World War-II

Rise of Fascism

The Great Depression of the 1930s caused millions of people to lose faith in democracies around the world. Some countries in Europe turned themselves to an extreme system of government called fascism. The word “fascism” derives from the Italian “fasces” which was a bundle of rods with a protruding axe carried before magistrates during the times of the Roman Republic to symbolise their authority as well as the importance of strength through unity. It is associated also with the word “fascio” which referred to small often left-wing political groupings which existed in Italy in the late 19th and early 20^th centuries.

Elements of Fascism

Fascism is a militant political movement that emphasizes loyalty to the state and obedience to its leader. Key elements of Fascism are as follows:

• The individual should distrust reason and simply obey.
• Denial of equality – the strong have an obligation to destroy the weak.
• Violence is an essential tool.
• Government by an elite as the average person is incapable.
• Totalitarian – total state control of the lives of the individuals.
• Racism and Imperialism justified in that certain nations are elite and are obligated to control.
• Permanent mobilization – soldier valued above all other citizens.
• Anything is justified if it serves the state’s ends.
• Fascism emphasizes victory, glorifies war, is cruel to the weak, and is irrational and intolerant.
• By providing a uniform, someone to blame, someone to hate and a leader, fascism restores self-respect.

Totalitarianism and Vanguard Party

To achieve their goals, Fascists rely upon Totalitarianism and Vanguard Party.

• Totalitarianism refers to a political system whereby the state holds total authority over the society and all aspects of private as well as public life.
• Vanguardism refers to a strategy whereby an organization attempts to place itself at the center of the movement, and steer it in a direction consistent with its ideology.

Unlike communism, fascism had no clearly defined theory or program, yet most fascists share the following:

• They adopted an extreme form of nationalism
• They believed that the nations must struggle and the peaceful states were doomed to be conquered.
• They pledged loyalty to an authoritarian leader who guided the state.
• They wore uniforms of a certain color, used special salutes, and held mass rallies.

Similarities with Communism

Fascism was somewhat similar to communism as follows:

• Both systems were ruled by dictators and both allowed one-party
• Both denied individual rights.
• In both, the state was supreme.
• Neither practiced any kind of democracy.

Differences with Communism

• Unlike Communists, Fascists did not seek a classless society. They believed that each class had its place and function.
• Communism claimed to be a dictatorship of the working class but fascist parties were made up of aristocrats and industrialists, war veterans, and the lower middle class generally.
• Fascists were nationalists, and Communists were internationalists because they hoped to unite workers worldwide.

Rise of Mussolini

Italy had joined the WWI to win large territorial gains but it was disappointed at the Paris Peace Conference. There was a growing discontent in Italy over this as well as rising prices and unemployment. The upper classes were fearful of a communist revolution like Russia. The public of Italy was not satisfied with the democratic government and was looking forward to some strong leader.

• In such circumstances, a newspaper editor and politician named Benito Mussolini promised to give a strong leadership, revive Italian economy and its military power.
• He founded the Fascist party in 1919. Initially failed to gain widespread support, but his popularity increased with the fall of the economic conditions of Italy. He is known for skilled use of Fascist tools to gain some support – parades, propaganda, great speeches.
• Mussolini appealed to ex-servicemen, students, the middle class and to all anti-Communists.
• The groups of Fascists wearing black shirts launched a campaign of terror by starting attacking the Communists and Socialists.
• Mussolini played on the fear of the worker’s class and that is why he was able to gain support from the middle classes, the aristocracy, and industrial leaders.

March on Rome, 1922

In October 1922, a crowd of 30,000 Fascists marched on Rome and demanded the King Victor Emmanuel III to put Mussolini in charge of the government. This was a relatively bloodless coup d’état whereby, the Prime Minister Luigi Facta was ousted and king invited Mussolini to form the new government. Hereafter, the King remained a mute spectator of the adventures of Mussolini.

Mussolini dreamed of building a colonial empire in Africa like that of Britain and France. He complained that Britain and France had left only a collection of deserts for him to choose from.

Mussolini was now the Il Duce or the Leader of the Government. He abolished democracy and outlawed all political parties except Fascists. By 1925, Italy was a Totalitarian state, ruled by a Fascist dictator, with all personal freedoms abolished, and all opposition eliminated. The opponents were jailed and murdered. The Radio stations and publications were forced to broadcast or publish only Fascist doctrines. Strikes were outlawed.

To control the economy, he allied the Fascists with the industrialists and large landowners.

Mare Nostrum

Italy had a small number of overseas colonies (3) and wanted more. Mussolini declared the Mediterranean Sea as “Mare Nostrum” (our sea). This would obviously threaten Britain and France’s trade routes. To show his newly found power, Mussolini decided to invade Ethiopia in 1935.

Rise of Nazism

In mid 1920s, when Mussolini was at zenith of power in Italy, Adolf Hitler was a little-known political leader. Born in a small town in Austria in 1889, he dropped out of high school and failed as an artist.

In early 1920, he joined a tiny right-wing political group, which shared his belief that Germany had to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and combat communism. The group later named itself the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), called Nazi for short.

Nazi Policies

• Nazi Policies supported by people in the middle and lower middle classes, formed the German brand of fascism known as Nazism.
• They adopted Swastika as their symbol and set up a private militia called the storm troopers or Brownshirts.
• His skills of an organizer and speaker led him to be chosen as der Führer or the leader, of the Nazi

Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 (Munich Putsch)

Inspired by Mussolini’s march on Rome, Hitler and the Nazis plotted to seize power in Munich in 1923. This is called Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 (Munich Putsch). The attempt failed, and Hitler was arrested. He was tried for treason, but sympathetic judges sentenced him to only five years in prison. He served less than nine months.

Influence of Social Darwinism on Hitler

While in jail, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle). This book set forth his beliefs and his goals for Germany. This book became the blueprint for the Nazis.

In this book Hitler divided humans into categories based on physical appearance, establishing higher and lower orders, or types of humans. At the top, according to Hitler, is the Germanic man with his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Hitler refers to this type of person as an Aryan. He asserts the Aryan is the supreme form of human, or master race.

While propounding his theory, Hitler was greatly influenced by the Social Darwinism.

He declared that non- Aryan “races”—such as Jews, Slavs, and Gypsies—were inferior or subhuman. But it is the Jews who are engaged in a conspiracy to keep this master race from assuming its rightful position as rulers of the world, by tainting its racial and cultural purity and even inventing forms of government in which the Aryan comes to believe in equality and fails to recognize his racial superiority. Thus, in this book, Hitler painted Jews as mightiest counterparts of the Aryans.

He called the Versailles Treaty an outrage and vowed to regain the lands taken from Germany.  He also declared that Germany was overcrowded and needed more lebensraum, or living space. He promised to get that space by conquering Eastern Europe and Russia.

Seize of Power

Once leaving the Prison in 1924, he revived the Nazi party. The Nazi Party gradually increased its numbers in the Reichstag (German Parliament) between 1928-33. In 1928, the Nazi’s held 12 seats, while in 1929, it was having 107 seats.

In 1932, President Von Hindenburg put Von Pappen in as Chancellor. In an election in the same year, Nazi’s won 230 seats and Hitler demanded to be next Chancellor. In another election, Nazi’s dropped to 196 seats and the Communists won 100 seats.

These were the years of the Great Depression. The German economy failed and nearly six million people, about 30 percent of Germany’s work force, were unemployed in 1932. There was a civil unrest in Germany. The illusion Germans now look towards Hitler for security and firm leadership. Civil unrest broke out. Frightened and confused, Germans now turned to Hitler, hoping for security and firm leadership.

In the absence of an effective government, two influential politicians, Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg, along with several other industrialists and businessmen, wrote to President von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government “independent from parliamentary parties“.

Von Pappen and Hindenburg supported Hitler because they believed that only Hitler could stand up to the strong Communist party in Germany. Thus Hitler came to power legally. Immediately after coming into power, Hitler called for new elections, hoping to win a parliamentary majority.

Six days before the election, a fire destroyed the German parliament Reichstag building. The Nazis blamed the Communists and vice versa.  The SA (Brownshirts) and the SS (SS refers to the Schutzstaffel or protection squad. It was an army loyal only to Hitler) organized terror and intimidation in the streets of Germany.  By stirring up fear of the Communists, the Nazis and their allies won a slim majority.

Enabling Act

With majority control, Hitler demanded dictatorial, or absolute, power for four years. The act gave Hitler’s cabinet full legislative powers for a period of four years and (with certain exceptions) allowed deviations from the constitution.

Hitler used his new power to turn Germany into a totalitarian state. He banned all other political parties and had opponents arrested.

In 1934, the SS arrested and murdered hundreds of Hitler’s enemies. The Nazis quickly took command of the economy. New laws banned strikes, dissolved independent labor unions, and gave the government authority over business and labor. Hitler put millions of Germans to work. They constructed factories, built highways, manufactured weapons, and served in the military. As a result, unemployment dropped from about 6 to 1.5 million in 1936.

The government turned press, radio, literature, painting, and film into propaganda tools. Books that did not conform to Nazi beliefs were burned in huge bonfires. Churches were forbidden to criticize the Nazis or the government. Schoolboys had to join the Hitler Youth and schoolgirls had to join the League of German Girls.

Atrocities on Jews

Hatred of Jews was a key part of Nazi ideology. The Jews were less than one percent of the population, yet they were blamed by Nazis responsible for all of Germany’s troubles. Thus, there was a wave of anti-Semitism across Germany. Numerous laws were passed depriving Jews of their rights.

Night of the Broken Glass

On the night of November 9, 1938, Nazis attacked Jews in their homes and on the streets and destroyed thousands of Jewish-owned buildings. This rampage is called Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass). This process signalled the real start of the Holocaust or eliminating the Jews from German life.

Rise of Militarism in Japan

With the spread of Fascism and Nazism in Europe, Japan also moved towards a similar system. In the 1920s, Japan was a parliamentary monarchy. This system kept several limits on the Prime Minister and his cabinet. Moreover, the military was out of the control of the civilian leaders because military directly reported to the emperor and not the parliament.

Japan remained peaceful and prosperous till the Great Depression. The Government was blamed for all the problems during the great depression. Thus, the public support tilted more and more towards the Military.

However, the Military in Japan did not try to establish a new system of government. The objective of the military was to restore the traditional control of the government in the hands of the military and not the parliament. Thus, the military made King as symbol of their power instead of some radical leader such as Hitler or Mussolini of Europe.

However, the militarists of Japan were very much nationalists, who wanted to solve the country’s economic problems by foreign expansion. Their dream was a Japanese Pacific empire which would include conquered China. This dream empire would provide Japan with raw materials and markets for its goods.

Major Events of World War II

Invasion of Manchuria

In 1931, the Japanese army invaded and seized Manchuria, a north east province of China where lot of Japanese had invested. The Japanese army placed a puppet government over there. This was the first direct challenged to the League of Nations, of which all the major countries except US were members. The members of League protested but there was no action against Japan, because the LON was not worth to enforce its decision. Japan ignored the protests and as a response withdrew from the League in 1933.

Japanese Invasion on China

In 1937, there was a full fledged war between China and Japan. Beijing and other northern cities as well as the capital, Nanjing, fell to the Japanese in 1937.  In Nanjing, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed by the Japanese armies. The Chinese guerrillas led by China’s Communist leader, Mao Zedong, also continued to fight in the conquered area.

Italy’s Attack on Ethiopia

LON was unable to stop militarism of Japan. Encouraged by this, Mussolini ordered a massive invasion of Ethiopia in October 1935. In this attack, the Ethiopians responded with spears and swords to the Italian airplanes, tanks, guns, and poison gas.  The Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie urgently appealed to the League for help. League condemned the attack and did nothing.

Britain also let the Italian troops and supplies pass through the Suez Canal (which was controlled by Britain) on their way to Ethiopia, because they believed that it might help to keep a peaceful Europe.

Hitler Defies Versailles Treaty

Germany under Hitler had already started re-arming itself despite the restriction imposed on it in the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Hitler formally announced that Germany would not obey these restrictions. LON issued just a condemnation.

Reoccupation of Rhineland by Japan & Policy of Appeasement

The treaty of Versailles had forbidden German troops to enter a 30-mile-wide zone on either side of the Rhine River (Rhineland), which was supposed to be a buffer zone between Germany and France.

Policy of Appeasement

Appeasement involved the governments of Britain and France tolerating Germany’s territorial expansion and violation of the military terms of the Treaty of Versailles, in the hope of avoiding another war. Appeasement involved the governments of Britain and France tolerating Germany’s territorial expansion and violation of the military terms of the Treaty of Versailles, in the hope of avoiding another war.

In March 1936, German troops moved into the Rhineland. The French were stunned but unwilling to risk war.  A policy of appeasement was followed and British urged France to give that area to Germany, so that peace can be maintained. However, Hitler was just checking the level of water; he later admitted that he would have turned back if there was a challenge from France or Britain.

The German reoccupation of the Rhineland was a turning point. It strengthened Hitler’s power and prestige within Germany. The balance of power once again was in Germany’s favour. The weak response by France and Britain encouraged Hitler to speed up his military and territorial expansion.

The growing strength of Hitler convinced Mussolini that he should seek an alliance with him. In October 1936, the two dictators reached an agreement that was known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.

A month later, Germany also made an agreement with Japan. Germany, Italy, and Japan came to be called the Axis Powers. This was followed by German annexation of Austria in 1938, Czechoslovakia (September 1938 and March 1939). During the annexation of Czechoslovakia, the France and Britain again resorted to policy of appeasement.

In 1939, Hitler eyed Poland. He spoke before the Reichstag and demanded that the Polish Corridor, along with its port city of Danzig, be returned to Germany. After World War I, the Allies had cut out the Polish Corridor from German territory to give Poland access to the sea. At this point, Great Britain and France decided to resist German aggression.

The Nonaggression Pact between Germany and Russia

On August 23, 1939, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin signed a 10-year nonaggression pact with Hitler. Publicly, they promised not to attack each other, secretly, they agreed that they would divide Poland between them. They also secretly agreed that the USSR could take over Finland and the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) without any resistance from German side. Thus, Germany was now free of any threat from East. Now it was time to materialize the plan to annex Poland.

Attack on Poland

Germany gave a surprise attack on Poland on September 1, 1939. At the same time, German tanks and troop trucks embarked into the Polish territory carrying 1.5 million soldiers.

There was a merciless Bombing on Warsaw. This was the beginning of World War II.

On 3 September 1939, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. But Poland fell before those nations could make any military response. After the victory, the western Half of Poland was annexed by Hitler.

German invasion of Poland was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy called blitzkrieg or “lightning war.” This strategy involved use of fast-moving airplanes and tanks, followed by massive infantry forces, to take the enemy by surprise.

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg tactics involved coordinating ground and air forces, such as tanks and bombers, to strike extremely quickly and overrun the enemy. It also relied on slower moving ground forces moving in after the initial attack and ‘mopping up’. The tactics were successful mainly because of their speed, the element of surprise, and the Allies’ lack of experience in defending against fast moving coordinated land and air forces.

On September 17, after his secret agreement with Hitler, Stalin sent Soviet troops to occupy the eastern half of Poland. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and Finally Finland were taken by Stalin’s forces.

The Phoney War

The fall of Warsaw was followed months of the so called Phoney War, in which the Allies built up weapons stocks, but made no move against Germany. After this boring period of Phoney war, Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway in April 1940 and occupied both these nations.

Surrender of France

On 10 May 1940, Hitler pushed west towards France, overrunning the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. German forces broke through the Ardennes, and reached Abbeville on the northern French coast, trapping the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to aid France.

As the German army surged towards Paris, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the BEF, who were hemmed in around the port of Dunkirk, to evacuate. The German army entered Paris on 19 June, and three days later the French signed an armistice with Germany. Thus, France fell within days of German attack. A puppet government was established at Paris.

Operation Sea lion & Battle of Britain

Having overcome France in June 1940, Hitler turned his attention to Britain, the one remaining country of significance that resisted him. Germany then turned its attention to defeating Britain. The plan to invade southern England under the codename Operation Sea lion, but before they could be put into effect, the Germans needed to achieve dominance of the skies.

An aerial conflict raged between August and October 1940, which was known as the Battle Britain. Germans launched their air strike warfare Luftwaffe, under the command of Herman Göring, against the Fighter Command of the British Royal Air Force (RAF), led by Air Marshal Hugh Dowding. The problem with the Luftwaffe was that the German Aircraft, though superiority in number, were often close to their extreme flight range and so could operate for only a short time in British airspace.

On 12 August 1940, concerted German attacked on British air-fields, but attempts to overwhelm the RAF with a mass attack failed. The RAF survived the attacked and remained resilient. The German chances of destroying the RAF had ended within a month.

The Rats of Tobruk

Italy entered the war on Germany’s side in June 1940. Its leader, Mussolini, planned to conquer Egypt from the Italian territory of Libya. However, they faced a British counterattack into Libya, capturing Bardia, Tobruk and Benghazi early in 1941.

Hitler sent General Rommel with German forces to support the Italians in Libya. Rommel drove the British back into Egypt, although Allied troops held on to Tobruk. German propaganda described these men as ‘trapped like rats’, but the ‘Rats of Tobruk’ proved very aggressive and successful, despite primitive conditions and a complete lack of air support. Finally, Rommel did capture Tobruk in June 1942.

Thus, ‘Rats of Tobruk’ were a small force of Australian soldiers who captured and held the city of Tobruk in Libya in 1941. Despite a major German and Italian offensive to recapture Tobruk, the Australians held the city until June 1942. The soldiers were described as being ‘trapped like rats’ in German propaganda, but the Australians adopted the nickname themselves.

German Invasion of USSR – Operation Barbarossa

Ever since the 1920s, Hitler had viewed the western USSR as a possible area for German expansion to provide Lebensraum or living space for a growing population.

The peak of the Axis campaign in Europe was the Blitzkrieg invasion of the Soviet Union, which began in June 1941. Code-named Operation Barbarossa, it is still considered to be one of the largest military operations of human history in terms of manpower, area covered and casualties. The Axis force was made up of over three million troops, 3600 tanks and 4300 aircraft. In 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a treaty, agreeing to remain neutral if either was attacked. The invasion in 1941 broke this agreement.

There were several reasons for the invasion.

• The large landmass of Eastern Europe was to provide Lebensraum (‘living space’) for ethnic Germans, and would provide useful resources for the war effort. The motivations were also ideological.
• The Nazis hated communism and considered Russia’s Slavic peoples to be racially inferior to Germans.

Despite the fact that Hitler had outlined a plan to invade the Soviet Union in Mein Kampf, the invasion caught the Soviets unprepared. Germany won several major battles and captured huge areas of territory, while the Soviet army was forced to retreat.

By November 1941, German forces were within striking distance of Moscow, the capital of the USSR. However, the German forces were unable to capture Moscow. They were unprepared for the harshness of the Soviet winter and were met by stubborn resistance.

When the winter of 1941–42 ended and the Germans could manoeuvre again, Hitler directed his forces to southern Russia and its oil­fields. Their advance eventually came to a halt at Stalingrad (now known as Volgograd) in September 1942, in a battle that would become one of the bloodiest in history.

Battle of Stalingrad

The industrial city of Stalingrad stood on the west bank of the Volga river in southern Russia, controlling the vital river and rail connections that carried oil supplies to the armament factories of central Russia.

Thwarted in his desire to capture Moscow the previous winter, Hitler ordered a thrust in the spring and summer of 1942 to capture Stalingrad and the oil reserves further south in the Caucasus.

Operation Blue and Operation Uranus

Operation Blue was a general German Offensive that began on 29 June 1942. The German army moved to secure Stalingrad. Sustained air attacks on 23 August began the main assault, and the same day German troops reached the Volga north of the city.

But this was the limit of their success – an astonishingly tenacious Soviet resistance bogged the 6th Army down in house-to-house fighting.

On 19 November, the Red Army was still somehow clinging on to a small strip along the Volga when Soviet General Zhukov ordered a counterattack, Operation Uranus.

The Soviet forces crashed through the German army and within four days had the Axis side surrounded. There was a failed German attempt to revive victory. After that the remnants of German Army finally surrendered on 2 February 1943, at a cost of around 170,000 dead.

Tide of war turns in Europe

By 1943, the German tactics had lost the element of surprise, and their wartime success had peaked. At this point, Britain (including its Free dominions such as Australia), the USA, the Soviet Union and the Free French Forces formed an alliance to force Germany and its allies into an unconditional surrender.

From 1943, the Soviet army in­flicted a series of defeats on Germany. By 1945, Germany had been forced out of most of Eastern Europe; with Soviet troops occupying Russia, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and the Baltic States. The Russians continued their advance into Germany, and reached the German capital, Berlin, in April.

In Western Europe, the Allies began major bombing campaigns on Germany from 1942, initially focusing on destroying air‑fields but later bombing industrial cities. This campaign failed to significantly affect German morale or industries, and on its own could not win the war. The Allies developed a plan to invade France. On 6 June 1944, around 160 000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, in Northern France. This operation, known as ‘D-Day’, precipitated the Liberation of France in August 1944.

The end of the war in Europe

In September 1944, Allied ground troops invaded Germany from the west. The Allies continued bombing major German cities, including Berlin. In April, the Soviets encircled Berlin and launched an assault. Hitler remained in Berlin, to direct the defence of the city from his bunker. Although most of the city’s population was mobilised, the Soviets seized Berlin after a week of fighting in the streets. Hitler committed suicide on 30 April, and Germany officially surrendered on 7 May 1945.

Japan’s Entry and Attack on Pearl Harbour 1941

The event that symbolises Japan’s entry into World War II was the attack on Pearl Harbour. When World War II began in Europe, the attention of Britain, France and USA was diverted away from Japan. Despite evidence of Japanese aggression, there was still a belief that the Japanese did not pose a significant threat.

The attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941 alerted the Allies to the nature of the Japanese threat. Japan hoped to destroy America’s Pacific Fleet as a preventative strike to stop American interference in the Pacific.

Rather than preventing American intervention, the attack caused the Allies to declare war on Japan. Following the attack on Pearl Harbour, Japanese forces quickly occupied Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island. They also conquered Burma in the west, and pushed south through French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) and the Dutch East Indies to reach Australia’s doorstep in New Guinea.

Britain and the USA had seriously underestimated Japan’s military ability. This, together with the element of surprise and the imaginative use of combined naval and air forces by the Japanese, gave Japan an early advantage.

The fall of Singapore

The fall of Singapore was the largest surrender of a British-led force in history. It was a defining moment of the war in the Pacific. It also had major implications for India’s freedom struggle.

At the time, Singapore was a British colony and the key naval base in the region. The ‘Singapore Strategy’ was also a key part of Australia’s military defence planning which was based on British assurances that, should Japan ever attack South-East Asia, the main British fleet would be sent to Singapore to tackle the Japanese navy and protect Australia.

The Japanese ‑first bombed Singapore on 8 December 1941, the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. On the same day, the Japanese landed forces on the north-east coast of Malaya (now Malaysia). Malaya and Singapore were defended by a force of around 85 000 Allied troops, including the 8th Division of the Second AIF, and the British believed that it could withstand any attack.

They also believed that the Japanese were incapable of fighting their way down to Singapore through the rugged terrain of the Malay Peninsula. Convinced that any threat to Singapore would come from the sea, the Allies focused their defences on the coast. Despite a strong Allied presence in Malaya, the Japanese army won a series of battles over six weeks. After being held in reserve, the Australian 8th Division was deployed to stop the Japanese advance in January 1942. It suffered heavy casualties before being ordered to retreat to Singapore.

The Japanese siege of Singapore lasted for just a week and, despite outnumbering their enemies, the Allies surrendered on 15 February 1942. In addition to the 50 000 Allied soldiers taken prisoner in Malaya, around 80 000 were taken prisoner after the fall of Singapore.

Controversially, a small number of soldiers, escaped on ships to avoid capture. The vast majority of soldiers could not escape and one-third of them did not survive the Japanese prisoner of war (POW) camps. Under the  Bataan Death March, the Japanese subjected prisoners to terrible cruelties

The Allies Strike Back

Due to the string of victories, the Japanese seemed unbeatable. However, the Allies— mainly Americans and Australians were anxious to strike back in the Pacific.

In April 1942, the United States wanted revenge for Pearl Harbour. So the United States sent 16 B-25 bombers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle to bomb Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. The bombs did little damage. The attack, however, made an important psychological point: the Japanese could be attacked.

This raid raised American morale and shook the confidence of the Japanese. At the same time, the Japanese had won a vast empire that was impossible to defend and control.

In May 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea took place in which airplanes taking off from huge aircraft carriers from opposing ships did all the fighting. The battle was somewhat a draw but Japanese southward expansion could be stopped.  The next battle was the Battle of Midway in which the allies won. This battle turned the tide of war in the Pacific against the Japanese. The Japanese were building an air base on the Island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The allied strike this island and as many as 23000 Japanese men out of 36000 were killed.   The Japanese abandoned the island saying it the Island of Death.” In fall of 1944, the Bloodiest battle was fought in Okinawa in which Japanese lost 110,000 troops, and the Americans, 12,500.

Atomic Bombs

To bring the war at a quick end and to make Japan surrender, the US president Truman had to make a decision whether to use the Atomic Bomb. It had been developed by the top-secret Manhattan Project, headed by General Leslie Groves and chief scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The first atomic bomb was exploded in a desert in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. President Truman then warned the Japanese. He told them that unless they surrendered, they could expect a “rain of ruin from the air.”

The Japanese did not reply. So, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a Japanese city of 365,000 people. Almost 73,000 people died in the attack.

Three days later, on August 9, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a city of 200,000. It killed about 37,500 people. Radiation killed many more.

The Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur on September 2. The surrender took place aboard the United States battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. With Japan’s surrender, the war had ended. Now, countries faced the task of rebuilding a war-torn world.

Japan under US Occupation – Demilitarization of Japan

General Douglas MacArthur, now became the supreme commander for the Allied powers, accepted the Japanese surrender. He took charge of the U.S. occupation. MacArthur was advised to be fair and not to plant the seeds for a future war. However, to ensure that fighting would end, he began a process of demilitarization—disbanding the Japanese armed forces.

This was accomplished quickly. Japanese were left with only a small police force. The war criminals were brought to trial and out of 25 surviving defendants, former Premier Hideki Tojo and six others were hanged.

Democratization of Japan

In February 1946, MacArthur and his American political advisers drew up a new constitution for Japan. This changed the empire into a parliamentary democracy like that of Great Britain. The Japanese accepted the constitution. It went into effect on May 3, 1947.

Birth of United Nations

The term “United Nations” was first officially used on 1 January 1942, when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter, pledging to continue the war effort. So, the first “Declaration by United Nations” dates back to January 1, 1942, when representatives of twenty-six nations pledged their governments to continue fighting together to defeat the Axis powers and to obtain a “just” peace.

Thus, unlike the League, the UN started off as an alliance that came into being soon after the American entry to the war, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and Germany’s declaration of war on the United States in December 1941.

After the war, United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the strongest nations on earth. Germany and Japan were occupied and militarily emasculated. In sum, the world was transformed and now there was a bipolar world order emerging very slowly. But the UN was created, in part, to manage the transformation of the World during the 1940s.

Yalta Conference / Potsdam Conference

The main allies of the World War II are also known as Big Three. The big three included the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The First World War II conference between these Big Three was the Tehran Conference that was held from November 28 to December 1, 1943. It was codenamed Eureka. After this conference, the Yalta Conference followed on February 4 to 11, 1945 at Yalta in Crimea. So it was known as Crimea Conference and was codenamed the Argonaut Conference. The participants of these conference were Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. It was this conference in which the reorganization of Europe after the war was to be decided. Germany was made to accept that it would undergo demilitarization and denazification.

In the Yalta Conference, it was also decided that fight against the Empire of Japan to be concluded within 90 days after the defeat of Germany. The important conference after the Yalta Conference was the Potsdam Conference, which was held from July to August 1945. In this conference, Clement Attlee was there as PM in waiting and as soon as the  Labour Party’s got victory over the Conservatives, Atlee had replaced Churchill as Prime Minister of England. From US side, it was President Henry S Truman to participate in the conference. The major outcome of this conference was the “Potsdam Declaration” which asked Japan to Surrender.

Dumbarton Oaks conference

As mentioned above, akin to the League of Nations, UN was an initiative of the American president. This time it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose administration pushed for the creation of the UN during the last years of the war. In August 1944 delegates from China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States met at Dumbarton Oaks, a private estate in Washington, D.C., to draw up the basic blueprint for the new international organization.

This was known as the Dumbarton Oaks conference. It was held from August 21, 1944 through October 7, 1944 at Washington DC and in this conference the text of the UN Charter was discussed.  By October the outline for the UN Charter was ready. After the surrender of Germany in April of the following year (and the death of Roosevelt in the same month), the charter was signed in San Francisco on June 26, 1945. Japan was put on its knee by Atomic Bombs. It is said that Truman was not aware of the bombs prior to death of Roosevelt. President Truman ordered the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. On October 24, 1945, with the Pacific war also concluded, the United Nations officially came into existence.