The Second World War

1. The Second World War The rise of fascism and militarism in Japan, Italy, and Germany Prelude to war: policy of neutrality The attack on Pearl Harbor and United States declaration of war Fighting a multifront war Diplomacy, war aims, and wartime conferences The United States as a global power in the Atomic Age

2. The rise of fascism and militarism in Japan, Italy, and Germany • Extreme times often lead to extreme political ideologies. Such is the case with the rise of fascism and militarism in Europe and Asia in the years leading to WWII. • The aftermath of WWI wrought havoc on Europe. While the insular Americans were jazzing it up through the roaring 20’s, Germany was enduring hyperinflation and economic ruin, due in no small measure to the crushing reparations payments imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The Italians were also bitter about the terms of Versailles, in part because they were denied territorial concessions from the dismantled Austria-Hungary empire. • In Italy, Benito Mussolini harnessed this resentment with his vision of ultra-nationalism that came to be known as Fascism, named after his political party FasciodiCombattamenti. Elected as Prime Minister in 1922, the masterfully demagogue-icMussolini and his para-military “Black Shirts” eliminated opposition and Il Duce (“The Leader”) took dictatorial power after 1925.

3. The rise of fascism and militarism in Japan, Italy, and Germany • Mussolini served as a blueprint for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party a decade later in Germany. Hitler, a disaffected WWI veteran, became an early leader in the National Socialist movement in Germany. Like Fascism, Nazism espoused militarism and extreme nationalism. Hitler was elected Chancellor in 1932, and as in Italy, Der Fuhrer eventually repressed opposition to assume absolute control. • Japanese militarism had different origins, but shared many basic ideologies with European Fascism. Rooted in samurai culture, Japanese militarism coincided with Japan’s rapid industrialization after 1867 (Meiji Restoration). Japan’s naked imperialism reached new heights in 1931, when they invaded Manchuria. The impotence of the League of Nations to halt Japan encouraged European ultra-nationalists to follow suit. The League stood still again 1935 as Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. Two years later Japan shocked the world with an invasion of China. • Hitler was slightly more constrained by European Great Power diplomacy, but he too began testing the waters in 1938, when he annexed Austria, an expressed violation of Versailles, and made demands for a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia, Sudetenland. Fearing war and facing their own economic and domestic turmoil, the only nations that might could have legitimately checked Hitler’s growing militarism chose to appease him instead. They had seriously underestimated Hitler’s willingness to risk war.

4. Prelude to war: policy of neutrality • As the fascist and militarist regimes came to power in Europe and Japan, the US remained stubbornly anti-interventionist. A few lonely voices raised concerned about the dangerous trend toward fascism and ultra-nationalism, but the vast majority of Americans, reeling from the ongoing strains of global economic depression and embittered by the memory of the Great War, held fast to isolationism. To punctuate the mood in the 1930s, Congress passed a stringent Neutrality Act in 1935, subsequently renewed three times in the lead up to WWII. • Legislating neutrality was politically popular, but limited the strategic flexibility of the US as the situation grew more dire in the late 1930s. The Neutrality Acts forbade the US from aiding any foreign combatants, and made no distinctions between aggressors and victims. Thus, when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, or when Japan invaded China in 1937, or even as Hitler began his conquest of Europe in 1939, the US, by law, could do nothing. • Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939 led some in the US to question the wisdom of strict neutrality, and while most decidedly favored the Allied resistance, the isolationist frame-of-mind prevailed. It was not until the fall of France and relentless bombing of British cities through 1940 that public opinion finally began to shift away from strict neutrality. Still, FDR was prevented from direct aid, and had to find ways around the uncompromising provisions of the neutrality legislation. • At first, FDR attempted to institute a “cash and carry” policy to provide aid the Allies, but the British treasuries were long depleted and the policy made far too little impact. Another program designed to skirt the letter of neutrality was known as “Destroyers-for-bases,” in which the US would trade Britain some war ships for a number of strategic military bases scattered among the vast British Empire. Wanting to do even more, FDR finally initiated a plan called “Lend-Lease,” which would provide direct aid to the Allies by “loaning” or “renting” war materiel to the Allies. Prior to the official US entry into the war, Lend-Lease aid was extended to the British, Chinese, and the Soviets (whose non-aggression pact had been betrayed by Hitler in June 1941.)

5. The attack on Pearl Harbor and United States declaration of war • But even with most of continental Europe under the control of the German Wermacht, and the British and Soviets teetering on the brink, it took a direct attack on the US to provoke the fury of the American populace and inspire an uninhibited entry into the war. • On the sunny Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy brazenly attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese were hoping to cripple the US Pacific fleet, which was the only entity standing in the way of their desire for an Asian-Pacific empire. By a great stroke of fortune the carrier groups stationed at Pearl Harbor were at sea, but the Japanese managed to sink numerous vessels, including several battleships, and killed over 2400 American sailors and other military personnel. • Like the flip of a switch, the “righteous might” of the US was unleashed into the war effort . The US Congress declared war on December 8, and in support of their erstwhile Asian ally, Germany declared war on the US soon after. The US was finally forced out of its isolation, and faced formidable enemies in a multi-front war that became far and away the single most expensive and deadly human conflict in world history.

6. Fighting a multifront war • The fighting in WWII took place primarily in two major theatres: Europe and the Mediterranean (including north Africa) and the Pacific. In both cases the US faced a daunting prospect: to dislodge the Axis powers from their conquests, push them back and eventually force an unconditional surrender, which was a stated war aim from the beginning of the US entry into the conflict. • Mobilizing the manpower and materiel for a multi-front war required unprecedented coordination and planning, and it was not until 1943 that real progress began to be made in pushing the Axis powers back. • In the European theatre, the US finally got boots on the ground in North Africa in mid 1942, helping to turn the tide against the Axis’ attempts to capture Egypt and the all-important Suez Canal. By mid-1943, the British and American forces had successfully repelled the advance, and this, along with the German disaster at Stalingrad dealt Hitler and his allies their first major losses. • With north Africa secured, the Allies could begin moving up the Italian peninsula, opening a southern European front that could eventually be linked with awestern front. The Germans had over three years to establish defenses along the French coast, and it was not until June 1944 that the Allies were able to attempt an invasion. Though costly, D-Day finally set into motion the beginning of the end of the war in Europe, which concluded the following Spring with the Soviets and Americans simultaneously baring down on Berlin from the east and west.

7. Fighting a multifront war • As Europe was winding down, the war in the Pacific theatre was still in full swing, as it had been since Pearl Harbor. • Almost simultaneous with Pearl Harbor, the Japanese also attacked and captured the British colony of Honk Kong, and the American holdings at Guam and Wake Island. In January 1942 the Japanese attacked and eventually captured the American possession of the Philippine Islands, and the following month moved down the Malay peninsula to Singapore. • By May, Japan had also conquered the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, and Burma, as well as countless smaller Islands in the eastern Pacific basin. At its height in 1942, the Japanese controlled over 1,000,000 square miles of Asian territory, enforcing a brutal regime over 150,000,000 people. • Despite these early successes, however, by Spring 1942 a fully mobilized Allied force led by the United States had begun to hand Japan its first significant setbacks. A stalemate halted Japan’s southern advance at the Battle of Coral Sea, and a brilliant ambush by the U.S. at Midway Island inflicted heavy damage to the Japanese fleet. The Allied advance toward Japan was then underway.

8. Fighting a multifront war • Because Japan’s Pacific empire was so spread out, U.S. forces, led by General Douglas McArthur, devised a strategy to “island hop,” bypassing the most heavily defended Japanese positions in favor of closer points from which to launch an invasion of Japan itself. • The first target was Guadalcanal, an island in the Solomon group where the Japanese had built a large airfield. After a six month struggle, the Allies finally prevailed in February 1943. Guadalcanal proved an important turning point because the Japanese would be in retreat for the rest of the war. • Another important turning point came the following year, as Allied forces closed in on Japan by successfully retaking the Philippines. The victory was especially significant because the Japanese committed their entire naval force to the Philippines in an effort to destroy the American fleet and cut off the invaders from supply routes. After four days, the U.S. had almost completely destroyed the Japanese navy and had set into motion the last push toward Japan itself. • By March 1945, the U.S. had overrun Iwo Jima- some 700 miles from Japan, and by June, American-led forces captured Okinawa, now only 350 miles from southern Japan and well within reach of the US naval and army bomber squadrons.

9. Diplomacy, war aims, and wartime conferences • For their part, the war aims of the US were clearly stated from the start. The US demanded the complete and unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. Diplomacy with its allies in the war proved a bit trickier. • Even prior to the US entry into the war, FDR had concluded some important diplomatic agreements with the Allies, primarily via the Atlantic Charter, a pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. It was drafted by Britain and the United States and later agreed to by all the Allies. • The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; free access to raw materials; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations. In the "Declaration by United Nations” of 1 January 1942, the Allies pledged adherence to the charter's principles. • While the charter idealized the post war world, the war still had to be won and several formal meetings to discuss strategy and negotiate the post-war order occurred between the eventual victors, (The Big Three: the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union).

10. Diplomacy, war aims, and wartime conferences • The first of these meetings occurred in the Iranian capital of Tehran in late 1943. The major focus of the meeting was to discuss strategies for the final defeat of Germany. Stalin was already complaining that the Allies were taking too long to open a western front against the Germans- the D-Day invasion finally did so in June 1944. • As the European theater was winding down, the Big Three again met in February 1945 in Yalta- a resort on the Black Sea. With an Allied victory at hand, the leaders devised a plan for the administration of Germany into 4 sectors following surrender- one each to be administered by the military forces of the U.S., Britain, France, and the USSR. • The Yalta Conference also produced agreements that the USSR would join the effort against Japan, and secure free elections in occupied eastern Europe. • Following the final defeat of Hitler, the Big Three met once again in July 1945, in Potsdam, Germany to refine the administration of Germany, and settle the post-war order for the remainder of occupied Europe. U.S. President Harry Truman urged Stalin to live up to his assurance of free elections in eastern Europe, but Stalin had already begun installing communist “puppet” regimes across the region, and refused his earlier promise. An “iron curtain” was being drawn across Europe separating the democratic/capitalist west in the Anglo-American sphere from the communist bloc controlled by the Soviets. From the ashes of WWII, a Cold War had begun.

11. The United States as a global power in the Atomic Age • The first atomic weapons were developed by the US government under the code name “Manhattan Project” at a top secret laboratory in New Mexico. Besides the obvious military, geo-political and ethical questions the atomic weapon project suggested, it also represented a momentous occasion for the collaboration and union between government and science. • Atomic weaponry had an obvious potential to end the war quickly, so FDR poured enormous resources to the project. He died only months before a working bomb was completed- the first successful test was on July 16, 1945. • Truman was not even aware of the Manhattan project until after he was sworn in. As president, he was faced with the decision over whether to unleash this incredibly lethal force onto the world. • Although the war in Europe was over, the war against the Japanese was dragging on. Only the Japanese mainland remained, but estimates of U.S. casualties using conventional land forces in an attack on the Japanese mainland ranged to over 1 million men. • After some debate and division among the administration and the military’s top brass about the civilian deaths that would be inevitable with such a weapon, Truman decided that the possibility to end the war quickly outweighed the negative consequences. The first bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, an industrial center, on August 6, 1945. Upwards of 100,000 people were incinerated instantly- thousands more died subsequently from radiation poisoning. Three days later, another atomic device was detonated over Nagasaki. Faced with such terrible destruction, and the prospect of Soviet intervention (the USSR had declared war on Japan that same day), the Japanese finally agreed to unconditional surrender. On August 15, 1945. The most destructive, costly, and deadly war in the history of mankind was now over.