Essay --

World War II was perhaps the most destructive war to plague the earth. The war took an unfathomable amount of lives some 17 million soldiers and a countless number of innocent civilians who died as a result of starvation and bombings, or Hitler's deliberate campaigns of mass murder through concentration camps. World War I helped to create some of the conditions that lead to the Second World War. The Treaty of Versailles was a peace agreement that was signed and took away the Central Powers of territory and arms from Germany, Austria, Turkey, Hungary, and Bulgaria. This left them with very heavy wartime reparations that needed to be paid, causing much bitterness. The war took a heavy toll on European economies and also helped with the unfortunate coming of the Great Depression. The Treaty also disappointed both Italy and Japan as Victors of the war. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, set the stage for the United States entrance into the war. The surprise attack on the United States Navy by Japanese forces was intended as a preventative action in order to keep the US Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Almost at the same time, Japanese warplanes attack the Philippines and two U.S. islands: Wake and Guam, which are later occupied. Japanese troops invade Malaya and Thailand and seize Shanghai. Later in December Japanese troops invade Burma and Hong Kong. The United States declared war on Japan the following day, December 8, 1941. Japan entered into a war against the two most powerful navies in the world, the United States and Britain. Three da... ... a base for an expected invasion of Japan. US forces win in July and the US liberates Manila, Philippines after deadly and fierce street battles. Back over in Europe, US troops successfully cross the Rhine River and the Air Force use about 1,250 planes to lead the heaviest air raid against Berlin. The War in Europe is winding down and by April of 1945, the leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, commits suicide, and by May, Germany surrenders. The United States is still at war with Japan and so on August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima and the second on August 9, 1945 on Nagasaki, killing well over 100, 000 people and causing the Japanese to surrender on August 14, 1945. The war ushered in the atomic age and was quickly followed by the collapse of the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Cold War.