Fear Itself
The whole
world was in turmoil, and there was no end in sight. What was this dreadful war that the whole
world was entangled in? It was World War
Two. This horrific war which followed
“The War to End All Wars” had begun as a skirmish in Europe. Hitler and Mussolini had come to power and
they were threatening the weaker nations.
The United States had stayed out of the conflict as long as possible;
they hadn’t wanted to become caught in another war! They were finally recovering from World War
One, and this war didn’t seem to be affecting them very much. Soon only Britain was left out of Germany’s
control, and the U.S. was desperately clinging to neutrality and peace. She was
quickly losing her grip. It was the
bombing of Pearl Harbor which swiftly drew the United States into the
inevitable conflict. World War Two, the
bloodiest war in history, would last for six long years. Many innocent people would be killed, along
with many wicked. Many atrocities would
be performed which would make every country bow their heads in shame at the sin
and destruction all around them. In six
years’ time, six trillion dollars would be spent, and fifty million lives would
be lost. Some fathers would never return to their children; some would come
back, wounded physically or emotionally.
The world would never be the same.
Fascism Takes Over
Europe was in trouble; Fascist leaders, Adolph Hitler and
Benito Mussolini, planned to rule over all of Europe and then over all the
countries of the world. Hitler
represented Germany, while Mussolini represented Italy. As each country was
seized, the leaders became more and more voracious. Then Hitler attacked Britain! Japan was becoming aggressive, and many in
the U.S. were trying to stay isolationists. Tension began to mount, and as the
greedy leaders snatched up country after country, bombed London, and stirred up
trouble, everyone trembled with fear of the inevitable World War II.
Hitler
and Mussolini were conquering
countries all over
Europe, with the intention of taking over the world! Fascism, a
totalitarian form of government, was becoming a major political epidemic. Adolph Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933,
and he boldly stated that he would crush democracy. Hitler conquered Austria, Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium.
When he attacked Poland, Britain finally made a move. However, with the disadvantage of outdated
weapons, the soldiers were hastening away from the battlefield, and Germany was
marching onto France. Mussolini had thus
far held back, waiting to see if Germany was powerful enough; ultimately, he
helped Hitler conquer France. Mussolini
boasted about how he was going to be all-powerful; even the Mediterranean Sea
would become an “Italian Lake,” said pompous Mussolini (Dowswell, Brocklehurst,
and Brook 143). Soon Mussolini was
shrinking back from a foolhardy attempt at victory, and Germany was hoisting
her ally out of the ditch. One by one,
the nations were conquered; would Germany and Italy really overpower the world?
Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini
1940
Nearly all
of Europe was under the Axis
powers; would Britain
be next to fall? It was summer of 1940, and
Hitler had but one enemy left: Britain.
Knowing that his enemy was strong in both the Navy and the Air force,
Hitler started the horrible battle of the ‘Blitz’ when the Luftwaffe lured Britain into the war. The RAF (Royal Air Force) hastily attacked,
and Germany, who had lost 600 planes, made a new move: they attacked the
airfields (Dowswell, Brocklehurst, and Brook 140). This was effective, but then the RAF bombed
Berlin, and Germany retaliated by bombing London incessantly. The RAF used this interlude to hurriedly
rebuild their airfields and gain planes.
Germany soon had to attack at night; otherwise, they might be spotted
and their planes bombed. As the pressure
was mounting on Britain, Winston Churchill, England’s main leader, said:
Hitler knows that he will have to
break us on this island or lose the war.
If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free and the life of the
world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the
whole word, including the United States, including all we have known and cared
for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age…Let us therefore brace
ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and
its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: “This was their
finest hour” (Keesee, and Sidwell 516).
Half of London was killed, and Churchill commended his men’s
bravery with the famous statement: “Never in the field of human conflict was so
much owed by so many to so few” (Dowswell, Brocklehurst, and Brook, 141). As the nations were snatched up by Germany and Italy, England pressed through
the horrid battle of the Blitz, through to victory!
Attacks on England
It was an ordinary, peaceful day:
December 7, 1941 in Oahu Island, Hawaii, but the people of Pearl Harbor were soon to
encounter the Japanese planes that were closing in on the naval base. Pearl
Harbor was the headquarters of the U.S. fleet, and it also contained U.S.
airfields. Suddenly Japanese aircraft sent a torrent of bombs on the still
harbor; 90% of the damage was done in the first 10 minutes, and after 30
minutes the planes retreated (150).
At the White House, after lunch, the
president works on his stamp collection (he began collecting stamps as a boy).
His good friend Harry Hopkins is with him; so is his Scottie dog, Fala. They
are relaxing. The phone rings. It is close to 2 P.M., Eastern time.
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox is on the line. His voice is quivering. A message has just been received from
Hawaii. This is what it says: AIR RAID
ON PEARL HARBOR---THIS IS NOT A DRILL… On Sunday morning, ships were lined up
in the harbor; their crews were having breakfast, or relaxing, or
sleeping. At 7:02 A.M. Hawaiian time, a
radar operator saw some blips on his screen.
The operator didn’t pay much attention to them. He thought they were bombers he was expecting
from the West Coast. By 7:55 A.M. he knew better (Hakim 131).
When the Japanese struck for the second time, the Americans
were ready to fight back. 3 battleships were
sunk, and 16 ships damaged in 2 hours; 2,400 were killed, and 1,200 were
wounded.
The day following the Pearl Harbor
attack, President Roosevelt… [pronounced] December 7, 1941, a date that would
“live in infamy.” Congress quickly
declared war on Japan, as did Britain that same day. In a flurry of war declarations, China
declared war on the Axis nations on December 9, and on the 11th
Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, which responded by
declaring war on them. Pearl Harbor had
triggered war on a global scale (Keesee, and Sidwell, 521).
That February, FDR said, during a fireside chat:
We are now in this war. We are all in
it---all the way…On the road ahead there lies hard work---grueling work---day
and night, every hour and every minute.
I was about to add that there lies sacrifice for all of us. But it is
not correct to use that word. The United
States does not consider it a sacrifice to do all one can, to give one’s best
to our nation, when the nation is fighting for its existence and its future
life….The true goal…is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. When we
resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be
directed toward the ultimate good as well as against the immediate evil. We Americans are not destroyers; we are
builders… We are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace
that follows. And in the dark hours of this day---and through dark days that
may be yet to come---we will know that the vast majority of the members of the
human race are on our side…fighting with us…praying for us. For in representing
our case, we represent theirs as well---our hope and their hope for liberty
under God (Hakim 133).
Pearl Harbor sparked the Americans to action; they were no
longer isolationists, and Admiral Isoruku Yomamato, the man who organized the
attack, said, “I fear we have only succeeded in awakening a sleeping tiger”
(Dowswell, Brocklehurst, and Brook 151).
This customary,
tranquil day at Pearl
Harbor set the whole world at war: the worst war in history.
Pearl Harbor
As Fascism prevailed,
under the rule of Hitler and Mussolini, all of Europe was drawn into the
war. The pivotal battle of the Blitz was
courageously fought, and England triumphed.
Then the battle of Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. and the rest of the
world into the war. In the end, the
Allies prevailed, but there was much disaster on the way. The United States
became firmer in her belief that all people are created equal. If Hitler had
realized this, then there wouldn’t be millions of people slaughtered out of pure
hatred. As Hitler and Mussolini tried to
reign over the world, they were rebuffed by the brave men who fought to the
death for their country, in the Battle of the Blitz and throughout the whole
World War. The Blitz is just an example of the heroism of the men as they
marched into battle with love for their countries, and it shows the victory
that came with this devotion.
The Beginning of the End
The last
days of the war were tense and drawn-out, and animosity would carry on for a
while after the war. Many days were
celebrated marking the end of the war, or the ‘beginning of the end’. Many people were involved in the desperate
fight for victory, and they have all earned a place in our memory; for example
Franklin Delano Roosevelt will forever be remembered with his lasting legacy
and bravery. The fight on D-Day was
performed with courage and heroism. V-E
Day marked Germany’s surrender. V-J Day
marked Japan’s surrender. All of these
days were celebrated, yet there was so much damage done, so many lives lost, so
many hearts broken.
America’s
leader, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, pulled his beloved country through the war, helping the other Allied nations
as he went; he promoted peace and left the American people an everlasting legacy. Roosevelt began as a rich little boy, but
this did not make him pompous or spoiled; as Hakim writes: “How do you think
you would turn out if you had everything you wanted? Do you think you might be vain, arrogant,
spoiled, and worthless? Well this is just how some of those rich kids turned
out…But not Frank Roosevelt” (94-95). He
knew that he wanted to serve his country; he became a senator, secretary of the
navy, and worked his way up to Vice President, certain that he would aspire to his
goals, even when disaster struck. At the
peak of his career, he was diagnosed with poliomyelitis, or polio, a disease
that rendered him paralyzed from the waist down, yet made him all the more
determined; in FDR’s words, “If you have spent two years in bed trying to
wiggle your big toe, everything else seems easy” (179). When FDR finally became President, millions
of people were unemployed, and as the haggard nation turned to their president,
he stated in his inaugural address: “Let me first assert my firm belief that
the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (106). Hakim says, “He believed in a government for
the people...[Roosevelt stated:] “As we have recaptured and rekindled our
pioneering spirit, we have insisted that it shall always be a spirit of
justice, a spirit of teamwork, a spirit of sacrifice, and, above all, a spirit
of neighborliness” and: “We are going to make a country where no one is left
out” (178-179). He also promised
Americans: “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a New Deal for the American
people” (Keesee, and Sidwell 494). This
‘New Deal’ included jobs for the unemployed ranging from performing opera to
planting trees; in Roosevelt’s words:
The conservation of our natural
resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which
underlies almost every other problem of our national life…The government has
been endeavoring to get our people to look ahead and to substitute a planned
and haphazard striving for immediate profit…We are prone to think of the
resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so (Hakim 179).
Looking ahead, Roosevelt said:
In the future days, which we seek to
make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to
worship God in his own way---everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want…The fourth is
freedom from fear (179).
When Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, people around the world mourned; but they
rejoiced in the legacy that FDR
had left, a legacy
that was free from want, free from fear, free from the tyranny of global war.
FDR
D-day was a turning
point in the war; although Germany had not yet surrendered, the assistance of
American troops restored
Allied hope that victory
was imminent.
On June 4, 1944…the German legend
Rommel looked at his impressive coastal defenses on the French side of the
English Channel and glance at the threatening skies. There would be no Allied invasion for now, he
thought. Why not surprise his wife back
in Berlin with a visit on her birthday in two days? As it turned out, Mrs. Rommel was not the
only one who was surprised on June 6 (Keesee, and Sidwell 525).
Barbed wire and machine guns were lined up on the shore,
underneath the nasty gray skies, and ships were bobbing atop the crashing,
salty waves of the Atlantic Ocean; soon the invasion would occur. Operation Overlord
was D-day’s codename and it was organized by Dwight D. Eisenhower (525). The Allies had been preparing for this day
for a long time, and they had pulled off some tricks too: Fake fuel and
equipment dumps, as well as landing craft and airfields, were built in
Kent—just across the Channel from Calais—to fool German reconnaissance aircraft
and make the Germans think that the invasion was really heading there instead
(Dowswell, Brocklehurst, Brook 205). The
men started to attack and as Ernie Pyle, a famous war correspondent related:
“Our men simply could not get past the beach.
They were pinned down right on the water’s edge by an inhuman wall of
fire…Our first waves were on the beach for hours, instead of a few minutes
before they could begin working inland” (Hakim, 165). Everything started to go wrong; for one
thing, seasickness assailed the soldiers.
Of the 32 tanks sent out, 27 sank, and bombs missed their targets, but
eventually 23,000 soldiers landed, ready to capture German strong points and
take over as many roads as possible.
This was accomplished, but not without 2,500 casualties (Dowswell,
Brocklehurst, and Brook 207). By the end
of June, Eisenhower had brought 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles ashore. His gamble had paid off. There was no doubt now that Germany would lose
the war (207). Germany didn’t formally surrender at this time, but her defeat
was certain, and the world
sighed a breath of relief; the war was coming to an end.
D-Day
Message, General Eisenhower to General Marshall
VE-Day, or Victory in
Europe Day, left Europe hopeful about the end of the war.
Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, causing the Allied nations to throw
their hats in the air and celebrate!
Days earlier Hitler had committed suicide, and his tyrannical leadership
was no longer a threat. On May 7th
the people stood in a hush as they listened to Winston Churchill state straight
from his heart on blessed VE-Day: “This is your
victory” (“War Weary Britain”). Finally
the American people could be reunited with their brothers, with their
fathers! The oppressive rationing of
supplies from food to bath water was over; however, the people couldn’t help
but see the damage around them. Millions
of homes had been destroyed, some by bombs and some by the ugly hatred that
gnawed at the hearts of rulers like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. If the families were fortunate enough to have
their father return to them, the home would never be the same; as Juliet
Gardiner writes: “The forgotten victims of World War Two were the children”
(“Children and World War 2”). It would
take a long time for the broken hearts to mend, and it would take a long time
for the victims to forgive. In the
meantime, more combat was at hand, and VE-Day was just the beginning of the end.
V-E Day- The Beginning of the End
V-J Day, or Victory in
Japan Day had finally arrived! The Great War was nearly over, yet with unspeakable losses ahead. Days
before, Japan had ignored our nation’s warning; they mistakenly believed that the
Allies could never really take action
and do much harm, and so they continued with their normal lives. Nothing seemed unusual on August 6, 1945,
until a plane, hovering above in the sky, opened up its hatch, dropping one
single bomb; and with a terrific explosion two-thirds of the city of Hiroshima was
destroyed in a moment, killing 78,000 people.
It took another horrible bomb to shake Emperor Hirohito enough to make
him put on a bold front: “The time has come for us to bear the unbearable”
(Hakim 188). General MacArthur stated,
on the day of Japan’s surrender:
We are gathered here…to conclude a
solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored. The issues…have been determined
on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or
debate. Nor is it for us here to meet…in a spirit of distrust, malice, or
hatred. But rather it is for us, both the victors and the vanquished, to
serve…It is my earnest hope…that from this solemn occasion a better world shall
emerge…a world dedicated to the dignity of man…Let us pray that peace may be
now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed (Keesee, and Sidwell
533).
A high price was paid for this war: 50 million were killed
and millions more were maimed for life (534).
September 2, 1945 was the official end of the war. The nations, who had earned their freedom, might
have rejoiced, if it weren’t for the losses all around them. All this sorrow,
all this pain might have been avoided if it weren’t for the horrific trap of
hatred, and the yearning for power. These evils can engulf people’s hearts like
the deadly flames of the bombs dropped on Japan. V-J Day marked the end of the war, but it was not the end of the grief and loss.
V-J Day Ends WWII in Asia
As the
reality of victory set in, the nations held their breath, scarcely believing
that this war was truly over. It had
taken great leaders such as FDR, to win the war. The D-Day attack was a small,
yet powerful, example of the whole war and the courage of free nations who
fought to protect what they valued most.
V-E Day brought Germany’s surrender, and Europe celebrated along with
the rest of the world. V-J Day brought an end to the remaining conflict, as
millions of people crowded the streets, all joining to celebrate the end to
this terrible war! It took the
perseverance and wisdom of more great leaders to press through the horrible
aftermath of the war. The Allied nations
shouldn’t punish Germany too harshly, or there might be a World War Three!
The world would
never be the same. World War Two had sucked
all the countries into the turmoil and pain of the battlefield. The road to victory was slow, yet the nations
pressed on, from the end of the beginning to the beginning of the end-right
through to the signing of the peace treaty with Japan. Communism had proven to be a flawed system of
government, a system that would never succeed when it was carried out by sinful
people. The United States grew more and
more united as her courageous leaders pulled the people through. As FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear
is fear itself,” and many people did fear (Hakim 106). They feared the destruction of war, the
destruction of their families, the hate that boiled in people’s hearts. They feared, but in the end they persevered
and ‘fear itself’ was laid to rest.
By: Stella
Assignment:IEW Class: WWII Super-Essay
16 May 2012
Grade: 7th
