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Concentration Camps
In 1937, the Nazi Criminal Police arrested people with the idea of ‘preventative detention’. This would happen to people that would be political opponents or groups that the Nazis found to be deviant. -
Japan Attacks China
Japan invaded China which then lead to World War II in the Pacific. The reason that Japan invaded China was because they needed resources. Since Japan is made up of only 16% of usable land and they lacked in oil, coal, and iron, they needed to take these things from China. -
Germany Invades Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, this started World War II in Europe. Germany invaded by air and land, they made sure to destroy everything in their path. The reason WWII began in Europe was because Germany was taking all the undesirables. -
War Declared on Germany
After Germany invaded Poland, France and England declared war on Germany. They did this to honor Poland and this is why so many countries got involved. Soon after this happened, the US declared war on Germany. -
Euthanasia Program
Adolf Hitler signed a secret order to kill all children that have mental or physical disabilities under the age of five. This program was so successful that they decided to expand it to older teens and adults, it killed over 200,000 people. The whole purpose of this program was to ‘cleanse’ the race in order to create a better society. -
Tuskegee Airmen
On July 19,1941, the Tuskegee airmen became the first, all black, WWII Fighter Pilots.Many people disagreed with this decision and believe they could protect bomber plans in battle. But the group ended up proving everyone wrong when they never failed one mission and they were the only group of fighter pilots to ever get a perfect record of 300. -
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, which killed 2,403 Americans and sank 180 U.S. aircrafts. The reason Japan did this was to disable the U.S. so that they could take rubber plantations in French indochina and oil fields located in the Dutch Indies. Overall, the Japanese wanted victory over China. -
FDR asks Congress to Declare War on Japan
On December 8, 1941, the U.S. wanted to response back to Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This lead to FDR deciding that he wanted to fight back to give citizens a peace of mind. After about an hour of FDR giving his Infamy Speech, the declaration was brought to a vote, the declaration was passed. -
Germany and Italy Declare War on the U.S.
On December 11, 1941, after the declaration of war on Japan was passed, Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, then declared war on the US. FDR fires back by declaring war back to Germany and Italy, this lead the U.S. to become a part of World War II. -
Manhattan Project
This was the secret plan to developed in 1942 for an Atomic bomb to be created in 1945 for multiple reasons. It would be used to save lives, test a really expensive weapon, and to to demonstrate their military might of the US to Russia. This project was so secretive that after FDR and Truman became president, he had to be informed about it. -
Executive Order 9066
On February 19, 1942, FDR ordered that all Japanese people be removed and put into internment camps. The reason they did this was because Japanese American soldiers worked as spies, interpreters, and guides in the war, this was to keep peace with the U.S. citizens. The camps were located in the desert, had no water, dirty, and the families lost all their previous belongings. -
Wabbsee Confrence
On January 20,1942, 15 Nazi officials met to discuss the “Jewish Question.” The Nazi officials agreed that the emigration of Jews was necessary, but would cost a pretty penny. They discussed something called a ‘Final Solution’ but they never used or talked about death camps. -
Double V Campaign
On February 7, 1942, was when the Double V Campaign came out and it stood for two victories for black Americans: a victory at home and a victory abroad. The whole point of the campaign was to help influence the public's opinion among black Americans. This campaign not only helped with racial equality, it also offered them the opportunity to feel part of freedom everywhere. -
Navajo Code Talkers
The US and their allies were struggling in WWII after Pearl Harbor and were in dire need of something. They came upon the Navajo language, which is unwritten and impossible to learn unless you lived with one of the families, and decided to use it in war. This lead to code talkers becoming a part of the Marines and they had to learn the code. Originally there were only 29 but in the end there were about 400 code talkers. -
Battle of Stalingrad
In 1942-1943, Germany made a second attempt to take over Russia but they got trapped by the winter and failed. The winter made Germany to go undersupplied for too long and civilians were willing to fight. The whole reason Hitler wanted Russia was because it would be used as a living space. This caused over 20 million of Russians to die. -
Warsaw Ghetto
This was an armed rebellion that was created on July 28, 1942. Then on January 18,1943, a group of Jewish soldiers, that were armed with pistols, fought their German escorts. This had been such a shock to Germany that they had to retreat. The Jewish held strong for a couple of days before Germany finally got back control. The strength of the rebellion was a complete surprise to the Germans. -
Korematsu v. U.S.
Fred Korematsu, an American-born citizen but still a Japanese descent, defied the Executive Order 9066, he refused to leave his home is San Leandro, California. He ended up appealing and in 1944 his case reached the Supreme Court. The Court agreed with government and stated that the need to protect the country was a greater priority than the individual rights of the Japanese and Japanese Americans. 6-3 majority on the Court upheld Korematsu's conviction. -
Roosevelt Created War Refugee Board
This was created by Roosevelt on January 22, 1944, to allow more than 200,000 Jewish refugees in the US. The reason he did this was because in the years of 1933-1941, only 100,000 Jewish refugees were allowed to the US. In a matter of months after this being created, there were large amounts of Jews in the US. -
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16,1944, Germany tried to take a Belgian city, Antwerp. They ended up successfully misleading the Americans and the battle was chaotic. Even though Germany mislead the Americans, they won but lost over 81,000 lives. -
Auschwitz Liberation
On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army arrived at Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 prisoners. The majority of them were ill and dying. There was an estimation that the minimum was 1.3 million people were in Auschwitz, at least 1.1 million were murdered. -
Yalta Confrence
This was a meeting that was held in February of 1945 with Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. All three of the agreed to split Germany into four occupied zones, this allowed them free elections. Even though they agreed on this,Stalin broke his promise and forced Soviet rule. -
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was a small island just off Japan and the U.S. needed a base near the Japanese coast. So three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island on February 19, 1945. The island was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops. After about a month of battling, the marines wiped out the defending forces. -
Okinawa
This was the last battle of World War II that started April 1, 1945 and ended on June 22, 1945. This battle involved 287,000 U.S. troops against 130,000 Japanese soldiers. In the end, 200,000 Japanese died and 19,000 Americans died. The U.S. ended up winning the last large scale battle of the war. -
V-E-Day in Europe
On May 8, 1945, was after the German Nazis had lost in Russia. It was also the day in which Germany surrendered and there was victory in Europe. Everyone was finally able to celebrate their victory because it finally end WWII in Europe. -
Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was bombed by the Americans with an Atomic bomb. The bomb was called the ‘Little Boy’. The bomb caused 80,000 to die instantly, 60,000 to die within the year, and 60,000 to die throughout the years. -
Nagasaki
Three days after the ‘Little Boy’, on August 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped their second Atomic bomb. This bomb was called ‘Fat Boy’ and caused 60 to 80 thousand to die in the first few months. This bomb caused Japan to surrender to the Americans. -
Hirohito Surrenders
Japan officially surrendered on August 15, 1945 and was announced by the Imperial of Japan. Then on September 2, 1945, it was formally signed which brought WWII to a close. -
Nuremberg Trials
This is where a series of 13 trials were held between 1945 and 1949, for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. The defendants, who were Nazi Party officials, high-ranking military officers, German industrialist, lawyers, and doctors, were put with charges such as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.
