WWII Final Review - Vocab

Living Space

Nazi idea that Germany needed territorial expansion eastward for racial survival, used to justify invasion, ethnic cleansing, and mass murder.

Genocide

The intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group; WWII (especially the Holocaust) drove the concept’s legal definition

Strategic bombing

Air attacks on enemy industry, infrastructure, and cities to break war-making capacity and civilian morale.

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Japan’s imperial vision of Asian unity that masked exploitation, occupation, and brutality.

“Comfort women”

Women, mainly Korean and Chinese, forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military.

Conscientious objectors & Civilian Public Service (CPS)

Americans who opposed combat on moral/religious grounds and served in non-military labor during the war.

Just War

Ethical framework debating when war is justified and how it should be fought; WWII raised tensions between necessity and morality.

Area vs. precision bombing

Area bombing targeted entire cities; precision bombing aimed at specific military/industrial targets, though often inaccurate in practice.

Collaboration and resistance

Ways civilians responded to Axis occupation, ranging from cooperation (e.g., Vichy France) to armed and moral opposition.

Atlantic Charter

Allied statement of war aims emphasizing self-determination, collective security, and postwar peace.

Unconditional surrender

Allied demand that Axis powers surrender without negotiation to prevent future militarism.

Denazification

Allied effort to remove Nazi influence from German society, politics, and culture after the war.

Anti-Semitism

Hostility toward Jews; central to Nazi ideology and the Holocaust, but widespread beyond Germany.

“The Final Solution”

Nazi plan to systematically murder Europe’s Jews, implemented through ghettos, shootings, and extermination camps.

Genocide (postwar usage)

Legal and moral concept shaped by WWII atrocities, later codified by the UN.

Gyokusai battle

Japanese concept of honorable mass death rather than surrender, seen in battles like Saipan and Okinawa.

Unit 731

Japanese military unit that conducted lethal human experimentation in occupied China.

“Victors’ justice”

Criticism that war crimes trials punished Axis crimes while ignoring Allied abuses.

United Nations

International organization founded to prevent future wars and promote human rights after WWII.

The Marshall Plan

U.S. economic aid program to rebuild Western Europe and stabilize democracy.

Decolonization

Postwar process where European empires weakened by WWII lost control of colonies.

The G.I. Bill (1944)

U.S. law providing veterans with education, housing, and economic benefits, reshaping American society.

“Living memorial”

Commemoration through institutions that serve society (e.g., education, parks), not just statues, reflecting lessons of WWII.