World War II

1. World War II A Review by Alicia Little

2. WWII in the Pacific • Japanese tried to invade China • Surprised by ferocity of Chinese response • “Rape of Nanjing” • Over 20,000 women raped by Japanese Soldiers in China • September 1940 • Japanese joins Axis Powers with Italy and Germany • Does not take advantage of opportunity to join the fight against USSR • USA reluctant to enter war, but didn’t like Japan • Stopped trading with them • Pearl Harbor forces USA into war • Lost battleships and airplanes, killed 2000 people • Japan had almost all the pacific islands to themselves • More Rape on the part of the Japanese soldiers • Koreans, Chinese and Philippine women forced to be sex slaves for soldiers • United Nations against the Axis Powers • Island Hopping • USA and British sending troops from island to island to kill Japanese and take back islands one by one • Japanese wouldn’t surrender; Allied forces forced to kill them all instead This map shows the route of the Allied Forces to take the islands back from the Axis Powers

3. Results of the War • Estimated 50 million deaths • 30 million civilians • Soviet Union lost most • 20 million people • Japan lost 2 million • Germany lost 4 million • Britain and USA both lost about 400,000 • 6 million Jews died in Nazi camps • Also, hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, handicapped people, homosexuals and Poles died • European countries tried to recapture colonies taken by Japanese • Resistance groups arose and many islands were not returned to Britain and France This picture shows the German city of Frankfurt after the war. As you can see, it has been heavily attacked.

4. Technology and Women during the War • Dramatic increase in war technology • Tanks • Submarines • Airplanes • Tons of Troops • Huge costs • Allied Forces spent a total of 62.5 million on Armament Production • Axis Powers spent a total of 18 million on the same thing • Drafts led to not enough workers at home • Tons of empty job positions • Similar to WWI, women left house work to do paid jobs • Women got the vote between World Wars one and two • Allied forces wanted women to work • Powerful Female image • Axis powers wanted women to be kept at home • Hitler gave money to women who left jobs to raise family • Banned Abortions • Mussolini kept women out of government offices • Made tuition for girls and women double so they were less likely to be educated Tanks were vital to ground warfare in Europe “Rosie the Riveter” became the role model for women on the home front

5. Horrors of the War • Nazi obliteration of all Jewish people and anyone below the norm • First major genocide • All major resources put to exterminating an entire culture • Racial hierarchy with Aryan Christians at the top and Jews at the bottom with Poles, Homosexuals, Gypsies and Cripples on the lower end in between • Atomic Warfare • New weapon capable of destroying all life • Huge debate over morality of ending pacific war with such a powerful weapon that left such a mark • 75,000 of 245,000 people in Hiroshima killed – estimated 100,000 later deaths do to after effects The iconic mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb

6. Image of Humanity after the War • ElieWeisel • Lived in Nazi Ghetto • Sent to Auschwitz “Not far from us, flames were leaping up from a ditch, gigantic flames. They were burning something. A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load – little children. Babies! Yes, I saw it – saw it with my own eyes… those children in the flames. (Is it surprising that I could not sleep after that? Sleep had fled my eyes.)… How could it be spossible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent? No, none of this could be true. It was a nightmare.” • Questions arose of how people could have ignored genocide for so long • Questions of morality of atomic bomb and testing in USA People questioned whether the USA had to use such a devastating weapon to end the war in the pacific

7. Reconstruction of Japan and Germany • Japan occupied by USA until 1954 • Four goals • Punish war criminals • Establish democratic institutions and practices • Revive devastated Japanese economy • Enlist Japanese as new ally against USSR • Germany Divided and occupied by USA, Britain, France and USSR • Split for 45 years • American, British and French parts clumped into whole of West Germany • West side flourished while East side fell far behind the world The Green, Blue and Yellow parts were later combined into one country collectively run by France, the UK and the USA

8. Important Terms and People • Scorched Earth: a strategy of defensive warfare, in which everything that might be of use to an invading army is destroyed by the defending army as it retreats • Bomb Raids: WWII was host to the age of air warfare in which enemy planes would drop bombs on civilian areas and army bases alike • Keiretsu: Alliances of independent Japanese firms; successors of the pre-war Zaibatsu • The Nuremburg trials: trials of the 22 most notorious Nazis for their war crimes • Berlin Blockade: 1948 blockade put in place by the Russians that barred the entrance and exit of people and supplies to and from Berlin in an attempt to gain control of the city The Axis Powers The Allied Forces German Italy Japan USSR Great Britain USA VS. Josef Stalin was the first leader of Communist Russia Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman were the two presidents during WWII Winston Churchill motivated the people but wasn’t a good leader post-war Emperor Hirohito ok’d the takeover of the pacific islands Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party Benito Mussolini took power and implemented fascism