World War II

World War II was one of the most devastating wars in history. Many lives were lost. But the one country that played a big part in the war was Germany. They were basically the one country that was in the whole war consistently. They originally just wanted to expand their territory so that they can rule most of Europe. In the beginning, they were successful. But when it came towards the end of the war, they started losing the land that they expanded on. They weren’t the only ones that were creating chaos though. The U.S. and Japan were also head to head with battling each other. The U.S. joined in the war towards the end similar to what happened in World War I.

First of all, there was a treaty that was made in Europe that basically just restricted Germany from expanding their territory. That was the complete opposite thing that they wanted to do so they weren’t very happy. France and Britain were the two other countries that were involved with this treaty. They knew that Germany was not giving up and they wanted more land for themselves to rule. Doesn’t every country right? So, Britain and France thought that if they break the treaty for the Germans to get the land that they wanted they would be satisfied and happy. That was a big mistake which sparked World War II. If a country knew that they can continue to expand their territory, why would they stop? Germany wanted more and more and more. It was not what the French and British thought would happen. But, twenty years after World War I, World War II was just beginning. If that wasn’t enough chaos, the German leader at the time thought that it was fit to introduce a new type of government to his country. That man was Adolf Hitler. Everyone remembers who this man was. The new type of government that he was starting to introduce was Dictatorship. If you don’t know what that means it means that there is only one leader. They get to tell you what you can and cannot do. There is no voting, because they keep that position. Let’s just say it’s the complete opposite of a democracy that we have today. I personally think that having a dictator is one of the worst ways to govern a country. Germany was not the only country during this time that had a dictatorship.

As you may know the Great Depression happened right before World War II began. Some people blame this terrible time as the reasoning behind why World War II began. But if you think about it, this is a terrible theory. Why would people who were struggling at the time, want to make things worse by starting a war? It just doesn’t add up. But, even though some people think that, it’s not true. Like I said before, it was Germany that wanted to break the treaty in order to expand their territory which sparked the war, as well as Germany invading Poland. But it was still a horrible time during World War II because everyone just recovered from the terrible World War I, and now they had to hop into another war that was even worse than the first one.

The first country that Germany took over was Poland. They weren’t stopping there of course. Overall, they just continued with their original plan. Taking over Europe was their main goal. That was until a few things got in their path along the way. The Allies against Germany never really got that many victories. But, during the 40’s Germany wanted to take on a battle with the Soviet Union which had a lot of territory at the time. This wasn’t exactly a good decision for both sides because both countries lost a lot after this battle. Many soldiers on both sides lost their lives fighting.

There were a lot of battles obviously in this war. When there are specific battles mentioned, I realize why. There’s a turning point or some sort of game change. Certain countries either lost a lot and it impacted them greatly, or there was a huge victory that influenced many other events afterwards in history. For example the Battle of the Atlantic was a battle that started in the beginning of the war but it lasted throughout the whole war! So that is one of the battles that should be mentioned since it was a big part in World War II. This battle had Germany using Submarines to invade and sink the ships that were carrying supplies that were for French and British. It was not until the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Berlin that Germany finally surrendered to the Allied forces. This was a relief to the other countries.

But while all of that was happening in Europe, that wasn’t the only part of the war that we should learn about. Have you ever heard or learned anything about the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii? Well it happened during this time. While the war was already going on, the U.S. didn’t join in the fighting. Throughout that time it didn’t look like they ever would. All of the problems in the first place were about Europe so it didn’t really have anything to do with our country. That was until this event that happened at Pearl Harbor. On December 7^th, 1941, was when the Japanese invaded and bombed Pearl Harbor which resulted in a lot of loss for the Americans. The U.S. at this point had enough. Soon after that they joined World War II. This was sort of similar to what happened in World War I. The U.S. wasn’t in the war in the beginning, but they joined in towards the end.

Towards the end of the war the Allied forces started to become more successful like I said before. The Battle of the Coral Sea was not exactly a huge win for them, but it set a path for them to go down in the upcoming battles. This definitely gave the other countries hope. The Battle of Midway was the Allied forces against Japan and they were extremely successful. At first, the Allied forces were successful with Germany surrendering, that happened in the European Theater. The two battles that I just mentioned that were against Japan, happened in the Pacific Theater. That wasn’t the only thing that happened in their favor. The U.S. during this time was working on a top secret weapon. It was a bomb. It wasn’t like any ordinary bomb though. It was an Atomic Bomb. The destruction that this weapon can make is honestly terrifying. But, knowing that, the Americans decided to drop it two times in Japan. The first time that they dropped it was in the city of Hiroshima. It’s crazy to think that all of these people weren’t seeing this coming, but it’s true. The second city that they dropped the bomb in was Nagasaki. I personally can’t understand how someone can drop something like that on a bunch of innocent people. Yes I said innocent. They weren’t all people that took part in battling with America. They were simply just people who lived there. When the bomb was dropped it killed everyone instantly. No one can even estimate how many people died from that catastrophe because bodies could not be found. Why you ask? Well, when this weapon was dropped, it made everything extremely hot. Some people turned to dust because of how hot it was. It instantly destroyed everything that was in the bomb’s path. The city was not a city afterwards. I understand that our country was against Japan at the time but that doesn’t mean that we have to kill more people that just live in their country. They are innocent people. That’s what makes me sick. Just because we got violence from another country, it doesn’t mean that creating more violence is going to help the situation.

Germany was still not doing anything good while it was at war. The Nazis in Germany were strongly against the Jewish. But basically they were against anyone who were not a part of the Aryan Race. So many executions took place in that country. There were about 6,000,000 Jews that were killed. I can’t even imagine that many people all at once. If that wasn’t horrible enough, they even took all of the possessions from the people who they killed. There were also some camps that made the people help them with the war by building war equipment, roads, etc. So if you didn’t agree or be a part of their Aryan beliefs, you were either killed or treated as a slave. Why can’t everyone believe in what they want to believe in?

Overall many lives were lost from and during World War II. I can understand why it was worse than World War I. When I learned about World War I then hearing that World War II was worse, I was thinking, “How could it possibly get any worse than this?” I was proved wrong. It can always get worse. Whether it’s a new weapon that gets made to destroy a country, or Dictatorships take over countries, it can get much worse than you ever imagined.