THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY - Post WWI

• 1920s-1930s

  • False Sense of Security and Happiness

  • Uneasy Feelings: Poor became poorer and the rich became wealthier

  • Growth of POPULAR CULTURE and new inventions!

  • The Arts: Disillusioned with the brutality of WWI > Protests and challenge tradition

  • DEMOCRACY and CAPITALISM: - Are they the answers to restoring ORDER after WWI?

  • 1918-1920: Influenza epidemic: 4 waves of the flu = est. 50+/- millions of death worldwide > people anxious in the 1920s to have life go back to normal

• Science

  • Einstein: Developed laws of motion and gravity = THEORY OF RELATIVITY

    • E=mc²

    • Later became the basic foundation for modern physics & used to develop nuclear weapons at the end of WWI

  • Freud: Psychology: Studied the human mind/psyche

    • Argued that man is NOT rational against reason & the Enlightenment. -Does democracy work?

• Technology 

  • More advanced by WWII

    • Telephones (Landline), Radio

    • Henry Ford: Developed the assembly line in factories, Mass produced the Ford Model T

    • Airplanes

    • Boats

• Literature/Psychology 

= Psychology accepted as an academic field of study

• Existentialism: Disillusionment: No universal meaning to life

  • Contrast to faith

• Nietzche: Rationalized the study of the human mind and one’s actions - 

  • Man makes his own decisions

  • Individualism over democracy and communism

• Challenge to previous ways of thinking that once explained the world

• Transportation

  • Charles Lindbergh: A national hero

    • Flew across the Atlantic Ocean

      • Solo nonstop flight - near NYC to Paris

    • Industrialization allowed middle class more access to cars, trains, and planes

• The Arts!

= Disillusionment reflected in the Arts

• Architecture: Functionalism: Function over beauty. Buildings that serve a purpose and can be used by the common man

• Painting: 

  • Young artists experimented with non-European art in new styles that challenged traditional Western art

  • Interested in Japanese and African art designs

  • Surrealism: Dali and Kahlo: Reflected influence of psychology and the mind’s eye

  • Cubism: Picasso and Braque: Used techniques from African art

• Sports/Athletes

  • Professional Athletes: New celebrities

    • Represented the hometown

  • Baseball – American pastime

    • Affordable seats for the working class sold

    • Babe Ruth (Red Sox, Yankees): Broke home run record in a single season (1919-27, 1927-60)

    • Jackie Robinson – Broke racial barriers, played at UCLA and for the Brooklyn Dodgers

• Music & Entertainment

  • Classical

    • Music: New rhythms

  • Jazz

    • Represented urban life, youth, & African Americans

    • The one music style that originated in the United States.                                       Developed by black musicians living in the cities

    • Improvised, embraced in the cities

    • Dance: swing, the Charleston

• Movies! Escapism-Film

  • More leisure time available for the working class

  • Movies/Cinema: A way for the average person to “escape” to the movies

  • Entertaining Industry: The Glory Days of Hollywood

    • Could film movies year-round in Southern California

    • A movie ticket price in the lazos = 27 cents

CAUSES OF WORLD WAR II - Pre-1939… 

• Militarism

  • Build up of military forces by dictators in Germany, Italy, & Japan

• Alliances

  • Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan

  • Allies: Britain and France

• Imperialism

  • Japan: Invaded China and Manchuria (oil)

  • Germany: Invaded Poland

• Nationalism

  • Fascism: Emerged in Italy and Germany

  • Fascist military government: Japan 

  • Growth of totalitarianism in Europe

• Great Depression

  • Major financial chaos in the world after WWI

• Appeasement [of Hitler]

  • Allowed Hitler to annex territory

• Failure of Democratic Governments

  • Democracies: unable to solve economic problems

  • Countries turn to dictators

• Treaty of Versailles

THE GREAT DEPRESSION!  = Economic Depression becomes a GLOBAL PROBLEM 

• Businesses Failed

  • After WWI, factories reduced the amount of production

    • Less demand for product

    • Big businesses tried to recover profits and laid off workers

  • Thousands of businesses went bankrupt!

• 10/29/29: The Great Stock Market Crash: Wall Streets (NYC)

  • Stocks purchased on credit fell

    • Hoped that stock values would continue to increase after WWI

    • But businesses slowed production or closes

  • PANIC: Everyone tried to sell their worthless shares (16 million) at once

    • Values of shares continued to drop as more businesses went bankrupt and reported losses

  • Many middle-class and wealthy people realized that they were too bankrupt

• Dawes Plan (1924)

  • To slow inflation, U.S. banks loaned Germany $200 million to rebuild its industry

    • Factories in Germany slowly rebuild and produce

  • U.S. hoped to rebuild trade in Europe

  • U.S. tried to help slow reparation in European countries that we loaned money to

• Farms were Foreclosed

  • Difficult the most for farmers to compete with farmers from other countries

  • Dust Bowl: Droughts in the late 1920s led to poor harvests in the Midwest and the South

  • Unable to pay bank loans: unable to sell crops

  • Farmers migrate to California in search of work (From Midwest states)

• Unemployment Rose

  • U.S. 1919: 3 million workers are laid off: 25% of the United States do not have a job. (¼ every 4 Americans. Primarily men were in the workforce after WWI)

    • Numbers higher in communities with people of color

  • Millions of people worldwide are starving

  • Hoovervilles: Shanty towns of the homeless that popped up in U.S. cities named after President Hoover who was blamed politically for the Depression in the U.S.

• ** A Flawed U.S. Economy: Can Capitalism overcome Depression?

  • Capitalism: Uneven distribution of wealth

    • Outside global competition led to further problems for farmers and businesses

  • Total War Effort: Overproduction by businesses and agriculture led to high profits during WWI

    • Less Demand after WWI

  • CONSUMERISM: Many purchased goods and stocks on CREDIT (loans)

    • As people become unemployed or lost their farms, people could not purchase goods AND cannot repay their loans to the banks

FASCISM

• What is FASCISM? → On the Brink of Another War! WWII!

  • An extreme form of nationalism (patriotism)

  • Promoted loyalty to an authoritarian leader or political party (supreme)

    • Rejection of democracy

  • Propaganda is used to gather support

  • Rejected Communism (Marxism rejected loyalty to one’s country)

  • Conservative traditions and values emphasized

    • Traditional social classes

    • Religion (!) - Determined Traditional gender roles at home and in the workplace

• Compare and Contrast 2 Ideologies

  • FASCISM vs. COMMUNISM  

• ↑ The Rise of Fascism ↑

    = Popularity of Fascism led to the Fall of Democracies and the Rise of Dictators/Totalitarianism

FDR AND THE NEW DEAL

• U.S. President FDR used New Deal Programs

  • 1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) defeated Herbert Hoover to become President

  • While governor of New York, contracted what was believed to be Polio, which paralyzed his legs

  • The New Deal: Promoted programs increased federal government spending to help the economic crisis and to help citizens overcome unemployment

• New Deal Programs: Government Spending

  • U.S.: Used Socialism and Utilitarianism:

    • The government spent money to provide and program assistance to stimulate the economy

    • Idea was to provide federal assistance through jobs through work programs and organizations that provided aid

• Known as Alphabet Programs: Many provided jobs that helped to build roads and highways

• Democracy: New administration worked with Congress to try to help during the Depression

Examples of Federal Programs:

• Works Progress Administration (WPA): Provided and offered federal sponsored jobs

• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): South was hard hit during the depression. Helped to build dams, electrical and manufacturing development

• National Recovery Administration (NRA): Unemployment Relief and Relief for Farmers

• Restored Faith in Banks

  • FDIC was created: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

  • Government promised to backup accounts up to $100,000 in savings/deposits in checking accounts

  • Helped to build confidence in spending

  • Still exists! : Today, FDIC backs up to about $250,000 per bank (Look for the sticker!)

    • NCUA: National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) insures accounts in credit unions

• Social Welfare Increases

  • FDR/Congress supported social security to help the retired and elderly

    • Money taken out of salary. At 65, you collect social security

  • Unemployment: 

    • Money taken out of your paycheck. If you are laid off, collect money for a certain period of time

  • Creation of a federal minimum wage:

• Then (1938) 25 cents an hour (equivalent to about $4.00/hour)

• 2016 - present: Federal minimum wage: $7.25

• Utilitarianism

  • Local women’s group and local churches and organizations also helped to overcome the Depression

    • Soup kitchens

    • Food banks and bread lines

    • Cities: Homeless shelters

    • Hull House: Jane Addams formed Secular Settlement houses. Helped immigrant families and women. Provided shelter and daycare facilities

• FDR: “Fireside Chats”

  • FDR: Regularly went on the radio:

    • Used speeches to update the American people on what the government was doing to help

    • Announced the opening of the Alphabet Programs

    • Known as “fireside chats”: If a family had the radio is in a living room, maybe near or on the fireplace mantel. People would gather around the radio to listen

  • U.S.: Gave people faith that the democratic government was trying to help the people

    • 1933-1938: U.S. economy improved

WWII - THE APPEASEMENT POLICY & ALLIANCES

• Global Economic Depression

1. U.S.A.: FDR and Congress passed the New Deal programs and restored people’s faith in democracy

• The New Deal provided work programs, social security welfare programs, and a sense of economic security

2. France and Great Britain:

Coalition governments were successful. Political parties tried to work together.

Depression delayed a few years, 1 out of 4 men in France died during WWI. Less investment stocks compared to the U.S.

• Democracy was not successful in:

* Many countries had revolutions and or supported dictatorships to solve problems of the Great 

  Depression

1. Russia: The Duma failed. Led to the Russian Revolution and the rise of Communism and 

              Totalitarianism

2. Italy: The rise of Fascism under Benito Mussolini

3. China: The rise of Communism (Maoist)

4. Germany: The rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism through the Nazi party in the 1930s

• Fascism: The Rise of Adolf Hitler

Background:

• Born in Austria, began as an artist. Austria is a country that speaks Germanic language. He was a soldier in WWI

• Believed in the power of the state that was against the Weimar Republic’s acceptance of the peace terms in the Treaty of Versailles

• National Socialists Party: The German Workers’ Party was renamed and given the

       nickname, the Nazis

• Totalitarianism and the Rise of Fascism in Germany

  • Adolf Hitler was arrested for his radical ideas as a supporter of the Nazi Party

  • He wrote Mein Kampf in jail

    • The book became a best-selling book in Germany. In the book, he promoted his ideas of extreme German Nationalism, Anti-Semitism (prejudice towards the Jews), and Anti-Communism

  • Promoted fascism: An extreme form of nationalism, promotes extreme loyalty to the state

The Dictator:

• He lost in the Presidential election. However, he was appointed as Chancellor. 

• Used the “Enabling Act” to give himself dictatorial powers. (Connect to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte) used the title, “Fuhrer”   

• 1933-1939: Began to pass anti-Jewish laws, increased industry, and built the foundation for militarism

• What is Appeasement? [ A PEACE MENT ]

Answer: 

• The making of concessions to an aggressor in order to avoid war

• Great Britain and France gave in to Hitler’s demands

In order to avoid war, Great Britain and France gave in to Hitler’s demands. Appeased him…

1. Hitler occupied Alsace-Lorraine (The Treaty of Versailles had given territory to France)

2. Hitler annexed the border between Germany and Czechoslovakia (Also known as Sudetenland)

3. Annexation of Austria

• What is Next?

1939:

• Since no one stopped Hitler from annexing territory in the 1930s, he attacked Poland

• The appeasement policy encouraged Hitler and the Axis Powers to continue with their aggression

• Poland asked France and Great Britain for help

• The Eve of WWII

  • Japanese imperialism: Japan continued to invade territories in the Pacific Rim

  • The attack on Poland in 1939 is the official beginning of WWII

  • The Allies: France and Great Britain will once again form a military alliance in response to the Axis Powers aggression in the 1930s

• World War II (1939-1945): Alliances and their Leaders

*1939: Nazis and Soviets signed a nonaggression pact

WW2 = 1939 = 1945

THE OPENING BATTLES OF WORLD WAR II

= Due to Intense Military Aggression by the Axis Powers in both Europe and in Asia, WWII was fought in 2 

   Primary “Theaters” of War

STAGES OF THE HOLOCAUST - 1933-1945

• Camps (1933-1945)

  • Jews and other enemies of the Nazis are imprisoned. From 1942 on, Jews are systematically moved to death camps, built specifically to exterminate Jews

• Boycott of Jewish Businesses (1933)

  • As Hitler rose to power in Germany, he issued laws that laid the foundation to discriminate against Jews, Communists, Gypsies, or Roma

  • Hitler announces a boycott of all Jewish businesses

  • This isolates Jews both socially and economically from German society

• Nuremberg Laws (1935)

  • Laws are passed depriving German Jews of their citizenship and banning marriages between Jews and non-Jews

  • All Jews forced to wear a yellow star of David so they can be easily identified 

• Kristallnacht (1938): Night of the Broken Glass

  • On November 10, 1938, Nazi officials unleash a savage nationwide campaign of terror against Germany’s Jewish population

  • Many Jews are killed and hundreds of Jewish shops and synagogues are destroyed

  • 30,000 Jews are arrested and sent to prison camps

• Jewish Ghettos (1939)

  • Ghettos, or confined areas within a city, are established in occupied eastern Europe

  • Jews from throughout Europe are forced from their homes and required to live in ghettos

    • Many of the ghettos established were in annexed territories in Czechoslovakia and newly conquered lands in Poland

    • Jewish homes were seized by the Nazi controlled governments

    • Nazi hoped many Jews died due to disease or starvation in ghettos

• Deportations Throughout Europe (1942-1945)

  • Nazis systematically round up Jews throughout Europe and transport them to death camps in Eastern Europe

  • 2 types of camps existed:

    • Work Camps: Jews and other prisoners of war used as essential workers in factories or quarries or for various work details

    • Death or Extermination Camps

• Final Solution (1942-1945)

  • Nazi officials agree to move forward with a plan to kill all European Jews

  • Death camps are built specifically for this purpose; deportations of Jews throughout Europe begin

    • There were no death camps built directly in the original borders of Germany. They were constructed in conquered lands

  • Six million Jews are killed

  • Original method: Jews and other political prisoners were used to dig pits. Jews were lined up alongside the the pit and soliders shot them

  • Starvation in the camps. Many of the workers were only given one meal of gruel a day

  • Gas chambers: faster to carry out the Final Solution

• Liberation (1944-1945)

  • Allied troops liberate, or free, approximately 300,000 Jews from the concentration and death camps

NUREMBERG LAWS

• Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, September 15, 1935

• Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, September 15, 1935

• Moved by the understanding that purity of the German Blood is the essential condition for the continued existence of the German people, and inspired by the inflexible determination to ensure the existence of the German nation for all time, the Reichstag has unanimoussly adopted the following Law, which is promulgated herewith:

• *1

  • 1) Marriages between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood are forbidded. Marriages neverhteless concluded are invalid, even if concluded abroad to ciruumvent this law

  • 2) Annulment proceedings can be initiated only by the State Prosecutor

• *2  -  Extramarital intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood is forbidden

• *3  -  Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of German or related blood who are under 45 years old

• *4

  • 1) Jews are forbidden to fly the Reich or National flag or to display the Reich colors

  • 2) They are, on the other hand, permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is prosecuted by the State

• *1

  • Any person who violates prohibition under *1 will be punished by a prison sentence with hard labor

  • 2) A male who violates the prohibition under *2 will be punished with a rpson sentence with or without hard labor

  • 3) Any person violating the provisions under 3 or 4 will be punished with a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine, or with one or the other penalties

• The Reich Minister of the Interior, in coordination with the deputy of the Fuhrer and the Reich Minister of Justice, will issue the Legal and Administrative regulations required to implement and complete this Law

• The Law takes effect on the day following promulgation except for *3, which goes into force January 1, 1936

WWII - LIFE ON THE U.S HOMEFRONT: A TOTAL WAR EFFORT

• Propaganda was used to generate support for the war effort

  • Propaganda was used by the Allies and Axis Powers to generate support for the war

  • Propaganda was sent through the media in the forms of cartoons, new film clips that were placed before the main film in the theater, radio, and newspapers

  • Often the U.S. propaganda was rascist in tone, especially towards Japan. Characters were well known in popular culture

• Federal government bonds were sold

  • Federal government bonds were generated and sold to raise money that supported the war effort

  • Each bond: The government “borrowed” money from the public and the bond could be redeemed years later with interest

• Factories/Industrial Production Increased

  • War production boosted the industrial economy

  • Industrialization for the war officially pulled countries out of the Great Depression

  • Little to no unemployment: Able bodied men were drafted into the military due to total war efforts. Women, farmers, and older citizens: produced goods for the war effort

  • Assembly lines manufactured airplanes, ships, clothing, and weapons.

    • Long Beach, CA was a major industrial production center during the war

• Rationing of Consumer Goods

  • Countries in the war rationed goods in the stores to support the war effort 

  • Consumers could only buy essential products on certain days so resources could be seat to the battle fronts

    • Citizens donated and recycled useful products (Metals, rubber, oil, and nylon for parachute and nets were a few examples)

  • Victory Gardens: Gardens to grow vegetables were created in communities and in schools to grow food for the war effort

    • Everyone tried to do their part

• Women in World War II

  • Women replaced the jobs of men who were defeated. Many of them entered the workforce in factories, as nurses and secretaries 

  • Rosie the Riveter: She is one of the most recognized WWII propaganda icons. She encouraged women to work as riveters to help put ships and planes together in factories

  • Professional baseball: Hundreds of players in the MLB were drafted. Both all male and all female professional leagues existed during the war to help boost morale at home

JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066

• Executive Order 9066 - The U.S. Internment of Japanese Americans

  • Executive Order 9066 - February 19, 1942: U.S. President FDR ordered the internment of Japanese Americans in camps in the mainland of the U.S.   This included the children of Japanese American citizens

  • 127,000 Japanese Americans were interned in camps, primarily in the West Coast

  • There were no relocation centers in Hawaii, despite the Pearl Harbor attack. Too many citizens of mixed race identity lived there   *Locally they were rounded up in Terminal Island, Long Beach, or the Alamitos race track (in horse stalls) before moved to the camps - Their homes and property were sold

• Why were Japanese American citizens interned?

  • Fear: People were afraid that Japanese Americans were spies. Yet, only about 10,000 German and Italian Americans were interned

  • Rascism: Many Japanese Americans lived in communities like Little Tokyo in Los Angeles or Terminal Island in Long Beach.  Their skintone made them easily identifiable

  • Other Options:  1) Many young men joined the U.S. Army and joined segregated units – The Japanese American 442^nd Infantry units in the war.     2) Some could choose to expatriate and move to Japan.  But most were born here, stayed, and were interned

• Map of Japanese American War Relocation Centers

  • Japanese Americans who were interned in these recolation centers were not released until March 1946

  • It was not until 1988, that the federal government publicly apologize for the unconstitutional act of interning citizens of the United States due to public war hysteria and rascism.  Those who were interned were given some reparations from the government

THE ALLIES: THE ROAD TO VICTORY IN WWII

ON THE EUROPEAN and AFRICAN FRONTS…

• NORTH AFRICA: Battle of El Alamein: Egypt

General Erwin Rommel

• General Rommel (nicknamed, “The Desert Fox”) of Germany used tank divisions to secure and conquer most of North Africa.  Due to blitzkrieg, he was the most decorated General of World War II.

• Geopolitics: The Axis Powers controlled trade in the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, access to oil reserves and the Middle East

• STRATEGY OF THE ALLIES: The Allied troops would fortify the Mediterranean front.  The hope was to counterattack, slow the advance of Axis Powers, recapture the Canal and lost Allied colonies, and proceed to advance in Southern Italy

• RESULT of the Allied Offensive move on this front: The Allies led by British general Bernard Montgomery: The Allies were able to defeat General Rommel’s army in North Africa.

  • Axis Powers divisions forced to retreat back into the borders of Europe

  • The Allied success allowed them to send in infantry units to invade Italy

• THE SOVIET UNION: The Battle of Stalingrad: Eastern Front!!!

Joseph Stalin

• Joseph Stalin: Informs the Allies that the USSR will hold out on the Eastern Front.  The USA, now a part of the Allies, agreed to advance its troops into the Pacific

• 1942: Strategy of the Axis Powers-Operation Barbossa: Hitler tried to attack Stalingrad to secure the rest of Eastern Europe and the Eastern front.  Stalingrad is present-day Volgograd

  • The Soviet Union’s military was technologically behind the Axis Powers.  They suffered a million casualties.  The Axis Powers suffered over 850,000 casualties.

  • Both men and women fought in the Soviet military.  Women were also significant in their roles as sniper units along the front lines

• RESULT: The USSR defended Stalingrad despite suffering huge losses.  The Russian winter defended the Soviet Union again

  • The U.S. involvement in the Allies was a sign to the Axis Powers that the war would last longer

  • Much of the German troops that remained were hungry and exhausted.  The German troops surrendered to the Soviet Union to free up the Eastern front for the Allies.

• U.S. Involvement in Europe…

General Dwight Eisenhower

• General Eisenhower is named commander of the Allied forces in Europe

• U.S. and USSR: create a 2 front war

• FDR: He will die in his 4th term…

• LIBERATION OF FRANCE: THE D-DAY INVASION!! - OPERATION OVERLORD: JUNE 6, 1944

General Dwight Eisenhower

• Operation Overlord: For its time, this was the largest land and sea attack in history. It combined the use of modern weapons, planes, and vehicles to arm and mobilize thousands of infantry units of the Army over the English Channel (amphibious warfares).  *Smaller manned Higgins boats were needed to mobilize and shuttle men due to U-boats that were patrolling the coast to sink larger ships

  • 156,000 Allied troops were deployed onto 5 beaches plus accompanying air divisions

• STRATEGY of the Allies: Led by General Eisenhower and General Patton (USA), the Allies invaded the coast of Normandy in Northern France.  The offensive attack was needed to liberate France.  The Axis Powers thought the Allies would strike further north of Paris.

• RESULT: The Allies held onto the beachheads

  • D-Day enabled the Allies to gain a foothold in France.  The Allies were able to create a port to allow ships and tanks to advance into Paris

  • By August: Paris was liberated

  • By September: France, Belgium, and most of the Netherlands were liberated

• THE BATTLE of the BULGE  -  The Last German Offensive…

  • Battle of the Bulge: December 1944 - January 1945

  • Strategy of the Axis Powers: The Axis tried to stage one last offensive move against the Allies

    • They used massive German tank divisions and tried to attack the Allies in Ardennes, France

    • U.S. and English forces counter the move and force the Axis Powers to …

  • RESULT: The Allies continued to push the Germans back and were forced to …. To its original border

• ON THE U.S. HOME “FRONT” … TOTAL WAR EFFORT…

  • Life on the Homefront

    • Propaganda Campaigns

    • Women join the Workforce: “Rosie the Riveter”

    • United States: Internment of Japanese-Americans

      • On the West Coast only

      • Executive Order 9066

    • Factories 

      • Produce More: U.S. “out” of Depression!

    • Consumer Goods Rationed…

      • Victory Gardens!

THE PACIFIC THEATER…MacArthur led the Allies to victory in the Philippines and the Battle of 

Okinawa…the Japanese still refuse to surrender!

ALLIED VICTORY + ATOMIC BOMB DECISION

VICTORY FOR THE ALLIES IN THE PACIFIC

• Soviet troops and Allied forces capture Italy and surround Berlin by 1945

• Mussolini is jailed — then shot and hanged

• Hitler commits suicide before being captured

• JAPAN: Will continue to fight AND will refuse UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER: Will the war end?

• Factors in the Pacific Theater:

  • By 1944: The Japanese were in retreat

  • Allied forces were 500 miles away and closing in on Japan.  A direct attack of Tokyo was too difficult because of Kamikaze pilots that protected the city

  • Kamikaze pilots: Air forced pilots with suicide missions aimed to destroy incoming aircraft carriers

  • The Japanese military philosophy.  They culturally maintained a bushido code of conduct that was practiced by Samurai Warriors during the era of Medieval Japan. They would rather die fighting in combat rather than to surrender

• MacArthur uses “island hopping” strategy to invade Japan:

  • Strategy: Led by General Douglas MacArthur, the Commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, the Allies continued to use the island hopping strategy.  The strategy was to recapture Japanese-controlled islands to establish Allied bases for aircraft and place them in a position for offensive strikes against Japan

  • October 1944: Battle of Leyte Gulf.  The Philippines is liberated and the Allied bases are recaptured

  • March 1945: The Allies led by the U.S. Marines captured Iwo Jima on Japanese soil

  • June 1945: The Allies captured Okinawa.  Japan refused to surrender and continued to defend Tokyo despite continuous bombing on the city by the Allies

• Truman’s Decision to use the Atomic Bomb on Japan:

  • FDR died during his fourth term in office. (The 22^nd Amendment that limits a President’s term to two terms was not ratified until 1951)

  • Vice President Truman was faced with the decision to use the Atomic Bomb to end the war to force Japan to surrender unconditionally

  • Truman was advised to use the atomic bomb to avoid an invasion that would prolong the war and to save the lives of American soldiers

  • The atomic bomb was still experimental and it was not certain how destructive the bomb would be in wartime

  • The Manhattan Project

    • Prior to World War II: There was already a race by several industrial countries to develop nuclear weapons

    • The Manhattan Project: This was the secret U.S. project to develop the Atomic Bomb.  There was pressure by the U.S. to develop it before the Soviets or Germans could develop it first

    • This project was headed by Robert Oppenheimer

    • When Japan refused to surrender after the airstrikes in Tokyo, the Soviets told the Allies that they would send in additional troops to force Japan to surrender.  The United States wanted to avoid the use of Soviet troops in joining the rest of the Allied forces in the invasion of Japan

  • Civilian Cities were used as Targets:

    • August 6, 1945: The first nuclear bomb (aka Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima.  Flyers were dropped over the city prior to warn civilians to evacuate.  Not knowing of the bomb’s power, many did not.  73,000 civilians died

    • August 9, 1945: The second bomb (aka Fat Man) was dropped on Nagasaki. 37,500 civilians died.  More people evacuated and took the warnings seriously.  Over 100,000 civilians died afterwards from cancer and radiation sickness due to the atomic bomb

    • The nuclear bombs used on these cities have been the only ones used in history

  • RESULT of the Atomic Bomb Decision

    • September 2, 1945: Japan surrendered to General MacArthur and the Allies on the deck of the battleship, the USS Missouri.  MacArthur drafted a constitution for Japan that created a constitutional monarchy

    • The surrender was not unconditional.  The one condition was that Emperor Hirohito would be exempt from all war crimes against humanity

      • Emperor Hirohito was forced to declare that he was not a god

      • Due to the new government, he was reduced to a figurehead.  The present emperor is the grandson of Hirohito

• Post-World War II Aftermath

= Before WWII, multiple industrial countries dominated the world.  Post WWII, two superpowers 

  Began to dominate global politics

• Europe and Japan are in ruins due to the bombing of civilian cities

• The Nuremberg Trials: Nazi generals and others associated with carrying out experiments in the Final Solution were tried for war crimes against humanity by an international court

• Demilitarization of Japan and Germany:  Germany is divided into two countries.  Both countries were occupied by the Allies.  To this day, Japan and Germany are not allowed to have their own standing armies

  • Japan and West Germany establish democracies.  The Soviet Union occupied East Berlin.  East Germany became communist controlled after the war

• World War II sparked competition between the 2 superpowers after the war: 

The USA vs. USSR  (Democracy/Capitalism vs. Totalitarianism/Communism)