Outbreak of war
War engulfed much of the world from the end of the 1930's until Late 1945. The conflict was between the Allied powers and the Axis powers who were fighting over the control of land and resources throughout Europe and the Pacific. Allied Forces included the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, as well as France, China, Australia and many other countries. During this time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the President of the United States, Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were the leaders of Nazi Germany and Italy respectively and Emperor Hirohito was the leader of Japan, though much of the foreign policy was carried out by Hideki Tojo. The war had many causes, including the Treaty of Versailles reached at the end of World War One as well as
European Theater
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In the European theater the United States of America was allied with Great Britain and the Soviet Union as well as the other allies. The United States and her allies were fighting against the Axis of Nazi Germany and Italy in the European theater. The United States were the primary suppliers of food and arms for the Allies as it was the only Allied country without fighting occurring on its soil. The United States entered the fighting in Europe in 1941 and stayed through the end of the war. The United States participated in such major events as the Battle of the Bulge and the D-Day landings at Normandy. Because of her industrial might, the United States was a huge ally in the European Theater. The war against Nazi Germany formally ended on May 7, 1945 when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Soviet Union and the United States separately.
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Pacific Theater
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On December 7, 1941 the United States of America was dragged into the conflict in the Pacific by the bombing of Pearl Harbor, an act of aggression carried out by the Japanese. The Japanese, one of the Axis powers, was attempting to gain land in the Pacific and hoped to delay American response by staging a preemptive strike on the Pacific Fleet; the Japanese believed that a preemptive strike was the only way to win out against the American industrial power. The United States was led by General Douglas MacArthur of the Army as well as Admiral Chester Nimitz of the Navy. Many of the battles occurred in the seas and in the air as well as on islands. The war in the Pacific formally ended on September 2, 1945, just under a month after the United States dropped two of the first Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan.
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