World War II

Facts, information and articles about World War II, 1939-

1945

USS Arizona Pearl Harbor

World War II Facts

Dates
September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945

Location
Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean and Northern Africa.

Commanders
Allies:

Joseph Stalin
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston Churchill
Chiang Kai-shek
Charles de Gaulle

Axis:
Adolf Hitler
Hirohito
Benito Mussolini

Outcome
Allied Victory

Results
End of German Third Reich
United States and Russia become global superpowers
Founding of the United Nations

World War II
World War II summary: The carnage of World War II was unprecedented and brought the world
closest to the term “total warfare.” On average 27,000 people were killed each day between
September 1, 1939, until the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. Western technological
advances had turned upon itself, bringing about the most destructive war in human history. The
primary combatants were the Axis nations of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and the
Allied nations, Great Britain (and its Commonwealth nations), the Soviet Union, and the United
States. Seven days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 7,
1945. The Japanese would go on to fight for nearly four more months until their surrender on
September 2, which was brought on by the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese towns of
Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Despite winning the war, Britain largely lost much of its empire, which
was outlined in the basis of the Atlantic Charter. The war precipitated the revival of the U.S.
economy, and by the war’s end, the nation would have a gross national product that was nearly
greater than all the Allied and Axis powers combined. The USA and USSR emerged from World
War II as global superpowers. The fundamentally disparate, one-time allies became engaged in what
was to be called the Cold War, which dominated world politics for the latter half of the 20th century.

Casualties in World War II

The most destructive war in all of history, its exact cost in human lives is unknown, but casualties in
World War II may have totaled over 60 million service personnel and civilians killed. Nations
suffering the highest losses, military and civilian, in descending order, are:
USSR: 42,000,000
Germany: 9,000,000
China: 4,000,000
Japan: 3,000,000

When did World War II begin?

Some say it was simply a continuation of the First World War that had theoretically ended in 1918.
Others point to 1931, when Japan seized Manchuria from China. Others to Italy’s invasion and defeat
of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, Adolf Hitler’s re-militarization of Germany’s Rhineland in 1936, the
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 are
sometimes cited. The two dates most often mentioned as “the beginning of World War II” are July 7,
1937, when the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident” led to a prolonged war between Japan and China, and
September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, which led Britain and France to declare war on
Hitler’s Nazi state in retaliation. From the invasion of Poland until the war ended with Japan’s
surrender in September 1945, most nations around the world were engaged in armed combat.

Origins of World War II

No one historic event can be said to have been the origin of World War II. Japan’s unexpected
victory over czarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) left open the door for Japanese
expansion in Asia and the Pacific. The United States U.S. Navy first developed plans in preparation
for a naval war with Japan in 1890. War Plan Orange, as it was called, would be updated continually
as technology advanced and greatly aided the U.S. during World War II.

The years between the first and second world wars were a time of instability. The Great Depression
that began on Black Tuesday, 1929 plunged the worldwide recession. Coming to power in 1933,
Hitler capitalized on this economic decline and the deep German resentment due to the emasculating
Treaty of Versailles, signed following the armistice of 1918. Declaring that Germany
needed Lebensraum or “living space,” Hitler began to test the Western powers and their willingness
to monitor the treaty’s provision. By 1935 Hitler had established the Luftwaffe, a direct violation of
the 1919 treaty. Remilitarizing the Rhineland in 1936 violated Versailles and the Locarno Treaties
(which defined the borders of Europe) once again. The Anschluss of Austria and the annexation of
the rump of Czechoslovakia was a further extension of Hitler’s desire for Lebensraum. Italy’s desire
to create the Third Rome pushed the nation to closer ties with Nazi Germany. Likewise, Japan,
angered by their exclusion in Paris in 1919, sought to create a Pan-Asian sphere with Japan in order
to create a self-sufficient state.

Competing ideologies further fanned the flames of international tension. The Bolshevik Revolution
in czarist Russia during the First World War, followed by the Russian Civil War, had established the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a sprawling communist state. Western republics and
capitalists feared the spread of Bolshevism. In some nations, such as Italy, Germany and Romania,
ultra-conservative groups rose to power, in part in reaction to communism.

Germany, Italy and Japan signed agreements of mutual support but, unlike the Allied nations they
would face, they never developed a comprehensive or coordinated plan of action.