Germany started World War II because they felt they were treated poorly after World War I.  After World War I, Germany had to pay large fines and they had to give up all the land that they captured during World War I. They also had to give up their air force and navy, limit their army to 1000 men and they had to state that they were guilty of starting the war.  After World War I, there was a worldwide depression.  The depression was even worse in Germany than it was in America.  Germany couldn’t use their money because it was worthless.  During the depression in Germany there was hunger and disease.  Hitler, the head of the Nazi party, became the Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933.   In August 1934, the Nazis took control of the German military and government.   Hitler, and the Nazis, promised to rebuild the army and to end the depression in Germany. 

Hitler was a facist dictator.  Germany became partners with Italy so they could take over Europe. 

They thought that if they gave Hitler what he wanted he would stop asking for more land.  They were wrong though, the more land Hitler got, the more he wanted.  Great Britain and France got into war with Germany because Hitler kept taking more land.    Before World War II ended, Germany had captured The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, East Prussia, Latvia, Lithaania, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, part of Egypt, and France.

While Germany was taking over land in Europe, Japan was taking Asia.   The United States told Japan to stop taking land, but they wouldn’t listen.  Because they wouldn’t listen, we refused to sell Japan the things that they needed, like iron ore.
   
In the 1930’s, Americans were focused on fixing their own problems.  During the Great Depression, banks went bankrupt, and many people didn’t have jobs, food, or houses.  The Americans finally got involved when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 at 7:55 am.  When 353 planes Japanese airplanes attacked Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.  Many ships were sunk including the battleship Arizona where 1,177 crewmembers died.  Over 3,000 Americans died in the attack on Pearl Harbor.  On the same day, Japan also attacked Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines, Wake Island, and Midway Island.  President Roosevelt and the US congress declared war the next day.  President Roosevelt broke the news in a famous radio address.

There were two sides: the Allies and the Axis. The Allies’ countries were the United States of America, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Russia, and France.  The Axis countries were Germany, Italy, and Japan.
   
After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Japan quickly gained control over the South Pacific.   MacAurther was a famous general During World War II. MacAurther was called home from the Battan peninsula by President Roosevelt.  General Wainwright was forced to surrender to the Japanese May 6, 1942.  The captured soldiers were forced to march 60 miles.  Thousands of US soldiers died during the Baatan Death March.

Submarines played a big role in World War II.  Submarines laid underwater mines to sink battle ships.   Submarines also fired torpedoes.  subs were very slow under water, even though they were made to go under water, so if a submarine was seen, a torpedo fired from a battleship usually sank it. The torpedoes had propellers to speed them to their targets.  German submarines were called U- boats which meant “underseeboote” or “undersea boat”.  In World War II the crew that worked on the submarines lived on the submarines!  U- boats tried to sink ships but not necessarily take lives because steel was hard to come by.  U- boats sunk hundreds of ships that weighed more than 21 million tons.  Even before the United States got involved merchant ships were authorized to fire at U- boats.

The United States did have some victories over Japan in the South Pacific.  By April 1942, the US successfully bombed Toyko and six other Japanese cities.  The Allies had other victories in 1942 at the Battle of Coral Sea and at the Battle of Midway Island.  American dive-bombers sank many Japanese ships, including 3 aircraft carriers with all their planes.  The Allies also fought and had victories over Japan off the coast of Alaska.  The Alaska-Canadian highway, “Alcan” was built to get soldiers and supplies to Alaska.
   
Life at home in America was hard during World War II. Families had different stars to put in their windows to represent if a son was at war or if a son had died. When a family had a son at war they would put a blue star in their window. If a son had died in battle they put a gold star in their window. Soldiers wrote home requesting warm clothing, candy, cookies, and other things. 

People were afraid that Japan would attack the United States again.  They had air raid drills to practice in case Japan attacked.  To let people know there would be an air raid drill a siren would sound. During air raid drills people would turn off their lights, pull their shades, and stay inside. The warden would make sure everyone did this; if he saw a light he would bang on their door and shout, “ Turn off that light!” 20 minutes later another siren would sound meaning that the air raid drill was over. People turned off all of the lights so that the invaders wouldn’t be able to see their targets.

People rationed because ships had a hard time importing things, and so that the army would have what it needed.  Rationing was also needed because places that used to make household materials had to make things for the army. It also prevented hoarding. Rationing made it hard to get the things you needed. Some things that were rationed were gas, shoes, food, clothing, metals and cigarettes, which were also called camels.

 Because of supply shortages people training to be soldiers used wood guns as guns, trucks as tanks, and flower bags as cannons.  Some 16 year-old boys wanted to fight in the war but they were not old enough so they lied that they were 17.  There was one boy when they were flying to D-Day remembered that his high school class was graduating.
   
Americans were afraid of Japanese spies during World War II.   Because the were afraid, some Americans put up signs that said things like “We don’t want Japs here ever again!”  Japanese-Americans were sent to relocation camps.  They had to sell their houses for very little, or just leave their houses, and sell or leave their pets.  People could only take two bags per person so they tried to wear as much clothing as they could.  These camps were far away from the west coast.  Kids had to go to the camps too.    The camps were like prisons.  The camps had guard towers and barbed wire.  If anyone went too close to the barbed wire, the guards were ordered to shoot.  In some of the camps, the people had to sleep in horse stalls.  The people had to stay in the camps until the end of the war.
   
An important day for the Allies was D-day.  D-day was June 4, 1944.  On this day, the Allies took the beaches of Normandy in France.   Many soldiers died that day, but the victory was important.  Paris was taken back from Germany on June 15, 1944.   September 10, 1944, Americans invaded Germany.  Berlin, the capitol of Germany, fell to the Russians April 22, 1945.  Germany officially surrendered May 7, 1945.  On May 8, 1945 there was a lot of celebrating in America.  That day is known as V-E Day.  V-E means “Victory in Europe”.
   
The war with Japan ended because America dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  V-J day (Victory in Japan) day was September 2nd, 1945.  The Japanese surrendered to the Allies on the USS Missouri.  World War II was over.

Who I Interviewed And What I Learned My first interviewee was my grandpa, Don Spencer, on Sunday January 2, 2005. I interviewed him over the phone. He was a good interviewee because he was about my age when Pearl Harbor was bombed. This is what I learned about World War II from him. I learned that he was seven almost eight when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was on the lawn with his brothers and sisters playing with their wagon and scooter. Then their mother came out to tell them that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and that they were going to have war. My grandpa didn’t know what war was. But his mother was very worried. His whole family sat around the radio and listened to president Roosevelt explain what had happened and why we were at war. My grandpa said that he was never really scared but he was worried. He was involved in the war effort because every Monday students would bring money to buy war stamps. They would transfer the stamps into a book. When the book was full of stamps, they would take the book to the post office and get a war bond. They would take turns going to the post office. While rationing was going on, my grandpa and his family had all they needed even though they had to be careful with shoes. He always looked forward to the time he could buy shoes. The only thing that he didn’t have was film so he doesn’t have any pictures of himself at that age. My grandpa moved to Oregon so his father could work in a shipyard. In the shipyard they built ships that carried supplies to the Russian people who were also fighting in the war. The people who did the work on the Russian boats were about his age. The ships were loaded with airplanes, tanks, wood, food, and clothing. He lived across the street from the park.  Whenever the Russian children came to get the ships he would play softball with them. He remembers the air raid drills. When there was an air raid drill his classmates and he would hide under their desks. No real airplanes flew over. He was 11 just when the war ended. He also had some Japanese- Americans for neighbors. They had two sons named Tut and Tom. Tut and Tom had an older brother named George.  They lived on the farm next to his. George got sent to Italy and got hurt in an explosion during the war. After the explosion he came home and my grandpa knew him for many years.   George had a job repairing small motors.  George had a hard time working because of his injuries.   Right after my grandpa’s 12 birthday his family decided to move back to Utah because everyone knew that the war would end soon.  He had three uncles fighting in the war and when they came home they had a huge family reunion so they could see each other.   I interviewed Dan Anderson on January 15, 2005 as my second interviewee.   I interviewed him at his house.  He was a good choice for me because he was a World War II veteran.   This is was what I learned from him about when he was in the army.  His branch was the Airborne Gliders. He joined June 11, 1942 and served three years and three months.  He volunteered so he wouldn’t be drafted.  He was a sergeant and in charge of 11 men. He served in Africa, French Morocco, Algeria Tunisia, and Sicily.  An important person in his life during the war was his company commander.   His company commander was important because he knew what to do, how to hold them together and do things well and that helped tremendously. He was always confident we would win the war.  The Americans had a lot of equipment but the German equipment was better than ours. The only thing that the Americans had that was better was the rifle. Ours was a M- 1 and the clip held eight bullets and it was automatic. Germany had a Mouser. It was bolt action and held five in a clip.  When America got involved Germany had been at war for four or five years. The U.S soldiers were only rookies and that made a big difference.  He said the scariest part was climbing off of the ship and onto the assault boats. They landed at noon on D-day.  He said that it scared the living sugar out of you. World War changed his life because he caught malaria in French Morocco. He spent a year in the hospital because if you don’t get the right sleep and food it comes right back at you. When he was in Algeria General Doolittle was in his camp and he was right up next General Doolittle. General Doolittle was the one that arranged the air raid on Japan. Grandpa Dan also saw DeGanl in Tunis. He was 20 years old when he came back. Then he went to his farm.  Some people were getting drafted when he got back

Bibliography Ambrose, Stephen E.  The Good Fight.  New York, NY: Byron Press Visual Publications Inc., 2001 Anderson, Dan. Personal interview.  January 15, 2005 http://www.katy.isd.tenet.edu/vfw/kkids.htm http://www.usd230.k12.ks.us/espictt/ McGown, Tom.     World War II.U.S.A: Chicago Press, 1993.  pp 18- 30. Panchyk, Richard.   World War II for Kids: A History With 21 Activities. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, 2002. Spencer, Don.  Phone interview. January 2, 2005 Welch, Catherine A.  Children of the Relocation Camps.  Minneapolis, Minnesotta: Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 2000

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