WWII Flashcards
Manhattan Project
1942
top-secret American program to develop nuclear weapons
Japanese Internment
the forced incarceration and relocation of Americans with Japanese ancestry
Executive Order 9066
-for the safety of the American people and the responsibility of the Japanese citizen to help the war effort
-unnecessary and not justified by military necessity as only 50-60 in each naval district could be classified as dangerous
-only reasons were racial prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership
Lend-Lease Act
provided the Allies with more than $50 billion worth of arms, food, and other supplies
D-Day
June 6, 1944
- Operation Overlord
- created by General Eisenhower
- stormed the beaches of Normandy, France
- General Rommel- Nazi leader of the defense of the coast of France
- British: Gold and Sword
- Canadians: Juno
- Americans: Omaha and Utah
- result: the French coast is secured by Allied forces
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
Japanese surprise attack on US naval base
The US lost 4 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 174 planes
more than 3,000 Americans killed or wounded
Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan and the Axis Powers.
Bataan Death March
In the Philippines after the US surrender of the Bataan Peninsula to the Japanese, approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps.
-subject to harsh treatment and intense heat
Battle of the Bulge
last German offense that begun in December 1944
Okinawa
April 1945
one of the last two islands America invaded in WWII to reach Japan through the tactic of island-hopping
Iwo Jima
February
one of the last two islands America invaded in order to capture key islands to push the Japanese back toward Japan and to near the Japanese mainland
Hiroshima
Aug. 6 1945
Japanese industrial city where the US dropped an atomic bomb that killed over 75,000 and turned five square miles to wasteland
-due to the Japanese government’s refusal to surrender as well as to prevent the deaths of millions of Japanese and American forces
Philippines
taken by the Japanese in 1941
Bataan Death March in Feb. 1945
Who met at the Yalta Conference?
the Big Three:
Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt
What was decided at Yalta?
- planned for the future of Europe
- divided the German Reich into four zones and assigned France, US, Russia, and Great Britain to rule over them
- redrew European borders
- redistributed German imperialist holdings
- Stalin gets most of reparation money
What was promised at Yalta?
Stalin promised to declare war on Japan
an international peace-keeping force was created (UN)
reestablished Eastern European government (democracy)
What was decided at Potsdam about Nazi soldiers?
nazi war criminals were to be put on trial in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial
Importance of Nuremberg
proved that the planned murder of people is still a crime even during war
- charged with crimes against humanity for the murder of millions of Jews and others
- original 24 defendants, some of Hitler’s top officials
What did Nuremberg lead to in the UN?
the International Criminal Court
creation of Marshall Plan
in order to repair the European economy and ensure that another world war would not occur
creation of International Criminal Court
tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
creation of Israel
1948: UN created the country of Israel (formerly Palestine)
- safe place for Jews to live and escape from persecution
Navajo code talkers
a group of bilingual Navajo Indians recruited by the Marines to develop a code based on the Navajo language to transport intelligence information
-located in Camp Elliott, near San Diego
Marshall Plan
1948
To boost European economies, the US gave more than $13 billion to help Europe rebuild after the war
