Now the big question, was World War 2 just? When you look at the war and how the United States stayed out of it for years until provoked most would say it was justified. This war was only one of a select few wars in American history that the United States was not eager to join. In the years leading up to America joining there were many conflicts already in progress and so when the United States joined it was out of pure necessity. I think that when you look at the conflict with Germany it becomes a little less black and white as to how just it was. It was just because if the United States had not started fighting the Germans and the Germans took control of Europe then they would have switched their focus on America and by that time they would have conquered many of their main enemies which meant they could have focused their power on us. When America declared war on Japan they knew that that was also a declaration of war on the rest of the Axis Powers which meant taking on more than just one country. This was certainly the right decision for the United States not only was it legal as far as terms of war but also it was justified.
This war took place in Europe, Russia, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, India, the Middle East, and South East Asia. WW2 was a very expansive war that took place across many fronts all around the world. It started on September 3, 1939, with an unprovoked attack on Poland from Germany, this caused the Prime Minister of Britain to declare war on Germany. The United States joined on December 7, 1941, when Japan launched an attack on the Naval base Pearl Harbor. This was a welcomed change by the people of the United States but there are a few people who disagree.
Germany and Britain were not the only countries in the war others included, Italy, Japan, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, and China. There were two main groups in WW2, they were the Allies and the Axis Powers. On the Allies side, there was The Soviet Union, China, Great Britain, France, and the United States. On the Axis Powers side, there was Germany, Italy, and Japan. Something intriguing about this war for America is that they made it clear that they were confident in their military abilities which is not something previously demonstrated in many other wars. This is because when they declared war on Japan they knew that that was also a declaration of war on the rest of the Axis Powers which meant taking on more than just one country. This was certainly the right decision for the United States.
World War 2 was a very different war in many senses. For one simply the scale of the war is unmatched in history and up to this very day. This war resulted in the death of over 70,000,000 people. This war was also where atomic bombs were created and implemented for the first time. There were also new battle techniques implemented such as Blitzkrieg, a German technique also known as lightning war, that was meant to bring quick defeat in the form of overwhelming ground power backed up by air strikes. This may sound terrifying but almost none of it had reached the citizens of the United States before Japan bombed Pearl Habor. This is why we had to join the war because if we hadn't then millions of innocent civilians would have been under siege in their own homes on American soil.
One of the biggest problems for the Allies in this war was how Germany and Japan were spreading rapidly and attempting to grow their countries. This was a huge problem for not only people near Germany and Japan but for countries around the world. An obvious example of this is the attack on Pearl Harbor which was an attack on America from Japan that was meant to render the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japan taking over countries.
At the time of the Pearl Habor attack the president, Franklin D Roosevelt, was not open about joining the war without reason. This is because most people were not in favor of sending Americans to foreign countries where they would lose their lives without a cause. When Pearl Habor happened Roosevelt used the opportunity to unite the country behind one cause and send troops to defend our nation.
Senate voted 82-0 and 388-1 in the House. The only person to vote against the war was Jeannette Rankin because she believed that if she couldn't go to war with her being a woman then she shouldn't send others to war. This shows that there was really no controversy with declaring war on Japan. When the United States declared war on Germany it was voted 88-0. This is important because of the fact that so many people were in support of this war shows that for people at this time the idea of the need to go to war was almost a given. It is important to know how people felt then because we won't fully know if it was just or not if we can't understand the circumstances people were under and how they felt. This is important because if the vast majority of the country felt that we shouldn't go to war then there would be a stronger case for the war being unjust, but without that aspect, it was just.
Why was America was fighting Germany? This may seem obvious at first because they were killing millions of people, but that had been going on for a couple of years by the time America joined and so there has to be a different answer. The reason America started to focus on Germany is that when Japan attacked America they needed to put down their fist to ensure that the attack on Pearl Harbor would not be seen as acceptable by the Axis Powers this lead to America declaring war on Japan who was an ally of Germany. Hitler had been wanting to start a war with America because he hated Roosevelt and America was already attacking German U-boats. Hitler also thought that Japan was stronger than it really was according to history.com and had expected them to be able to conquer the United States. The United States and the rest of the Allied powers eventually ended the war in D-day which was an invasion on the coast of Normandy the ended in the death of Hitler.
Latin America is a little talked about subject when it comes to World War 2 but nonetheless, it was just as important as any other place. Latin America was mainly a neutral country throughout WW2 which was risky because the United States needed to, at minimum, keep them neutral since they used the Panama Canal as a way to increase war goods production and for defenses. On top of that, the United States used Latin America as a base for fighting Germany and Italy in Africa since Latin America provided the closest point in the Americas to Africa. This is where the Good Neighbor Policy came into play because once WW2 started many of the Latin American countries joined the Allies which meant we could utilize those assets. The Good Neighbor Policy basically said that the United States would participate in reciprocal trading with Latin America which became important during WW2 since Latin America mainly traded with Europe and that trade was cut off by the war which meant we had to work together. This policy was not created as a result of war but it did change the course of the war indirectly.
Not only was this war just in terms of revenge and standing our ground but it was also completely legal. President Roosevelt went to Congress to ask for permission to go to war and they said yes, overwhelmingly. The Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war and the Commander in Chief to command the military, this is exactly what happened and therefore this war was completely legal.
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