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World War II Study Guide
Neutrality
Direct Involvement
Key Question: How did the United States change from neutrality to direct involvement?
1. Isolation: The United States was focused on managing the Great Depression and there were
many who did not want a repeat of the events (legacy) of WWI.
2. Lend Lease: The United States provided economic aid to the Allies (war supplies and old naval
warships) in return for the use of military bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean
3. Direct involvement: The United States joined the war after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor
At the Beginning of the War, which Side Was Winning?
Key Question: How was the war going initially?
At the beginning of the war, the Axis was winning, but the Allies persevered and won.
War in the Pacific
Key Question: Why did war begin in the Pacific?
1. Tensions rose between Japan and the United States due to Japanese aggression in East Asia
2. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor without warning
3. United States declared war on Japan
http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-100673/A-US-battleship-sinks-during-the-Japanese-attack-on-Pearl
Major Events of WWII
Key Question: What were the major events and turning points of the war?
1. Germany invaded Poland, setting off war in Europe. The Soviet Union invaded
Poland from the west along with the Baltic nations.
2. Germany invaded France, capturing Paris.
3. Germany bombed London. This was named the Battle of Britain.
4. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, so the United States declared war on Japan
5. Germany declared war on the United States, so the United States declared war on
Germany.
6. United States was victorious over Japan in the Battle of Midway: turning point of the
war in the Pacific
7. Germany invaded the Soviet Union, but the Soviets defeated Germany at Stalingrad:
turning point of the war in Eastern Europe.
8. D-Day: American and Allied troops land at Normandy, France to begin the liberation
of Western Europe
9. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. The United
States forced Japan to surrender, ending WWII
Holocaust
Key Question: What was the Holocaust?
1. Systematic attempt (laws were created) to rid Europe of all Jewish people
2. Anti-Semitism is a type of extreme prejudice and discrimination toward Jewish people.
Tactics included:
a. boycotting Jewish-owned stores
b. segregation into ghettos
c. imprisonment and killing Jewish people in concentration camps and death camps
3. Aryan supremacy: the Nazi belief that most Germans were a master (superior) race
4. Liberation: Jewish people who survived were liberated by the Allied forces
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http://www.relevantchildrensministry.com/2010/07/children of-holocaust.html
World War II: Home Front
Key Question: How were Americans affected by the war in the United States?
1. WWII brought an end to the Great Depression because so many workers were
needed to produce war materiel
2. Rosie the Riveter: Nickname for women who took jobs in defense plants
3. Rationing and conserving resources: Americans were asked to make sacrifices because
some items were scarce.
4. Racial barriers were broken down (there was a need for workers) but discrimination
against African Americans continued
5. Internment camps: Locations where Japanese Americans on the west coast were forced
to live because of distrust and prejudice. Many Japanese Americans served honorably
in the armed forces.
http://farrit.lili.org/node/94