The United States in

World War II

"The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise every man must devote himself totally to

the task in hand."Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto - Commander in Chief of the

Japanese Navy - 7th December 1941

"Our citizens can now rejoice that a momentous victory is in the making. Perhaps we will be forgiven if we claim

we are about midway to our objective."

Admiral Chester Nimitz - June 1942

Fighting the War on Multiple Fronts

• United States at war with Japan, Italy, and Germany (Axis Powers)

• Needed to mobilize U.S. resources to succeed in a long war

• First U.S. goal was to help the Allies liberate Europe

• At the same time, the U.S. was fighting in Africa and with the Japanese in the Pacific

Africa

• Operation Torch (US and British troops) commanded by General Eisenhower and was launched in November 1942

• Invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign

• The Allies defeated the German Africa Corps commanded by General Erwin Rommel (1943)

A British Crusader tank passes a burning German Pzkw Mk IV tank during Operation Crusader.

American troops on board a landing craft.

Rommel with the 15th Panzer Division between Tobruk and Sidi Omar, Libya.

Europe• Allies captured Sicily in 1943 and

began attack on the “soft underbelly” of Europe

• D-Day was launched June 6, 1944 on the French beaches of Normandy

• By September 1944, Paris, France was liberated

• Yalta Conference- The “Big Three” meet to discuss Russia’s role after the inevitable defeat of Germany (U.S. wanted Russia to join the fight in the Pacific and support for a new world peace keeping organization- The United Nations

• Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945 (V-E Day)

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

Invasion of Normandy

• June 6, 1944- called D-Day

• British, American, and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy France (led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower)

• Largest land-sea-air operation in history

• Allies took heavy casualties• Beginning of the liberation of

Europe

U.S. Army troops wade ashore on Omaha Beach on the morning of 6 June 1944,

The Holocaust• Germany systematically murdered an

estimated 11 million Jews in Europe (concentration camps- Auschwitz and Dachau)

• The U.S. government received reports about the extermination as early as 1942. However, no policy was formulated to stop the killings until 1944

• The U.S. Press avoided the subject; U.S. States Department pursued an anti-immigration policy toward Jewish refugees

• After Germany was defeated, U.S. soldiers were some of the first witnesses to the death, torture, and destruction that took place in the concentration camps

A mass grave inside Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Inspection by the Nazi party and Himmler at the Dachau Protective Custody Camp on 8 May 1936.

Starving prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp liberated on May 5, 1945.

Battle of Midway (The Pacific)

• June 1942: Admiral Chester Nimitz intercepted a naval message by the Japanese

• Japan’s plan was to invade the U.S. at the Midway Islands and then attack U.S. Navy in Hawaii

• Japan’s forces outnumber the U.S. 4 to 1

• The U.S. surprised the Japanese carrier fleet and inflicted heavy damages

Midway Atoll, several months before the battle. Eastern Island (with the airfield) is in the foreground, and the larger Sand Island is in the background to the west

Yorktown at the moment of impact of a torpedo

Hiryū, shortly before sinking

Asia

• Battle of Midway (June 1942) was the turning point of Pacific War, Japanese now on the defense

• U.S. began island hopping campaign toward Japan

• Intense fighting ensued: Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa

• In desperation, the Japanese tested a new tactic, the kamikaze

The Manhattan Project

• Run by J. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist and General Leslie R. Groves

• U.S. Army administered the scientific and technical program beginning in 1942.

• Estimated cost of 2 billion dollar to develop

• It set up a research center in New Mexico to develop the atomic bomb as a weapon

• First atomic device detonated at Alamogordo, NM (June 16th 1945)

Project Sites

The Atomic Bomb

• Controversy over whether or not the U.S. should use “the bomb”

• Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima (Aug. 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9, 1945)

• September 2, 1945: Japan formally surrendered

• Over 200,000 Japanese died from injuries and radiation poisoning by the end of the year

Little Boy explodes over Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945 (left);Fat Man explodes over Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945 (right).

Hiroshima before the bombing. Hiroshima after the bombing.

Aftermath of WWII

• The war ended with the total victory of the Allies over the Axis in 1945.

• World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world.

• The United Nations (UN) organization was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts.

• The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years.

• Returning GIs used the G.I. Bill of Rights which dramatically increased their standard of living (provided free education and job training as well has federal loans to buy homes, farms or businesses

The United Nations Secretariat Building at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.