The End of

World War II
Spring 2018
The President Dies!
On April 12, 1945 in Georgia.
A New President:
Harry S, Truman,
FDR’s Vice President
 The End:
In Europe
May 7, 1945 Nazi Germany Surrenders
Potsdam Conference: 1945
● FDR dead, Churchill out of office
● Stalin only original left
● The US has the A-Bomb (and they
threaten to use it)
● Allies agree to divide Germany between
all of the allies.
Potsdam Conference: 1945
● Germany divided into 4 sectors:
○ United States
○ France
○ Great Britain
○ USSR
○ Berlin Divided also, even though it
was in the USSR’s sector
Potsdam Conference: 1945
● United Nations set up
● Stalin & USSR given influence over
Eastern Europe
● Promised to hold elections in occupied
areas, never happened
 Marshall Plan
● After war, Europe’s landscape is
destroyed.
● Sec. of State Marshall’s plan to avoid
depression & help countries rebuild - as
long as the nations cooperated with
American economic goals.
 Nuremberg Trials
● At Potsdam - allies decide how to punish
Nazis for their war crimes.
● 1945-1949 a series of 13 trials were
conducted in Nuremberg Germany,
carried out by the allied forces.
 Nuremberg Trials
Prosecuted prominent members of the
Nazi party who planned, carried out and
participated in the Holocaust and other
war crimes
 Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg trials are now regarded as a
milestone toward the establishment of a
permanent international court, and an
important precedent for dealing with later
instances of genocide and other crimes
against humanity.
 The End:
The Pacific
 Manhattan Project
● 1939: Einstein write letter to FDR on the
powers of atomic technology
● 1941: FDR agrees for project to begin
● Based in several locations, with several
universities involved: Columbia,
Chicago, California, Berkeley
 Manhattan Project
● At least 10 sites which include
warehouses to store Uranium, Labs that
split the atom, and headquarters in
Manhattan, New York City
● By 1943 headquarters moved to Oak
Ridge Tennessee
● By 1945 40 labs and over 200,000 people
 Oak Ridge, TN
● Secret City - within months oak ridge
was the fifth largest city in Tennessee
● Special badges had to be worn by all
residents - even kids
● 840 busses took people to work and
brought them home.
● The city operated 24 hours a day
 Los Alamos, NM
● The birthplace of the bomb
● Everyone’s address in Los Alamos was a
post office box in Santa Fe, most were
P.O. Box 1663.
 Manhattan Project
● The manhattan Project was so secret,
even Vice President Truman didn’t know
about it - at least until he replaces FDR!
● The bomb was tested July 16, 1945 in
New Mexico, only months after Truman
took office.
 Drop the Bomb?
● Decision to Drop Bomb:
○ Next step in War was to defeat Japan.
○ The next step would be to invade the
island of Japan
○ Many believed that the Japanese
would not surrender, but fight to the
last man, costing many lives.
 Drop the Bomb?
● Soviets were to enter the war (as
promised in Yalta) three months after
Germany’s defeat
● Stalin kept stalling on entering to help
the US
 Drop the Bomb?
● Three options Truman considered:
○ Wait for Russia
○ Invade Japan Ourselves
○ Drop the bomb on Japan
● He decides the option that would cost
the fewest lives would be to drop the
bomb
 Drop the Bomb?
The bombs were Little Boy and Fat Man
 Hiroshima
The Enola Gay dropped little boy on
Hiroshima, August 6, 1945
August 6, 1945, Hiroshima
 Hiroshima
70,000 killed immediately. 48,000 buildings
destroyed. 100,000s died of radiation
poisoning (called a-bomb disease) &
cancer later.
 Nagasaki
Bockscar dropped fat man on Nagasaki,
August 9, 1945. The original target was
Kokura, but it was obscured by clouds.
August 9, 1945, Nagasaki
 Nagasaki
40,000 killed immediately. 60,000 injured.
100,000s died of radiation poisoning
(a-bomb disease) & cancer later.
Sadako Sasaki was a child exposed to
radiation during the bombing of Hiroshima.
She died of Leukemia. While she was in the
hospital, she folded paper cranes - more than
1000. She inspired a peace movement
against nuclear weapons that was led by the
children in her class.
 After the Bomb
Japan offered to surrender August 10, 1945.

The Emperor told the Japanese people that Japan

was surrendering in a radio broadcast.
This was the first time they had ever heard the
Emperor speak.
 After the Bomb
Japan agrees to the unconditional
surrender September 2, 1945, aboard the
USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
 The Atomic Bomb
In a final attempt to force unconditional
surrender (following an extensive
firebombing campaign) and to avoid an
invasion of Japan, which would have cost
hundreds of thousands of lives, President
Truman ordered the use of atomic
weapons. Was this the right decision?
 The End:
In The USA
 The G.I. Bill
In 1944, Congress passed the G.I. Bill of
Rights designed to help servicemen
readjust to civilian life
 The G.I. Bill
◈ The bill paid for veterans to attend
college or technical school
◈ It also gave federal loan guarantees to
veterans buying homes or farms or
starting businesses
◈ This bill gave many opportunities to
people that wouldn’t have had them
otherwise
 The End?
Setting the
Stage for War
Setting the Stage for War
Soviet Union and United States were
necessary Allies for WWII, despite having
major opposing political and economic
systems
Setting the Stage for War
After the war, Stalin and Truman (and
Churchill) disagree on the fate of Germany
and eastern Europe
◈ Stalin wanted to split Germany up permanently
while the other Allies wanted to help Germany
rebuild as a productive nation
◈ Stalin wanted to spread Communism and
control eastern Europe
◈ Truman wanted to spread Democracy and open
eastern Europe to trade
Setting the Stage for War
Disagreements over territory, political and
economic ideologies will lead to intense
tensions between many nations over the
next 40 years during the Cold War
◈ Existence of nuclear weapons makes
these tensions more serious