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After having risen to leader of the Nazi party, and then Chancellor, Hitler became the absolute dictator of Germany following the death of the German president. He consolidated political, economic, and military power as the sole leader of the Third Reich.
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Germany annexed Austria. The US response was minimal. They viewed Germany's aggressive expansion with concern but did not alter trade or foreign policy arrangements.
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Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, including the key Czechoslovak military defense positions, to Nazi Germany. This is part of the appeasement strategy used by Great Britain and their allies to avoid another war. The initial U.S. response was relief to avoid another war in Europe.
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Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe. The Soviet army soon invaded from the east and split Poland in the middle.
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Germany invaded Denmark and Norway on April 9th, followed by the rest of Western Europe in May and June, concluding with the armistice agreement with France on June 22.
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Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, establishing the Axis powers. This was partly done as a deterrent to U.S. involvement in the war. The U.S. was very concerned that Japan would provide support to Germany and Italy in Europe.
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Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act. The legislation gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt the powers to sell, transfer, exchange, lend equipment to any country to help it defend itself against the Axis powers. A sum of $50 billion was appropriated by Congress for Lend-Lease. This was first and primarily used to support the British, but was also used in response to the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. The U.S. was not yet ready to enter the war.
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Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, killing over 2000 people and decimating the US naval fleet. The following day the United States declared war on Japan, entering WWII. By Dec 13, all of the remaining Axis powers had declared war on the United States.
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After the Japanese landed in the Philippines in May 1942, nearly 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners were forced to endure a 60-mile forced march; 10,000 prisoners died or were killed. This was used by the press to incite rage against Japan.
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The Women's Army Corp was the an auxiliary women's branch of the army. It enlisted women into the army for non-combat duties like nurses, cartography clerks, and secretaries
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US forces preempted a planned Japanese attack on Midway by finding the Japanese fleet first. The Japanese were caught with their planes still on the decks of their carriers, and ultimately lost four aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes. In the words of a Japanese official, at Midway the Americans had "avenged Pearl Harbor." This turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.
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Allied forces landed on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a second European front against the Axis.
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About 120,000 Japanese-Americans were held in internment camps from 1942-1945 over fears that they might aid Japan. The Supreme Court declared this constitutional in Korematsu v. U.S. The Japanese -Americans, most of whom were native born citizens were stripped of all their rights and kept in isolated "relocation centers" until the end of the war.
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Germany surrendered to the western Allies.
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The US warned Japan that it had weapons of mass destruction, but Japan refused to surrender. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Close to 100,000 people died within seconds and thousands more within the next five days. A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
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Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, this day marked Japan's formal surrender, ending World War II.
