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Japanese Invasion of China
China was weak and Japan wanted their natural resourses. Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria. The whole north of the country was gradually taken over. Japanese troops slaughtered an estimated 300,000 civilians and raped 80,000 women. By the end of the war there were an estimated 10 to 20 million Chinese civilians deaths. -
Germany Invasion of Poland
This was the first attack of World War II. Germany invaded the Polish town of Wielun, it killed about 1,200 people. Warsaw surrendered to the Germans within a month of the German attack. Western Poland remained under German occupation until 1945. They expelled hundreds of thousands of Poles from their homes and settled more than 500,000 ethnic Germans in their place. -
German Blitzkrieg
Garman term for "Lighting War." Military tactic to defeat enemies by heavy use of all types of weapons. -
Operation Barbarossa
Germany planned a massive invasion on the Soviet Union. 4.5 million troops launched a surprise attack deployed from German-controlled Poland, Finland, and Romania. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Japan bombed the US to try to overpower and control another country, their main land was short on resources. They launched a surpise attack on the US. 2,403 lives were lost, 2,335 of these lives were servicemen and women and 1,104 went down with USS Arizona. -
Wannsee Conference
Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question.” The agenda was simple and focused: to devise a plan that would render a “final solution to the Jewish question” in Europe. Heydrich proposed simply transporting Jews from every corner Europe to concentration camps in Poland and working them to death. -
Japanese Internment
Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. The order was not targeted at any specific group, but it became the basis for the mass relocation and internment of some 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, including both citizens and non-citizens of the United States. This resulted in the relocation of approximately 120,000 people. -
Battle of Stalingrad
It is the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
D-Day
Starting with the Invasion of Sicily in July of 1943, and culminating in the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Normandy, Allied forces took the fight to the Axis powers in many locations across Western Europe. The push into Italy began in Sicily, but soon made it to the Italian mainland, with landings in the south. some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. -
Battle of the Bulge
Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. Of the 90,000 men who surrendered at Stalingrad in January of 1943, only 6,000 made it back to Germany, more than ten years later. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima took place during World War II between the United States and Japan. The island of Iwo Jima was a strategic location because the US needed a place for fighter planes and bombers to land and take off when attacking Japan. Although the US had more soldiers wounded on Iwo Jima than the Japanese, the Japanese had many more deaths. Out of 18,000 Japanese soldiers only 216 were taken prisoner. The rest died in the battle. -
Battle of Okinawa
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000 dead. -
Manhattan Project
It was a top secret project in which scientists are attempting to create the first atomic bomb. America’s secret development of the atomic bomb began in 1939 with then-President Franklin Roosevelt’s support. The project was so secret that FDR did not even inform his fourth-term vice president, Truman, that it existed. -
VE Day
both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. -
Dropping of Atomic Bombs
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II. It immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people. -
VJ Day
Known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” It was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Images from V-J Day celebrations around the United States and the world reflected the overwhelming sense of relief and exhilaration felt by citizens of Allied nations at the end of the long and bloody conflict. -
Nuremburg Trials
Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany. The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials and high-ranking military officers along with German industrialists, lawyers and doctors, were indicted on such charges as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.
