Manhattan Project(1942): US needs to get atomic bomb before Hitler. Working bomb by 1945. War over in Europe. Will use against Japan.
First test in Alamogordo, NM is a success.
Truman inherits this project from FDR who had kept it secret.
Truman has to make a decision.
Argument for: Japan will not surrender, occupy Tokyo only option,dropping bomb will save American lives
Argument against: morally wrong to kill so many civilians
-Truman offers conditional surrender to Hirohito-Japan refuses by not responding
- Tells Japan they will incur massive destruction
Aug. 6, first bomb dropped on Hiroshima-60,000 dead or missing - no response from Japan
Aug. 9, Soviet Union declares war and enters Manchuria, second bomb dropped on Nagasaki. 35,000 die.
August 15 is now VJ Day, official surrender on Sept. 2
Most costly war in history is over-close to 60,000,000 have died.
What will be covered on Midterm/WWII Assessment
Causes of WWII
Great Depression/Dust Bowl
rise of fascism + totalitarianism
weakness of League of Nations
Start of aggression
Hitler-Sudetenland/Poland
France & England declare war
Miracle of Dunkirk
Blitz of London
US involvement
US Isolationist policy
Neutrality Act/Lend-Lease Act
Allied Powers/Axis Powers
Pearl harbor-Declare war
Japanese internment
US advantage once entering war
End of War
Europe first policy
D-Day
Stalingrad
Hitler’s mistakes
Victory in Europe
island hopping strategy in Pacific
Iwo Jima/Okinawa
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
