1. Objectives Content: Explain how World War II ended.
Learning: Choose and defend your position on whether the United States should have dropped the atomic bomb to end the war with Japan.

2. The End of World War II

3. PBS – The Bomb http://www.pbs.org/video/2365530722/ 4:36-8:10
12:20-14:15

4. When Einstein learned that the Germans might succeed in solving these problems, he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt with his concerns. Einstein's 1939 letter helped initiate the U.S. effort to build an atomic bomb, but work proceeded slowly at first. Two other findings in 1940 and 1941 demonstrated conclusively that the bomb was feasible and made building the bomb a top priority for the United States: the determination of the "critical mass" of uranium needed and the confirmation that plutonium could undergo fission and be used in a bomb. In December 1941, the government launched the Manhattan Project, the scientific and military undertaking to develop the bomb.

6. Manhattan Project
Code name for the research and development of the atomic bomb
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Physicist
Director of Los Alamos research laboratory that developed first atomic bombs

7. PBS – The Bomb http://www.pbs.org/video/2365530722/ 16:10-17:30 29-30
Discuss homework

8. War Ends in Europe Hitler realized defeat was inevitable
Running out of supplies and losing battle after battle
Hitler commits suicide in April 1945
German Army surrenders on May 8, 1945 (V-E Day)

9. PBS – The Bomb
30-31
34:30-36:30

10. Harry Truman’s Decision: What would you do?

13. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

14. PBS – The Bomb
41-43:50

15. Bombing of Hiroshima August 6, 1945
“Little Boy” dropped by the Enola Gay
Took the lives of 70,000 people that day and another 70,000 from radiation exposure within 5 years

17. PBS – The Bomb
43:50-48:50

18. Bombing of Nagasaki August 9, 1945 “Fat Man”
Took the lives of about 40,000 that day and up to 40,000 within a year

19. Effects of the Bombings on the People
Immediate Death (100,000+, exact number unknown)
Death from fires, falling debris
Burns
Keloids (tumor-like growth of scar tissue)
Radiation exposure:
Some became sick several days later because they had no white blood cells and their bone marrow deteriorated
Others developed high fevers, hair loss, inflammation of gums and mouth
Development of cancer(s) over time

23. -John Hersey’s Hiroshima
“A year after the bombing, Hiroshimans had begun repossessing the plots of rubble where their houses had once stood. Many had built crude wooden huts, having scavenged fallen tiles from ruins to make their roofs. There was no electricity to light their shacks, and at dusk each evening, lonely, confused, and disillusioned, they gathered in an open area near the Yokogawa railroad station to deal in the black markets and console each other.”
-John Hersey’s Hiroshima

25. - John Hersey’s Hiroshima
“In Hiroshima, the early postwar years were, besides, a time, especially painful for poor people… of disorder, hunger, greed, thievery, black markets. Non-hibakusha [survivors of the bomb] employers developed a prejudice against the survivors as word got around that they were prone to all sorts of ailments… most of them seemed to suffer… from the mysterious but real malaise that came to be known as one kind of lasting A-bomb sickness: a nagging weakness and weariness, dizziness now and then, digestive troubles…”
- John Hersey’s Hiroshima

26. Wars Ends in the Pacific
Harry Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb because it would avoid a large number of American casualties
After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered
V-J Day: September 2, 1945

27. What happened to Germany?
Germany was divided into four occupation zones: United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet each controlled one zone
Berlin was also divided into 4 zones

28. What happened to Japan? Japan was occupied by American forces
Japan was not allowed to keep an Army
Their government changed

29. World War II
World War II was the deadliest war ever. Over 60 million people were killed.
Map of World War II (PPT)