The United States Enters World War II

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.