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WWII
Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, quickly led to full
American involvement in World War II. One day later the U.S. declared war on Japan.
Germany and Italy, Japan's Axis allies, then declared war on America. The U.S.
reciprocated by declaring war on the Axis. The U.S. then joined in a full military
partnership with Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and other members of the Allies.
Although Japan pulled America into the war, the U.S. decided to send most of its
military force against Hitler's Germany. Germany was considered far more dangerous
than Japan. Germany had to be stopped before it could defeat the Soviet Union.
Germany also had to be defeated before its scientists could complete development of an
atomic bomb.
In November 1942, America sent its troops against the German forces in North Africa.
After the Allied victory in Africa, U.S. forces attacked German forces in Italy. Then on
D-Day (June 6, 1944), the Allies mounted a huge amphibious attack on Hitler's forces
along the northern coast of France. Despite heavy casualties, the Allies established a
beachhead and then battled their way inland. Allied troops liberated France and other
western European nations from Nazi control while pushing eastward toward Germany.
Meanwhile, the Red Army of the Soviet Union, at a cost of millions of lives, stopped the
Nazi advance into Soviet territory. In 1943, the Soviets started to push the Nazis back
towards Germany. By early 1945, Allied armies were marching into Germany. On May
7, 1945, Germany surrendered. During these final days, Hitler committed suicide.
As the Allies closed in on Germany, they revealed the horrible fact that Hitler had
carried his racist beliefs to their "logical" conclusion. At places such as the death camp at
Auschwitz, the Nazis systematically carried out Hitler's "final solution" to the "Jewish
problem." By the time the Allies had arrived to stop the genocide, the Nazis had
murdered over six million Jews. The Nazis also engaged in the mass murder of Gypsies,
and mistreated prisoners of war, especially Russians.
Meanwhile, the U.S. also fought a war on the other side of the world against Japan.
Brilliant tactical moves by the U.S. navy led to a major Japanese defeat in the Battle of
Midway in 1942. The U.S. then pursued an island-hopping campaign across the Pacific.
U.S. forces seized strategically important islands in the Pacific and then "leapfrogged"
over less important islands to the next strategic locations. Using this strategy, American
forces moved closer to Japan without needless loss of men and materiel. Finally, by
1945, the U.S. forces had "hopped" to islands so close to Japan that direct bombing raids
on Japan were launched. Two such raids occurred in August 1945 when American B-29
bombers dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan
soon surrendered, and World War II ended. A new era, however, the nuclear age, was
just beginning.
The Axis' defeat was impossible without the participation of America's civilian
population. Men and women worked overtime to produce huge quantities of war
materials. To conserve on resources needed for the war, the country rationed gasoline,
rubber, and other commodities. Few people complained. Support for the war was high.
There was, however, at least one unfortunate wartime development within the U.S.
American citizens of Japanese ancestry were considered potentially disloyal and thus sent
to internment camps. This action, as well as seizing Japanese-American's property, was
in direct violation of their rights as U.S. citizens.
Long before the end of the war, the Allies began working on plans for postwar peace.
In 1941 F.D.R. and Churchill drew up the Atlantic Charter which stated the Allies' war
aims. Among them was restoring self-government to all conquered nations and
establishing a new world organization to replace the League of Nations. In February
1945, Churchill, Stalin, and an ailing Roosevelt -- he died two months later -- met at
Yalta (in the U.S.S.R). At the Yalta Conference, the leaders agreed that nations liberated
from the Axis would be allowed to establish independent, democratically elected
governments. They also agreed that Germany and its capital, Berlin, would be divided
into four zones and occupied by the Allies. Also, a special military court would be
created to try Axis leaders charged with war crimes such as the mass murder of Jews.
Finally, the Allied leaders agreed to begin writing a charter (constitution) for a new world
organization to be called the United Nations.
When the war ended, the Allies fulfilled several peace agreements. They established a
new world organization, the United Nations, and this time the U.S. Senate voted in favor
of U.S. membership. They set up a special war-crimes court in Nuremberg, where the
judges found nineteen Nazi leaders guilty and ordered them punished. The Allies
established additional courts to try lower-ranking Nazis. They divided Germany and its
capital into four zones and occupied it. Unfortunately, not all nations liberated from the
Nazis were set free. The Soviet Union imposed communist rule on East European
nations that it "freed" from the Nazis. Anger over this Soviet violation of the Yalta
Agreement caused a new conflict called the "cold war."