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Chapter 26
The Problems left from WWI
The Beginning of WWII
Germany
1) The ineffectiveness of the League of Nations
and the Treaty of Versailles
a) war reparations
b) loss of land
c) loss of identity
d) ownership of war guilt
e) economic chaos / bad inflation / Great Depression
Italy
a) shortchanged by the League on land after WWI
b) huge war debt, economic problems Great Depression
Japan
a) no natural resources
b) increased competition with European and American businesses. Great Depression
Germany
The Rise of Adolph Hitler
I. A Roman Catholic
A High School Dropout
An Academic Failure
II. Served in the German Army during WWI as a Corporal. Wounded. Saw Germany crushed and humiliated.
III. Trained in public speaking; organized the Nazi Party. In 1923, he attempted to overthrow the Weimar (post
war)Government. He was imprisoned and wrote
Mein Kampf
a) German's were the Master Race and must rule the world. The only Two pure races were found in Germany and England.
b) Democracy was a fraud,
the only good government was dictatorship.
c) Christianity is a fraud; perpetuated by the Jews.
IV. His goal was to make Germany a world power (again)creating a Third Reich.
V. He was determined to exterminate Jews, blaming them for Germany's defeat in WWI and for the post war problems.
(Scapegoat)
The Big Lie.
He equally hated Socialism and related Judaism toCommunism.
In 1933, he became Chancellor. Eventually the old Reichstag(Parliamentary Cabinet) was dissolved and a new Reichstag was
created giving Hitler unlimited power.
Hitler's Appeal-
Germany needed a national hero; he seized the moment by speaking of German greatness and by addressing the severe economic
problems of Germany - Inflation; War Reparations
* The Art of Conditioning
The World's Reaction
a) The United States -
Isolationism and The Great Depression.
b) The League of Nations -
1)saw Hitler publicly absolve Germany of war guilt
2) openly violate the Treaty of Versailles in 1935 by re-arming Germany from 100,000-600,000.
c) Appeasement - The European powers were so terrified of another war that they
1) allowed Hitler to send troops to the de-militarized
West Rhine Zone.
2) annex Austria(now part of Germany)
Anschluss
3) Munich Pact 1938 - Hitler successfully negotiated the acquisition of the German speaking Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
British Prime Minister Chamberlain returned to England boasting "This guarantees peace in our time!"
(Hitler invaded the rest of the country a few months later)
Non-Aggression Pact(1939
- signed secretly between Hitler and Stalin.
Germany and Russia would enter Poland from two sides and protect each others back door.
*Summer of 1939, Hitler demanded the Polish corridor and Prussia from Poland. (areas of German speaking people)
*September 1, 1939 - Hitler invades Poland
*France and England declare war on Germany
*Stalin attacks Poland
Italy
Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party (Black Shirts).
He restores order, Canceling all war debts.
He builds roads; new schools; and begins to re-arm.
Many young men now have military related jobs
He told the Italian people that he was going to bring back the glory of the Roman Empire.
Like Hitler, his early success led to more power
He forms the Pact Steel with Hitler and they together support General Franco in Spain (Fascist)
Italy needs natural resources;
Mussolini attacks Ethiopia, bombing innocent villages from the air.
Europe protested; but did nothing.
League of Nations is a bust.
Japan
Has no natural resources; needs to practice imperialism.
Japan attacks and invades Manchuria, China(the prize of Asia) and sets up the puppet Manchuko Government.
No nation responded (League of nations did nothing)
European nations in the region did nothing(focused on Hitler)
Only one nation in Japan's way - USA
Japan's aim was to control the whole Asian Pacific region
America immediately responded with an embargo on gas and scrap metal.
FDR told Japan that if they left Indochina, he would see that they still would have access to its raw materials.
United States and Neutrality
US Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts between 1935-1937
a) US could not trade arms to any nation at war.
b) no American could travel on ships of warring nations
c) no loans to nations at war
d) "cash and carry" policy for customers
FDR did not support this legislation
-Eventually Neutrality Act 1939 opened up trade to help Democracy
Destroyers for Bases - with the British gave us bases in Newfoundland and British Guyana (also forced us to build new
ships.....jobs)
Lend Lease 1941 - we would lend or lease to any country whose survival was in best interest of the US.
*****
The Invasion of France
"Blitzkreig" - work quickly against sluggish foes.
Denmark and Norway easily fell
May 1940 - German troops roll into the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
France had expected the invasion to come from the south.
Maginot Line - heavy fortifications
between southern France and Germany.
A Joke!
Germans go around it and attack from the north.
June 14 - Nazis occupied Paris
England was alone to battle the Nazis
-The British suffered heavy losses
Dunkirk(1940)- 335,000 British troops were trapped by two German Divisions and had their backs to the Sea.
June 4, 1940 - Hitler did not move in for the kill. That night 600 civilian ships, 200 military ships along with the
RAF evacuated the men
Battle of the Britain-
Hitler sent hundreds of bombers to rain devastation and death on British cities during the summer and fall of 1940
Hitler wanted to defeat the British
before the US could re-arm.
Operation "Sea Lion" the invasion of Great Britain.
June 22, 1941- Hitler attacks the Soviet Union, opening a 1800 mile Russian Front
Dec 7, 1941,- The Japanese launch an attack on our Pacific Naval Operations center at Pearl Harbor
The US declares war on Japan
Germany and Italy declare war on US
Allied Advantages
1) cooperation and coordination
2) superior industry(American) the Arsenal for Democracy
3) superior moral position
Strategy
1) Conquer Germany first
(Hitler was the immediate threat to world peace)
2) Fight an Active Defense v Japan in the Pacific.
Protect Hawaii and Australia.
European Theater
No. Africa - controlled by German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and the famous Afrika Corp(tank/infantry).
Invasion of Italy (1943) - Mussolini is forced out of power. Germans poured into the country. Rome was finally taken
in June 1944.
Important Wartime Conferences
1. Teheran (1943)
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin
a) agreed on a second front in Europe
b) proposed the partition of Germany
c) Russia agreed to enter the war in the Pacific after Germany was defeated
**The Invasion of Normandy- Opening a second Front - D-Day, June 6, 1944,
"Operation Overlord"
Italy - June 1944
Mussolini jailed, escapes, killed
The full scale invasion of the European Continent - 176,000 men
- 20,000 vehicles
- tons of war materials and supplies
Nazis knew it was coming
Problems - Where? When?
Rommel fortified Atlantic Wall
Allies staged an fake invasion force around Patton (Kent and Sussex)
-fake radio messages, simulated troop movements, decoded messages
air reconnaissance over Calais
-Weather was bad, rough English Channel
-Supreme Allied Commander
General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave the
"Go ahead with the Invasion" 6/6/44
US and RAF Air Force grounded the German Luftwaffe
Troop Carriers landed men and vehicles.
Heavy initial losses, men drowning and machine gun fire.
Army- Rangers took out German pill boxes at heavy costs.
July 25, General George S. Patton Jr.
breaks through German line of defense and begins sweeping across France and continues on into Germany.
Battle of the Bulge, December 1944.
Last and desperate offensive attempt of German Army.
Focus Antwerp, Belgium
Important Wartime Conference
Yalta - 1945
Most important of all conferences
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin
Roosevelt and Churchill were handicapped because of the inferior military position result Battle of the Bulge. Russia
had made tremendous gains.
1) Russia would enter in the Pacific
2) Stalin would allow free elections in the Eastern European Countries that were occupied by Soviet troops
3) Russia would gain lost territory
4) A charter for a United Nations
The Pacific Theater
Japanese aggression openly opposed by The US.
1940- US cuts off trade with Japan and freezes Japanese assets in America
1941- Japan moves into Indochina for coal and rice
December 7, 1941 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
(also Guam, Wake, Midway and the Philippines)
We knew it was coming (broken codes),
but we did not know when and where
Purpose of the attack- to administer a knockout blow to America and negotiate a quick peace.
Result - 5 US Battleships were sunk or damaged. 18 ships were destroyed 3000 servicemen were dead or missing. The American
Navy was wiped out in the Pacific. US Government withheld information on the extent of the damage for fear of panic.
Luckily our Carriers were at sea and our Fuel Supply was untouched.
*Billy Mitchell*
America rises to the occasion
*Total Mobilization For War*
The Arsenal for Democracy
We are the greatest industrial power on the earth.
America's Wartime Production
equals the Axis by 1942
doubles the Axis by 1944
Strategy - Europe first
Active Defense in the Pacific
Japanese were able to hold domination of the Pacific with small amounts of men - strategic areas
fortified by concrete bunkers
Island Hopping - 3 prong attack
1. Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong would pin down Japan's 2 million man army in China. This was not successful because
they hated each other.
2. Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific US General Douglas MacArthur Journey up through New Guinea, the Philippines,
on to Okinawa
3. US Naval Commander -
Admiral Chester A. Nimitz
Travel due west from Pearl, retaking
Midway, Wake, Iwo Jima, Okinawa
*Important events and Battles
1. General James B. Doolittle
- Raid on Tokyo, April 18, 1942
2. Battle of Coral Sea - May 7, 1942
Carrier battle that turned the Japanese away from Port Morseby and eventually Australia
3. Battle of Midway June 4, 1942.
US sank 4 Japanese carriers and lost only 1. Turning point of the war in the Pacific.
4. Guadacanal, August 7, 1942
20,000 US Marines landed on the island, were cut off from supplies and reinforcements, fought hand to hand combat, winning
the island by Feb, 1943 !!!!
5. Battle of Leyte Gulf - Oct 1944
MacArthur's return to the Philippines
6. Iwo Jima - Feb 1945 - the hoisting of the flag up Mt. Suribachi 4000 +
7. Okinawa- June 1945,
finally establishing air strip for B-25's for the assault on Japan. 45,000 US men were killed or wounded.
***
Japanese Internment
-Blot on our country and on Democracy
-112,000 west coast Japanese Americans were relocated inland because of suspicion of espionage.
-Why? What happened to German Americans and Italian Americans during WWII? Why were they not considered a threat to
National Security?
Daniel Kuzuhara - Illinois Professor
Family forced to sell everything and move into a camp
Survived Internment while watching the rest of his family die in the camp. (bad medical, disease)
Tells of his brother's letters.
He was a member of the 442 Division, made up of Japanese Americans fighting in the European Theater.
They constantly proved their loyalty to America and considered it their native land.
442 was the most decorated outfit during WWII - If wounded they were known to go AWOL and return to the front.
Miaggi - Karate Kid was a member of the 442.
Fact - No Japanese American was ever charged with spying or sabotage
***
The Holocaust - The organized attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe. In the process, six million Jews were murdered.
Reasons: Hate, Intolerance.
Method : Mind Control, Propaganda
The Nuremberg Trials
The world looked for the correct answer on how to treat the Nazis and what to do about the crimes and atrocities committed
by the Germans.
Should the Nazis be
a) released - no crimes
b) punished - question of fairness
c) go on trial - give them what they denied to others
Why all the questions?....WE WON !
The Problem:
Germany was a sovereign state, exercising its own authority and prerogatives.
The Ghastly Treatment of Jews was legal under German Law. Germany's leaders acted within the law and their subordinates
obeyed them.
ex post facto laws - where do they apply ?
The Classification of War Crimes
1) Crimes against peace - the preparation, planning of war and aggression is in violation of international agreements.
2) War Crimes - violations of international agreements including the ill-treatment of civilians population and prisoners
of war.
3) Crimes against Humanity - are described as inhumane acts against civilian population before or during the war because
of political views; race; religion. They are classified as crimes whether or not they are in violation of domestic law of
the country where committed.
Trial was led by Military Tribunal
24 top Nazis were indicted on the crimes above.
Question - To what degree are the German people responsible for actions taken during the Holocaust
***
The United Nations
Objectives: 1) Peace
2) Specialized Agencies
General Assembly - Town Meeting place of the world
- each nation has one vote
- 2/3 majority vote required on issues
- all nations have the right to speak
Sessions -usually 3 months begin Sept
Committees discuss problems - dialogue
Secretariat - records, organizer
Secretary General -
Chief Administrator. Nominated by the Security Council and appointed by the General Assembly. He listens and helps settle
disputes. Mediates.
Security Council - the main power of the UN
5 permanent members
US, UK, Russia, China, France
(all having veto power)
10 elected members - 2 yr. rotation
*power to give orders to any member nation
*can investigate any problem and use the international court
*can approve new applicants
*must agree on the Sec General
International Court
Hague, Netherlands
Cases are brought to court. Arbitration; all decisions final
Economic and Social Council- deals with human rights and conditions.
Trusteeship Council - Larger country acts as trustee for smaller one
Disarmament - under the Security Council. Disarm and begin talks
Specialized Areas
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