World War II - Grosse Pointe Public School Systemmi01000971.schoolwires.net/cms/lib05/MI01000971/Centricity/Domain... · captured 4 French soldiers. • Blinded by gas attack towards

World

War II

Mr. Booth

U.S. History

Introduction:

• Most devastating war in human history • 55 million dead

• 1 trillion dollars

• Began in 1939 as strictly a European

Conflict, ended in 1945. • Widened to include most of the world

Great Depression Leads Towards

Fascism • In 1929, the U.S. Stock Market crashed

– Why are problem for rest of world?

• Millions lost faith in government

• As a result, a few countries turned towards an

extreme government called fascism.

1.Germany Adolf Hitler, 2.Spain Francisco Franco

3. Soviet Union Joseph Stalin 4. Italy Benito Mussolini

Fascism

• Fascism: A political movement that

promotes an extreme form of nationalism, a

denial of individual rights, and a dictatorial

one-party rule.

• Emphasizes 1) loyalty to the state, and 2)

obedience to its leader.

• Fascists promised to revive the economy,

punish those responsible for hard times, and

restore national pride.

The Rise of Benito Mussolini

• Fascism’s rise in Italy due

to:

• Disappointment over

failure to win land at the

1919 Treaty of Versailles.

• Italy wanted a leader who

could take action

Mussolini Background • Was a newspaper editor and politician

• Said he would rebuild the economy, the armed forces,

and give Italy a strong leadership.

• Mussolini was able to come to power by

1. publicly criticizing Italy’s government

2. Followers (black shirts) attacked communists and

socialists on the streets.

• In October 1922, 30,000 followers marched to Rome

and demanded that King Victor Emmanuel III put

Mussolini in charge. He did….

Il Duce

3 Decisions he made for

complete control

• Mussolini was Il Duce, or

the leader.

1. He abolished democracy

and outlawed all political

parties except the Fascists.

2. Secret police jailed his

opponents.

3. Mussolini outlawed strikes,

and censored radio stations.

Fist Pump

Adolf Hitler

•Rise to Power

Birth

• Adolf Hitler was

born on April 20,

1889 in Braunau,

Austria.

• Adolf was 1 of 6

children - 3 of who

died at early ages

Overall Purpose:

The overall purpose of this

blurb on Hitler is to explain

how this little boy on the left

became the man on the right

who was ultimately

responsible for the death of

about 50 million people all

over the world!!

Slides 11-18 no notes

Parents

Alois Schickelgruber Hitler was a customs official who

was illegitimate by birth. His father, Adolf’s

grandfather, may have been Jewish. He died when

Adolf was 14 and left him a small inheritance.

Klara Hitler was very young when she married the

older Alois. She showered young Adolf with love and

affection. Adolf carried a picture of his mom until the

day he died. She died of breast cancer when Adolf

was 18 years old.

Education • Attended a monastery school where he took part

in the choir.

• When it was time to choose a secondary school,

Adolf wanted to become an artist.

• His father wanted him to become a civil servant,

After his father died, he dropped out of high

school and attempted to get into the Vienna

Academy of Fine Arts - he failed to get in.

This 1914 painting is titled: “The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich.”

Years in Vienna

• After his mother died, Adolf (now 18) decided to

move to Austria to pursue his dream of becoming

a great artist.

• Again he failed to gain entrance into the Academy

• He eventually sold all his possessions and became

a homeless drifter who slept on park benches and

ate at soup kitchens throughout Vienna (age 19)

• Adolf did manage to sell some paintings and

postcards, but remained impoverished

Vienna -Importance

• Influenced by the anti-

Semitic mayor of

Vienna, Karl Lueger

• Became interested in

the idea of German

nationalism.

• Also received first

taste of politics

Military Service Adolf left Austria at the age of 24 to avoid mandatory

military service that was required of all men.

•But he did sign up for

military service at the

start of WW I. He joined

a Bavarian unit of the

German Army.

• This is a picture of

Hitler listening to an

enlistment speech.

Military Record

• Was awarded the Iron

Cross twice. (5 medals

overall)

• Highest military honor

in German Army.

• Single handedly

captured 4 French

soldiers.

• Blinded by gas attack

towards end of war.

German Worker’s Party

• Hitler decided to

investigate this

conservative party in

Munich in 1919.

• He went to a meeting

and gave a speech on

his experiences during

the war. Became a

member

Leader and Platform • Hitler drafted a

platform of 25 points

• Revoke Versailles

Treaty

• Revoke civil rights of

Jews

• Nazi party’s acronym

was NSDAP or

National Socialist

Germany Worker’s

Party

Besides changing the party

name, the red flag with the

SWASTIKA was adopted as

the party symbol

•Greek Silver

Coin (8th

Century)

•Etruscan

Pendant (8th

Century)

•Swastik

a means

“it is

good”

Ohio River

Valley B-ball

Team

(1909)

Beer Hall Putsch

• October 30, 1923

• Hitler held a rally in

Munich beer hall and

declared revolution

• Led 2000 men in take

over of German

Government

• It failed and Hitler was

imprisoned

Trial and Jail •At his trial (Hitler was charged with

treason), he used the opportunity to

speak about the NAZI platform and

spread his popularity.

•The whole nation suddenly knew

who Adolf Hitler was and what he

stood for

•He was sentenced to five years, but

actually only served about 9 months

•When he left prison, he was ready

to go into action again.

Mein Kampf • Hitler’s book “My Struggle” -

wrote while in jail

• Sold 5 million copies, made him

rich

• Topics included: Jews were evil,

Germans were superior race,

Fuhrer principal, dislike of

Communism and Democracy and

need to conquer Russia

Legal Rise to Power • Used popularity from failed

revolution and book to seize

power legally

• Spoke to mass audiences about

making Germany a great nation

again

• Nazi Party:

– 1930 = 18% of vote

– 1932 = 30% of vote

– Hitler is legally appointed

Chancellor (Prime Minister)

in 1933

– Why? Pressure from Nazi Party

on President Hindenburg

January 1933: Hitler became Chancellor

of Germany

http://clip.dj/2-hitler-s-first-speech-as-reich-chancellor-

10-feb-download-mp3-mp4-

rMzq0FggECs#v/AHHr2SNjbnc

Brownshirts

• Q. How did he accomplish

such popularity or hardly any

resistance?

• A. FEAR

• “Brownshirts” or SA

(Stormtroopers)

• SA was used to put down

opposition parties

• Threatened and beat up

Jews and anti-Nazi voters

• Numbered almost 400,000 by

1932

Legal Rise of Adolf Hitler • Hitler appointed as chancellor,

1933 and wanted total power

• New parliament created

– 450, 000 members

– Larger than German army

• Demanded dictatorial power for 4

years, only one deputy spoke out

against him.

• Used his power to turn Germany

into a fascist state or totalitarian

state (complete control over every

aspect of public and private lives.

History of the NSDAP (5 min)

Schutzstaffel (S.S.)

The S.S.

• This organization served as

Hitler’s police force.

• Made up of almost one

million men,

– it served in battle in the front

line

– unit in charge of many of the

war crimes against humanity.

Hitler expands Germany

Remember after World War I…

• Treaty of Versailles seriously damaged German economy

• When Adolf Hitler comes to power

– Promised to restore Germany’s greatness

– Lebensraum, or make the “living room” bigger

– In March 1935, the Fuhrer (leader) announced that

Germany would not obey these restrictions.

• Hitler wanted more territory

– Neighbors aware of threat

– Memories of World War I still fresh

– No one willing to fight over words

Hitler soon ordered a program of

rearming Germany

Hitler visits a factory and is enthusiastically

greeted. Many Germans were grateful for

jobs after the misery of he depression years.

Failure of the League of Nations • The League’s failure to stop Germany from rearming

convinced Hitler to be more bold.

• The treaty had forbidden German troops to enter a 30

mile wide zone on either side of the Rhine River

known as the Rhineland.

– Served as buffer zone between Germany and France.

• In 1936, Germany troops moved into the Rhineland.

Stunned, the French were unwilling to risk war.

• The British urged appeasement, giving into an

aggressor to keep peace.

• Hitler later admitted that he would have backed

down if the French and British had challenged him.

March 1936: German troops

marched into the Rhineland

Germany controls the Rhineland • The German reoccupation

of the Rhineland marked a

turning point in the march

toward war.

• Why?

• Now France and Belgium

is open to attack from the

Nazis.

March 1938: Nazi Germany

Annexes Austria

Western Democracies Fail to

Halt Aggression • The United States has the foreign policy of

Isolationism again (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

• Britain and France again choose appeasement

• The Munich Conference was held in September,

1938.

• British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain believed

that he could preserve peace by giving in to Hitler’s

demand.

The Munich Conference • Britain and France agreed that Hitler

could take the Sudentland.

• In exchange, Hitler pledge to respect

Czechoslovakia’s new borders

(Treaty is signed)

• Chamberlain’s policy of

appeasement seemed to have

prevented war.

• When he returned to London,

Chamberlain told cheering crowds,

“I believe it is peace for our time.”

• SOMEONE SEVERELY

DISAGREES

Chamberlain meets Hitler

"If ever that silly old man comes interfering here

again with his umbrella, I'll kick him downstairs and

jump on his stomach in front of the photographers".

--Adolf Hitler to Neville Chamberlain

March 1939: Germany invaded

Czechoslovakia •This was the first aggressive

step that suggested that a war in

Europe would soon begin.

Churchill’s Voice

We are in the presence of a disaster of the first

magnitude…we have sustained a defeat without a

war…And do not suppose that this is the end….This is

only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which

will be proffered to us year by year unless, by a

supreme recovery of moral health and vigor, we arise

and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time

Winston Churchill, speech before the House of Commons, October 5, 1938.

I told you so…

• Less than 6 months later, Hitler’s troops

took Czechoslovakia.

• Mussolini seized nearby Albania

• Hitler demanded Poland

• Appeasement had convinced Hitler that

neither nation would risk war

August 1939: Germany and Russia Signed a

Non-Aggression Pact

•Hitler and Stalin (the Russian leader) signed a ‘non-aggression pact’.

•They promised that neither country would attack the other in the event of war.

•As part of the deal, Hitler promised Stalin part of Poland, which he planned to invade soon.

This photo shows the Russian foreign

minister signing the pact, while Stalin

stands smiling in the background

The non-aggression pact was surprising. Hitler and Stalin were seen as natural enemies.

When Hitler talked of taking over new land for Germany, many thought that he meant Russia.

Hitler also hated Communism, the form of government in Russia

Hitler Stalin

• On 3rd September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started a War with Britain and France.

September 1939: Germany invaded Poland

German troops marching into

Warsaw, the capital of Poland.

May 1940: Germany Turned West and

Invaded France and the Netherlands

• In May 1940, Germany used Blitzkrieg tactics to attack France and the Netherlands.

• Blitzkreig “or lightning war,” used fast-moving airplanes and tanks, followed by massive infantry forces, to take the enemy by surprise.

Captured British

troops, May 1940

The Phony War • Strange Calm – 7 mo. No movement.

• France/Britain mobilize armies

• They stationed their troops there and

called it the Maginot Line, a system of

fortifications along France’s border with

Germany.

• They waited for the Nazi’s to attack-but

nothing happened. Called it “Sitzkreig”

• 4/9/40 - Phony war ended. Hitler

launched a surprise invasion of

Denmark and Norway in order to:

• Build bases and along their coasts to

strike the powerful Great Britain.

• In 4 hours, Denmark fell. Two months

later, Norway surrendered.

Germans Squeeze Through

• After conquering Denmark and Norway, Hitler began

fighting in Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. (TO

KEEP ALLIES PREOCCUPIED.

• Keeping the allies attention on those countries, the

Germans sent a huge force through the Ardennes

Forest in Northeastern France and they squeezed

between the Maginot Line.

Italy Sides With Germany

• Sensing that France seemed

doomed for defeat, Italy’s

(Mussolini) officially

joined forces with Hitler

• Declared war on both Great

Britain and France.

• Italy attacked France from

the south. On June 14,

1940, France surrendered.

Alignment of the Axis

Powers in June, 1940

By June 1940, France had

surrendered to the Germans

• Britain now stood

alone as the last

remaining enemy of

Hitler’s Germany in

Western Europe.

Adolf Hitler tours Paris

after his successful

invasion.

Operation Sea Lion

The Invasion of Great Britain

• Wanted to knock out the

(RAF) Royal Air Force and

then land 250,00 soldiers on

England’s shores.

• The RAF was outnumbered

by the Luftwaffe in terms of

planes

– 2,900 RAF planes

– 4,500 Luftwaffe

• Then Hitler became focused

on bombing London to break

British morale

Winston Churchill • The Greatest weapon against

Hitler’s Germany was the nation’s

prime minister-Winston Churchill.

• Born with a speech defect,

Churchill became of the great

speech makers of all time.

• Churchill’s refusal to consider

surrendering to Germany provided

a base for which the Allies could

attack Germany in the future

• Open “Our Finest Hour Speech”

The British Bulldog

September 1940-May 1941:

Operation Sea Lion

Air Raids on London

• For the following nine

months, the German air

force (Luftwaffe) launched

repeated bombing raids on

British towns and cities.

This was known as the

BLITZ and was an attempt

to bomb Britain into

submission.

Battle of Britain • The English were able to win the Battle of Britain

because of a number of reasons

1. The RAF pilots were better dogfighters. They

were able to shoot down German planes at a 3:1

ratio.

A. To avoid RAF attacks, the Germans bombed London at

night, and the English would turn all lights off at night

and sirens would go off and the English would move to

bomb shelters.

2. The Allies developed Radar. Radar could tell the

number, speed, and direction of incoming war-

planes.

3. The Enigma. A code breaking machine, was

smuggled to Great Britain in 1938, and could

receive German secret messages and decode

them. This is a huge advantage because you may

know what the enemy is doing before they do it.

• In May, 1941, Hitler was stunned and called off

his attacks. The British had outlasted the

Germans.

The Enigma

THE UNITED STATES IN

WORLD WAR II

AMERICA

TURNS THE

TIDE

Japan’s Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor • The U.S. had cracked a secret

Japanese code in August of 1940

and found out….that Japan had

plans to invade the Philippines.

• U.S. cut off Oil, Steel, and

Rubber shipments to Japan

• Japanese Admiral Isoroku

Yamamoto argued that the U.S.

fleet in Hawaii was a “dagger

pointed at our throat” and must be

destroyed

• The Japanese imperial army sent

submarines and war planes to bomb

the U.S. strategic navy base in

Oahu, Hawaii

• ->FDR Speech-Infamy

The U.S.S. Arizona in

flames taking a direct hit in

Pearl Harbor, December 7,

1941

Infamy Speech

What was the outcome?

• Surprise attack on U.S.

Navy Pacific Fleet

• December 7, 1941

• Fighters and bombers

launched from carriers

• Raid a success

Pearl Harbor

• Major destruction

• Heavy casualties

– 2,400 dead

– 200 planes gone

– Eight battleships sunk

• Three carriers survived

Two-hour attack

Japan Attacks

SECTION 1: MOBILIZING FOR DEFENSE

AMERICANS RUSH TO ENLIST

• “Remember Pearl Harbor” was the rallying cry as America entered WWII

• After Pearl Harbor, five million Americans enlisted to fight in the war

• The Selective Service expanded the draft and eventually provided an additional 10 million soldiers

WOMEN JOIN THE

FIGHT • Army Chief of Staff General

George Marshall pushed for the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)

• Under this program women worked in non-combat roles:

– Nurses

– ambulance drivers

– radio operators

– pilots

ALL AMERICANS FOUGHT

• Despite discrimination at home, minority populations contributed to the war effort

• 1,000,000 African Americans served in the military

• 300,000 Mexican-Americans

• 33,000 Japanese Americans

• 25,000 Native Americans

• 13,000 Chinese Americans

These “Golden 13” Great Lakes officers

scored the highest marks ever on the

Officers exam in 1944

LABOR’S

CONTRIBUTION • By 1944, nearly 18

million workers were

laboring in war

industries (3x the # in

1941)

• More than 6 million of

these were women and

nearly 2 million were

minority

A Secret Weapon

• “Manhattan Project” led

by Scientist Robert

Oppenheimer

• The most powerful bomb

the world had ever

known (Uranium-235

was extracted and used)

• Summer of 1945, the

atomic bomb was ready.

WAR PRODUCTION BOARD

• To ensure the troops had

ample resources, FDR

created the WPB

• The WPB decided which

companies would convert

to wartime production and

how to best allocate raw

materials to those

industries

COLLECTION DRIVES

• The WPB also organized nationwide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags and cooking fat for recycling

• Additionally, the OPA set up a system of rationing

– Fixed allotment of goods deemed essential for the military

• Households had set allocations of scarce goods – gas, meat, shoes, sugar, coffee

WWII Poster

encouraging

conservation

SECTION 2: THE WAR FOR

EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA

• Days after Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister Winston

Churchill arrived at the White House and spent three weeks

working out war plans with FDR

• They decided to focus on defeating Hitler first and then turn their

attention to Japan

THE BATTLE OF THE

ATLANTIC • After America’s entry into

the war, Hitler was determined to prevent foods and war supplies from reaching Britain and the USSR from America’s east coast

• He ordered submarine raids on U.S. ships on the Atlantic

• During the first four months of 1942 Germany sank 87 U.S. ships

The power of the German submarines was great, and in

two months' time almost two million tons of Allied

ships were resting on the ocean floor. Efforts were soon

made to restrict German subs' activities.

ALLIES

CONTROL

U-BOATS

• In the first seven months of 1942,

German U-boats sank 681 Allied ships in the Atlantic

• Something had to be done or the war at sea would be lost

• First, Allies used convoys of ships & airplanes to transport supplies

– What are convoys?

• Destroyers used sonar to track U-boats

• Airplanes were used to track the U-boats ocean surfaces

• With this improved tracking, Allies inflicted huge losses on German U-boats

U-426 sinks after attack from the air,

January 1944. Almost two-thirds of all

U-boat sailors died during the Battle of

the Atlantic.

THE EASTERN FRONT &

MEDITERRANEAN

• Hitler wanted to wipe out Stalingrad – a major industrial center

• The first great turning point was the Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad was a huge Allied

victory

• For weeks the Germans pressed in on Stalingrad

• Then winter set in and the Germans were

wearing summer uniforms

• The Germans surrendered in January of 1943

•The Soviets lost more than 1 million men in the

battle (more than twice the number of deaths the

U.S. suffered in all the war)

• Only half of the soldiers have weapons!

Wounded in the Battle

of Stalingrad

THE NORTH

AFRICAN FRONT • “Operation

Torch” – an invasion of Axis -controlled North Africa --was launched by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1942

• Allied troops landed in Casablanca, Oran and the Algiers in Algeria

• They sped eastward chasing the Afrika Korps led by German General Edwin Rommel (Desert Fox)

American tanks roll in the deserts of

Africa and defeat German and Axis

forces

Allied

troops

landed in

Casa-

blanca,

Oran and

the

Algiers

CASABLANCA MEETING

• FDR and Churchill met in

Casablanca and decided

their next moves

• 1) Plan amphibious invasions

of France and Italy

• 2) Only unconditional

surrender would be accepted

FDR and Churchill in Casablanca

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN –

ANOTHER ALLIED

VICTORY • The Italian Campaign got off to

a good start as the Allies easily took Sicily

• At that point King Emmanuel III stripped Mussolini of his power and had him arrested

• However, Hitler’s forces continued to resist the Allies in Italy

• Heated battles ensued and it wasn’t until 1945 that Italy was secured by the Allies

TUSKEGEE

AIRMEN

• Among the brave men who fought in Italy were pilots of the all-black 99th squadron – the Tuskegee Airmen

• The pilots made numerous effective strikes against Germany and won two distinguished Unit Citations

On May 31, 1943, the 99th Squadron, the first group of African-American pilots

trained at the Tuskegee Institute, arrived in North Africa

ALLIES LIBERATE EUROPE

• Even as the Allies were battling for Italy, they began plans on a dramatic invasion of France

• It was known as “Operation Overlord” and the commander was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Also called “D-Day,” the operation involved 3 million U.S. & British troops and was set for June 6, 1944

Allies sent fake

coded messages

indicating they

would attack

here

D-DAY JUNE

6, 1944

• D-Day was the largest

land-sea-air

operation in military

history

• Despite air support,

German retaliation

was brutal –

especially at Omaha

Beach

• Within a month, the

Allies had landed 1

million troops,

567,000 tons of

supplies and 170,000

vehicles D-Day was an amphibious landing – soldiers

going from sea to land

OMAHA BEACH 6/6/44

Landing at Normandy

Planes drop paratroopers behind enemy lines at Normandy, France

Losses were

extremely

heavy on D-

Day

Clip from Saving Private Ryan

2:10

FRANCE

FREED • By September 1944,

the Allies had freed

France, Belgium

and Luxembourg.

General George Patton (right) was

instrumental in Allies freeing

France

BATTLE OF THE

BULGE • In October 1944, Americans

captured their first German town (Aachen)– the Allies were closing in

• Hitler responded with one last ditch massive offensive

• Hitler hoped breaking through the Allied line would break up Allied supply lines

BATTLE OF THE

BULGE

• The battle raged for a month – the Germans had been pushed back

• Germans had suffered heavy losses

• Germany lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks and 1,600 planes

• From that point on the Nazis could do little but retreat The Battle of the Bulge was Germany’s last gasp

ALLIES TAKE BERLIN;

HITLER COMMITS SUICIDE

• By April 25, 1945, the Soviet army had stormed Berlin

• In his underground headquarters in Berlin, Hitler prepared for the end

• On April 29, he married his longtime girlfriend Eva Braun then wrote a last note in which he blamed the Jews for starting the war and his generals for losing it

• The next day he gave poison to his wife and shot himself

Red army soldiers raising the Soviet flag on the roof of the

Reichstag (German Parliament) in Berlin, Germany.

V-E Day Celebrations in New York City, May 8, 1945.

Famous

picture of an

American

soldier

celebrating

the end of the

war

SECTION 3: THE

WAR IN THE

PACIFIC • The Americans did not

celebrate long, as Japan was busy conquering an empire that dwarfed Hitler’s Third Reich

• Japan had conquered much of southeast Asia including the Dutch East Indies, Guam, and most of China

BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA

• The main Allied forces in the Pacific were

Americans and Australians

• In May 1942 they succeeded in stopping the

Japanese drive toward Australia in the five-day

Battle of the Coral Sea

THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY

• Midway Island – a strategic Island northwest of Hawaii

• The Americans won a decisive victory as their planes destroyed 4 Japanese aircraft carriers and 250 planes

•The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the war – soon the

Allies were island hopping toward Japan

KAMIKAZE

PILOTS ATTACK

ALLIES • Japanese countered by

employing a new tactic – Kamikaze (divine wind) attacks

• Pilots in small bomb-laden planes would crash into Allied ships

In the Battle for the Philippines, 424

Kamikaze pilots sank 16 ships and

damaged 80 more

President Roosevelt Dies

• Did not live to see the end of World War II.

• Died on April 12, 1945

• Vice President Harry S. Truman became

President.

INVADE JAPAN?

• After getting closer to Japan (Okinawa) General MacArthur predicted that a Normandy type amphibious invasion of Japan would result in 1,500,000 Allied deaths

• President Truman saw only one way to avoid an invasion of Japan . . .

The loss of life at Iwo Jima and Okinawa

convinced Allied leaders that an invasion of

Japan was not the best idea

Okinawa

ATOMIC BOMB

DEVELOPED • Japan had a huge army

that would defend every

inch of the Japanese

mainland

• So Truman decided to use

a powerful new weapon

developed by scientists

working on the Manhattan

Project – the Atomic

Bomb

U.S. DROPS TWO

ATOMIC BOMBS

ON JAPAN

• Truman warned Japan in late July 1945 that without a immediate Japanese surrender, it faced “prompt and utter destruction”

• On August 6 (Hiroshima) and August 9 (Nagasaki) a B-29 bomber dropped Atomic Bombs on Japan

The plane and crew that dropped an

atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

The Sky Explodes

• Killed over

90,000–166,000

people.

• Japan still DID

NOT

SURRENDER!

The Enola Gay

· On August 9, the U.S. dropped another atomic bomb (Fat

Man) on the city of Nagasaki.

Killed 60 to 80,000 people.

Mushroom cloud from the

nuclear explosion over

Nagasaki rising 60,000

feet into the air on the

morning of August 9, 1945

• Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945

• World War II was FINALLY over!

• Over 300,000 Americans dead and over 15 millions other soldiers from other countries died in the fighting.

JAPAN SURRENDERS

At the White House, President Harry Truman

announces the Japanese surrender, August 14,

1945

• Japan surrendered

days after the second

atomic bomb was

dropped

• General MacArthur

said, “Today the guns

are silent. The skies no

longer rain death . . .the

entire world is quietly at

peace.”

THE YALTA

CONFERENCE

• In February 1945, as the

Allies pushed toward

victory in Europe, an

ailing FDR met with

Churchill and Stalin at

the Black Sea resort of

Yalta in the USSR

• A series of compromises

were worked out

concerning postwar

Europe

(L to R) Churchill, FDR and Stalin at

Yalta

YALTA AGREEMENTS • 1) They agreed to divide Germany into 4 occupied zones after the

war

• 2) Stalin agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe

• 3) Stalin agreed to help the U.S. in the war against Japan and to join the United Nations

NUREMBERG WAR TRIALS

• The discovery of Hitler’s death camps led the Allies to put 24 surviving Nazi leaders on trial for crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and war crimes

• “I was only following orders” was not an acceptable defense as 12 of the 24 were sentenced to death and the others to life in prison

Herman Goering, Hitler's right-hand man and chief architect of the

German war effort, testifies at his trial. He was found guilty of war

crimes but avoided execution by swallowing potassium cyanide.

SECTION 4: THE HOME

FRONT

GI BILL HELPS

RETURNING VETS

• To help returning

servicemen ease back into

civilian life, Congress

passed the Servicemen’s

Readjustment Act (GI

Bill of Rights)

• The act provided

education for 7.8 million

vets

INTERNMENT OF

JAPANESE AMERICANS

• When the war began, 120,000 Japanese Americans lived in the U.S. – mostly on the West Coast

• After Pearl Harbor, many people were suspicious of possible spy activity by Japanese Americans

• In 1942, FDR ordered Japanese Americans into 10 relocation centers

Japanese Americans felt the sting of

discrimination during WWII

Location of the

10 Internment

camps

Nearly 59 years after the end of World War II, the National

World War II Memorial was dedicated in Washington,

D.C., on Saturday, May 29, 2004 to honor the 408,680

Americans who died in the conflict