World War II

World War II was the largest and deadliest war in history. It pitted the Allies (including the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union) against the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan).

Causes and U.S. entry

• ●Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany invaded its neighbors starting in 1939
• ●The Holocaust: the Nazis murdered six million Jews and millions of others
• ●Dec 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. enters the war

The home front

• ●Factories switched to building tanks, planes, and ships
• ●Women took factory jobs (symbolized by "Rosie the Riveter")
• ●Japanese Americans were unjustly forced into internment camps
• ●Rationing limited everyday goods so supplies could go to the troops

Turning points and the end

• ●D-Day (June 6, 1944): the Allied invasion of France in Europe
• ●May 1945: Germany surrenders (V-E Day)
• ●Aug 1945: the U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• ●Sept 1945: Japan surrenders (V-J Day), ending the war