World War II Is Over!

The Cost of WWII  As many as 60 million people died during the course of WWII  Just about half of them were civilians  The country with the highest losses was the Soviet Union  20+ million Soviet soldiers and civilians died  Poland suffered 6 million deaths, nearly all of them were civilians

Breakdown of Lives Lost  Military:  Soviets: 7+ Million  Germany+ 4+ Million  China: 3.5 Million  Japan: 1.5 Million  U.S.A: 405,399  Britain: 344,000  France: 200,000  Italy: 165,000  Civilian:  China: 10+ Million  Soviets: 7+ Million  Poland: 6+ Million  Germany: 1.6 Million  Yugoslavia: 1 Million  France: 400,000  Japan: 400,000  Britain: 60,000

The Cost of WWII  More than 20 Million people were homeless  The exact number of lives lost and homeless people in China and other Japanese conquered lands is unknown but very high  The money paid to fight the war totaled over 1 trillion dollars  The cost of rebuilding the amount of property destroyed, resources depleted and economic activity lost due to the war can never be calculated

Victory in Europe  After Hitler killed himself, Germany officially surrendered within a week  May 9 th, Germany officially surrenders  The U.S and Allied Powers celebrated what is known as VE Day  VE Day: Victory in Europe Day  After 6 years of destruction and fighting the war in Europe was officially over  tch?v=GuhnGbkvu8o tch?v=GuhnGbkvu8o

Yalta Conference and Making a Post-War World  Before the war ended Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met  Yalta Conference: February 4 th -11 th 1945  Discussed what to do with Germany and after the war in Europe was over  Came up with a plan of attack for Japan  Roosevelt begins pushing for a new world organization called the United Nations

Yalta Conference  Main Ideas:  Promote future world peace  Prevent another world war  Secure new borders and territories  Agreed to divide Germany into 4 zones  Britain, France, USA and USSR would each get a zone  All agreed to find and charge Nazi war criminals

Yalta Conference  Rebuild Poland and set up a Polish government  Help the freed people of Europe set up democracies and govern themselves  Maintain postwar law and order  Carry out relief efforts for POW’s and Holocaust survivors

 Russia and the U.S come out big  Russia agreed to join in the Pacific Theater  Would get land in N. Korea and Manchuria  Russia agreed to join the United Nations  Tensions between USA and USSR already are growing  USSR wants land in Poland but USA wants it to be a free democracy  Self Determination: USA and GB pushed for the right to choose own government (democracy vs. communist) in fear of USSR forcing communism in Europe  Russia agreed to self-determination if they could have some land in Poland

The Potsdam Conference  Truman (FDR is dead), Stalin and Churchill attend  Known as the Treaty of Versailles of WWII  Met in Germany from July 17 th -August 2 nd 1945  Purpose: negotiate the end of the war in the Pacific and restructure Europe’s borders  Disagreed on how to divide Germany  Truman and Churchill feared USSR’s influence in Eastern Europe

Tensions Between USA and USSR Growing  The relationship between the two new super powers worsened since the Yalta conference  Stalin had arrested democratic leaders in Poland  Stalin pressuring countries into Communism  Truman took over for FDR and did not get along with Stalin  Truman knew he did not need Stalin’s help in Japan due to the successful testing of the A-bomb

Results of Potsdam  The big three agreed on the 4 German zones  Agreed to remove all aspects of Nazism in Germany  Agreed on a system to bring war-criminals to trial  Agreed on Poland’s free elections  USSR could take war reparations from their German zone  United Nations began forming

United Nations  Originally thought up by FDR and Churchill  Basically a new and improved League of Nations  Objective is to keep peace and assist people in need of aid  Promote human rights  Set up a security council of 5 main members  USSR, USA, France, GB and China are all permanent members of the security council

United Nations  50 countries met in San Francisco to draw up the United Nations  The representatives from all major countries hammered out the details  The United Nations Charter was signed by all 50 countries on Oct. 24 th, 1945

Cleaning up Europe  This was the first war where leaders were charged with war crimes  Rules needed to be in place to be able to try people with war crimes  Trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany  Accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes

Nuremberg Trials  Crimes committed:  Holocaust & Genocide  65% of Jewish population was killed  Mass civilian casualties  24 men and 7 organizations were charged with the systematic murder of millions  All claimed they were not guilty

 Hitler was dead and could not be tried  His two top associates, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels also committed suicide before trials  Trials found all but three guilty  12 sentenced to death  The rest were given prison sentences from 10 years-life  10 were executed by hangings  Hitlers successor Herman Goring killed himself the night before he was to be hung

Nuremberg Trials  After the main trials there were 12 more at Nuremberg  Trials lasted from  Doctors, lawyers, judges SS officers, and concentration camp supervisors were all charged  185 people were charged  12 received death penalties  8 life in prison  77 received varying prison terms  watch?v=FsOpcMFkrFs watch?v=FsOpcMFkrFs

Cleaning up Japan  In October of Japanese war criminals went on trial  All too were found guilty  16 life sentences  7 were hung including Prime Minister Tojo and the leader of the Bataan Death March  Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of Japan  Helped a Japanese gov. implement democracy but Macarthur had ultimate power  Allied soldiers occupied Japan

Cleaning Up Japan  MacArthur set up a democracy modeled after the British parliamentary gov  Wrote a new constitution  Emperor only had ceremonial powers like in England  Women received rights  Wrote a bill of rights to protect citizens  Japan regained sovereignty in 1951  v=J5U9A77PWUY v=J5U9A77PWUY