Objective: Analyze the causes and course of World War II and evaluate it as the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Mobilization (assembling & preparing for war) had been most extensive  Soviet Union – Stalin called mobilization a “battle of machines” Shipped factories to the Urals & Siberia Citizens experienced severe shortages of food & housing Women served in combat as snipers & in aircrews

Soviet Women Troops

 U.S. – became the arsenal of the Allied Powers Some social turmoil due to movement; racial tension Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps  Germany – Hitler’s economic policies may have cost him the war Waited too late for total mobilization; did not fully utilize women Albert Speer – minister for armaments, tripled production  Japan – highly mobilized but GEN Tojo opposed female employment

Japanese Internment Camp

Women in WW2

Women Roles in WW2

Bombing of cities – civilian population centers became targets  Britain – the blitz (German air raids) failed to break British morale  Germany – firebombing of Dresden, Feb 1945; fought on stubbornly  Japan – firebombing of Tokyo; atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Peace and a new conflict – the Cold War  Tehran Conference – Nov 1943; Big Three – U.S., Britain, & Soviets  FDR, Churchill, & Stalin discussed final attack on Germany Partition of postwar Germany along north-south line into East & West  Yalta Conference – February 1945, Soviet resort on Black Sea Insisted that Germany surrender unconditionally Agreed to divide Germany & Berlin into four zones Agreed to form United Nations; April 1945 in San Francisco USSR to enter war against Japan in exchange for Sakhalin & Kuriles Stalin agreed to free elections but wanted satellites as a buffer

 Potsdam Conference – July 1945, in Germany Truman – demanded freely elected governments in Eastern Europe Disagreements began to pull apart the wartime alliance  Effects of the War – most destructive in history Casualties – 55 million people perished Nuremberg Trials tried Nazi leaders for “crimes against humanity” U.S. & Soviet Union emerged as the two “superpowers” Churchill – an “iron curtain” had “descended” across Europe Start of Cold War – period of political tensions & ideological conflict

Nuremberg Trials