World War Two Study-Guide
1. Identify four dictators and their countries.
Hitler – Germany, Mussolini – Italy, Tojo – Japan, Stalin – Soviet Union
2. List three Axis Powers.
Germany, Japan, Italy
3. List four Allied Powers.
Britain, Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), United States, China (also Australia, Canada, many others!)
4. For what kind of warfare is WWII best known? blitzkrieg
5. WWII began in Europe when ______________ attacked ______________.
Germany/Hitler, Poland
6. When did the U.S. join WWII? Why?
December 1941 because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor
7. Which group of Americans experienced the most discrimination during WWII? Japanese Americans
8. What were internment camps?
camps where Japanese Americans were forced to relocate because of popular fear and suspicion after Pearl
Harbor
9. Identify another American ethnic group that continued to experience discrimination in employment and the
military during WWII. African Americans
10. Who used their traditional language as a military code against the Japanese? Navajo code-talkers
11. Who was the symbol for American women who worked in the factories? Rosie the Riveter
12. What were two ways that Americans supported the war on the home front?
planting victory gardens, buying war bonds, conserving and rationing goods
13. In what battle was Hitler prevented from invading Britain? Battle of Britain
14. What was the turning point of the war in Eastern Europe? Stalingrad
15. Why was D-Day important?
The Allies got a foothold so that they could liberate (free) France and Western Europe from Hitler.
16. What was Hitler’s goal in the Battle of the Bulge? What was the result of the battle?
Hitler wanted to stop the Western Allies (Britain, U.S.) before they invaded Germany. The Germans’ losses
actually sped up Germany’s defeat.
17. List five islands that the Allies captured from Japan.
Tarawa, Guadalcanal, Guam, Iwo Jima, Okinawa
18. What was the turning point of the war in the Pacific (again Japan)? Midway
19. On which two Japanese cities did the U.S. drop atomic bombs? What resulted from dropping the bombs?
Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japan surrendered
20. What was the Holocaust? The Holocaust was the Nazis’ effort to eliminate groups of people whom they saw as
undesirable or inferior.
21. Identify at least three groups that the Nazis targeted during the Holocaust.
Jews, Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, Catholics, people with physical or mental disabilities
22. What is “anti-Semitism”? anti-Jewish prejudice or discrimination
23. What did “Aryan” mean (according to the Nazis)? the “master race”; blond hair, blue eyes