Paper Example on WWII and the Rise of the Atomic Age

Introduction

World War I had left unresolved issues in Europe as it led to the collapse of democratic institutions in Europe and the quest by Germany to advance their conquest to weak neighbors. The National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party assumed power led by Adolf Hitler in 1933. This would later play a significant role in driving the war in Europe. The period was characterized by treaties disobedience especially the Versailles treaty between Germany and the USA. This action was aimed at recovering the lost German territory at the peace settlement of World War I. It was also a nationalistic move to reclaim the German-speaking minorities living in the neighboring countries. The Germans with the Italians and Japanese formed the Axis forces. The other wing was the Allies which consisted of the western governments, the US and the Soviet Union who were massively distrusted. This paper aims to discuss the conflict in Europe and the Pacific region, the beginning of the war and the happenings in the US. The European axis, the Holocaust, the atomic bomb and the eventual end of World War 2 will also be described in detail.

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Conflict in Europe

In 1938, Austria had been occupied by German troops and incorporating it into the Reich.

The German troops forcefully seized Czechoslovakia and later turned their attention to Poland. Josef Stalin secretly signed a peace agreement with Hitler behind the back of fellow Allies (Dzwonchyk, & Skates, 1992). This allowed Stalin to buy time and strengthen himself and Hitler freely attacked Poland. With all these happening, the United States took a neutral position and opted for continental defense and reinforcement of its navy and armed forces. They joined the Allies later but were, however, not interested in upholding the Versailles treaty and the League of Nations covenant.

The Beginning of the War

The war began when Hitler's forces overran western Poland on 1st September 1939.

The Soviet troops came in from the east to recapture part of their territory. Britain and France mobilized their forces and declared war on Germany. This was followed by the Phoney war period characterized by relative inactivity until the spring (Dunne, 1979). This period also had the conception of the idea of the use of tanks by the conflicting parties, a deviation from the World War 1. The Germans attacked Norway and Denmark in the spring of April 1940. They then attacked Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg in May; and later a hilly and wooded district in France. This was heavily aided by a divided command, low morale and primitive communications by the French troops (Wellner, 1982). This led to the British evacuating their forces from Dunkerque and the German Blitzkrieg entry into Paris in 14th June.

The French sued for an armistice, and the other allied members had to reconsider their strategies and doctrines. Hitler then launched the Luftwaffe against various England cities and airfields. This was to prepare for the invasion.

With the Royal Air Force massively outnumbered, the Germans drove the Luftwaffe from the daytime skies through the channel coasts. This eventually shaped up to be the battle of Britain (Wellner, 1982). The increasing American cooperation and the British resistance against the German submarine packs forced Hitler to abandon all plans to invade England. This kept the North Atlantic open.

Conflict in Pacific and Happenings in the US

The US had started to soften their initial neutrality stand. They began offering minimal support to the Allied forces. There was some competition for resources between the Allied members of the European and the Pacific divisions. The Pacific region was divided into two critical fighting zones named: MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) and Admiral Chester Nimtz Pacific Ocean Areas (POA). POA was later subdivided into North, Central and South Pacific command with Nimitz controlling the Central (Dunne, 1979). The war in the Pacific region was characterized by strings of amphibian landings, and inter-island movement was emphasized. Naval, Air and shipping powers were more used here than ground forces. The assault on the Pacific the marines and soldiers were more brutal here than it was in Europe. The Japanese defenders reinforced their protective bunkers with coconut logs, but they were killed eventually. All the battalions here suffered more than 50% casualties. MacArthur's losses in the south-west were relatively fewer because he was fighting on larger landmasses of the Philippines and New Guinea.

In the US, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his military chiefs adopted a joint strategy with Great Britain to ensure the defeat of Germany. They devoted a limited amount of military resources to the Pacific to form a defensive line for Alaska, Hawaii, and Panama against the Japanese West. The US had initially cut off vital American supplies to the Japanese in a quest to force them to end hostilities against China. The Japanese, therefore, saw the US as an obstacle. They, thus, came up with a war plan to neutralize America's fleet at Pearl Harbor. They were then to attack the Philippines, seize the central Pacific bases of Guam and Wake islands and other territories like Burma, Singapore, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (Dunne, 1979).

The American strategists had come up two plans to deter any possible Japanese attack. There was one for the Army and one for the Navy. The Navy planned to fight across the central Pacific against the Japanese fleet, and the Army opted for the creation of a strategic defense line. Efforts were also made to empower the Commonwealth's and Philippines' defenses. On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked and paralyzed the Pacific Fleet standing on Pearl Harbor (Wellner, 1982). The unexpected success of the Japanese overstretched their limits enabling the US to launch successful counterattacks.

European Axis and the Holocaust

A few months into ascendance of the Nazis into power, anti-Semitic persecution started. It was characterized by the firing of Jewish state employees, the destruction of businesses belonging to the Jews, arrests of vital German-Jewish personalities, and other forms of persecutions aimed at the Jews. As a result, nearly two-thirds of the Jewish population in Germany left for America, Palestine and other receptive countries (Dzwonchyk, & Skates, 1992). The German emigration to Palestine known as the Fifth Aliyah. The Axis Powers consisting Germany, Japan, and Italy conquered and destroyed different parts of the world. The Italians were more concentrated in Northern Africa. More than 50 million people from all over the world died, and of this, six million were Jews being victims of the Holocaust who were killed mostly through concentration camps of toxic gases.

Atomic Bombs and End of World War 2

Kyushu erected their naval and air bases to increase their air bombardment and strengthen the maritime blockade at Honshu which is the main Japanese island.

The US had planned a massive invasion in the Tokyo area on 1st March 1946 if Japanese resistance persisted (Dzwonchyk, & Skates, 1992). The Okinawa battle spelled a bloodbath if there was to be an invasion of Japan. They were defenseless along its seas, and their air force was slowly depleted. On 6th and 9th of August Hiroshima and Nagasaki were being burned out by atomic bombs dropped by the US. The monopoly of the nuclear weapon by the Americans gave them the upper hand in safeguarding their security. The Soviet Union declared war on 8 August and all these events pressured the Japanese leaders to surrender on 15 August 1945.

Conclusion

This paper has outlined the World War II conflict involved almost every region of the world from 1939 to 1945. The main parties were the Axis powers included Germany, Italy, and Japan and the Allies had France, Great Britain, the US and the Soviet Union. The war was in many ways a continuation of the World War I. The war left 40 to 50 million deaths and is regarded as the most protracted war in history. The World War II also provided a watershed moment in the 20th-century geopolitical landscape. The Soviet Union's power was extended to nations of Eastern Europe and communism spread to China. Power decisively shifted to the United States and the Soviet Union from Western Europe.

References

Dunne, M. (1979). The Long Shadow: Reflections on the Second World War Era. International Affairs, 55(4), 618-619.

Dzwonchyk, M., & Skates, J. R. (1992). A Brief History of the US Army in World War II. Army Center Of Military History Washington Dc.

Wellner, C. J. (1982). Witness to War: A Thematic Guide to Young Adult Literature on World War II, 1965-1981. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.