Historical Information.

   

Just before Pearl Harbor, America was involved in the Lend-Lease program to help the Allied forces to fight Nazis and other members of the Axis Powers. America was mobilizing its military forces. By this time, many experts knew that America would overtly participate in WWII on the Allied side. It was only a matter of time. Then, Pearl Harbor existed which was a Japanese surprise attack against American military forces in Hawaii. The Japanese military forces used a cowardly assault that damaged property, killed innocent human life, and inflicted massive trauma on Americans. Japan and America were once allies during World War I. That would change as negotiations over trade involving oil, rubber, and other resources failed between America and Japan. Japan didn't want any nation to threaten its empire in the Pacific Ocean. Japan didn't like America's influence in Guam, the Philippines, and China (yes, China was an ally of America back then). Japan wanted more trade with America to gain natural resources to build up its military and economic resources in the region. Japan conquered a large portion of China. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted to stop Japanese expansion in Asia and Oceania. FDR in July 1940, created an embargo on important naval and aviation supplies to Japan (like oil, iron ore, fuel, steel, and rubber, especially in the Dutch East Indies). Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in 1940 with Italy and Nazi Germany. Then, FDR implemented a stricter embargo against Japan. Japan's expansion was not stopped by the embargoes. It was only slowed. By 1941, General Hideki Tojo was Japan's prime minister. Tojo had a smart mind and continued to militarily expand. He wanted America to be neutral in the war. By the summer of 1941, Japan and America had attempted to negotiate an end to their disagreements. These negotiations didn't work. Japan's expansion was strongly opposed by the American government. By late November 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull rejected Japan's latest demands. Tojo gave up on peace a week later. By the start of December, Tojo made the decision to deliver a military blow against America. There is debate on whether Franklin Roosevelt had foreknowledge of this attack or not. Tojo wanted Hawaii to be attacked because it would prevent Americans from using a strong resistance against Japanese expansion in Tojo's mind. The Japanese forces sent to Hawaii were headed by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. The Japanese forces included 6 aircraft carriers, 360 airplanes, and battleships plus cruisers. Submarines were involved in the attack too. Japan destroyed the USS Arizona. Many American military forces were caught by surprise by the attack. The strike took place just before 7:48 am. local time on Sunday, December 7, 1941. 

The Pearl Harbor base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. Of the eight United States Navy battleships present, all were damaged and four were sunk. All but USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. More than 180 US aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,393 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded, making it the deadliest event ever recorded in Hawaii. It was also the deadliest foreign attack against the United States in its history until the September 11 attacks of 2001. Important base installations, such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section), were not attacked. The U.S. battlefleet was knocked out of commission for nearly 6 months. Japan did have access to raw materials. The aircraft carriers from America were out to sea during the attack. Nagumo canceled a third wave of attacks because he feared an American counterstrike. The American Fleet survived.  Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines were lost, and 129 servicemen were killed. Kazuo Sakamaki, the commanding officer of one of the submarines, was captured. Japan declared war on the United States and the British Empire later that day (December 8 in Tokyo), but the declarations were not delivered until the following day. The British government declared war on Japan immediately after learning that their territory had also been attacked, while the following day (December 8), the United States Congress declared war on Japan. On December 11, though they had no formal obligation to do so under the Tripartite Pact with Japan, Germany, and Italy each declared war on the United States, which responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. While there were historical precedents for the unannounced military action by Japan, the lack of any formal warning, as required by the Hague Convention of 1907, and the perception that the attack had been unprovoked, led then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the opening line of his speech to a Joint Session of Congress the following day, to famously label December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." Americans rallied together, and most Americans wanted a military response to stop the evil spread of fascism in Europe and Asia. Things would never be the same again. The Soviet Union was not with the Allied side after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union back in June of 1941. After President Roosevelt's speech, the House voted 388 to 1 to declare war, and the Senate joined them unanimously. Both Democrats and Republicans united to support the American involvement in WWII militarily. Isolationism died for a time. 

First, the American public must be prepared and mobilize for World War II. There was a spirit of patriotism and determination after Pearl Harbor. Tojo and his forces underestimate the grit and determination of Americans. Many Americans joined the military, volunteered with the Red Cross, and worked in many jobs to help the Allied causes. Unfortunately, innocent Japanese people were scapegoated for Pearl Harbor and were victims of being placed in internment camps for a long time unjustly. More than 16 million Americans served in the U.S. military. The U.S. Army grew from about 1.4 million to more than 3 million people. The Navy grew from under 300,000 people to more than 600,000 people. The Marines grew from 54,000 to almost 150,000. Americans of every color and background worked very hard to be in the military to defeat the wicked Axis Powers. There were almost 1,000,000 African Americans, about 300,000 Mexican Americans, 25,000 Native Americans, etc. who were in the military. Most of them were in segregated units. Over 350,000 women were in the military via the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (being later called WAC or Women's Army Corps). Many women were postal workers, truck drivers, instructors, lab technicians, etc. Many women were nurses, and many were in the Navy and Coast Guard units. FDR set up the War Production Board or WPB) to handle wartime industries. Some goods were made into civilian goods and military operations. The massive defense spending contributed to the end of the Great Depression. Many women and men had jobs. The Ford Company was promoting war production in B-24 bombers, ships, and other supplies. The Allied production services made them having a clear military advantage over the Axis Powers along with the Soviet's massive army forces in the Eastern Front of the war. 

 

By this time after Pearl Harbor, the Soviet Army made a major counter-offensive around Moscow. By December 16, 1941, Rommel started to retreat to El Aghlia in North Africa. WWII in North Africa included some of the most important battles of the whole war. Hitler runs the whole German Army by December 19, 1941. January 1, 1942, was when the Declaration of the United Nations was signed by 26 Allied nations. The Nazis started a U-boat offensive along the east coast of America on January 13, 1942. SS Leader Heydrich held the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the Holocaust (or what the Nazis called "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"). Rommell made the counter offensive form El Agheila from North Africa on January 21, 1942. American forces arrive in Great Britain for the first time on January 26, 1942. The internment camp injustice against Japanese Americans started in April of 1941. I agree with FDR on many economic issues, but I strongly disagree with FDR on promoting internment camps against Japanese Americans. The Nazis used air raids against cathedral cities in Britain by April 23, 1942. Rommel made an offensive against the Gazala Line on May 26, 1942. SS Leader Heydrich was attacked in Prague on May 27, 1942. The British used the first thousand bomber air raid against Cologne by May 30, 1942. 

By June 1942, there were mass murder of Jewish people by gassing starting at Auschwitz. Heyrdich died of his wounds on June 4, 1941. The Nazis invade Sevastopol. Later, the Nazis kill Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination. Rommel then captured Tobruk, General Dwight D. Eisenhower came to London, and Rommel reached El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt by June 1942. The first battle of El Alamein took place from July 1-30, 1942. The Nazis took Sevastopol on July 3, 1942. The Nazis wanted to conquer Stalingrad in the USSR. By July 22, 1942, there were the first deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps, and the Treblinka extermination camp was opened. By August of 1942, British General Bernard Montgomery took command of the Eighth Army in North Africa,  Stalin and Churchill met in Moscow., there was the first all-American air attack in Europe, and there was a massive German air raid on Stalingrad. Rommell is driven back by General Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa. A German eyewitness saw the SS mass murder on October 5, 1942. Operation Supercharge was when the Allied broke Axis lines in El Alamein by November 1, 1942. Hitler wanted to execute all captured British commandos. Operation Torch started on November 8, 1942, when America invaded North Africa to defeat the Nazis. The Nazis and Italians invaded unoccupied Vichy France on November 11, 1942. 

 

In the Pacific, World War II accelerated. After America and Britain declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, Japan went near Singapore and entered Thailand. This was the time when Japan conquered massive lands in Oceania rapidly. The Japanese invade the Philippines and seize Guam. Japan also invaded Burma on December 11, 1941. By December of 1941, the first Japanese merchant ship was sunk by a U.S. submarine, Japan invaded British Borneo, Japan invaded Hong Kong, and they invaded Luzon in the Philippines (on December 22, 1941). General Douglas MacArthur had to withdraw from Manila to Bataan on December 23, 1941. General MacArthur promised to return to the Philippines under a liberated Philippines from Japanese occupation. The British surrendered at Hong Kong on December 25, 1941, Manila was an open city, and Japan bombed Manila on December 17, 1941, too. The Japanese Empire was at its peak in 1942. On January 2, 1942, Manila and U.S. Naval base at Cavite were captured by the Japanese, Japan attacked Bataan in the Philippines on January 7, 1942, and Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies and Dutch Borneo by January 11, 1942. Burma was invaded by Japan on January 16, 1942. The German/Japan/Italian military agreement was signed in Berlin on January 18, 1942. Japan took North Borneo. Japanese take Rabaul on New Britain in the Solomon Islands and also invaded Bougainville, the largest island. The British go into Singapore by January 30, 1942. By February 1, 1942, the first U.S. aircraft carrier offensive of the war as YORKTOWN and ENTERPRISE conducted air raids on Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. After that Japan invaded Java in the Dutch East Indies and they invade Singapore. The British surrendered Singapore on February 15, 1942. The Japanese had a large air raid since Pearl Harbor against Darwin, Australia and Japan invaded Bali on February 19, 1942. By February 20, 1942, the first U.S. fighter ace of the war, Lt. Edward O'Hare from the LEXINGTON in action off Rabaul. General Douglas MacArthur is ordered out of the Philippines by February 22, 1942. By February 23, 1942, there was the first Japanese attack on the U.S. mainland as a submarine shell an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California. 

The Enterprise attacked Japan on Wake Island on February 24, 1942. The First U.S. carrier, the LANGLEY, was sunk by Japanese bombers on February 26, 1942. From February 27 to March 1, 1942, there was the Japanese naval victory in the Battle of the Java Sea as the largest U.S. warship in the Far East, the HOUSTON, is sunk. Two Japanese flying boats bomb Pearl Harbor; ENTERPRISE attacks Marcus Island, just 1000 miles from Japan on March 4, 1942. The British left Rangoon in Burma. Japan invaded Salamaua and Law on New Guinea. The Dutch on Java surrendered to the Japanese on March 8, 1942. March 11, 1942, was when Gen. MacArthur left Corregidor and was flown to Australia. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright becomes the new U.S. commander. March 18, 1942, was when Gen. MacArthur appointed commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater by President Roosevelt. The Japanese attack the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. Admiral Chester Nimitz was appointed as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Theater on March 24, 1942. April 3, 1942, was when Japanese forces attacked U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan. American troops came to Australia by April 6, 1942. April 9, 1942, was when there was U.S. forces on Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. The Bataan Death March started on April 10, 1942, when 76,000 Allied POWs including 12,000 Americans were forced to walk 60 miles under a blazing sun without food or water toward a new POW camp, resulting in over 5,000 American deaths. American morale is increased when there was the surprise Doolittle B-25 air race from the Hornet against Tokyo. Then, Japan took central Burma and Mandalay plus Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. Japan wants to invade Midway and the Aleutian Islands by May 5, 1942. On May 6, 1942, Japanese take Corregidor as Gen. Wainwright unconditionally surrendered all U.S. And Filipino forces in the Philippines. 

May 7-8, 1941, was when Japan had its first defeat of the war during the Battle of the Coral Sea off New Guinea - the first time in history that two opposing carrier forces fought only using aircraft without the opposing ships ever sighting each other. The last U.S. Troops holding out in the Philippines surrendered on Mindanao. That was on May 12, 1942. Later, Japan captured all of Burma and reach India. 

From June 4-5, 1942, was a turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II. This was about the decisive victory for the U.S. against Japan in the Battle of Midway as squadrons of U.S. torpedo planes and dive bombers from ENTERPRISE, HORNET, and YORKTOWN attack and destroy four Japanese carriers, a cruiser, and damage another cruiser and two destroyers. U.S. loses YORKTOWN. Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands in June 7m 1942. Japanese troops are near Gona on New Guinea. By August 7, 1942, there were the U.S. amphibious landing of the Pacific War occurs as 1st Marine Division invades Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. On August 8, 1942, U.S. Marines took the unfinished airfield on Guadalcanal and name it Henderson Field after Maj. Lofton Henderson, a hero of Midway. August 8/9 -was when a major U.S. naval disaster off Savo Island, north of Guadalcanal, as eight Japanese warships wage a night attack and sink three U.S. heavy cruisers, an Australian cruiser, and one U.S. destroyer, all in less than an hour. Another U.S. cruiser and two destroyers are damaged. Over 1,500 Allied crewmen are lost. Later Marines attack Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The Marines stop the first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal. U.S. And Japanese carriers meet in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons resulting in a Japanese defeat. - The Red Cross announced Japan refused to allow safe passage of ships containing supplies for U.S. POWs.  U.S. Troops invade Adak Island in the Aleutian Islands. This was in August of 1942. On September 9-10, 1942, a Japanese floatplane flies two missions dropping incendiary bombs on U.S. forests in the state of Oregon - the only bombing of the continental U.S. during the war. Newspapers in the U.S. voluntarily withhold this information. After this time, the American and British forces attack Japanese forces in Oceania. From September to December of 1942, U.S. and Japanese forces clash at Guadalcanal. Both sides lost carriers, but America won by December 31, 1942. Allied forces took Buna in New Guinea on January 2, 1943. By January 1942, Japan started its evacuation of Guadalcanal. Japan bombed Calcutta, India back in December of 1942 too. U.S. code breakers (made up of Native Americans too) found out that Japanese Admiral Yamamoto was flying in a Japanese bomber near Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. Eighteen P-38 fighters then locate and shoot down Yamamoto. This was on April 18, 1943. America fought the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands. May 31, 1943, was when the Japanese ended their occupation of the Aleutian Islands after America liberated Attu. American forces fought in the Solomon Islands and bombed Wake Island. Allied forces go to New Georgia and continued to fight in the Solomon Islands by the end of 1943. On August 1-2, 1943, a group of 15 U.S. PT-boats attempted to block Japanese convoys south of Kolombangra Island in the Solomon Islands. PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, is rammed and sunk by the Japanese Cruiser AMAGIRI, killing two and badly injuring others. The crew survives as Kennedy aids one badly injured man by towing him to a nearby atoll. Japanese forces executed 100 American POWs on Wake Island. By early 1944, Allied forces slowly ended the spread of the Japanese Empire filled with war and fierce fighting. 

 

 

The Battle of Stalingrad started on September 13, 1942. The Soviets had a counter offensive at Stalingrad by November 19, 1942. By December of 1942, Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in Chicago, Rommel withdraws from El Agheila, Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR, British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged, and there was the  Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships. By January 2-3, the Nazis left the Caucasus. January 10, 1943, was when the Soviets began an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad. January 14-24 was the time of the Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announced the war can end only with "unconditional German surrender." January 23, 1943, was when Montgomery's Eighth Army took Tripoli. January 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven). February 2, 1943, was the date when Germans surrendered at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies. After the Allied victory of Stalingrad, the Nazis were about to be defeated in less than 2.5 years from that moment. It was the beginning of the end of the Nazi imperialist empire. General Dwight D. Eisenhower led American troops in the Allied invasion of North Africa. By February 1943, General Rommel or the Desert Fox led his Afrika Korps against Americans at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia. Rommel broke through the American lines in trying to go the the Allied supply base at Tebessa, Algria. American soldiers stopped the Nazi attacks. Rommel retreated as he lacked supplies. This was when General George S. Patton Jr. was used to fight in North Africa. General Patton was an aggressive commander who knew how to fight in desert conditions. He would inspire U.S. troops to take initiative to defeat the Axis enemy. Patton helped to make North Africa free from Nazi occupation. The British forces came to Egypt, and Rommell escaped. By February 1943, the Soviets re-take Kharkov, the Nazis arrested White Rose leaders in Munich. The Nazis recaptured Kharkov by March of 1943, the Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats on March 1943, and the Warren SS attacked the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto in Poland. 

By May 13, 1943, the Nazi and Italian forces of about 240,000 troops surrendered. The Jewish resistance ended in the Warsaw Ghetto happened by May 16, 1943. By May of 1943, there were the British raid raid on Rhur and Donitz ended U-boat operations in the North Atlantic. Himmler wanted the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland on June 11, 1943, the Nazis had their last offensive against Kursk on July 5, 1943. The Alsurrenderedlied forces soon land in Sicily, Italy by July 9-10, 1943. The British and American forces invaded Sicily, Italy separately. Eisenhower commanded the joint American and British forces. The Allied bombed Rome and captured Palermo, Sicily by July 22, 1943. The British bombed Hamburg. Mussolini was arrested on July 25, 1943, and the Italian fascist government ended. Marshal Pietro Badoglio ruled Italy and negotiated with the Allied powers. The Nazis soon evacuate Sicily and go to Northern Italy. The Americans had daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany. The Allied reached Messina, Sicily by August 17, 1943. The Soviets get Kharkov by August 23, 1943. Italian surrendered to the Allies by September 1943. Yet, the Nazis occupy Rome by September 11, 1943. Northern Italy would be ruled by the Nazis. Fighting in Italy would continue until 1945 because of snow, mountains, and hills. The Nazis rescued Mussolini and Mussolini lives until 1945. The Allies went to Naples, Italy on October 1, 1943. Italy declared war on Germany on October 13, 1943. Soon, the Soviets recaptured Kiev by November, raids from Britain happened in Berlin, and The Tehran Conference happened (with Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin). By the end of 1943, the Soviet Union rapidly defeat Nazi forces and fight in Ukraine and Poland by January 6, 1944. 

The Allied forces in Italy fight in Anzio, Monte Cassino, by January and February of 1944. The Nazis fought back. The Soviets fight in Belorussia. Then, Berlin was bombed in daylight by the Allies on March 4, 1944. The British bombed 3000 pounds in Hamburg, Germany. The Soviets fight to liberate Crimea, they recapture Sevastopol, and the Allies attack the Gustav line south of Rome. The Nazis surrendered in the Crimea by May 12, 1945. The Nazis left the Adolf Hitler line, retreating from Anzio. By June 5, 1944, the Allied forces entered Rome. The D-Day landings on the northern coast of France took place on June 6, 1944. The success of the Allied D-Day liberation of France caused the liberation of Europe from the Nazi enemy.

 

The American Revolution War changed the world in tremendous ways. The war ended in the modern expansion of the United States of America with its paradox of implications. America was birthed in the two sins of the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of black African human beings. I know many people want to whitewash history, but this is the reality of America's true history. Native Americans lived in the Americas first. Later, Europeans, Africans, and other human beings came to the Americas in many different ways. The colonies in the English colonies of North America have grown rapidly since the 1500s. By 1765, the American colonies were a major economic powerhouse. After the French and Indian War, the British Empire was a brutal monarchy. The Monarchy had an autocratic system where there was the British Parliament, but the King still had major political and economic power via mercantilism, the Maafa, colonialism, etc. The British Empire wanted the American colonies to pay taxes to end the debt that was accumulated from the French and Indian War. Parliament promoted more taxes, and many American colonies refused to pay taxes, because they didn't have representation in Parliament. The colonists opposed the Stamp Act. The Townshend Act, the Boston Massacre, and other events caused the colonists to rebel against the taxation policy from Parliament. The Patriots either wanted representation or American independence. The Loyalists were colonists who wanted to stay with the British Empire. The conflict lasted from 1765 to 1783. The colonists formed the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia by late 1774. They organized Patriot resistance in networks of committees. Then, the war started when British forces wanted to disarm local militias in Boston, and the Patriots fired their weapons at the Redcoats by April 1775. The war was on. The 2nd Continental Congress responded by June 14, 1775, to fight the war with George Washington as its commander in chief. The King George III occupied Boston for a time. The Patriot forces were heavily defeated at first, but they showed resiliency with help from the Dutch, the French, and Spanish, and other people. Black Americans joined both sides to desire freedom from the tyranny of slavery. By July 1776, the Second Continental Congress formed the new nation of the United States of America. Its Declaration of Independence was influenced by the philosophies of liberalism, republicanism, the Enlightenment, the 1689 British Bill of Rights, etc. against monarchy and aristocracy. Thomas Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal," but he owned slaves. American forces allowed the Redcoats to tire itself out in the South and other regions of America to cause an American victory. The war ended by September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed. America had lands east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, and Native Americans heavily got their lands stolen and their treaties broken. America had a group of righteous people who wanted liberty and evil people who wanted slavery, bigotry, xenophobia, racism, sexism, and bigotry to reign. We won many progressive victories, but we have a long way to go nearing 2025. The American Revolutionary War was a very important epoch of world history that must be acknowledged to make America better than the past indeed. 

By Timothy