essay about second world war

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World War II

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 7, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

World War II, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history, involved more than 50 nations and was fought on land, sea and air in nearly every part of the world. Also known as the Second World War, it was caused in part by the economic crisis of the Great Depression and by political tensions left unresolved following the end of World War I.

The war began when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and raged across the globe until 1945, when Japan surrendered to the United States after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the end of World War II, an estimated 60 to 80 million people had died, including up to 55 million civilians, and numerous cities in Europe and Asia were reduced to rubble.

Among the people killed were 6 million Jews murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler’s diabolical “Final Solution,” now known as the Holocaust. The legacy of the war included the creation of the United Nations as a peacekeeping force and geopolitical rivalries that resulted in the Cold War.

Leading up to World War II

The devastation of the Great War (as World War I was known at the time) had greatly destabilized Europe, and in many respects World War II grew out of issues left unresolved by that earlier conflict. In particular, political and economic instability in Germany, and lingering resentment over the harsh terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty, fueled the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and National Socialist German Workers’ Party, abbreviated as NSDAP in German and the Nazi Party in English..

Did you know? As early as 1923, in his memoir and propaganda tract "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), Adolf Hitler had predicted a general European war that would result in "the extermination of the Jewish race in Germany."

After becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hitler swiftly consolidated power, anointing himself Führer (supreme leader) in 1934. Obsessed with the idea of the superiority of the “pure” German race, which he called “Aryan,” Hitler believed that war was the only way to gain the necessary “Lebensraum,” or living space, for the German race to expand. In the mid-1930s, he secretly began the rearmament of Germany, a violation of the Versailles Treaty. After signing alliances with Italy and Japan against the Soviet Union , Hitler sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 and the following year annexed Czechoslovakia. Hitler’s open aggression went unchecked, as the United States and Soviet Union were concentrated on internal politics at the time, and neither France nor Britain (the two other nations most devastated by the Great War) were eager for confrontation.

Outbreak of World War II (1939)

In late August 1939, Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact , which incited a frenzy of worry in London and Paris. Hitler had long planned an invasion of Poland, a nation to which Great Britain and France had guaranteed military support if it were attacked by Germany. The pact with Stalin meant that Hitler would not face a war on two fronts once he invaded Poland, and would have Soviet assistance in conquering and dividing the nation itself. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II.

On September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. Under attack from both sides, Poland fell quickly, and by early 1940 Germany and the Soviet Union had divided control over the nation, according to a secret protocol appended to the Nonaggression Pact. Stalin’s forces then moved to occupy the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and defeated a resistant Finland in the Russo-Finnish War. During the six months following the invasion of Poland, the lack of action on the part of Germany and the Allies in the west led to talk in the news media of a “phony war.” At sea, however, the British and German navies faced off in heated battle, and lethal German U-boat submarines struck at merchant shipping bound for Britain, sinking more than 100 vessels in the first four months of World War II.

World War II in the West (1940-41)

On April 9, 1940, Germany simultaneously invaded Norway and occupied Denmark, and the war began in earnest. On May 10, German forces swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in what became known as “blitzkrieg,” or lightning war. Three days later, Hitler’s troops crossed the Meuse River and struck French forces at Sedan, located at the northern end of the Maginot Line , an elaborate chain of fortifications constructed after World War I and considered an impenetrable defensive barrier. In fact, the Germans broke through the line with their tanks and planes and continued to the rear, rendering it useless. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was evacuated by sea from Dunkirk in late May, while in the south French forces mounted a doomed resistance. With France on the verge of collapse, Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini formed an alliance with Hitler, the Pact of Steel, and Italy declared war against France and Britain on June 10.

On June 14, German forces entered Paris; a new government formed by Marshal Philippe Petain (France’s hero of World War I) requested an armistice two nights later. France was subsequently divided into two zones, one under German military occupation and the other under Petain’s government, installed at Vichy France. Hitler now turned his attention to Britain, which had the defensive advantage of being separated from the Continent by the English Channel.

To pave the way for an amphibious invasion (dubbed Operation Sea Lion), German planes bombed Britain extensively beginning in September 1940 until May 1941, known as the Blitz , including night raids on London and other industrial centers that caused heavy civilian casualties and damage. The Royal Air Force (RAF) eventually defeated the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) in the Battle of Britain , and Hitler postponed his plans to invade. With Britain’s defensive resources pushed to the limit, Prime Minister Winston Churchill began receiving crucial aid from the U.S. under the Lend-Lease Act , passed by Congress in early 1941.

Black Americans Who Served in WWII Faced Segregation Abroad and at Home

Some 1.2 million Black men served in the U.S. military during the war, but they were often treated as second‑class citizens.

World War II Battles: Timeline

Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. Over the next six years, the conflict took more lives and destroyed more land and property around the globe than any previous war.

How the Neutral Countries in World War II Weren’t So Neutral

Neutrality was often more complex than simply avoiding choosing sides.

Hitler vs. Stalin: Operation Barbarossa (1941-42)

By early 1941, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria had joined the Axis, and German troops overran Yugoslavia and Greece that April. Hitler’s conquest of the Balkans was a precursor for his real objective: an invasion of the Soviet Union, whose vast territory would give the German master race the “Lebensraum” it needed. The other half of Hitler’s strategy was the extermination of the Jews from throughout German-occupied Europe. Plans for the “Final Solution” were introduced around the time of the Soviet offensive, and over the next three years more than 4 million Jews would perish in the death camps established in occupied Poland.

On June 22, 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa . Though Soviet tanks and aircraft greatly outnumbered the Germans’, Russian aviation technology was largely obsolete, and the impact of the surprise invasion helped Germans get within 200 miles of Moscow by mid-July. Arguments between Hitler and his commanders delayed the next German advance until October, when it was stalled by a Soviet counteroffensive and the onset of harsh winter weather.

World War II in the Pacific (1941-43)

With Britain facing Germany in Europe, the United States was the only nation capable of combating Japanese aggression, which by late 1941 included an expansion of its ongoing war with China and the seizure of European colonial holdings in the Far East. On December 7, 1941, 360 Japanese aircraft attacked the major U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii , taking the Americans completely by surprise and claiming the lives of more than 2,300 troops. The attack on Pearl Harbor served to unify American public opinion in favor of entering World War II, and on December 8 Congress declared war on Japan with only one dissenting vote. Germany and the other Axis Powers promptly declared war on the United States.

After a long string of Japanese victories, the U.S. Pacific Fleet won the Battle of Midway in June 1942, which proved to be a turning point in the war. On Guadalcanal, one of the southern Solomon Islands, the Allies also had success against Japanese forces in a series of battles from August 1942 to February 1943, helping turn the tide further in the Pacific. In mid-1943, Allied naval forces began an aggressive counterattack against Japan, involving a series of amphibious assaults on key Japanese-held islands in the Pacific. This “island-hopping” strategy proved successful, and Allied forces moved closer to their ultimate goal of invading the mainland Japan.

Toward Allied Victory in World War II (1943-45)

In North Africa , British and American forces had defeated the Italians and Germans by 1943. An Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy followed, and Mussolini’s government fell in July 1943, though Allied fighting against the Germans in Italy would continue until 1945.

On the Eastern Front, a Soviet counteroffensive launched in November 1942 ended the bloody Battle of Stalingrad , which had seen some of the fiercest combat of World War II. The approach of winter, along with dwindling food and medical supplies, spelled the end for German troops there, and the last of them surrendered on January 31, 1943.

On June 6, 1944–celebrated as “D-Day” –the Allies began a massive invasion of Europe, landing 156,000 British, Canadian and American soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, France. In response, Hitler poured all the remaining strength of his army into Western Europe, ensuring Germany’s defeat in the east. Soviet troops soon advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, while Hitler gathered his forces to drive the Americans and British back from Germany in the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945), the last major German offensive of the war.

An intensive aerial bombardment in February 1945 preceded the Allied land invasion of Germany, and by the time Germany formally surrendered on May 8, Soviet forces had occupied much of the country. Hitler was already dead, having died by suicide on April 30 in his Berlin bunker.

World War II Ends (1945)

At the Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman (who had taken office after Roosevelt’s death in April), Churchill and Stalin discussed the ongoing war with Japan as well as the peace settlement with Germany. Post-war Germany would be divided into four occupation zones, to be controlled by the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and France. On the divisive matter of Eastern Europe’s future, Churchill and Truman acquiesced to Stalin, as they needed Soviet cooperation in the war against Japan.

Heavy casualties sustained in the campaigns at Iwo Jima (February 1945) and Okinawa (April-June 1945), and fears of the even costlier land invasion of Japan led Truman to authorize the use of a new and devastating weapon. Developed during a top secret operation code-named The Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb was unleashed on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. On August 15, the Japanese government issued a statement declaring they would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on September 2, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

African American Servicemen Fight Two Wars

World War II exposed a glaring paradox within the United States Armed Forces. Although more than 1 million African Americans served in the war to defeat Nazism and fascism, they did so in segregated units. The same discriminatory Jim Crow policies that were rampant in American society were reinforced by the U.S. military. Black servicemen rarely saw combat and were largely relegated to labor and supply units that were commanded by white officers.

There were several African American units that proved essential in helping to win World War II, with the Tuskegee Airmen being among the most celebrated. But the Red Ball Express, the truck convoy of mostly Black drivers were responsible for delivering essential goods to General George S. Patton ’s troops on the front lines in France. The all-Black 761st Tank Battalion fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and the 92 Infantry Division, fought in fierce ground battles in Italy. Yet, despite their role in defeating fascism, the fight for equality continued for African American soldiers after the World War II ended. They remained in segregated units and lower-ranking positions, well into the Korean War , a few years after President Truman signed an executive order to desegregate the U.S. military in 1948.

World War II Casualties and Legacy

World War II proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust . Civilians made up an estimated 50-55 million deaths from the war, while military comprised 21 to 25 million of those lost during the war. Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property. 

The legacy of the war would include the spread of communism from the Soviet Union into eastern Europe as well as its eventual triumph in China, and the global shift in power from Europe to two rival superpowers–the United States and the Soviet Union–that would soon face off against each other in the Cold War .

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World War 2 Essay | Essay on World War 2 for Students and Children in English

February 14, 2024 by Prasanna

World War 2 Essay: World War 2 or the Second World War is the most extensive known global human warfare to date that lasted from the year 1939 to 1945. The war was waged between two opposing military alliances: Allies and Axis, involving the majority of the Global powers and many participating countries from across Europe and the world.

It was the first state of total war where every economic, scientific, and industrial resource and labour of the participating countries were dedicated to waging full-scale warfare, eliminating military and civilian resources. The war involved over 100 million military personnel from more than 30 countries resulting in 70 to 85 million fatal casualties.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on World War 2 for Students and Kids in English

We provide children/ students with essay samples on a long essay of 500 words and a short essay of 150 words on the topic of World War 2 for reference.

Long Essay on World War 2 500 Words in English

Long Essay on World War 2 is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

The history of this world is incomplete without the inclusion of the Second World War or World War 2, the most vicious and gruelling warfare waged by humans against each other. It involved the vast majority of the countries and Global powers during the period 1939 to 1945. The war was primarily waged between two opposing military alliances: The Allies mainly comprising the United Kingdom & British Empire, the Third Republic of France, Soviet Union, United States of America and their allies, and the Axis Powers involving Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Empire of Japan and their allies.

It started on 1st September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and placid support from the Soviet Union and the subsequent declaration of war on Germany by Poland’s allies, France and the United Kingdom. Germany’s Axis Powers had significant gains in the earlier years of the Second World war, mainly between 1939 to 1941 when it conquered and dominated much of continental Europe and parts of Africa.

The largest gain on the Axis side came with the rapid defeat of France at the hands of Germany due to Germany’s advanced warfare technique of Blitzkrieg that involved multi-frontier attack using infantry and armoured divisions. Adolf Hitler, the Dictator/ Fuhrer of Germany during the war, is mainly attributed as the perpetrator of the war due to his Nationalist Fascist and Racial supremacy-based political ideology leading to Germany’s aggressive stance in much of continental Europe.

With France’s fall in 1940, the war was primarily waged between the Axis Powers and the British Empire, with minor gains and losses on both sides. It was a multi-frontier conflict with battles occurring in various regions, including mainland Europe, Eurasia, the Balkans, the Atlantic, and the Pacific Ocean, East Asia, and Northern and Central Africa, and Ariel attacks on the British Isles.

The war took a significant turn in 1941 with two significant events:

• The Invasion of Soviet Russia and its Union in June 1941
• Leading to the largest land warfare in human history
• The Pearl Harbour bombing by Japanese Kamikaze in December 1941

It forced the United States of America to enter the war on the Allies side. Following the US declaration of war on the Imperial Japanese Empire, Germany and Italy’s European Axis powers declared war against the US in solidarity with their Asian Ally.

The Axis Powers had significant strategic gains throughout 1941, including Imperial Japan. It captured and dominated much of the Western Pacific, Eastern China and Manchuria, and Southern Asia. However, its advances were obstructed after a significant naval defeat at the US navy’s hands at the Battle of Midway on the Pacific Ocean. Fascist Italy subsequently suffered significant defeats in North Africa and the Balkans and eventually surrendered to the Allies with their Fascist Dictator, Benito Mussolini, being publicly executed.

The collective Allied invasions of Sicily and the Italian Mainland in 1943, along with German defeat at the Eastern front, forced the Axis powers to retreat on all fronts strategically. The war was concluded in 1945 with the Allied invasion of German-controlled territories, the fall of Berlin at the Soviet Union’s hands, and the Nuclear Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan by the United States of America.

Short Essay on World War 2 150 Words in English

Short Essay on World War 2 is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

World War 2 was the largest war ever waged in human history lasting from 1939 to 1945 between two primary military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It started with Poland’s invasion by Nazi Germany and Communist Soviet Union after the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the two powers that led France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany.

The war occurred on multiple battlefronts and involved more than 100 million soldiers from over 30 countries from across the globe. It resulted in a collective casualty of over 80 million military as well as civilian deaths.

It ended with the Axis defeat after the fall of Berlin and the Nuclear Bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. It had a profound effect on the subsequent world politics and histories like the eventual fall of the British and French Empires and their colonies’ independence, significant shifts in global politics, and the United Nations’ formation.

10 Lines on World War 2 Essay in English

1. World War 2 or Second World War occurred between 1939 and 1945 and is considered the most massive known warfare in human history. Adolf Hitler was the Fuhrer/ Dictator of Germany. Benito Mussolini was the Duce/ Dictator of Italy during the war. 2. The symbolic tussle between the great powers started much before the war with Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan signing mutual defence treaties forming the Axis Powers. 3. The National Socialist Party (NAZI) of Totalitarian Germany murdered more than 60 million Jews, Slavs, and other European People based on the ideology of Aryan Racial Supremacy during the war, and this event is remembered as the Holocaust. 4. Russian’s were said to be instrumental in World War 2 with the fact that Soviet forces killed more than 76 percent of German soldiers. 5. The United States was placid in the war until the infamous 1941 surprise bombing of the Pearl Harbour by the Japanese, resulting in 2400 civilian and military casualties. 6. The Allied Big Four: United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and China and 22 exiled governments issued the Atlantic Charter at the Declaration of the United Nations in 1942, mutually agreeing not to sign any separate peace treaties with Axis powers. 7. The United Kingdom had a significant political change during the war with Sir Winston Churchill assuming the role of Prime Minister. 8. The most extensive known casualties of the war happened on the Eastern front, with Soviet Russia suffering the highest number of human fatalities. 9. Adolf Hitler committed suicide with his wife Eva Braun in their bunker during the Fall of Berlin. 10. Nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were termed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.”

FAQ’s on World War 2 Essay

Question 1.  Who was the major belligerent of World War 2?

Answer: Nazi Germany under the leadership of Chancellor Adolf Hitler is considered the primary belligerent of World War 2.

Question 2. Why did Imperial Japan enter a primarily European war?

Answer: The Empire of Japan was a military state that primarily aimed to create resource colonies in Manchuria, Eastern China, and South Asia, which lead them to dominate the Pacific, eventually attacking the United States, the other great power in the region

Question 3. Why did Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union Ally during the Invasion of Poland?

Answer: Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Russia entered into the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, effectively portioning their European neighbors’ annexed territories, including Poland, Finland, the Baltic States, and Romania.

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World War II summary

Learn about the events leading to world war ii, the war’s major battles, and how the war ended.

World War II , or Second World War , (1939–45) International conflict principally between the Axis powers —Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allied powers—France, Britain, the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China.

Political and economic instability in Germany, combined with bitterness over its defeat in World War I and the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles , allowed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to rise to power. In the mid-1930s Hitler began secretly to rearm Germany, in violation of the treaty. He signed alliances with Italy and Japan to oppose the Soviet Union and intervened in the Spanish Civil War in the name of anticommunism.

Capitalizing on the reluctance of other European powers to oppose him by force, he sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 (the Anschluss) and to annex Czechoslovakia in 1939. After signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact , Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. Two days later France and Britain declared war on Germany. Poland’s defeat was followed by a period of military inactivity on the Western Front, known as the Phony War.

At sea Germany conducted a damaging submarine campaign by U-boat against merchant shipping bound for Britain. By early 1940 the Soviet Union had divided Poland with Germany, occupied the Baltic states, and subdued Finland in the Russo-Finnish War. In April 1940 Germany overwhelmed Denmark and began its conquest of Norway. In May German forces swept through the Netherlands and Belgium on their blitzkrieg invasion of France, forcing it to capitulate in June and establish the Vichy France regime. Germany then launched massive bombing raids on Britain in preparation for a cross-Channel invasion, but, after losing the Battle of Britain , Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely.

By early 1941 Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria had joined the Axis, and German troops quickly overran Yugoslavia and Greece in April. In June Hitler abandoned his pact with the Soviet Union and launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive surprise invasion of Russia, reaching the outskirts of Moscow before Soviet counterattacks and winter weather halted the advance.

In East Asia Japan expanded its war with China and seized European colonial holdings. In December 1941 Japan attacked U.S. bases at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. The U.S. declared war on Japan, and the war became truly global when the other Axis powers declared war on the U.S. Japan quickly invaded and occupied most of Southeast Asia, Burma, the Netherlands East Indies, and many Pacific islands. After the crucial U.S. naval victory at the Battle of Midway (1942), U.S. forces began to advance up the chains of islands toward Japan.

In the North Africa campaigns the British and Americans defeated Italian and German forces by 1943. The Allies then invaded Sicily and Italy, forcing the overthrow of the Fascist government in July 1943, though fighting against the Germans continued in Italy until 1945. In the Soviet Union the Battle of Stalingrad (1943) marked the end of the German advance, and Soviet reinforcements in large numbers gradually pushed the German armies back.

The massive Allied invasion of western Europe began with the Normandy Campaign in western France (1944), and the Allies’ steady advance ended in the occupation of Germany in 1945.

After Soviet troops pushed German forces out of the Soviet Union, they advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania and had occupied the eastern third of Germany by the time the surrender of Germany was signed on May 8, 1945. In the Pacific an Allied invasion of the Philippines (1944) was followed by the successful Battle of Leyte Gulf and the costly Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945). The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and Japan’s formal surrender on September 2 ended the war.

An estimated 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 people died during World War II, including about 6,000,000 Jewish men, women, and children who died in the Holocaust . Millions more civilians were wounded and made homeless throughout Europe and East Asia.

The Causes of WWII

The origins of the Second World War (1939-45) may be traced back to the harsh peace settlement of the First World War (1914-18) and the economic crisis of the 1930s, while more immediate causes were the aggressive invasions of their neighbours by Germany, Italy , and Japan . A weak and divided Europe , an isolationist USA, and an opportunistic USSR were all intent on peace, but the policy of appeasement only delivered what everyone most feared: another long and terrible world war.

The main causes of WWII were:

• The harsh Treaty of Versailles
• The economic crisis of the 1930s
• The rise of fascism
• Germany's rearmament
• The cult of Adolf Hitler
• The policy of appeasement by Western powers
• Treaties of mutual interest between Axis Powers
• Lack of treaties between the Allies
• The territorial expansion of Germany, Italy, and Japan
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact
• The invasion of Poland in September 1939
• The Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour

Treaty of Versailles

Germany was defeated in the First World War, and the victors established harsh terms to ensure that some of the costs of the war were recuperated and to prevent Germany from becoming a future threat. With European economies and populations greatly damaged by the war, the victors were in no mood to be lenient since Germany had almost won and its industry was still intact. Germany remained a dangerous state. However, Britain and France did not want a totally punitive settlement, as this might lead to lasting resentment and make Germany unable to become a valuable market for exports.

The peace terms were set out in the Treaty of Versailles, signed by all parties except the USSR on 28 June 1919. The Rhineland must be demilitarised to act as a buffer zone between Germany and France. All colonies and the Saar, a coal-rich area of western Germany, were removed from German authority. Poland was given the industrial area of Upper Silesia and a corridor to the sea, which included Danzig (Gdánsk) and cut off East Prussia from the rest of Germany. France regained the regions of Alsace and Lorraine. Germany had to pay war reparations to France and Belgium. Germany had limits on its armed forces and could not build tanks, aircraft, submarines, or battleships. Finally, Germany was to accept complete responsibility, that is the guilt, for starting the war. Many Germans viewed the peace terms as highly dishonourable.

The settlement established nine new countries in Eastern Europe, a recipe for instability since all of them disputed their borders, and many contained large minority groups who claimed to be part of another country. Germany, Italy, and Russia, once powerful again after the heavy costs of WWI, looked upon these fledgling states with imperialist envy.

In the 1920s, Germany signed two important treaties. The Locarno Treaty of 1925 guaranteed Germany's western borders but allowed some scope for change in the east. The 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 56 countries. All the major powers promised not to conduct foreign policy using military means. In 1929, Germany's reparations as stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles were reduced from £6.6 million to £2 million. In 1932, the reparations were cancelled altogether. This was all very promising, but through the 1930s, the complex web of European diplomacy began to quickly unravel in a climate of economic decline.

Economic Crisis

The Great Depression, sparked off by the Wall Street stock-market crash of 1929, resulted in a crisis in many economies through the 1930s. There was a collapse in world trade , prices, and employment. In Germany in 1923, there was hyperinflation, which made savings worthless, a blow many of the German middle class never forgot. The regular loans from the United States (the Dawes Plan), upon which the German economy depended, stopped. There was a hostile attitude amongst many states as international trade collapsed. The USA, the world's most important money lender, pursued an isolationist strategy. Britain and France looked only to their empires. Protectionism and trade tariffs became the norm.

Germany became determined to reach self-sufficiency and not rely on world trade partners, a policy that required the acquisition of natural resources through military occupation. Germany saw the route out of the financial mess as one of massive rearmament which would create jobs in factories and the armed forces. The policy involved not only stockpiling weapons but also creating an economy geared towards total war, where the armaments industry was given priority in terms of resources, energy, factories, and skilled workers.

Hitler & the Nazi Party

Nationalist fascist parties were doing well across Europe. From 1922, Italy was ruled by Benito Mussolini (l. 1883-1945), leader of the fascist party there. By 1939, Spain had a fascist ruler in General Franco (l. 1892-1975). In Germany, Adolf Hitler (l. 1889-1945) was the leader of the fascist National Socialist Party (Nazi Party), the largest party after the July and November elections of 1932. There were even fascist parties in democracies like Britain. Charismatic leaders were turning popular nationalist feelings into a much more sinister way of thinking: fascism. Fascist parties, although not exactly the same in different countries, did have some key goals in common. Fascist leaders wanted absolute power and to achieve this new order they emphasised "conformism, hostility to outsiders, routine violence, contempt for the weak, and extreme hatred of dissident opinions" (Dear, 274). Fascist parties initially gained popularity as opponents to communism, seen as a threat by many ever since the Russian Revolution of 1917. Indeed, in Western countries, a deep suspicion of communism prevented a powerful political and military alliance from being formed with the USSR, which might ultimately have avoided war.

Hitler promised the humiliation of Versailles would be revenged and that Germany would be made great again. Many Germans believed they had been betrayed by the high command of the army in WWI and were tired of the endless round of ineffective coalition governments since the war. Hitler, with no connections to the established elite, offered a new beginning, and most of all, he promised jobs and bread in a period when unemployment and poverty were at extremely high levels. The Nazi party promised a dynamic economy which would power German expansion, seen as a glorious endeavour, with the virtues of war championed. Nazism called for Lebensraum (living space) for the German people – new lands where they could prosper. Nazism identified its principal internal enemies as Jews, Slavs , Communists and trade unionists, all people who were holding Germany back from realising its full potential the Nazis claimed. Nazism called for an international struggle where Germans could achieve their destiny and prove themselves the master race. Such ideas, none of which were radically new, meant war was inevitable. The argument that totalitarian regimes require wars and liberal democracies require peace to prosper may be simplistic but has some validity. Hitler promised the new Third Reich would last for 1,000 years and, using propaganda, show, and brutal repression of alternative ideas, many believed him as he expertly tapped into long-held views in Germany and Austria. As F. McDonough states, "Hitler was the drummer of an old tune accompanied by modern instruments" (93).

In January 1933, the German President Paul von Hindenburg (l. 1847-1934), having run out of all other options, invited Hitler to become Chancellor. After systematically crushing any opposition, Hitler began to put his domestic policies into practice and establish a totalitarian regime, everything he had written in his book Mein Kampf ( My Struggle ) back in 1924. When Hindenburg died in August 1934, Hitler effectively merged the positions of President and Chancellor and declared himself Germany's leader or Führer. Hitler had become the state, and all that was now needed for him to achieve his impossible dream was a rearmed Germany.

Germany's Rearmament

Hitler was determined to rebuild the nation's armed forces. Rearmament rocketed despite the restrictions of Versailles, which Hitler formally repudiated in March 1935. The army was already four times bigger than permitted. Eventually, Western powers were obliged to take a damage-limitation approach. In June 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was signed, which capped the German navy's strength to 35% of the Royal Navy and allowed Hitler to build giant new ships like the battleship Bismarck .

In another instance of the cult of Adolf Hitler, all armed forces personnel had to swear allegiance to Hitler personally. Thanks to rearmament, Germany had achieved near-full employment by 1938. Hitler had fulfilled his promises to the German people. Germany's new war machine came at a cost. Rearming necessitated huge imports of raw materials, and these could not be bought for much longer as Germany's balance of payments went into tilt from 1939. Occupying territories where these resources could be found seemed a simple solution to the problem. Crucially, Germany had an arms advantage over its enemies, but this situation would not last long. For Hitler, the time to strike was now.

Appeasement

Allowing Germany to rearm was part of the policy of appeasement: giving reasonable concessions to avoid the total disaster of war. Appeasement, which was pursued by Britain, France, and the United States, did not mean peace at any price, but the problem with the policy was that it did give, step by step, aggressive powers the impression that their continued aggression might not necessarily lead to a wider war. To review these steps, we must look at global politics in the early 1930s.

The League of Nations (forerunner of today's United Nations) was established after WWI to ensure international disputes were settled and world peace was maintained. Although US President Woodrow Wilson (in office 1913-21) was instrumental in forming the League, crucially, the United States never joined it, seriously weakening the organisation. Germany joined in 1926 but left in 1933; Japan left the same year. The League proved to be utterly incapable of achieving its aims, as was shown most starkly by its failure to prevent Japan's invasion of Manchuria in September 1931 and Italy's invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in October 1935. Hitler no doubt watched these events and the League's total lack of a military response with particular interest as, with his own armed forces rejuvenated, he prepared to expand Germany's borders.

From 1933 to 1935, Hitler had pursued an ambiguous foreign policy, sometimes promising he had peaceful intentions. He caused confusion with such diplomatic conjuring tricks as a peace treaty with Poland in January 1934 and a statement later the same year that he had no intention of merging Austria into the Reich. Then, from 1935, his plans became ever clearer, even if some historians maintain the Führer actually had no plans at all but was merely seizing opportunities as his enemies presented them. Some historians claim Hitler was not entirely free to act as he would wish, due to constraints within the rather chaotic and factional Nazi party. In March 1935, the Saar was reunified with Germany following a plebiscite. The same year, conscription was announced. In March 1936, Germany occupied the Rhineland. In October, Germany and Italy became formal allies with the Rome -Berlin Axis. In November 1936, Italy and Germany (and later Japan) signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, a treaty of mutual cooperation in empire -building and a united front against communism. In March 1938, Hitler achieved the Anschluss, the formal unification of Germany and Austria. Encouraged by the League of Nations' lack of a strong response, Hitler then occupied the Sudetenland, the industrial area of Czechoslovakia which shared a border with Germany, the excuse being a German minority there was being repressed. Again, the Western powers made no military reaction despite France and the USSR having signed a treaty of assistance with the Czechs. The Munich Agreement of September 1938 was signed between Germany, France, Italy, and Britain, which accepted Germany's new, expanded borders. The USSR was not invited, a lost and last opportunity to present a united front against fascism – perhaps here was the real price of pursuing a policy of appeasement to the exclusion of any other possible strategies. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (served 1937-40), fluttering before journalists a piece of paper Hitler had signed, confidently declared that he had achieved "peace with honour" (Dear, 597) and that we now had "peace in our time" (McDonough, 121). Chamberlain was nominated for that year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Appeasement was an attractive policy to Western leaders since the horrors of the last war were still fresh in everyone's minds. France, in particular, was politically weak in this period, experiencing 16 coalition governments through the 1930s. Britain feared losing its empire if weakened by another great war. Public opinion was overwhelmingly against war and rearmament in Britain, France, and the United States. Further, it was by no means certain that Hitler would continue to expand Germany's borders; certainly, he had promised he had no additional ambitions beyond restoring Germany to its previous territories before WWI. Finally, appeasement, even if not actually believed to be a policy with any chance of success, did gain crucial time for Western powers to follow Germany's lead and rearm. In Britain and France, there were, too, strong lobbies which considered rearmament a waste of resources in economically turbulent times and pointed out that Germany was Britain's fifth largest customer for its exports. Hindsight has shown that appeasement was folly since Hitler was intent on occupying as much of Europe as he possibly could, and his track record of breaking treaties proved negotiation was pointless. Keeping the Czech heavy industry out of German hands was probably a better point to go to war over than the subsequent invasion of Poland, but Britain, France, and the USSR were simply not then equipped for war. Not until 1939 did these countries seriously begin to establish economies geared to war.

Invasion of Poland

In 1939, there was further significant activity by Germany and Italy in their quest to occupy more and more of Europe. In March 1939, Germany absorbed the rest of Czechoslovakia and Memel (part of Lithuania) into the Third Reich. Increasingly appalled by the Nazis' attacks on German Jews, Western powers now began to question if negotiating with such a regime could ever be justified on moral grounds. Appeasement was finally dead.

On 31 March, Britain and France promised to guarantee Poland's borders, and in April, this was extended to Romania. Turkey and Greece also began talks of mutual protection with Britain and France. It had finally dawned on leaders in Britain and France that the fascists were intent on territorial expansion at any cost. There was already a localised war going on, the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, which directly involved German and Italian military hardware on the one side and Soviet aid on the other. In April, Italy occupied Albania. At the end of the same month, Hitler repudiated the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. In May 1939, Italy and Germany signed a military alliance, the ‘Pact of Steel'.

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In August 1939, Germany agreed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (Nazi-Soviet Pact), named after the foreign ministers of each state. The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (l. 1878-1953) was increasingly aware that Britain and France seemed perfectly willing to appease Hitler as long as he moved eastwards in his direction. The possibility of 'collective security' (Britain, France, and the USSR working together) was not realised because of a lack of trust between the parties. The Nazi-Soviet Pact, in contrast, allowed Stalin to grab eastern Poland and keep the USSR out of a war for a while, gaining precious time for rearmament. Perhaps, too, the possibility for Germany to wage war only in the West against Britain and France – Stalin's 'blank cheque' for Hitler – would sufficiently weaken all three so that they could no longer threaten the USSR.

Europe was a tinder box awaiting a single spark that would explode it into war. The spark came soon enough with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. The next day Chamberlain warned Hitler war would follow if Germany did not withdraw. Hitler ignored the ultimatum. On 3 September, Britain and France, in order to protect free and independent nations, declared war on Germany. Italy, waiting in the wings to see what might happen to its advantage, remained neutral for the time being. The world, too, awaited with bated breath to see what would happen next. The unexpected answer was nothing at all.

The 'phoney war', when the Allies and Axis powers did not directly confront each other, lasted until April 1940 when Germany invaded Norway. In May, Germany invaded the Low Countries and France. Germany proved unstoppable, and by the end of June, France had fallen. In October, Italy invaded Greece. In 1941, Germany occupied Yugoslavia. Britain was left alone to fight for its survival until Hitler invaded the USSR in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa).

The war became a global conflict when Japan attacked the US naval fleet at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. Japan had already invaded Eastern China over concern at the rise in Chinese nationalism and then occupied most of South East Asia in search of imperial glory and natural resources, especially oil, whose import was restricted by a US embargo. Japan perhaps hoped events in Europe would prevent any direct reaction against them, but the United States did finally join the conflict. Peace would not be achieved until the world had suffered four more long and bitter years of war.

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Bibliography

• Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Dülffer. Nazi Germany, 1933-1945 - Faith & Annihilation by Dülffer, Jost [Paperback ]. Blomsbury USA, Paperback(2009), 2009.
• Holmes, Richard. The World at War. Ebury Press, 2007.
• Liddell Hart, B. History of the Second World War. Caxton, 1989
• McDonough, Frank. The Origins of the First and Second World Wars . Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich. Simon & Schuster, 1997.
• Taylor, A.J.P. The Origins of The Second World War. Simon & Schuster, 1996.

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World War II Research Essay Topics

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Students are often required to write a paper on a topic as broad as World War II , but you should know that the instructor will expect you to narrow your focus to a specific thesis. This is especially true if you are in high school or college. Narrow your focus by making a list of words, much like the list of words and phrases that are presented in bold type below. Then begin to explore related questions and come up with your own cool WWII topics. The answer to questions like these can become a good starting point for a thesis statement .

Culture and People

When the U.S. entered into war, everyday life across the country changed drastically. From civil rights, racism, and resistance movements to basic human needs like food, clothing, and medicine, the aspects of how life was impacted are immense.

• African-Americans and civil rights. What impact did the war years have on the rights of African-Americans? What were they allowed or not allowed to do?
• Animals. How were horses, dogs, birds, or other animals used? Did they play a special role?
• Art. What art movements were inspired by wartime events? Is there one specific work of art that tells a story about the war?
• Clothing. How was fashion impacted? How did clothing save lives or hinder movement? What materials were used or not used?
• Domestic violence. Was there an increase or decrease in cases?
• Families. Did new family customs develop? What was the impact on children of soldiers?
• Fashion. Did fashion change significantly for civilians? What changes had to be made during wartime?
• Food preservation. What new preservation and packaging methods were used during and after the war? How were these helpful?
• Food rationing. How did rationing impact families? Were rations the same for different groups of people? Were soldiers affected by rations?
• Love letters. What do letters tell us about relationships, families, and friendships? What about gender roles?
• New words. What new vocabulary words emerged during and after WWII?
• Nutrition. Were there battles that were lost or won because of the foods available? How did nutrition change at home during the war because of the availability of certain products?
• Penicillin and other medicine. How was penicillin used? What medical developments occurred during and after the war?
• Resistance movements. How did families deal with living in an occupied territory?
• Sacrifices. How did family life change for the worse?
• Women's work at home. How did women's work change at home during the war? What about after the war ended?

Economy and Workforce

For a nation that was still recovering from the Great Depression, World War II had a major impact on the economy and workforce. When the war began, the fate of the workforce changed overnight, American factories were repurposed to produce goods to support the war effort and women took jobs that were traditionally held by men, who were now off to war.

• Advertising. How did food packaging change during the war? How did advertisements change in general? What were advertisements for?
• Occupations. What new jobs were created? Who filled these new roles? Who filled the roles that were previously held by many of the men who went off to war?
• Propaganda. How did society respond to the war? Do you know why?
• Toys. How did the war impact the toys that were manufactured?
• New products. What products were invented and became a part of popular culture? Were these products present only during war times, or did they exist after?

Military, Government, and War

Americans were mostly against entering the war up until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, after which support for the war grew, as did armed forces. Before the war, the US didn't have the large military forces it soon became known for, with the war resulting in over 16 million Americans in service.   The role the military played in the war, and the impacts of the war itself, were vast.

• America's entry into the war. How is the timing significant? What factors are not so well known?
• Churchill, Winston. What role did this leader play that interests you most? How did his background prepare him for his role?
• Clandestine operations. Governments went to great lengths to hide the true date, time, and place of their actions.
• Destruction. Many historic cities and sites were destroyed in the U.K.—Liverpool, Manchester, London, and Coventry—and in other nations.
• Hawaii. How did events impact families or society in general?
• The Holocaust. Do you have access to any personal stories?
• Italy. What special circumstances were in effect?
• " Kilroy was here ." Why was this phrase important to soldiers? 
• Nationalist Socialist movement in America. What impact has this movement had on society and the government since WWII?
• Political impact. How was your local town impacted politically and socially?
• POW camps after the war. Where were they and what happened to them after the war? Here's a starting point: Some were turned into race tracks after the war!
• Prisoners of war. How many POWs were there? How many made it home safely? What were some long-lasting effects?
• Spies. Who were the spies? Were they men or women? What side were they on? What happened to spies that were caught?
• Submarines. Were there enemy submarines on a coast near you? What role did submarines play in the war?
• Surviving an attack. How were military units attacked? How did it feel to jump from a plane that was disabled?
• Troop logistics. How were troop movements kept secret? What were some challenges of troop logistics?
• Views on freedom. How was freedom curtailed or expanded?
• Views on government's role. Where was the government's role expanded? What about governments elsewhere?
• War crime trials. How were trials conducted? What were the political challenges or consequences? Who was or wasn't tried?
• Weather. Were there battles that were lost or won because of the weather conditions? Were there places where people suffered more because of the weather?
• Women in warfare. What roles did women play during the war? What surprises you about women's work in World War II?

Technology and Transportation

With the war came advancements in technology and transportation, impacting communications capabilities, the spread of news, and even entertainment.

• Bridges and roads. What transportation-related developments came from wartime or postwar policies?
• Communication. How did radio or other types of communication impact key events?
• Motorcycles. What needs led to the development of folding motorcycles? Why was there widespread use of military motorcycles by the government?
• Technology. What technology came from the war and how was it used after the war?
• TV technology. When did televisions start to appear in homes and what is significant about the timing? What TV shows were inspired by the war and how realistic were they? How long did World War II affect TV programming?
• Jet engine technology. What advances can be traced to WWII needs?
• Radar. What role did radar play, if any?
• Rockets. How important was rocket technology?
• Shipbuilding achievements. The achievements were quite remarkable during the war. Why and how did they happen?

"America's Wars Fact Sheet." U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, May 2017.

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How to Write about World War 2 – Essay Topics & Examples

The Second World War was a turning point in history that changed the world as we know it. Over two thousand days of hardship, courage, victory, and loss still fascinate and influence historians, filmmakers, novelists, and politicians worldwide. You may be asked to write a research paper or an essay on this 20th century conflict as part of your coursework. Our team has prepared several fascinating ideas you may explore in your writing.

• 🎖️ Top 10 World War 2 Topics
• 💡 Interesting WW2 Topics
• 🏆 Best WW2 Research Topics
• 📚 Research Questions
• ✒️ World War 2 Essay Questions
• 📝 World War 2 Essay Examples
• 🪖 General Information about WW2

🔗 References

🎖️ top 10 world war 2 essay topics.

We’ve compiled the topics that can inspire you to write an essay. To make the process simpler, we have included the main messages of each paper.

• Could the Axis powers have been defeated without opening the second front? Explore how the war would have gone without the invasion of Normandy.
• Why did Japan decide to side with Germany and Italy? List the social and political reasons that pushed the Empire of Japan to become an Axis power.
• Explore the impact of the battle for Stalingrad on the course of WW2. Show how the battle of Stalingrad turned the tide of war on the Eastern front.
• What were the causes of Germany’s military success in 1941?   Name the main causes of Germany’s successful assault on the Soviet Union.
• Discuss the dissolution of the British Empire after WW2. Talk about the leading consequences of disbanding the British Empire in its former colonies.
• What led to the start of WW2? Explore political and economic factors that caused the start of the Second World War.
• Was the US justified in using nuclear weapons against Japan? Explain the reasoning behind USA’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Discuss the role of the Munich Agreement in the rise of Nazi Germany . Explain how the Munich Agreement became one of the precursors of WW2 and the occupation of Western Europe.
• Explore the crucial battles of WW2. Discuss the pivotal conflicts of both the Western and Eastern fronts.
• Discuss the initial losses of the USSR in 1941-1942. Assess the reasons behind the colossal losses of the USSR in civilian and military casualties.

💡 Interesting WW2 Argumentative Essay Topics

Look at our list of the most intriguing titles dedicated to the cultural and military developments before, during, and after World War 2. You may find WW2 argumentative essay topics that will resonate with you and help you write an exceptional paper.

WW2 Essay Topics: Culture

Here, we unearth how World War II impacted the world’s cultures, making it a captivating subject for social studies enthusiasts seeking a deeper understanding of this transformative era.

• Explain the cultural impact of WW2 on the movie industry. Tell your readers about how WW2 influenced the American cinematic landscape in movies like Casablanca .
• How WW2 impacted American culture during the Cold War . Explore how the war’s events influenced American society, including its vehement anti-communist sentiment.
• The role of traditional culture in WW2 Japan. Discuss the role of bushido and other traditional elements in Japan’s wartime culture .
• Explore the changes in the USSR’s culture during the war period. Show how WW2 shaped different cultural aspects in the besieged USSR.
• How WW2 influenced the 20th-century music scene. Determine how the war influenced the music scene of the 1940s.
• The cultural impact of WW2 on modern video games. Explore the influence of WW2 on modern video games such as Call of Duty , Wolfenstein , and World of Tanks .
• Art and propaganda in Nazi Germany . Explain how Nazi Germany used art and movies such as Triumph of the Will in its propaganda machine.
• How WW2 changed attitude towards art and architecture. Tell about the main changes in architecture and art in the post-war period.
• Explore Germany’s post-war culture. Explore the cultural landscape of West and East Germany after the war.
• Discuss the cultural differences in North and South Korea after WW2. Show how cultures developed differently on different sides of the Korean peninsula.
• Veteran narratives in WW2 literature: An examination of memoirs and fictional works. Analyze how veterans’ stories, whether based on personal experiences or fictionalized, contributed to the cultural understanding of the war and its enduring impact on society.

WW2 Essay Topics: Military

This section delves into military records. It offers diverse ideas, inviting you to explore the strategic and tactical facets of the Second World War’s unparalleled military campaigns and conflicts.

• Which factors helped launch the German war machine? Explain the laws and decisions that made Germany the military powerhouse of Europe.
• What gave the Japanese superiority in the Pacific Theater? Detail the tactics, strategies, and weaponry that helped the Japanese army wage war in the Pacific.
• How the Lend-Lease Act helped the Soviet war effort. Show the significance of American aid in the USSR’s battles across the Eastern front.
• Explore the main reasons for Italy’s military losses in Africa. Tell about the tactical and strategic factors that caused Italy’s defeat in Africa.
• Compare the Soviet and German military in 1941. Give a rough comparison of the different army types both sides possessed at the start of their conflict.
• Discuss the significance of operation Bagration. Describe the main results of Operation Bagration and its role in the liberation of Belarus and Poland.
• Explore the results of the invasion of Normandy in 1944 . Explore the preparations, execution, and aftermath of D-Day .
• Could Germany have won WW2 with nuclear weapons? Analyze a scenario when Germany got hold of WMDs before the war ended and its consequences.
• Which military innovations spelled the turning point in the war? Tell about the most powerful weapons that helped the Allies win.
• Explore the military tech that was pioneered during WW2. Describe the most remarkable military technology that was developed during the conflict.

🏆 Best WW2 Research Paper Topics

We hand-picked a collection of interesting topics that will make your research paper shine and inspire you to write a great thesis statement . These WW2 research paper titles explore economic transformation and scientific developments during this period.

WW2 Research Paper Topics: Economy

Amid the tapestry of 20th-century wars, World War II emerged as a pivotal economic challenge. We present various research paper topics delving into the war’s economic dimensions. Expand your general knowledge by exploring the profound impact of economics on the global stage during this transformative period.

• What was the economic situation in Europe before WW2? Explore what the economy of European countries was before the war.
• Explore the factors that led to Germany’s economic rise in 1932-1939. Tell how Germany rose to economic power despite the catastrophe of the Weimar Republic .
• Discuss the causes of economic growth in post-war Japan . Describe laws and policies that caused the Japanese economic boom after WW2.
• What were the main factors of US post-war prosperity? Explain how the US enjoyed decades of prosperity post-conflict through generous loans to the suffering parties.
• Assess the impact of the war on the Italian economy. Describe the leading causes of Italy’s economic growth post-WW2.
• Explain the leading causes of industrialization in the pre-war USSR. Tell about the major decisions and policies that led to the USSR’s rapid industrialization in the 1930s.
• Discuss WW2’s impact on the developing world. Explore how the war impacted the developing countries outside the US and Europe.
• Which policies were used to fund the reconstruction of the European economy? Assess policies that led to progress in rebuilding post-war Europe, including the Marshall Plan .
• Explore the impact of war bonds on US military capacity . Showcase how war bonds were crucial in funding the US efforts in the Pacific and other war theaters.
• How the USSR funded its war machine. Explore the sources used for building and maintaining the Soviet military capacity.
• The global economic order and enduring issues: Post-World War II Bretton Woods Conference. Analyze how the decisions made at Bretton Woods, including the creation of the IMF or World Bank, continue to shape global economic policies and financial stability today.

WW2 Research Paper Topics: Science & Technology

Embark on a journey of historical research as we unveil captivating research paper topics in science and technology. You can explore remarkable breakthroughs, like innovations in the construction of planes.

• Could the atomic bomb have been made without WW2? Explain how World War 2 impacted the process of the creation of the atomic bomb.
• The role of German scientists in the NASA space program . Discuss the involvement of German scientists in various NASA projects, including the moon landing project.
• Explore the impact of jet engine development on aviation . Show how the creation of jet engines changed military and commercial aircraft.
• Discuss the impact of the first electronic computers made after WW2. Explore how the first ENIACs were used after WW2 and their influence on modern machines.
• Assess the main scientific breakthroughs of the post-war period. Showcase the main innovations that came around after WW2.
• How did WW2 influence the post-war automobile industry ? Describe the influence of the war on the car manufacturing business.
• What were the leading causes of the American post-WW2 tech boom? Assess the main reasons behind post-war technological advancements in the US.
• Did the invention of the atomic bomb prevent future major wars? Explore how nuclear weapons helped prevent future global wars but still couldn’t stop lesser-scale conflicts.
• Discuss the importance of radar technology during and after the war. Show how radar technology was used during the war and beyond.
• Explore the impact of WW2 on developing body armor technology. Talk about the influence of the war in developing sufficient body protection for police, military, and civilians.
• Naval warfare in World War II: The role of technological advancements in shaping maritime strategies. Discuss how innovations reshaped naval tactics, affected maritime supremacy, and influenced crucial battles in the Pacific and Atlantic theaters.

📚 Top 8 WW2 Research Questions

• Did the US decide to enter the war only after Pearl Harbor?
• Who were the most important political figures during the conflict?
• What were the main events that caused World War 2?
• Which World War 2 battles were the most significant?
• Why is D-Day a significant historical event?
• Which countries participated in World War 2?
• What was the strategic significance of the battle of Britain for the Allied powers in WW2?
• When and how did World War 2 end?

✒️ Top 8 World War 2 Essay Questions

• What are the most impactful technologies that came out after WW2?
• Did the US play a major role in defeating the Axis powers?
• Which countries had the worst casualty rates?
• How were POWs treated by different sides?
• How WW2 changed the world?
• Is there one particular party to blame for the conflict?
• Who lost World War 2?
• How many lives were altered by World War II?

📝 Second World War Essay Examples

We have listed several essay examples to guide you and serve as real examples for your future work. They cover cultural, military, and political aspects in the aftermath of the war for the US and Japan. Each offers an extended response into what post-war societies looked like in these countries.

• Cultural Changes in America after World War II This paper explores several things that defined the 1950s, including the budding civil rights movement, the baby boom, and the rise of anti-communist propaganda. These things shaped the cultural landscape, from arts and literature to music and movies.
• American Power During World War 2 and the Cold War The essay centers around the height of America’s power after the end of WW2 and its inevitable clash with the communist ideology of the Soviet Union. It explores some less reputable tactics the US used to undermine the USSR’s influence on the world.
• Japan and World War II Led by old rivalries with its neighbor China, Japan entered WW2 as a military powerhouse. The paper discusses its initial success in the war theater and the subsequent disastrous results.

🪖 World War 2: General Information You Should Know

Before you start working, it’ll be helpful to learn about the causes and consequences of World War II. These facts will help you better establish the theme of your future essay or research paper. Prepare to dive into one of the most critical periods and learn more about it.

World War 2: Significant Events

World War 2 was the biggest in the history of humankind. During over 2000 days of the conflict, several important events happened:

• September 1, 1939 . Germany invaded Poland and started the war.
• April 9 to June 22, 1940 . Most of Western Europe fell under German jackboots.
• July 10, 1940 . Germany began a massive bombardment campaign in the United Kingdom.
• September 22, 1940 . The signing of the Tripartite Pact and the birth of the Axis Powers.
• December 7, 1941 . Japan launched the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• December 8, 1941 . The US declared war on Japan.
• December 11, 1941 . The US got into military conflict with Italy and Germany.
• June 4 – 7, 1942 . America won the Battle of Midway .
• July 9, 1942. The Allies invaded Sicily.
• September 8, 1943 . Italy surrendered, but its northern territory was still occupied.
• June 6, 1944 . The US launched a landing operation in Normandy.
• August 25, 1944 . Allies liberate Paris.
• December 16, 1944. Germany launched a counterattack known as the Battle of the Bulge .
• February 19, 1945 . US Marines stormed Iwo Jima .
• March 22, 1945 . American troops crossed the Rhine River.
• April 1, 1945 . The US military arrived on the island of Okinawa.
• April 25, 1945 . Soviet and American troops encircled Berlin.
• May 8, 1945 . Germany surrendered to the Allies, ending the war in Europe.
• August 6, 1945 . The US bombed Hiroshima with a nuclear warhead.
• August 9, 1945 . America dropped the atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki.
• September 2, 1945 . The Japanese surrendered to the Allies.

World War 2: Crucial Facts

In this part, we present crucial facts about the war that shaped the world as we know it. Take a look at the most momentous events of this conflict:

• The war involved 30 countries.
• It was the biggest war waged on the European continent.
• Europe was rebuilt through the Marshall Plan, which invested $12 billion in its economy.
• The Holocaust resulted in the death of almost the entire Jewish population in Europe.
• Germany occupied most of Western Europe and a big part of the USSR.
• Stalingrad became the turning point in the war for the Allies.

World War 2: Casualties

WW2 was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history , not even in military casualties. It was the first war that deliberately targeted civilians in various countries. Scientists and historians still can’t determine the exact number of deaths. Several countries paid the most horrific price in this conflict.

World War 2: Causes

Here, we highlighted the main factors that caused the global conflict and launched World War II. Take a look at its leading causes:

• The unjust Treaty of Versailles . The leading cause of the war lies in the humiliating conditions Germany faced after WWI. Part of its territory was annexed, and the country had to limit its army seriously. The following 20 years of economic and cultural downfall became one of the factors for the rise of Nazism.
• The failure of peace agreements. After WWI, there was a lot of hope for the League of Nations organization . Its main goal was ending wars and leading countries to solve their disputes diplomatically. Unfortunately, all of the efforts failed as military conflicts slowly but surely engulfed the world.
• The rise of authoritarian movements. The failures of diplomacy and democracy in Europe made many nations abandon these principles. It caused the rise of many authoritarian governments in Spain, Italy, and Germany.
• The formation of the Axis powers . In 1940, Italy, Japan, and Germany signed a political and military alliance, forming an anti-communist coalition of countries. They were the primary enemies of the Allies formed by France, the United Kingdom, Canada, the USA, and the USSR.
• German aggression in Europe. Even before the official start of WW2, Germany conducted military operations on the continent. In 1938, it fully annexed Austria and took Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in the autumn of the same year.
• The Great Depression . The European economy was highly indebted to the US. Governments in Germany, Italy, and France couldn’t manage economic growth sufficiently. On October 29, 1929, the US suffered the crash of the New York Stock Market and recalled all foreign loans soon after.

World War 2: Consequences & Results

World War II had long-lasting consequences that changed the world. This segment examines the major social, political, and economic transformations caused by this event.

• End of the euro-centric international power structure. WW2 ended the hegemony of Western Europe. The United States became less isolationist and more involved in global affairs.
• Start of the Cold War . After the Second World War, the US and the USSR became the leading political poles of the world. Both sides wanted to curb the spreading influence of their opponent.
• The end of empires . WW2 saw the disbanding of the French, British, Dutch, Portuguese, and Belgian empires. Many of their former colonies became independent states.
• Democratization of foreign policy . After destroying authoritarian regimes, the US turned to a more democratic foreign policy regarding its close and distant neighbors. It was greatly formed by local and world public opinion.
• A movement for independence in many countries . The fall of European hegemony worldwide caused many of its former territories to struggle for independence . Most prominently, it gave birth to the state of Israel.

We hope you found the right topic in the sea of WW2 research paper topics we offer in this article. Be sure to use our examples and short guide. Share this article with friends who’ll find it helpful.

• World War II in Europe. Timeline with Photos and Text. – The History of Place.
• World War II Timeline Experience. – American Battle Monuments Comission.
• Chronological Timeline of the War. – D-Day, Normandy and Beyond.
• War in the Pacific. – Crown, New Zeland History
• 6 Little Known Facts About WWII. – History, AETN UK
• Human Cost of WWII: A Breakdown of Military and Civilian Deaths. – Kane Dane, Southwest Journal
• World War II Fast Facts. – Cable News Network
• World War II Fatalities By Country. – Kiegan Barron, WorldAtlas
• What Caused Germany to Start Another War? – American Historical Association
• International Relations Since 1945 (INTR-5106). Impact of World War II on Global Politics. – Adeel Hassan, University of Sargodha

Home — Essay Samples — War — Aftermath of World War II — The Effects of World War Ii in the World

The Effects of World War Ii on The World

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(page 123) p. 123 Conclusion

• Published: November 2014
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The ‘Conclusion’ shows how the world was changed forever by World War II, during which around sixty million people had been killed, the majority of them civilians. There were huge losses in the Soviet Union and China, but the country most damaged was Poland. Massive destruction and economic dislocation characterized much of Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and portions of North Africa. The war and its ending also brought about enormous population movements. Countries faced massive reconstruction, the defeated had reparations to pay, and war criminals had to be dealt with. The war also provided new developments in technology and medicine, which transformed post-war life.

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World History

Make Your Note

• World War II
• 10 Jul 2020
• 17 min read
• GS Paper - 1
• World War I
• Decolonialisation

Introduction

• World War II, also called Second World War, was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45.
• The principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China.
• It was the biggest conflict in history that had lasted almost six years.
• Nearly some 100 million people had been militarised, and 50 million had been killed (around 3% of the world's population).

Causes of War

The major causes of World War II were numerous. They include the impact of the Treaty of Versailles following WWI, the worldwide economic depression, failure of appeasement, the rise of militarism in Germany and Japan, and the failure of the League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles

• Following World War I, the victorious Allied Powers met to decide Germany’s future. Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
• Under this treaty, Germany had to accept guilt for the war and to pay reparations. Germany lost territory and was prohibited from having a large military.
• The humiliation faced by Germany under this treaty, paved the way for the spread of Ultra-Nationalism in Germany.

Failure of the League of Nations

• The League of Nations was an international organization set up in 1919 to keep world peace.
• It was intended that all countries would be members and that if there were disputes between countries, they could be settled by negotiation rather than by force.
• The League of Nations was a good idea, but ultimately a failure, as not all countries joined the league.
• Also, the League had no army to prevent military aggression such as Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in Africa or Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in China.

Great Depression of 1929

• The worldwide economic depression of the 1930s took its toll in different ways in Europe and Asia.
• In Europe, political power shifted to totalitarian and imperialist governments in several countries, including Germany, Italy, and Spain.
• In Asia, a resource-starved Japan began to expand aggressively, invading China and maneuvering to control a sphere of influence in the Pacific.

Rise of Fascism

• Victors’ stated aims in World War I had been “to make the world safe for democracy,” and postwar Germany was made to adopt a democratic constitution, as did most of the other states restored or created after the war.
• In the 1920s, however, the wave of nationalistic, militaristic totalitarianism known by its Italian name, fascism.
• It promised to minister to peoples’ wants more effectively than democracy and presented itself as the one sure defense against communism.
• Benito Mussolini established the first Fascist, European dictatorship during the interwar period in Italy in 1922.

Rise of Nazism

• Adolf Hitler, the Leader of the German National Socialist (Nazi) party, preached a racist brand of fascism.
• Hitler promised to overturn the Versailles Treaty, restore German wealth & glory and secure additional Lebensraum (“living space”) for the German people, who he contended deserve more as members of a superior race.
• In 1933 Hitler became the German Chancellor, and in a series of subsequent moves established himself as dictator.
• Moreover, in 1941 the Nazi regime unleashed a war of extermination against Slavs, Jews, and other elements deemed inferior by Hitler’s ideology.

Policy of Appeasement

• Hitler openly denounced the Treaty of Versailles and began secretly building up Germany’s army and weapons.
• Although Britain and France knew of Hitler’s actions, they thought a stronger Germany would stop the spread of Communism from Russia.
• Germany agreed not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia or any other country. However, in March 1939, Germany broke its promise and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia.
• Even then, neither Britain nor France was prepared to take military action.

Key Turning Points of the World War II

• Three years of mounting international tension - encompassing the Spanish Civil War, the union of Germany and Austria, Hitler's occupation of the Sudetenland and the invasion of Czechoslovakia led to deterioration of ties between Axis Power and Allied Powers.
• However, the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and subsequently two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
• This marked the beginning of World War II.
• The western Europe was very quiet during the first few months of the war.
• This period of war is known as 'phoney war'.
• Preparations for war continued in earnest, but there were few signs of conflict, and civilians of the western european countries (allied powers) evacuated to safe places.

Ribbentrop Pact

• By the early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade and occupy Poland.
• Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military support should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler intended to invade Poland anyway, but first he had to neutralize the possibility that the Soviet Union would resist the invasion of its western neighbour.
• Secret negotiations in August 1939, led to the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in Moscow.
• Further, Russia followed Germany into Poland in September and Poland was carved up between the two invaders before the end of the year.

Winter War 1940

• The 'winter war' between Russia and Finland concluded in March, and in the following month Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
• Denmark surrendered immediately, but the Norwegians fought on - with British and French assistance - surrendering in June 1940.

Fall of France 1940

• After war with scandenavian countries got over, Germany invaded France, Belgium and Holland.
• During this phase, the western Europe encountered the Blitzkrieg - or 'lightning war'.
• Despite greater numbers of air and army personnel in Allied powers, they proved no match for German Forces.
• In France an armistice was signed with Germany, with the puppet French Vichy government.
• Having conquered France, Hitler turned his attention to Britain, and began preparations for an invasion.

Battle of Britain 1940

• Lasting from July to September 1940, it was the first war to be fought solely in the air.
• German took decisions to attack from airfields and factories to the major cities, but somehow the Royal Air Force managed to squeak a narrow victory.
• This ensured the - ultimately indefinite - postponement of the German invasion plans.

War Getting Global

• With continental Europe under Nazi control, and Britain safe - for the time being - the war took on a more global dimension in 1941.
• Following the defeat of Mussolini's armies in Greece and Tobruk, German forces arrived in North Africa and invaded Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941.

Operation Barbarossa

• After facing defeat in Britain, Hitler broke the Ribbentrop Pact and invaded Russia in 1941.
• The initial advance was swift, with the fall of Sebastopol at the end of October, and Moscow coming under attack at the end of the year.
• The bitter Russian winter, however, like the one that Napoleon had experienced a century and a half earlier, crippled the Germans.
• The Soviets counterattacked in December and the Eastern Front stagnated until the spring.

Pearl Harbour

• The Japanese, tired of American trade embargoes, mounted a surprise attack on the US Navy base of Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, on 7 December 1941.
• This ensured that global conflict commenced, with Germany declaring war on the US, a few days later.
• Also, within a week of Pearl Harbor, Japan had invaded the Philippines, Burma and Hong Kong.

American Entry Into the War

• Through the Battle of Midway 1942, the US entered World War II. In this battle, US sea-based aircraft destroyed four Japanese carriers and a cruiser, marking the turning point in World War II.
• Also, the news of mass murders of Jewish people by the Nazis reached the Allies, and the US pledged to avenge these crimes.

Reversal of German Fortunes

• By the second half of 1942, British forces gained the initiative in North Africa and Russian forces counterattacked at Stalingrad.
• In February 1943, Germany surrendered at Stalingrad to Soviet Union. This was the first major defeat of Hitler's armies.
• Further, German and Italian forces in North Africa surrendered to the Allies.
• As the Russian advance on the Eastern Front gathered pace, recapturing Kharkiv and Kiev from Germany. Moreover, Allied bombers began to attack German cities in enormous daylight air raids.
• Hitler killed himself on the 30 th , two days after Mussolini had been captured and hanged by Italian partisans.
• Germany surrendered unconditionally on 7 May, and the following day was celebrated as VE (Victory in Europe) day. The war in Europe was over.

Nuclear Bombing And The End

• Plans were being prepared for an Allied invasion of Japan, but fears of fierce resistance and massive casualties prompted Harry Truman - the new American president to sanction the use of an atomic bomb against Japan.
• Such bombs had been in development since 1942, and on 6 August 1945 one of them was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
• Three days later another was dropped on Nagasaki.
• No country could have withstand such attacks, and the Japanese surrendered on 14 August.
• With the surrender of Japan, World War II was finally over.

Aftermath of World War II

New Superpowers

• World War II brought about changes in the status of countries and continents. Britain and France lost their positions of preeminence as superpowers and yielded place to the USA and the USSR.

Start of Decolonisation

• After the war, Britain and France were confronted with various domestic and external problems. Both of them could no longer hold onto their respective colonies Thus, the post-war world witnessed the end of colonialism in Africa and Asia.

Birth of UN

• One of the momentous results of the war was the birth of the United Nations Organisation.
• Although the League failed to deliver, mankind did not altogether lose its hopes of making the world a safer and happier place to live in.
• The UN Charter enshrines the hopes and ideals of mankind on the basis of which countries can work together to maintain lasting peace.
• However, the establishment of the UN was agreed, much before the end of World War II under the Atlantic Charter.

Start of Cold War

• After the end of the war, a conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, to set up peace treaties. The countries that fought with Hitler lost territory and had to pay reparations to the Allies. Germany and its capital Berlin were divided into four parts.
• The zones were to be controlled by Great Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union.
• The three western Allies and the Soviet Union disagreed on many things and as time went on Germany was divided into two separate countries: East Germany, which had a Communist government and West Germany, which was a democratic state .
• This laid the foundation of the Cold War.

New Economic World Order

• Bretton Woods Conference, formally United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (July 1–22, 1944), during World War II to make financial arrangements for the postwar world after the expected defeat of Germany and Japan.
• It drew up a project for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD-now known as World Bank) to make long-term capital available to states urgently needing such foreign aid, and a project for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finance short-term imbalances in international payments in order to stabilize exchange rates.
• Also, the US dollar was established as a reserve currency for the world trade.

India and World II

• World War II had taken an immense toll on the British Empire. Britain had lost a lot of capital and they were looking to their colonies to help them get the status of world power back. However, Mahatma Gandhi at this time organized Indians against the British.
• Also, World War II broke out to contain Hitler's intention of having German colonies beyond its borders, the same colonial occupation that Britain had already been practicing for centuries.
• Thus, after the war, people all over the world started supporting voices against British occupation over its colonies.
• When the Labour Party came to power in 1945 in Britain it inclined towards internationalism and racial equality, among other liberal principles.
• Soon after coming into power, Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Labour Party) began the process of granting India its independence in 1947.

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The end of world war ii 1945.

Explore articles, web series, podcast episodes, live webinars and more from the Museum about the end of World War II.

The End of World War II

The National WWII Museum pays tribute to the historic anniversaries, as well as the myriad servicemembers and Home Front workers who helped preserve freedom and democracy. Through an ongoing series of digital programming, the Museum will reflect on the legacy and meaning of the end of World War II, bringing audiences distance learning programs, articles, featured artifacts, podcasts, and video content featuring scholars, Museum historians and curators, and oral histories from the Museum’s collection. Learn with us wherever you are.

Quick Links

Featured Content

Frequently asked questions.

On May 8, 1945, World War II in Europe came to an end. As the news of Germany’s surrender reached the rest of the world, joyous crowds gathered to celebrate in the streets, clutching newspapers that declared Victory in Europe (V-E Day). Later that year, US President Harry S. Truman announced Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II. The news spread quickly and celebrations erupted across the United States. On September 2, 1945, formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri , designating the day as the official Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day).

V-J Day was especially momentous—the gruesome and exhausting war was officially over—but the day was also bittersweet for the many Americans whose loved ones would not be returning home. “More than 400,000 Americans gave their lives to secure our nation’s freedom, and in the midst of exultation, there was recognition that the true meaning of the day was best represented by those who were not present to celebrate,” said Robert Citino, PhD, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum.

Seventy-six years later, The National WWII Museum will pay tribute to the historic anniversaries, as well as the myriad servicemembers and Home Front workers who helped preserve freedom and democracy.

"TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY" SEASON 1

In the midst of history’s greatest war, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and died just 11 weeks into his fourth term.  "To the Best of My Ability"  Season 1 is a nine-part podcast series that examines what happens in the wake of his death, pulling directly from the newly sworn-in President Harry S. Truman’s diaries, oral histories from the men and women who lived through it, and more. Join The National WWII Museum as we explore the tragedies, triumphs, and difficult choices made by one of history’s most unexpected leaders.

K-12 Distance Learning

Bring The National WWII Museum into your classroom through our collection of distance learning programming! No matter your budget or level of technology, the Museum can connect with your students through interactive and dynamic Virtual Field Trips, webinars, and more.

End of War Classroom Resources

Explore essays, lesson plans, and multimedia resources exploring liberation and the legacy of World War II, connecting events like the Holocaust, the Nuremberg Trials, the Marshall Plan, and the founding of the United Nations to the world of today.

Featured Articles

Liberation and Legacy

Dr. Rob Citino highlights the moments of celebration, as well as realization of the repercussions that followed Allied victory and the end of World War II.

The Steep Price of Victory in Europe

As the world celebrated victory over Nazi Germany and the boys eventually did come home, the war they fought thousands of miles from American shores came home with them. It came home with them in their wounds, in their memories, in their daily life…in their nightmares.

"To Bear the Unbearable": Japan's Surrender, Part I

Japanese military leaders debated Japan's possible surrender up to the last moment. Emperor Hirohito's intervention was critical.

GIs in Germany: First Impressions of the Former Third Reich

By VE-Day, 1.6 million American soldiers stood on German soil. Their first months in the land of their former enemy were marked by a number of surprising observations and interactions.

"To Bear the Unbearable": Japan's Surrender, Part II

Although a decision to continue the war would mean national suicide, members of the Japanese military came close to refusing Emperor Hirohito’s surrender order.

Victory for the Lost: The Ultimate Sacrifice That Made V-E Day Possible

Monuments and fields of white crosses mark the cost of victory in Europe. Majestic today, the cemeteries were in a much different state 75 years ago.

The Most Fearsome Sight: The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay  dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9, 1945

The bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki with the Fat Man plutonium bomb device on August 9, 1945, caused terrible human devastation and helped end World War II.

Featured Video Content

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Leadership on the Home Front

Roosevelt's passing was a tremendous shock to the citizenry and the military serving overseas. Through his steady leadership, did the country ultimately emerge victorious.

Victory in Europe

World War II in Europe began in 1939 with Nazi Germany invading Poland. Through persistent efforts of teamwork and ingenuity the Allied powers were able to defeat Nazi Germany and free Europe.

I Am Not a Hunter…I Am A Killer: War on Their Soil

As the US Army moved into Germany in 1945, the months of bloody fighting had left a mark on each man.

The Most Fearsome Weapon: 1945 Okinawa Invasion

The Japanese, realizing that the War was nearly lost, turned to their most fearsome weapon in their attempts to stop the American advance: The Kamikaze.

Top Secret: The Final and Tragic Voyage of USS Indianapolis

Shortly after midnight, USS Indianapolis  was struck by two enemy torpedoes. The ship sank in 12 minutes. Over 900 of her crew abandoned ship and began to drift in the sea.

Unparalleled Innovation: The Final Card in the Pacific Theater

Advances in science and industrial capability during World War II brought forth new devices that would shape the face of the world for the next 75 years.

Where is the schedule of upcoming commemorations, ceremonies, and programs?

To view all webinars and digital programming visit our events calendar.

How do I participate in a webinar?

The Museum’s webinars will be hosted on Zoom. You can access a Zoom webinar on your smart phone, tablet, or computer.

If you are watching for the first time on your smart phone or tablet, you will need to download the Zoom app from the app store on your device. The Zoom app is free to download. Once the app is downloaded, click the Zoom webinar link for the program you are interested in. It will then open the app, and you will enter the webinar room. You will need to provide your email address to participate in a webinar.

If you are participating in a Zoom webinar for the first time on a computer, Zoom will prompt you to download and run a bit of software. Once downloaded and installed, click the Zoom webinar link for the program you are interested in. It will then open the application and you will enter the webinar room. You will need to provide your email address to participate in a webinar.

See here for additional information:  https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004954946-Joining-and-participating-in-a-webinar-attendee-

What if I miss a webinar?

All webinars are recorded and uploaded to the Museum’s YouTube Channel soon after premiering. www.youtube.com/wwiimuseum

The series of digital programming commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II is made possible by The Nierenberg Family and Bank of America.

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Victory in Europe: One Year Later

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The Second World War in literature : eight essays

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World War 2 Consequences Cause and Effect Essay

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Causes of World War 2

The reason why the u.s. was involved in the war, why the allies in europe and the pacific won, consequences of the war.

The World War 2 began in 1939. This is when France and Britain declared war on Germany. This occurred when Germany invaded Poland and therefore, this is what triggered the outbreak of war. However, the causes of the war are more complex.

The major causes of this Great War were the unresolved issues that resulted from the World War 1. Another reason was due to the effects of the Great Depression. This occurred in the 1930s. Another reason is the interwar period in Europe. Several events accumulated and led to the outbreak of the war.

One of the events that contributed to the series of events includes the invasion that occurred in Poland in 1939. Soviet Russia and Germany were responsible for this invasion. Another event that had a great effect was the invasion into Republic of China. The Empire of Japan was responsible for this and this occurred in 1937.

Several European powers such as the United Kingdom, Russia and France expanded their territories using force and aggression. This is a process that was referred to as expansionism or imperialism. Germany and Italy were not as successful as the other nations when it came to gaining territory under colonial rule.

When Germany lost land to the other nations, it led to their relocation. This cause the Germans to get bitter and this interfered with their relations with their neighbors. This contributed to the feeling of revanchism. Under Nazism, Germany started a program that would lead to the restoration of the country’s rightful boundaries.

These were the boundaries that were in place before World War 1. This lead Rhineland to reoccupied. When Hitler saw the success of this action, he believed that he could further invade Russia and Poland without causing any major war.

Another leading cause is the failure of appeasement. The actions by Germany were thought to be reasonable since they thought that Germany had the right to re-arm herself in order to be ready to defend itself.

Therefore, the Munich Agreement was signed. This was between Germany, Italy, Britain and France. Czech was not invited and this made them feel betrayed.

However, Hitler went ahead to break the terms and conditions of the Munich Agreement. He invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. It was evident that the policy of appeasement had failed. Another thing that led to the World War 2 was the failure of the League of Nations.

The United States had remained neutral in the war but they were provoked into it. This was when the Japanese bombed the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. This made the Japanese official enemies of the United States.

The Japanese later bombed the U.S. fleet in the Philippines. This then agitated U.S., which decided to declare war on the Japanese. A few days later, Hitler decided to declare war against the United States. This led the U.S. to respond with fire. This then led to the full involvement of the United States in World War 2.

FDR also wanted the United States to be involved in the war. He made public statements about Germany’s attacks. The Germans had made three separate attacks on U.S. vessels that had carried civilians. The U.S. pressured the Japanese with embargoes and caused their economic fall.

It was after that when Hitler did what has been referred to as the ‘greatest military blunder in history’. This was when he declared war against the United States. He also wanted the Japanese to attack Russia on the eastern side. However, this did not happen.

Since the Japanese were not involved, Germany had to fight on both sides and this is the main reason why Germany did not succeed. Hitler tried to help the Japanese because he was not aware how badly off they were. He believed that Japan had an army that had not seen defeat for more than a century.

Since the Japanese were misguided, they made a mistake of attacking Pearl Harbor. This gave the Americans an incentive.

The reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor dates back to the time when the U.S. banned any form of trade with the Japanese. This was because the Japanese had been aggressive towards the Chinese. As the U.S. embarked fully in the war, it ended up spending 42 billion dollars towards the war.

The allies included the U.K., U.S., France, Soviet Union, Republic of China and Poland. The emperor of Japan had underestimated the abilities of the U.S. to make war in the Pacific. However, the Japanese army did not have sufficient resources to go ahead with the war.

The British, on the other hand, pushed the Japanese killing all those who appeared on their path. As a result, almost a half a million of them were killed. The U.S. also continued to capture the islands and drew closer to the Japanese territory. China, Russia and Britain then liberated the portions of China that had been occupied by the Japanese.

The attempts of the Italians and Germans to greedily capture and expand their empires were not successful. This was because they had bad strategy and morale. The Russians came in from the east and killed more than half of all the German soldiers. This led the allies to land in Normandy and they liberated France.

World War 2 had diverse effects throughout the world. The consequences included both positive and negative effects. Firstly, millions of lives were lost as a result of the war. Millions more were left homeless. Another consequence was the division of Germany.

It was divided into four and each was governed by the allied powers. These included the United Kingdom, United Nations, Soviet Union and France. These were the direct effects.

However, there were indirect effects and consequences of the war. One of the direct effects was that the war acted as a catalyst for various local, regional and global phenomena. This included the redrawing of the borders of Europe. U.K.’s welfare state was also born as a result of the war.

Another result of the war was the creation of Israel. Various organizations also rooted as a result of the world war. Such organizations include the World Bank, the United Nations, World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund.

The war also led to the emergence of new technologies. One of such technologies was nuclear fission. This was necessary for the nations to produce nuclear weapons in order to protect themselves from future attacks. Another technology was the invention of the jet engine and electronic computer.

• The Causes and Consequences of World War Two
• Pearl Harbor Attack: U.S. and Japan
• Munich Oktoberfest as a Product Creating Value
• The Second World War Unrest
• Political Causes of WWII for America and Germany
• Critical Analysis of “Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of Our Century” by Modris Eksteins
• World War II History
• The Use of Atomic Bomb in Japan: Causes and Consequences
• History of U.S. Film
• The Intelligence Failures of Operation Barbarossa
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, April 5). World War 2 Consequences. https://ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-2-3/

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IvyPanda . 2019. "World War 2 Consequences." April 5, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-2-3/.

1. IvyPanda . "World War 2 Consequences." April 5, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-2-3/.

Bibliography

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Collection Military Legal Resources

World war ii.

The United States entered World War II in December 1941 and became fully engaged in the war, both in the European and Mediterranean Theater as well as the Pacific Theater. This collection focuses on military legal documents and trials in the aftermath of the war, including the Nuremberg Trials, the World War II Board of Review Decisions, the Malmedy Massacre Report, and the trial of General Yamashita, in roughly chronological order.

Martial Law in Hawaii: the Papers of Major General Thomas H. Green, Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army

On December 7, 1941, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas H. Green was Staff Judge Advocate, Hawaiian Department. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he became executive to the military governor and was responsible for countless daily operations of the American military government in the Territory of Hawaii. His personal papers—spanning his entire career from 1917 through his retirement in 1949—include notes, speeches and newspaper clippings, as well as correspondence with such historic figures as the secretaries of War, Navy, and Interior, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Generals Walter Short and Delos Emmons, and Admirals William D. Leahy and Chester Nimitz.

Martial Law in Hawaii : December 7, 1941 – April 4, 1943. Major General Green's complete, unpublished manuscript.

Nazi Saboteurs Trial

In mid-June 1942, eight German saboteurs — Ernest Peter Burger, George John Dasch, Herbert Hans Haupt, Henry Harm Heinck, Edward John Kerling, Hermann Otto Neubauer, Richard Quirin, and Werner Thiel — entered the United States by submarine in two groups, one landing on the coast of Long Island, New York, and the other at Ponte Vedra, near Jacksonville, Florida. Per the instructions of the German High Command, both groups of men carried a supply of explosives, fuses and incendiary and timing devices, to be used to destroy vital infrastructure, war-related industries, and various commercial locations in the United States. Within two weeks, George John Dasch turned himself in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and divulged critical information that led to the arrest of the other seven saboteurs in New York City and Chicago. On July 2, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as commander in chief of the army and navy, issued two orders that empowered a military commission to prosecute the eight saboteurs. The first, Proclamation No. 2561 — “Denying Certain Enemies Access to the Courts of the United States” — states at the outset that all enemies of the United States who commit certain acts “should be promptly tried in accordance with the law of war.” Specifically, citizens and residents of nations at war with the United States “who during time of war enter or attempt to enter the United States … through coastal or boundary defenses, and are charged with committing or attempting or preparing to commit sabotage, espionage, hostile or warlike acts, or violations of the law of war,” were to be “subject to the law of war and to the jurisdiction of military tribunals” and prohibited from seeking remedy in the federal or state courts. The second order, issued by President Roosevelt under authority of Article of War 38, appointed a military commission to try the eight Germans “for offenses against the law of war and the Articles of War.” The commission was given “power to make such rules for the conduct of the proceeding, consistent with the powers of military commissions under the Articles of War, as it shall deem necessary for a full and fair trial of the matters before it.” The order also prescribed regulations for review of the record of the trial and of any judgment or sentence of the commission.

The commission was convened on July 8, 1942. The eight saboteurs sought to file a writ of habeas corpus with the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia, but their motion was denied. In late July, while the military commission was in session, defense counsel persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to hear oral arguments on defense challenges to the commission. The Supreme Court’s decision, Ex parte Quirin , issued on July 31, 1942, considered the petitioners’ “contention that the President is without any statutory or constitutional authority to order the petitioners to be tried by military tribunal for offenses with which they are charged” — violation of the law of war, violation of Articles 81 and 82 of the Articles of War, and conspiracy to commit these violations — and that they are consequently entitled to be tried in civil courts. The Court rejected these arguments, and ruled that the German saboteurs were “plainly within the ultimate boundaries of the jurisdiction of military tribunals, and were held in good faith for trial by military commission, charged with being enemies who, with the purpose of destroying war materials and utilities, entered or after entry remained in our territory without uniform — an offense against the law of war. Those particular acts constitute an offense against the law of war which the Constitution authorizes to be tried by military commission.” The military tribunal concluded on August 1, with a guilty verdict for all eight defendants. On August 8, 1942 Haupt, Heinck, Kerling, Neubauer, Quirin, and Thiel were executed. Burger and Dasch received prison sentences. The full text of Ex parte Quirin , linked below, is the electronic version of the final, official opinion of the Supreme Court, which is printed in the bound volumes of the United States Reports . As other documents related to the Nazi saboteurs case are converted to digital format, they will be added to this site.

Nazi Saboteurs Trial , Washington, D.C., 1942

Enactments and Approved Papers of the Control Council and Coordinating Committee, Allied Control Authority, Germany (1945-1948)

The Control Council and Coordinating Committee of the Allied Control Authority in post-World War II-occupied Germany issued a series of enactments and approved papers. This nine-volume series, compiled and printed by the Legal Division of the Office of the U.S. Military Government for Germany, represents the effort to rule an occupied country by unanimous agreement of representatives of the four occupying powers: The United Kingdom, the U.S.S.R., France, and the United States. The collection is not only of historical value, but is an important resource for current military legal scholarship.

• Volume VIII
• Legislative History, Law Index
• Legsilative History, Subject Index

Nuremberg Trials

24 major political and military leaders of Nazi Germany, indicted for aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, were brought to trial before the International Military Tribunal. More than 100 additional defendants, representing many sectors of German society, were tried before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals in a series of 12 trials known as “Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings.” The four major publications linked below contain: the official proceedings of the trial of the major war criminals (The Blue Series), documentary evidence and guide materials from that trial (The Red Series), the official condensed record of the subsequent trials (The Green Series), and a final report on all the war crimes trials held in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945 to 1949.

Nurnberg Military Tribunals: Indictments, Case No. 1-12

Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal ("Blue Series") Nuremberg, 14 November 1945 - 1 October 1946

This 42-volume series, also known as “ The Blue Series ,” is the official record of the trial of the major civilian and military leaders of Nazi Germany who were accused of war crimes. The accused were: Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Robert Ley, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walter Funk, Hjalmar Schacht, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Martin Bormann, Franz von Papen, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Albert Speer, Constantin von Neurath, and Hans Fritzsche. The International Military Tribunal, under the jurisdiction of the Allied Control Authority for Germany, directed the publication of this series.  The London Agreement of 8 August 1945 established the tribunal, which was composed of one member and an alternate from each of the four Allied countries: the French Republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America.  English, French, German, and Russian were the languages used throughout the hearings. Documents entered into evidence were reproduced in this series only in the original language, but as the result of the absence of a Soviet editorial staff, none of the Russian-language documents were published.

• Volume XIII
• Volume XVII
• Volume XVIII
• Volume XXII
• Volume XXIII
• Volume XXIV
• Volume XXVI
• Volume XXVII
• Volume XXVIII
• Volume XXIX
• Volume XXXI
• Volume XXXII
• Volume XXXIII
• Volume XXXIV
• Volume XXXV
• Volume XXXVI
• Volume XXXVII
• Volume XXXVIII
• Volume XXXIX
• Volume XLII

Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality ("Red Series") Nuremberg, Germany (1945-1946)

This eight-volume, 12-book series, also known as “ The Red Series ,” is a “Collection of Documentary Evidence and Guide Materials Prepared by the American and British Prosecuting Staffs for Presentation before the International Military Tribunal at Nurnberg, Germany.”  The Red Series makes available an indexed sampling of the evidence used to support the charges made against the major Nazi war criminals in their trial at Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946.  Volumes I and II serve as an overarching guide for the Red Series. They contain essays that summarize and link together the documents that follow.  Volume II also contains a glossary along with short biographies of the German defendants, as well as summaries of the individual cases against them.

• Opinion and Judgment
• Supplement A
• Supplement B

Trials of War Criminals Before the Nurenberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10 ("Green Series") October 1946 - April 1949

This 15-volume series, also known as “ The Green Series ,” focuses on the 12 trials of almost 200 defendants. The defendants included: diplomats, politicians and jurists, such as Ernst von Weizsaecker, the State Secretary of the Foreign Office, cabinet ministers Schwerin von Krosigk and Hans Lammers, and the Acting Minister of Justice Franz Schlegelberger; military leaders, including Field Marshals Wilhelm von Leeb, Wilhelm List, and Georg von Küchler; SS (Schutzstaffel) leaders, such as Otto Ohlendorf and Oswald Pohl; leading industrialists, such as Friedrich Flick, Alfred Krupp, and the directors of I. G. Farben; and physicians, such as Gerhard Rose. The trial proceedings, conducted in English and German, were carried out under the direct authority of the Allied Control Council, Law No. 10, the text of which is included in Volume I of “the Green Series.”  The trials lasted two and a half years, and produced more than 300,000 pages of testimony and evidence. This publication by the United States Government Printing Office is the official abridged record of the individual indictments and judgments, as well as the administrative materials that were common to all the trials.

The OCCWC (Office, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes) was officially established on October 24, 1946 and formally deactivated on June 20, 1949. The OCCWC was established in the Office of Military Government for Germany (U.S.) [OMGUS], by General Order 301, Headquarters U.S. Forces in Europe, and was the successor to the Subsequent Proceedings Division of the Office of the U.S. Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality. In this report on the Nuremberg war crimes trials, which were conducted under the authority of Control Council Law No. 10, Brigadier General Telford Taylor, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, also describes the creation, organization, and functioning of the OCCWC. His report covers the period from the beginnings of the OCCWC in October 1945 to its deactivation in 1949.

Final Report to the Secretary of the Army on the Nuernberg War Crimes Trials Under Control Council Law No. 10 Telford Taylor, Brigadier General, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes Washington, D.C., 15 August 1949

World War II Board of Review Decisions

European Theatre : includes Volumes 1-34, index digests 1-2, and Index Supplement Digest 1

North African/Mediterranean Theatre of Operations : includes Volumes 1-7 and Digest of Opinions

Pacific Ocean Areas : includes Volume 1

Southwest Pacific Asia/Pacific : includes Volumes 1-4, Appendix, and Index

China, Burma, India/India-Burma Theater : includes Volumes 1-3

Malmedy Massacre Investigation and Record of Trial

Malmedy massacre investigation and report, malmedy, belgium, 17 december 1944.

On December 16, 1944, the German Army began the Ardennes offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge.  On December 17, 113 American soldiers surrendered to a German armored column under the command of SS Colonel Joachim Peiper [variant: Piper]. After the American prisoners were disarmed, they were assembled in a field near Malmedy, Belgium, and shot. The German soldiers involved in this massacre of the American prisoners were later prosecuted by the U.S. Army for war crimes in 1946 in what is known as the Malmedy Massacre Trial.

In March 1949, in response to charges concerning the unfair conduct of the prosecution in the Malmedy cases, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services appointed a subcommittee to review the Army’s investigative and trial procedures. The Hon. Raymond E. Baldwin, chairman, presided over the subcommittee hearings, which were held in April, May, June, and September 1949. The subcommittee report was released by the full committee on October 13, 1949. The full text of these hearings as well as the subcommittee report are linked below.

Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services

• Part 1: April 18, 20, 22, 29; May 4, 5, 6 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24; June 1, 2, 3, and 6, 1949
• Part 2: September 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, and 28, 1949
• Report, October 13, 1949

Malmedy Massacre Record of Trial: United States v. Valentin Bersin et al., Dachau, Germany, 16 May - 16 July 1946

Following the end of World War II, the attention of the entire world was focused on the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal, which had begun in Nuremberg, Germany, in November 1945, and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which had begun in Tokyo, Japan, in April 1946. Both trials saw the countries’ leaders charged with, among other things, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On May 16, 1946, an equally important, though lesser known, war crimes trial began in a courtroom at the former Dachau concentration camp. A general military government court of seven U.S. Army officers began to try members of Battle Group Pieper (so named after its commander, SS Colonel Joachim Pieper), former Waffen SS soldiers who were accused of murdering 84 American prisoners of war on December 17, 1944 at a road intersection near Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. As survivors of the massacre reached American lines, word of the killings quickly circulated among American troops and steeled their determination to halt the German offensive.

American newspapers and magazines immediately began calling these killings “the Malmedy Massacre,” the name by which these war crimes will forever be known. Army war crimes investigators immediately began collecting evidence, but it was not until mid-January 1945 that the bodies of those killed were recovered and given proper burials.

Following a two-month trial, during which survivors identified many of the accused in court and testified that many wounded Americans had been shot in the head at close range, all 73 of the accused SS soldiers were found guilty on July 11, 1946. For an excellent summary of the trial and its aftermath, see The Malmedy Massacre Trial: The Military Government Court Proceedings and the Controversial Legal Aftermath (page 22) by Fred L. Borch, III, Regimental Historian and Archivist for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946

• Volume I | Volume II | Volume III
• Volume IV | Volume V | Volume VI
• Volume VII | Volume VIII | Volume IX
• Volume X | Volume XI | Volume XII
• Volume XIII | Volume XIV | Volume XV
• Volume VII includes Additional Content and appendices B-F, G-J, K-P, R-S, T-Z

*The additional content is a book presented to Ellis F. Burton, Assistant Army Judge Advocate and chief prosecutor on the Malmedy Massacre War Crimes Trial. This book is available in the Library of Congress Law Library Rare Book Room .

General Yamashita Trial and International Military Tribunal of the Far East

The case of general yamashita: a memorandum.

In September 1945, Tomoyuki Yamashita, in his capacity as commanding general of the Japanese Fourteenth Army Group in the Philippines, became a prisoner of war of the United States Army Forces and was charged with violations of the law of war. The official charge from the Judge Advocate General’s Department of the Army states that between October 9, 1944 and September 2, 1945, General Yamashita “unlawfully disregarded and failed to discharge his duty as commander to control the operations of the members of his command, permitting them to commit brutal atrocities and other high crimes against people of the United States and of its allies and dependencies, particularly the Philippines.” On December 7, 1945, a military commission found General Yamashita guilty as charged, and sentenced him to death. Yamashita filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the United States Supreme Court, challenging the commission’s lawful authority and jurisdiction to try him. On February 4, 1946 the Court denied the general’s petition, and he was executed shortly thereafter.

The Case of General Yamashita: A Memorandum was written in November 1949 by U.S. Army Brigadier General Courtney Whitney to refute the arguments presented in a book written, but not at that time published, by one of Yamashita’s six defense counsels, Captain A. Frank Reel. In support of its rebuttals to Reel’s book, the memorandum cites as authorities the Supreme Court opinion, In re Yamashita , 327 U.S. 1 (1946); the United Nations War Crimes Commission Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals ; and the Judge Advocate review of the record of trial, all of which are included as appendices to the memorandum.

The memorandum takes exception to Capt. Reel’s use of the dissenting opinions in the Yamashita decision to “support his post-judicial contention that Yamashita was irregularly tried and unjustly executed.” It affirms the three major findings of the Court: the military commission which tried and convicted Yamashita was lawfully created and lawfully convened; the allegations of the charge against Yamashita adequately alleged a violation of the laws of war; and the regulations governing the procedures to be followed by the commission were not in conflict with the Articles of War and did not deprive Yamashita of due process. The memorandum notes that General MacArthur, who served as the final reviewing authority prior to ordering the execution of sentence, supported the majority opinion of the Court. The memorandum includes in its entirety General MacArthur’s statement of record enumerating his reasons for approving the military commission’s judgment.

The commentary written by the United Nations War Crimes Commission discusses at length the Yamashita decision, focusing on the questions of international law which were involved in that case. Specifically, this document addresses “the legality of the trial of war criminals after the termination of hostilities; the finding that an alleged war criminal is not entitled to the protection of the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention relating to trial; the types of evidence admitted in war crime trial proceedings; the stress placed by the Commission on the need for expeditious procedure; and the responsibility of a commander for offences committed by his troops.” The Memorandum finds the commentary’s “discussion of the validity of that part of the regulations governing the procedure to be followed by the military commission in the admissibility of evidence” to be of particular interest.

The memorandum provides a lengthy recitation of the “specifications to the charge on which Yamashita was tried, convicted, and executed,” and states that it “established a pattern of the ... misconduct of the troops under Yamashita’s command.” The memorandum also quotes extensively from the Judge Advocate General’s review of the trial record to illustrate “the voluminous evidence before the military commission pointing to full knowledge by the high command of this reign of terror instituted against non-combatants and prisoners over a wide area.” The Judge Advocate’s review of the trial concluded that the military commission was legally constituted, and had jurisdiction of Yamashita and the offense with which he was charged. It also found that the evidence in that case supported the finding of guilty, that the trial record disclosed no errors in violation of the rights of the accused, and that the sentence was legal.

The Case of General Yamashita: A Memorandum , Brig. Gen. Courtney Whitney (1949).

See also "Trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita" in volume 4 of the U.S. Crimes Commission's Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals (1948), Case No. 21 (Page 1).

United States of America v. Tomoyuki Yamashita: Record of Trial Manila, Philipines 8 October - 7 December 1945

On October 8, 1945, a military commission—acting under authority from Gen. Douglas MacArthur—began the trial of Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita on the charge that between October 9, 1944 and September 2, 1945,

at Manila and at other places in the Philippine Islands, while a commander of [the] armed forces of Japan at war with the United States of America and its allies, [he] unlawfully disregarded and failed to discharge his duty as commander to control the operations of the members of his command, permitting them to commit brutal atrocities and other high crimes against people of the United States and of its allies and dependencies, particularly the Philippines; and he, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, thereby violated the laws of war.

Two bills of particulars, consisting of 123 distinct paragraphs alleging Yamashita’s violations of the laws of war, were introduced into evidence by the prosecution. The commission heard from 286 persons and received a total of 423 exhibits. The record of trial totaled 4,055 pages.

On December 7, 1945, the fourth anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the military commission found Gen. Yamashita guilty as charged and sentenced him to death by hanging. Yamashita petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States for writs of habeas corpus and prohibition. The opinion of the court, which rejected Yamashita’s petition, was delivered by Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone on February 4, 1946 ( 327 U.S. 1 ). President Harry S. Truman likewise rejected Yamashita’s plea for clemency. Gen. MacArthur reviewed the record of trial and affirmed the death sentence recommended by the commission. Yamashita was executed by hanging on February 23, 1946.

Before the Miliary Commission convened by the Commanding General, United states Army Forces, Western Pacific. United States of America vs. Tomoyuki Yamaskita. [Proceedings].

• Public Trial - 29 October 1945
• Public Trial - 30 October 1945
• Public Trial - 31 October 1945
• Public Trial - 1 November 1945
• Public Trial - 2 November 1945
• Public Trial - 3 November 1945
• Public Trial - 5 November 1945
• Public Trial - 6 November 1945
• Public Trial - 7 November 1945
• Public Trial - 8 November 1945
• Public Trial - 9 November 1945
• Public Trial - 12 November 1945
• Public Trial - 13 November 1945
• Public Trial - 14 November 1945
• Public Trial - 15 November 1945
• Public Trial - 16 November 1945
• Public Trial - 17 November 1945
• Public Trial - 19 November 1945
• Public Trial - 20 November 1945
• Public Trial - 21 November 1945
• Public Trial - 22 November 1945
• Public Trial - 23 November 1945
• Public Trial - 24 November 1945
• Public Trial - 26 November 1945
• Public Trial - 27 November 1945
• Public Trial - 28 November 1945
• Public Trial - 29 November 1945
• Public Trial - 30 November 1945
• Public Trial - 1 December 1945
• Public Trial - 3 December 1945
• Public Trial - 5 December 1945
• Public Trial - 7 December 1945
• Exhibits Volume 1 - Prosecution Exhibits
• Exhibits Volume 2 - Prosecution Exhibits
• Exhibits Volume 3 - Prosecution Exhibits
• Exhibits Volume 4 - Prosecution Exhibits
• Exhibits Volume 5 - Defense Exhibits

Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East Tokyo, Japan; 1946-1948

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) was established by a special proclamation issued January 19, 1946, by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. The first meeting of the IMTFE was held in Tokyo, Japan, on April 29, 1946. By the time the tribunal ended over two and a half years later, 419 witnesses had appeared in 818 court sessions and 779 affidavits and depositions had been presented. The IMTFE rendered its judgment November 4–12, 1948, in an opinion that took seven months to prepare and was 1,218 pages long. Maj. Gen. Myron C. Cramer, who served as Judge Advocate General of the Army during World War II, represented the United States at the tribunal.

Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East

• Volume I, Part A: Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III
• Volume I, Part B: Chapter IV | Chapter V
• Volume II, Part B, continued: Chapter VI | Chapter VII | Chapter VIII
• Volume II, Part C: Chapter IX | Chapter X | Annexes and Appendices

Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals

Law reports of trials of war criminals selected and prepared by the united nations war crimes commission (1947-1949).

This 15-volume series summarizes the course of the more important proceedings taken against individuals accused of war crimes during World War II, excluding the major war criminals tried by the Nuremberg and Tokyo International Military Tribunals. These representative trials of war criminals were selected for this series based on the major points of municipal and international law that were raised and settled during the trials as well as the potential for the greatest legal interest. Each volume begins with a unique introduction by the Right Honorable Lord Wright of Durley, Chairman of the United Nations War Crimes Commission.

Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Volumes 1-15

Nazi War Crimes & Japanese Imperial Government Records

In October 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act (NWCDA), which required the U.S. Government to locate, declassify, and release in their entirety, with few exceptions, remaining classified records about war crimes committed by Nazi Germany and its allies. The act required the President to establish an Interagency Working Group to oversee its implementation, which became the largest congressionally mandated, single-subject declassification effort in history, resulting in over 8 million pages of records being opened. This report is concerned with the process of implementing the Disclosure Acts and with the effectiveness of the acts, including the extent to which the acts resulted in the release of relevant records, the extent to which records were not released, and why. The report does not attempt to assess the historical value of the documentation covered by the acts; nor does it describe or present historical analyses or interpretations of declassified documentation. These interpretive tasks are appropriately left to historians and others with the expertise to study the raw sources made available by the Disclosure Acts. (excerpted from the introduction)

Nazi War Crimes & Japanese Imperial Government Records (April 2007)

Report of the Deputy Judge Advocate Report on War Crimes, European Command

This report was submitted by Lieutenant Colonel Clio Edwin Straight, Deputy Judge Advocate for War Crimes, European Command, to Colonel James L. Harbaugh, Jr., Judge Advocate, European Command. It covers pre-trial and trial phases of the war crimes program that dealt with so-called conventional war crimes cases, which were conducted by the United States Military Forces in Europe, from June 1944 to July 1948.

Report of the Deputy Judge Advocate Report on War Crimes, European Command June 1944 to July 1948

Report of Robert H. Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials

In December 1947 Justice Robert H. Jackson submitted a “documentary record of negotiations,” which he had conducted from June to August 1945 as U.S. representative to the International Conference on Military Trials with representatives of the United Kingdom, France, and the USSR. The purpose of this conference, held in London, was to establish “methods of procedure for the prosecution and trial of the major European war criminals,” and resulted in the adoption of an agreement and charter of London, signed by representatives of the four conferring powers on August 8, 1945.

The Jackson report includes numerous preparatory documents for the 1945 conference: minutes of conference sessions; reports of the drafting committee regarding the agreement and charter; redrafts of the definitions of key terms; and amendments and other proposals submitted by the American, British, French, and Soviet delegations.

In his preface to this report, Justice Jackson highlights the difficulties in reconciling the “divergence in legal concepts and traditions” among the four delegate nations. A consistent point of separation was the difference between the Soviet practice of judicial inquiry, and the Anglo-American theory of criminal trials, coupled with opposite views of the function of the judiciary. Jackson describes these discords as “stubborn and deep,” noting the failure to include in the final charter the American proposal to define “aggression.” There was a significant “difference of viewpoint concerning the principles of conspiracy as developed in Anglo-American law,” and the most serious disagreement concerned the definition of crimes.

The charter was, however, in many respects a success. It defines three broad categories of acts as criminal—crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It also “enacts the principle that individuals rather than states are responsible for criminal violations of international law and applies to such lawbreakers the principle of conspiracy by which one who joins in a common plan to commit crime becomes responsible for the acts of any other conspirator in executing the plan.” The procedural provisions of the charter are significant because they “represent the first tried and successful effort by lawyers from nations having profoundly different legal systems, philosophies, and traditions to amalgamate their ideas of fair procedure so as to permit a joint inquiry of judicial character into criminal charges.”

This document also includes two reports to the President of the United States submitted by Justice Jackson in June 1945 and October 1946. The 1945 report, which was widely published in the United States and throughout Europe, “was accepted by other governments as an official statement of the position of the United States and as such was placed before all of the delegations to the London Conference.” In this report Jackson outlines the basic features of the plan of prosecution on which the United States was proceeding in preparing its case. The case would begin with the assumption that “an inescapable responsibility” rested on the U.S. “to conduct an inquiry, preferably in association with others, but alone if necessary, into the culpability of those whom there is a probable cause to accuse of atrocities and other crimes.” A fair hearing would be conducted to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused, employing procedures not necessarily consistent with those of a trial under the U.S. system of justice. The hearings would bar “obstructive and dilatory tactics” by the defense, and would disallow the defense from arguing the doctrines that “a head of state is immune from legal liability, and that orders from an official superior protect one who obeys them. It will be noticed that the combination of these two doctrines means that nobody is responsible.” The defendants would consist of a large number of persons who were in authority in the German government and the military establishment, as well as in the financial and industrial sectors, “who by all civilized standards are provable to be common criminals.” Voluntary organizations such as the Gestapo, whose criminal activities subjugated the German people and their neighbors, would be accused as well, with the intent of demonstrating “their declared and covert objectives, and methods of recruitment and effectuating their programs.” The report notes that the U.S. case would need to be “factually authentic and constitute a well-documented history of” what the U.S was convinced was “a grand, concerted pattern to commit aggressions and barbarities which have shocked the world.” The report enumerates the atrocities and offenses, and violations of international law, with which the top Nazi leaders and voluntary associations were being charged. The basic premise of liability would be that “all who participate in the formulation or execution of a criminal plan involving multiple crimes are liable for each of the offenses committed and responsible for the acts of each other.” The United States “proposes to charge that a war of aggression is a crime, and that modern International Law has abolished the defense that those who incite or wage it are engaged in legitimate business. Thus may the forces of the law be mobilized on the side of peace.”

The 1946 report to the President summarizes the judgments of the International Military Tribunal sitting at Nurnberg (Nuremberg), Germany that were rendered on September 30 and October 1, 1946. It also provides statistics regarding testimony and other evidentiary material presented at this lengthy trial, which began on November 20, 1945. The report notes the subsequent war crimes work that would be supervised by Brigadier General Telford Taylor, specifically the prosecution of “representatives of all the important segments of the Third Reich including a considerable number of industrialists and financiers, leading cabinet ministers, top SS and police officials, and militarists.” The core of this report is Justice Jackson’s summary of the accomplishments of the four delegate nations. He states that the Agreement negotiated and concluded by these parties “made explicit and unambiguous that to prepare, incite, or wage a war of aggression, or to conspire with others to do so, is a crime against international society, and that to persecute, oppress, or do violence to individuals or minorities on political, racial, or religious grounds in connection with such a war, or to exterminate, enslave, or deport civilian populations, is an international crime, and that for the commission of such crimes individuals are responsible.” This agreement “is a basic charter in the International Law of the future. Its principles have been incorporated into a judicial precedent,” because from this point forward no one would be able to “deny or fail to know that the principles on which the Nazi leaders” were adjudged to have committed capital offenses “constitute law—and law with a sanction.” The Agreement is also noteworthy because it “devised a workable procedure for the trial of crimes which reconciled the basic conflicts in Anglo-American, French, and Soviet procedures.” The documentation of Nazi aggressions, persecutions, and atrocities, documented from German sources “with such authenticity and in such detail,” would preclude any “responsible denial of these crimes in the future.” Jackson concludes by stating that the Agreement and the military tribunal together have “put International Law squarely on the side of peace as against aggressive warfare, and on the side of humanity as against persecution.”

Report of Robert H. Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials London, 1945