The document provides an overview of key events and outcomes of WWII: 1) WWII started in Asia in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and escalated globally over the next decade as Germany, Italy and Japan expanded their territories aggressively through military force. 2) The war resulted in 60-70 million deaths, the majority being civilians in the USSR, China, Germany and Poland. It also led to the Holocaust and genocide of 6 million Jews. 3) While bringing unprecedented peace to Europe through organizations like the UN, WWII also set the stage for the Cold War between Western allies and the Soviet Union that persisted globally after the war.

1. Professor Chee
Lecture on WWII
Questions to consider:
How did the war start?
What are the outcomes of this war?

2. WWII
1. War starts in Asia in 1931
2. War was expensive, countless dollars $,
60 – 70 million deaths
3. WWI lessons misapplied
4. Race plays a major part in this war with
devastating consequences
5. War brings unprecedented peace to Europe,
the development of the U.N.
6. But also set the stage for the Cold War,
fought everywhere else

3. 3
World War II Death Toll of 60-70 Million
20
15
4
2
6
0.4
0.3
6 USSR
China
Germany
Japan
Poles
Britain
US
Jews
Which country lost the most?
Majority civilians, not soldiers
Soviet Union - 20+
Chinese – 15
Germany - 8
Jews - 6
Poland – 6
Japan – 2

4. World War II Timeline
1931 – Japanese invade Manchuria (“Asia for the Asians”)
1935 – Italians invade Ethiopia
1937 – Japanese invade China, Rape of Nanjing
1938 – Germans annex of Austria - the Anschluss
1938 – Germans invade Sudentenland, home of three million ethnic Germans in
Czechoslovakia
1938 – Germans occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia
1939 – Germany (& Russia) invade Poland (after the Nazi-Soviet Pact)
1940 - Blitzkrieg – lightning speed – Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and France fell to Nazi forces (Panzer – battletanks and Luftwaffe
– German air force)
1941 – June - Germans invade of Russia
1941 – December – Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, military base
December 11, 1941, Hitler & Mussolini declares war on the US
1943 – Stalingrad – Russians defeat Germany – turning point for war
1944 – June – Allied invasion of France
1945 – April 30 – Hitler commits suicide
1945 – May 7 – Germany surrenders
1945- August 6 & 8 – Hiroshima & Nagasaki – Atomic bombs

5. 5
1931 – Japanese invade Manchuria
“Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere” or
“Asia for the Asians”
Japanese territory 1945

6. The Mukden Incident (1931)
o Japanese troops in Manchuria,
China, secretly blow up small
parts of the Japanese-built
South Manchuria Railroad as
pretext for war
o Despite opposition from the
Japanese civilian government,
military takes Manchuria,
renames it Manchuko, a
puppet state
o League of Nations censures
Japan
o Japan leaves the League of
Nations
6

7. 7
Japanese Military Instituted Sexual Slavery:
Ianfu, or “Comfort Women”
“Comfort Houses” or
“Consolation Centers”
o 350K+ Asian girls & women
aged 14-20 from Korea (80%),
Taiwan, China, Philippines &
other parts of SE Asia
o Girls/women forced to
service 20/30 men per day, in
war zones
o Killed when infected with
venereal disease
o Large-scale massacres at end
of war to hide crimes
o Social ostracism for survivors

8. 1935 – Italians invade Ethiopia
Italian soldiers on their way to Eritrea, 1935
o Benito Mussolini
invades Ethiopia
o 275K Ethiopians
killed
o 2K Italian troops
killed,
o Italia also invades
Eritrea, Libya,
Albania

9. 1936 Ethiopia Pleads with the League of Nations
to save her from Italian Aggression
o The League took no
action until after the fall
of France in 1940.
Emperor Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari)

10. 10
1937 – Japanese invade China,
Rape of Nanjing
“Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere” or
“Asia for the Asians”

11. 11
Policy of Appeasement:
Lesson from World War I Misapplied to World War II?
Munich Conference 1938
o Italy, France, Great Britain,
Germany meet
o Allies follow policy of
appeasement
o Hitler promises to halt
expansion
British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain (1937-40)
promises “peace for our time” British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain

12. 12
Hitler signs secret Russian-German
Treaty of Non-Aggression, 1939
(Molotov-Ribbentrop
Pact, August 1939)

13. With Lighting Speed, Germany Invades Europe
1938 – Germans annex Austria -
the Anschluss
1938 – Germans invade
Sudentenland, Czechoslovakia
with 3 million ethnic Germans
1938 – Germans invade the rest of
Czechoslovakia
1939 – Germany (& Russia)
invade Poland (after the Nazi-
Soviet Pact)
1940 - Blitzkrieg –w lightning
speed Germans invade Denmark,
Norway, Belgium, France & the
Netherlands
Orange - Axis Powers
Green - Axis-Occupied Areas
Lavender- German Allies

14. 14
1940 - Japan Signs Pact with Germany & Italy,
Non-Aggression Pact w USSR

15. 15
1940 - The Fall of
France
o 1940: Germany invades
Denmark, Norway,
Belgium, France (Vichy
France)
o Hitler forces French to
sign armistice agreement
in same railroad car used
for the armistice imposed
on Germany in 1918,
“November crimes”

16. 16
Collaboration & Resistance
• Military forms of
resistance
• Intelligence gathering
• Protecting refugees
• Symbolic gestures
For some, opportunity for
social mobility under
conquerors
Sometimes considered a
lesser evil than military
administration

17. 17
Germany Fights Great Britain
o British retreated from French
defeat
o Germans engage them in the
Battle of Britain or “The Blitz”
o Air war conducted by the
German Luftwaffe
o 40,000 British civilians killed in
urban bombing raids
o Especially London
o Royal Air Force prevents
Germans from invading
Germans stop before completely
invading Great Britain (without
complete success)
Great Britain the only country in
opposition to Germany in Europe!

18. 1941 – June - Germans invade Russia:
Operation Barbarossa
Lebensraum-living space
Despite the Russian-German
Treaty of Non-Aggression of
1939,
June 22, 1941 Hitler double-
crosses Stalin & invades USSR,
rapid advance
Germans face severe winter,
long supply lines
1942 - Soviets regroup & attack
1943 - Turning point: Battle of
Stalingrad (ends February
1943)

19. Recall WWI Alliances?
o Allied Powers (Formerly Triple Entente) -
Britain, France & Russia (& Serbia) &
Japan
O Central Powers (Formerly Triple
Alliance) – Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Italy
WWII Alliances
o Allied Powers
- Britain, France, Russia
& the U.S.
O Axis Powers–
Germany, Italy, Japan

20. 20
World War II in Asia and the Pacific
Japan dominates south-east Asia, Pacific
islands
Establishes “Greater East Asia Co-
Prosperity Sphere” or
“Asia for the Asians”

21. US Limited Involvement in WWII before Pearl Harbor
o US initiates “cash and carry” policy to
supply Allies with arms
o “lend-lease” : US lends war goods to
Allies, leases naval bases in return
After Japan occupies French Indochina, the
US
o freezes Japanese assets in US after Japan
occupies French Indochina
o places embargo on oil shipments to
Japan

22. German attacks on Allied & American merchant
ships in the Atlantic, 1939-1943
Conflicts in the North Atlantic

23. Abraham Lincoln Battalion led by a Black commander, & other international
volunteers defended the Spanish against Italy & Germany, in 1938
Volunteers of America

24. 24
Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor, Military
base in Hawaii (December 7, 1941)
o FDR: “A date which will live in
infamy”
o Destroyed US Navy in the Pacific
o In retaliation, because the U.S.
• froze Japanese assets in the
US
• placed embargo on oil
shipments to Japan

25. December 8, 1941
US Joins Allies (Great Britain & USSR)
o December 11 - Hitler, Mussolini
(Germany & Italy) declare war on
the US
War Production and Victory U.S. Office of
War Information poster, urging industrial
production with defense industry
smokestacks that look like cannons, with
flags of the Allied nations

26. After Pearl Harbor, Sumatra & oil,
Manchuria, Philippines, New Guinea, &
strategic islands, perhaps tempted by
Australia?
Japanese Advance in Asia, 1941-42

27. From Smoking to Skin Care,
advertisers identify products with the war
effort
McCall’s, August 1942
American Advertisement to Support War Efforts:
To Buy & Get Addicted to Cigarettes is Patriotic

28. Cannon Towel Ads, 1943-44
The towel company pitched their
sales in the homoerotic imagery of
GIs, based on their testimony.
McCalls, June 1944
Homoerotic Imagery
of Soldiers?!
“True Towel Tales…
As Told to Us by A Soldier”
McCalls, June 1944

29. 1943 Westinghouse Electric
Wartime Propaganda poster
originally intended to get their
women to work harder
o 1980s feminists used it to
symbolize the power of women
o US, Great Britain bar women from serving
in combat units
o Soviet, Chinese forces include women
fighters
o WAVES (Women Appointed for Volunteer
Emergency Service), 350K joined in the
U.S.
o Women very active in resistance
movements
Women & the War Effort:
“Rosie the Riveter”

30. McCall magazine
Before the war, promoted the
glamour of household work.
During the war, glamorous
American woman operates a drill
press, but her lipstick is perfect.
McCall’s, September 1942 Cover
Women & the War Effort:
Industrial Chic during WWII

31. September 1943
Post WWII, women had a difficult time when they
were pushed out of the workforce
Men & Women workers unwind after working in
a shipyard, Richmond, California

32. Sketch by 21 year old Corporal Hurwitz, U.S. Army 351st Regiment,
88th Infantry Division, First Battalion, a sketch of a “home away from
home,” in Tufo, Italy
“The Home of One of our Distinguished
Personnel” 1944

33. 33
Turning the Tide in the Pacific
o US victory at Midway
(1942)
o US takes the offensive,
engages in island-hopping
strategy
o Fall of Saipan (July 1944)
o Iwo Jima and Okinawa
(1945)
o Japanese kamikaze
suicide bombers
o Savage two-month battle
for Okinawa

34. Numbers of Americans killed
o Iwo Jima, 6K
o Okinawa, 7.6K
Japanese had higher casualties
U.S. stop the Japanese in the Pacific, 1943-45

35. The Battle of Peleliu Island
2.3K American deaths
10.7K Japanese deaths
U.S. Reconquer the Philippines from the Japanese, 1944
U.S. had occupied Japan previously from 1899-1916

36. 36
The U.S. Helped Turn the Tide
US provided
o Morale boost
o personnel reserves,
o industrial capacity
o Shipbuilding,
o automotive production

37. Stalingrad – very bitter defeat fo
Germans
Europe At War, 1944–1945
Until 6, 1944, most fighting in
Europe were between the
Germans & Russians on the
eastern front

38. 38
Allied Victory in Europe & North Africa
o East - USSR pushes
Germans to Berlin
o Red Army (USSR) gains
offensive after Stalingrad
(February 1943) a bitter defeat
for Germans
o South - British, US forces
attack in North Africa, Italy
o West
o D-Day: June 6, 1944, British
and US forces land in France
o US, Britain bomb German
cities
• Dresden, February 1945: 135,000
Germans killed in shelters

39. Germany Surrenders May 8, 1945
After Hitler
commits suicide
on 30 April 1945

40. US firebombs Tokyo, March 1945
100K killed,
25% of buildings
destroyed

41. 41
U.S. Drops an Atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
Japan, August 6, 1945
Note: Germany had
already surrendered.
Hiroshima – half of the
population or 150K
people killed instantly,
Also, far larger
uncounted slow deaths
from burns & radiation

42. 3 hours after
bombing, survivors
gather together at
Miyuki Bridge,
Hiroshima,
August 6, 1945
Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

43. Survivors

44. August 9, U.S. drops another
atomic bomb, Nagasaki
August 8, the Soviet Union
declares war on Japan
Nagasaki – 80K people
died instantly

45. “Why do you have to end the war twice?”
“To me, actually, the important event was not the first bomb, but the
second…[w]hen they announced the second bomb…, that came as a
shock to me. I said, ‘But the war is over.’ In fact, the headlines at
that time were ‘Japanese Surrender.’ and then bang, there was the
bomb in Nagasaki. And that hit me like a glass of cold water
thrown at you. I suddenly said, ‘Now, wait a second. What for?’ I
mean, great, we ended the war – but why do you have to end the
war twice?’…
Bernard Feld,
graduate student,
Manhattan Project, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Atomic Bomb
Research & Development
The Reminiscences of Bernard Feld, Columbia Oral History Research Office, Columbia University, 1980, 19-20

46. 46
Japanese Emperor Hirohito surrenders
unconditionally August 15, 1945

47. Orientalism
How to understand the
racialized otracities of
World War II? The
genocides and the atomic
bomb droppings?
Edward Said talks about
the “othering” of human
beings, the orientalizing of
human beings, to view
them as inhuman.

48. 48
Death Toll of 60-70 Million During World
War II
20
15
4
2
6
0.4
0.3
6 USSR
China
Germany
Japan
Poles
Britain
US
Jews
Majority civilians, not soldiers
Soviet Union - 20+
Chinese – 15
Germany - 8
Jews - 6
Poland – 6
Japan – 2

49. Geography of Shame: Internment Relocation
Centers & Camps for Japanese Americans

50. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo as
a vampire bat
U.S. propaganda portrayed
Japanese as subhuman apes,
insects, rats & reptiles (unlike
European enemies)
“Most Americans came to
hate the Japanese with a
passion that was not equally
directed at their German or
Italian enemies.”
Rosenzweig et al.
Japan as Enemy #1

51. Unlike the Japanese, Germans
portrayed as sinister, but
human. A stereotype of a
monocled Prussian office
predating world war I
Human sinister predators, 1942
Victor Ancona & Karl Koehler.
Enemy 2: Nazi Germany as
Human Sinister Predators, 1942

52. How to Tell a Chinese from a “Jap”
U.S. Army pamphlet
American Racial Stereotypes
During WWII:
Chinese as Good Asians,
Japanese as Evil Asians,

53. Yellow (Asian) Peril
Captain America
Comics #2

54. Captain America: Aryan Ideal in Pop Culture, in
America and not just Germany
“New People” (1938)
Evil Japanese

55. 55
The Holocaust in Europe, 1933-1945

56. Nazi Genocide and the Jews
• Jews primary target of
Nazi genocidal efforts
– Other groups also slated
for destruction: Roma
(Gypsies), Homosexuals,
Jehovah’s Witnesses
• Nazis initially encouraged
Jewish emigration
– Few countries willing to
accept Jewish refugees
• Aborted plans to deport
Jews to Madagascar,
reservation in Poland

57. 57
The Final Solution
o Einsatzgruppen (mobile
killing squads) follow
German army into USSR
with Operation Barbarossa
o Round up of Jews and
others, machine-gun
executions of 1.4 million
o Later in 1941 decided on
the “Final Solution:”
deportation of all European
Jews to Death Camps
o Plans solidified at Wannsee
Conference, January 1942

58. 58
The Holocaust
o Jews deported from ghettos
all over Europe in cattle
cars, spring 1942
o Destination: six specially
designed Death Camps in
Eastern Europe (Auschwitz
largest)
o Technologically advanced,
assembly-line style of
murder through poison gas
(Zyklon B)
o Corpses destroyed in
crematoria
o Estimated number of Jews
killed: 5.7 million

59. 59
Death Toll: 60-70 Million in World War II
20
15
4
2
6
0.4
0.3
6 USSR
China
Germany
Japan
Poles
Britain
US
Jews
Majority civilians, not soldiers
Soviet Union - 20+
Chinese – 15
Germany - 8
Jews - 6
Poland – 6
Japan – 2

60. An American Soldier of the Antitank Co., 34th Regiment, Who Was Killed by
Mortar Fire in the Philippines, October 31, 1944
War is not heroic: censored photos of
American soldiers later released

61. A great positive outcome of WWII?
United Nations Charter, Collective Security
& The Marshall Plan
o George C. Marshall (1880-
1989), US Secretary of State
proposed $13 billion to
reconstruct western Europe
in 1947
o USSR establishes Council for
Mutual Economic Assistance
(COMECON), 1949
o The United Nations formed
(1945) – collective security

62. Copyright © Chee, 2017
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