704

1931–1960

American soldierin World War II

GlobalStruggles

The rise of dictatorships in the 1930s led toWorld War II, the most destructive war in the

history of the world. After the war, the fragilealliance between the United States and the

Soviet Union collapsed into the Cold War—aperiod of intense political, economic, and mili-

tary competition. Learning about the events ofthis crucial period in our nation’s history will

help you understand the events occurring inthe nation and around the world today. The

following resources offer more informationabout this period in American history.

Primary Sources LibrarySee pages 1054–1055 for primary source

readings to accompany Unit 8.

Use the American History PrimarySource Document Library CD-ROM to

find additional primary sources about globalstruggles.

Why It MattersDog tags

“More than an end to war,we want an end to thebeginning of all wars.”

—Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1945

706

A Worldin Flames 1931–1941

1931• Jane Addams awarded

Nobel Peace Prize

1932• Bonus Army arrives

in Washington, D.C.

1931• Japan invades

Manchuria

1933• Hitler appointed

chancellor of Germany

1936• Hitler reoccupies

Rhineland

• Spanish Civil War begins

Why It MattersAfter World War I, Europe was unstable. Fascists led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy,

and Adolf Hitler and the Nazis took control of Germany. Meanwhile, Japan expanded its territoryin Asia. As the Nazis gained power, they began a campaign of violence against Jews. When

Germany attacked Poland, World War II began. The United States clung to neutrality until Japanattacked Pearl Harbor.

The Impact TodayEuropean events of this time serve as lessons for American leaders.

• The danger of ethnic and religious prejudice is more readily recognized than it was before.• Many American leaders believe that international aggression cannot be ignored.

The American Vision Video The Chapter 24 video, “Holocaust Stories,” presents firsthand accounts from survivorsof the Holocaust.

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1930 1933 1936

1933• Franklin Delano

Roosevelt inaugurated

▲F. Roosevelt1933–1945

1935• First Neutrality

Act passed

707

1940• Roosevelt makes

“destroyers-for-bases”deal with Britain

December 7, 1941• Japan attacks Pearl

Harbor

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the American VisionWeb site at tav.glencoe.comand click on ChapterOverviews—Chapter 24 topreview chapter information.

German chancellor Adolf Hitler reviewsa parade of Nazi troops.

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1939• SS St. Louis denied

permission to dockin United States

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1941• Roosevelt and

Churchill coauthorAtlantic Charter

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1937• Neutrality Act limits

trade with allwarring nations

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▼1939• World War II

begins with Hitler’sattack on Poland

▼1940• France falls to

the Nazis

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1939 1942

1938• Munich Conference

appeases Hitler

http://tav.glencoe.com

In August 1934, American journalist Dorothy Thompson received an urgent call from theporter at her Berlin hotel. A member of Germany’s secret state police wanted to talk to her.Thompson had been reporting on Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, and she had written variousanti-Nazi articles for the American press. In one she described the beautiful singing she hadheard at a Hitler youth camp, where thousands of boys ages 10 to 16 marched and sang. Theboys’ lovely voices echoing across the hills stirred Thompson, but the words on an enormousbanner hanging across one hillside chilled her:

“It was so prominent that every child could see it many times a day. It was white, andthere was a swastika painted on it, and besides that only seven words, seven immense blackwords: YOU WERE BORN TO DIE FOR GERMANY.”

When Thompson met with the police, they ordered her to leave Germany immediately. “I, fortunately, am an American,” Thompson observed, “so I was merely sent to Paris. Worsethings can happen to one.”

—quoted in The Women Who Wrote the War

The Rise of DictatorsLess than 20 years before the dictatorial German government expelled Dorothy

Thompson, the future of democracy in Europe seemed bright. When World War I endedin 1918, President Woodrow Wilson had announced, “Everything for which Americafought has been accomplished.” Wilson had hoped that the United States could “aid in

America and the World

Main Idea In the years following World War I,aggressive and expansionist governmentstook power in both Europe and Asia.

Key Terms and NamesBenito Mussolini, fascism, Vladimir Lenin,Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Manchuria,Neutrality Act of 1935, internationalism

Reading StrategyTaking Notes As you read about theevents in Europe and Asia after WorldWar I, use the major headings of the sec-tion to create an outline similar to theone below.

Reading Objectives• Describe how postwar conditions con-

tributed to the rise of antidemocraticgovernments in Europe.

• Explain why many Americans supporteda policy of isolationism in the 1930s.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections German andJapanese actions in the 1930s ledPresident Roosevelt to work to preventaggression.

1922Fascist Party takes powerin Italy; USSR established

708 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

✦ 1927 ✦ 1932

1931Japan takes controlof Manchuria

1933Hitler takes powerin Germany

1937Japan attacksChina

1935Congress passes firstNeutrality Act

Dorothy Thompson

America and the WorldI. The Rise of Dictators

A.B.C.D.

II.

✦ 1937✦ 1922

the establishment of just democracy throughout theworld.” Instead, the treaty that ended the war, alongwith the economic depression that followed, con-tributed to the rise of antidemocratic governments inboth Europe and Asia.

Mussolini and Fascism in Italy One of Europe’sfirst major dictatorships arose in Italy. There, a for-mer schoolmaster and journalist named BenitoMussolini returned from World War I convinced thathis country needed a strong leader.

In 1919 Mussolini founded Italy’s Fascist Party.Fascism was a kind of aggressive nationalism.Fascists believed that the nation was more importantthan the individual. They argued that individualismmade countries weak and that a strong governmentled by a dictator was needed to impose order on soci-ety. Fascists believed a nation became great byexpanding its territory and building up its military.

Fascism was also strongly anticommunist. Afterthe Communist revolution in Russia, manyEuropeans feared that Communists, allied with laborunions, were trying to bring down their govern-ments. Mussolini exploited these fears by portrayingfascism as a bulwark against the Communists.Fascism began to stand for the protection of privateproperty and of the middle class. Mussolini alsooffered the working class full employment and socialsecurity. He stressed national prestige, pledging toreturn Italy to the glories of the Roman Empire.

Backed by the Fascist militia known as theBlackshirts, Mussolini threatened to march on Romein 1922, claiming he was coming to defend Italyagainst a Communist revolution. Liberal members ofthe Italian parliament insisted that the king declaremartial law. When he refused, the cabinet resigned.Conservative advisers then persuaded the king toappoint Mussolini as the premier.

Once in office, Mussolini worked quickly to destroydemocracy and set up a dictatorship. Weary of strikesand riots, many Italians welcomed Mussolini’s leader-ship. With the support of industrialists, landowners,and the Roman Catholic Church, Mussolini—who tookthe title of Il Duce, or “The Leader”—embarked on anambitious program of bringing order to Italy.

Stalin Takes Over the USSR The Communistswere a much larger force in Russia than in Italy. Afterthe Russian Revolution began in 1917, the BolshevikParty, led by Vladimir Lenin, established Commu-nist governments throughout the Russian empire. In1922 they renamed these territories the Union ofSoviet Socialist Republics (USSR). They then pro-ceeded to establish control over these territories. To

do this, the Communists instituted one-party rule,suppressed individual liberties, and punished oppo-nents. After Lenin died in 1924, a power strugglebegan. By 1926, Joseph Stalin had become the newSoviet dictator. In 1927 Stalin began a massive effortto industrialize his country. Tolerating no opposition,the effort brought about the deaths of 8 to 10 millionpeasants who resisted the Communist policies.

Hitler and Nazism in Germany Adolf Hitler wasa fervent anticommunist and an admirer ofMussolini. Hitler had fought for Germany in WorldWar I. Germany’s surrender and the subsequentVersailles Treaty left him and many other Germanswith a smoldering hatred for the victorious Alliesand for the German government that had acceptedthe peace terms.

The political and economic chaos in postwarGermany led to the rise of new political parties. Oneof these was the National Socialist German Workers’Party, or the Nazi Party. The party did not representthe working class, as its name suggested, but wasnationalistic and anticommunist. Adolf Hitler wasone of the party’s first recruits.

In November 1923, the Nazis tried to seizepower by marching on city hall in Munich,Germany. Hitler intended to seize power locally

Supreme Soviets Joseph Stalin (right) took over control of the Soviet Unionafter Lenin’s death in 1924. He was determined to modernize and industrializehis nation. How many people died while opposing Stalin’s leadership?

History

and then march on Berlin, the German capital, butthe plan failed and Hitler was arrested.

While in prison, Hitler wrote his autobiography,titled Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”). In the book, Hitlercalled for the unification of all Germans under onegovernment. He claimed that Germans, particularlyblond, blue-eyed Germans, belonged to a “masterrace” called Aryans. He argued that Germans neededmore lebensraum, or living space, and called forGermany to expand east into Poland and Russia.According to Hitler, the Slavic people of EasternEurope belonged to an inferior race, which Germansshould enslave. Hitler’s racism was strongest, how-ever, toward Jews. He believed that Jews wereresponsible for many of the world’s problems, espe-cially for Germany’s defeat in World War I.

After his release from prison, Hitler changed histactics. Instead of trying to seize power violently, hefocused on getting Nazis elected to the Reichstag, thelower house of the German parliament. When theGreat Depression struck Germany, many desperateGermans began to vote for radical parties, includingthe Nazis and Communists. By 1932 the Nazis werethe largest party in the Reichstag.

Many traditional German leaders supportedHitler’s nationalism. They believed that if theyhelped Hitler become leader of Germany legally, theycould control him. In 1933 the German presidentappointed Hitler as chancellor, or prime minister.

After taking office, Hitler called for new elections.He then ordered the police to crack down on theSocialist and Communist Parties. Storm Troopers, as

the Nazi paramilitary units were called, began intimi-dating voters. After the election, the Reichstag, domi-nated by the Nazis and other right-wing parties, votedto give Hitler dictatorial powers. In 1934 Hitler becamepresident, which gave him control of the army. He thengave himself the new title of führer, or “leader.” Thefollowing year, he began to rebuild Germany’s military,in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

Militarists Gain Control of Japan In Japan, as inGermany, difficult economic times helped under-mine the political system. Japanese industries had toimport nearly all of the resources they needed toproduce goods. During the 1920s, Japan did not earnenough money from its exports to pay for itsimports, which limited economic growth andincreased unemployment. When the Depressionstruck, other countries raised their tariffs. This madethe situation even worse.

Many Japanese military officers blamed the coun-try’s problems on corrupt politicians. Most officersbelieved that Japan was destined to dominate EastAsia. Many also believed that democracy was “un-Japanese” and bad for the country.

Japanese military leaders and the civilians whosupported them argued that the only way for Japanto get needed resources was to seize territory. Theytargeted the resource-rich province of Manchuria innorthern China as the perfect place to conquer.

A group of Japanese officers decided to act withoutthe government’s permission. In September 1931, theJapanese army invaded Manchuria. After the inva-

sion began, the Japanesegovernment tried to endthe war, but when theJapanese prime ministerbegan negotiations, officersassassinated him. Fromthat point forward, themilitary was effectively incontrol. Although Japanstill had a civilian gov-ernment, it now supported the nationalist policy ofexpanding the empire, andit appointed several mili-tary officers to serve asprime minister.

Examining How did postwarconditions contribute to therise of dictatorships in Europe?

Reading Check

Meeting of Minds Mussolini and Hitler are shown here meeting in October 1940. What beliefs did they share?

History

America Turns to NeutralityThe rise of dictatorships and militarism after

World War I discouraged many Americans. The sac-rifices they had made during the war seemed point-less. Once again, Americans began to supportisolationism, or the belief that the United Statesshould avoid international commitments that mightdrag the nation into another war.

The Nye Committee Isolationist ideas became evenstronger in the early 1930s for two reasons. When theDepression began, many European nations found itdifficult to repay money they had borrowed duringWorld War I. In June 1934, all of the debtor nationsexcept Finland announced they would no longerrepay their war debts.

At about the same time, dozens of books and arti-cles appeared arguing that arms manufacturers hadtricked the United States into entering World War I.In 1934 Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota heldhearings to investigate the country’s involvement inWorld War I. The Nye Committee documented thehuge profits that arms factories had made during thewar. The report created the impression that thesebusinesses influenced the United States to go to war.The European refusal to repay their loans and theNye Committee’s findings turned even moreAmericans toward isolationism.

Legislating Neutrality Worried that growing Ger-man and Italian aggression might lead to war,Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1935. Basedon the belief that arms sales had helped bring theUnited States into World War I, the act made it illegalfor Americans to sell arms to any country at war.

In 1936 a rebellion erupted in Spain after a coali-tion of Republicans, Socialists, and Communists waselected. General Francisco Franco led the rebellion.Franco was backed by the Falangists, or SpanishFascists, army officers, landowners, and CatholicChurch leaders.

The revolt quickly became a civil war andattracted worldwide attention. The Soviet Union pro-vided arms and advisers to the government forces,while Germany and Italy sent tanks, airplanes, andsoldiers to help Franco. To keep the United Statesneutral, Congress passed another neutrality act, ban-ning the sale of arms to either side in a civil war.

Shortly after the Spanish Civil War began in 1936,Hitler and Mussolini signed an agreement pledgingto cooperate on several international issues.Mussolini referred to this new relationship withGermany as the Rome-Berlin Axis. The following

month, Japan aligned itself with Germany and Italywhen it signed the Anti-Comintern Pact withGermany. The pact required the two countries toexchange information about Communist groups.Together Germany, Italy, and Japan became known asthe Axis Powers, although they did not formallybecome allies until September 1940.

With the situation in Europe getting worse,Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1937. Thisact continued the ban on selling arms to nations atwar, but it also required warring countries to buynonmilitary supplies from the United States on a“cash-and-carry” basis. If a country at war wantedgoods from the United States, it had to send its ownships to pick up the goods, and it had to pay cash.Loans were not allowed. Isolationists knew thatattacks on neutral American ships carrying sup-plies to Europe had helped bring the country intoWorld War I. They were determined to prevent itfrom happening again.

CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames 711

Anti-Fascist Propaganda Spanish general Francisco Franco led theFascist rebellion that received support from Hitler and Mussolini. Thisposter translates to “The claw of the Italian invader intends to makeslaves of us.” How did the United States respond to these events?

History

GOVERNMENT

Roosevelt and Internationalism When he tookoffice in 1933, President Roosevelt declared that “ourinternational relations, though vastly important, arein point of time and necessity secondary to the estab-lishment of a sound national economy.” Rooseveltknew that ending the Depression was his first prior-ity, but he was not an isolationist. He supportedinternationalism, the idea that trade betweennations creates prosperity and helps to prevent war.Internationalists also believed the United Statesshould try to preserve peace in the world.

Roosevelt supported internationalism but knewthat the public wanted neutrality. He warned that theneutrality acts “might drag us into war instead ofkeeping us out,” but he did not veto the bills.Isolationism was too strong to resist.

In July 1937, Japanese forces in Manchurialaunched a full-scale attack on China. Rooseveltdecided to help the Chinese. Since neither China norJapan had actually declared war, Roosevelt claimedthe Neutrality Act of 1937 did not apply, and heauthorized the sale of weapons to China. He warnedthat the nation should not stand by and let an “epi-demic of lawlessness” infect the world:

“When an epidemic of physical disease starts tospread, the community . . . joins in a quarantine ofthe patients in order to protect the health of the com-munity against the spread of the disease. . . . War is acontagion, whether it be declared or undeclared. . . .There is no escape through mere isolation orneutrality. . . .”

—quoted in Freedom from Fear

Despite Roosevelt’s words, Americans were stillnot willing to risk another war to stop aggressionoverseas. “It is a terrible thing,” the president said,“to look over your shoulder when you are trying tolead—and find no one there.”

Evaluating Why did manyAmericans support isolationism?

Reading Check

Writing About History

Checking for Understanding1. Define: fascism, internationalism.2. Identify: Benito Mussolini, Vladimir

Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler,Manchuria, Neutrality Act of 1935.

3. Explain why isolationism was strong inthe United States in the early 1930s.

Reviewing Themes4. Global Connections What events

caused President Roosevelt to becomemore of an internationalist?

Critical Thinking5. Interpreting Why did antidemocratic

governments rise to power in postwarEurope and Asia?

6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to comparethe antidemocratic governments thatarose in Europe and Asia.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Art Study the Spanish Civil

War era propaganda poster reproducedon page 711. Without being told thephrase, how would you be able to dis-cover the poster’s meaning?

712 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

Country Dictator Ideology

Imperial Expansion In 1931 Japan occupied the northeast Chineseprovince of Manchuria. In 1937 the Japanese invaded all of China, prompt-ing FDR to authorize the sale of arms to the Chinese Army. How didRoosevelt justify his actions in light of the Neutrality Act?

History

8. Persuasive Writing Write a news-paper editorial urging fellow citizens toembrace either isolationism or inter-nationalism after World War I. Includereasons your readers should back aspecific position.

GOVERNMENT

Roosevelt and Internationalism When he tookoffice in 1933, President Roosevelt declared that “ourinternational relations, though vastly important, arein point of time and necessity secondary to the estab-lishment of a sound national economy.” Rooseveltknew that ending the Depression was his first prior-ity, but he was not an isolationist. He supportedinternationalism, the idea that trade betweennations creates prosperity and helps to prevent war.Internationalists also believed the United Statesshould try to preserve peace in the world.

Roosevelt supported internationalism but knewthat the public wanted neutrality. He warned that theneutrality acts “might drag us into war instead ofkeeping us out,” but he did not veto the bills.Isolationism was too strong to resist.

In July 1937, Japanese forces in Manchurialaunched a full-scale attack on China. Rooseveltdecided to help the Chinese. Since neither China norJapan had actually declared war, Roosevelt claimedthe Neutrality Act of 1937 did not apply, and heauthorized the sale of weapons to China. He warnedthat the nation should not stand by and let an “epi-demic of lawlessness” infect the world:

“When an epidemic of physical disease starts tospread, the community . . . joins in a quarantine ofthe patients in order to protect the health of the com-munity against the spread of the disease. . . . War is acontagion, whether it be declared or undeclared. . . .There is no escape through mere isolation orneutrality. . . .”

—quoted in Freedom from Fear

Despite Roosevelt’s words, Americans were stillnot willing to risk another war to stop aggressionoverseas. “It is a terrible thing,” the president said,“to look over your shoulder when you are trying tolead—and find no one there.”

Evaluating Why did manyAmericans support isolationism?

Reading Check

Writing About History

Checking for Understanding1. Define: fascism, internationalism.2. Identify: Benito Mussolini, Vladimir

Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler,Manchuria, Neutrality Act of 1935.

3. Explain why isolationism was strong inthe United States in the early 1930s.

Reviewing Themes4. Global Connections What events

caused President Roosevelt to becomemore of an internationalist?

Critical Thinking5. Interpreting Why did antidemocratic

governments rise to power in postwarEurope and Asia?

6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to comparethe antidemocratic governments thatarose in Europe and Asia.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Art Study the Spanish Civil

War era propaganda poster reproducedon page 711. Without being told thephrase, how would you be able to dis-cover the poster’s meaning?

712 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

Country Dictator Ideology

Imperial Expansion In 1931 Japan occupied the northeast Chineseprovince of Manchuria. In 1937 the Japanese invaded all of China, prompt-ing FDR to authorize the sale of arms to the Chinese Army. How didRoosevelt justify his actions in light of the Neutrality Act?

History

8. Persuasive Writing Write a news-paper editorial urging fellow citizens toembrace either isolationism or inter-nationalism after World War I. Includereasons your readers should back aspecific position.

March 1938Hitler announces German-Austrian unification

✦ 1939 ✦ 1941

In February 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt sent Undersecretary of State SumnerWelles to Europe to report on the political situation. A few months earlier, Germany hadinvaded Poland, and Roosevelt hoped to negotiate peace before wider hostilities erupted.

In Italy Welles found Mussolini intent on war and judged that “there was not the slightestchance of any successful negotiation.” In Paris Welles glumly noted the “sullen apathy” inpeople’s faces and concluded that France had little will to resist a German onslaught. Afterspeaking to Hitler, Welles concluded that a negotiated peace settlement was impossible: “Itwas only too tragically plain that all decisions had already been made.” In London, Welles didnot feel the sense of doom he had in Paris. The British, he reported, would “fight to the verylast ditch.” Welles later reflected on his mission:

“Only one thing could have deflected Hitler from his purpose: the sure knowledge that thepower of the United States would be directed against him if he attempted to carry out hisintention of conquering the world by force. . . . At that time no representative of this govern-ment could have been authorized to intimate any such thing. . . . My mission, therefore, was aforlorn hope.”

—quoted in Roosevelt and Churchill

“Peace in Our Time”Whether or not the United States could have forced Hitler to negotiate is uncertain.

By 1940 the German army had been rebuilt, and Hitler was bent on conquest. What isknown is that in the years before Welles visited Europe, when the Nazi regime was

World War II Begins

Main IdeaWorld War II officially began with theNazi invasion of Poland and the Frenchand British declaration of war onGermany in September 1939.

Key Terms and NamesAnschluss, appeasement, blitzkrieg,Maginot Line, Winston Churchill, Battle of Britain

Reading StrategySequencing As you read about theevents leading up to the beginning ofWorld War II, record them by completinga time line similar to the one below.

Reading Objectives• Explain why Hitler was able to take

over Austria and Czechoslovakia.• Describe the early events of the war

and why Britain was able to resist theNazis.

Section ThemeContinuity and Change The desire ofthe French and British to avoid anotherwar helped encourage Hitler’s aggressionin Europe.

✦ 1938 ✦ 1940

August 1939Hitler and Stalin signNazi-Soviet pact

September 1939World War II begins

June 1940France surrenders toGermany

CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames 713

August 1940Battle of Britainbegins

Sumner Welles

1937Sept.1939

March1938

Oct.1938

Aug.1939

Feb.1938

Sept.1938

March1939

much weaker, European leaders did not try to stopHitler. Instead, they vainly tried to buy peace by giv-ing in to his demands.

Europe’s leaders had several reasons for believing—or wanting to believe—that Hitler could be satisfiedand war avoided. First, the shadow of World War Iloomed large, making many leaders fearful of anotherbloody conflict. Second, some thought Hitler’sdemand that all German-speaking regions of Europebe united with Germany was reasonable. Third, manypeople assumed that the Nazis would be more inter-ested in peace once they gained more territory.

The Austrian Anschluss Hitler’s first demandsconcerned Austria and Czechoslovakia. In late 1937Hitler stepped up his call for the unification of all German-speaking people, including those inAustria and Czechoslovakia. Seizing Austria andCzechoslovakia would also gain food supplies,defensible frontiers, and soldiers for Germany. Hitlerbelieved that Germany could only expand its terri-tory by “resort[ing] to force with its attendant risks.”

In February 1938 Hitler threatened to invadeGerman-speaking Austria, his native land, unlessAustrian Nazis were given important governmentposts. Austria’s chancellor quickly gave in to thisdemand. Several weeks later, the chancellor tried toput the matter of unification with Germany to ademocratic vote. Fearing the outcome, Hitler senttroops into Austria in March and announced theAnschluss, or unification, of Austria and Germany.

The Munich Crisis and Appeasement Shortlyafter Germany annexed Austria, Hitler announcedGerman claims to the Sudetenland, an area ofCzechoslovakia with a large German-speaking

population. Since Austrians shared a common cul-ture and language with Germany, many people hadaccepted the Anschluss. In Czechoslovakia, on theother hand, people spoke several different languages.In addition, while Austria had an authoritarian government, Czechoslovakia was a democracy.Furthermore, Austria had no allies to help it defenditself, but Czechoslovakia was allied with France andthe Soviet Union.

The Czechs strongly resisted Germany’s demandsfor the Sudetenland. France threatened to fight ifGermany attacked, and the Soviet Union also prom-ised assistance. British prime minister NevilleChamberlain publicly promised to support France,Britain’s ally.

To prevent another war, representatives of Britain,France, Italy, and Germany agreed to meet in Munichto decide Czechoslovakia’s fate. At the MunichConference on September 29, 1938, Britain andFrance agreed to Hitler’s demands, a policy thatcame to be known as appeasement. Appeasement isthe policy of giving concessions in exchange forpeace. Supporters of appeasement mistakenlybelieved that Hitler had a few limited demands. Theyfelt that if they gave Hitler what he wanted, he wouldbe satisfied and war would be avoided. Czech-oslovakia was informed that it must give up theSudetenland or fight Germany on its own.

Chamberlain had gambled that sacrificing part ofCzechoslovakia would satisfy Hitler. He also knewthat Britain’s military was not ready for war, so he wasbuying time. When Chamberlain returned home hepromised “a peace with honor . . . peace in our time,”but he also began to speed up British rearmament.

The following March, in brazen violation of theMunich agreement, Germany sent troops intoCzechoslovakia and broke up the country. Slovakiabecame independent in name, but it was actually asatellite state under German control. The Czech landsbecame a German protectorate.

Danzig and the Polish Corridor After the Munichconference, Hitler turned his sights on Poland. InOctober 1938 he demanded the return of Danzig, aBaltic Sea port with strong German roots, to Germancontrol. Although Danzig was more than 90 percentGerman, it had been separated from Germany at theend of World War I to give Poland access to the sea.Hitler also requested a highway and railroad acrossthe Polish Corridor, which separated westernGermany from the German state of East Prussia.

Hitler’s demands on Poland convinced the Britishand French that appeasement had failed. On March 31,

714 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

Appeasement in Action At Munich in September 1938, Mussolini (secondfrom left), Britain’s Neville Chamberlain (left), and Hitler (second from right)were among those deciding Czechoslovakia’s fate.

1939, the British announced that if Poland went to warto defend its territory, Britain and France would cometo its aid. This encouraged the Polish government torefuse Hitler’s demands.

In May 1939, Hitler ordered the German army toprepare to invade Poland. He also ordered his for-eign minister to begin negotiations with the USSR. IfGermany was going to fight Britain and France,Hitler did not want to have to fight the Soviets too.

The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact WhenGerman officials proposed a nonaggression treaty tothe Soviets, Stalin agreed. He believed the best wayto protect the USSR was to turn the capitalist nationsagainst each other. If the treaty worked, Germanywould go to war against Britain and France, and theUSSR would be safe.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSRsigned the nonaggression pact. The Nazi-Soviet pactshocked the world. Communism and Nazism weresupposed to be totally opposed to each other.Leaders in Britain and France understood, however,

that Hitler had made the deal to free himself for waragainst their countries and Poland. What they didnot know was that the treaty also contained a secretdeal between Germany and the Soviet Union todivide Poland between them.

Explaining What were three rea-sons European leaders agreed to a policy of appeasement?

The War BeginsOn September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland

from the west, and soon after the Soviets invadedfrom the east. On September 3, Britain and Francedeclared war on Germany, marking the start ofWorld War II.

Blitzkrieg in Poland Poland bravely resistedGermany’s onslaught, but to no avail. The Germansused a new type of warfare called blitzkrieg, or light-ning war. Blitzkrieg used large numbers of massedtanks to break through and rapidly encircle enemy

Reading Check

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Germany occupiesRhineland,March 1936

Annexation ofSudetenland,Sept. 1938

Invasion of USSR,June 1941

3 Austrian Anschluss, 1938

Fall of France, June 1940

Battle of Britain,Aug. 1940–Oct. 1940

Italy invadesEthiopia,Oct. 1935

Invasion of Poland,Sept. 1, 1939

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Axis Expansion, 1935–1941

1. Interpreting Maps Satellite states were independent inname, but they were under German control. What wasthe French satellite state called?

2. Applying Geography Skills Why was Czechoslovakiaphysically in danger once the Anschluss took place?

Axis nationsAxis satellite statesAxis conquestsAllied controlNeutral countriesAxis advanceInternationalboundary, Jan. 1938Maginot Line

positions. Supporting the tanks were waves of air-craft that bombed enemy positions and droppedparatroopers to cut their supply lines. Blitzkriegdepended on radios to coordinate the tanks and air-craft. The Polish army was unable to cope with theGerman attack. On September 27, the Polish capitalof Warsaw fell to the Germans. By October 5, 1939,the Polish army had been defeated.

GEOGRAPHY

The Fall of France In contrast to the war in Poland,western Europe remained eerily quiet. The Germansreferred to this situation as the sitzkrieg, or sittingwar. The British called it the “Bore War,” whileAmerican newspapers nicknamed it the “PhonyWar.” The British had sent troops to France, but bothcountries remained on the defensive, waiting for theGermans to attack.

After World War I, the French had built a line ofconcrete bunkers and fortifications called theMaginot Line along the German border. Rather thanrisk their troops by attacking, the French preferred towait behind the Maginot Line for the Germans toapproach. Unfortunately, this decision allowedGermany to concentrate on Poland first before turn-ing west to face the British and French.

After taking Poland, Hitler and his generalsdecided to attack Norway and Denmark beforeinvading France. Germany’s industry depended oniron ore from Sweden that had to be shipped downNorway’s coast part of the year. If the British sent

troops to Norway, they could block the iron ship-ments. On April 9, 1940, the attack began, and withina month, Germany controlled both countries.

With his northern flank secure, Hitler turned hisattention to France. Hitler planned to go around theMaginot Line, which protected France’s border withGermany but not France’s border with Belgium andLuxembourg. To get around the Maginot Line, theGermans would have to invade the Netherlands,Belgium, and Luxembourg first—which is exactlywhat they did. On May 10, Hitler launched a newblitzkrieg in the west. While German troops para-chuted into the Netherlands, an army of tanks rolledinto Belgium and Luxembourg.

The British and French had expected the Germanattack. As soon as it began, British and French forcesraced north into Belgium. This was a mistake. Insteadof sending their tanks through the open countrysideof central Belgium, the Germans sent their main forcethrough the Ardennes Mountains of Luxembourgand eastern Belgium. The French did not think thatlarge numbers of tanks could move through themountains, and they had left only a few troops todefend that part of the border. The Germans easilysmashed through the French lines, then raced westacross northern France to the English Channel. TheBritish and French armies were still in Belgium andcould not move back into France quickly enough.They were now trapped in Belgium.

The Miracle at Dunkirk After trapping the Alliedforces in Belgium, the Germans began to drive themtoward the English Channel. The only hope forBritain and France was to evacuate their survivingtroops by sea, but the Germans had captured all butone port, Dunkirk, a small town in northern Francenear the Belgian border.

As German forces closed in on Dunkirk, Hitler sud-denly ordered them to stop. No one is sure why hegave this order. Historians know that Hitler was nerv-ous about risking his tank forces, and he wanted towait until more infantry arrived. Hermann Goering,the head of the German air force, was also assuringHitler that aircraft alone could destroy the trappedsoldiers. There is also some evidence that Hitlerthought that the British would be more willing toaccept peace if the Germans did not humiliate themby destroying their forces at Dunkirk.

Whatever Hitler’s reasons, his order provided athree-day delay. This gave the British time tostrengthen their lines and begin the evacuation. Some850 ships of all sizes, from navy warships to smallsailboats operated by civilian volunteers, headed to

716 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

The Battle of Dunkirk Hitler’s invasion of Polandfueled the fears of Americans who preferred not tobecome involved in Europe’s conflict. In contrast, theevacuation from Dunkirk less than a year later gener-ated very different reactions. For example, soon afterthe evacuation, the New York Times wrote:

“So long as the English tongue survives, theword Dunkirk will be spoken with reverence.For in that harbor, in such a hell as neverblazed on earth before, at the end of a lostbattle, the rages and blemishes that have hid-den the soul of democracy fell away. There,beaten but unconquered, in shining splendor,she faced the enemy.”Indeed, the Battle of Dunkirk would soon help to

lift the United States out of its isolationism.

Dunkirk from England. The British had hoped to res-cue about 45,000 troops. Instead, when the evacua-tion ended on June 4, an estimated 338,000 Britishand French troops had been saved. This stunningsuccess led British newspapers to refer to the evacua-tion as the “Miracle at Dunkirk.”

The evacuation had its price, however. Almost allof the British army’s equipment remained atDunkirk—90,000 rifles, 7,000 tons of ammunition,and 120,000 vehicles. If Hitler invaded Britain, itwould be almost impossible to stop him from con-quering the country.

Three weeks later, on June 22, 1940, Hitleraccepted the French surrender in the same railwaycar in which the Germans had surrendered at theend of World War I. Germany now occupied much ofnorthern France and its Atlantic coastline. To governthe rest of the country, Germany installed a puppetgovernment at the town of Vichy and made MarshalPhilippe Pétain the new government’s figureheadleader. Pétain predicted that Britain “will have herneck wrung like a chicken.”

Summarizing Why was Germanyable to overtake Poland?

Britain Remains Defiant Neither Pétain nor Adolf Hitler anticipated the

bravery of the British people or the spirit of theirleader, Winston Churchill, who had replaced NevilleChamberlain as prime minister. Hitler fully expectedthe British to negotiate peace after France surren-dered. For Winston Churchill, however, peace wasnot an option. The war was a fight to defend civiliza-tion. On June 4, 1940, Churchill delivered a defiantspeech in Parliament, intended not only to rally theBritish people but to alert the isolationist UnitedStates to Britain’s plight:

“Even though large tracts of Europe have fallen . . .we shall not flag or fail. . . . We shall defend ourisland, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight onthe beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shallfight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

—quoted in Freedom from Fear

When Hitler realized that Britain would not sur-render, he ordered his commanders to prepare toinvade. Only the choppy waters of the narrow

Reading Check

CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames 717

NEVER GIVE IN Few photographs capture theBritish resolve to keep a stiffupper lip better than this one.Night after night betweenSeptember 1940 and May 1941, German warplanesrained bombs on London,Coventry, and other Britishcities.The attacks wereintended to destroy Britishmorale and war production,but Royal Air Force pilots shotdown bombers faster thanGermany could replace them.Plucky British civilians, like thismilkman making his roundsthrough a debris-strewnLondon street, remained determined to carry on asusual each morning.

MOMENTinHISTORY

English Channel separated Britain from Germany’spowerful army, but getting across the Channel poseda major challenge. Germany had few transport ships,and the British air force would sink them if they triedto land troops in England. To invade, therefore,Germany first had to defeat the British air force.

In June 1940, the German air force, called theLuftwaffe, began to attack British shipping in the English Channel. Then, in mid-August, theLuftwaffe launched an all-out air battle to destroythe British Royal Air Force. This air battle, whichlasted into the fall of 1940, became known as theBattle of Britain.

On August 23, German bombers accidentallybombed London, the British capital. This attack oncivilians enraged the British, who responded bybombing Berlin the following night. For the first timein the war, bombs fell on the German capital.Infuriated, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to stop itsattacks on British military targets and to concentrateon bombing London.

Hitler’s goal now was to terrorize the British people into surrendering. The British peopleendured, however, hiding out in the city’s subwaytunnels whenever German bombers appeared.

Although the Royal Air Force was greatly out-numbered, the British had one major advantage.They had developed a new technology called radar.Using radar stations placed along their coast, theBritish were able to detect incoming German aircraftand direct British fighters to intercept them.

Day after day, the British fighters inflicted morelosses on the Germans than they suffered. The skill ofa few hundred pilots saved Britain from invasion.Praising the pilots, Churchill told Parliament, “Neverin the field of human conflict was so much owed byso many to so few.” On October 12, 1940, Hitler can-celled the invasion of Britain.

Evaluating Why was Britain able toresist Hitler and the Nazis?

Reading Check

Writing About History

Checking for Understanding1. Define: appeasement, blitzkrieg.2. Identify: Anschluss, Maginot Line,

Winston Churchill, Battle of Britain.3. Explain why Hitler was able to take

over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Reviewing Themes4. Continuity and Change How did the

policy of appeasement affect Franceand Great Britain?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating Why were the British able

to prevent the Germans from invadingtheir country?

6. Organizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to list the earlyevents of the war in Poland and west-ern Europe.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Photographs Study the

photographs on pages 717 and 718.How do they reflect the British resolveto “never surrender”?

Events

718 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

Never Surrender Hitler ordered Nazi aircraft to bomb British cities, intendingto weaken the people’s will. Though shaken, the British, like the dome of St.Paul’s Cathedral (right), stood firm. What technology allowed the outnum-bered Royal Air Force to resist the German Luftwaffe?

History

8. Expository Writing Using library orInternet resources, find more informa-tion on the German annexation ofCzechoslovakia. Then write a reportdetailing the events leading up to andincluding the annexation. Share yourreport with the class.

English Channel separated Britain from Germany’spowerful army, but getting across the Channel poseda major challenge. Germany had few transport ships,and the British air force would sink them if they triedto land troops in England. To invade, therefore,Germany first had to defeat the British air force.

In June 1940, the German air force, called theLuftwaffe, began to attack British shipping in the English Channel. Then, in mid-August, theLuftwaffe launched an all-out air battle to destroythe British Royal Air Force. This air battle, whichlasted into the fall of 1940, became known as theBattle of Britain.

On August 23, German bombers accidentallybombed London, the British capital. This attack oncivilians enraged the British, who responded bybombing Berlin the following night. For the first timein the war, bombs fell on the German capital.Infuriated, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to stop itsattacks on British military targets and to concentrateon bombing London.

Hitler’s goal now was to terrorize the British people into surrendering. The British peopleendured, however, hiding out in the city’s subwaytunnels whenever German bombers appeared.

Although the Royal Air Force was greatly out-numbered, the British had one major advantage.They had developed a new technology called radar.Using radar stations placed along their coast, theBritish were able to detect incoming German aircraftand direct British fighters to intercept them.

Day after day, the British fighters inflicted morelosses on the Germans than they suffered. The skill ofa few hundred pilots saved Britain from invasion.Praising the pilots, Churchill told Parliament, “Neverin the field of human conflict was so much owed byso many to so few.” On October 12, 1940, Hitler can-celled the invasion of Britain.

Evaluating Why was Britain able toresist Hitler and the Nazis?

Reading Check

Writing About History

Checking for Understanding1. Define: appeasement, blitzkrieg.2. Identify: Anschluss, Maginot Line,

Winston Churchill, Battle of Britain.3. Explain why Hitler was able to take

over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Reviewing Themes4. Continuity and Change How did the

policy of appeasement affect Franceand Great Britain?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating Why were the British able

to prevent the Germans from invadingtheir country?

6. Organizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to list the earlyevents of the war in Poland and west-ern Europe.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Photographs Study the

photographs on pages 717 and 718.How do they reflect the British resolveto “never surrender”?

Events

718 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

Never Surrender Hitler ordered Nazi aircraft to bomb British cities, intendingto weaken the people’s will. Though shaken, the British, like the dome of St.Paul’s Cathedral (right), stood firm. What technology allowed the outnum-bered Royal Air Force to resist the German Luftwaffe?

History

8. Expository Writing Using library orInternet resources, find more informa-tion on the German annexation ofCzechoslovakia. Then write a reportdetailing the events leading up to andincluding the annexation. Share yourreport with the class.

Autumn 1935Nuremberg Laws depriveGerman Jews of citizenship

✦ 1936

Mira Ryczke was born in 1923 to a middle-class Jewish family in Danzig, Poland, a port onthe Baltic Sea. After World War II broke out in September 1939, the Nazis expelled Danzig’sJews to Warsaw, where they were forced to live in deplorable conditions in a special areaknown as the Warsaw ghetto. In 1943 the Nazis emptied the Warsaw ghetto. The Ryczkes hadto ride for three days in a suffocating cattle car headed for Auschwitz, the infamous Nazideath camp, and its neighboring camp of Birkenau.

After arriving at the camps, the terrified newcomers learned that a selection was to takeplace. When 20-year-old Mira asked what the selection was for, an old-time prisoner pointedto chimneys on top of a building and replied, “Selected for the gas chambers to go up in

smoke.” Mira later wrote:

“[W]e were told by the old-timers to try to look strong, healthy, and to walk in anupright position when our turn came. . . . Because the women I was with were young,only a few were taken out. Their numbers, tattooed on their left arms, were written down

by the SS, and after a few days during roll call, their tattoo numbers were called out andthese women were marched to the gas chamber.”

—quoted in Echoes from the Holocaust

Nazi Persecution of the JewsMira Ryczke and her family were only a few of the millions of Jews who suffered terri-

ble persecution before and during World War II. During the Holocaust, the catastrophe thatravaged Europe’s Jews, the Nazis killed nearly 6 million Jews. The Nazis also killed

The Holocaust

Main IdeaThe Nazis believed Jews to be subhuman.They steadily increased their persecutionof Jews and eventually set up deathcamps and tried to kill all the Jews inEurope.

Key Terms and NamesHolocaust, Shoah, Nuremberg Laws,Wannsee Conference, concentrationcamp, extermination camp

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about theHolocaust, complete a graphic organizersimilar to the one below by listing exam-ples of Nazi persecution of German Jews.

Reading Objectives• Describe Nazi prejudices against Jews

and early persecution of German Jews.• Explain the methods Hitler used to try to

exterminate Europe’s Jewish population.

Section Theme Civic Rights and Responsibilities TheNazis systematically deprived Jews oftheir rights, while other nations refused toaccept many Jewish refugees.

✦ 1933 ✦ 1939

November 1938Anti-Jewish violence eruptsduring Kristallnacht

June 1939SS St. Louis denied permissionto dock in the United States

January 1942Nazis’ Wannsee Conference de-termines “final solution” for Jews

CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames 719

Examplesof

Persecution

✦ 1942

Mira Ryczke

millions of people from other groups they consideredinferior. The Hebrew term for the Holocaust is Shoah,meaning “catastrophe,” but it is often used specifi-cally to refer to the Nazi campaign to exterminate theJews during World War II.

Nazi Ideology Once the Nazis took power inGermany, they acted swiftly to implement the polit-ical racial policies Hitler had outlined in MeinKampf. Although the Nazis persecuted anyone whodared oppose them, as well as the disabled,Gypsies, homosexuals, and Slavic peoples, theyreserved their strongest hatred for the Jews. Thisloathing went far beyond the European anti-Semitism common at the time. Over the centuries,people who were prejudiced against Jews had putdown Jewish religious practices and discriminatedagainst Jews in many ways. For example, Jews weresometimes segregated in ghettos or prohibited fromowning land. For the Nazis, however, all Jewish

people were evil no matter what theirreligion, occupation, or education.

The Nuremberg Laws After theNazis took power, they quickly movedto deprive German Jews of manyrights that all citizens had long takenfor granted. In September 1935 theNuremberg Laws took citizenshipaway from Jewish Germans andbanned marriage between Jews andother Germans. Two months later,another decree defined a Jew as aperson with at least one Jewish grand-parent and prohibited Jews from hold-ing public office or voting. Other lawsforbade Jews from employing femaleGerman servants under age 35 and compelled Jews with German-sounding names to adopt “Jewish”names. Soon the passports of Jewswere marked with a red “J” to clearlyidentify them as Jewish.

By the summer of 1936, at least halfof Germany’s Jews were jobless, hav-ing lost the right to work as civil ser-vants, journalists, farmers, teachers,and actors. In 1938 the Nazis alsobanned Jews from practicing law andmedicine and from operating busi-nesses. With no source of income, lifebecame very difficult.

Despite worsening conditions, manyJews chose to remain in Germany during the earlyyears of Nazi rule. Well integrated into German societybefore this time, they were reluctant to leave and giveup the lives they had built there. Many also thoughtthat conditions would surely improve after a time. Infact, they soon became worse.

Kristallnacht On November 7, 1938, a youngJewish refugee named Herschel Grynszpan shot andkilled a German diplomat in Paris. Grynszpan’sfather and 10,000 other Jews had been deported fromGermany to Poland, and the distraught young manwas seeking revenge for this act and for the persecu-tion of the Jews in general.

In retaliation for the killing, an infuriated Hitlerordered his minister of propaganda, JosephGoebbels, to stage attacks against the Jews thatwould appear to be a spontaneous popular reactionto news of the murder. On the night of November 9,this plan played out in a spree of destruction.

720 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

i n H i s t o r y

Albert Einstein 1879–1955

Among the Jews who left NaziGermany in the early 1930s was AlbertEinstein, whose brilliant scientific theo-ries revolutionized physics. Einsteingained international fame in 1919when the Royal Society of Londonannounced that calculations had sup-ported his general theory of relativity.Einstein’s fame increased after he wonthe Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.Lecture invitations poured in fromaround the world.

Einstein never actively practicedJudaism, but he did proudly identifyhimself as a Jew. As anti-Semitism took hold in Germany, Einstein’sworldwide fame contrasted with theinsults he faced in Berlin for practicing“Bolshevism [Communism] in physics.”His public support for Zionism, the right of Jews to settle in Palestine (later Israel), aroused further angeramong Nazis.

Soon after Hitler became Germany’schancellor in 1933, Einstein renouncedhis citizenship and left Germany forBelgium. Fears for his life promptedfriends to take him secretly by private

yacht to England. He later settled inPrinceton, New Jersey.

A pacifist who had opposed WorldWar I, Einstein ironically saw his scien-tific ideas applied to the creation of apowerful and destructive weapon, theatomic bomb. After the United Statesdetonated the first atomic bomb incombat over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, Einstein devoted his final years to promoting pacifism. The scientist’sgreatest legacy, however, would be the revolutionary scientific discoveries he had made in the early 1900s. AsEinstein himself had observed, “Politics are for the moment. Anequation is for eternity.”

In Vienna a Jewish child named Frederick Mortonwatched in terror that night as 10 young Nazi StormTroopers broke into his family’s apartment:

“They yanked out every drawer in every one ofour chests and cupboards, and tossed each in the air.They let the cutlery jangle across the floor, the clothesscatter, and stepped over the mess to fling the nextdrawer. . . . ‘We might be back,’ the leader said. Onthe way out he threw our mother-of-pearl ashtrayover his shoulder, like confetti. We did not speak ormove or breathe until we heard their boots againstthe pavement.”

—quoted in Facing History and Ourselves

The anti-Jewish violence that erupted throughoutGermany and Austria that night came to be calledKristallnacht, or “night of broken glass,” becausebroken glass littered the streets afterward. Whendaylight came, more than 90 Jews lay dead, hundredswere badly injured, and thousands more were terror-ized. The Nazis had forbidden police to interferewhile roving bands of thugs destroyed 7,500 Jewishbusinesses and wrecked over 180 synagogues.

The lawlessness of Kristallnacht did not end withthe dawn. Following that night of violence, theGestapo, the government’s secret police, arrested at least 20,000 wealthy Jews, releasing them only if they agreed to emigrate and surrender all their

possessions. The state also confiscated insurance pay-ments owed to Jewish owners of ruined businesses.

The week after Kristallnacht, Nazi interior ministerHermann Goering added insult to injury by finingthe Jewish community to pay for the damage.“German Jewry,” he proclaimed “shall, as punish-ment for their abominable crimes . . . have to make acontribution for one billion marks. . . . I would like tosay that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany.”

Jewish Refugees Try to Flee Kristallnacht and itsaftermath marked a significant escalation in the Nazipolicy of persecution against the Jews. Many Jews,including Frederick Morton’s family, decided that itwas time to leave and fled to the United States.Between 1933, when Hitler took power, and the startof World War II in 1939, some 350,000 Jews escapedNazi-controlled Germany. These emigrants includedprominent scientists such as Albert Einstein andbusinesspeople like Otto Frank, who resettled hisfamily in Amsterdam in 1933. Otto’s daughter AnneFrank would later keep a diary of her family’s life inhiding after the Nazis overran the Netherlands.

By 1938 the American consulate in Stuttgart,Germany, had a backlog of over 100,000 visa applica-tions from Jews trying to leave Germany and come tothe United States. Following the Nazi Anschluss,3,000 Austrian Jews each day applied for Americanvisas. Many never received visas to the United States

The Final Solution

Before the war, a Jewish family in Germany posesfor a photograph during a family outing. Few membersof this family would survive the war.

On Kristallnacht, roaming bands of thugsdestroyed Jewish property and menacedJewish families throughout Germany.

or to the other countries where they applied. As aresult, millions of Jews remained trapped in Nazi-dominated Europe.

Several factors limited Jewish immigration to theUnited States. First, Nazi orders prohibited Jews fromtaking more than about four dollars out of Germany.Second, many countries refused to accept Jewishimmigrants. In the United States, laws restrictedgranting a visa to anyone “likely to become a publiccharge.” American customs officials tended to assumethat this applied to Jews since Germany had forcedthem to leave any wealth behind. High unemploy-ment rates in the 1930s also made immigration politi-cally unpopular. Few Americans wanted to raiseimmigration quotas, even to accommodate Europeanrefugees. The existing immigration policy allowedonly a total of 150,000 immigrants annually, with afixed quota from each country. The law permitted noexceptions for refugees or victims of persecution.

At an international conference on refugees in 1938,several European countries, the United States, andLatin America stated their regret that they could nottake in more of Germany’s Jews without raising theirimmigration quotas. Meanwhile, Nazi propagandachief Joseph Goebbels announced that “if there is anycountry that believes it has not enough Jews, I shallgladly turn over to it all our Jews.” Hitler also declaredhimself “ready to put all these criminals at the dis-posal of these countries . . . even on luxury ships.”

As war loomed in 1939, many ships departed fromGermany crammed with Jews desperate to escape.Some of their visas, however, had been forged or soldillegally, and Mexico, Paraguay, Argentina, and CostaRica all denied access to Jews with such documents.So too did the United States.

On May 27, 1939, the SS St. Louis entered the har-bor in Havana, Cuba, with 930 Jewish refugees onboard. Most of these passengers hoped to go to theUnited States eventually, but they had certificatesimproperly issued by Cuba’s director of immigra-tion giving them permission to land in Cuba. Whenthe ships arrived in Havana, the Cuban government,partly in response to anti-Semitic sentiment stirredup by Nazi propaganda, revoked the certificates andrefused to let the refugees come ashore. For severaldays, the ship’s captain steered his ship in circles offthe coast of Florida, awaiting official permission todock at a United States port. Denied such permis-sion, the ship turned back toward Europe on June 6.The forlorn passengers finally disembarked inFrance, Holland, Belgium, and Great Britain. Withintwo years, the first three of these countries fell underNazi domination. Many of the refugees brought tothese countries aboard the SS St. Louis perished inthe Nazis’ “final solution.”

Analyzing Why did many Jewsremain in Germany even though they were persecuted?

Reading Check

The Final Solution

After the war broke out, the Nazis methodically deprived Jews oftheir rights, confining many to overcrowded ghettos. After weeks offierce resistance, Jews in the Warsaw ghetto were rounded up fordeportation to concentration camps in May 1943.

The Final Solution On January 20, 1942, 15 Nazi leaders met at the

Wannsee Conference, held in a Berlin suburb, todetermine the “final solution of the Jewish question.”Previous “solutions” had included rounding upJews, Gypsies, and Slavs from conquered areas,shooting them, and piling them into mass graves.Another method required forcing Jews and other“undesirables” into trucks and then piping inexhaust fumes to kill them. These methods, however,had proven too slow and inefficient for the Nazis.

At Wannsee, the Nazis made plans to round upJews from the vast areas of Nazi-controlled Europeand take them to detention centers known asconcentration camps. There, healthy individualswould work as slave laborers until they droppeddead of exhaustion, disease, or malnutrition. Mostothers, including the elderly, the infirm, and youngchildren, would be sent to extermination camps,attached to many of the concentration camps, to beexecuted in massive gas chambers.

Concentration Camps The Nazis had establishedtheir first concentration camps in 1933 to jail politicalopponents. After the war began, the Nazis built con-centration camps throughout Europe.

Buchenwald, one of the first and largest concentra-tion camps, was built near the town of Weimar in

Germany in 1937. During its operation, over 200,000prisoners worked 12-hour shifts as slave laborers innearby factories. Though Buchenwald had no gaschambers, hundreds of prisoners died there everymonth as a result of exhaustion and the horrible liv-ing conditions.

Leon Bass, a young American soldier, describedviewing a barracks in Buchenwald at the end of thewar. Built to hold 50 people, the room had housedmore than 150, with bunks built almost to the ceiling.Bass recalled:

“I looked at a bottom bunk and there I saw oneman. He was too weak to get up; he could just barelyturn his head. He was skin and bones. He looked likea skeleton; and his eyes were deep set. He didn’tutter a sound; he just looked at me with those eyes,and they still haunt me today.”

—quoted in Facing History and Ourselves

Extermination Camps After the Wannsee Confer-ence, the Nazis built extermination facilities in anumber of the concentration camps, mostly inPoland, to kill Jews more efficiently. At these camps,including the infamous Treblinka and Auschwitz,Jews were the Nazis’ main victims. Auschwitz alonehoused about 100,000 people in 300 prison barracks.Its gas chambers, built to kill 2,000 people at a time,sometimes gassed 12,000 people in a day. Of the

By 1943 the Nazis had started implementing theirplans to exterminate the Jews. The system of ghettoswas abandoned in favor of herding men, women, andchildren onto cattle cars for transport to death camps.

When the war ended, Allied troops managedto liberate the few surviving inmates of thedeath camps—many of whom were tooshocked to believe they were being freed.

estimated 1,600,000 people who died at Auschwitz,about 1,300,000 were Jews. The other 300,000 werePoles, Soviet prisoners-of-war, and Gypsies.

Upon arrival at Auschwitz, healthy prisoners suchas Mira Ryczke were selected for slave labor. Elderlyor disabled people, the sick, and mothers and childrenwent immediately to the gas chambers, after whichtheir bodies were burned in giant crematoriums. Inher memoirs, Ryczke described “columns of peoplemarching slowly toward the gas chambers” and “thehorrible stench in the air—the smell of burning humanflesh. I have never forgotten that smell.”

In only a few years, Jewishculture, which had existed inEurope for over 1,000 years,had been virtually obliteratedby the Nazis in the lands theyconquered. Despite exhaustivedebate, there is still great con-troversy about why and how

an event so horrifying as the Holocaust could haveoccurred. No consensus has been reached, but mosthistorians point to a number of factors: the Germanpeople’s sense of injury after World War I; severe eco-nomic problems; Hitler’s control over the Germannation; the lack of a strong tradition of representativegovernment in Germany; German fear of Hitler’ssecret police; and a long history of anti-Jewish preju-dice and discrimination in Europe.

Summarizing What methods didHitler use to try to exterminate Europe’s Jewish population?

Reading Check

Writing About History

Checking for Understanding1. Define: Holocaust, concentration camp,

extermination camp.2. Identify: Shoah, Nuremberg Laws,

Wannsee Conference.3. List the groups of people who were

persecuted by the Nazis.

Reviewing Themes4. Civic Rights and Responsibilities Do

you think the German people or othernations could have prevented theHolocaust? Why or why not?

Critical Thinking5. Analyzing What are some factors that

attempt to explain the Holocaust?6. Organizing Use a graphic organizer

similar to the one below to list themethods used to try to exterminateEurope’s Jewish population.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Photographs Study the

photographs of the Final Solution onpages 721–723. How do the photo-graphs show the systematic destructionof Jewish life?

ExterminationMethods

724 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

N

SE

W

200 kilometers0Lambert AzimuthalEqual-Area projection

200 miles0

0° 20°E

50°N

NorthSea

Adriatic Sea

BlackSea

BalticSea

FRANCE90,000

BELGIUM40,000

NETHERLANDS105,000

DENMARK500

GERMANY ANDAUSTRIA210,000

CZECHOSLOVAKIA155,000

POLAND3,000,000

ITALY8,000

YUGOSLAVIA26,000

HUNGARY450,000

BULGARIA14,000

ROMANIA300,000

UKRAINIANS.S.R.

900,000

BYELORUSSIANS.S.R.245,000

RUSSIANS.S.R.107,000

BALTICSTATES228,000

GREECE54,000

Jewish Losses, 1939–1945

1. Interpreting Maps What country hadthe highest number of Jews in its popu-lation killed?

2. Applying Geography Skills A rela-tively low percentage of Italy’s Jewishpopulation died in the Holocaust. Fromthis information, how would you com-pare Fascists and Nazis in terms oftheir Jewish policies?

83–9065–77

Percentage of JewishPopulation Annihilated

50–6011–26

Number of Jewskilled under Naziracial policies

FRANCE90,000

8. Descriptive Writing Take on the roleof a person living in Germany duringKristallnacht. Write a diary entry describ-ing that night. Include a description ofthe events during the days followingKristallnacht.

estimated 1,600,000 people who died at Auschwitz,about 1,300,000 were Jews. The other 300,000 werePoles, Soviet prisoners-of-war, and Gypsies.

Upon arrival at Auschwitz, healthy prisoners suchas Mira Ryczke were selected for slave labor. Elderlyor disabled people, the sick, and mothers and childrenwent immediately to the gas chambers, after whichtheir bodies were burned in giant crematoriums. Inher memoirs, Ryczke described “columns of peoplemarching slowly toward the gas chambers” and “thehorrible stench in the air—the smell of burning humanflesh. I have never forgotten that smell.”

In only a few years, Jewishculture, which had existed inEurope for over 1,000 years,had been virtually obliteratedby the Nazis in the lands theyconquered. Despite exhaustivedebate, there is still great con-troversy about why and how

an event so horrifying as the Holocaust could haveoccurred. No consensus has been reached, but mosthistorians point to a number of factors: the Germanpeople’s sense of injury after World War I; severe eco-nomic problems; Hitler’s control over the Germannation; the lack of a strong tradition of representativegovernment in Germany; German fear of Hitler’ssecret police; and a long history of anti-Jewish preju-dice and discrimination in Europe.

Summarizing What methods didHitler use to try to exterminate Europe’s Jewish population?

Reading Check

Writing About History

Checking for Understanding1. Define: Holocaust, concentration camp,

extermination camp.2. Identify: Shoah, Nuremberg Laws,

Wannsee Conference.3. List the groups of people who were

persecuted by the Nazis.

Reviewing Themes4. Civic Rights and Responsibilities Do

you think the German people or othernations could have prevented theHolocaust? Why or why not?

Critical Thinking5. Analyzing What are some factors that

attempt to explain the Holocaust?6. Organizing Use a graphic organizer

similar to the one below to list themethods used to try to exterminateEurope’s Jewish population.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Photographs Study the

photographs of the Final Solution onpages 721–723. How do the photo-graphs show the systematic destructionof Jewish life?

ExterminationMethods

724 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

N

SE

W

200 kilometers0Lambert AzimuthalEqual-Area projection

200 miles0

0° 20°E

50°N

NorthSea

Adriatic Sea

BlackSea

BalticSea

FRANCE90,000

BELGIUM40,000

NETHERLANDS105,000

DENMARK500

GERMANY ANDAUSTRIA210,000

CZECHOSLOVAKIA155,000

POLAND3,000,000

ITALY8,000

YUGOSLAVIA26,000

HUNGARY450,000

BULGARIA14,000

ROMANIA300,000

UKRAINIANS.S.R.

900,000

BYELORUSSIANS.S.R.245,000

RUSSIANS.S.R.107,000

BALTICSTATES228,000

GREECE54,000

Jewish Losses, 1939–1945

1. Interpreting Maps What country hadthe highest number of Jews in its popu-lation killed?

2. Applying Geography Skills A rela-tively low percentage of Italy’s Jewishpopulation died in the Holocaust. Fromthis information, how would you com-pare Fascists and Nazis in terms oftheir Jewish policies?

83–9065–77

Percentage of JewishPopulation Annihilated

50–6011–26

Number of Jewskilled under Naziracial policies

FRANCE90,000

8. Descriptive Writing Take on the roleof a person living in Germany duringKristallnacht. Write a diary entry describ-ing that night. Include a description ofthe events during the days followingKristallnacht.

September 1940FDR makes destroyers-for-basesdeal with Britain

December 7, 1941, dawned like any other Sunday in Hawaii, where teenager DanielInouye lived with his family. Like other Americans who lived through the experience, Inouyewould never forget what he was doing the moment American isolationism ended:

“As soon as I finished brushing my teeth and pulled on my trousers, I automatically clickedon the little radio that stood on the shelf above my bed. I remember that I was buttoning myshirt and looking out the window . . . when the hum of the warming set gave way to a frenziedvoice. ‘This is no test,’ the voice cried out. ‘Pearl Harbor is being bombed by the Japanese!’”

The Inouye family ran outside and gazed toward the naval base at Pearl Harbor:

“And then we saw the planes. They came zooming up out of that sea of gray smoke, flyingnorth toward where we stood and climbing into the bluest part of the sky, and they came intwos and threes, in neat formations, and if it hadn’t been for that red ball on their wings, therising sun of the Japanese Empire, you could easily believe that they were Americans, flyingover in precise military salute.”

—quoted in Eyewitness to America

FDR Supports England The Japanese attack surprised many Americans. Most people had believed that

Germany posed the greatest danger. What Americans did not realize was that the causesof the Japanese attack could be traced back more than two years to President Roosevelt’spolicies for helping Britain against Germany.

America Enters the War

Main IdeaAfter World War II began, the UnitedStates attempted to continue its prewarpolicy of neutrality.

Key Terms and NamesAmerica First Committee, Lend-Lease Act,hemispheric defense zone, AtlanticCharter, strategic materials

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about theefforts of the United States to stay neutralin the war, complete a graphic organizersimilar to the one below by naming twoevents that shifted American opiniontoward helping the Allies.

Reading Objectives• Explain how Roosevelt helped Britain

while maintaining official neutrality.• Trace the events that led to increasing

tensions, and ultimately war, betweenthe United States and Japan.

Section ThemeIndividual Action Even while the UnitedStates was officially neutral, PresidentRoosevelt found ways to help the Britishfight Germany.

March 1941Congress passesLend-Lease Act

August 1941Roosevelt and Churchillsign Atlantic Charter

October 1941Germans sinkReuben James

CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames 725

December 7, 1941Japan attacks PearlHarbor

Daniel Inouye after joining the U.S. Army’s

442nd Infantry

Events That Shifted AmericanOpinion

✦ September 1940 ✦ March 1941 ✦ August 1941 ✦ December 1941

The Neutrality Act of 1939 President Rooseveltofficially proclaimed the United States neutral twodays after Britain and France declared war onGermany. Despite this declaration, he was deter-mined to do all he could to help the two countries in their struggle against Hitler. Soon after the warbegan, Roosevelt called Congress into a specialsession to revise the neutrality laws. He askedCongress to eliminate the ban on arms sales tonations at war. Public opinion strongly supported the president. Congress passed the new law, butisolationists demanded a price for the revision.Under the Neutrality Act of 1939, warring nationscould buy weapons from the United States only if they paid cash and carried the arms on their own ships.

Destroyers-for-Bases Deal In the spring of 1940,the United States faced its first test in remainingneutral. In May British Prime Minister WinstonChurchill began asking Roosevelt to transfer oldAmerican destroyers to Britain. Britain had lostnearly half its destroyers and needed more to protectits cargo ships from German submarines and to blockany German attempt to invade Britain.

Determined to give Churchill the destroyers,Roosevelt used a loophole in the provision of theNeutrality Act that required cash for purchases. Inexchange for the right to build American bases onBritish-controlled Newfoundland, Bermuda, andislands in the Caribbean, Roosevelt sent 50 oldAmerican destroyers to Britain. Since the deal did notinvolve an actual sale, the Neutrality Act did notapply. On September 3, 1940, he announced hisaction to an astonished press.

Examining How were the NeutralityActs revised?

The Isolationist DebateWidespread public acceptance of the destroyers-

for-bases deal demonstrated a marked change inAmerican public opinion. The shift began after theGerman invasion of France and the rescue of Alliedforces at Dunkirk. By July 1940 most Americansfavored offering limited aid to the Allies.

The Range of Opinion American opinion washardly unanimous. In fact, beginning in the spring of1940, a spirited debate took place between peoplewho wanted greater American involvement in WorldWar II and those who felt that the United Statesshould remain neutral.

At one extreme was the Fight for Freedom Com-mittee, a group which urged the repeal of all neutral-ity laws and wanted stronger action against Germany.Closer to the center, the Committee to DefendAmerica by Aiding the Allies, headed by journalistWilliam Allen White, pressed for increased Americanaid to the Allies but opposed armed intervention.

Roosevelt’s destroyers-for-bases deal led to the founding of the America First Committee, astaunchly isolationist group that firmly opposedany American intervention or aid to the Allies. Thegroup had many famous members, including avi-ator Charles Lindbergh, former governor PhilipLaFollette, and Senator Gerald Nye.

The Election of 1940 The heated debate over neu-trality took place in the midst of the 1940 presidentialelection campaign. For months Americans had won-dered whether President Roosevelt would followlong-standing tradition by retiring at the end of hissecond term. With the United States in a precariousposition, a change of leaders might not be in thecountry’s best interest. Roosevelt decided to run foran unprecedented third term.

Reading Check

726 CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames

Peace Above All Many Americans were willing to help European democra-cies but did not want to sell them arms. In what ways did the United Statesassist these nations?

Analyzing Political Cartoons

During the campaign, FDR steered a carefulcourse between neutrality and intervention. TheRepublican nominee, Wendell Willkie, did the same,promising that he too would stay out of the war butassist the Allies. The voters re-elected Roosevelt by awide margin, preferring to stick with a president theyknew during this crisis period.

Analyzing Why did Roosevelt winan unprecedented third term in office?

Edging Toward WarWith the election safely over, Roosevelt expanded

the nation’s role in the war. Britain was fighting fordemocracy, he said, and the United States had tohelp. Speaking to Congress, he listed the “FourFreedoms” for which both the United States andGreat Britain stood: freedom of speech, freedom ofworship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.; (See page 1075 for an excerpt from this speech.)

The Lend-Lease Act By December 1940, GreatBritain had run out of funds to wage its war againstGermany. President Roosevelt came up with a way toremove the cash requirement of the Neutrality Act.With the Lend-Lease Act, the United States would beable to lend or lease arms to any country considered“vital to the defense of the United States.” This actmeant that the United States could send weapons toBritain if Britain promised to return or pay rent forthem after the war.

The president warned that if Britain fell, an“unholy alliance” of Germany, Japan, and Italywould keep trying to conquer the world, and then“all of us in all the Americas would be living at thepoint of a gun.” The president argued that the UnitedStates should become the “great arsenal of democ-racy” to keep the British fighting and make it unnec-essary for Americans to go to war.

The America First Committee disagreed, butCongress passed the Lend-Lease Act by a wide mar-gin. By the time the program ended, the United Stateshad contributed more than $40 billion in weapons,vehicles, and other supplies to the Allied war effort.

While shipments of supplies to Britain began atonce, lend-lease aid eventually went to the SovietUnion as well. After calling off the invasion ofBritain, Hitler returned to his original goal of carvingout lebensraum for Germany in eastern Europe. InJune 1941, in violation of the Nazi-Soviet pact, Hitlerlaunched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union.Although Churchill detested communism and

considered Stalin a harsh dictator, he vowed that anyperson or state “who fights against Nazism will haveour aid.” Roosevelt, too, supported this policy.

The Hemispheric Defense Zone Congressionalapproval of the Lend-Lease Act did not solve theproblem of how to get American arms and supplies toBritain. German submarines patrolling the AtlanticOcean were sinking hundreds of thousands of tons ofshipping each month, and the British navy simply didnot have enough ships in the Atlantic to stop them.

Roosevelt could not simply order the U.S. Navy toprotect British cargo ships, since the United Stateswas still technically neutral. Instead, he developedthe idea of a hemispheric defense zone. Rooseveltdeclared that the entire western half of the Atlanticwas part of the Western Hemisphere and thereforeneutral. He then ordered the U.S. Navy to patrol thewestern Atlantic and reveal the location of Germansubmarines to the British.

The Atlantic Charter In August 1941 Roosevelt andChurchill met face-to-face on board American andBritish warships anchored near Newfoundland.During these meetings, the two men agreed on thetext of the Atlantic Charter. It committed the two

Reading Check

Neutrality Debate The America First Committee strongly opposed theincreasingly weak neutrality of the United States. Here an American soldierconfronts an isolationist marching outside the White House. How didthe Lend-Lease Act further weaken the nation’sofficial neutrality?

History

2

13

4

Haleiwa Field

Wheeler Field7:51, 9:10 A.M.

Ewa Marine CorpsAir Station

7:53, 9:05 A.M.

KaneoheNaval Air Station

7:53, 8:55 A.M.

Bellows Field8:30, 9:00 A.M.

Hickam Field7:55, 9:05 A.M.

Ford IslandNaval Air Station

7:55, 9:02 A.M.

Battleship Row

Opana radar station

O A H U

Diamond Head

Pearl Harbor

Kaena Point Kahuku Point

Waialua

Kaneohe

Kailua

Wahiawa

Kahuku

Laie

PearlCity

Waipahu

Ewa Beach

Nanakuli

Waianae

Honolulu

FIRST WFIRST WAVEVE

SECONDSECONDWAVEVE

PaCIFICOCEaN

N

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First wave of Japanese aircraft

Second wave of Japanese aircraft

Radar site

Airfield attacked

7:51 A.M. Time of initial attack (First wave)

Time of initial attack (Second wave)

8:55 A.M.

Airfield

Town

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941

leaders to a postwar world of democracy, non-aggression, free trade, economic advancement, andfreedom of the seas. Churchill later said that FDRpledged to “force an ‘incident’ . . . which would jus-tify him in opening hostilities” with Germany.

An incident quickly presented itself. In earlySeptember a German U-boat fired on the Americandestroyer Greer, which had been radioing the U-boat’s position to the British. Roosevelt promptlyresponded by ordering American ships to follow a“shoot-on-sight” policy toward German submarines.

The Germans escalated hostilities the followingmonth, targeting two American destroyers. One ofthem, the Reuben James, broke in two after being tor-pedoed. It sank into the frigid waters of the NorthAtlantic, where 115 sailors died. As the end of 1941grew near, Germany and the United States continueda tense standoff in the North Atlantic.

Evaluating How did the Lend-LeaseAct help the Allied war effort?

Japan Attacks the United StatesDespite the growing tensions in the Atlantic, the

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was what finallybrought the United States into World War II.Ironically, Japan’s decision to attack the United Stateswas a direct result of Roosevelt’s efforts to helpBritain in its war against Germany.

America Embargoes Japan Between August 1939and December 1941, Roosevelt’s primary goal wasto help Britain and its allies defeat Germany. Heknew that one of the problems Britain faced was theneed to keep much of its navy in Asia to protectBritish territories there from Japanese attack. AsGerman submarines began sinking British ship-ping, the British began moving warships fromSoutheast Asia to the Atlantic, leaving their empirevulnerable. In response, Roosevelt introduced poli-cies to discourage the Japanese from attacking theBritish Empire.

Reading Check

CHAPTER 24 A World in Flames 729

Roosevelt began by putting economic pressure onJapan. Japan depended on the United States for manykey materials, including scrap iron, steel, and espe-cially oil. Approximately 80 percent of Japan’s oilcame from the United States. In July 1940, Congresspassed the Export Control Act, giving Roosevelt thepower to restrict the sale of strategic materials(materials important for fighting a war) to othernations. Roosevelt immediately blocked the sale ofairplane fuel and scrap iron to Japan. Furious, theJapanese signed an alliance with Germany and Italy,formally becoming a member of the Axis.

In 1941 Roosevelt began sending lend-lease aid toChina. Japan had invaded China in 1937, and by1941, it controlled much of the Chinese coast.Roosevelt hoped that lend-lease aid would enable theChinese to tie down the Japanese and prevent themfrom attacking elsewhere. The strategy failed. By July1941, the Japanese had sent troops into southernIndochina, posing a direct threat to the BritishEmpire. Japanese aircraft were now in position to

strike British shipping in theStrait of Malacca and bombHong Kong and Singapore.

Roosevelt responded veryquickly to the Japanese threat.He froze all Japanese assets inthe United States, reduced theamount of oil being shippedto Japan, and sent GeneralDouglas MacArthur to thePhilippines to build upAmerican defenses there.

Roosevelt made it clearthat he would lift the oilembargo only if Japan withdrew from Indochina andmade peace with China. With the war against Chinanow in jeopardy because of a lack of oil and otherresources, the Japanese military began making plansto attack the resource-rich British and Dutch coloniesin Southeast Asia. They also decided to seize thePhilippines and to attack the American fleet at PearlHarbor. They could not risk leaving the United Stateswith a navy in the Pacific to oppose their plans. Whilethe Japanese prepared for war, negotiations with theUnited States continued, but neither side would backdown. On November 26, 1941, six Japanese aircraftcarriers, two battleships, and several other warshipsset sail for Hawaii.

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor The Japanese govern-ment appeared to be continuing negotiations withthe United States in good faith. American intelli-gence, however, had decoded Japanese communica-tions that made it clear that Japan was preparing togo to war against the United States.

On November 27, American commanders at thePearl Harbor naval base received a war warningfrom Washington, but Hawaii was not mentioned asa possible target. It was a great distance from Japan to

Hawaii, and Washington officials doubtedJ