Download Chapter 37

The Second World War: Background
1
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
WHO:

Axis:
 Germany
 Japan
 Italy

Allies:
 Great Britain
(England)
 France
 Russia
 USA

(China)
2
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Axis Rally in Tokyo
3
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
WHAT:

Truly Global and Industrialized WAR

Three Stages:




1939-1941--Initital Push, Battle of Britain
1941-1943--Invasion of Russia, Pearl Harbor,
Direction of War Changes
1943-1945--Battles of Midway, Stalingrad, DDay (June 6, 1944) Allies surge toward Victory.
Finally, 1945--Russians take Berlin, U.S.
conducts nuclear attack on Japan. War ends.
4
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
WHERE: Practically Everywhere
5
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
WHEN:


Officially, 1939-1945
However, Japan began its war in China in 1931.
This is often forgotten.
6
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
HOW:





“Revisionists:” especially in Germany wished to
revise post-World War I peace treaties (especially the
…?)
Fascist and/or Militaristic leaders took over
governments in Italy, Germany and Japan
Allies initially follow policy of appeasement
This fails to soothe the new fascist powers, and
instead emboldens them
War erupts 1939, global by 1941, over 1945
7
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Japan’s War in China



Conquest of Chinese Manchuria 1931-1932
Full-scale invasion in 1937
The Rape of Nanjing





Arial bombing of urban center
400,000 Chinese used for bayonet practice, massacred
7,000 women raped
1/3 of all homes destroyed
If you are sensitive you may not want to look at the
next slides.
8
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Nanjing Massacre
9
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Nanjing Massacre
10
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Italian Aggression

Benito Mussolini
invades Ethiopia with
overpowering force


2,000 Italian troops
killed, 275,000
Ethiopians killed
Also takes Libya,
Albania
11
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Germany




Adolf Hitler (18891945) withdraws from
League of Nations
Remilitarizes Germany
Anschluss (“Union”)
with Austria, 1938
Pressure on Sudetenland
(Czechoslovakia)
12
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Munich Conference (1938)





Italy, France, Great Britain,
Germany meet
Allies follow policy of
appeasement
Hitler promises to halt
expansion
British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain (1869-1940)
promises “peace for our time”
Hitler signs secret RussianGerman Treaty of NonAggression (August 1939)
13
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Invasion of Poland and France


September 1, 1939
Blitzkrieg: “lightning
war” strategy


Air forces soften up
target, armored divisions
rush in
German U-boats
(submarines) patrol
Atlantic, threaten British
shipping (just like
during…?)
14
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
The Fall of France




1940: Germany occupies Denmark, Norway,
Belgium, France
Hitler forces French to sign armistice agreement
in same railroad car used for the armistice
imposed on Germany in 1918
Once again--dissatisfaction with Treaty of
Versailles and need for revenge.
How it played out…
15
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
The Battle of Britain


Air war conducted by the
German Luftwaffe (Air
Force)
40,000 British civilians
killed in urban bombing
raids


Especially London
Royal Air Force prevents
Germans from invading
16
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Operation Barbarossa





Lebensraum (“living space”)
June 22, 1941 Hitler doublecrosses Stalin and invades
USSR
Stalin caught off-guard, rapid
advance
But severe winter, long supply
lines weakened German efforts
Turning point: Battle of
Stalingrad (ends February
1943)
17
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
High tide of Axis expansion in Europe
and North Africa
18
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
US Involvement in WWII before Pearl
Harbor




US initiates “cash and carry” and
“lend-lease” programs: US lends
war goods to Allies with free
shipping, leases naval bases in
return
US freezes Japanese assets in US
US places embargo on oil
shipments to Japan
Japanese Defense Minister Tojo
Hideki (1884-1948) plans for war
with US
19
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)




FDR: “A date which will live in infamy”
Destroyed US Navy in the Pacific—not Aircraft
Carriers
Hitler, Mussolini declare war on the US on
December 11
US joins Great Britain and the USSR
20
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
21
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Japanese Victories and Sphere of Control


Japan dominates
south-east Asia,
Pacific islands
Establishes
“Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity
Sphere”World War
II in Asia and the
Pacific
22
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Defeat of the Axis Powers


Key factors: Russia &
USA had more
personnel reserves
(more people) &
industrial capacity
(more resources) than
Axis
US joining the war
turned the tide

Shipbuilding,
automotive production
especially important
23
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Allied Victory in Europe




Red Army (USSR) gains offensive after Stalingrad
(February 1943)
British, US forces attack in North Africa, Italy
D-Day: June 6, 1944, British and US forces land in
France (we will view this on Friday)
US, Britain bomb German cities (firebombing)


Dresden, February 1945: 135,000 Germans killed in shelters
30 April 1945 Hitler commits suicide, 8 May Germany
surrenders
24
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
The Firebombing of Dresden
25
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Turning the Tide in the Pacific

US code breaking operation Magic discovers
Japanese plans



Battle of Midway (4 June 1942)
US takes the offensive, engages in island-hopping
strategy
Iwo Jima and Okinawa


Japanese kamikaze suicide bombers
Savage two-month battle for Okinawa (Highly
recommended: Letters From Iwo Jima)
26
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Japanese Surrender

US firebombs Tokyo, March
1945




100,000 killed
25% of buildings destroyed
Atomic bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
August 6th and 9th, 1945
Emperor Hirohito (19011989) surrenders
unconditionally September 2,
1945
27
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Hiroshima after the Bomb
28
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Deaths During World War II (millions)
0.3
0.4
6
6
20
2
4
15
USSR
China
Germany
Japan
Poles
Britain
US
Jews
29
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Women and the War




WAVES (Women Appointed for Volunteer
Emergency Service)
US, Great Britain bar women from serving in
combat units
Soviet, Chinese forces include women fighters
Women very active in resistance movements
30
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Women’s Roles



Women occupy jobs of men away at war
Also take on “head of household” duties
Temporary: men returning from war displace
women

Yet lasting impact on women’s movement
31
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
“Comfort Women”



Asian women forced into prostitution by Japanese
forces
20/30 men per day, in war zones
“Comfort Houses,” “Consolation Centers”


Killed when infected with venereal disease
Large-scale massacres at end of war to hide
crimes

Social ostracism for survivors
32
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Deaths During World War II (millions)
0.3
0.4
6
6
20
2
4
15
USSR
China
Germany
Japan
Poles
Britain
US
Jews
33
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
Origins of the Cold War

US, USSR, Great Britain unnatural allies during World
War II


Yalta and Potsdam Conferences (1945)





Tensions submerged until close of war
Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt
Decided on USSR declaration of war vs. Japan, setting up of
International Military Tribunal
Free elections for Eastern Europe
Stalin arranges pro-communist governments in Eastern
European countries
1946: “Iron Curtain” descends
34
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
The Truman Doctrine (1947)




World divided into free and enslaved states
US to support all movements for democracy
“containment” of Communism
NATO and the Warsaw Pact established

Militarization of Cold War
35
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.
The Marshall Plan




Named for George C. Marshall (1880-1989), US
Secretary of State
Proposed in 1947, $13 billion to reconstruct
western Europe
USSR establishes Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance (COMECON), 1949
The United Nations formed (1945) to resolve
international disputes
36
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.