1. Aim: Should the US have bombed Japan?
Do Now: You are the President of the U.S. When, if ever, would you use nuclear weapons?

2. I Operation Barbarossa 1941
June 22, 1941, Hitler broke the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 by invading the USSR. It was a TURNING POINT – now Germany was in a 2 front war.
Stalin’s Scorched Earth Policy: Soviets burned crops, destroyed bridges and railroads, and evacuated factories.
It was a German FAILURE.

3. Russia. Winter. Cold. Fail of Napoleon. My brain hurts.
Operation Barbarossa

4. II Attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941)

6. Attack on Pearl Harbor
Dec 7, 1941, President FDR was told that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. At about 5:00 p.m., following meetings with his military advisers, the President dictated to his secretary a request to Congress for a declaration of war. At 4:00 p.m. Dec 8, President Roosevelt signed the declaration of war.
“Yesterday, Dec. 7, a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation... The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost… American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu... Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Philippine Islands… Wake Island… Midway Island. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area... I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.”
– FDR Speech to the Nation, Dec 8, 1941

7. III U.S. Japanese Internment
10 weeks after Pearl Harbor, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of anyone from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable.” The military defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Japanese Americans, as a military area. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to internment camps. They were allowed to return home January 2, By the end of the war, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but none of them was of Japanese ancestry. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to recompense each surviving internee with a tax-free check for $20,000 and an apology from the U.S. government.

8. The Battle at Kursk and the Surrender of Italy 1943
A Soviet Artilleryman killed at the Battle of Kursk

9. IV The Battle of Normandy 1944
The Battle of Normandy (June - Aug 1944) resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from the Nazis. It began June 6, 1944 (D-Day) when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed at Normandy (northern France). By late Aug 1944, all of northern France had been liberated.

10. V The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project began May 12, 1942 when FDR signed an order creating a top secret project to develop nuclear weapons.
Einstein had written a letter to FDR warning that German scientists were trying to develop nuclear weapons. This is what led to the Manhattan Project.
155 scientists working on the Manhattan Project signed a petition to President Truman raising grave moral doubts about what they had created. The signers urged President Truman to weigh his "moral responsibilities" when deciding whether to drop A-bombs on inhabited Japanese cities.
First Atomic Bomb Test on July 16, 1945, at Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico

11. The Bombing of Hiroshima, 1945
8:15 AM, “The Little Boy” was dropped over the center of Hiroshima by the Enola Gay. It exploded about 2,000 ft. above the city and had a blast the equivalent to 13 kilotons of TNT. Due to radiation, approximately 152,437 additional people have died.

12. The Bombing of Nagasaki, 1945
B-29 bomber Superfortress, flown by Major Charles W. Sweeney dropped the “Fat Man” on August 9, August 9, the day the Nagasaki bomb was dropped, Truman received a telegram from Samuel McCrea Cavert, a Protestant clergyman, who pleaded with the president to stop the bombing “before any further devastation by atomic bomb is visited upon her [Japan’s] people.” Two days later, Truman replied, “The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast.”

13. Summary Questions
What was Operation Barbarossa? Why did Hitler do this? Did it have to fail? Was it a big mistake? If Hitler had not done this, could the Nazis have won the war?
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
Having read FDR’s speech, what do you think of his response?
Why did FDR intern Japanese Americans? Was this justified?
How was D Day a turning point for WWII?
What was the Manhattan Project? Was it necessary?
Should the US have dropped the bomb on Japan? What may have happened had we chosen not to?

14. Key Vocabulary
D Day Executive Order 9066 Hiroshima Manhattan Project Nagasaki Normandy Operation Barbarossa Pearl Harbor