Unit VIII. World War II

C. End of the War

1. V-E day, May 7, 1945 a. The war in Europe ended with the German’s unconditional surrender *Hitler, hearing of the Soviet advance, fled to his bunker located under the city of Berlin -Hitler committed suicide to avoid being captured *D-Day had been a success -The Allies marched on Berlin, and then moved on to liberate the rest of Nazi controlled territories (Poland) *Fighting in the Pacific would continue 2. Yalta Conference, Feb a. FDR, Churchill, and Stalin ( The Big Three ) met at a Soviet resort called Yalta *They knew the end of the war was close at hand *The three leaders decided that they would divide Germany temporarily into East and West -All the Allies would take a zone -Britain, France, and the U.S. would control West Germany -The Soviets would tak`e control over East Germany

C. End of the War

C. End of the War (cont’d) 3. V-J Day, August, 1945 a. Japan was greatly weakened by 1942 b. Gradually, American forces recaptured Japanese-held islands in the Pacific *They advanced north toward the main islands *By 1944, the Americans had begun to fire-bomb major Japanese cities -Japanese refused to surrender c. Hiroshima and Nagasaki *By 1945, most of the Japanese navy and air force had been destroyed -Japan still refused surrender; the army was still strong -The only option seemed to be invasion of Japan would be very costly (in terms of lives and resources) and drag the war on indefinitely -Pres. Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bomb * Hiroshima : Aug. 6, Flattened a 4 sq mi and killed 70,000 * Nagasaki : Aug. 9, Flattened 1 sq mi and killed 40,000 d. On Aug. 10, Japanese emperor Hirohito forced his gov’t to surrender *Peace treaty was signed on Sept. 2, 1945

Hiroshima: Before and After

C. End of the War (cont’d) 4. Potsdam Conference, Aug a. The Big Three, plus future P.M. Clement Attlee, later Truman, met to decide how to punish defeated Nazi Germany *Germany had agreed to unconditional surrender *Goals of the conference -establishment of post-war order, signing peace treaties, and fixing the effects of war *Since the Yalta Conference, a number of changes had taken place which would greatly affect the relationships between the leaders: -USSR was occupying Central and Eastern Europe -Britain had a new Prime Minister (Attlee) -US had a new President (Truman) -The US had tested an atomic bomb b. In addition, Churchill, Truman, and Jiang Jieshi issued the Potsdam Declaration which outlined the terms of surrender for Japan during WWII in Asia