End of WWII and the Atomic Bomb

Why does Germany end up losing the war? *By not allowing his army to ever retreat. This causes devastating losses to the German army, especially when they invaded the Soviet Union. As winter set in, Hitler should have ordered his troops to retreat but he didn’t and many soldiers died.

Why does Germany end up losing the war? *Declaring war on the United States. This causes the German army to be outmanned and outgunned. The United States had a massive work force to create war supplies. Hitler was over confident in what his army could accomplish.

Why does Germany end up losing the war? *Not enough soldiers and resources to fight a long, drawn out, two front war. By fighting the Soviet Union to the west and Britain and the United States to the east, the German army was spread thin and suffered high casualty rates. The Soviet, American and British army closed in on the German capital of Berlin from all sides. As the Allies close in, Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders a week later.

What is going on in the Pacific? The U.S. army is having to slowly advance towards and fight Japan on an island-to- island basis (Island hopping.) The fighting on the islands was brutal. Some of the most fierce fighting took place on the island of Iwo Gima. Japanese soldiers taught to never surrender. Japanese pilots were also trained to be kamikazes, which meant they would fly their planes into U.S. ships to inflict maximum damage.

The Manhattan Project Was a top secret program where the United States was developing nuclear bombs.

The Manhattan Project As devastating fighting continued in the Pacific, the Japanese claim they will never surrender, even though Germany and Italy already had. Truman makes the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan instead of continuing hand-to-hand combat, which was resulting in high U.S. casualties.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki In August of 1945, the U.S. drops atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around 120,000 Japanese citizens are killed. Japan surrenders on August 15, 1945. The U.S. decision to drop the bombs is still debated today.

Do you think the U.S.’s decision to drop the bombs was justified?