25.6: The Last Stages of the War

A. The Holocaust 1.The horror of the Nazi’s systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other “inferior” races was slow to enter American consciousness. 2.Although Jewish refugees pleaded for a military strike to stop the killings, the War Department vetoed any such plans.

Belsen Camp: The Compound for Women, painted by American artist Leslie Cole, depicts Belsen as the Allied troops found it when they invaded Germany in SOURCE:Leslie Cole,Belsen Camp.The Compound for Women. Imperial War Museum,London.

B. The Yalta Conference 1.The “Big Three” attempted to hammer out the shape of the postwar world. 2.The ideals of the Atlantic Charter fell before Soviet and British demands for spheres of influence. 3.FDR continued to hold on to his idealism, but his death in April cast a shadow over hopes for peaceful solutions to global problems.

C. The Atomic Bomb 1.The new president, Harry S. Truman, lacked FDR’s finesse and planned a get-tough policy with the Soviet Union. 2.At Potsdam, little progress was made on planning the future. 3.Truman decided to use nuclear weapons against the Japanese. 4.Truman was aware that the war could have been brought to a peaceful conclusion with only a slight modification in policy. 5.Truman claimed the use of the bomb would substantially shorten the war and save American lives.

Specialists worked for nearly a decade to restore the components of the Enola Gay, making the B-29 bomber the museum’s largest restoration project. This photograph shows the forward fuselage with bomb bay and the propellers. If fully assembled, the Enola Gay is too big and too heavy to fit in the museum. National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution.

This photograph shows the Genbaku Dome, the exterior of one of the buildings in central Hiroshima to survive the bombing. After the atomic bomb fell, fires thoughout the central city combined to make a huge fire storm. A “black rain” of radioactive debris caused by the blast fell for more than a hour, covering an even wider area. More than a quarter of the city’s population died immediately following the explosion, and few buildings within a radius of three miles were left standing. Bettmann/Corbis.

Peace activists around the world commemorate August 6th as “Hiroshima Day,” whereas most Americans celebrate “Victory Over Japan Day,” or V-J Day.”This photograph shows demonstrators gathering at the United Nations in New York City on the fifteenth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb over Japan. AP Wide World Photos.

The so-called mushroom cloud has become a familiar, iconic image of the power released with the explosion of atomic bombs. Here, a photograph of the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb Little Boy that was dropped on Hiroshima is paired with American Pop artist Andy Warhol’s silk-screen on canvas, Atomic Bombs, which was produced in the 1960s. National Archives and Records Administration.

Atomic age adventures were popular themes in comic books during the 1950s. Atomic War, which appeared at the height of the Korean War, featured atomic weapons used against Communist nations. This genre continued to be produced well into the 1960s. The Authentic History Center.

The Hiroshima Peace memorial Museum and Park, which is located at the city center, opened in The Genbaku Dome appears in the background of this photograph. Every year, on August 6th, people gather to offer prayers for those who died in the bombing and to express their hope for peace. John Van Hasselt.Corbis/Sygma.