WORLD WAR II

The War Ends

AFTERMATH OF THE WAR The long war was finally over Well before the war ended, President

Roosevelt had begun to think about what the world would be like after the war.

The President had wanted to ensure that war would never again engulf the world.

He believed that a new international political organization could prevent another world war –

In 1944, at the Dumbarton Oaks Estates in Washington, DC, delegates from 39 countries met to discuss the new organization which was to be called the United Nations.

THE UNITED NATIONS The UN would have a General Assembly where

every member nation in the world would have 1 vote.

The UN would also have a Security Council with 11 members. 5 countries would be permanent members: Britain,

France, China, the Soviet Union – the 5 big powers that had led the fight against the Axis – each of these 5 would have veto power

On April 25, 1945, representatives from 50 countries came to San Francisco to officially organize the UN and design its charter (constitution)

FUNCTIONS OF THE UN

The Security Council was given the power to: vote on resolutions vote on the UN budget Investigate any international problem propose settlements to countries that had

disputes with each other Take action to preserve the peace, including

asking its members to use military force to uphold a UN resolution

PUTTING THE ENEMY ON TRIAL

In August 1945, the US, Britain, France, & the Soviet Union created the International Military Tribunal (IMT) to punish German and Japanese leaders for their war crimes.

THE NUREMBURG TRIALS

At the Nuremberg Trials in Nuremberg, Germany, the IMT tried German leaders suspected of committing war crimes.

NUREMBERG TRIALS

22 leaders of Nazi Germany were prosecuted at Nuremberg. 3 were acquitted 7 were given prison sentences 12 were sentenced to death by hanging

Trials of lower-ranking government officials and military officers continued until April 1949. Those trials led to the execution of 24 more German leaders & another 107 were given prison sentences.

FAR EAST IMT

Similar trials were held in Tokyo for the leaders of wartime Japan.

The Tokyo Trials charged 25 Japanese leaders with a variety of war crimes. 18 Japanese

defendants were sentenced to prison

7 were sentenced to death by hanging

BUILDING A BETTER WORLD The war crimes trials

punished many of the people responsible for WWII & the Holocaust, but they were also past of the American plan for building a better world.

Robert Jackson’s (chief council for the US at the Nuremberg Trials) opening statement to the court:

“The wrongs we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated.”

25-7 BOOK QUESTIONS

Pg 767 – Geography Skills 1Pg 772 - Picturing History

QuestionPg 772 – 6, 8, 10 (write letter)Pg 774 – 23, 27