Unit #6: Remembering the Wars Part 1: World War II – Europe Part 2: World War II – The Pacific Part 3: The Vietnam War Part 1: The War in Europe Countries Suffer after WWI • Many European countries at this time were still trying to recover from World War I. • The Allied powers that won the war had expected the enemy countries like Germany to pay for the damages of World War I. • However, Germany, who was also going through an economic depression, didn’t have enough money to do this. Countries Turn to Fascism • Although the United States and other countries like England and France went through a depression in the 1930s, they were able to keep their democratic form of government. • However, this wasn’t the case for countries like Italy and Germany. • Fascist governments started becoming attractive to countries looking for a strong leader to lead them out of economic depression. • These governments promised to revive the economy, punish those people responsible for the hard times, and restore order and national pride. Hitler and the Nazis

• Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker’s party, commonly called the Nazis, came into power in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression. • Hitler ruled as a dictator, an all-powerful ruler who was full of passionate intensity. • He set out to avenge Germany’s defeat in World War I and to create a new German state called the Third Reich. • He told his followers, “Close your eyes to pity! Act brutally!” • Hitler rebuilt Germany’s economy by preparing for another war. • His army built tanks, guns, and other war supplies. • Like a tidal wave, the Axis powers (Japan, Italy, and Germany) began taking over other countries. • World War II began on 3rd September 1939 after Germany invaded Poland. • Even though the British and French declared war on Germany, these countries were not able to stop Germany from invading and taking over other countries. Germany Continues to Fight

• After war was declared, Germany and the Axis Powers continued their attack. • In May of 1940 the Axis armies turned west and invaded France and the Netherlands. • By June 1940 France had surrendered to the Germans. • Hitler’s last remaining enemy in Western Europe, Great Britain, now stood alone. The U.S. Remains Neutral

• For the following nine months, the German air force (Luftwaffe) launched repeated bombing raids on British towns and cities. • This was known as the BLITZ and was an attempt to bomb Britain into submission. • Although the United States provided financial support to the forces fighting against the Axis Powers, the United States had remained technically neutral in World War II. • The bombing of Pearl Harbor would soon change this. • Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941. • The day after the attack at Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. • Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the war had been seen by many Americans as a foreign problem. • However, this attitude melted in the outrage over Japan’s attack. Sides are Drawn • Italy and Germany, Japan’s allies, declared war on the U.S. three days after the U.S. declared war on Japan. • The U.S. entry into the war turned the tide in favor of the Allies, but it was a long, hard fight. Axis Powers Allied Powers • Germany • United States • Japan • Britain • Italy • France • Soviet Union American Literature Reflects the War

• Entering into WWII ended the Great Depression in the United States. • New jobs were created as the U.S. produced more and more airplanes, tanks, and other war supplies. • World War II also changed American literature as well. • American writers created novels, autobiographies, and poetry that explored the effects of war on individuals. WWI vs. WWII Literature • The literature that emerged from the experience of World War II is distinctly different from that of World War I. • Unlike the disillusionment that characterized the literature of World War I, most of World War II literature is neither pessimistic nor antiwar. • Instead, it presents war in its complexity as a tragic but perhaps inevitable part of the human condition. • It also shows a nation that was united and confident in its powers to endure and to lead. Reflecting on “The Good War” • Reflecting the views of their own generation, authors writing about World War II generally accepted the justness of that war. • Their literature also shows the necessity of ridding the world of the oppressive powers of the regimes of the Nazis and Japanese. • World War II literature helped to make that war, later called the "good war," a defining moment in affirming America's democratic values and the nation's identity as a moral people. The Holocaust • As the Nazis surged across Europe, Hitler targeted certain groups for extermination – political dissenters, homosexuals, mental patients, Gypsies, Poles, Slavs, and especially Jews. • By late 1942 the Nazis had set up six death camps in Poland, where thousands of Jews were gassed each day. • In all, approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered in what became known as the Holocaust. “Armistice” • The first story that we will read in this unit is Bernard Malamud’s “Armistice.” • Set in New York City while the war rages in Europe, the story reveals the roots of the kind of racial hatred that fueled the Holocaust. • The armistice, or truce, between the two American characters at the end of the story seems unsatisfactory and temporary, just like the armistice signed by Germany and the allied European and U.S. forces at the end of World War I. • The next two selections in this part of the unit deal with the experience of ordinary combat soldiers: Randall Jarrell’s poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” and John Steinbeck’s essay “Why Soldiers Won’t Talk.” • Both Randall Jarrell and John Steinbeck had war-related experiences during World War II. “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”

• Randall Jarrell has been called “America’s foremost poet of World War II.” • Jarrell served in the U.S. Army Air Force, teaching flight navigation in Arizona. • He thus gained firsthand experience with fighter planes and gunners. • His jolting poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” recalls the terror of aerial warfare, in which combatants felt painfully vulnerable under the fire of a faceless enemy. • A ball turret, mentioned in the title of the poem, was a Plexiglas bubble on the underside of certain planes. • From it, a machine gunner fired at the enemy during combat. Jarrell’s Poetry on WWII • In praise of Jarrell’s poetry, critic Suzanne Ferguson wrote, “The motif of the soldier as a child who barely learns the meaning of his life before he loses it, who lives and dies in a dream,…is developed in one striking poem after another.” • In his poetic stance toward World War II, Randall Jarrell often took the part of the dead who sought to understand the reasons for their deaths. • In such poems as “A Pilot from the Carrier,” “Second Air Force,” and “Siegfried,” the speakers ask questions about their deaths. • Also, like the speaker of “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” the speakers of these poems present themselves as children who have barely learned the meaning of life before dying. “Why Soldiers Won’t Talk.” • John Steinbeck, writer of famous Depression-era novels Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, is also known for some of his pieces on World War II. • Steinbeck, whose work always speaks with sympathy for the common people, also reflects the point of view of the fighting soldier in his essay “Why Soldiers Won’t Talk.” • Steinbeck gained combat experience while working as a news correspondent during World War II. • To gather information for his dispatches, he spent time with a Flying Fortress unit in England, reported from North Africa, and accompanied frontline troops during the Allied invasion of Italy. Band of Brothers • In addition to these selections in your literature book, we will also read some survival stories from soldiers. • Some of these soldier’s war experiences were chronicled in the 2001 HBO mini-series called Band of Brothers. • We will also watch an episode of this show as a conclusion to part 1 of this unit. The War in Europe Ends • The war with Europe ended with the fall of Berlin and the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. • However, the Japanese were not ready to surrender, and the war in the Pacific continued to rage on.