April 4-8

Monday- notes

Tuesday- notes

Wednesday- notes

Thursday- notes

Friday- notes

JAPAN

-Major events that impacted their country between WWI and WWII.

  • Japan joined the League of Nations
  • Signed 4, 5, and 9 Power Pacts
  • Kellogg-Briand pact
  • Invasion of Manchuria - 1931China Incident- July 1937
    • League of Nations condemned the action but could not enforce its authority as it had not military force
    • Message sent to aggressive countries was that a major power could get away with using force because Great Britain and France did not want war
    • Japan dropped out of the League of Nations shortly after invasion
    • Possessed valuable resources
      • Coal
      • Iron Ore
  • Rape of Nanking- 1937
    • Japan's Military
    • Mass killing of Chinese people
    • Raping of Chinese women and girls
    • Looting/Arson
    • War crime trial
    • Some in Japan have denied that the military killed civilians for no reason
    • Still causes tension between the two countries today
    • There were war crimes trial after the war to try Japanese soldiers for participation
  • Tripartite Pact- 1940Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact- 1941Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact
    • Formation of Axis Powers
      • Albania
      • Finland
      • Thailand
  • Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact
    • Not to fight
    • Japanese considered breaking this once Germany invaded the USSR, but did not- June, 1941
    • Broken by USSR- August 9, 1945
  • Invasion of French Indochina - 1940
    • Importation of fuel and arms
    • Led to occupation of French Indochina
    • US stops trade

-Discuss basic facts: alliance, total casualties, total cost, war goals, etc

  • Hiroshima - 90,000- 146,000
  • Nagasaki- 39,000 - 80,000
  • Total- 2,100,000 to 2,566,000
  • Cost- $56,000,000,000
  • GOALS
    • Control countries that were rich and raw materials
    • Pearl Harbor- Attacked to keep the America's Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japan's Military actions

-Tell us about their leader(s) during WWII

  • Emperor Hirohito
    • Came to power at 15 after his father died
    • Died in 1989
  • Hideki Tojo became Military General during this time
    • Appointed by Hirohito
    • Tried to commit suicide, failed
    • We helped him back to health
    • Then executed him because of war crimes
  • Admiral Yamamoto
    • Planned the Pearl Harbor attack

-Discuss the impact of their Homefront and propaganda and what it was like in their country during the war

-Discuss major battle strategies

  • Japan wanted to secure resources in Southeast Asia and China
  • Attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 to neutralize the US on their way to occupy Malaya and many other territories
    • Stopped trading with Japan
    • Realized they needed US to trade to be successful in the war
    • Tried to force us out of war
    • Knew it was a huge risk, but thought it was the only way to defeat US

-Discuss major battles that the country was involved in

  • Pearl Harbor
    • December 7, 1941
    • Japanese fighter planes attacked the naval base in Hawaii
    • More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died
    • Japan attacked the US to keep them out of the war
  • Battle of Midway
    • June 3, 1942
    • Fought by US and Japan
    • Midway was the last American base in the Pacific and Yamamoto wanted to take it away
    • US won
  • Battle of Iwo JimaBattle of Okinawa- April-June, 1945
    • February 19- March 26 of 1945
    • One of the most famous battles of Pacific War
    • US won
  • Operation DownfallHiroshima ("Little Boy" bomb) and Nagasaki ("Fat Man" bomb)
    • Planned for October 1945
    • Estimated to have over 1 million casualties
    • Estimated to have 267,000 deaths
  • VJ Day
    • August 14/15, 1945 (UK)
    • September 2, 1945 (US)
    • Japan officially signed on USS Missouri
  • Potsdam Conference- July, 1945
    • Announced the terms for Japans surrender
      • US would occupy it
      • Dismantle the current government
      • Japan will consist of only the major islands
      • Japanese military forces will be disarmed and allowed to return home
      • War crime trials for the atrocities committed by Japan
      • Democracy will be promoted (rights)
      • Allowed to have industry so they can make money to pay war reparations

-Discuss other people/generals from their country in WWII that had a major impact on the war

  • Tokyo Rose
    • Host of "Zero Hour"
    • Demoralize American soldiers
    • Make them homesick
  • Isorku Yamamoto
    • Commander-in-chief
    • Led attack on Pearl Harbor
    • Consolidate and expand
    • Led attack at Midway

-Discuss why they won or lost the war

  • Japan awoke a sleeping giant
  • Production
  • Lack of technological advancement
  • Radar
  • Tanks
  • Bombing of Hiroshima
  • Breaking Magic
  • Failure to break our code

-Discuss the impact WWII had on the country

  • Japan was devastated
  • Continued to have shortage of food
  • Eventually lost all land they had taken over
  • Many of their cities the industries, and transportation networks were severely damaged

Areas Controlled by Japan during WWII

  • Several regions in China - 1938- 1945
  • French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos)- July 15, 1940 - August 29, 1945
  • Hong Kong (UK) - December 12, 1940- August 15, 1945
  • Philippines (USA) - January 2, 1942 - November 27, 1944
  • Wake Island (USA)

Areas Attacked by not Conquered

  • Australia
    British Colombia (Canada)
    • Broome
    • Darwin
    • Newcastle
    • Sydney
  • Kohima and Manipur (India)
  • Colombo and Trincomalee (Sri Lanka)
  • United States
    • Santa Barbara (California)
    • Pearl Harbor (Hawaii)
    • Midway Atoll
    • Fort Stevens (Oregon)

GERMANY

-Major events that impacted their country between WWI and WWII.

  • Nazi Party was set up
    • Pressured the Weimar Republic
      • Ruling Class
      • Blamed Jews
    • Beer Hall Putsch
      • Hitler's arrest
      • Mein Kampf
  • Economy
    • Mass unemployment
    • Inflation
  • Treaty of Versailles
    • Germany lost land
      • France
      • Belgium
      • Denmark
      • Poland
      • Czechoslovakia
    • Military was reduced to 100,000 men; the army was not allowed tanks
      • Not allowed to have an air force
      • Allowed only 6 capital ships
    • Had to pay $33 billion to the Allies
    • Anger throughout Germany when the terms were made public
    • Treaty was seen by many Germans as being forced on them and the Germans had no choice but to sign it
    • Many in Germany did not want the Treaty signed
    • German representatives in Paris knew that they had no choice as Germany was incapable of restarting the war again
    • Many right wing groups such as the Nazis believed in the Dolchstoss Theory (Stab in the back theory)
    • Blamed the "November Criminals" (the Weimer Republic) for accepting treaty
  • Weimar Republic
    • Germany had never been a democracy before
    • President appoints judge and is commander in chief
    • Chancellor was the head of the government
    • Hitler came to power legally through the democracy as the Chancellor
  • Beer Hall Putsch- 1923
    • Tried to take over the government
  • Hitler's Trial- 1924Mein Kampf
    • Treason
  • Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
    • August 23, 1939
    • Russia gave raw materials to Germany in exchange for money and weapons
    • Both agreed to stay neutral if the other entered the war
    • Secretly agreed to invade and split Poland. Germany would get the western half and USSR the eastern half
    • Russia would get Finland, Estonia, and Latvia and Germany would get Lithuania
    • World was shocked
    • Poland was scared
    • Hitler though it would force Great Britain and France to back out of their promise to help Poland if attacked

-Discuss basic facts: alliance, total casualties, total cost, war goals, et

  • 5,533,000 military deaths
  • Civilian and Military Deaths- 6,600,000-8,800,000
  • Germany was an Axis power
  • Nazi Goals for Battle of Britain
    • Destroy the Royal Air Force
    • Attack and destroy the British Navy
    • Attack British troops
    • Once air control was gained, the invasion of Great Britain would begin
    • German bombers did so poorly against the RAF that they started bombing at night only
    • Great Britain was aided heavily by the radar and Ultra

-Tell us about their leader(s) during WWII

                -background

                -how they came to power

                -how they lost power

Hitler

  • Born in 1889 in Austria
  • Struggled in school
  • Dad beat him
  • Tried to become a painter, didn't get into art school
  • Loner, struggled
  • Austria didn't accept him to fight for WWI
  • Went to Germany, they accepted him
  • Rose to the ranks because of his speaking skills
  • Appointed Chancellor in 1933
  • Drops out of the League of Nations
  • Starts rearming Germany
  • Rearms the German Rhineland area
  • Anschluss with Austria- 1938
    • Austria became part of Germany
  • Sudetenland Crisis- 1938
  • Takes over all of Czechoslovakia- 1939
    • "Re-uniting German speaking peoples"
    • Sudetenland/Munich Conference- 1938
    • Chamberlain- "Peace for our time"
      • Hitler was given the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia
      • Hitler promised that he was done taking over territories
      • Hitler wanted to re-unite all German speaking people
      • Became known as the "Policy of Appeasement"

-Discuss the impact of their Homefront and propaganda and what it was like in their country during the war

  • Nazi propaganda
  • Rallies and Speeches
    • Speeches given by Hitler
    • parades
  • Nazi bride schools
    • women would go to school to become good Nazi wives
  • Slave Labor
    • Foreigners from countries were taken over by Nazis
  • Children
    • Enlistment age dropped to 13 and many kids fought
  • Nazi Propaganda
    • Very basic level
    • Chosen by God to lead the world

-Discuss major battle strategies

  • Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)
    • Small mobile forces
    • Prevented Warlock
    • Used against
      • Poland
      • Belgium
      • Netherlands
      • France
  • Siegfried Line
    • Stopped tanks
    • Stopped attacks
    • Proved ineffective
  • Atlantic Wall
    • 2,000 mile long defense of 
      • Gun placements
      • Tank traps
      • Obstacles

-Discuss major battles that the country was involved in

  • D-Day
    • Allies had liberated North Africa and pressed on into Italy
    • Hitler refused to surrender
  • Battle of Britain
    • First major military campaign in history to be fought entirely in the air
    • They were trying to win air superiority over Great Britain
    • Luftwaffe
    • May 1941, Germany decided to focus on attacking British ships and ports and thus stopped attacking cities
    • British losses-around 40,000 civilians dead
      • 46,000-139,000 injured
    • German losses- 3,363 aircrew and 2,265 aircraft
    • Britain won by the fact that Germany did not achieve their goals
  • Operation Barbarossa
    • Hitler launched his armies in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union
    • Severely underestimated their opponents
    • Biggest Mistake
  • Sitzkrieg- The Phony War (Sitting War)
    • Everyone was declaring war, but nothing was happening
    • Waiting out the winter
    • Spring time, Hitler went on major offensives
    • Ends in 1940
  • Germany Invaded Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1939
  • Germany Invaded France, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg in 1940
  • France's "Impenetrable" Maginot Line
    • Guns couldn't turn 260 degrees
    • Germany had very good defensive
    • Made it useless for France
  • Miracle of Dunkirk
    • Allowed British and French soldiers to get back to Britain
    • Positive story
  • Axis Invasion of the Balkans was taken over (1941)
  • German Invasion of USSR- June 1941
    • Final plan for Operation Barbarossa
    • Blitzkreig attack
  • Battle of Moscow
    • Soviet Winter Counteroffensive December 6, 1941- April 30, 1942
    • Russian winter sets in and is a huge turning point in war
  • Battle of Stalingrad
    • Winter of 1942-1943
    • Around 2 million total casualties
  • Siege of Leningrad
    • On August 30, 1941, Germans took over Leningrad's railroads, cutting them off from the rest of Russia and the world
    • Unlike the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans surrounded the city to starve the city into submission
    • Between November 1941 and October 1942, 641,000 people died of starvation
    • People resorted to eating rats, wallpaper paste and some resorted to cannibalism
    • Finally, a successful Russian counter-offensive at Stalingrad, drained necessary resources
  • North African Campaign
    • June, 1940- May, 1943
    • Invaded for 10 months and then North Africa was free
  • Italian Campaign
    • Operation Avalanche
    • After North Africa, we invaded Italy
    • Italy surrendered quickly
    • Germany had control of the country
    • Italy surrendered, but was not free
    • Took over the mountain range
  • The Atlantic Wall
    • France to Norway
    • Took 4-5 years
  • July 20, 1944 Assassination Plot
    • Put a bomb in a briefcase
    • Bomb was to kill Hitler
    • He survived the blast
    • Hitler was very upset
    • Hitler stayed in his bunker in Berlin more often
  • Liberation of Paris
    • August 25, 1944
    • Paris is free
  • Battle of the Bulge
    • Hitler's last offensive
    • December 16, 1944- January 28, 1945
  • US and Russian Soldiers Meet at the Elbe River
    • April 25, 1945
  • Hitler Commits Suicide
    • Cyanide and Pistols
    • Fuhrer's Bunker
    • April 30, 1945

-Discuss other people/generals from their country in WWII that had a major impact on the war

  • Walter Von Brauchitsch
    • Commander and Chief of the German Army
  • Joseph Goebbels
    • Minister of Propaganda
  • Erwin RommelHenrich Himmler
    • General- implicated in a plot to overthrow Hitler

-Discuss why they won or lost the war

  • Supply lines were too long
  • Russian winter (Germany not prepared)
  • Troops too spread out
  • Russia had too many soldiers
  • Too many allied countries against Germany

-Discuss the impact WWII had on the country

  • Germany got divided into 4 different zones
  • It had been transformed in 15 years from a Nazi disaster zone to a prosperous immigration zone
  • Germans in both East and West Germany turned away from militarism
  • Weren't nationalistic after the War

HOLOCAUST

  • Genocide of approximately six million European Jews during WWII
  • Program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany throughout Nazi-occupied territory
  • Approximately 2/3 of the population of nine million Jews who had lived in Europe before the Holocaust died
  • Some say that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' killing of millions of people in other groups from Germany and other occupied territory
  • By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people

FRANCE

  • Hitler allowed the Vichy France to control part of France
  • Henri Petain was head 
  • Vichy France was an ally of the Nazis
  • A lot of the French withdrew, fled to Great Britain
    • Free French
    • Our allies
  • Maqui were people in cities that weren't gonna let Germany take over
    • Sabotage and spy on Germany

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