THE EMPIRES

WW II
GERMANY - HITLER
MEIN KAMPF (1927)

STRONG CENTRAL GOVT.

EXTREME NATIONALISM

MASTER ARYAN RACE

1930’S MARCHES ON EASTERN &

WESTERN FRONT OF EUROPE

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN

WORKERS PARTY (NAZI)
Italy’s Mussolini

Strong central govt.

Limit private business/ farms

People loved him---> Efficient!

Appeals to Europe’s WWI

vets, homeless, jobless.

Totalitarian
 Japan- Hirohito

Strong central govt.

Militaristic

1931-invades Manchuria, China

Brutality

Honor to die for country

Attrition ---> Body count

 Soviet Union: Stalin
Strong central govt.

Communism in Revolution

“Man of Steel”

Secret police force- “chaka”

No private business/farms

3rd largest industrial power in the

World ---> Production

27+ million deaths in efforts to take

total control---> Russians

U.S. allie in WWII

Hitler on the March
*See graphic organizer timeline notes on Hitler’s March

With Germany’s depression on the mend, Hitler set his

sights on new Lebensraum (living space) for his
emerging German Third Reich

Hitler marched into Czechoslovakia, claiming that the

government there had done cruel things to some of the
3 million German speaking people there.

Newspaper headlines spilled propaganda and lies about

horrible crimes against the Sudeten Germans. The
furious German public backed Hitler in invading
Czechoslovakia.
The Munich Pact

• Hitler met with the two leaders in

Munich where he promised that
the Sudetenland would be his
“last territorial demand”.

• They signed the Munich Pact,

turning the Sudetenland over to
Germany.

• Chamberlain returned to England.

He waived a copy of the
agreement in his hand and
proclaimed, “My friends, there
has come back from Germany
peace with honor. I believe it is Chamberlain & Hitler After Signing the Pact
The Munich Pact

• Hitler met with the two leaders in

Munich where he promised that
the Sudetenland would be his
“last territorial demand”.

• They signed the Munich Pact,

turning the Sudetenland over to
Germany.

• Chamberlain returned to England.

He waived a copy of the
agreement in his hand and
proclaimed, “My friends, there
has come back from Germany
peace with honor. I believe it is Chamberlain & Hitler After Signing the Pact
Breaking the Pact
• Hitler was not done as he had promised in the
Munich Pact. He turned his eyes on Poland
next.

• In 1939, Hitler charged that Germans in

Poland were being mistreated.

• This was an incredible threat. Britain and

France had already promised Poland
assistance and the Soviet Union was a
neighbor to Poland and was not likely to let it
fall into German hands…
TWO FRONT WAR!
“Hitler Baby”
Hitler Hits the U.S. Hard

• German Wolf Packs attacked U.S. merchant ships

• FDR gave U.S. Navy orders to shoot at German U-boat

Wolf Packs to protect shipments

• Convoys: groups of guarded ships

• Sonar: uses sound to detect submarines and ships

• Ship building in U.S: 1939-1940 we built 102 ships, early

in 1943 we produced 140 Liberty Ships a month (San
Diego)
• Prediction: What kind of trouble can this
involvement get us into? Consider merchant ships
and submarine warfare/treaties of assistance in U.S. Lend-Lease Program
WWI in your answer.
Germany’s
Strategies
• Blitzkrieg:
“lightening war”. Take enemy
by surprise, then crush them
quickly

• Take France, then Britain, &

Soviet Union. Gain a
stronghold in North Africa for
natural resource gain...
all resources: people, art,
natural (oil, coal), land

• Winston Churchill took over Air bombing & paratroopers open

the ground for tank and troop attacks
Fall of France

• Britain and France

declared war on Germany
Sept 3, 1939

• April, 1940 Germany

launched a surprise attack
on Denmark, Norway, Hitler at the Eiffel Tower, Paris
the Netherlands, German troops enter Paris June 14, 1940

Belgium, and
Luxembourg.

• France began to fall in

June. 340,000 allied
 German Luftwaffe Britain Under Attack “Never in the field of human
conflict has so much been
owed by so many to so few”

- Winston Churchill in reference

to the Royal Air Force’s service
The Battle of Britain
 The Battle of Britain; “The Blitz”
In the summer of 1940, Germany began its bombing raids on
Britain nightly lasting for 76 consecutive nights

The Royal Air Force (RAF) used radar for the 1st time and scored
the first victory against Hitler

Casualties:
The Royal Air Force downed 2,698 German aircraft
The Luftwaffe downed 3,198 British aircraft
British civilians killed totaled 43,381 and 50,856 were injured
The U.S. Prepares for War

• FDR asked Congress to increase spending for national

defense. Congress also passed the nation’s first peacetime
draft = 19 million men between the ages of 21 and 35 were
registered.
Roosevelt ran for re-election that year and won, breaking
George Washington’s two-term tradition (in 1951 the 22
Amendment set a two-term maximum).

The fall of Britain would open the axis powers up to take over
the Americas... we had to be prepared!
The Soviet Union is Hit
Hard
• Hitler attacked the Soviets
inspite of Non-Aggression
Pact:

• 1941-1943: 900 Days (3

winters)Among the bloodiest
battles in the history of
modern warfare

• Combined casualty estimates

nearly two million, mostly The Battle of Stalingrad
civilian for the Soviet Union fighting in temperatures
as low as -22 degrees F

• Soviets bitter at allies for not

 World War II
The War in the Pacific
The United States Takes On Japan
Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

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By 1940 the US was protesting Japan’s takeovers of
Manchuria and Indochina with a trade embargo

U.S. added China to Lend-Lease program in 1940

October, 1941: Hideki Tojo took over as Prime Minister

December 6, 1941: FDR received a decoded message

instructing Japan’s peace envoy to reject every
American proposal... “This means war!” - FDR

Navajo Code Talkers (Germans could not break it!)

20
 Attack on the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor: largest U.S.

naval base in Pacific

More than 180

Japanese planes

1.5 hours of attack

with little resistance

Kamikaze Pilots: Suicide

21
Japan’s Victory:

Damaged or sunk 18 ships

350 planes were destroyed

2,400 people died

1,178 people were wounded

(more damages than the U.S. navy suffered in all
of WWI)

December 10, 1941: Germany & Italy declared war

on the U.S.

22
Video: Clip of attack from the movie Pearl Harbor

23
FDR asks Congress for a declaration of
war
Allies on the Move

• After Pearl Harbor the

U.S. decides to focus on
Europe FIRST to get rid of U.S. Propaganda Posters

Hitler

• Then go after the Japanese

in the Pacific

• Our fight starts in Africa

and Italy, and moves into
France. Britain backs us.

*In pairs do Worksheet:

Striking Back at the Third Reich
Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met
in Tehran, Iran, and reached several
agreements about the plans for the
rest of the war and after the war

Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill meet at Tehran.

Driving the Japanese Back
American military leaders created a plan to
defeat Japan that called for a two-pronged
attack:
Admiral Nimitz and the Pacific Fleet
• Island Hopping
hop from island to island to get close to Japan
General MacArthur’s troops
• advance through the Solomon Islands
• capture the north coast of New Guinea
• retake the Philippines (lost to the Japanese)
Holding the Line Against Japan
• American General, Doolittle’s, attack on Japan made
Japanese leaders change their strategy
• Midway Island-the last American base in the North
Pacific west of Hawaii
• Plan: to lure the American fleet into battle to be
destroyed by the Japanese
• Cut American supply lines to Australia
• Failed: because the United States had a team of
code breakers based in Hawaii that broke the
Japanese Navy’s secret code for conducting
operations
Holding the Line Against Japan
Battle of Midway
The Turning Point in the War
• Americans shot down 38 Japanese planes and
destroyed four Japanese carriers
• this stopped the Japanese advance into the
Pacific - seeking to attack Hawaii again
Handout Worksheets:
1) The War in the Pacific
2) Europe & North Africa

Students will:
Work in pairs
to complete the worksheets

32
Minority Groups Serve & The
Homefront in World War II
 The Homefront
• Affected every aspect of American life
• War manufacturing ended the Great
Depression
• Conservation & Rationing at home
• Factories converted to war manufacturing
Women at Work
• By 1943
more than 19
million
women at
work
• Women were
very
successful in
their new,
manual labor
factory jobs
Rosie the Riveter
 Women
WASP - Women Air Force
Service Pilots
•1st women to fly for U.S.
military
•1,078 women
•stationed at 120 air bases
in U.S.
•flew cargo
•practiced for battle at
home
 African Americans
• Major push to fight
discrimination

• NAACP membership grew

• Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) founded
in 1942
FDR issues Executive
Order 8802 Fair
Employment Practices
Commission banning
discrimination in hiring
(fed gvmt jobs only)

• Segregated regiments
 Tuskegee Airmen
African American Pilots

• 1st African American

aviators in U.S.
military

• Served in Sicily, Italy,

and Europe

• Highly decorated
 Bracero Program
• Initially imported
foreign laborers into
the U.S. to work in
temporary “guest”
programs

• Many never left

• Resulted in illegal
immigration as
families fought to stay
together in the U.S.
 Zoot Suit Riots
• Summer of 1943

• As discrimination
grew some young
Mexican American
men protested by
wearing Zoot Suits

• Violence followed
(Navy & Zoot Suiters)
 Japanese Americans
• 442nd Infantry

• Fought in Italy & Europe

• Highly decorated
(21 Medals of Honor)

• Many families in
Internment Camps in
the U.S.

• Motto: “Go for broke”

 Executive Order 9066:
Japanese Internment
• Americans questioned the
loyalty of Japanese
Americans

• Early in 1942 the War

Department called for the
mass evacuation of all
people of Japanese
descent in Hawaii (to
protect them)
Businesses were effected
 Internment
• 110,000 - 120,000
Japanese Americans
were interned
(confined)

• Panic and prejudice

on the West Coast of
the U.S.

• Anti-Japanese
propaganda

• Discrimination
 Executive Order 9066
• February 19, 1942

• Removal of people of
Japanese descent from
California, Washington,
Oregon, and Arizona

• A matter of National
Security
 Results
• 110,000 (approx) Japanese
were sent to Internment
Camps

• 2/3 were American citizens

(born in the U.S.A.)

• Lost property & possessions:

bring what you can carry
Japanese School Children

• Camps disrupted life (school,

Pledge of Allegiance

work, pride, comfort)

• CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATION!

People being shipped out
to the camps

Pair/Share:
To what extent did people resist internment?
Give examples of protest methods.
Explain why they used these methods to
protest?
Conditions in the U.S. Camps
The U.S. internment camps were overcrowded and provided poor living conditions. According t

a 1943 report published by the War Relocation Authority (the administering agency), Japanese

Americans were housed in "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without

plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind." Coal was hard to come by, and internees slept unde

as many blankets as they were alloted. Food was rationed out at an expense of 48 cents per

internee, and served by fellow internees in a mess hall of 250-300 people.

Legal Challenges to Internment
Two important legal cases were brought against the United States concerning the internment.

The landmark cases were Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), and Korematsu v. United States

(1944). The defendants argued their fifth amendment rights were violated by the U.S.

government because of their ancestry. In both cases, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the

U.S. government.
 Korematsu v.
United
• U.S. Supreme Court case
States
• Questioned the
constitutionality of
Executive Order 9066

• The Supreme Court held

that the need to protect
against espionage
outweighed Fred
Korematsu's/Japanese
American’s individual
rights
 Video:

• The Century:
The Homefront (20
minutes)

• Handout:
Mobilizing the
Homefront
Rationing
Rationing
Propaganda:
Conservation
War Bonds
Victory Gardens
Scrap Drive
Propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda:
Neighborhood
Watch
Propaganda:
Secrecy
Propaganda:
Secrecy
Propaganda:
Call to Work
Propaganda:
Call to Work
Propaganda
Propaganda
The Holocaust
of World War II
 Holocaust
Murder of 11 million people
6 million of the victims were Jewish
2/3 of Europe’s Jews slaughtered
Nazi Prisoner Badges
yellow “Star of David” Jewish
red political enemy
green habitual criminals
blue emigrants
purple Jehovah’s Witnesses
pink homosexuals (men)
brown gypsies
black “asocials”
(asocials: mentally retarded,
mentally ill, lesbians, prostitutes, etc)
Nuremberg Laws:
The Road to
• stripped rights
• arrested dissidents
Holocaust
• labeled Jewish businesses
& people

• had to carry id papers

Kristallnacht:
“Night of Broken Glass”

• burned Synagogues
• burned Jewish businesses
& books

• looted Jewish property

Ghettos: The Road to
• moved into ghettos
Holocaust
• property revoked
• food & medication
restricted

• fenced into small

concentrated areas of the
city

• disease, starvation, death

• some uprisings
 Final Solution

Genocide
Deliberate &
systematic killing
of an entire group
of people
 Aryan
Master Race
“Superior” people
-light hair
-blue eyes
-physically fit
-PURE Germans
 Labor Camps &
Concentration Camps
Labor Camps

some camps produced war

supplies

Concentration Camps

medical experiments
starved
forced labor
mass graves
chlorine gas chambers
Barracks Burning Camp
Bodies

Killing Shoes of Mass

Squad Victims Grave

Holocaust Images
 Clips: Band of Brothers &
Hitler’s treatment of the Jews
Europe First

France June 6, 1944: Invasion of Normandy / D-Day

largest air, land, and sea attack in history

160,000 allied troops on a 50 mile stretch of beach

5,000 ships 13,000 aircraft 9,000 killed (allies)

Beaches Invaded:
-Utah
-Omaha
-Juno
-Gold
-Sword
81
D-Day Invasion

82
Video: Clip of D-Day from the movie Saving Private
Ryan. As you watch fill out the following chart:

I See I Hear I Feel I Want to Comment On

83
Battle of the Bulge
Dec 16-Jan 25, 1944

V-E Day (Victory in Europe) May 8, 1945

Now we had to fight in the Pacific

84
85
Driving the Japanese Back
Guadalcanal
• General MacArthur’s troops began a campaign
in the Southwest Pacific - invasion of
Guadalcanal, August 1942
• B-29 bombers invade Mariana Islands
captured by American troops, August, 1944
A few months later, US began bombing Japan
• In early 1944, MacArthur’s troops surrounded
Rabaul, the main Japanese base in the region
Avenging the P.O.W.’s in the Philippines

Bataan Death March

*75,000 American soldiers captured when Japan
took the Philippines

*Forced them to march 65 miles to a camp

*Thousands died from fatigue, starvation,

exposure

87
Driving the Japanese Back
The Philippines
•The battle to recapture the Philippines left
Manila in ruins and over 100,000 Filipino
civilians dead.

In October 1944, Douglas

MacArthur fulfilled his promise
and returned to the Philippines.
Japan is Defeated
On February 19, 1945, 60,000 American Marines
landed on Iwo Jima, and 6,800 lost their lives
before the island was captured.

Photographer Joe Rosenthal won

the Pulitzer Prize for this photo of
five marines and a navy medical
corpsman raising the flag on Iwo
Jima.
Japan is Defeated
• Japan refused to surrender
• America invaded Okinawa, 350 miles from
Japan, to stockpile supplies and build up
troops
• On April 1, 1945, American troops landed on
Okinawa
• On June 22, 1945, Okinawa was captured
more than 12,000 American soldiers, sailors,
and marines losing their lives
Yalta Conference: Decisions to be Made
Febru ary, 1945 - Roosevelt, Chu rchill, and Stalin

Date
The Atomic Bomb
The U.S. ends the war with Japan
 The Manhattan Project
Building the bomb:
• most ambitious scientific experiment in
history - best kept secret of the war
• in New Mexico
• 600,000 Americans involved
• few understood the ultimate purpose
• J. Robert Oppenheimer: lead physicist
 The Masterminds
Groves and Oppenheimer at
remains of the Trinity test in
September 1945.

The white overshoes prevent

fallout from sticking to the
soles of their shoes.
 Arguments Pro & Con
Pro Con
• save an estimated • immoral - civilians
one million lives
• must warn Japan
• Japan attack threat (test it for them)
• Germany close to • what if they shoot
developing one down the plane?
• tension with Soviets = • don’t know the effects
show of U.S. power of radiation
Truman Takes Office
• FDR dies in April, 1945
• Truman takes office
• Truman is unaware of the
Manhattan Project and must
decide whether to use the bomb
based on limited information
• Issues a warning to Japan
• Japan does not surrender
Harry S. Truman

U.S. President
1945-1953
 Dropping the Bombs
Hiroshima - Military Center
• August 6, 1945
• B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay
• bomb name, “Little Boy”
• 43 seconds to drop the city
• 80, 000 civilians died
Hiroshima
 Dropping the Bombs
Nagasaki - Civilian City
• August 9, 1945
• “virgin target”
• bomb name, “fat man”
• leveled half of the city
• 100,000 civilians died in blast
• 200,000 including radiation/burns
Nagasaki
The Atom Bomb Explained
 The War Ends
Japan Surrenders
• September 2, 1945
• Japan surrenders unconditionally
• V-J Day (Victory in Japan)
• Most Japanese officials were not put
on trial for their war crimes
 Video

Atomic Cafe (15 min)

Unit 731: Nightmare in Manchuria (45 min)
Sept 2, 1945

VJ Day
(Victory in the Pacific)
The United Nations
International peacem aking bod y
•General Assem bly:
tow n m eeting of the w orld
•ju d icial, ad m inistrative, & econom ic
governing bod ies
•Secu rity Cou ncil led by: USA,
Britain, Soviets, France, & China
Potsdam Conference

✤ Tru m an, Chu rchill, and Stalin m et in

Potsd am , Germ any in Ju ly, 1945
✤ Plans to d isarm Germ any
✤ Elim inate the N azi Regim e
Potsdam
Conference

✤ Germ any
d ivid ed into 4
zones
✤ USA, Britain,
Soviet Union, &
France occu pied
one zone each
 Nuremberg
War Trials
Defined Crim es of War:
✤ Crim es Against Peace
planning & w aging aggressive w ar

✤ War Crim es
acts against the cu stom s of w arfare, like
killing hostages & prisoners, plu nd ering,
d estroying cities & tow ns

✤ Crim es Against H u m anity

the m u rd er, exterm ination, d eportation, or
enslavem ent of civilians
Nuremberg
War Trials
✤ An international panel
tried N azi w ar crim inals
(form er lead ers of the
party)

✤ Over 200 N azis w ere

fou nd gu ilty of w ar
crim es (som e sentenced
to d eath)

✤ 1st tim e in history that a

nation’s lead ers w ere
held accou ntable for w ar
actions