PART V OF V

THE END OF THE WAR — AND THE WORLD IT CREATED

Victory. Surrender. Homecoming. And the Beginning of a New World.

For six years, the world had been at war.

Cities had been destroyed.

Millions had been killed.

Nations had been invaded.

Families had been separated.

An entire generation had grown up knowing war.

And now, in the summer of 1945, the fighting was finally coming to an end.

But the end of a war is not the end of its story.

Sometimes it is the beginning of another one.

The world that emerged from World War II would be dramatically different from the world that entered it.

The United States would emerge as one of the world's most powerful nations.

Europe would have to rebuild.

Japan would be occupied and transformed.

The Soviet Union would emerge enormously powerful.

The United Nations would be created.

The atomic age would begin.

Millions of servicemembers would return home.

And the uneasy alliance that had defeated Nazi Germany would soon give way to the Cold War.

But first, the war had to end.

V-E DAY

The European war ended first.

After the Allied armies pushed across Western Europe and Soviet forces advanced from the east, Nazi Germany collapsed.

Adolf Hitler died in Berlin on April 30, 1945.

Germany surrendered unconditionally.

The surrender took effect in May.

May 8, 1945, became known as V-E Day — Victory in Europe Day.

For Americans, it was a moment of enormous celebration.

The war in Europe was over.

But millions of American servicemembers were still overseas.

And one enemy remained.

Japan.

The Pacific War continued.

THE WAR THAT WOULDN'T END

The Pacific had already demonstrated how costly the final stages of the war could become.

Guadalcanal.

Saipan.

Iwo Jima.

Okinawa.

Each battle had demonstrated the determination of Japanese forces to continue fighting.

Okinawa was particularly devastating.

The battle lasted from April through June 1945 and produced enormous casualties among American, Japanese, and Okinawan forces.

American planners were preparing for a possible invasion of the Japanese home islands.

The invasion was expected to be extraordinarily difficult.

There was no guarantee how Japan's government or military would respond.

There was also no guarantee how many people would die.

For Harry Truman, who had become president after Franklin Roosevelt's death in April 1945, the question was becoming unavoidable:

How do you end the war?

THE ATOMIC AGE

While armies fought across the world, another kind of war effort had been taking place in secret.

The Manhattan Project had brought together scientists, engineers, soldiers, technicians, and industrial workers to develop an atomic weapon.

On July 16, 1945, the first nuclear device was successfully detonated at the Trinity test site in New Mexico.

The world had entered the atomic age.

The weapon was unlike anything previously used in warfare.

Its destructive power was enormous.

And the United States now possessed something that had never existed before.

A weapon capable of changing the nature of war itself.

HIROSHIMA

On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

The destruction was catastrophic.

Tens of thousands of people died in the initial attack, and many more would die from injuries and radiation-related effects.

Much of the city was destroyed.

Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

Again, enormous destruction followed.

Civilians were among the dead.

Families were destroyed.

Buildings disappeared.

And survivors faced injuries and radiation effects that would continue long after the explosions.

The National Archives describes Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the first instances in which atomic bombs were used against human beings.

These events remain among the most consequential and debated decisions in modern history.

WHY WAS THE BOMB USED?

This question has never completely disappeared.

President Truman and his advisers were facing a war that had already produced enormous casualties.

The United States was preparing for the possibility of invading Japan.

At the same time, alternatives to using the atomic bomb were discussed, and historians have continued to debate the military, diplomatic, and humanitarian considerations surrounding the decision.

Truman later said he believed using the bomb would end the war and save lives that would otherwise have been lost in continued fighting.

Other historians and contemporaries have argued that alternatives existed and have questioned whether the bombings were necessary.

The historical record does not turn this into a simple question.

It was a decision made in the middle of an extraordinary war, under extraordinary circumstances, with enormous consequences.

That is precisely why it deserves to be studied rather than reduced to a slogan.

The Truman Library preserves documents from the period, including records of the discussions, correspondence, petitions, and later reflections surrounding the decision.

THE SOVIET UNION ENTERS THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN

There was another major development in August 1945.

The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8.

The Soviet declaration added another major military power to the war against Japan and opened a Soviet offensive into Japanese-held territory in Manchuria.

This mattered because Japan was now facing pressure from both the United States and the Soviet Union.

The final days of the Pacific War were therefore shaped by several events occurring almost simultaneously.

The atomic bombings.

The Soviet declaration of war.

The continued military pressure against Japan.

And the internal debate within the Japanese government over whether to continue fighting.

History rarely turns on a single moment.

Sometimes several events collide at once.

JAPAN SURRENDERS

Japan announced its acceptance of the Allied surrender terms in August 1945.

The fighting stopped.

But the formal surrender still had to be signed.

On September 2, 1945, representatives of Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

The document formally ended Japan's participation in the war.

World War II was over.

Six years after Germany invaded Poland.

Nearly four years after Pearl Harbor.

After battles across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

After the deaths of millions.

The guns finally fell silent.

The National Archives preserves the actual Instrument of Surrender signed aboard the Missouri.

THEN CAME THE HOMECOMING

For the people who had been fighting, the end of the war meant something very simple.

Go home.

Millions of servicemembers had spent years away from their families.

Some had not seen their children grow up.

Some had missed weddings.

Birthdays.

Graduations.

Christmases.

Years of ordinary life.

Now they were coming home.

Ships carried troops across the oceans.

Aircraft brought others home.

Trains carried them across the country.

And towns across America welcomed them back.

There were parades.

Crowds.

Families waiting at train stations.

People standing on sidewalks.

Signs.

Flags.

Hugs.

Tears.

For some families, it was the happiest moment they had experienced in years.

For others, there was someone missing.

Not everyone came home.

THE WOUNDED CAME HOME TOO

The war did not end for everyone when the shooting stopped.

Some veterans came home with missing limbs.

Some came home with severe injuries.

Some carried memories they would rarely discuss.

Some suffered psychological trauma that was poorly understood at the time.

Some struggled to adjust to civilian life.

They had spent years learning how to survive war.

Now they had to learn how to live without it.

The United States had more than 15 million veterans returning from World War II, and the government faced the enormous task of helping them transition back into civilian life.

THE G.I. BILL

America had begun preparing for that transition before the war ended.

In 1944, Congress passed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, better known as the G.I. Bill.

It provided veterans with education and training assistance, unemployment compensation, and home-loan benefits.

The idea was simple:

If millions of Americans had been asked to leave their jobs and families to fight a war, the country had responsibilities when they returned.

The effects were enormous.

Millions of veterans used education and training benefits.

Millions also used home-loan guarantees.

The program helped veterans establish careers, buy homes, start businesses, and build families.

The VA records that about 7.8 million World War II veterans participated in education or training programs under the original G.I. Bill.

But there was another important part of the story.

The benefits were not experienced equally by everyone.

Racial discrimination, segregation, local lending practices, and other barriers meant that some veterans had more difficulty accessing opportunities than others.

The G.I. Bill changed America.

But its benefits did not reach every American in exactly the same way.

That is part of the history too.

FROM WAR PRODUCTION TO PEACETIME AMERICA

During the war, American factories had been operating at extraordinary levels.

Aircraft.

Ships.

Tanks.

Trucks.

Guns.

Ammunition.

Uniforms.

Food.

Medical supplies.

Now the war was over.

Factories had to change.

Military production became civilian production.

A country that had spent years making weapons now had to make refrigerators, automobiles, homes, appliances, clothing, and countless other products.

The American economy was about to experience enormous change.

The wartime workforce also changed.

Millions of servicemembers returned.

Women who had entered industrial jobs during the war faced a changing labor market.

Factories that had employed women during the emergency often reduced those positions as men returned.

America was moving into a new era.

EUROPE WAS IN RUINS

America had emerged from the war with much of its industrial infrastructure intact.

Europe had not been so fortunate.

Cities had been bombed.

Railroads had been destroyed.

Factories had been damaged.

Millions of people were displaced.

Food and fuel were scarce.

Entire communities had been devastated.

The Allied victory had liberated Europe from Nazi domination.

But liberation did not magically rebuild the continent.

The war had destroyed enormous amounts of physical and human capital.

Europe had to begin again.

THE UNITED NATIONS

The world also wanted to prevent another catastrophe.

During the final months of the war, representatives from 50 nations gathered in San Francisco in 1945 to create a new international organization.

The result was the United Nations.

The U.N. Charter was signed in June 1945.

The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945.

Its creation reflected a powerful hope:

That nations might find ways to resolve disputes without repeating the destruction of two world wars.

The organization could not eliminate conflict.

But it created a new framework for international diplomacy and collective action.

JUSTICE AFTER THE WAR

Victory also raised another question.

What should happen to the people responsible for the crimes committed during the war?

The answer would become the Nuremberg Trials.

Beginning in November 1945, leading surviving Nazi officials were placed on trial before an International Military Tribunal.

They faced charges including crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The trials established important legal precedents.

They also confronted a fundamental question:

Can leaders be held personally responsible for crimes committed by a government?

The Nuremberg proceedings did not bring every perpetrator to justice.

Many escaped prosecution.

But the trials established a lasting principle in international law: individuals could be held accountable for certain crimes committed during war and persecution.

JAPAN AFTER THE WAR

Japan's story also changed dramatically.

The country was occupied by Allied forces, with General Douglas MacArthur serving as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.

The occupation involved demilitarization and political, economic, and social reforms.

Japan adopted a new constitution in 1947.

The country that had entered the war as an expansionist military empire was being transformed into a different kind of state.

The occupation would continue until 1952.

The war had ended.

But rebuilding Japan was another enormous undertaking.

THE ALLIANCE BREAKS APART

During the war, the United States and Soviet Union had fought on the same side against Nazi Germany.

They had been allies.

But they were never natural partners.

Their political and economic systems were fundamentally different.

Their visions for Europe were increasingly incompatible.

After the war, their cooperation deteriorated.

Eastern Europe came increasingly under Soviet influence.

The United States became more deeply involved in Western European security and reconstruction.

The wartime alliance was disappearing.

A new conflict was beginning.

THE MARSHALL PLAN

Europe needed more than military security.

It needed economic recovery.

In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a massive American program of economic assistance to help rebuild Europe.

Congress approved the European Recovery Program, commonly called the Marshall Plan, in 1948.

Over the following years, the United States provided more than $12 billion in assistance to participating Western European countries.

The program became an important part of the reconstruction of Western Europe.

It also became part of America's emerging strategy for dealing with the growing conflict with the Soviet Union.

The war had ended.

But the world was already dividing.

THE COLD WAR BEGINS

By the late 1940s, the United States and Soviet Union had become rivals.

There would be no direct World War III between them.

Instead, the conflict would unfold through diplomacy, military alliances, nuclear weapons, espionage, economic competition, proxy wars, and competing political systems.

The Cold War had begun.

The atomic bomb that had helped bring World War II to its conclusion had also introduced a terrifying new possibility.

Now humanity possessed weapons capable of destroying entire cities in moments.

The nuclear arms race had begun.

The world had won one terrible war.

And immediately had to learn how to live with the possibility of another.

AMERICA AFTER WORLD WAR II

The United States that emerged from World War II was not the same country that had entered it.

The federal government was larger.

The military was larger and permanently more important to national policy.

America had become a global economic and military power.

Its industries had demonstrated extraordinary productive capacity.

Millions of veterans returned with new skills and experiences.

The G.I. Bill helped millions pursue education and homeownership.

American families entered a period of major economic growth.

The suburbs expanded.

Automobile ownership increased.

Consumer goods spread.

New technologies entered civilian life.

The baby boom began.

And America entered the second half of the twentieth century with enormous confidence.

But confidence did not mean perfection.

The contradictions that existed before the war did not disappear.

Segregation remained.

Discrimination remained.

Civil rights struggles continued.

Women who had demonstrated their abilities during the war still faced unequal opportunities.

Japanese Americans were rebuilding lives after incarceration.

Native Americans continued facing longstanding economic and political challenges.

The country had won a world war.

But it still had work to do at home.

THE PEOPLE CAME HOME — BUT THE STORY DIDN'T END

This is perhaps the most important lesson of World War II.

Victory did not create a perfect America.

It created an opportunity.

The men and women who fought the war came home to a country that still had problems.

They returned to families.

Jobs.

Schools.

Communities.

Churches.

Factories.

Farms.

Businesses.

Homes.

And a future that had to be built.

The war had demanded extraordinary sacrifice.

Peace demanded something different.

Work.

Responsibility.

Rebuilding.

Compromise.

Leadership.

And memory.

WHAT WORLD WAR II LEFT BEHIND

World War II changed almost everything.

It changed America's place in the world.

It changed Europe.

It changed Japan.

It changed international law.

It changed military technology.

It changed science.

It changed medicine.

It changed industry.

It changed the American workforce.

It changed the relationship between citizens and government.

It changed the meaning of national security.

It changed the possibilities—and dangers—of technology.

And it created the nuclear age.

But perhaps its most important legacy is harder to measure.

It demonstrated what ordinary people could accomplish when an entire nation mobilized around an enormous challenge.

Farmers.

Factory workers.

Engineers.

Scientists.

Soldiers.

Sailors.

Marines.

Airmen.

Nurses.

Mechanics.

Teachers.

Students.

Families.

Millions of people performing millions of individual jobs.

No single person won World War II.

No single factory won it.

No single general won it.

No single president won it.

It was a massive human effort.

THE GREAT EXPERIMENT

America calls itself a republic.

That means the country ultimately belongs to its citizens.

World War II tested that idea in ways few generations had experienced.

Americans were asked to sacrifice.

To ration.

To work.

To serve.

To fight.

To wait.

To build.

To endure.

And when the war ended, they were asked to build something else:

peace.

The Great Experiment did not stop in 1945.

It continued.

It continued in the rebuilding of Europe.

It continued in the return of millions of veterans.

It continued in the creation of new institutions.

It continued in the civil rights struggles that followed.

It continued through the Cold War.

It continues today.

REMEMBER THEM

Before we close this story, remember the people.

Remember the soldier on the beach.

The sailor standing watch.

The Marine moving through the Pacific.

The airman climbing into a bomber.

The nurse working through the night.

The mechanic repairing an aircraft.

The factory worker building it.

The farmer producing the food.

The family waiting at home.

The prisoner hoping to survive.

The veteran trying to rebuild a life.

Remember the people who came home.

And remember those who didn't.

World War II is now more than eighty years in the past.

The generation that fought it is disappearing.

Many of the people who once carried these memories have passed away.

Soon, the responsibility for remembering will belong almost entirely to those who never met them.

That is why history matters.

Because eventually there will be no one left to say:

“I was there.”

We will have to say:

“We remember.”

THE GREAT EXPERIMENT CONTINUES

World War II ended in 1945.

But the story of America did not.

The people who fought the war left behind a country with enormous power, enormous opportunity, and enormous responsibilities.

They did not build a perfect world.

No generation ever does.

They left the next generation a country to protect, improve, question, and pass forward.

That responsibility eventually became ours.

And then it will belong to those who come after us.

A country is not built in a day.

It is built every day.

The Great Experiment continues.

THE PEOPLE.

THE VOICE.

THE FUTURE.

POLITICS 1776