World War 2

Economic struggles around the world during the 1930's opened the door for tyrannical leaders to make promises to their respective people. These leaders created modern mechanized armies that were more capable than the world had ever witnessed. By 1939 the National Socialists (Nazis), led by Adolf Hitler, and the Japanese Empire, led by a military-industrial panel of leaders, had strengthened their positions within their regions. These nations would embark upon aggressive expansionist attitudes seeking to dominate other nations for their resources and territories. The Japanese had conquered much of northern China and the Korean Peninsula by the end of the 1930's. The Nazis invaded Poland and soon conquered most of Europe and North Africa. The Allies (England, France, Soviet Union and the United States) formed an un easy alliance to combat the Japanese and German aggression across the globe.

December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States entered the war against both Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. In the South Pacific the United States Navy and Marine Corps, turned back the tide of victories against the Japanese at the Battle of Midway, Battle of Guadalcanal, and later the Battle of Iwo Jima. In North Africa and Western Europe, the United States was able to overcome the Nazi armies and free multiple nations from Hitler's grip. In 1945 the United States and its allies defeated and occupied Germany, thus ending the war in Europe.


The Pacific Theater dragged on however. With estimates of up to 1,000,000 casualties, the United States President Truman (Roosevelt had passed away by this point) made the decision not to invade Japan with the Marine Corps, but rather to utilize the newly developed Atomic Bomb. At Hiroshima and Nagasaki the United States used the only atomic weapons in combat ever against the Japanese. Fearing the destruction of the entire nation, the Japanese authority surrendered in late 1945 ending the war in the Pacific theater.

World War 2 was a global war that claimed approximately 50 million lives. The United States attempted to stay neutral in up until late 1941, but by the end of 1941 the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii dragged the reluctant power into the conflict. With the atrocities occurring against the Jews and others in Europe by the Nazis and to help out its other allies, the United States joined in combat operations in Europe as well. The last year of the war, 1945, created new days of remembrance for both V-E day (Victory Europe) and V-J day (Victory Japan). The end of the Second World War left two remaining super powers, the United States and Soviet Union, which would form the basis for the Cold War up until the onset of the 1990's.