1. World War Two

2. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ended the debate between interventionists and isolationists. It was now clear the United States would become involved in World War II. (Library of Congress)
•Why did the Japanese attack the United States? What were they trying to accomplish with the attack on Pearl Harbor?
• How did the U.S. respond to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Consider how the nation responded the day of the attack and the following year of the attack. Do you think the Japanese miscalculated what would happen in the long-run if they attacked Pearl Harbor?

3. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came unexpectedly on Sunday morning, December 7, It nearly destroyed the U.S. Pacific fleet, and it killed more than 2400 Americans, but it united the nation. (U.S. Navy, News Photo Division, Navy Office of Information)
•Explain some of the emotions you may have felt the day of Pearl Harbor if you were American military personnel and survived the attack.
• Compare the attack on Pearl Harbor to the attacks on How were these two acts similar and different?

4. Fascist dictators Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini, shown together in Munich, had pledged mutual protection in the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis treaty of 1937.(National Archives)
•What is fascism (see your notes)? Would you want to live under a fascist government? Why or why not?
• Do you think the United States could have prevented Hitler's ascent to power? If not, why not? If so, why didn't it do so?

5. Possessing both a ruthless thirst for power and remarkable speaking ability, Hitler rose to power in the depression and turmoil of post-World War I Germany by promising to restore the nation to prestige and erase the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles.(National Archives)
•If you were a German citizen (who was not Jewish) how would you have reacted to Hitler’s rise to power? Do you think you would have supported him because he was rebuilding the economy and increasing nationalism? Explain.
• Why do you think Hitler was able to successfully gain the support and following of the German people?

6. Supplies for the Allied forces pour ashore at the beachheads of Normandy during Operation Overlord in June The invasion began the opening of the second front that Stalin had been urging on the Allies since the German armies invaded the Soviet Union in (United States Coast Guard)
•Operation Overlord is commonly referred to as D-Day. What do you think it would have been like to be an American troop storming the beaches on D-Day? What are some of the emotions, fears, surprises, etc that you would have faced?
• What were conditions like on the beaches for the men who undertook the liberation of France? How long did it take the Allied troops to drive the Germans out of France?

7. Photos from the death camps, such as this one of an emaciated woman in a bunk at Bergen-Belsen, made the almost unimaginable atrocities of Hitler's regime real to Americans at home. (World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Associations)
•Why did you think the Nazi's attempted to exterminate the Jews? How did the troops and, eventually, the outside world react to images such as this?
• Should the Allied forces have done more to investigate what was happening in concentration camps during WW II? Could the Allies have done more to stop the Holocaust from taking place?

8. Once the Nazis assumed control of Germany, they began to purge the nation of anything and anyone that contradicted their ideology. Here, the Nazis are burning books as part of their crusade to establish a reich, or empire. (National Archives)
•Why is it important for dictators such as Hitler to control the media and the flow of information? What impact does this type of control have on the ability of citizens to oppose the government?
• What do you think happened to individuals or groups who did oppose the Nazis? If you were a German citizen, how do you think you would have reacted to the Nazi’s censorship and book burning? Would you have simply followed their rules, or would you have attempted to gain more freedoms of press?

9. "Rosie the Riveter" became perhaps the most familiar symbol of women's contribution to the war effort during WWII. After the war ended, the government urged women to return to the traditional roles of wife and mother to make room for returning servicemen. (Library of Congress)
As this poster indicates, women played many roles in World War II. (National Archives)
•What roles do you think women could have taken on to help in WW II?