Chapter 22 World War II (1939-1945)
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During the 1930s, Germany, Japan, and Italy prepared for war.
Hitler and Mussolini were firmly in control of their nations.
The emperor ruled Japan, but military leaders made most of the decisions.
In each nation, these dictators wanted to build great empires. They were ready to use
their armies and navies to do this.
 The Japanese Path to War
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Japan faced serious economic problems in the early 1930s. Like other industrial nations,
it suffered from the Great Depression. But Japan had its own special problems.
Japan, a small island nation, it lacked iron ore, oil, rubber, and other resources. It also
needed markets beyond Japan for the goods it produced.
The Japanese government decided to expand into Asia to get control of resources and to
sell its goods.
In 1931, Japanese troops took control of Manchuria, a region in northeastern China.
The Japanese claimed that Chinese troops had attacked their railroad in that region. The
Japanese had actually staged the attack themselves. They dressed up in Chinese army
uniforms and raided their own railroads.
Chiang Kai-shek, the head of China’s government, tried to limit the spread of Japanese
power in China. He agreed to let Japan govern parts of northern China.
However, by 1937, China and Japan were fighting a full-scale war.
In 1940, Japan moved farther south to the French colony of Indochina.
The United States warned the Japanese that it would stop selling them oil and scrap iron
if they did not retreat. Japan did not retreat.
After much debate, Japan decided to launch a surpriese attack on U.S. and European
colonies in Southeast Asia.
 Italy on the March
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The League of Nations had objected to each of Japan’s invasions and seizures of
territory. However, it had no power to force Japan to give up territory.
This also was true when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935.
Benito Mussolini had long dreamed of creating a new Roman Empire in the
Mediterranean, and, in October 1935, Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia.
Ethiopia had resisted European domination longer than any other African nation. But in
1936, the nation fell to Italy. Mussolini had finally conquered the kingdom that defeated
Italy in 1898.
Angered by French and British opposition to his invasion, Mussolini welcomed Hitler’s
support. He began to draw closer to the German dictator.
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In late 1936, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a defense pact, or agreement. This set up
the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. These three nations became known as the Axis Powers.
 The German Path to War
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World War II in Europe had its beginnings in the ideas of Adolf Hitler.
Hitler believed that Germans belonged to a so-called Aryan race that was superior to all
other races and nationalities. Consequently, Hitler believed that Germany was capable of
building a great civilization. To be a great power, however, Germany needed more land
to support a larger population.
Already in the 1920s, Hitler had indicated that a Nazi regime would find this land to the
east—in the Soviet Union.
Germany therefore must prepare for war with the Soviet Union. Once the Soviet Union
had been conquered, according to Hitler, its land would be resettled by German peasants.
The Slavic people could be used as slave labor to build the Third Reich, an Aryan racial
state that Hitler thought would dominate Europe for a thousand years.
 The First Steps: Germany
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In Germany, Adolf Hitler decided to ignore the Treaty of Versailles and defy the League
of Nations.
By the terms of the treaty, Germany’s air force was abolished and its army reduced in
size. In 1935, Hitler began to create an air force and expand the army.
The League of Nations did nothing to stop him.
Hitler was convinced that the Western states had no intention of using force to maintain
the Treaty of Versailles. Hence, on March 7, 1936, he sent German troops into the
Rhineland.
The Rhineland was part of Germany, but according to the Treaty of Versailles, it was a
demilitarized area. That is, Germany was not permitted to have weapons or fortifications
there.
France and Great Britain protested Hitler’s re-arming of the Rhineland.
France would have fought to force Germany to remove its soldiers but needed Great
Britain’s help. The British, however, would not fight.
This was the beginning of Britain’s policy of appeasement. Appeasement is giving in to
the demands of a hostile person or group in order to keep peace.
Hitler’s next goal was Anschluss, or union of Austria with Germany. Austria was a
nation that Hitler wanted to control, in part because he had been born there.
By 1938, the Nazis had become an important political party in Austria.
Hitler warned the chancellor of Austria to appoint Nazis to government positions of
power or Germany would invade Austria.
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The new government promptly invited German troops to enter Austria and “help” in
maintaining law and order.
On March 13, 1938, Hitler annexed Austria to Germany.
Next on Hitler’s list was Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was created by the Treaty of
Versailles. It had a number of ethnic groups within its borders. One large group was
German.
Many Germans lived in a region called the Sudetenland. In 1938, Hitler demanded the
return of the Sudetenland to Germany.
In 1938, British and French officials met with Hitler in Munich.
At the Munich Conference, these officials again gave into Hitler. They agree that Hitler
could take control of the Sudetenland.
In return, Hitler promised that Germany would not take control of additional land regions
of Czechoslovakia.
The Czechs, abandoned by their Western allies, stood by helplessly.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, return to England from Munich, believing
and stating that the settlement had achieved “peace in our time.”
Hitler had promised Chamberlain that he would make no more demands. Like many
others, Chamberlain believed Hitler’s promises.
The following spring, Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Hitler’s aggression had made it clear that his promises were worthless. When Hitler
began to demand the Polish port of Danzig, Great Britain saw the danger and offered to
protect Poland in the event of war.
At the same time, both France and Britain realized that only the Soviet Union was
powerful enough to help contain Nazi aggression. They began political and military
negotiations with Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator.
Hitler feared that the West and the Soviet Union might make an alliance. Such an
alliance could mean a two-front war for Germany.
To prevent this possibility, Hitler made his own agreement with Joseph Stalin.
On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact. In it, the two nations promised not to attack each other. To get the
nonaggression pact, Hitler offered Stalin control of eastern Poland and the Baltic states.
Because Hitler expected to fight the Soviet Union anyways, it did not matter to him what
he promised—he was accustomed to breaking promises.
The treaty gave Hitler the freedom to attack Poland. On September 1, 1939 German
forces invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war of Germany.
Section 2 Fighting the War
 Europe at War
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Hitler stunned Europe with the speed and efficiency of the German attack on Poland.
His blitzkrieg, or “lighting war,” used armored columns, called panzer divisions,
supported by airplanes. Each panzer division was a strike force of about three hundred
tanks with accompanying forces and supplies.
The forces of the blitzkrieg broke quickly through Polish lines and encircled the
bewildered Polish troops.
Regular German infantry units then moved in to hold the newly conquered territory.
Within four weeks, Poland had surrendered. On September 28, 1939, Germany and the
Soviet Union divided Poland. Germany got western Poland, while the Soviet Union got
eastern Poland.
On April 9, 1940, Hitler once again used his blitzkrieg attack to defeat Denmark and
Norway.
One month later, on May 10, 1940, Germany launched an attack on the Netherlands,
Belgium, and France.
The main assault was through Luxemburg and the Ardennes Forest. German panzer
divisions broke through weak French defensive positions there and raced across northern
France.
French and British forces were taken by surprise when the Germans went around, instead
of across, the Maginot Line (a series of concrete and steel fortifications armed with heavy
artillery along France’s border with Germany).
The German’s action split the Allied armies, trapping French troops and the entire British
army on the beaches of Dunkirk.
Only by the heroic efforts of the Royal Navy and civilians in private boats did the British
manage to evacuate 338,000 Allied (mostly British) troops.
The French signed an armistice on June 22. German armies occupied about three-fifths
of France.
An authoritarian regime under German control was set up over the remainder of the
country.
Germany was now in control of western and central Europe, but Britain had still not been
defeated.
After Dunkirk, the British appealed to the United States for help.
The United States decided not to join the fighting.
Isolationists in the United States believed that the country should stay out of European
problems. They defended their argument by pointing out the number of deaths and
money spent during World War I.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced the German aggressors, but the United States
followed their strict policy of isolationism.
Great Britain was now alone in the fight against Germany.
In 1940, the British had an air force to help protect the country.
Hitler decided he must defeat the air force in order to conquer England. He order a
massive air war against Britain. This came to be known as the Battle of Britain.
German planes bombed air fields, naval bases, shipyards, and war factories. Hitler also
directed his air force to bomb British cities.
The British sent their fighter planes against the German bombers. Realizing that he could
not destroy the British air force, Hitler decided against invading Britain in 1940.
 Attack on the Soviet Union
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Although he had no desire for a two-front war, Hitler became convinced that Britain was
remaining in the war only because it expected Soviet support.
If the Soviet Union was smashed, Britain’s last hope would be eliminated. Moreover,
Hitler had convinced himself that the Soviet Union had a pitiful army and could be
defeated quickly.
Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union was scheduled for the spring of 1941, but the attack
was delayed because of problems in the Balkans.
Hitler had already gained the political cooperation of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania.
Hitler therefore seized both Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941.
Reassured, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. He believed that the
Russians could still be decisively defeated before the brutal winter weather set in.
At first the German army made great progress in its push east. However, the severe
Russian winter again stopped an invading army, as it had Napoleon’s army in 1812.
 Japan at War
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Japan was expanding its control in Asia in 1940. It wanted the European colonies and the
Philippines, which the United States govern.
To gain this new territory, Japan sough to destroy U.S. naval power in the Pacific and
seize the colonies.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes bombed the U.S. naval at Pearl Harbor.
The attack of Pearl Harbor unified American opinion about becoming involved in the
war; the United States declared war on Japan.
Germany then declared war on the United States. Italy, the third Axis power, also
declared war on the U.S.
The nations fighting the Axis powers called themselves the Grand Alliance, or the Allies.
The main Allies included the United States, Great Britain, Free France (officials and
officers who had escaped France), China, and the Soviet Union.
 The Allies Advance
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The Allies agreed to defeat Hitler first and then Japan.
The Allies invaded North Africa in November of 1942. They forced the German and
Italian troops there to surrender in May 1943.
The Allies then crossed the Mediterranean and carried the war to Italy. After taking
Sicily, Allied troops began an invasion of mainland Italy in September.
Hitler sent German troops to save Mussolini and keep the Allies from taking Italy.
Fierce fighting continued until May 1945 when Italy surrendered. By then, Italian
resistance fighters had shot and killed Mussolini.
On June 6, 1944, Allied armies crossed the English Channel from Britain to land on the
beaches of France. This is known as the D-Day invasion.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded the Allied troops that came ashore.
The Allies fought their way past underwater mines, barbed wire, and horrible machinery
gun fire.
Within three months, the Allies had landed two million men and a half million vehicles.
Allied forces then pushed inland, broke through German defensive lines, and pushed the
Germans steadily eastward.
By April 1945, the remaining German armies were being squeezed between the Allied
armies in the west and the Soviets in the east.
The Soviets had started moving across Eastern Europe in 1943, through Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, and Poland. Soviet troops, along a southern front, swept through Hungary,
Romania, and Bulgaria. Soviets pushed German out and occupied the areas themselves.
By January 1945, Adolf Hitler had moved into a bunker 55 feet under the city of Berlin to
direct the final stages of the war.
In his final political statement, Hitler, consistent to the end in his anti-Semitism, blamed
the Jews for the war.
Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945.
On May 7, 1945, German commanders surrendered. The war in Europe was finally over.
Section 3 War in the Pacific
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By early 1942, the Japanese had captured European colonies in Southeast Asia and the
islands in the Western Pacific.
Although the Allies decided to defeat Hitler first, they did not give up fighting in the
Pacific. They planned a two-branched strategy to fight the Japanese.
One branch was made up of land forces under the command of General Douglas
MacArthur. His orders were to attack the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and then the
Philippines.
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By October 1944, land forces had seized control of the Solomon Islands and New
Guinea. By March 1945, they had captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
The Second Branch consisted of naval forces led by Admiral Chester A. Nimitz. They
were to fight their way through the Central Pacific to the Japanese home island.
By mid-1942 Allied naval forces won major victories in the Pacific, which stopped the
Japanese advance.
The Allies then began pushing the Japanese back. For the next two years, they fought
their way north through the Central Pacific.
By April 1945, they were only 800 miles from Tokyo, Japan’s capital.
Allied planes were bombing Japanese cities daily. The war in Europe was over. Japan’s
civilian leaders and Emperor Hirohito were willing to end the war. However, Japan’s
military leaders refused to surrender.
 The Atomic Bomb
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Scientist at the beginning of the 20th Century discovered that atoms contained an
enormous amount of energy.
The discovery gave rise to the idea that releasing this energy by splitting the atom might
create a devastating weapon.
The idea was not taken seriously until World War II. Then, the fear that the Germans
might make an atomic bomb convinced the U.S. government to try to develop one first.
In 1941, the United States set in motion the Manhattan Project.
 Dropping the Atomic Bomb
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President Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945. Vice-President Harry
Truman was immediately sworn in as president. It was then that Truman learned about
the Atomic Bomb.
President Roosevelt had established a top secret project in 1941 to develop an atomic
bomb. It was called the Manhattan Project.
Top scientists and more than 600,000 people worked to develop the atomic bomb.
Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer directed construction of the bomb in Los Alamos, New
Mexico. The damage from such a bomb would be horrendous.
President Truman asked for advice from his military advisors. They estimated that an
invasion of the Japanese home islands would be costly. It would take months, and
hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers and Japanese civilians would be killed.
During the summer of 1945, only two atomic bombs were available, and no one knew
how effective they would be.
The Allies again offered Japan a chance to surrender. Its military leaders again refused.
Truman decided to use the bombs.
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On August 6, 1945, a U.S. plane, the Enola Gay, dropped an Atomic bomb on the city of
Hiroshima. Between 80,000 and 120,000 people were killed. Thousands more died from
burns and radiation poisoning.
The Japanese government still did not surrender.
A second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. Another 35,000 to
75,000 Japanese died.
Japan finally surrendered on August 14, 1945.
World War II was finally over. Seventeen million had died in battle. Perhaps twenty
million civilians had perished as well. Some estimates place total losses at fifty million.
Section 4 The Holocaust and War Crimes
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Adolf Hitler’s hatred towards Jews began many years before World War II.
By 1942, Hitler had decided on a “final solution” for ridding Germany and Europe of
Jewish people. He would kill them all.
“Final Solution” => genocide (physical extermination) of the Jewish people.
The result was the Holocaust, the killing of millions of Jews. The Holocaust also
included Slavs, Gypsies, and those with mental illness or mental disabilities—anyone
Hitler considered undesirable.
Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SS’s (Schutzstaffeln-“Guard Squadrons”) Security
Service, was given the task of administering the Final Solution.
Heydrich created special strike forces, called Einsatzgruppen, to carry out Nazi plans.
After the defeat of Poland, he ordered these forces to round up all Polish Jews and put
them in ghettos set up in a number of Polish cities.
Conditions in the ghettos were horrible. Families were crowded together in unsanitary
housing.
The Nazis attempted to starve residents by allowing only minimal amounts of food.
Despite suffering, residents tried to carry on and some ghettos organized resistance
against the Nazis.
In June 1941, the Einsatzgruppen were given the new job of acting as mobile killing
units.
These SS death squads followed the regular army’s advanced into the Soviet Union.
Their job was to round up Jews in their villages, execute them, and bury them in mass
graves. The graves were often giant pits dug by the victims themselves before they were
shot.
Probably one million Jews were killed by the Einsatzgruppen. However, it was
considered too slow by Nazi standards. They decided to kill the European Jewish
population in specially built death camps.
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Beginning in 1942, Jews from countries occupied by Germany (or sympathetic to
Germany) were rounded up, packed like cattle into freight trains, and shipped to Poland.
Six extermination centers were built in Poland for this purpose. The largest was
Auschwitz.
About 30 percent of the arrivals at Auschwitz were sent to a labor camp, where many
were starved or worked to death.
The remaining went to the gas chambers. Some inmates were subjected to cruel and
painful “medical” experiments.
By the spring of 1942, the death camps were in full operation.
First priority was given to the elimination of the ghettos in Poland. By the summer of
1942, however, Jews were also being shipped from France, Belgium, and Holland.
Even as the Allies were winning the war in 1944, Jews were being shipped from Greece
and Hungary.
Despite desperate military needs, even late in the war when Germany faced utter defeat,
the Final Solution had priority in using railroads to ship Jews to death camps.
Between 9 million and 12 million people died in the Holocaust. About 6 million were
Jews. More than half came from just four countries: Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia,
and Poland.
As the Allies pushed into Germany and Poland, they found the concentration camps.
Half-dead, human skeletons greeted them through barbed wired fences. Their German
guards had fled.
The Allies were aware of the concentration camps and death camps but chose to
concentrate on ending the war. Not until after the war did they learned the full extend of
the horror and inhumanity of the Holocaust.
After the war, the Allies held war crime trials in Nuremberg, Germany. They tried
German and Austrian leaders for the atrocities of the Third Reich, as Germany was
known.
Japanese and Italian wartime leaders also were tried for war crimes.
The message was clear. Government officials and military officers were responsible for
their actions. They were not above international law.