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America Enters World War II
After the Japanese bombed the American military base in Pearl Harbor Hawaii in early December of 1941, killing 2,400 people. America finally joined the second world war in late December/January of the next year. -
Period: to
1942-1953
America had entered the second world war, and had started the path to winning it. Much of Europe was destroyed and captured by Germany, and America stepped in and saved it, with the help of other allies from Britain and Russia. America and the Allied forces eventually won the war, made huge technological innovations in weapons of mass destruction, and dealt with the aftermath of the war, before jumping right into an technological and ideological race and fight with communist Russia. -
Executive Order 9066: The Japanese Internment Camps
On February 19 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 during the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This Order unfairly targeted Japanese and ripped 110,000 of them away from their homes, (including many children) placing them in internment camps, effectively ruining the majority of their lives as they knew it. There was a major distrust for the Japanese even though 30,000 were serving for America in the war, and some never got their old lives back. -
The Battle of Stalingrad: The Beginning of the End
When the Ally’s (particularly the Russian army) gained a major victory and defeated the Germans in Stalingrad Russia in February of 1943 by holding a blockade and starving much of the German army to death, this ended Germany’s reign of terror and conquering. The Germans began to be driven back and the Allies (America, Russia, and Britain being the major countries part of the alliance) gained more confidence. An assault on the Germans dominating Italy was planned for the next year. -
D-Day
The most famous battle of WWII took place on June 6 1944, 156,000 Allied soldiers stormed Omaha beach in Normandy, France. The assault on the German forces was a hard uphill battle with very little cover for the Ally’s, yet the battle was successful. However, there were still 2,000 dead or injured American troops and 2,000 more other Allied deaths when the battle was over. This led to the battle becoming known as D-Day. Germany was defeated for good when Hitler committed suicide the next year. -
The United Nations
After the League of Nations proved ineffective in stopping Germany from invading the majority of Europe, President Roosevelt suggested a new “Nations”. On June 26 1945, 50 nations from around the world signed the United Nations charter, which was designed to keep the peace by holding all of the countries accountable to each other, and handling problems together, to prevent something like another major war from happening again. -
The Manhattan Project
American scientists started a secret project called the Manhattan Project attempting to develop a weapon of mass destruction using atomic energy to use against the Germans in case they decided to do the same. However, the Germans were defeated before the weapon was ready. The first atomic bomb was successfully tested in New Mexico in July of 1945, and more were ready for deployment to use against Japan the next month. -
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The First Nuclear Weapons
With the Germans defeated, the Allied forces turned their full attention to Japan. American scientists created the nuclear bomb and in August of 1945, America dropped two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, three days apart. The result was catastrophic. The cities were mere shells of what they had previously been. The majority of both were destroyed leading Japan to almost immediately surrender because of how bad the destruction and fallout was, ending World War II. -
The Cold War Origins
With Communist Russia and Democratic America's common enemy defeated, their alliances ended and the Cold War officially began. President Harry Truman presented his Truman Doctrine saying that the U.S. would work to contain communist infiltration into surrounding countries. The Cold War got its name because there was no actual fighting, making the battle field "Cold" rather than hot. -
The Cold War Begins
When Russia successfully tested a nuclear bomb in 1953, President Eisenhower warned Russia against using them, starting what is the first thought that comes to mind about the early Cold War. The threat of nuclear war. America and Russia both knew that if one side nuked the other country, they would be nuked back, and after what happened in Japan, neither country wanted that. Because of that, both countries were deterred from using nuclear weapons on each other and the other country's allies.