World War II is a global military conflict from 1939 to 1945, involving two opposing powers, the Allies and the Axis. It is the most widespread war in history, with over 100 million military personnel involved.
Many view World War II as a continuation of World War I. They believe that the Versailles Treaty, drafted at the end of World War I, failed to establish the parameters which may have prevented the Second. The treaty was neither lenient enough to appease Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it from becoming the dominant global power again. Hitler also advanced the idea that Germany would have triumphed if not for the German Revolution at home, thus convincing people that a Second World War would be winnable. The 1939 German invasion of Poland led to the outbreak of the war.
Another cause is that Japan lacks extensive natural resources. Japan had been completely shut out from the European colonies, thus to avoid economic strangulation, Japan was determined to dominate the Asian market. Therefore, Japan invaded China in 1937, the largest source of raw materials, and kick-started World War II. The Great Depression in the 1930s also played a part. The depression affected Germany greatly, second only to the United States. Severe unemployment led people to support the Nazis, which had been losing favor, thus contributing directly to the rise of Hitler.
The war ended with the victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. Germany surrendered after the capture of Berlin and Hitler’s suicide, while Japan surrendered after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United Nations (UN) was set up to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, leading to the Cold War which lasted for the next 46 years. At the same time, the influence of the European powers began to decline with the decolonisation of Asia and Africa.
World War II is the deadliest war in history, resulting in 50 million to more than 70 million deaths. Many of the deaths were caused by war crimes, including The Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed approximately six million Jews and five million others who were deemed “unworthy of life”. The most well-known Japanese war crime was the Nanking Massacre, in which several hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.
The mass-bombing of civilian areas in the German cities of Dresden, Hamburg, and Cologne by the Allies resulted in more than 600,000 deaths. The nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in immediate deaths of approximately 200,000 people, mostly civilians. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of radiation sickness.
No other venue like wars allows people to kill each other in such huge numbers. Wars often take years to develop, last for years, and the effects reverberate for decades.
Can World War II be justified morally? We can agree that World War II is the closest thing to a just war in modern times. However, the means to achieve it were horrifying. The nuclear bombings were justified as taking fewer Japanese and American lives than would have been lost in an invasion. However, is a war fought between soldiers and innocent civilians just? In an age of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, would whatever good that is aimed for, such as freedom, be rendered meaningless through near universal destruction and thus unredeemable evil? Are wars even necessary?
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