WWII+Research+and+Symposium+HWVT

10 Facts:


 * 1) On February 13, 1945, British and American planes terrorize Dresden, Germany in order to weaken Germany’s ability to fight in World War II. America and Britain dropped firebombs from the sky which killed 135,000 civilians.
 * 2) The United States and Britain attacked Japan on April 1, 1945 until June 22, 1945. Japan was bombarded by the Royal Navy, the Royal Army and Marines, the US Navy, the US marines and the US Army. Japan fought back with the Japanese Navy and Imperial Army. A total of 219,000 people were killed during this battle, and up to 100,000 of them being Okinawan civilians. Japan lost 7,830 aircraft and 16 combat ships.
 * 3) The United States dropped their first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, killing a total of 200,000 people. The bombs also created a messily wide-spread fire, as most buildings on the island were made of wood. As a result, 48,000 buildings were destroyed and 22,000 buildings were partially damaged.
 * 4) The United States dropped their second nuclear bomb of WWII on August 9, 1945 on Nagasaki, a large city off the southern coast of Japan, and home of a Japanese naval base. 60,000-90,000 people were killed and 23,345 were injured from the bombing. 14,000 of the city’s buildings were ruined.
 * 5) The bomb dropped on Nagasaki was called "Fat Man," and the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was named "Little Boy."
 * 6) Starting what was known as the Doolittle Raid, under the cover of nightfall on March 10, 1945, the US deliberately bombed civilians by performing an air raid on Tokyo, Japan. The US dropped over 1,665 tons of flammable material, causing a 16 square mile firestorm. 13,000 people died, and 160,000 were injured.
 * 7) On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066, allowing the US military to appoint 112,000 people, mostly Japanese-Americans, to relocate from their homes and abandon freedom to live in concentration-like camps.
 * 8) US Soldiers raped Japanese women during the United States' occupation of Japan . 856 rapes were reported, however, experts estimate over 17,000 rapes took place.
 * 9) During the Battle of Iwo Jima, the US landed 30,000 via Navy ships on Iwo Jima in hopes to take over the island (that Japan had previously captured) to use for an air base to use against Japan.
 * 10) On June 6, 1944 the largest amphibious warfare operation in history took place, known as D-Day or Operation Overload. 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, where warfare erupted and 300 bombs were dropped on German troops by allied planes as Germany tried to defend beaches, leading to 9,000 German casualties.

Primary Sources:

1. American Soldier 'Occupies' Japan

This primary source is a drawing of an American soldier in Japan that made the cover of Colliers Magazine. This drawing shows the US Soldier wearing a traditional Japanese women's clothing piece, a Kimono, and holding a Japanese Gunsen fan to cool off while smoking a cigarette. This photo suggests the soldier has looted a Japanese woman of her belongings during American occupation in Japan. Sadly, our soldiers have been known to not only steal from, but brutally rape and/or murder these Japanese women during World War II. Also, the cross shown in the back of the drawing could represent the death of said Japanese women. Consequently, the soldier depicted in this drawing potentially raped or killed a Japanese women, and is riding his bike to return to duty.

2. Executive Order of 9066

"Now therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as the or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion."

President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 allowed the military to keep anyone from Washington state to California from freely residing in the US after Pearl Harbor. This order permitted any suspected terrorists to be sent to internment camps. 300 Italian-Americans, 5,000 German-Americans, and 110,000 Japanese-Americans were interned in over 26 different camps in the United States. Most of these internment camps were filled with Japanese-Americans to keep them from siding with Japan and revolting against the US. These camps were not concentration or death camps, rather communities sectioned off from society and guarded by armed soldiers. The camps were overcrowded, unsanitary, and provided small amounts of food. The United States lead to the death of thousands of citizens due to the poor conditions of the internment camps.

3. State of Union Address (1946)

"The end of the war in Europe found Germany in a chaotic condition. Organized government had ceased to exist, transportation systems had been wrecked, cities and industrial facilities had been bombed into ruins."

This primary source is an excerpt from section II of the State of the Union Address (1946) on January 21, 1946 by Harry S. Truman. In this excerpt, Truman admits that the Allied Forces ended World War II chaotically with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He follows by also admitting that all things right went down the drain, as the Allies abandoned organization in government. This proves that the Allied Forces knew that ending the war by dropping the atomic bombs and killing 300,000 civilians was inhumane, but they did it anyway to make it easier for Allied soldiers. Therefore, the Allies consciously killed more civilians than Japanese soldiers by dropping the bombs, again proving them as guilty of intense war crime.

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