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The U.S. bombed the Japanese town of Hiroshima with an atomic bomb.

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Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Causes, Impact & Lives Lost

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On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, immediately killing 80,000 people. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.

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D-day was one of the bloodiest battles in history.

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Home | D-Day | June 6, 1944 | The United States Army

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The U.S. Army remembers June 6, 1944: The World War II D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.

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The Great Migration of African Americans-51

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The Great Migration of African Americans-51

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The Cold War was a 45-year struggle that claimed millions of lives.

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The Grand Alliance that emerged victorious did not last long, because soon the world was involved in the Cold War.

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The Grand Alliance is the name given to the anti-Axis coalition of nations headed by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union during World War II. This wartime collaboration of the three nations not only presented a united front against Nazi Germany (the Soviets did not declare war on Japan until August 8, 1945) and deliberated on military strategy but also helped create the geopolitical power structure of the postwar world. A product of the common need to defeat Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, the Alliance was troubled from the beginning by a history of American and British discord with the Soviet Union and by divergent worldviews and war aims. Disagreements between the Soviet Union on the one hand and the United States and Britain on the other as the war drew to an end led to the dissolution of the partnership and the onset of the cold war.

The Grand Alliance had its origins in the development of strong Anglo-American relations beginning in 1939. In August 1941, American president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill met and produced the Atlantic Charter, which outlined war aims and principles. A number of other events paved the way for the Soviets to join the United States and Great Britain in the alliance. Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, allowing the three nations to unite against their common Nazi enemy and opening the opportunity for the United States to provide the Soviets with assistance under the Lend-Lease Act. With Soviet endorsement of the Atlantic Charter and American entrance into the war in December 1941, the Grand Alliance was formed. The partners made the defeat of Nazi Germany their top priority, both because the Allies agreed that Hitler posed the greatest danger and because the

Soviet Union had concluded a neutrality agreement with Japan in April 1941, which it did not formally abrogate until August 1945.

Throughout the war, the Allies consulted each other in a series of conferences to decide on both military strategy and how to reconstruct the global order in Europe and Asia. These conferences allowed the Allies to coordinate their military efforts, but also illuminated key issues producing conflict in the alliance both during and after the war. From the beginning, moreover, suspicions and tensions going back to the formation of the Soviet Union in 1917, divergent war aims, and ideological differences between the democracies and the totalitarian-communist USSR strained the alliance.

Initially, the opening of a second ERont in western Europe proved to be the most significant issue for the Grand Alliance, and it remained a source of suspicion and resentment for the Soviets. The German invasion of the Soviet Union had inflicted catastrophic destruction and loss of human life, and the Soviets badly wanted immediate relief on the eastern front. Stalin began to demand a second front as early as 1942, but the Americans and especially the British, concerned about their own military readiness, resisted early attempts to open the second front. Finally, in late 1943 at the Teheran Coneerence, Roosevelt sided with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin against Churchill in favor of opening the second front in the spring of 1944. For Roosevelt, a central priority, to which he eventually won Stalin's agreement, was the formation of the United Nations as a guardian of international peace and a forum for continued big-power cooperation.

Throughout the war, a shifting balance of power among the members of the Grand Alliance also affected their deliberations. As the ravages of war left the British bankrupt and diminished their stature as a global power, Soviet-American relations became increasingly important as a priority for Roosevelt, sometimes even at the cost of relations with Churchill. This situation did not substantially harm the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States, built on a foundation of shared democratic ideals and values, and both the British and Americans found that their dealings with the Soviets were often marked by mutual suspicion and mistrust. Indeed, the United States did not even inform the Soviets about the Manhattan Project that produced the atomic bomb, while including the British in developing and discussing the new weapon.

Despite tensions, the members of the Grand Alliance appeared willing to try to work through their differences to create a peaceful, postwar geopolitical structure. But disagreements within the Alliance were plain at the Yalta Coneerence of early 1945, with the defeat of Germany in sight and questions about the postwar world becoming more pressing by the day. At Yalta, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin gathered for what proved to be the last time to discuss the terms of German surrender, the postwar status of eastern Europe, especially Poland, and the conditions of Soviet entrance into the war with Japan. A compromise settlement was reached that included a Soviet commitment to join the Asian war after the surrender of Germany and a tentative decision about Poland's border and government, but not without concern from Roosevelt and Churchill about the implications of a Soviet presence in eastern Europe. It appears, however, that Roosevelt understood Stalin's concerns about Soviet security on the western borders and hoped his willingness to compromise would convince Stalin that Soviet control of Poland was unnecessary.

The already fragile Grand Alliance continued to deteriorate after the conclusion of the Yalta Conference. The Americans and British complained that the Soviets were not living up to agreements about the creation of independent governments in eastern Europe. President Roosevelt died in April 1945; Germany surrendered in May, eliminating the reason the Alliance had been formed. Much American public opinion opposed Roosevelt's compromise at Yalta concerning Soviet influence in Poland, as the new president, Harry S. Truman, knew. In addition, the successful development of the first atomic bomb suddenly gave the United States more leverage than ever before but ultimately also increased Soviet-American tensions.

The PoTSDAM Conference of July 1945, the last of the Grand Alliance's wartime conferences, marked the final semblance of cooperation among the Allies. By the end of the conference, Joseph Stalin was the single remaining original leader of the Grand Alliance; Clement Attlee replaced Winston Churchill as British prime minister partway through the conference. With Great Britain badly weakened by the war, Truman and Stalin were the primary actors at Potsdam, and Truman proved to be less willing to negotiate and compromise with Stalin than Roosevelt had been. The three nations were able to agree upon an unconditional surrender formula for the end of the war with Japan in the Potsdam Proclamation, and Truman notified Stalin for the first time, albeit in a cryptic manner, of the existence of the atomic bomb that the Americans had been working on with the British for some time. The Soviet Union agreed to enter the war against the Japanese in August, as it had promised at Yalta, but the atomic bomb made this pledge less significant than it had been just a few months before.

Truman was still on his way home from Potsdam when he heard the news that the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, heralding the beginning of the nuclear age (see Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The official end of the Japanese war came on September 2, 1945, an event that also brought the end of the Grand Alliance and a shift toward the postwar power structure. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged out of their alliance as the world's superpowers, and the ongoing tensions and disagreements between the two nations soon developed into the cold war.

See also foreign policy.

Further reading: Herbert Feis, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin: The War They Waged and the Peace They Sought (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1957); William Hardy McNeil, America, Britain, and Russia: Their Cooperation and Conflict, 1941-1946 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1953); Martin J. Sherwin, A World Destroyed: The Atomic Bomb and the Grand Alliance (New York: Knopf, 1975).

-Mary E. Carroll-Mason

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The Grand Alliance is the name given to the anti-Axis coalition of nations headed by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union during World War II. This wartime collaboration of the three nations not only presented a united front against Nazi Germany (the

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The Holocaust was a Genocide in which Nazi Germany, and comrades systematically murdered about 6 million European Jews.

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Holocaust survivor recalls the lie that saved his life

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He is the nominal leader of the Chinese trying to resist being taken over by the Japanese.

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This is where everyone thought Japan would attack instead of Pearl Harbor.

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U.S. Navy - Pacific Fleet - Ships by Class

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The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the United States Department of Defense, or the United States Department of the Navy of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein.

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Everyone thought that Japan was going to attack the Philippines, but Japan surprisingly bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

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The Attack on Pearl Harbor - Surprise Military Strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Service

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In this speech FDR enumerates what the rights of any citizen of the world are and why it is important for America to lead the way.

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FDR knew the only way France and Britain could beat the German Reich was to have ample supply of weaponry, so he want to repeal the Arms Embargo.

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Operation Sea Lion was Germany's plan for an all out assault on Britain.

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Operation Sea Lion was the German plan for the invasion of Britain in World War II (1939-1945) and was planned for sometime in late 1940, after the Fall of France.

With the German victory over Poland in the opening campaigns of World War II, leaders in Berlin commenced planning for fighting in the west against France and Britain. These plans called for the capture of ports along the English Channel followed by efforts to force Britain's surrender. How this was to be accomplished quickly became a matter of debate among the German military's senior leadership. This saw Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, commander of the Kriegsmarine, and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring of the Luftwaffe both argue against a seaborne invasion and lobby for various types of blockades aimed at crippling the British economy. Conversely, the army leadership advocated for landings in East Anglia, which would see 100,000 men put ashore.

Raeder countered this by arguing that it would take a year to assemble the shipping required and that the British Home Fleet would need to be neutralized. Göring continued to argue that such a cross-channel effort could only be made as "final act of an already victorious war against Britain." Despite these misgivings, in the summer of 1940, shortly after Germany's stunning conquest of France, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the possibility of an invasion of Britain. Somewhat surprised that London had rebuffed peace overtures, he issued Directive No. 16 on July 16 which stated, "As England, in spite of the hopelessness of her military position, has so far shown herself unwilling to come to any compromise, I have decided to begin to prepare for, and if necessary to carry out, an invasion of England...and if necessary the island will be occupied."

For this to succeed, Hitler laid out four conditions that had to be met to ensure success. Similar to those identified by German military planners in late 1939, they included elimination of the Royal Air Force to ensure air superiority, clearing of the English Channel of mines and the laying of German mines, the emplacing of artillery along the English Channel, and preventing the Royal Navy from interfering with the landings. Though pushed by Hitler, neither Raeder or Göring actively supported the invasion plan. Having taken serious losses to the surface fleet during the invasion of Norway, Raeder came to actively oppose the effort as the Kriegsmarine lacked the warships to either defeat the Home Fleet or support a crossing of the Channel.

Dubbed Operation Sea Lion, planning moved forward under the guidance of Chief of the General Staff General Fritz Halder. Though Hitler had originally desired to invade on August 16, it was soon realized that this date was unrealistic. Meeting with planners on July 31, Hitler was informed that most desired to postpone the operation until May 1941. As this would remove the political threat of the operation, Hitler refused this request but agreed to push Sea Lion back until September 16. In the early stages, the invasion plan for Sea Lion called for landings on a 200-mile front from Lyme Regis east to Ramsgate.

This would have seen Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb's Army Group C cross from Cherbourg and land at Lyme Regis while Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group A sailed from Le Havre and the Calais area to land the southeast. Possessing a small and depleted surface fleet, Raeder opposed this broad front approach as he felt it could not be defended from the Royal Navy. As Göring began intense attacks against the RAF in August, which developed into the Battle of Britain, Halder vehemently attacked his naval counterpart, feeling that a narrow invasion front would lead to heavy casualties.

Bowing to Raeder's arguments, Hitler agreed to narrow the scope of the invasion on August 13 with the westernmost landings to be made at Worthing. As such, only Army Group A would take part in the initial landings. Composed of the 9th and 16th Armies, von Rundstedt's command would cross the Channel and establish a front from the Thames Estuary to Portsmouth. Pausing, they would build up their forces before conducting a pincer attack against London. This taken, German forces would advance north to around the 52nd parallel. Hitler assumed that Britain would surrender by the time his troops reached this line.

As the invasion plan continued to be in flux, Raeder was plagued by a lack of purpose-built landing craft. To remedy this situation, the Kriegsmarine gathered around 2,400 barges from around Europe. Though a large number, they were still insufficient for the invasion and could only be used in relatively calm seas. As these were gathered in the Channel ports, Raeder continued to be concerned that his naval forces would be insufficient to combat the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. To further support the invasion, a myriad of heavy guns were emplaced along the Straits of Dover.

Aware of German invasion preparations, the British began defensive planning. Though a large number of men were available, much of the British Army's heavy equipment had been lost during the Dunkirk Evacuation. Appointed Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces in late May, General Sir Edmund Ironside was tasked with overseeing the island's defense. Lacking sufficient mobile forces, he elected to construct a system of static defensive lines around southern Britain, which were backed by the heavier General Headquarters Anti-tank Line. These lines were to be supported by a small mobile reserve.

On September 3, with British Spitfires and Hurricanes still controlling the skies over southern Britain, Sea Lion was again postponed, first to September 21 and then, eleven days later, to September 27. On September 15, Göring launched massive raids against Britain in an attempt to crush Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's Fighter Command. Defeated, the Luftwaffe took heavy losses. Summoning Göring and von Rundstedt on September 17, Hitler indefinitely postponed Operation Sea Lion citing the Luftwaffe's failure to obtain air superiority and a general lack of coordination between the branches of the German military.

Turning his attention eastward to the Soviet Union and planning for Operation Barbarossa, Hitler never returned to the invasion of Britain and the invasion barges were ultimately dispersed. In the years after the war, many officers and historians have debated whether Operation Sea Lion could have succeeded. Most have concluded that it likely would have failed due to the strength of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine's inability to prevent it from interfering with the landings and subsequent re-supply of those troops already ashore.

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Operation Sea Lion: Germany's Plan to Invade Britain in WWII

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Operation Sea Lion was the German plan for the invasion of Britain in World War II (1939-1945) and was planned for sometime in late 1940, after the Fall of France. With the German victory over Poland in the opening campaigns of World War II, leaders in Berlin commenced planning for fighting in the west against France and Britain.

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Reports of the "Rape of Nanking," the sacking of the Chinese capital reached the American mainland in the summer of 1937.

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Reports of the "Rape of Nanking," the sacking of the Chinese capital reached the American mainland in the summer of 1937.

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During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, falls to Japanese forces, and the Chinese government flees to Hankow, further inland along the Yangtze River.

To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the "Rape of Nanking," the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male "war prisoners," massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.

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The Rape of Nanking | December 13, 1937 | HISTORY

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During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, falls to Japanese forces, and the Chinese government flees to Hankow, further inland along the Yangtze River. To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed.

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In October, 1937, President Roosevelt delivered his famous speech, the Quarantine Speech.

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President Roosevelt Utters Momentous Speech In Chicago.

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Hitler had campaigned spewing Anti-Semitic rhetoric and vowing to rebuild a strong Germany.

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HOW ADOLF HITLER CAME TO POWER - Eva Schloss | London Real

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Named this because its leaders believed that the line that connected the two capitals would be the axis around which the entire world would resolve

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Rome-Berlin Axis, Coalition formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy's foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries was reached on October 25, 1936. It was formalized by the Pact of Steel in 1939. The term Axis Powers came to include Japan as well.

Maren Goldberg.

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Rome-Berlin Axis | Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy & Mussolini

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Rome-Berlin Axis, Coalition formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy's foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries was reached on October 25, 1936. It was formalized by the Pact of Steel in 1939. The term Axis Powers came to include

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America didn't think the war was a threat to them. They also had a lackluster military.

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Before the United States joined World War II in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the great battle had been raging in Europe since 1939. While the British and Russians struggled against the German Reich, the United States remained officially neutral and refused to enter the war.

What was keeping the American government from sending troops to Europe sooner and what exactly was the United States doing before the Japanese launched their attack on Oahu? Let's explore the American mindset and history from 1939 to December 8th, 1941, when war was declared on Japan.

Stark Contrast of Modern America

It often seems that modern day American leaders and many of the American people are eager to intervene in conflicts that, ultimately, may have nothing to do with the country. Over 75 years ago, the exact opposite could be said.

With Europe locked in battle, President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported the idea of America going to war, giving Great Britain the backing it needed, but FDR faced his own struggles. The United States didn't want to intervene.

During an emergency cabinet meeting called by Roosevelt immediately after the war erupted in Europe, it was agreed that the United States would remain an outside influence unless directly threatened or attacked.

Even had the government backed the war, the United States was still getting over the turmoil of World War I. The general public was not ready to join another war, opting for neutrality. A poll taken in 1939, after the outbreak of war, showed 94% as being against going to war.

A Lackluster Military

Even if the United States had wanted to enter the war, its military force was simply not ready. Facing off against millions of Germans, the American military was only about 100,000 strong without a draft. To enter the European crisis would likely mean a complete decimation of America's forces.

Beyond a lack of force, the United States military was generally behind on weaponry, with much of it dating back to the First World War. The current force wasn't ready for war against the better-trained Germans. Even if the numbers were there, the preparedness was not.

The American Economy

The war in Europe didn't seem to pose any threat to the American economy and joining it only served to threaten its stability. Though not actively participating, the US was actually benefiting from the conflict, manufacturing military equipment and vehicles for the Allied forces. Without pumping that money right back into the military, it served to bolster the country's economy.

Then It All Changed

With one massive attack on American territory in 1941, the entire outlook of the country changed. Patriotism took over and, without pause, that 94% opposed to intervention vanished. Congress reversed their vote of neutrality and opted to fight back against would-be aggressors.

On December 8th, 1941, while the wreckage of Pearl Harbor was still smoldering, the decision to go to war with Japan was made, and all of the hesitation and desire for neutrality was no more than a memory.

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Why Didn't America Join the War Sooner? - Visit Pearl Harbor

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Before the United States joined World War II in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the great battle had been raging in Europe since 1939. While the British and Russians struggled against the German Reich, the United States remained officially neutral and refused to enter the war.

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This directly aimed at reversing the mistakes made that led to the American entry into the First World War.

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The United States was the only nation in Japans way of gaining control of the entire Pacific Rim.

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Japan was the first to attack, this was in 1931, and some people believe that the was began in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.

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Japanese Invasion of Manchuria | 3 Minute History

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To foster better relations

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Good Neighbor Policy, popular name for the Latin American policy pursued by the administration of the U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Suggested by the president's commitment "to the policy of the good neighbor" (first inaugural address, March 4, 1933), the approach marked a departure from traditional American interventionism. Through the diplomacy of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, the United States repudiated privileges abhorrent to Latin Americans. The United States renounced its right to unilaterally intervene in the internal affairs of other nations at the Montevideo Conference (December 1933); the Platt Amendment, which sanctioned U.S. intervention in Cuba, was abrogated (1934); and the U.S. Marines were withdrawn from Haiti (August 1934).

The policy's success was measured in part by the rapidity with which most Latin American states rallied to the Allies during World War II. After the war, however, U.S. anticommunist policies in Europe and Asia led to renewed distrust in the Americas and the gradual lapse of the Good Neighbor Policy.

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Good Neighbor Policy | United States history

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Good Neighbor Policy: Good Neighbor Policy, popular name for the Latin American policy pursued by the administration of the U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Suggested by the president's commitment "to the policy of the good neighbor" (first inaugural address, March 4, 1933), the approach marked a departure from

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Proclaimed the right of the United States to intervene in Latin American affairs was renounced.

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It went further toward condemning Japan than the government of Great Britain was willing to do.