The Rise of Dictators and World War II

1. The Rise of Dictatorsand World War II

2. ITALY- IL Duce • B. Italy developed the first major dictatorship in Europe. In 1919 Benito Mussolini founded Italy’s Fascist Party. • Fascism was a kind of aggressive nationalism. Fascists believed that the nation was more important than the individual, and that a nation became great by expanding its territory and building its military. • Fascists were anti-Communist. • C. Backed by the militia known as Black shirts, Mussolini became the premier of Italy and set up a dictatorship 1935: Mussolini attacked and took control of Ethiopia

3. USSR-Stalin • D. In 1917 the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, set up Communist governments throughout the Russian empire. The Russian territories were renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. The Communists set up a one-party rule. • E. By 1926 Joseph Stalin had become the new Soviet dictator. In 1927 he began a massive effort to industrialize the country. Millions of peasants who resisted the Communist policies were killed.

4. Germany- Fuhrer • F. After World War I, the political and economic chaos in Germany led to the rise of new political parties. The Nazi Party was nationalistic and anti-Communist. Adolf Hitler, a member of the Nazi Party, called for the unification of all Germans under one government. • He believed certain Germans were part of a “master race” destined to rule the world. He wanted Eastern Europeans enslaved. He felt Jews were responsible for many of the world’s problems. In 1933 Hitler was appointed prime minister of Germany. Storm troopers intimidated voters into giving Hitler dictatorial powers. • Hitler rise to power

5. JAPAN- Tojo • G. Difficult economic times in Japan after World War I undermined the country’s political system. Many Japanese officers and civilians wanted to seize territory to gain needed resources. In 1931 the Japanese army, without the government’s permission, invaded the resource-rich Chinese province of Manchuria. The military took control of Japan. League of nations demanded Manchuria be returned to China & Japan ignores order

6. Question • What led these countries into the ideas of world domination? • If you were a person of prominence in the US what action would you take, if any?

7. II. America Turns to Neutrality • A. The rise of dictatorships in Europe and Asia after World War I, the refusal of European countries to repay war debts owed to the United States, and the Nye Committee findings that arms factories made huge profits caused Americans to support isolationism. • B. Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1935 making it illegal for Americans to sell arms to any country at war. • C. the Neutrality Act of 1937, which continued the ban of selling arms to countries at war and required warring countries to buy nonmilitary supplies from the United States on a “cash and carry” basis. • D. President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported internationalism. Internationalists believe that trade between nations creates prosperity and helps to prevent war. • E. Japan aligned itself with Germany and Italy, and these three countries became known as the Axis Powers. • F. After Japan launched a full-scale attack on China in 1937, Roosevelt authorized the sale of weapons to China, saying that the Neutrality Act of 1937 did not apply, since neither China nor Japan had actually declared war.

8. Discussion Question • What factors led many Americans to support isolationism after World War I? • (The rise of dictatorships in Europe and Asia after World War I caused Americans to support isolationism. Isolationist ideas increased when most debtor nations stopped paying their war debts during the Great Depression. The Nye Committee found evidence that arms factories made huge profits, creating the impression that these businesses influenced the United States to enter World War I.)

9. III. “Peace in Our Time” • A. In February 1938, Adolf Hitler threatened to invade Austria unless Austrian Nazis were given important government posts. In March 1938, Hitler announced the Anschluss, or unification, of Austria and Germany. • B. Hitler claimed the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a large German-speaking population. Czechs strongly resisted Germany’s demand for the Sudetenland. • C. France, the Soviet Union, and Britain threatened to fight Germany if it attacked Czechoslovakia. At the Munich Conference on September 29,1938, Britain and France, hoping to prevent another war, agreed to Hitler’s demands in a policy known as appeasement. • YouTube - Peace in our time - Sept 1938 • D. In March 1939, Germany sent troops into Czechoslovakia, bringing the Czech lands under German control. • E. Hitler demanded the return of Danzig—Poland’s Baltic Sea port. He also wanted a highway and railroad across the Polish Corridor. These demands convinced the British and French that appeasement had failed. • F. On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a nonaggression treaty, with a secret agreement to divide Poland

10. Discussion Question • Why did Britain and France agree to Hitler’s demands for the Sudetenland? • (They hoped that they could give Hitler the Sudetenland in exchange for peace. Also, this bought Britain time to get ready for war. Some thought Hitler’s demand that all German-speaking regions of Europe be united with Germany was reasonable.)

11. IV. The War Begins • A. On September 1, 1939, Germany and the USSR invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany—starting World War II. • B. The Germans used a blitzkrieg, or lightening war, to attack Poland. The Polish army was defeated by October 5. • YouTube - Invasion of Poland 1 of 3 • C. On April 9, 1940, the German army attacked Norway and Denmark. Within a month, Germany overtook both countries. • D. After World War I, the French built a line of concrete bunkers and fortifications called the Maginot Line along the German border. When Hitler decided to attack France, he went around the Maginot Line by invading the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The French and British forces quickly went into Belgium, becoming trapped there by German forces. • E. By June 4, about 338,000 British and French troops had evacuated Belgium through the French port of Dunkirk and across the English Channel, using ships of all sizes. • Dunkirk • F. On June 22, 1940, France surrendered to the Germans. Germany installed a puppet government in France. Called the Vicy Government • " Fall of France "

12. V. Britain Remains Defiant • A. Hitler thought that Britain would negotiate peace after France surrendered. He did not anticipate the bravery of the British people and their prime minister, Winston Churchill. On June 4, 1940, Churchill delivered a defiant speech that rallied the British people and alerted the United States to Britain’s plight. • B. To invade Britain, Germany had to defeat the British air force. In the Battle of Britain, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, launched an all-out air battle to destroy the British Royal Air Force. After German bombers bombed London, the British responded by bombing Berlin, Germany. • C. The Royal Air Force was greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, but the British had radar stations and were able to detect incoming German aircraft and direct British fighters to intercept them. • Why We Fight #4: The Battle of Britain (1943)

13. VI. Nazi Persecution of the Jews • A. The Nazis killed nearly 6 million Jews and millions of other people during the Holocaust. The Hebrew term for the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jews before and during World War II is Shoah. • B. The Nazis persecuted anyone who opposed them, as well as the disabled, Gypsies, homosexuals, and Slovic peoples. The Nazis’ strongest hatred was aimed at all Jews. • C. In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws took citizenship away from Jewish Germans and banned marriage between Jews and other Germans. German Jews were deprived of many rights that citizens of Germany had long held. By 1936 at least half of Germany’s Jews were jobless. • D. Anti-Jewish violence erupted throughout Germany and Austria on November 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht, or “night of broken glass.” Ninety Jews died, hundreds were badly injured, thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed, and over 180 synagogues were wrecked. • E. Between 1933 and the beginning of World War II in 1939, about 350,000 Jews escaped Nazi-controlled Germany. Many of them emigrated to the United States. Millions of Jews remained trapped in Nazi-dominated Europe because they could not get visas to the United States or to other countries.

14. Discussion Question • What factors limited Jewish immigration to the United States? • (Nazi orders limited Jews from taking more than four dollars out of Germany. The United States had laws restricting a visa to any one “likely to become a public charge,” which many assumed the Jews would become because they would have almost no money if they left Germany. Immigration was unpopular in the U.S. because unemployment was high during the 1930s. The U.S. immigration policy allowed only 150,000 immigrants annually.)

15. VII. The Final Solution • A. On January 20, 1942, Nazi leaders met at the Wannsee Conference to decide the “final solution” of the Jews and other “undesirables.” The plan was to round up Jews and other “undesirables” from Nazi-controlled Europe and take them to concentration camps—detention centers where healthy individuals worked as slave laborers. The elderly, the sick, and young children were sent to extermination camps to be killed in large gas chambers. • B. After World War II began, Nazis built concentration camps throughout Europe. Extermination camps were built in many concentration camps, mostly in Poland. Thousands of people were killed each day at these camps. • World War II: Liberation of Concentration Camps (Britannica)

16. VII. FDR Supports England • A. Two days after Britain and France declared war against Germany, President Roosevelt declared the United States neutral. • B. The Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed warring countries to buy weapons from the United States as long as they paid cash and carried the arms away on their own ships. • C. Destroyers for Bases • President Roosevelt used a loophole in the Neutrality Act of 1939 and sent 50 old American destroyers to Britain in exchange for the right to build American bases on British-controlled Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Caribbean islands.

17. VIII. The Isolationist Debate • A. After the German invasion of France and the rescue of Allied forces at Dunkirk, American public opinion changed to favor limited aid to the Allies. • B. The America First Committee opposed any American intervention or aid to the Allies. • C. President Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term as president in the election of 1940. Both Roosevelt and the Republican candidate, Wendell Willkie, said they would keep the United States neutral but assist the Allied forces. Roosevelt won by a large margin.

18. Moving towards a Pacific War • A. In July 1940, Congress passed the Export Control Act, giving Roosevelt the power to restrict the sale of strategic materials—materials important for fighting a war—to other countries. Roosevelt immediately blocked the sale of airplane fuel and scrap iron to Japan. The Japanese signed an alliance with Germany and Italy. • B. By July 1941, Japanese aircraft posed a direct threat to the British Empire. Roosevelt responded to the threat by freezing all Japanese assets in the United States and reducing the amount of oil shipped to Japan. He also sent General MacArthur to the Philippines to build up American defenses there. • C. The Japanese decided to attack resource-rich British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, seize the Philippines, and attack Pearl Harbor. • D. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, sinking or damaging 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, killing 2,403 Americans, and injuring hundreds more. • The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. • E. On December 11, 1941, Japan’s allies—Germany and Italy—declared war on the United States. • Why We Fight #1: Prelude to War (1943)

19. The "Four Freedoms"Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address to Congress January 6, 1941 • In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. • The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world. • The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world. • The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world. • The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world. • That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb. • To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear. • Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change -- in a perpetual peaceful revolution -- a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions -- without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society. • This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. • To that high concept there can be no end save victory. • From Congressional Record, 1941, Vol. 87, Pt. I.

20. IX. American Industry Gets the Job Done • A. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, almost all major American industries and 200,000 companies converted to war production. • B. The automobile factories turned to the production of trucks, jeeps, and tanks. They also built artillery, rifles, mines, helmets, pontoon bridges, cooking pots, and other military supplies, producing nearly one-third of the military equipment that was manufactured during the war. Henry Ford created an assembly line for B-24 bombers. • C. Henry Kaiser’s shipyards built many ships but were best known for the Liberty ship, a basic cargo ship used during the war. These ships were welded instead of riveted, making them cheaper and easier to build and difficult to fall apart and sink. • D. Roosevelt created the War Production Board (WPB) to set priorities and production goals and to control the distribution of raw materials and supplies. He set up the Office of War Mobilization (OWM) to settle arguments between the different agencies.

21. X. Building an ArmyTheWWIIHomeFront.ppt • A. In order to win the war, it was vital that the United States build up its armed forces. • B. After the defeat of France by the Germans, Congress was no longer opposed to the idea of a peacetime draft. The Selective Service and Training Act was a plan for the first peacetime draft in American history. • C. At first, the numbers of draftees was overwhelming. The GIs, named after the initials on their uniforms meaning “Government Issue,” went through basic training for eight weeks. Although some complained after the war that the training was too short to be of any good, most soldiers gained a sense of camaraderie that made them a more effective unit. • D. At the beginning of the war, the United States military was completely segregated. African Americans were organized into their own military units with white officers in command. • E. African Americans were disfranchised, meaning they were often denied the right to vote. An African American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, launched the “Double V” campaign stating that African Americans should join the war because a win would be a double victory over racism abroad and at home. Roosevelt, knowing that the African American vote had helped him win, ordered the U.S. military to recruit and send African Americans into combat.

22. F. The army air force created the 99th Pursuit Squadron, an African American unit. The African American pilots became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. They played an important role in the Battle of Anzio in Italy. • G. In the army, African Americans also performed well, receiving various awards for distinguished service. Segregation did not end during the war, but led to full military integration in 1948. • H. Congress established the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in May 1942. This was the first time women were allowed in the military. By 1943 women became a part of regular war operations. The army, Coast Guard, the navy, and the marines all set up their own women’s organizations. • I. In 1941 the American troops were untrained and had little military experience. They did, however, get the job done and suffered the fewest casualties in combat of all the major powers in the war.

23. Women and Minorities Gain Ground • A. Compared to the devastation in Europe and Asia, World War II had a positive effect on American society. It put an end to the Depression. The war led to the creation of almost 19 million new jobs and doubled the income of most American families. • B. The wartime labor shortage forced factories to hire married women in positions that were traditionally considered men’s work. “Rosie the Riveter,” a character from a popular song by the Four Vagabonds, became a symbol for the campaign to hire women. The campaign resulted in 2.5 million women entering the manufacturing workforce. • C. Factories still resisted the hiring of African Americans. A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a major union for African American railroad workers, took action. He informed Roosevelt of his plan to organize a march on Washington to secure jobs for African Americans. On June 25, 1941, the president responded with Executive Order 8802, declaring no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government.

24. Daily Life in Wartime America • A. President Roosevelt, worried about inflation, established the Office of Price Administration (OPA) and the Office of Economic Administration (OES). The OPA regulated wages and the price of farm products. The OES regulated all other prices. The War Labor Board (WLB) worked to prevent strikes that would endanger the war effort. American unions issued a “no strike pledge.” • B. Rationing, or limiting the availability of products, occurred as the demand for raw materials and supplies increased and created shortages. Each month a book of ration coupons was given to each household for processed foods and meats, fats, and oils. • C. Victory gardens were planted to produce more food for the war effort. Scrap drives were organized to collect spare rubber, tin, aluminum, and steel. Americans exchanged bacon grease and meat drippings for extra ration coupons because fats and oils were so vital to the production of explosives. • D. To raise money for the war, the government raised taxes, covering about 45 percent of the cost of the war . Bonds were sold to Americans to help pay for the war. Through the purchase of these bonds, Americans were loaning money to the government. The bonds could be redeemed in the future for the purchase price plus interest. • E. Most Americans were united in the goal of winning the war.

25. XI. Holding the Line Against Japan • A. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the commander of the United States Navy in the Pacific, Admiral Chester Nimitz, could do little at first to stop the advancing Japanese into Southeast Asia. Japan attacked American airfields in the Philippines and landed their troops in the islands. • B. The commander of the Americans and Filipinos defending the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur, decided to take his badly outnumbered troops and retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. Roosevelt ordered the general to evacuate to Australia. • C. The Allied defenders of Bataan finally surrendered, and thousands died on the Bataan Death March to a Japanese prison camp. • D. In early 1942, B-25 bombers replaced the aircraft carriers’ short-range bombers because they could attack from farther away. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle was put in command of the mission that bombed Japan on April 18. • E. Doolittle’s attack on Japan made Japanese leaders change their strategy. An attack on Midway Island—the last American base in the North Pacific west of Hawaii—was planned to lure the American fleet into battle to be destroyed by the Japanese. This would cut American supply lines to Australia. The plan failed because the United States had a team of code breakers based in Hawaii that broke the Japanese Navy’s secret code for conducting operations. • F. The turning point in the war came during the Battle of Midway when Americans shot down 38 Japanese planes and destroyed four Japanese carriers. This stopped the Japanese advance into the Pacific. • The Battle of Midway (1942)

26. XII. Turning Back the German Army • A. The leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, urged Roosevelt to open a second front in Europe. Although Roosevelt wanted his troops to enter into battle in Europe, Prime Minister Churchill wanted to be more cautious and attack the periphery, or edges, of Germany. In July 1942, Roosevelt ordered the invasion of Morocco and Algeria— French territories indirectly under Germany control. • B. On November 8, 1942, the American invasion of North Africa began under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. General George Patton led the American forces in Morocco and captured the city of Casablanca. At the Battle of Kasserine Pass, Americans faced the German army for the first time. Outmaneuvered and outfought, Americans suffered huge losses. The general in charge was fired and Patton was put in command. American and British forces finally pushed the Germans back. On May 13, 1943, German forces in North Africa surrendered. • C. After Germany declared war on the United States, German submarines began sinking American cargo ships along the American East Coast. The situation greatly improved when the U.S. Navy set up a convoy system, The German submarine campaign continued into the spring of 1942. From July on, American shipyards produced more ships than German submarines could sink. • D. Hitler wanted to defeat the Soviets by destroying their economy. So he ordered his army to capture oil fields, industries, and farmlands vital to the Soviet economy. The Germans tried to capture Stalingrad, but the Soviets held their ground. The Germans were surrounded and surrendered. The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the war because it put the Germans on the defensive. • The Battle of Stalingrad

27. XIII. Striking Back at the Third Reich • A. In January 1943, President Roosevelt met with Prime Minister Churchill to plan the next stage of war. During the Casablanca Conference, the decision was made to increase the bombing of Germany in an effort to destroy its military, industrial, and economic system and to hurt the German morale. They decided to attack the Axis on the island of Sicily. • B. The new massive bombing campaign by the United States and Britain against Germany did not destroy the German economy or undermine its morale. However, the bombing caused a severe oil shortage and destroyed irreplaceable railroad and aircraft in Germany. As a result, Allies landing in France had total control of the air and could not be bombed. • C. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the overall commander of the invasion of Sicily. General Patton and British General Montgomery were in charge of the forces on the ground. By August 18, Germans had evacuated the island. Mussolini was placed under arrest by the king of Italy. On September 8, 1943, the Italian government announced Italy’s surrender. Hitler sent German troops to seize control of Italy and put Mussolini back in power. In May 1944, the Germans retreated. • D. Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met in Tehran, Iran, and reached several agreements about the plans for the rest of the war and after the war.

28. XIV. Landing in France • A. Operation Overload was the code name for the planned invasion of France by the Allies. General Eisenhower was selected to command the invasion. • B. The Allies had the advantage of surprise—the Germans did not know when or where they would strike. The Germans were fooled into thinking the attack would occur in Pas-de-Calais, when in fact the invasion was planned to take place in Normandy. • C. The date for the invasion became known as D-Day because Eisenhower’s planning staff referred to the day of any invasion with the letter D. • D. The invasion of Normandy began shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944. The Allied forces had little trouble capturing the Utah Beach and moving inland. The American forces at Omaha Beach met intense German fire. American commander General Omar Bradley planned an evacuation of Omaha Beach, but the American troops moved forward against the Germans. The invasion succeeded. • Saving private ryan d-day scene (1/4)

29. XV. Driving the Japanese Back • A. American military leaders created a plan to defeat Japan that called for a two-pronged attack. Admiral Nimitz and the Pacific Fleet were to hop from island to island to get close to Japan. General MacArthur’s troops would advance through the Solomon Islands, capture the north coast of New Guinea, and retake the Philippines. • B. The island-hopping campaign began in the central Pacific in the fall of 1943. Although many U.S. Marines died while wading ashore at the Tarawa Atoll, the LVT—a boat with tank tracks, also called an amphtrac—was able to cross the reef and get troops to shore. • C. The attack on the Marshall Islands went much smoother, with all troops getting to shore via amphtracs. U.S. Marines captured the island. • D. B-29 bombers were used to invade three of the Mariana Islands, which were captured by American troops by August 1944. A few months later, the B-29 bombers began bombing Japan.

30. E. General MacArthur’s troops began a campaign in the southwest Pacific with the invasion of Guadalcanal in August 1942. In early 1944, MacArthur’s troops had captured enough islands to surround Rabaul, the main Japanese base in the region. • F. Japanese warships headed through the Philippine Islands into Leyte Gulf and ambushed American ships. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle in history and the first time the Japanese used kamikaze attacks. Kamikaze pilots deliberately crashed their planes into American ships, killing themselves and causing severe damage to the ships. • H. The Japanese commander ordered a retreat, fearing additional American ships were on the way. • I. The battle to recapture the Philippines left Manila in ruins and over 100,000 Filipino civilians dead.

31. XVI. The Third Reich Collapses • A. President Roosevelt and other Allied leaders promised to punish the Nazis after the war. Roosevelt felt destroying the Nazi regime would put an end to the concentration camps. • B.. The Allies liberated Paris on August 25. Three weeks later, they were just 20 miles from the German border. • C. Hitler attempted one last offensive to cut off Allied supplies coming through the port of Antwerp, Belgium. The Battle of the Bulgebegan on December 16, 1944, catching American troops off guard. As Germans raced west, their lines “bulged” outward, resulting in the battle’s name. The United States won the battle and on January 8, Germans withdrew with little left to stop the Allies from entering Germany. • D. The Ludendorf Bridge across the Rhine River was still intact, allowing American troops to cross and force the German defenders back. Adolf Hitler, realizing the end was near, killed himself. His successor, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz tried to surrender to the Americans and the British while still fighting the Soviets, but he was forced to unconditionally surrender on May 7, 1945. The next day was proclaimed V-E Day, for “Victory in Europe.”

32. XXII Japan is Defeated • A. President Roosevelt died a month before the defeat of Germany. Vice President Harry S Truman became president. Although Germany surrendered a few weeks later, Truman needed to make many difficult decisions regarding the war as the battle with Japan intensified. • B. On November 24, 1944, American bombs fell on Tokyo, but missed their targets. American military planners decided to invade Iwo Jima because it was closer to Japan and would make the bombings more effective. • C. On February 19, 1945, 60,000 American Marines landed on Iwo Jima, and 6,800 lost their lives before the island was captured. • D. bombs filled with napalm, a kind of jellied gasoline. These bombs not only exploded but also started fires. The risk of killing civilians made this very controversial. The Tokyo firebombing killed over 80,000 people and destroyed more than 250,000 buildings. Japan’s six most important industrial cities were firebombed. • E. Japan refused to surrender. American military planners chose to invade Okinawa, 350 miles from Japan, to stockpile supplies and build up troops. • F. On April 1, 1945, American troops landed on Okinawa. On June 22, 1945, Okinawa was captured with more than 12,000 American soldiers, sailors, and marines losing their lives.

33. G. Japan would not surrender unconditionally because they wanted their emperor to remain in power. Americans wanted him out of power, and Truman was reluctant to go against public opinion. • H. The American program to build an atomic bomb was code-named the Manhattan Projectand was headed by General Leslie R. Groves. On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated near Alamogordo, New Mexico. • I. President Truman felt it was his duty to use every weapon available to save American lives. The Allies threatened Japan with “utter destruction,” but received no response. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, one of Japan’s important industrial cities. Tens of thousands of people died instantly, and thousands more died later from burns and radiation sickness. On August 9, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. That same day, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing between 35,000 and 74,000 people. On V-J Day, for “Victory in Japan”—August 15, 1945—Japan surrendered. The war ended.

34. XVII. Building a New World • A. To prevent another war, President Roosevelt wanted a new international political organization. In 1944 delegates from 39 countries met to discuss the new organization that was to be called the United Nations (UN). • B. On April 25, 1945, representatives from 50 countries met in San Francisco to officially organize the United Nations and create its charter, or constitution. • C. The delegates decided to have a General Assembly, where each member nation would have one vote. Britain, France, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States would be permanent members of the Security Council, each having veto power. • D. In August 1945, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) was created by the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union to punish German and Japanese leaders for their war crimes. The IMT tried German leaders suspected of committing war crimes at the Nuremburg trials. • E. In Tokyo the IMT for the Far East tried leaders of wartime Japan suspected of committing war crimes. The Japanese emperor was not indicted.

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