
dropped on Nagasaki
 To prevent further destruction, Japan
surrendered on August 15, 1945
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V-J Day
World War II was officially over
Building a New World
 Before the war ended, Roosevelt wanted to set up an
organization whose goal was to prevent another war of this
magnitude from happening again
 39 delegates met to finalize plans for that organization, called the
United Nations
 The United Nations would have a General Assembly where
each nation would have one vote on a topic, and there would
also be a Security Council, led by the five major nations of the
Allied Powers
 On April 25th, 1945, representatives from 50 nations met in San
Francisco to design the organization’s charter, or constitution
 General Assembly was given the power to vote on resolutions, to
choose non-permanent members of the Security Council, and vote on
a UN budget
 Security Council would investigate international problems, propose
settlement to countries that had disputes, and preserve peace by any
means
The Nuremberg Trials
 The Allies made it clear that they
would punish the Germans and
Japanese for war crimes and genocide
 In the summer of 1945, the Allies
created the International Military
Tribunal, and its first case was the
Nuremberg Trials
 22 were prosecuted, 3 were acquitted, 7
were given prison terms, and the
remaining 12 were executed by hanging
 The IMT for the Far East was
established similar to Nuremberg
 25 were prosecuted, 18 were given prison
terms, and the remaining 7, including
Hideki Tojo, were executed by hanging