The United States
Enters World War II
The United States
had ties to World War II at the commencement, but was not officially declared
at war until after the attack on Pearl Harbor .
This paper will describe the events that preempted the United States
entering World War II. Other countries’ relationships in the war will also be
explained.
On the morning of December 7 1941 , Japanese
bombers caught the American naval base by surprise. Within several minutes of
the attack on Pearl Harbor , they managed to
sink several ships: the Arizona ,
Utah , West Virginia , and California (Karls p 841).
The Japanese attack was successful and beyond their own expectation. They sank
and disabled ships and destroyed air planes. There were about 3300 deaths
during that attack and many others were wounded. December 7 was called “a date
which will live infamy,” (Karls p 841). Japan ’s rationale of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to counterbalance American naval power
in the Pacific. The Japanese wanted to be accredited to do as they wished in
the Pacific and Asia ; furthermore, their
reasoning was to also eliminate American power. Exclusively, Japan had been
involved in a war with China
which had come to a deadlock after many years of fighting. Japan wanted to
cut China
off from American and British aid, so China would be weakened, and the
standoff could be broken. Japan also knew that American naval power could not
be defused forever; however, their strategy was to attack at Pearl Harbor,
thus the American Navy could be
paralyzed long enough for Japan to achieve its objectives in Asia and in the
Pacific.
During December
1941, Japanese forces occupied the East Indies
and British troops withdrew from Malaya to Singapore and
then surrendered. Japan
pushed into Rangoon , Burma and cut off a major British
supply line the forces had; nonetheless, the U.S. wasn’t intimated by the
surprise. The next day, United
States was formally at war. Most people saw
the Japanese as the main enemy. The Pearl Harbor
attack instantaneously fired up a divided nation into action. Public opinions
had been moving towards support for entering the war during 1941, but
considerable opposition remained until the Pearl Harbor
attack. The view of betrayal in the attack before a declaration of war sparked
fears of sabotage or espionage by Japanese residing in the US, including
citizens of Japanese descent and were a factor in the subsequent Japanese
internment in the western United States. U.S. involvement in the second
World War was quickly followed by a massive mobilization effort. With millions
of men and women serving overseas in the nation's armed forces, most of those
who remained at home dedicated themselves to supporting the war effort in
whatever means was available to them..©
On December 11 1941 , Germany and Italy declared
war on the United States .
In the early months of 1942 the war was going badly for the Allies (Karls p 843).
By wiping out much of Pearl Harbor , the
Japanese had been in command of the Pacific Ocean ,
British, and Dutch territories. During those moments of devastation, the Allies
managed their way to stand up straight and gain control of that rush. By the
end of the same year of 1941 the Allies made their move and changed the Axis
position forever. The Allies solidified their resistance for a success of
victory. In May 1943 President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill decided that the
Allies would invade Normandy ,
Western Europe . The operation of invasion was
originally set for June 5 because of the weather difficulty it began on 6 June 1944 with the
Normandy Landings (commonly known as D-Day) when an airborne assault preceded
an amphibious assault. More than 1 million troops crossed the English
Channel on June 6, and more than 3 million troops had landed by
the end of August. Allied land forces that experienced combat in Normandy on D-Day came
from Canada ,
the United Kingdom
and the United States of
America . Free French forces also
participated in the battle after the assault phase. On August 25 1944 de Gaulle entered Paris , a free city for
the first time in four years (Karls p 847).
Months before, the
Allies invaded Normandy
the Soviet troops advanced steadily toward Germany from the east to recover
the soviet cities. The Allies bombed Germany itself, but Hitler was
determined not to surrender. The Allies’ armies launched attacks that brought
them to the Rhine
River in a week. The
Soviet advanced toward Berlin
and The U.S. Army captured Nuremberg ,
the site of the Nazi party. Four days later Soviet armies closed a ring around Berlin . The next day,
the Soviet Army and the U.S made contact at Torgau on the Elbe River ,
northeast of Leipzig .
On May 7 1945 , the
German surrendered unconditionally. (Karls p 848). However, defeating Germany did not
the end the war. It was just one less load of threat or attack the United States had
to deal with. Japan ,
who was the sneaky attacker, was still standing.
It was clear that
the Allied victory over Japan
was expected. Americans had assaulted Japanese cities for years after the
attack on Pearl Harbor . Those attacks on Japan caused it
to lose most of its naval power; nonetheless, the Japanese were still fighting.
American scientists successfully developed the atomic bomb, which had been
planned to be used in the event that Japan would not surrender. After
numerous unsuccessful attempts, the United States was unable to obtain
an answer of defeat from Japan .
On August 6 1945 ,
the United States
dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima .
A few days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki . Shortly after that, Japan
surrendered. For the first time, the Japanese population heard the emperor’s
voice on the radio telling them that the war was over, and the losses were now
meaningless (Edgar et. al 955)..©
After about 6 long
bloody years of what was total war, it ended. Technology improvements made
communication easier and faster, but it also made killing easier and on even
larger scales. The Axis Alliance was defeated, and so were their ideas. The
Allies proved strong and undivided. For the time being, the level of hostility
was tolerable for all.
Works
Cited
Edgar, Robert R., Neil J. Hackett,
George F. Jewsbury, Barbara Molony, Matthew S. Gordon.
Civilizations Past and Present. [New
York ], 2008. Print.
Karls, Farah. World History: the Human Experience. [New York ]. 1997. Print.
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