Overview of WWII
It was 1939 and WWI had come to a close just twenty years earlier. A new power figure had taken shape in Germany, Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler set the stage for war on April 28, 1939 when he signed a nonaggression pact with Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin. The ten year non-aggression pact publicly stated that the Soviet Union and Germany would not attack one another. In addition to that public pact, they secretly agreed that they would invade and divide Poland while also taking over Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (the Baltic countries). This non-aggression pact with a secret agenda lead to the invasion of Poland thus breaking international law, this breech of conduct started the bloody and brutal WWII.
On September 1, 1939 the German army fully equipped with planes, bombs, tanks and soldiers invaded Polish borders. The invasion was carried out by over 1.5 million soldiers. Planes relentlessly bombed Poland, and the world was shocked. The attack on Poland had been so unexpected that the Polish had no time to prepare and were brutally crushed. This successful war technique was called the blitzkrieg or “lightning war”. The basic idea behind this war technique was speed, the use of fast tanks, trucks and airplanes paired with overwhelming amounts of soldiers. This tactic proved very difficult for the enemy to defend itself against. In addition the element of surprise gave Hitler the upper hand when attacking his enemies. After Germany claimed victory they seized their half of Poland. As the secret portion of the non-aggression pact had promised, Stalin and Germany began annexing Finland, the Baltic countries, and the rest of Poland. Stalin was able to claim Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia quite easily but Finland proved to be a more difficult task. After a year of fighting the stubborn Fins were forced to surrender to Stalin in March 1940. What followed was a mobilization of French and British armies. The troops positioned themselves along the Maginot line. This was commonly referred to as the phony war, because all the British and French armies seemed to do was wait, and attempt to fill the large voids of time. But that name quickly vanished when Hitler suddenly invaded Denmark and Norway. His plan involved building bases on Norwegian and Danish coasts to easily attack Britain. Denmark fell within four hours, and Norway surrendered only two months later. Hitler moved swiftly through Europe passing through Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, but what he really wanted was to successfully attack and occupy France. The German army reached the French coast by inching quietly across the Maginot Line. Belgium surrendered and Allies were trapped on the coast of Dukrir with nothing but the sea and German troops surrounding them. Great Britain sent 850 ships to Dukrir, and many motorboats,yachts and fishing boats joined the fleet to save the French soldiers. A little more than 338,000 soldiers were saved. As France began to fall into Hitler’s clutches Benito Mussolini of Italy joined Hitler. Together they declared war on Great Britian and France. But Britain’s prime minister Wintson Churchill declared that they would never give up the fight against Italy and Germany. On May 10th 1941 Hitler called off his attacks against Britain and the Battle of Britain proved that Hitler did not always have the upper hand. However a little more than a month later Germany invaded the Soviet Union with a plan called Operation Barbarossa. Hitler would go to any extent necessary to claims the Soviet Union. Germany began bombing food warehouses and people resorted to eating pets and rats, a grand total of 1,000,000 people died that winter. Despite the lives lost the Soviet Union did not surrender. As a last resort the Germans began to inch toward Moscow, but as the German soldiers marched to Moscow and summer turned to winter the soldiers dropped like flies and Moscow was saved. The Germans left with 500,000 less soldiers than before. But Hitler persevered and this loss did not deteriorate his plans. At this point President Roosevelt realized that if his allies fell the U.S. would again have to join another World War. As a result Roosevelt coaxed Congress to allow the U.S. to supply the allies with weapons. In reaction to Roosevelt allowing the U.S. to sell arms to the Allies Hitler demanded that any U.S. cargo ships be sunk if the opportunity presented itself. In addition Churchill and Roosevelt signed the Atlantic Charter which allowed for free trade. At this point the U.S. was not involved in the war, but this quickly changed when Japan did the unthinkable, it was on December 7th of 1941 that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
While Germany was invading most of it's European neighbors Japan was also attempting to expand to their regime. Japan served as a major threat for the U.S. and if the Japanese army succeeded in defeating the European colonies the U.S. was next, and they knew it. Japan naval strategist Isoroku Yamanoto claimed that the U.S. naval base in Hawaii was a threat that the Japanese could not ignore, and this claim was what lead to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On December 7 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor killing 2,400 Americans and injuring more than 1000. In addition the the nearly the entire Pacific fleet had been destroyed. Japan then had a long streak of victories attacking the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, and a string of Eastern Dutch Islands. The Japanese had acquired over 1,000,000 square miles of land. The Allies realized that Japan's power needed to be extinguished so the U.S. sent 16 B-25 bombers to bomb numerous Japanese cities including Tokyo. This attack did not do much in the way of damage but it served as a type of moral support for the American citizens. The Allies, which consisted of the Soviet Union, Britain, the U.S. and China began to gain confidence in the year 1942. The battle of Coral Sea took place in May 1942, which consisted of planes taking off of ships at sea the U.S. prevented Japan from expanding farther southward which was a step in the right direction for the Allies. Less than a month later on June 3rd The Battle of Midway occurred and 322 Japanese planes were destroyed by American pilots. American General Douglas MacArthur came up with a new idea to take down the powerful Japanese army. He presented the idea that the U.S. should not focus on their strong points but the islands where they had less defense. So the U.S. invaded Guadalcanal which was in the Solomon Islands. The battle raged on and the Japanese lost more than half of their 36,000 men in the Battle of Guadalcanal, the island was then deemed as "the Island of Death". As Japan's power began to dwindle with the help of U.S. intervention over in Germany Hitler was constructing the recipe for a the perfect race.
In the year 1933 Germany became largely anti-semtic and began passing laws that deemed Jews inadequate and incapable of participating in the German society. In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were created to strip the Jews of their citizenship as well as their diginity. They were forced to wear a bright yellow star around on their clothes to distinguish themselves from the pure Germans. Three years on November 7th later the "night of broken glass" arrived, in which a vengeful Jewish adolescent shot a member of the German Embassy in Paris after catching wind of his father being deported to Poland. As a result two days later the Nazi troops began breaking the glass windows of Jewish businesses and homes. The Jews were seen as the undesirable race and were forced to emigrate away from Germany. Nevertheless Britain, Latin America and the U.S. could take only so many refugees so Hitler created the ghettos in an attempt to further rid of the Jews. Ghettos served as a secure and secluded community where the Jews were starved and held until being shipped off to concentration camps. Concentration camps became the focal point of Hitler's final solution. The final solution was a practice in which "subhumans" were killed off, the subhumans however were not limited to Jews. The "subhuman" category extended itself to Gypsies, Russians, the mentally and physically impaired, Poles and the homosexuals. The concentration camps were created in the hopes of quickly eradicating the "subhuman" population. Elie Wiesel a holocaust survivor describes how detrimental and destructive the Holocaust was, and the toll it took on him and the entirety of his life, "Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." The Holocaust killed more than 6 million Jews and other "subhumans", less than 4 million survived the terrible inspections, shootings, gassings, and intensive labor.he Holocaust killed more than 6 million Jews and other "subhumans", " “Against all odds I am standing here before you.” Steven Barry, Holocaust Survivor". The Holocaust was a great success for Hitler and he hoped that his success would continue on into the next year, 1942. However he would soon find that the Allies were changing course and taking the war into their own hands.
As 1941 roared to close Hitler hoped for another triumphant year, but the U.S. had joined the Allies and Roosevelt and Churchill had met at the White House to discuss a linked war system. Although Stalin believed it would be beneficial for the one strong front to split in two to better divide German power instead of allowing it to flourish in one area where all of their enemies were positioned. Roosevelt supported the idea, but first the Britain and U.S. army attacked the Southern part of Europe along with North Africa. British General Montgomery lead a battle against German General Rommel and suddenly attacked him and his army on October 23, and by November 3 Rommel and his army fell back westward. This battle was referred to as the Battle of El Alamein. When Rommel retreated the Allies initiated Operation Torch. Operation Torch lead by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later became the 34th president of the United States lead the attack that destroyed the German Afrika Korps were finally destroyed in 1943. The turning point of the war followed shortly after on August 23, 1942. This date was the day in which the Battle of Stalingrad began this battle consisted of Germans invading the Soviet Union, and Hitler would not allow his soldiers to turn back. A month later the Germans had managed to control 90 percent of Stalingrad. As yet another summer came to a close the Soviet army conducted a counter attack which resulted in the starvation of the German soldiers. The Soviet Army had cut off their supplies and many died in the bitter winter. Only 90,000 survived out of the original 330,000 that had originally invaded the Soviet Union. The German army officially surrendered on February 2, 1943 and the Soviet Union regained control of the almost completely obliterated Stalingrad. A little less than a year later on July 10 of 1943 about 180,000 soldiers from the Allied powers invaded Sicily Italy and won it back from German troops. Fifteen days later on July 25 Benito Mussolini was fired from his dictatorship by King Emanuel III. However the Germans managed to regain power and Mussolini regained his dictatorship. But the Allied forces did not back down and continued the fight. Finally Germany surrendered and as they were pouring out of Italy on April 28, 1945 Mussolini managed to disguise himself as a German soldier. In spite of the fact that he had dressed in a soldier's uniform he was shot by fighters from the Allie's side and was hung in Milan town square. As the Allies began to turn the tide of the war they also began to receive immense support from their home fronts. The U.S. had stood strong throughout the war and the home front began to devote all of its supplies to the war effort. A total war was beginning to form and almost all of the factories dedicated their labor force to creating bullets, machine guns and boots. In addition to the home front becoming pro war, they had suddenly become very wary of Japanese Americans. Suddenly the Japanese Americans were perceived as the rival and the military began exporting the Japanese Americans to isolated communities. As 1942 came to a close the Allies had began to win most of the battles, and were planning on taking Germany down once and for all. They set up a mock army to divert German's attention to the French Seaport Calais. Where in actuality General Dwight D. Eishenhower lead the immense attack with code name Operation Overload. The actual attack called for invasion in Normandy and began on June 6, 1994 which went down in history as D-Day. This historic battle was won by the Allies who sent in 1,000,000 additional troops, who successfully broke through German barricade on July 25. The Allies success did not stop there and they effectively liberated the majority of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Belgium. Although the Allies had broken through Germany's barricade they had not yet defeated them, thus the Battle of the Bulge commenced. After a lively battle the Allies finally pushed the Nazis back and the Nazis retreated and begrudgingly surrendered. They had lost so many men and were no longer able to effectively fight. As April came to a close Berlin was being suffocated and attacked by the Soviets and Hitler began putting together his suicide note in which he blamed everyone but himself for Germany's failure in the war. Hitler and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves on April 30. Less than a month later Germany surrendered to General Eisenhower and the official surrender was signed on May 8 in Berlin.This day became known as V-E Day-Victory in Europe Day and the European portion of the war had come to a close. Although Germany had surrendered Japan had not and the war raged on. The main tactic that kept the Japanese from being completely demolished by the allies was the Kamikaze technique. This technique involved crashing Japanese bomb filled planes into Allie ships. When the Japanese persevered successor to Roosevelt, President Truman agreed to the use of the Atomic bomb on the Japanese. Three atomic bombs were released, the first on July 16, 1945 in a desert in New Mexico, this was supposed to serve as a warning for the Japanese. When they did not respond another atomic bomb was released on August 6, 1945 but this time on a Japanese city of 365,000 people, Hiroshima. Three days later on the 9th another bomb was dropped on a city of 200,000 people, Nagaski. A total of 110,500 people died and countless more died from radiation. The Japanese then surrendered on September 2 to General Douglas MacArthur. The war had officially ended, but the work had only just begun. The world had been ripped to shreds, and the countries were posed with the question "how do we rebuild the world?".
Though the fighting had stopped by the end of 1945 the aftermath of the Second World was catastrophic. The majority of Europe lay in disrepair factories had been destroyed by the constant bombing, people were lost and misplaced and hunger was unavoidable. There were 810,000 deaths in France alone, out of the 810,000 dead 340,000 were enrolled in the military and the remaining 470,000 were civilians. Many Europeans had lost their families,friends homes and sense of safety and for this they could only blame their leaders. The Europeans in Italy and Germany were suddenly more open to the promise of communism and the idea that it proposed. The idea that the people would be able to abolish the class system and the lower class would not be financially strained and work and pay would be adequately distributed. In addition their was no private property and the state owned all companies and businesses. This was an attempt to rebuild the now completely destroyed European economic state. As fragile economies all around the world tried to rebuild they also tried to comprehend and serve justice for the crimes against humanity that had occurred in the Holocaust. The Nuremberg trials were a result of the world's strive for Justice. The Nuremberg trials started on December 20 1946, 22 Nazi generals were accused of conducting war aggression and were also charged with pursuing human violation crimes that resulted in the murder of 11 million people. A handful of Nazi Generals avoided the death sentences by committing suicide. There were 22 Nazi Generals charged and of those 22 only 12 sentenced to death. There were also a handful of Nazi generals who avoided the trials all together by committing suicide. The remaining Nazi Generals were burned after their executions at Dachau, the same concentration camp where they had burned they had killed so many. As Europe began to repair itself the Japanese began to deal with the repercussions of losing the war. Douglas MacArthur began taking control over the Japanese invasion, and he did not want their to be another outbreak of violence in reaction to this U.S. occupation. So he maintained a disciplined and kind stature, and began demilitarizing the Japanese army. He then began creating a democratization in which the people elected their government officials. In addition MacArthur also began drawing up a new constitution for the Japanese people, which was made public on November 3 1946, and was put into effect on May 3 1947. The constitution provided to be a great change for the Japanese. Despite all of the changes they ensured that their emperor remained the strongest power, but the constitution made him openly admit that he was not a god. Despite the Japanese hardest efforts their emperor was stripped of his status and was diminished to a constitutional monarch. This new constitution put the power in the hands of the people. In addition to the immense change in politics the U.S. sent 2 billion dollars to Japan in an emergency economic relief campaign. Four years later in 1951 the United States along with 48 distinct nations signed a peace treaty with Japan. The U.S. began leaving Japan 6 months later and the world began to reassemble.
The Second World War was chalked full of horrors and heroic acts, and it is a difficult task, attempting to understand how a second world war occurred after the first had so obviously wrenched the world of happiness. But new problems and conflicts arise people have differing ideas and when they cannot be settled in conversation or on paper, violence takes it stance and rears its ugly head. There are many reasons to disagree with someone; differing ideas, beliefs, religions but the problem is not opinion or individual ideas. Challenges and opposing opinions are exciting and compelling. The problem begins somewhere near the part where a man, woman or group think they are superior. They believe that they know what is best for everyone and thing even if these people completely oppose their ideas and convictions. This it is the ember that starts a flame which is coaxed into a fire. It is the people who believe their ideas are better, and that everyone should think that way too. We are all guilty of this, thinking we are better, thinking we know better. The world and its people are unpredictable, if another world war breaks out what it will regard exactly is unknown, but It will start with a person or group who believes they know better than everyone else, and they will make that thought loud and clear. As for WWII it began with a man who believed he deserved to expand his empire and take over another land that he viewed inadequate to his. The story of WWII is messy, scary and demeaning but it is part of World History, and we can do nothing but learn from our mistakes.
World War Two Death Count: http://www.hitler.org/ww2-deaths.html
On September 1, 1939 the German army fully equipped with planes, bombs, tanks and soldiers invaded Polish borders. The invasion was carried out by over 1.5 million soldiers. Planes relentlessly bombed Poland, and the world was shocked. The attack on Poland had been so unexpected that the Polish had no time to prepare and were brutally crushed. This successful war technique was called the blitzkrieg or “lightning war”. The basic idea behind this war technique was speed, the use of fast tanks, trucks and airplanes paired with overwhelming amounts of soldiers. This tactic proved very difficult for the enemy to defend itself against. In addition the element of surprise gave Hitler the upper hand when attacking his enemies. After Germany claimed victory they seized their half of Poland. As the secret portion of the non-aggression pact had promised, Stalin and Germany began annexing Finland, the Baltic countries, and the rest of Poland. Stalin was able to claim Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia quite easily but Finland proved to be a more difficult task. After a year of fighting the stubborn Fins were forced to surrender to Stalin in March 1940. What followed was a mobilization of French and British armies. The troops positioned themselves along the Maginot line. This was commonly referred to as the phony war, because all the British and French armies seemed to do was wait, and attempt to fill the large voids of time. But that name quickly vanished when Hitler suddenly invaded Denmark and Norway. His plan involved building bases on Norwegian and Danish coasts to easily attack Britain. Denmark fell within four hours, and Norway surrendered only two months later. Hitler moved swiftly through Europe passing through Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, but what he really wanted was to successfully attack and occupy France. The German army reached the French coast by inching quietly across the Maginot Line. Belgium surrendered and Allies were trapped on the coast of Dukrir with nothing but the sea and German troops surrounding them. Great Britain sent 850 ships to Dukrir, and many motorboats,yachts and fishing boats joined the fleet to save the French soldiers. A little more than 338,000 soldiers were saved. As France began to fall into Hitler’s clutches Benito Mussolini of Italy joined Hitler. Together they declared war on Great Britian and France. But Britain’s prime minister Wintson Churchill declared that they would never give up the fight against Italy and Germany. On May 10th 1941 Hitler called off his attacks against Britain and the Battle of Britain proved that Hitler did not always have the upper hand. However a little more than a month later Germany invaded the Soviet Union with a plan called Operation Barbarossa. Hitler would go to any extent necessary to claims the Soviet Union. Germany began bombing food warehouses and people resorted to eating pets and rats, a grand total of 1,000,000 people died that winter. Despite the lives lost the Soviet Union did not surrender. As a last resort the Germans began to inch toward Moscow, but as the German soldiers marched to Moscow and summer turned to winter the soldiers dropped like flies and Moscow was saved. The Germans left with 500,000 less soldiers than before. But Hitler persevered and this loss did not deteriorate his plans. At this point President Roosevelt realized that if his allies fell the U.S. would again have to join another World War. As a result Roosevelt coaxed Congress to allow the U.S. to supply the allies with weapons. In reaction to Roosevelt allowing the U.S. to sell arms to the Allies Hitler demanded that any U.S. cargo ships be sunk if the opportunity presented itself. In addition Churchill and Roosevelt signed the Atlantic Charter which allowed for free trade. At this point the U.S. was not involved in the war, but this quickly changed when Japan did the unthinkable, it was on December 7th of 1941 that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
While Germany was invading most of it's European neighbors Japan was also attempting to expand to their regime. Japan served as a major threat for the U.S. and if the Japanese army succeeded in defeating the European colonies the U.S. was next, and they knew it. Japan naval strategist Isoroku Yamanoto claimed that the U.S. naval base in Hawaii was a threat that the Japanese could not ignore, and this claim was what lead to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On December 7 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor killing 2,400 Americans and injuring more than 1000. In addition the the nearly the entire Pacific fleet had been destroyed. Japan then had a long streak of victories attacking the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, and a string of Eastern Dutch Islands. The Japanese had acquired over 1,000,000 square miles of land. The Allies realized that Japan's power needed to be extinguished so the U.S. sent 16 B-25 bombers to bomb numerous Japanese cities including Tokyo. This attack did not do much in the way of damage but it served as a type of moral support for the American citizens. The Allies, which consisted of the Soviet Union, Britain, the U.S. and China began to gain confidence in the year 1942. The battle of Coral Sea took place in May 1942, which consisted of planes taking off of ships at sea the U.S. prevented Japan from expanding farther southward which was a step in the right direction for the Allies. Less than a month later on June 3rd The Battle of Midway occurred and 322 Japanese planes were destroyed by American pilots. American General Douglas MacArthur came up with a new idea to take down the powerful Japanese army. He presented the idea that the U.S. should not focus on their strong points but the islands where they had less defense. So the U.S. invaded Guadalcanal which was in the Solomon Islands. The battle raged on and the Japanese lost more than half of their 36,000 men in the Battle of Guadalcanal, the island was then deemed as "the Island of Death". As Japan's power began to dwindle with the help of U.S. intervention over in Germany Hitler was constructing the recipe for a the perfect race.
In the year 1933 Germany became largely anti-semtic and began passing laws that deemed Jews inadequate and incapable of participating in the German society. In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were created to strip the Jews of their citizenship as well as their diginity. They were forced to wear a bright yellow star around on their clothes to distinguish themselves from the pure Germans. Three years on November 7th later the "night of broken glass" arrived, in which a vengeful Jewish adolescent shot a member of the German Embassy in Paris after catching wind of his father being deported to Poland. As a result two days later the Nazi troops began breaking the glass windows of Jewish businesses and homes. The Jews were seen as the undesirable race and were forced to emigrate away from Germany. Nevertheless Britain, Latin America and the U.S. could take only so many refugees so Hitler created the ghettos in an attempt to further rid of the Jews. Ghettos served as a secure and secluded community where the Jews were starved and held until being shipped off to concentration camps. Concentration camps became the focal point of Hitler's final solution. The final solution was a practice in which "subhumans" were killed off, the subhumans however were not limited to Jews. The "subhuman" category extended itself to Gypsies, Russians, the mentally and physically impaired, Poles and the homosexuals. The concentration camps were created in the hopes of quickly eradicating the "subhuman" population. Elie Wiesel a holocaust survivor describes how detrimental and destructive the Holocaust was, and the toll it took on him and the entirety of his life, "Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." The Holocaust killed more than 6 million Jews and other "subhumans", less than 4 million survived the terrible inspections, shootings, gassings, and intensive labor.he Holocaust killed more than 6 million Jews and other "subhumans", " “Against all odds I am standing here before you.” Steven Barry, Holocaust Survivor". The Holocaust was a great success for Hitler and he hoped that his success would continue on into the next year, 1942. However he would soon find that the Allies were changing course and taking the war into their own hands.
As 1941 roared to close Hitler hoped for another triumphant year, but the U.S. had joined the Allies and Roosevelt and Churchill had met at the White House to discuss a linked war system. Although Stalin believed it would be beneficial for the one strong front to split in two to better divide German power instead of allowing it to flourish in one area where all of their enemies were positioned. Roosevelt supported the idea, but first the Britain and U.S. army attacked the Southern part of Europe along with North Africa. British General Montgomery lead a battle against German General Rommel and suddenly attacked him and his army on October 23, and by November 3 Rommel and his army fell back westward. This battle was referred to as the Battle of El Alamein. When Rommel retreated the Allies initiated Operation Torch. Operation Torch lead by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later became the 34th president of the United States lead the attack that destroyed the German Afrika Korps were finally destroyed in 1943. The turning point of the war followed shortly after on August 23, 1942. This date was the day in which the Battle of Stalingrad began this battle consisted of Germans invading the Soviet Union, and Hitler would not allow his soldiers to turn back. A month later the Germans had managed to control 90 percent of Stalingrad. As yet another summer came to a close the Soviet army conducted a counter attack which resulted in the starvation of the German soldiers. The Soviet Army had cut off their supplies and many died in the bitter winter. Only 90,000 survived out of the original 330,000 that had originally invaded the Soviet Union. The German army officially surrendered on February 2, 1943 and the Soviet Union regained control of the almost completely obliterated Stalingrad. A little less than a year later on July 10 of 1943 about 180,000 soldiers from the Allied powers invaded Sicily Italy and won it back from German troops. Fifteen days later on July 25 Benito Mussolini was fired from his dictatorship by King Emanuel III. However the Germans managed to regain power and Mussolini regained his dictatorship. But the Allied forces did not back down and continued the fight. Finally Germany surrendered and as they were pouring out of Italy on April 28, 1945 Mussolini managed to disguise himself as a German soldier. In spite of the fact that he had dressed in a soldier's uniform he was shot by fighters from the Allie's side and was hung in Milan town square. As the Allies began to turn the tide of the war they also began to receive immense support from their home fronts. The U.S. had stood strong throughout the war and the home front began to devote all of its supplies to the war effort. A total war was beginning to form and almost all of the factories dedicated their labor force to creating bullets, machine guns and boots. In addition to the home front becoming pro war, they had suddenly become very wary of Japanese Americans. Suddenly the Japanese Americans were perceived as the rival and the military began exporting the Japanese Americans to isolated communities. As 1942 came to a close the Allies had began to win most of the battles, and were planning on taking Germany down once and for all. They set up a mock army to divert German's attention to the French Seaport Calais. Where in actuality General Dwight D. Eishenhower lead the immense attack with code name Operation Overload. The actual attack called for invasion in Normandy and began on June 6, 1994 which went down in history as D-Day. This historic battle was won by the Allies who sent in 1,000,000 additional troops, who successfully broke through German barricade on July 25. The Allies success did not stop there and they effectively liberated the majority of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Belgium. Although the Allies had broken through Germany's barricade they had not yet defeated them, thus the Battle of the Bulge commenced. After a lively battle the Allies finally pushed the Nazis back and the Nazis retreated and begrudgingly surrendered. They had lost so many men and were no longer able to effectively fight. As April came to a close Berlin was being suffocated and attacked by the Soviets and Hitler began putting together his suicide note in which he blamed everyone but himself for Germany's failure in the war. Hitler and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves on April 30. Less than a month later Germany surrendered to General Eisenhower and the official surrender was signed on May 8 in Berlin.This day became known as V-E Day-Victory in Europe Day and the European portion of the war had come to a close. Although Germany had surrendered Japan had not and the war raged on. The main tactic that kept the Japanese from being completely demolished by the allies was the Kamikaze technique. This technique involved crashing Japanese bomb filled planes into Allie ships. When the Japanese persevered successor to Roosevelt, President Truman agreed to the use of the Atomic bomb on the Japanese. Three atomic bombs were released, the first on July 16, 1945 in a desert in New Mexico, this was supposed to serve as a warning for the Japanese. When they did not respond another atomic bomb was released on August 6, 1945 but this time on a Japanese city of 365,000 people, Hiroshima. Three days later on the 9th another bomb was dropped on a city of 200,000 people, Nagaski. A total of 110,500 people died and countless more died from radiation. The Japanese then surrendered on September 2 to General Douglas MacArthur. The war had officially ended, but the work had only just begun. The world had been ripped to shreds, and the countries were posed with the question "how do we rebuild the world?".
Though the fighting had stopped by the end of 1945 the aftermath of the Second World was catastrophic. The majority of Europe lay in disrepair factories had been destroyed by the constant bombing, people were lost and misplaced and hunger was unavoidable. There were 810,000 deaths in France alone, out of the 810,000 dead 340,000 were enrolled in the military and the remaining 470,000 were civilians. Many Europeans had lost their families,friends homes and sense of safety and for this they could only blame their leaders. The Europeans in Italy and Germany were suddenly more open to the promise of communism and the idea that it proposed. The idea that the people would be able to abolish the class system and the lower class would not be financially strained and work and pay would be adequately distributed. In addition their was no private property and the state owned all companies and businesses. This was an attempt to rebuild the now completely destroyed European economic state. As fragile economies all around the world tried to rebuild they also tried to comprehend and serve justice for the crimes against humanity that had occurred in the Holocaust. The Nuremberg trials were a result of the world's strive for Justice. The Nuremberg trials started on December 20 1946, 22 Nazi generals were accused of conducting war aggression and were also charged with pursuing human violation crimes that resulted in the murder of 11 million people. A handful of Nazi Generals avoided the death sentences by committing suicide. There were 22 Nazi Generals charged and of those 22 only 12 sentenced to death. There were also a handful of Nazi generals who avoided the trials all together by committing suicide. The remaining Nazi Generals were burned after their executions at Dachau, the same concentration camp where they had burned they had killed so many. As Europe began to repair itself the Japanese began to deal with the repercussions of losing the war. Douglas MacArthur began taking control over the Japanese invasion, and he did not want their to be another outbreak of violence in reaction to this U.S. occupation. So he maintained a disciplined and kind stature, and began demilitarizing the Japanese army. He then began creating a democratization in which the people elected their government officials. In addition MacArthur also began drawing up a new constitution for the Japanese people, which was made public on November 3 1946, and was put into effect on May 3 1947. The constitution provided to be a great change for the Japanese. Despite all of the changes they ensured that their emperor remained the strongest power, but the constitution made him openly admit that he was not a god. Despite the Japanese hardest efforts their emperor was stripped of his status and was diminished to a constitutional monarch. This new constitution put the power in the hands of the people. In addition to the immense change in politics the U.S. sent 2 billion dollars to Japan in an emergency economic relief campaign. Four years later in 1951 the United States along with 48 distinct nations signed a peace treaty with Japan. The U.S. began leaving Japan 6 months later and the world began to reassemble.
The Second World War was chalked full of horrors and heroic acts, and it is a difficult task, attempting to understand how a second world war occurred after the first had so obviously wrenched the world of happiness. But new problems and conflicts arise people have differing ideas and when they cannot be settled in conversation or on paper, violence takes it stance and rears its ugly head. There are many reasons to disagree with someone; differing ideas, beliefs, religions but the problem is not opinion or individual ideas. Challenges and opposing opinions are exciting and compelling. The problem begins somewhere near the part where a man, woman or group think they are superior. They believe that they know what is best for everyone and thing even if these people completely oppose their ideas and convictions. This it is the ember that starts a flame which is coaxed into a fire. It is the people who believe their ideas are better, and that everyone should think that way too. We are all guilty of this, thinking we are better, thinking we know better. The world and its people are unpredictable, if another world war breaks out what it will regard exactly is unknown, but It will start with a person or group who believes they know better than everyone else, and they will make that thought loud and clear. As for WWII it began with a man who believed he deserved to expand his empire and take over another land that he viewed inadequate to his. The story of WWII is messy, scary and demeaning but it is part of World History, and we can do nothing but learn from our mistakes.
World War Two Death Count: http://www.hitler.org/ww2-deaths.html
Timeline of WWII
1. September 1, 1939: beginning of WWII. Hitler attacks Poland with its new strategy the Blitzkrieg, which include modern technology and surprise attacks on the enemy in hopes of catching them when they have their guard down. Attack is successful Hitler splits land with Russia.
2. April 9, 1940: Hitler launches a
surprise attack on Denmark and Norway, with newly created methods known as the
Blitzkrieg. His goal was to to build bases along the Norwegian and Danish
coast in order to take down Britain.
3. .November 1940-march 1941: Bulgaria,
Romania, and Hungary join Axis power because they are now under the German
empire. The German power forced Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to join the war.
4. September 4, 1941: United States is
now officially fighting alongside France and Britain against Germany in
an undeclared Naval war. This undeclared Naval war started when Hitler
sunk a ship filled with weapons that were being sent to aid the Allied powers.
5. December 7, 1942: Japan strikes Pearl
Harbor. Forcing President Roosevelt to declare war on Japan.
6. July 10, 1943: German General Eirwin
Rommel took over key port of Tobruk. This was important to Germany because it
made exporting and importing goods much easier across the void between Africa
and Germany.
7. April 30, 1945: Hitler is facing
imminent defeat so he commits suicide and Germany is forced to surrender.
8. May 8, 1945: The Potsdam Treaty was
signed in Berlin, it was the agreement between three of the Allies, the United
States, USSR, and Great Britain. It claimed that Germany needed to be reconstructed to
it's original 1937 pre-war borders. The treaty also discussed the punishments
German war-criminals needed to be charged with. In addition the Nazi party was
weakened and was no longer the strong face of German power.
9. August 6, 1945: United States drops
an Atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The bombing brought hope to United State citizens
because they realized that Japan could successfully be attacked.
10. September 2, 1945: Japan surrenders
because of the devastation the bomb caused to the civilian population and also
the environment of Japan. They surrender on a battleship in Tokyo Bay. Japanese
leader comes aboard and declares that Japan is weak economically and cannot
fight anymore. Thus ending WWII.