The Role of the US in World War II - Research Paper Example

Various American political and military figures, as well as industry, characterized World War II. Allied leaders which were important included Franklin D. Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt decided to declare war with the attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese.
By this token, the United States was, in a sense, dragged into the war by default. The U.S. could not just stand idly by while another country (Japan) attacked its own land.
Pearl Harbor was the worst surprise attack that ever happened on American soil. Pearl Harbor was also the linchpin that drew the Americans into the war when they had been purposefully staying out of the war.
At the time, the United States’s foreign policy after WWI had been isolationism. The thinking was that if we didn’t get involved in any armed conflict, the chances that we would need to declare war were fewer.
Political influences from the Allies which had the most weight were probably Joseph Stalin of Russia and Winston Churchill of the UK.
The most influential leaders of the Axis Powers were, by far, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. While Hitler ruled Germany with an iron fist, Benito Mussolini similarly ruled Italy with an unwavering coldness.
Industry in the United States was booming. Women went to work in factories in lieu of their husbands.
People had to eat rations in the United States. Rubber and metal were saved for the war effort.
World War II transformed the world. It made people reflect on life. One Jewish man’s notes “…included an account of the last-minute remarks of …Jewish women [before death, asking] him: ‘I am still so young, I have really not experienced anything in my life, why should the death of this kind fall to my lot? Why?’”
Still, even years after the Holocaust happened, it is not uncommon for people to ask why such tragedies occur. Why was Hitler allowed to traverse all these peoples’ territories and spread a message of hate so virulent that it caused the death of over 6 million people, most of whom were Jews? Although, Hitler did not stop at just killing the Jews. He ordered the murders of several kinds of people.
“The killing of the infirm among the Germans and [Jews] were not the only components of National Socialist racial policy during the war. There was a somewhat similar program for the mass murder of gypsies [and] the Roma and Sinti…”
World War II transformed the place of the U.S. in international affairs. After World War II, the United States was seen as the hero, because American troops liberated people from the concentration camps.