World War II Key Terms: Totalitarianism, Leaders, Battles, and Strategies

Totalitarian Regimes

Government with total control over people's lives, no freedoms

Fascism

Dictatorship with strong nationalism and limited economic freedom

Communism

System where government controls economy and aims for a classless society

Adolf Hitler

Dictator of Germany who started WWII and led the Holocaust

Hideki Tojo

Leader of Japan during WWII who supported expansion

Manchuria

Region in China invaded by Japan in 1931

Appeasement

Giving in to aggression to avoid war

Axis & Allies

Axis = Germany, Italy, Japan; Allies = U.S., Britain, Soviet Union

Winston Churchill

British leader who resisted Hitler

Blitzkrieg

Fast, surprise military attack using tanks and planes

Neutrality Acts

Laws to keep U.S. out of war

Lend-Lease

U.S. gave supplies to Allies before entering war

Arsenal of Democracy

U.S. role supplying weapons to Allies

Wolf Packs

German submarine groups attacking ships

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Surprise attack that brought U.S. into WWII

War Production Board

Directed factory production for war

Office of Price Administration

Controlled prices and rationing

Selective Service and Training

Military draft system

Rationing

Limiting goods like food and fuel

Rosie the Riveter

Symbol of women working in factories

A. Philip Randolph

Fought job discrimination in defense industry

Port Chicago Mutiny

Protest by Black sailors over unsafe conditions

Tuskegee Airmen

First African American military pilots

Zoot Suit Riots

Conflicts in LA involving Mexican American youth

Fred Korematsu

Challenged internment of Japanese Americans

Korematsu v. United States

Supreme Court upheld internment

Nisei/Issei

Issei = immigrants; Nisei = U.S.-born children

WAC/WAVES

Women serving in Army and Navy

GI Bill of Rights

Benefits for veterans (education, housing)

George Marshall

Planned Allied military strategy

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Led Allied forces in Europe (D-Day)

D-Day

Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944

George S. Patton

U.S. general known for aggressive tactics

Nuremberg Trials

Trials of Nazi leaders for war crimes

Big Three Meetings

Meetings between U.S., Britain, and USSR leaders

Concentration/Death Camps

Nazi camps where millions were killed

V-E Day

Victory in Europe (Germany defeated)

Battle of Midway

Major U.S. naval victory over Japan

Guadalcanal

First major U.S. offensive in Pacific

Chester Nimitz

Led U.S. Navy in Pacific

Island Hopping

Strategy of capturing key islands

Kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots

Iwo Jima & Okinawa

Major, deadly battles near Japan

Yalta Conference

Meeting to plan postwar Europe

Enrico Fermi

Scientist who helped develop atomic bomb

Manhattan Project

Secret project to build atomic bomb

Enola Gay

Plane that dropped bomb on Hiroshima

Atomic Bombs

Nuclear weapons used on Japan

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Cities destroyed by atomic bombs

Harry S. Truman

President who ordered atomic bomb use

United Nations

Organization formed to promote peace

V-J Day

Victory over Japan (end of WWII)