World War II

World War II, was a global conflict that was fought over six years. The first conflict began in Asia between China and Japan, then in Europe when Germany invaded Poland. The war in Asia, or otherwise called the Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest asian war in the twentieth century. Japan's long desire to invade China and dominate it politcally and militarily led the Japanese to invade Manchuria, attack Pearl Harbor, and then eventually surrender after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan's lust for domination over China and their raw materials led not only to the involvement of the United States into World War II but also the creation of the atomic bomb and the destruction of Japan's two major cities. Japan's decisions and actions led to many lost lives and their eventual surrender in World War II, but through the fire and smoke, Japan rose and matured to be one the most prosperous nations in the world.

During the 1920's, Japan had started an expansion plan into Manchuria, and then into China soon after. So in order to deter these plans, America set up embargoes and sanctions. In 1940, Japan felt the sting of America's Export Control Act, and so in order to preserve their goals for expansion, Japan felt it had no choice but to make a preemptive strike against the United States. Under the command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Japan gathered information, drew up battle plans, and trained pilots over several months. Japan believed that by attacking first, they would be able to stop America's forces in the Pacific from interfering with Japan's plans to invade United Kingdom's colonies. They had no idea that such a move would start an all out war between the two countries.

Japan's approximate two hours of bombing left the American Navy crippled, but not enough to stop the American's retaliation for too long. America had sustained a large amount of damage due to Japan's surprise attack, but luckily due to some poor planning on Japan's part, the United States was able to bring available force together for a speedy retaliation. Japan came in waves which resulted in the loss of 2,386 Americans, and eighteen ships, which also included five battleships. Had the Japanese executed their third and final wave, it is probable that they would have destroyed American carriers, which would have halted any kind of offensive attack for about a year or so. By not destroying these carriers, America was quickly able to mount up an attack back at the Japanese, with the use of their aircraft carriers and submarines. A major flaw in Japan's strategy was the emphasis on battleships. The Japanese military thought that by destroying American battleships, they could easily win the war in the Pacific, but they did not factor in the use of American submarines, which led to the eventual immobilization of Japan's forces.

Such a sudden attack by Japan, led to a hasty and unjust detainment of all Japanese and Japanese Americans that presided in America during World War II, almost sixty-two percent of whom were American citizens. Over 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and be relocated into poorly constructed camps called "War Relocation Centers." Most of these centers were poorly constructed military barracks with no plumbing of any type of cooking facilities. In addition, many families were so hastily forced out of there homes that families did not have sufficient time to pack and prepare for proper weather conditions, and some families were forced to leave with just the clothes on their backs. Some internment camps, such as the Heart Mountain War Relocation center in northwestern Wyoming, was just a portion of land with cramped military barracks, unpartitioned toilets, cots for beds, and a barb-wired fence surrounding it all. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that the holding of loyal American citizens unconstitutional, and by 1945 the government began releasing individuals to return to their previous lives, many of whom had no lives to return to.

Although Japanese detainees were released in 1945, conflict between America and Japan was far from over. In an effort to respond to Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States government covertly put together a group of scientists, under the name of the Manhattan Engineer District, to research nuclear weapons. By discovering the power that lied in nuclear weapons, the American government hoped to to find a way to stop Japan's forces. With the discovery of nuclear fission, under the direction of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientists were able to create atomic bombs such as "Little Boy" and "Fat Man." On August 6, 1945, a twelve-man crew of the B-29 Superfortress aircraft dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan, killing approximately 140,00 people. Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, instantly killing 40,000 people and injuring 25,000 others. But the bomb did not just explode killing close to 200,000 people, the exposure to radiation killed thousands of more Japanese civilians thereafter.

Due to the devastation caused by the two atomic bombs, the Japanese government quickly surrendered six days after "Fat Man" was dropped onto Nagasaki. Not expecting such a quick surrender from Japan, the American