Bryn O'Callaghan _____ www.longman.

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THE AR S ENAL OF D EM O CR A C Y
In the !9j Os every yc,u see med to bri ng a new war,
o r threat of war. somewhere in the wo rld . Lead ers
like th e: (;,..-r man dictator Hitler threatened and
builn-d. N atio ns bu ilt m o re tanks. wa rshi ps and
m ilitar y aircraft. Pn..-sjdc nr Roosevelt spoke to rhc
Am erican peo ple in 1937 abo ut w ars being fo ug ht III
Spa in and China. "I nn ocen t peoples. inn ocent
nat io ns arc being cruel ly sacr ificed to J g reed fo r
power and supn..-mac v." he warn ed . " If th ese things
COIll \.' to P ;ISS [happ en ! in o the r parts of th e w orl d. let
no o ne ill1 ,l ~il1 c that America w ill escape."
13 m Spain and C hina seeme d far aw ay. Most
Americalls igno red Roosevelt 's wa rning. T hey
believed that th e best thin g to do \\' ,IS to let fo reigners
so lve their pro blems themselves. lsolaricnisrs fd t rhis
parricularlv strongly. These w ere peo ple w ho
believed rhar Amc ricans should try to cu t olT, o r
"isola te." rhc U nited Stat es from rhc problems o f th e
Olltsid t' world.
Iso latio nist ide as were \Try strong in Congress
during rhc 19.30s. It passed a number o flaws called
N eutrality Acrs. Thcse said that Am er ican citizens
wo uld no t be allowed to sell m ilitar y equ ipme nt, o r
lend money, to any nations at w ar. Evennon-
m ilitary su pp lies suc h as foods tuff s would be sold to
w arr ing count ries o nly if th ey paid cash to r th em and
collected them in their o wn ships.
Then. in 1939, w ar broke o m in Europe. Uy th e
summer of 19-10 Hitler's arm ies had overrun all of
western Europe, O nly Urirain < c xbausrcd and sho rt
of w eap on s - still de fied them. With Hitler the mas ter
of Euro pe, and his ally. Ja pan, beco m ing ever
stronger ill Asia, Am ericans saw a t las t the da ngerous
pos ition of rhc U nit ed States, san d wiched between
the tw o .
Roosevelt had alread y per su aded Congress to
ap pro vt' rhc Iirvt peace time mi litary conscription in
Am erican histo ry and to suspen d th e N cu rraliey
Acts. N o w he scm Britain all the mil itary t'qu lpment
th at th e Un ited Stares co uld sparcc rifles. g Ulls.
ship s. Early ill 19-1 1 the British ran o ur o f mo ne y. In
M arch Roosevelt persuaded Congress to acce pr his
Len d Lease PLIn.
H"
The Issei and the Nisei
In the carlv 1940s m or e th an 100 ,01,0 people o f
japanese descent lived in the United States. T hese
japanese Am ericans we re either "I ssei" - th ose
born in japan-or " N isei" - A m erican-bo rn J ap-
anese. Most lived in C alifornia . where th ey had
worked hard and been successful. By 11)-1 1, for
example. Issei were prod uci ng half of C alifo rnia 's
fruit and veget ables. O thers became successful
doctors, law yers. and businessmen .
After the attac k on Pear! Har bor white Americans
began to see eve ry j apanese Am eri can as a
pot ent ial spy o r saboteur. Both Issei and Ni sei
we re threat ened and treated badly. Sho ps refused
to sell th em food . Finally, in March 1942. the
government sent soldie rs to cake them from their
ho mes [Q be in terned in prison cam ps called
" relocation cente rs. "
Most of th e mtcmmenr cdmps were III remo te.
desert areas of the countr y. O ver )IX),IX>O j apan es e
Am erican men , women and children we re kept in
them lor the (es t of the w ar. In later yedrs the
A merican C ivil Libemcs Union called th eir in-
tcm m cnr " the worst sing k- vi olati on of th e civil
righ ts of American citizens III our histo ry ."
The in ternmen t o f the Issei and the Ni sei was
more than unj ust. All the e vidence seems to sho w
that it wa s llllllt'cessdry. Tho usands o f Ni sei foug ht
bravely in the American arm y. And not one
j apanese Am eri can was con victed ofan act of dis-
loyalt y to th e United Stares during rhc whole of
th e W J.T ,
Lend Lease gave Roosevelt the Tight to supply
mili tar y equi pme nt and o ther goods to Brnain
wi tho ut paym ent . He could do the same fo r dny
co untry w hose defense he considered occcsserv (Q the
safet y 011ht, U ni ted Stares. Am erican gu ns, food and
~l ircraft crossed th e Atla nt ic Ocean in large quanti ties.
T he y played a viral pan in helpin g Britain to
co nt inue to tight agamse Hitler. When I{itlcr attacked
"1,,,J~P"" t'Jt' ,111.1(1" 1m P""rl
Holrb.'r, H.z,,·~ii ,
the Sov iet U nion in june IY41, Roosevelt used rhc
L\:m{ Lease scheme to send aid to the Russians, too.
Fightin g was also taking place in Asia at this time.
japanese forces had in vade d Man churia III 1931 and
C hina in )lJ37, In July 19·H, they also occu pied the
French colony o flndoch ina. This alarmed th e
American government. h saw the growing power of
ja pan as a threat both to peace in Asia and to
Am erican trading in terests. Ever since the 1937
att ack on C hina the United States had been reducing
its t'xp ort~ to J apan ofgo ods tha t wert' useful in
war - aircra ft and che micals. fo r exam ple. N ow , in
jul y IlJ4l , it sto pped all shipments o f oil.
j apan fared disaster . It imported 80 percent ofits o il
fro m th o: U nited States, Witho ut this Americ:In oil its
indu stries would be paralyzed . "japan IS like a tish III
a po nd fro m which the wan-t IS being drained awa y.'
a senior naval officer told Em pero r l Iirohiro .
In O ctober. Gener al Hido ki T oj o became j apan's
Prime Minister. T oj o was well know n for his belief
tha t a sharp USt' afforce W:IS often rhc bcsr way to
solve disag reements. This had earned him .
nickname- the Razor. T he re was plen ty of oil in
Southeast Asia. Tojo decided that japan mus t seize
it-and must make it impossible for the Americans to
usc their Pacific battle Nl'l't to stop them .
( ) II Decem bcr 7, 1941 , j apanese w arplanes roaredin
over Pearl I lnrbor. H aw aii, the A merica n navy's
main base in the Pacific Ocean. Their bombs and
torpedoes sank or badly damaged eight American
battleships, blew up hund reds of aircraft and killed
over 1,000 men.
Whcn the Pear l Har bor attack took place, the U nited
States and Japan w ere still at peace, T he United Stares
declared war 0 11 December R. 194 1. Since Germ any
w asj apan 's ally. H itler then declar ed wa r on the
U nited Scan-s. T he wa r in Eur ope and the wa r in Asia
became one wa r. Britain, the Soviet Union and the
U nited States (t he Allies) were the mam count ries on
o ne side. Ge rmany and j apan (the Ax is) were the
main countr ies on the other,
Th e U nited Stares govern ment orga nized the whole
Amer ican eco nom y to w ards winn ing the w ar. It
placed controls on w ages and prices, and Int roduced
high income taxes. Gasoline and some foods were
rationed . Factories stopped producing consumer
goods such as automobiles and wash ing machines.
and started making tanks, bombers and other wa r
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TWENTIE TH CH.n:IlY A ..IlItICASS

failed. By the end ofJ uly Allied soldiers we re racm g

across France. Paris w as libe rated on August 24 and
by September Allied forces had crossed C cnuauy's
wcsrcru border.
Hut the Germ ans were not vcr beaten. In I )e(·t'mber
I(}44, they launched a last f ierce atta ck in till'
A rden nes region o f Ud gium. They punched back the
Allied fro nt line in a bul ge many miles deep. This
gav c rhe batt le its name -the Batt le ofthe Bulge. It
was a mo nth befo re the Allies could organize a
roun rcrartack and drivc back [he Germa ns.
T he Battle of the Bulge proved to be" the last German
o ffensive of the Second World War. On Ap ril 25.
1(}45, British and Am erican soldiers met ad vancin g
Soviet troops O il the ban ks of the River Elb c in the
IV"",,.,, IMi"j"t I,' b"ild ~;rmlJi dur;tls til.. "uo"d H'orld War, middle of Germ any. O n Apr il 30 Hitler shot himsel f.
German soldier s cvcrvwhcrc laid down th eir
supp lies. T he government also Spl'nt a vast \\·l'apons and o n May 5, 1945. Germany su r rende red .
amount- tw o thousand million dollars-on a top-
In the: Pacific j apanes e armed forces won so me
secret resea rch scheme. The scheme was code-named
str iking early victories. In only a few mo nt hs they
the Manhattan Project. By 1945 scientis ts working
o verran Southeast Asia and the Island s of [he w estern
0 11 rhc scheme had produced and tested th e world's
Pacific. By the: su m mer of 1942 [hey had co nque red
first atomic bomb,
over 1.5 million square mile s of land, rich in raw
Allied wa r planners agreed to co ncent rate 011 materials and inh abi ted by more than 100 m illion
dctc aring Germany fi rst, In 1942 the Sov iet U nio n peop le, Th e conq uered lands included rhc
was unde r heavy attack by the Ger ma ns . T o hel p the Philippines, w here thousand s of Am eric an troo ps
Russians, American generals reco mmended an early we re t rapped and forced to surrender,
invasion o f Ger man-occupicd France. Hut Winston
C hurchill, the Uritish Pri me Mi nis ter. persua ded
Roosevelt to attack the Germans first in the
Mediterranean region. Combined American and
British fo rces Landed III North Africa III N ove mber
1942, and joined orhcr British fo rces already figh ting
ther e, T ogcrhcr. the Allied ar mies defeat ed the
German genera l Ho mmel's Afrika Korps. In ]1)43
they in vad ed Sicily and the mainland of Italy . After
mont hs of bitter fighting. on J un e 4, 1944. they freed
Rome fro m Ger man control.
T w o days later. on June 6_ Allied troops invaded
Normandy in Ge rman-occupied Prance. Their
Supreme C omm and er was rhc American gene ral
Eisenhow er. The invasion was code -named
Oper atio n O verl ord. T he day it took place was
referr ed to as li-Dav - D for l Ichvcrancc. Fro m early
in the mor nm g o f I )- J.)ay hund reds of Allied landing
craft em ptied their loads o f men and wea po ns 0 11 to _.. -
..
..,. ....
..."" b' ttl«
--
,L
T
the tla t Norma nd y beaches. Germ an soldiers fo ug ht
har d to push the invaders in to the sea. Bu t they
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 25 T H E AR ~EN .\l. Of 1h:.\\OCHACY

By J U Ill' 1'-)-13, the Pacific offensives had beg un .

Hiroshima 1945: right or wrong?
At fifteen minutes past eight on the morn ing of
August 6, lIN:; , an American ll2'J bomber dropped
an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Forty-
five seconds later the bomb exploded ill a blinding
flash. A m ush roo m- shaped cloud climbed high
into the sky above the city. Belew. where Hiro-
shima had been, burned a ball of fire. 11 was umo
feet across and the temperanlrt' at its center w as
100 million degrees. " The war's o va!.. shou ted
one of the bomber's crew . " My Go d," said
another, "what have we do ne?"
President T rum an ordered the atomi c bo m b to be
used. I II.' believe d that using it save d lives by
en din g the war quickly . At the rime. and since.
people haw argued fiercely about w hether he w as
righ t. Some be lieve that he was. Wit hout l liro-
shima, they say, the Americans would have had to
invade Japan to end the war. Ma ny mo re people
than died at H iroshim a and Nagasaki, both
Japanese and American, would eben havc been
killed. Other people do not accept [his reaso ning.
They argue that the Japanese government was
ready to surrender before the bombi ngs. More
than half a century after the destruction of
Hiroshim a. the argument still continues.
Amer ican forces adv anced tow ard sJapan by "is land
hopping" -that is, they captu red Island s that w ere
srr arcgicallv im po rta nt, but by passed others. In the
rem aind er of 1l)-1J and throughout 19-1-1, Allied
forces fought their way closer to Japan itself. InJ line
I'N-1. an enormo us Am eri can task force won cont rol
of the import ant Marian a Islands. In O ctober
Am erican troops returned to the Philippines and
cur offJapan from its conqucst s III Southeast Asia.
By 19-15Japan was w ithin ran ge o f air attacks .
Ame rican bom bers made devastatin g raids on its
cities. ln j unc the island o f Okinawa , less than 375
mi les from the Japanese coast, fell to the Americans.
Am er ican troops prepared to invade Japa n itself.
But the invasion ne v er came. O n J ul y Ifl, 11)-15.
Alhed scientists at work o n the Ma nh att an Project
tested the w orld's first atomic bo mb. Even they were
shocked by the result. T hey had inven ted the most
destructive Wl..'apo n the world had ever seen . On
August 6 an Am eri can bomber dropped an atomic
bomb ove r rhc japan csc cit y of HIroshima. A few
days late r, on August 9, a second ato mic bomb was
dropped on rhc city of N agasaki . Both cines were
de vastated and nearly ~OO , OOO civi lians we re- killed.
On August 1-1 rhejapanese government surrendered .
The Second Worl d War 'was o ver.

Japan 's first setback r-amo in May 1'J-12. In the Battle

of the C or al Sea. aircraft from Am er ican carr iers
drove back a big japanese invasion fleet that was
thrvnrcni ng Aust ralia. ln j unc rhcjapancsc sutf-red
all even wo rse defeat. T heir main bailie Ill-t,t attacked
an im po rtant American base called Mi dway Island.
Again American wa rplanes heat them off w ith heavy
losses. In the Battle of Midway the japanese lost lour
aircraft carriers and many of their best pilots.
By the beginning of 19-13 the Amcricnnv ami their
Australian and British allies had ag reed up on a long-
term plan to de feat the Jap anese. They decided on a
thr ee- pron ged att ack. Fro m Au stralia one prong
'would push northw ards towards Jap an th rough the
Philippines. From Hawaii another pron g w ould
strike wes twa rds through rhe islands o f rhc central
Pacific. Finall y, th e tWO Pacific offem in's would be
supported by a drive throu gh Hurma int o the lands
that thejapan ese had conq uered III Sou theas t Asia_
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