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US-VA SOL Review Assignment
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The Allied Powers defeat Nazi Germany, 1939 - 1945
World War II began with Hitler’s
invasion of Poland in 1939.
 Hitler had signed a non-aggression
pact with Joseph Stalin of the Soviet
Union.
 As Hitler invaded Poland from the
West, Stalin’s Red Army invaded
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania –
before invading Poland from the East.
 England and France declared war on
Nazi Germany.
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During the first two years of the war
in Europe, the United States remained
officially neutral.
 Germany overran France and most of
Western Europe, devastating England
during the Battle of Britain.
Although most of London was turned
to rubble, England refused to
surrender.
 Hitler now invaded the Soviet Union,
breaking his non-aggression pact
with Joseph Stalin.
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During the Battle of Britain, the Germans turned much of
London to rubble by bombing from above. Eventually, the
Royal Air Force took control of the skies, and Hitler was
forced to pursue other plans. He launched Operation
Barbarossa to invade the Soviet Union in 1941.
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Despite strong isolationist sentiment at
home, the United States increasingly
helped Britain. It gave Britain war
supplies and old naval warships in
return for military bases in Bermuda
and other parts of the Caribbean. Soon
after, the Lend-Lease Act gave the
President authority to sell or lend
equipment to countries to defend
themselves against the Axis Powers.
Franklin Roosevelt compared it to
“lending a garden hose to a next-door
neighbor whose house is on fire.”
England and the Soviet Union received weapons,
war materials, food, and machinery to fight the
Nazis from the Lend-Lease Act. But the United
States still did not join the war effort.
 After Pearl Harbor, Hitler honored
a pact with Japan and declared
war on the United States. (Japan,
Italy, and Germany were the Triple
Axis.) The debates over
isolationism in the United States
were over. World War II was now a
true world war and the United
States was fully involved.
After Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan immediately… Hitler responded by declaring war on the United States,
and before long the US had declared war on all of the Triple Axis nations. The “America First” movement dissolved immediately.
The United States was unified in its efforts to defeat the Axis Powers through most of the war.
 Germany hoped to defeat the
Soviet Union quickly, gain control
of Soviet oil fields, and force
Britain out of the war through a
bombing campaign and submarine
warfare before America’s industrial
and military strength could turn
the tide of the war against them.
At the height of their power, Nazi
Germany controlled most of
Europe and North Africa.
 In Stalingrad, hundreds of thousands
of German soldiers were killed or
captured in a months-long siege of
the Russian city of Stalingrad. This
defeat prevented Germany from
seizing the Soviet oil fields and
turned the tide against Germany in
the east. The Soviet Union lost many,
many lives during this battle – and
others along the Eastern Front – to
defeat the Nazis.
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The D-Day invasion took place on June 6,
1944 on the coast of Normandy in
France. American and Allied troops
under Dwight David Eisenhower landed
in German-occupied France on “D-Day,”
assaulting what was known as the
Atlantic sea wall at Omaha Beach (and
four other beaches: Juno, Sword, Utah,
and Gold.) Despite intense German
opposition and heavy American
casualties, the landings succeeded, and
the liberation of western Europe from
Hitler began.
American, English, and Canadian soldiers all charged the
beaches at Normandy, France on D-Day: June 6, 1944.
Americans suffered the highest casualties during the
assault on France. The landings at Omaha Beach faced a
virtually impossible challenge – assaulting an entrenched
and heavily armed position – and they prevailed.
 The Geneva Convention attempted
to ensure that all prisoners of war
would be treated humanely by
establishing rules which must be
followed by all nations.
 Nations which violated these rules
would be charged with war
crimes. After World War II, many
military leaders from the Axis
Powers were put to death.
Prisoners of war in Europe were treated
more closely in line with the Geneva
Convention, with some very, very obvious
exceptions:
 1. Nazi Germany ran concentration camps
which murdered civilians and members of
the resistance.
 2. Soviet POWs were often killed, or sent
off to the concentration camps.
 3. The Russians brutalized and murdered
many German POWs and thousands died in
forced labor camps, as well.
 4. American POWs tended to be better
treated in Europe than they were in
Japanese prisons.
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English and American Soldiers defeat Nazi Germany Abroad…
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 At El Alamein, German forces
threatening to seize Egypt and the
Suez Canal were defeated by the
British. American and British
armies had worked cooperatively
to defeat Erwin Rommel – “The
Desert Fox” in North Africa. This
defeat prevented Hitler from
gaining access to Middle Eastern
oil supplies and attacking the
Soviet Union from the south.
The Battle of El Alamein in Egypt was a critical turning point
during World War II. Because American and British forces
managed to stop the Nazi invasion of North Africa, protect the
Suez Canal, and prevent an assault on Middle Eastern oil fields,
German momentum was slowed.
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The United States defeats the Empire of Japan, 1941 - 1945
 During the 1930s, a militaristic
Japan invaded and brutalized
Manchuria and China as it sought
military and economic domination
over all of Asia. The United States
refused to recognize Japanese
conquests in Asia and imposed an
embargo on exports of oil and steel
to Japan – thereby hampering their
efforts at expansion. Tensions rose
between the US and Japan, but
negotiations remained open.
 While negotiating with the United
States and without any warning,
Japan carried out an air attack on
the American naval base at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7,
1941. The attack destroyed much of
the American Pacific fleet and killed
several thousand Americans. FDR
called it “a date that will live in
infamy” as he asked Congress to
declare war on Japan.
The attack on Pearl Harbor came without warning, and over
two thousand American sailors died during the bombing. But
the event was not decisive, and Americans immediately
declared war on Japan – vowing to avenge Pearl Harbor.
 The United States and her Allies
(England, led by Winston Churchill
and the Soviet Union, led by
Joseph Stalin) followed a “Defeat
Hitler First” strategy. Even though
the United States had been
attacked by the Japanese,
defeating Hitler was priority
number one. Most of Americans
military resources were targeted to
Europe. Revenge against Japan
would come later.
The Japanese did not abide by the
Geneva Convention and treated prisoners
of war in the most atrocious manner.
Many Japanese soldiers would not
surrender to the Americans, and would
launch suicidal assaults instead.
 When American and Filipino soldiers
surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the
Bataan Death March resulted in the
deaths of close to 10,000 soldiers –
brutally murdered without regard for
the rules of war.
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Any American or Filipino soldier who stepped out of line,
begged for water, or fell down during the “Bataan Death
March” was instantly murdered by the Japanese during the
Bataan Death March in 1942. Americans were fearful of
falling into Japanese hands as prisoners – for good reason
– for the remainder of the war.
 In the Pacific, American military
strategy called for an “island
hopping” campaign, seizing islands
closer and closer to Japan and using
them as bases for air attacks on
Japan. Meanwhile, American forces
focused on cutting Japanese supplies
lines through submarine warfare
against Japanese shipping. Americans
had soon crippled the Japanese Navy
and it’s merchant marine.
By capturing a few islands at a time, the United States
slowly but surely made their way closer and closer to the
Japanese mainland. Once Americans captured the islands
of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, they were able to launch air
strikes on the Japanese directly. The creation of the atomic
bomb in the summer of 1945 helped to bring the war to a
more rapid end.
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Following Pearl Harbor, the
Japanese invaded the
Philippines and Indonesia,
and planed to invade both
Hawaii and Australia. Japan’s
leaders hoped that America
would then accept Japanese
predominance in Southeast
Asia and the Pacific, rather
than conduct a bloody and
costly war to reverse
Japanese gains.
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The United States Navy won a dramatic
victory at Midway Island in 1942. In the
Battle of Midway (termed the “Miracle at
Midway”), American naval forces
defeated a much larger Japanese force
as it prepared to seize Midway Island.
Coming only a few months after Pearl
Harbor, a Japanese victory at Midway
would have enabled Japan to launch an
assault on Hawaii. The American
victory ended the Japanese threat to
Hawaii, sank several aircraft carriers,
and allowed Americans to begin their
“island hopping campaign.”
At the battle of Midway Island, the United States Navy
happened upon a large portion of the Japanese fleet as they
prepared to attack Midway Island. Several aircraft carriers
were sunk, and the Japanese Navy was crippled going
forward. No attack on Hawaii would be generated.
 The United States Marines amphibious
landings at Iwo Jima and Okinawa
brought American forces closer than
ever to Japan, but both invasions cost
thousands of American lives and even
more Japanese lives. Japanese
soldiers fought fiercely over every
square inch of the islands, fighting to
the death. The Japanese soldiers –
and many civilians – committed
suicide rather than surrender to the
United States military.
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Facing the prospects of horrendous
American and Japanese casualties if
American forces were required to
invade Japan itself, President Harry S
Truman ordered the use of atomic
bombs on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of
1945. In both cities, hundreds of
thousands of Japanese were killed.
Shortly after the bombs were
dropped, Japan surrendered.
Americans Work to Defeat the Axis Powers, 1941 - 1945
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African-Americans generally served in
segregated military units and were
assigned to noncombat roles during
World War II.
 African-Americans demanded an
integrated military, and won gains in
this regard, particularly in the US Navy.
Several ships were integrated on an
experimental basis during the war.
 African-Americans demanded that they
be allowed to take positions other than
mess hall attendants and stevedores.
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Serving in an all black segregated
unit during the war, the Tuskegee
Airmen flew with distinction over
Europe during World War II. The
men were assigned to protect the
slow moving, heavy bombers of the
US Army Air Corps. During World War
II, they were responsible for the safe
conduct of these bombers, and also
fought off the German Luftwaffe.
Benjamin Davis was the leader.
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During World War II, most Japanese
Americans were rounded up and forced
into “relocation camps” where the United
States government imprisoned them as a
threat to the community. (Interestingly,
no German-Americans or Italian-Americans
suffered this fate…) Within the camps,
some Japanese Americans – the Nisei –
were organized to fight the Axis Powers.
Usually these troops were deployed to the
Italian Front in Europe, or to the North
African/European theatres of war, rather
than to the Pacific. The soldier to the
right was serving in France, after D-Day.
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The Navajo Indians who served in World
War II offered the United States a unique
gift – a code that was never broken by
the Japanese. Using their own dying
language, members of the Navajo tribe
came up with a secret code in order to
relay messages during battles. For each
letter of the alphabet, they assigned a
Navajo word. The Navajo word for
apple, for example, might mean “A.”
Since no one in Japan spoke the Navajo
language, the code was never broken.
This is another example of strength
through diversity in American history.
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Mexican-Americans joined the United
States Armed Forces and served in
integrated regiments throughout the
war. The United States and Mexico
organized the “Bracero Program”
during World War II, in order to fill
jobs in the defense industry. With
millions of Americans serving in the
military, jobs in military production,
factory work, and agricultural labor
were filled by immigrants, invited by
the government to the United States.
 The United States government
worked hard to forge a close
working relationship with
industries in order to allocate
resources effectively.
 Businesses were encouraged to
retool from peacetime to wartime
production. For example, making
tanks or airplanes rather than
automobiles.
Americans were forced to ration certain
goods during World War II to be certain
that no shortages of war supplies and
materials emerged. Essential products
for the war effort could not be purchased
without rationing coupons, and even
then, severe controls were placed on the
amount of a certain product one could
have. Price controls were also set.
Rationed goods included gasoline, rubber
goods, shoes, sugar, meat, coffee, tires,
and many, many other products.
 Money was raised in order to conduct
the war effort by selling war bonds.
Americans were encouraged to spend
as much as they could for the war
effort, with the expectation that the
bonds could be redeemed after the
war had been concluded victoriously.
 The income tax, established by the
16th Amendment in 1913, was also
used to fund the war efforts.
 More women and minorities entered
into the labor force. With over 15
Million men and women serving
abroad as a part of the US Military
effort, women were asked to
volunteer to help run factories all
across America. The “Rosie the
Riveter” campaign of the World War
II period encouraged millions of
women to take on jobs slightly
outside the realm of traditional
gender roles.
 Women increasingly took jobs within the
workforce during World War II. With so
many men serving in the military, women
were relied upon to operate factories and
meet the demands of the War Production
Board.
 Women also served in the military during
World War II, mostly in non-combat roles.
The Women’s Air Corps (WAC) and The
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency
Service (WAVES) played crucial non-combat
roles in the US Military.
 Just as they had during World War I, when the
“Great Migration” caused many AfricanAmericans to relocate to major Northern cities,
black Americans worked in the defense
industries during World War II.
 The Double-V campaign of African Americans
was both a military and a social movement,
fighting for victories over fascism abroad and
over racism in the United States. Defeating
both the Axis Powers and “Jim Crow” was the
goal of African-Americans during World War II.
Japanese-Americans were rounded up,
robbed of their possessions and their
property, and forced into relocation
camps all across the desert West.
 Strong anti-Japanese sentiment,
especially after Pearl Harbor, was a cause
of this policy.
 Many Americans falsely accused
Japanese-Americans of disloyalty.
Japanese-Americans, in general,
supported American war goals. Some
Japanese Nisei even joined the US
Military and served in the army.
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Japanese Americans were relocated into
internment camps scattered across the
American West.
 Internment affected Japanese American
populations along the West Coast. The
Supreme Court upheld the government’s
right to restrict the liberties of JapaneseAmericans living on the West Coast of the
United States.
 In the 1980s, a public apology and
financial compensation was granted to
Japanese-Americans who had been
imprisoned through the war.
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 The United States government
maintained strict censorship of
reporting of the war.
 Public morale and ad campaigns kept
Americans focused on the war effort.
 The entertainment industry produced
movies, plays, and shows that
boosted morale and patriotic support
for the war effort as well as
portrayed the enemy in stereotypical
ways.
 The draft – created by the
Selective Service Act – was used to
provide personnel for the United
States Military during World War
II. Millions of Americans
volunteered for service in the
United States military following
Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, the
draft compelled millions more to
take up arms against the Axis
Powers.
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Hitler’s Final Solution and the Extermination of Minority Groups in Europe
The Holocaust was a genocide carried
out against Jewish people in Europe
during World War II. During the
Holocaust, over six million Jewish
people were systematically murdered by
Nazi Germany. Over seven million
others, including Polish people, Slavs,
Gypsies (Roma) and other
“undesirables”: homosexuals, the
mentally ill, and political dissenters,
were murdered by Nazi Germany.
 Hitler and the Germans called the
systematic murder of all Jewish people
in Germany “The Final Solution.”
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Genocide: the systematic and purposeful destruction of a
racial, political, religious, or cultural group. During the
Holocaust, a genocide was carried out against Jewish people
by the Nazis.
The Final Solution: Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany’s
decision to murder all Jewish people in Europe was “The Final
Solution.”
Over six million Jewish people were
systematically murdered by the Nazis, and
many of the nations which had been invaded
by Nazi Germany participated in the
genocide.
 Polish people were murdered.
 Slavic people, from Southeastern Europe and
Eastern Europe (Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia,
Macedonia, etc…) were murdered by the
Nazis.
 Homosexuals
 Mentally Ill or Mentally Disabled people
including newborns.
 Political Dissidents.
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After World War II, a series of war
crimes trials were held at Nuremberg in
Germany. During these trials, many of
the leaders of Nazi Germany were
convicted of war crimes.
 Although many of those put on trial
insisted they were “following orders”
they were nevertheless convicted.
Individual responsibility was
emphasized during the trial. Many of
the leaders of the Holocaust were
convicted of war crimes – crimes
against humanity – and sentenced to
death.
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 The Nuremberg Trials, which gave the
world insights into the atrocities of the
Holocaust and the vicious nature of AntiSemitism in Europe, led to an increased
demand for a Jewish homeland. By
1948, the nation of Israel was
established as a homeland for Jewish
people. The state of Israel in the Middle
East has been recognized and supported
by the United States since it’s foundation
in 1948.