Exploring the Conclusion of World War II

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Exploring the Conclusion of World War II
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How did we get to the Holocaust?

• Belief in master race
• Jews blamed for WWI defeat
• Poor economy
• History of anti-Semitism
• Feelings of nationalism
• Final Solution exterminate Jews, gas chambers

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Holocaust

• 1935 Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of citizenship
  and barred them from public office
• 1941 called for extermination of all Jews
• Some were concentration camps, some death camps

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Belzec 600,000 killed
Auschwitz 1.1 million killed
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Holocaust

• 6 million Jews killed
• 6 million killed of other groups
• Slavs, Poles, Gypsies, Homosexuals,
• Intellectuals, Communists, and the Physically
• and Mentally Handicapped
• Victims of cruel experiments
• High-Altitude experiments to see how high crew
  could parachute safely
• Exposed to mustard gas to test various treatments
• Gas chambers
• Told taking a shower to be disinfected packed
  tightly so suffocate more quickly
• At peak 8000 Jews gassed a day at Auschwitz and
  bodies cremated
• Some Jewish resistance
• Allies did NOT encourage emigration because
  worried about impact of huge numbers of refugees

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GenocideWhat exactly is it?

• Genocide The systematic and purposeful
  destruction of a racial, political, religious, or
  cultural group
• Recent Genocides
• Rwanda April June 1994
• Hutus killed 800,000 Tutsi
• Sudan 2003 Present
• Arab militia killing black Africans

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Addressing the Holocaust Attempting to Right a
Wrong
Nuremberg Trials 1945 - 1946
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Nuremberg Trials

• 24 high German officials brought to trial
• Crimes against humanity
• Following orders was NOT an excuseeach
  individual is responsible for their own actions
• Increase in demand for a Jewish homeland

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Ending the War with Japan

• 1945 Allied victories at Iwo Jima and Okinawa
  Huge losses on both sides
• Now controlled air bases within reach of Japan

• July Allieds issued
• ultimatums
• Japan rejected them

Iwo Jima
Okinawa
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The Atomic Bomb

• Why was it used?
• Should it have been used?
• Were there other alternatives?
• If we had not used it, would more lives have been
  lost?
• We are going to attempt to answer these questions.

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Opinions on A-bomb

• Herbert Hoover
• "The use of the atomic bomb, with its
  indiscriminate killing of women and children,
  revolts my soul.
• Admiral William D. Leahy
• It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous
  weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no
  material assistance in our war against Japan.
  The Japanese were already defeated and ready to
  surrender because of the effective sea blockade
  and the successful bombing with conventional
  weaponsMy own feeling was that being the first
  to use the atomic bomb, we adopted an ethical
  standard common to the barbarians of the Dark
  Ages.

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Weighing the Decision

• Pros to Using the Bomb
• Japanese were demonstrating fanatical resistance
  (use of kamikaze tactics, surrender seen as
  dishonorable)
• Showed our hand
• Invasion of Japan would have been very costly in
  terms of US lives
• Quickest way of ending the war

• Cons to Using the Bomb
• Already defeated Allied bombing runs killing
  tens of thousands in Japan, naval blockade kept
  them from getting necessary provisions
• Could have used a demonstration bomb to convince
  Japanese to surrender
• US did not give enough warning for civilians to
  evacuate
• US refused to sway from an unconditional
  surrender, yet ended up the surrender was
  conditional anyway
• Jeopardize our position as a humanitarian nation

If you believe that Japan was already defeated,
what is one possible reason we may have chosen to
use the atomic bomb anyway?
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Trumans Role

• President Truman 6/17/45 Diary Entry
• "I have to decide Japanese strategy - shall we
  invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and
  blockade? That is my hardest decision to date.
  But I'll make it when I have all the facts."
• President Truman Radio Speech August 9, 1945
• The world will note that the first atomic bomb
  was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That
  was because we wished in this first attack to
  avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of
  civilians. But that attack is only a warning of
  things to come. If Japan does not surrender,
  bombs will have to be dropped on her war
  industries and, unfortunately, thousands of
  civilian lives will be lost. I urge Japanese
  civilians to leave industrial cities immediately,
  and save themselves from destruction.

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Impact of Bombing

• IMAGES OF HIROSHIMAS DESTRUCTION Almost 5
  square miles of the citys center was obliterated
  and 40, 653 buildings were destroyed. The bomb
  left 68,000 dead, 30,000 injured, and another
  10,000 missing.

August 6, 1945 Hiroshima August 9, 1945
Nagasaki Total Dead 200,000
Result Japanese Surrender August 14, 1945 V-J
Day August 15
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Minority Units in WWII

• How did they serve?
• Minority Participation
• African Americans served mostly in segregated
  units and were assigned to non-combat roles
• Demanded the right to serve in combat roles
  rather than support roles
• President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802
  in 1941
• Prohibited discrimination in war industries, but
  not in armed forces
• 1 million black men and women served in armed
  forces
• Fought side by side in integrated units at Battle
  of Bulge

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All-Minority Military Units

• Tuskegee Airmen African American
• Over 966 Black military aviators were trained
  at an isolated training complex near the town of
  Tuskegee, Alabama and at Tuskegee Institute now
  known as Tuskegee University.
• Four Hundred and fifty black fighter pilots
  fought in the aerial war over North Africa,
  Sicily and Europe
• Completed 1578 missions

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All-Minority Military Units

• Nisei Regiments Asian Americans
• Made up of 2nd generation Japanese Americans
• Served with distinction in Europe
• 100th Battalion (Nisei from Hawaii) was nearly
  wiped out
• 57 of 442nd Regimental
• Combat Team killed
• or wounded in Italy
• - Most decorated unit

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Other Contributions by Minorities

• Navajo
• Communication codes
• used and impossible
• for Japanese to break
• Mexican Americans fought in non-segregated
  units
• In WWII minority units suffered high casualties
  and won numerous medals for bravery

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Treatment of POWs

• Geneva Convention August 12, 1949
• Tried to ensure the humane treatment of prisoners
  of war by establishing rules to be followed by
  all nations
• Done in response to the following
• Bataan Death March Japanese attacking the
  Philippines in January 1942 American and
  Filipino forces surrendered to Japanese in April
  and May (greatly outnumbered and cut off from
  outside support)
• Japanese led prisoners on brutal march of 65
  miles 7,000 10,000 were clubbed, shot, or
  starved to death
• Enraged American public already mad about Pearl
  Harbor

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Bataan
Death March
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• Some soldiers refused to be prisoners of war
• Japanese soldiers often committed suicide
  rather than surrender
• Rather than disgrace family and emperor
• Some prisoners treated fairly well
• Those in Europe typically were treated better
  and standards of Geneva Convention met

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Impact of War

• Germany
• Democratic government in West Germany and West
  Berlin
• West Germany becomes an economic power

• Japan
• US occupation under MacArthur
• Economic development and democracy
• Eliminate Japanese offensive abilities
• Becomes dominant economy

United Nations 1945 To promote and maintain
peace and stability