WW2 Essay

The infamous event, WW2, was a horrific event that killed around 407,000 U.S. soldiers and 12,000 civilians. What classifies this as a World War? A World War is a war that includes all or most of the worlds strongest nations. This war was mainly between the Axis powers including; Germany, Italy, and Japan. Against the allies who consisted of; France, Great Britain, the United States, and, to a lesser extent, China. Someone might imagine already how horrible this war was. Although the real question is how did such a terrible event even start? There are many reasons why WW2 happened but this essay will break down the main and important one. 

One of the first reasons is because of the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was a signed agreement between Germany and the allies to bring an end to WW1. The terms for the treaty were mainly that Germany had to take blame for the starting of WW1, give back territory to neighboring nations, give up its overseas colonies, pay reparations to the allied powers, and greatly reduce its military power. As someone might imagine the Germans were not very happy about this treaty and wanted to get back what was taken from them. The treaty had failed in many ways. In 1945, there was a meeting, in Potsdam, with the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union to discuss the failure of the Treaty of Versailles. The main failure was that it wasn’t a compromise and Germany felt that they were getting pushed around and wanted to make it stop. Germany ended up invading Poland from September 1st to October 6th of 1939 which then made France declare war on Germany and the war officially started. France and Germany started making alliances with neighboring nations which then turned it into a world war. However, the United States did not join the war until Japan decided to bomb our naval fleet, aka the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Only then did the United States decide whether or not to join the war and the japanese left them no choice. There were quite a few more reasons but that reason was the most credible and important one. 

The 407,000 soldiers that fought and died are all heroes, here is the story of one of the most amazing and tragic heroes. This is the story of Louis Zamperini, a WW2 veteran who survived the worst and lived to the ripe old age of 97 years old. When Louis was younger he was an olympic runner who set a record lap in the 1936 olympics. Louis joined the military and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941. Unfortunately Louis’s plane went down during a search and rescue mission and he was left adrift in the middle of the ocean. Louis spent an excruciating 47 days out at sea with no food or water, it was miraculous that he survived but he pulled through and landed on a japanese occupied marshall island. Although, his misfortune was long from over and he was captured right after by the japanese who had been occupying the island. As a prisoner of war, Zamperini endured daily torture with bareley sufficient food or water, he endured this for 6 weeks without end. Even though he spent six weeks as a prisoner he was not rescued after but was sent to the japanese mainland to live in a prison camp with other prisoners. There he was mistreated, starved and often beaten for no sensual reason. He spent 2 years in these prison camps, so long that he was pronounced dead by the U.S. military. Zamperini was only released after the war ended in 1945 and left battered and in need of serious psychological help. Zamperini pulled through and recovered but suffered from alcoholism and he and his wife, Cynthia, came close to a divorce. Although they did not get a divorce and they stayed together for 54 years after her death in 2001. What stopped Zamperini from being an alcoholic was him being inspired by a sermon he saw in Los Angeles in 1949 that made him turn his life around. Zamperini recently died in 2016 but a movie was made in his recognition, it is called Unbroken which was produced and directed by Angelina Jolie. The movie came out on christmas day of 2014 and Louis got to see the movie before laying in his deathbed. 

There were quite a lot of important events in WW2 and a lot of battles made a big difference in the war. For example, the battle of Pearl Harbor is what initiated the start of the war for the United States. The japanese intended the attack to prevent the U.S. from interfering with planned actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, so they bombed the naval fleet in Hawaii. The attack was a surprise and the United States was not prepared for the battle and suffered mass casualties. The battle of Midway was a reverse from the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battle was between the japanese and the U.S. in an air and water battle. Japan, again, decided to attack one of the United States major bases located at Midway, but the United States did not falter this time. The United States successful defense against the japanese destroyed Japan’s hopes of neutralizing the U.S. as a naval power. The Invasion of Normandy aka D-Day is probably the most famous battle of WW2. This operation of the allied forces was successful but led to a lot of bloodshed and losses during the horrific battle. The allied forces took metal landing crafts with a ramp attached to the end to the beach at Normandy while being barraged by bullets from Germans sitting in highly secured bunkers. The brave soldiers were being cut down by high fire rate machine gun’s and still kept on pushing the enemy’s line with little to no cover, yet they ended up liberating the enemy line and forcing Germany to give up control of Western Europe. The Battle of Berlin was a very significant battle because it signified the fall of the German forces and its allies. Berlin was one of the last major offensives for Germany and its allies, taking it down was very significant for the allied forces. Although that was important the battle of Berlin meant that the German army would have to surrender if they lost. The battle was won by the Soviets and it led to the surrender of Germany and the death of Adolf Hitler. This ended WW2 with a victory for the allied forces. As someone might assume that battle was near the top of most important of WW2. 

The result of WW2 affected the world in a positive way. It helped form the United Nations which gave smaller nations a voice in this world and brought about peace from Nazi Germany and Afolf Hitler. The allied forces helped free many nations from the control of Germany as well. Overall, the outcome of WW2 was in the world's favor seeing as the allied forces intent was good. 

biography.com/military-figure/louis-zamperini

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