World War II
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'''World War II''', or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict, or rather a series of interconnected conflicts, that left 60 million people dead, the majority civilian. It is also the only conflict in history in which [[nuclear war|nuclear weapons]] were used. | '''World War II''', or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict, or rather a series of interconnected conflicts, that left 60 million people dead, the majority civilian. It is also the only conflict in history in which [[nuclear war|nuclear weapons]] were used. | ||
Revision as of 17:12, 16 May 2010
| What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! |
| Don't believe us? |
World War II, or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict, or rather a series of interconnected conflicts, that left 60 million people dead, the majority civilian. It is also the only conflict in history in which nuclear weapons were used.
The war is conventionally dated as lasting from 1939 to 1945, although earlier conflicts in the late 1930s, such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Spanish Civil War, are sometimes regarded as the outbreak of what would become WWII.
Ultimately, the war resulted in the USSR and the USA becoming superpowers, the British Empire being dismantled, and Germany and Japan making cars. It also ended fascism as a "good idea," and brought the topic of genocide to people across the world.
Contents |
Beginning of the War
While the other major players were riveted by events in Europe, World War II started when Japan attacked China in 1937. China was in the midst of a civil war, and was almost unable to fight back. However, some atrocities did get the attention of the US and others, including the "Rape of Nanjing," one of the most atrocious examples of wanton killing, raping, and looting ever known.
Unless it started in 1935 when Italy invaded Ethiopia and proved the League of Nations to be totally useless at its mandate of keeping the peace. Or it may have started in Spain during that country's civil war, when the German air force gave the world a hint about what the next war would look like at a town called Guernica.
For the West, the war began in September of 1939, when German troops entered Poland. Great Britain and France had both drawn a line in Poland, saying that any aggression against Poland would lead to war between themselves and Germany. Germany perhaps believed that the Allies were bluffing after they had allowed them to take Czechoslovakia and most of Central Europe without firing a shot. The Soviet Union also got in on the action attacking Poland from the east and also waged a disastrous invasion of Finland.
After sitting and staring at each other for several months (a period known as the "phony war" or "sitzkrieg" - get it?), Germany invaded France by way of Belgium in 1940. This was the exact same route taken by Germany in the previous Great War; however, France had prepared again for a direct confrontation across the French border (they believed that the Ardennes forest was too thick for tanks to go through). Unable to regroup against the German blitzkrieg, the Allied British and French forces were forced to retreat, and were eventually rescued at Dunkirk.
In September 1940, Germany, Japan, and Italy entered into a military alliance known as the Axis through the Tripartite Pact. Italy had already picked on countries its own size like Ethopia and Albania, and wanted to be part of something bigger. Germany was happy to have Italy play the role of military occupier of southern Europe so they could turn their attention elsewhere. Nobody is quite sure why Japan entered the alliance, being on the other side of the world, but Hitler considered the Japanese "honarary Aryans" which may have something to do with it.
After consolidating their hold on Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Hitler's Germany turned east. (With their alliance with both Franco's Spain and Mussolini's Italy, he did not need to worry about Southern Europe.) In the biggest blunder of his entire reign, Hitler invaded Russia in June 1941. While initially very successful, like everyone else who ever invaded Russia his army soon became bogged down by the weather and the vast expanses.
Clueless Americans shall not be forgiven if they persist in thinking that the war began in late 1941, with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor
While Hitler was expanding in Europe, Japan was reaching the limit of its ability in the East. Running low on raw materials, due to an American embargo, the Japanese decided to risk open war with the US. This took the form of a surprise attack on the American base in Hawaii.
However, the American production abilities vastly exceeded what anyone considered possible. Between conscription and wartime production, the entire nation was mobilized. After suffering some initial setbacks, the US soon had the Japanese on the run. At the same time, American assistance in Europe and Northern Africa, along with the second front to the east, caused the Germans to start running out of troops and material.
By declaring war on America in concert with Japan (Dec. 11), Hitler expected Japan to declare war on the USSR and open a second front in Siberia that would draw Soviet resources away from Hitler's eastern front. It was not to be. Japan and the USSR did not become belligerents until the last few days of the Pacific war.
Turning the tide against the Axis
The turning point (according to Americans, Great Britons and Canadians) came when the US, Great Britain, and Canada made an amphibious landing on the northern French coast in Normandy. From there, the Allied forces gripped Germany in a vise, between the British, Canadian, and US forces on one side and the Soviet forces on the other.
In reality the real turning point was the battle of Stalingrad 1942, which was the first time the mighty German attack was successfully halted. From that moment the German Army was slowly forced into retreat. The Soviet Union engaged in a fierce (and fierce is an understatement) battle with the Germans, depleting their resources and manpower whilst suffering horrendous casualties.
It is thusly quipped that to defeat Hitler's Germany, Britain provided the time, the United States the money, and Russia the men.
Later, Italy was also taken by the Allies, ending in the execution of Mussolini.
When it became obvious that Berlin would fall, rather than face his foes, Hitler committed suicide in a secure bunker. This ended resistance in Europe.
Genocide
The Allied forces discovered that the Germans had been engaging in genocide against the Jews of Europe. The discovery of the death camps was so disturbing that the attempt was labelled the Holocaust, meaning a great conflagration. Today, Nazi Germany is most associated with this attempt. To provide a safe haven for the remainder of Europe's Jews, the state of Israel was established.
Japanese war crimes
The Japanese also engaged in horrific activities. Historian R.J. Rummel estimates that the Japanese army murdered between 3-10 million people, with 4.2 million of those being Chinese. Hundreds of thousands were murdered in Nanking and Manilla, and many more suffered horrific medical experiments at the hands of Unit 731 and others. Oddly enough, the Japanese war crimes have been largely ignored by the modern Japanese government[citation needed], who still officially maintain they never happened.[1][2]
War with Japan
While the war was raging in Europe, the Allies were also fighting the Japanese. The Japanese soldiers showed a determination beyond anything the Allies had expected, preferring to die than to surrender. Moreover, the Japanese had tortured soldiers that had surrendered to them. The Americans, in an attempt to "soften up" the Japanese, had begun fire-bombing the (mostly wooden) cities of Japan, destroying 90% of Tokyo and most of the other major cities. However, from the ground, it looked like a long, deadly slog from island to island to finally win the war.
The turning point in the Pacific War was the Battle of Midway in June 1942, when four Japanese fleet aircraft carriers were sunk at a cost of one American carrier which had already been sunk, raised, and repaired at Pearl Harbor. After Midway, Japan ceased conquering new land for its empire and shifted to a defensive mode. The Battle of the Philippine Sea, also called the "Marianas Turkey Shoot", destroyed the bulk of their remaining aircraft, and more importantly, their experienced pilots. Finally Japan gambled what was left of their entire navy in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in world history, and likely the largest one there ever will be. After their defeat, Japan was reduced to throwing suicide pilots, essentially manned missiles, into picket destroyers while the American juggernaut advanced step by step closer to their home islands.
While looking for other options, the Manhattan Project succeeded in creating a usable nuclear weapon. Rather than sending troops in, President Truman instead consented to dropping a gun-type uranium fission nuclear weapon (named "Little Boy") on the industrial city of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, after warning the Japanese that refusing to surrender would have terrible consequences. When Japan took too long in deliberating, Truman ordered the drop of a second nuclear weapon, an implosion-type plutonium fission bomb named "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. The Japanese immediately capitulated, only asking to be allowed to keep the emperor as a figurehead. This made World War II the world's first (and so far, only) nuclear war.
Aftermath
With most of Europe and Asia completely destroyed, everyone looked to the United States and the Soviet Union for leadership in the post-war world. Initial attempts were made to work together; however, mutual distrust and Soviet aggression led to a quick breakdown of this cooperation. While the US gave and lent vast sums of money to Western Europe and parts of Asia, thus rebuilding those areas, the Soviets demanded great reparations from the areas that came under their control. In the end, the two systems were so incompatible that the Cold War resulted. Both Germany and Korea were divided along the lines drawn by the occupying US and Soviet forces, and the world settled into a long era of deep hostility and mistrust.
