Chapter 16 Section 5Europe & Japan in RuinsObjective: Compare postwar governments in Europe & Japan

Vocabulary: Nuremberg Trials, Demilitarization, & Democratization

Setting the Stage•After 6 long years of war,

the Allies finally were victorious

•WW2 caused more deaths & destruction than any other conflict in history

•Over 60 million people killed

•Another 50 million were uprooted from their homes & wandered the countryside in search of somewhere to live

Devastation in Europe•40 million

Europeans had died, 2/3rds of them were civilians

•Constant bombing & shelling had reduced hundreds of cities to rubble

•Millions of people were now homeless

A Harvest of Destruction• Cities like London &

Warsaw were completely destroyed

• In 1939, Warsaw had 1.3 million citizens by the end of the war they only have 153,000 citizens

• 95% of Berlin was demolished by Allied bombing

• They had no water, no electricity, & very little food

• Europeans wandered across Europe, hoping to find their families or to find a safe place to live

Misery Continues After the War• Many found they were now

in different countries when postwar treaties changed national borders

• The misery in Europe continued for years after the war

• Thousands died as famine & disease spread through the destroyed cities

• The first winter was the toughest as people went without shoes & coats

Postwar Governments & Politics•Europeans often blamed

their leaders for the war & its aftermath

•Some countries returned to their prewar governments

•Others like Germany & Italy did not return to old leadership ways

•Communism began to spread however after some violent strikes their influence began to declining

The Nuremberg Trials• During 1945 to 1946,

an International Military Tribunal representing 23 nations put Nazi war criminals on trial – Nuremberg Trials

• 22 Nazi leaders were charged with waging a war or aggression

• Nazi leaders were also accused of committing “crimes against humanity”

The Nuremberg Trials• Himmler & Goebbels

committed suicide before the trials began

• Goring will be sentenced to death but will also commit suicide

• 10 Nazi leaders were hanged on October 16th 1946

• The bodies of those executed were burned at the concentration camp of Dachau

Postwar Japan•The defeat suffered

by Japan in World War II left the country in ruins

•2 million lives had been lost

•Their major cities like Tokyo has been ruined by bombing raids

•Hiroshima & Nagasaki were blackened wastelands

Occupied Japan• General Douglas

MacArthur took charge of U.S. occupation of Japan

• Demilitarization: disbanding the Japanese armed forces

• MacArthur also began bringing war criminals to trial

• Democratization: process of creating a government elected by the people

• The Japanese empire became a constitutional monarchy

Occupation Brings Deep Changes•Emperor Hirohito had to

declare to the Japanese people he wasn’t divine

•The Emperor became a figurehead like Great Britain’s ruler

•People over the age of 20 now had the right to vote

• Japan also can’t wage war but they can fight if attacked

•The United States & Japan became allies