Effects of World War Two

Effects of World War Two
Marie A Spicer
HIS331
Professor Golding
June 2, 2013

What were the effects of World War Two? Well there were quite a few, I will concentrate on 3 of them and explain their effects. World War II was the worst war we have ever seen, we lost many lives, woman entered the work force, and we became a super power. September 1939 and September 1945 it is estimated that more than 50 million people died.
How did the war effect woman? The war also was an enormous step for women 's rights supporters. Because of the war, the government of every country drafted men to serve in the army. Men were called to war leaving the woman behind to fill their shoes. The War Manpower Commission, a Federal Agency was made to increase the manufacturing of war materials, they had the job of convincing women into taking employment vital to the war effort. Most seem eager due to the fact that their wage would be higher.
Men did not like the idea of woman taking their jobs and, women had to change their ways of thinking about working outside the home as well. It was a big change for everyone involved but a much needed one. Women left their laundry and vacuums behind and ventured into unknown territories. Woman needed to take control and take a stand and do what they could to help in a time of war. I can’t even imagine the stress being separated from their families and not knowing what was to come, but they stood together and they conquered. Women took over for men in factories and shops. They changed their clothing from fancy wear to pants and overalls. Many of the woman took on job they never fathomed they could do, but they did and did their jobs well.
It affected woman by giving them jobs great pay and many liked this also giving them new freedoms, some even met husbands. There were many towns across the nation that felt a positive economic lift due to the demand for manufactured war materials. Mobile Alabama was the one that was affected the most. An estimated ninety-thousand people came into the Mobile to work in the local war factories, the attraction was mainly due to the workyards (Gulf Shipbuilding and Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding) or in the ALCOA factory. The ALCOA plant alone would produce more than a third of the nation’s aluminum, a metal used for the manufacturing of airpcraft., without the women, these factories would have never been so successful as they turned out to be. Woman kept them going and made a name for themselves as hard workers.
When the war was over, many women returned home, as they were relieved from their positions. Some were allowed to stay on but a drop in pay was to come as the men were back and they wanted women to go home. Most women’s husband’s wanted their wives back in the kitchen so to speak. Their jobs were given back to the men. However, there were lasting effects. Women had proven themselves, they had shown that they could do a man’s job, and do it well. Women found a place in the workforce in the decades to come. What people didn’t see right away was that these woman having nothing to really spend their money on during the war had saved it and were now able to purchase homes by using the money saved as a down payment for a mortgage. This help launch the great wealth of the 1950s. I believe that this was an important step for woman, I truly believe this was a stepping ground to give woman a voice to show men that woman can do anything she sets her mind to and that we don’t just belong in the home. A very big deal, a very good outcome in the years to come. Women were also very important in entertainment. “The two most famous female entertainer of the war were Vera Lynn (now Dame Vera Lynn) and Gracie Fields. Vera Lynn 's singing ("There 'll be blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover" and "We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when") brought great happiness to many in Britain. She was known as the "Forces Sweetheart". Gracie Fields was another favorite with the forces.” These entertainers helped with the troops morale and gave them a little bit of sunshine in a place where there wasn’t any. It was a way to keep them going and keep up their spirits in such a stressful time. Women also were used as secret agents under Churchill, they were very dangerous missions as they would parachute in and if caught they would be tortured and murdered. Woman played such a big role in place of the men, they were brave and I believe without them things would have gone south for sure. Our women did what they knew they had to do in desperate times and they all should never be forgotten or taken for granted, theses woman fought at home and did a dam good job. Now let’s talk about the lives lost, more than fifty million people lost their lives in World War Two. The Soviets lost approximately twenty million also known as "The Great Patriotic War". The Nazis murdered many civilians, the count was in the millions, they say of the millions murdered 6 million were Jews. Poland, Japan, German and China all had high number of deaths. America lost the least which was about 300,000, so much death and despair so many lives cut short. There were many Prisoners of war (POWs) many suffered extreme conditions and many lost their lives. The Germans captured millions of Russians and they killed about three million of them in horrific ways. In1933, the Nazis were sending men, woman and children to so called camps. At first, these camps were somewhere in Germany (like Dachau and Bergen-Belsen) and were used for hated people or problem people: To the Nazis, these hated people or troubled people included the Unwanted, sick ,elderly prisoners, gays , and Jews. For most of the war, these so called camps also jailed Soviet POWS and slaves. Killings were almost an everyday thing, and many prisoners of the camps were just worked to the bone. It wasn 't until later in the war , that these so called camps came to be known for the Jews. The killing camps, as we know them were definitely only for the Jews from the very start; these were the god awful places the Nazis made so they could kill to all of the Jews . Disgusting isn’t it? As the control of the Jews spread through Europe, the removal of Jews to so called camps and murder camps became enormous. For two years , Austria, Hungary, and even France removed all Jews from their countries Even though Germany was already doing this for some time, it wasn 't until 1941 that the Nazis began an enormous uproar on the removing of Jews.
The slums of Poland were another Nazi plan, Hitler had a need to erase the Jews from the Polish territory .In order for this to be done, the Nazis moved the Jewish population to different parts of cities, and they were not to leave. Structures like fences were put up and armed with military forces to make sure. In 1942, as the Nazis worked on their sick demented plan, Jews were being put to death for whatever reasons they deemed
Without saying , the worst part of WWII was the Holocaust, the Nazis sick way of doing away with Jews, , the sick and anyone else they deemed not right in their eyes, the total number of these people had to be in the high millions, I would say over 11 million or higher.
Every shack had a Jewish leader, who was responsible making people follow the rules given by the Nazis. The leader, was also in charge for giving food, ruling the camp and making sure they stayed in line.
The living conditions in the slums were beyond words. With hardly anything to eat they ate scarps they could get their hands on , and thrust me it was very ,very little, doctors care was a joke and many died of infection, and plain old starvation. Many Jews were murdered for nothing at all, just because they could kill they did
The slums were just a place to house the Jews till they killed them, these slums served as a waiting house till they had a chance to do away with them, so sad but true.
The death camps, like Auschwitz,, were deemed special due to the fact they were large areas were Jews would be held for a short period of time till they could be murdered.. Jews were treated like cattle being squished onto trains and shoved into houses were they were gassed some were even shot. Some were able to stay alive a bit longer and worked where ever they needed them, until it was their turn to die, can you imagine watching people die knowing it will be your turn soon? How frightful one must have been. The murder camps used the chambers as their means of murder, and they worked well for the purpose they intended. Some, such as the twin chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau could fit over four thousand people at one time. Jews, before going into the chambers were told to remove their clothes; then they were pushed into the buildings . It wasn’t quick it took about twenty minutes or more for all to die.
The dead Jews were treated terrible, they ripped out any teeth that were worth anything and took jewelry if they found it. When that was done they burned them in a big pile like discarded trash.
This was a terrible outcome for the Jewish community not to mention the terrible loss of life, trying to wipe out all traces of Jewish people, a tragedy for sure.
This brings us to the dropping of the Atomic bomb, In August, 1945,we destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This was the first ever atomic bomb used by the military, On August 6, 1945,. The bomb, also known as "Little Boy," was sent down on Hiroshima. By the end of 1945, 140,00 people had died as a direct result of the bombing .In the five years to come , another 60,000 would die of bomb-related causes. The blast killed many children, mothers, fathers aunts uncles, sisters brothers it took many human lives including military lives. .
The second bomb, also known as "Fat Man," blew up over Nagasaki, on August 9, 1945. It killed 70,000 people and about of 140,00 died over the next several years.
How did this impact the war? Well we saved many lives on both sides as we would have had a lot more lives lost to fighting if we invaded. . The world may be different today, Japan may have been totally wiped out. One of the saddest things was all the lives lost in Japan. It seemed very cruel but it was believed to have been the quickest way to end things since Japan wouldn’t surrender. People just wanted peace and things were dragging on and on. And the United States was losing patients. Also I feel what they did to us at Pearl Harbor might have intensified things.
The dropping of the bomb to me seems justified, it ended the war and saved life’s, unfortunately live had to be lost to save lives. I also believe nations looked at us with fear and knew we were not going just lay don and take it, we made a stand and stood ground. Super Power? Germany was done with , as well as of most of Europe. The British were going to lose their fortress after 50 years of war and fighting . Japan had dryed up its well of rations and sources and strength of men, and had their industry destroyed by the US bombing campaign. For some time , only the US had nuclear bombs. While mixed with the military power gathered at the outbreak of the fight, one seemed like a strong unit. At least until people undercover told the mysteries of atomic bombs to the Soviets. “This began the Cold War nuclear standoff between the US and the new Russian empire, a complex ideological battle between capitalism and communist totalitarianism.” World War II outcomes allowed the USSR to become a superpower. In 1940 one thought that if the Soviet Union had succumbed to enemy fire, thinking they could batten down that hatches allowing time for the West to come to their aid with their armies. In 1945 the Soviet forces were passing through Berlin. Some believed this was all Stalin’s plan, sort of the way Roosevelt tried to achieve world supremacy? No of course not!.
Scared by the large quantity of assistance the United States was lending to Western Europe, the Soviet Union acted with its so called economic aid to its territories. This fight would lead to the Western feared that Soviets would get control, and was one of the precursors to the arms-race of the Cold War.
The slate for the upcoming rise of the Superpower was seen in the time following up to and during World War II. The need of the coming of superpowers came because of the falling of Great Britain and France, and the falling created in Europe. Germany and Italy tried to fill this gap while Britain and France were more concerned with their colonial empires.
The United States and the Soviet Union stopped the battle with big advancements in training power. . Near the end of the war, the United States was in the first place of having the world ' biggest and mightiest economy. This enabled them to close the hole left in Europe by the declining powers. Does this, however, make them Superpowers? With the strong things s that they both have in their clutch, after the war, it was and it would make the United States and the USSR superpowers.

Stalin would have loved to see Russian rule in Europe but there was no set plan to do so .Stalin was smart,. He told Britain and America to recognize lands it had made with Germany. Stalin 's had a plan to grab hold of all the territory that his military could get, so he could create a socialist state. Now there were two countries who had been mostly unharmed during the war they were the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States. The USSR had only been damaged on its western side; the other side was untouched in any way. The United States had sent its military over to Europe; no blood shed or fighting was done on American land. The war did wonders for the American economy; it ended the Great Depression and allowed the United States to become a superpower.
What were the effects of World War Two? Well there were quite a few, I will concentrate on 3 of them and explain their effects. World War II was the worst war we have ever seen, we lost many lives, woman entered the work force, and we became a super power. September 1939 and September 1945 it is estimated that more than 50 million people died. After reading this you should be able to understand the points I made. Everything that happened did affect us and some was good and some was horrible.

References
Divine, Robert . "The Cold War as History" Issue 3, vol. 21, Sept 93: 26-32..
Harvard University Press Racing the Enemy : Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi: Cambridge, MA, USA Date Published: 2005 (AU)
Harvard University Press GI Jews : How World War II Changed a Generation Moore, Deborah Dash: Cambridge, MA, USADate Published: 2004
Plowright, J. (2007). The Causes, Course and Outcome of World War Two. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillian

References: Divine, Robert . "The Cold War as History" Issue 3, vol. 21, Sept 93: 26-32.. Harvard University Press Racing the Enemy : Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi: Cambridge, MA, USA Date Published: 2005 (AU) Harvard University Press GI Jews : How World War II Changed a Generation Moore, Deborah Dash: Cambridge, MA, USADate Published: 2004 Plowright, J. (2007). The Causes, Course and Outcome of World War Two. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillian