The Second World War, c. 1938–1945

This is Unit Twelve, part three, on the end of the war in Europe and the Pacific, and two contested judgements. Part two closed with the Holocaust's numbers, stated with care, and pointed to the refugees America turned away. Carry one discipline through this part. Two judgements close it: why the atomic bombs were dropped, and how to understand internment. For each, the course states the anchor's reading, names the counter-reading, and keeps the uncertain numbers as ranges. By the end you will be able to explain how the quota system shut out refugees. To trace the end of the war in Europe. To trace the Pacific war. To weigh the decision to drop the atomic bombs. And to weigh whether internment was a wartime error or a racial policy.

One entry on the refugees the quota law turned away, and the board that later saved some.

The refugees America turned away.

USH2 1692 The Closed Door

In nineteen thirty-nine the liner St. Louis carried over nine hundred Jewish refugees, but the quota law of nineteen twenty-four gave them no visas, the Yawp records. In nineteen forty-four Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Junior helped form the War Refugee Board, which the Yawp says saved over one hundred thousand lives.

Two entries on the end of the war in Europe: Yalta, and the surrender.

Yalta.

USH2 1693 Yalta

In early February nineteen forty-five Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met at Yalta, reaffirming the demand for Germany's unconditional surrender and planning postwar Europe, with Soviet agreement to join the United Nations and a Communist government left in Poland pending free elections. Many details were left unclear, the anchor says. Poland's fate is where unit thirteen's Cold War begins.

Victory in Europe.

USH2 1694 Victory in Europe

Roosevelt died on April twelfth, nineteen forty-five, and Harry S. Truman became president; Hitler killed himself on April thirtieth. German envoys signed unconditional surrender at Reims on May seventh, and again at Berlin on May eighth, the National Archives records, and the anchor dates the surrender to May eighth. The war in Europe was over.

Five entries on the Pacific: the Japanese advance, the turn of the tide, island hopping, the last island battles, and the firebombing of Japan.

The Japanese advance.

USH2 1695 The Japanese Advance

From December nineteen forty-one to May nineteen forty-two Japan seized Guam, Wake, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, and Bataan's American and Filipino defenders surrendered, out of ammunition and supplies. On the march that followed, as many as six hundred fifty American and ten thousand Filipino prisoners died, the anchor says; the Yawp gives ten thousand dead.

The turn of the tide.

USH2 1696 Coral Sea and Midway

In May and June nineteen forty-two American carriers won at the Coral Sea and at Midway, which the anchor calls Japan's first naval defeat since the eighteen hundreds, and the Yawp calls the aircraft carrier duel at Midway. The Yawp says the victories crippled Japan's naval operations and opened the way to island hopping.

Island hopping.

USH2 1697 Island Hopping

From nineteen forty-three American forces moved across the Pacific island by island, bypassing the strongest Japanese garrisons and seizing islands that could hold airfields; at Guadalcanal, the Yawp says, Japanese soldiers launched suicidal charges rather than surrender. In nineteen forty-four American forces won the Battle of the Philippine Sea and took Saipan, the anchor records.

The last island battles.

USH2 1698 Iwo Jima and Okinawa

In nineteen forty-five American forces took Iwo Jima, where Marines fought on volcanic sand under fire from Mount Suribachi, and then Okinawa, where the fighting began in April. The Yawp records eighty days of fighting and tens of thousands of casualties on Okinawa. The mainland of Japan lay open.

The firebombing of Japan.

USH2 1699 The Firebombing of Japan

American bombers dropped incendiary weapons on Japan's wooden cities, creating firestorms; over sixty Japanese cities were firebombed, the Yawp records, and in Tokyo in March nineteen forty-five firebombs killed one hundred thousand civilians. This came before the atomic bomb. The debate over the bomb, at the end of this part, is fought against this record.

Five entries on the bomb: its making, Potsdam, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the surrender, and the divided peace.

The Manhattan Project.

USH2 1700 The Manhattan Project

Urged by Albert Einstein, Roosevelt launched atomic research; the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos employed one hundred fifty thousand people and cost some two billion dollars, after the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in Chicago on December second, nineteen forty-two. The bomb was first tested in New Mexico on July sixteenth, nineteen forty-five; the Yawp says fear of a German bomb began it.

Potsdam.

USH2 1701 Potsdam

At Potsdam in July nineteen forty-five Truman, Stalin and Churchill, then Clement Attlee, finalised the division of Germany and Austria into four occupation zones. On July twenty-fourth, the Yawp records, Truman told Stalin of a new weapon, and Stalin nodded, hoped the Americans would make good use of it, and agreed to enter the war against Japan.

Hiroshima.

USH2 1702 Hiroshima

At eight fifteen on the morning of August sixth, nineteen forty-five, the bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb called Little Boy on Hiroshima, destroying two-thirds of the city's buildings. The anchor gives about seventy thousand killed in the blast and as many again from radiation; the Yawp gives over one hundred thousand civilians killed.

Nagasaki, and the surrender.

USH2 1703 Nagasaki and Surrender

On August ninth a second bomb, Fat Man, fell on Nagasaki, killing at least sixty thousand, the anchor says; the Yawp gives perhaps eighty thousand civilians. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on August fifteenth, after intervening, the anchor says, to accept unconditional terms, and Japan's envoys signed aboard the USS Missouri on September second, the National Archives records.

The divided peace.

USH2 1704 A Divided Peace

After the surrender Korea, a Japanese colony, was divided at the thirty-eighth parallel, the Soviet Union controlling the north and the United States the south, and Germany and Berlin were each divided into four zones, British, French, American and Soviet. These are the maps unit thirteen's Cold War begins from.

Two entries to close the unit, each a contested judgement: why the atomic bombs were dropped, and how to understand internment.

Why the atomic bombs were dropped.

USH2 1705 Why the Atomic Bombs Were Dropped

The anchor itself says the decision is widely debated. Its account begins with the planners' fear: the fierce Japanese resistance of the island campaigns led them to believe an invasion of the home islands would be exceedingly bloody, with, by some estimates, as many as two hundred fifty thousand American deaths, and such considerations, the anchor says, undoubtedly influenced Truman. It adds that Truman had not known of the Manhattan Project until Roosevelt's death, and that some of the scientists were surprised by the bomb's power. The counter-reading begins with the second bomb. The anchor says it has never been fully answered why the United States bombed Nagasaki; some scholars note Truman could have given Japan more time after Hiroshima, and the second bombing may have been a message to Stalin. Two misreadings sit on either side: that the bombs were plainly necessary and nothing more need be asked, which the open question of Nagasaki forbids; and that they were dropped only to intimidate the Soviets, which the invasion estimates forbid. The course states the anchor's reading, names the counter-reading, and does not decide. The death toll stays a range, from one hundred twenty-five thousand to over two hundred fifty thousand, because the heat of the blasts incinerated many of the victims.

How to understand internment.

USH2 1706 Wartime Error or Racial Policy

This is the unit's second contested judgement: a wartime error made in fear, or a racial policy with a long history behind it. Executive Order ninety sixty-six named no ethnic group, yet it fell on one; about one hundred twenty thousand people of Japanese ancestry were held, sixty-six percent of them born in the United States. The Yawp records that earlier detentions had been meant to be for cause, and that the order authorised removal from whole zones at commanders' discretion. The anchor frames the policy as racial, the culmination of a cascade of racist assumptions Pearl Harbor unleashed. The National Archives traces the history behind it: a California law of nineteen thirteen restricting land ownership, enclaves, economic competition and long-standing anti-Asian racism; unit two's Chinese Exclusion Act belongs to the same history. Two misreadings sit on either side. One treats internment as a regrettable response to real danger, which the removal of citizens without cause contradicts. The other treats it as a sudden break with the nation's past, which the Archives' history contradicts. The course follows the sources: wartime fear was the occasion, and the anchor names racial prejudice as the cause.

Look at what you can now do. You can explain how the quota law of nineteen twenty-four shut out the St. Louis's refugees, and what the War Refugee Board later saved. You can trace the end in Europe: Yalta, Roosevelt's death, and Germany's surrender at Reims and Berlin. You can trace the Pacific war: the Japanese advance and Bataan, Coral Sea and Midway, island hopping, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the firebombing of Japan's cities. You can weigh the atomic bombings: the anchor's reading of the invasion estimates, the counter-reading from Nagasaki, and a death toll that stays a range. And you can weigh internment. Wartime fear was the occasion, and the anchor names racial prejudice as the cause.