World War II

Rise of Japan

• Review:– 1853: Japan opened to outside trade– 1868 Mutsuhito (Meiji) comes to throne and

modernizes– 1894-1895 Japan attacks and defeats China

• Sino-Japanese War– 1904-1905 Japan attacks and defeats Russia

• Russo-Japanese War• Annexes Korea• First time an Asian nation defeated a Western or European

nation• Japan is lone Asian great power

During World War I

• Obtained German holdings in Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and China

• Later obtained a permanent seat in League of Nations Council

Rise of Militarism

• 1930s: Weakened by depression– Silk trade (the main export) collapsed – hurt

farmers• But price of rice went up• Many left for other countries (e. g. the United States)

– Weaknesses in gov’t (weak parliament, corruption, communist party) led to attempted coups• Allowed the military to gain more power

Rise of Totalitarianism

• Totalitarianism – Gov’t (led by dictator) controlled every aspect of life– Examples: Hitler and National Socialism (Nazi),

Josef Stalin and Soviet Communism

U.S.S.R.

• Lenin instituted NEP– Step toward capitalism

• Lenin died 1924– Power vacuum– Stalin (from Georgia) won 1929

Stalinist Russia• Joseph Stalin– Revered Lenin

• Cult of Personalities– Revolution from above

• Force heavy industry• Collectivization of Agriculture

– Merge all farms into state run farms– Dekulakization

• Purges– Use of terror

» End counterrevolutionaries– Get rid of old Bolsheviks

» Stalin rewrote history with himself as hero» Left only yes-men

– Purge army– Sent people to gulags

– Marxism?

Rise of Fascism

• Fascism (coined by Benito Mussolini)– Nation is driving force– No individualism (or human rights)– Violence is revered– Ultra nationalism– Antithesis of classical liberalism

Rise of Fascism

• Italy– Broken from WWI– Socialist movement

– Mussolini• Black shirts

– March on Rome– Given Prime Minister

» Il Duce• Tried to build Italian Empire

– Invaded Ethiopia

Spain

• Francisco Franco– Became dictator• Suppressed culture

– Spanish Civil War• As Hitler was building up, he supported and tested

tactics against Spanish Republicans

Rise of Fascism

• Germany– National Socialism – Nazism

– Weimar Republic (formed at end of WWI)• Problems

– Many parties– Blamed for Versailles Treaty– Jews became scapegoats– Runaway inflation

» Reparations• Americans help with reparations

– Until Great Depression

– Hitler• Formed Brown Shirts (Stormtroopers)• 1923 failed coup

– Wrote Mein Kampf in prison» Aryans» Jews have no state» Lebensraum» Germany needs to be powerful

• Needs a dictator

• Hitler campaigns– Great Depression caused 40% unemployment• 1932: Nazis were largest party in parliament

– Communists 2nd

• 1933 Became Chancellor (to stamp out communism)– Dismantled constitution

» Sole dictator Der Führer• 1934

– Purged party» Wanted to owe nothing

– Gestapo

• Became totalitarian– Stamped out culture– Spread anti-Semitism– Hitler Youth

• “A bomber aircraft on take-off carries 12 dozen bombs, each weighing 10 kilos. The aircraft takes off for Warsaw the international centre for Jewry. It bombs the town. On take-off with all bombs on board and a fuel tank containing 100 kilos of fuel, the aircraft weighed about 8 tons. When it returns from the crusade, there are still 230 kilos left. What is the weight of the aircraft when empty ?"

Beginning of WWII

• Hitler dismantled Treaty of Versailles– Stopped reparations– Built up army– League of Nations was weak• Policy of Appeasement• Hitler got all Ethnic Germans together

– Austria and Sudetenland• 1938 Conference at Munich

– Neville Chamberlain• 1939 Hitler took Czechoslovakia

• 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact– Soviets stay out of war

• Carve up Eastern Europe

• Hitler invaded Poland (4 weeks)– Western powers declare war

• 6 months to mobilize – “phony war”

• Hitler took Belgium, Netherlands, and France in a few weeks (June 1940)– Puppet gov’t set up in Vichy, France

• Bombed Britain– British developed radar (so Hitler turned east)

• 1941 Turned on U.S.S.R. (goal all along—lots of commies and Jews)– June 22 – Operation Barbarossa• Almost got to Moscow• Besieged Leningrad• Turning point at Stalingrad

• Dec 7,1941 Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor– Japanese expanding and tried to knock out only power

that could stop them

Holocaust

• Racial Purity• First: expel Jews to an island (not feasible)– Revoked citizenship– Sent them to ghettos and labor (concentration)

camps• Final Solution– Extermination• Labor camps death camps (Auschwitz)

Allies

• 1942 Soviet Union doing the suffering– Stalin wanted invasion of France– Churchill went to North Africa first (British Empire)– Churchill then went to Italy (Communists)

• 1944 Allies finally Invade France– D-Day June 6, 1944• Beginning of the end of war• Clear that Germany would lose

– Russians were marching toward Berlin

• V-E Day May 8, 1945

Plans for Recovery• 1943 Big Three Met in Tehran– Churchill, Stalin, FDR– Laid out plans of invading Germany

• February 1945 Yalta– Stalin had upper hand

• Got control of Eastern Europe with “Democratic” elections

• Germany divided into Four occupation zones

• Stalin wanted all Russian POWs sent home

• Japan was a matter of the United States– USSR would join when Germany

was defeated

• Potsdam July 1945 (By now: Truman is president)– U.S. and G.B. tried to force Stalin to allow fair elections in

Eastern Europe• Would have taken a war

• United Nations formed– June 1945– More effective

• U.S. and U.S.S.R joined

Recovery

• Massive economic disaster– Marshall Plan• Americans to rescue• Gave aid, not loans

– You had to cooperate – Eastern Europe refused by Soviet Bloc

» Western Countries benefitted a lot• Wanted Western Europe to be thriving democracies

– And markets

• Hirohito: Emperor of Japan

The Pacific Theater• Japan was very democratic as of 1922– High standard of living

– Industrialization led to major conglomerates (zaibatsu)• Powerful firms led to corrupt gov’t

• Ultranationalism emerged– Violently anti-western, big business, democracy, Marx

• Blamed for destruction of older superior Japanese practices• Revived old ways (samurai code, divinity of emperor• “Asia for the Asians”

• Great depression hit– Ultra-nationalists blamed system, people believed

it

• New markets needed; Rise of nationalism in China– Incident created and Manchuria invaded 1931• Left League of Nations

• 1937, invasion of China– Quickly took Beijing – Took capital, Nanjing, and major atrocities were

committed.• “Rape of Nanjing”

– Japan held coast, but Chinese Nationalists and Communists fought on

Expansion

• Empire not self sufficient• 1940 – Alliance with Germany and Italy– Used French and British vulnerability to invade SE

Asia• US applied sanctions (cut off scrap metal, oil, and froze

Japanese assets)– War inevitable

• December 1941 – Pearl Harbor

• Defeated Dutch and British armies to seize Hong Kong and Southeast Asia– Also took Philippines in 1942

Pacific Theater• Turning point Coral Sea and Midway

• Island hopping – Take Philippines– Iwo Jima– Okinawa

• Instead of invading Japan, Truman dropped Atomic Bomb (Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945; Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945)– Save lives?– Show Soviet Union what they had?

• V-J Day August 14, 1945

Since WWII

• Allies (the U.S. occupied Japan)– Clean house of connections to the old regime• Favored liberals and wrote constitution

– Keep emperor in place (figurehead)

Since WWII

• Japan was a major ally when China became communist 1949

• Became independent 1952• Complete recovery– Consumer culture (“Coca-Colonization”)– Industry