The End of WWII

Different Circumstances for Each Front

USS Missouri

The Loss of a PresidentThe Loss of a President

• FDR does not get to see WWII end

• Dies of a stroke April 12, 1945

• Harry S. Truman becomes President that night

Hey Truman… have you heard of

the Manhattan Project?

Germans are Going Down!Germans are Going Down!• Battle of the Bulge: last German offensive

• Allies liberating the Nazi death camps

• Hitler and his wife commit suicide

• V-E (Victory in Europe) Day:

May 8, 1945, Germans surrender

FDR’s Funeral ProcessionFDR’s Funeral Procession

The Manhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project

• Gen. Leslie Groves and scientist Robert Oppenheimer lead the development of the Atomic Bomb

• 1st test: July 16, 1945 in

Alamogordo, NM.

Melted quartz with traces of olivine and feldspar

trinitite

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, JapanHiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan

• Aug. 6, 1945: “Little Boy” is dropped on Hiroshima – Japan refuses to surrender

• Aug. 9, 1945: “Fat Man” is dropped on Nagasaki• August 15, 1945 Japan surrenders• Emperor Hirohito surrenders formally on Sept. 2, 1945

aboard USS Missouri

Adm. Nimitz signs on behalf of U.S.

Emperor Hirohito signs on behalf of Japan

Surrender on USS MissouriSurrender on USS Missouri

Devastation

• Within 5 months, over 200,000 Japanese died

• “They say temperatures of 7,000 degrees centigrade hit me… Nobody there looked like human beings…People with their legs wrenched off. Without heads. Or with faces burned and swollen out of shape. The scene I saw was a living hell.” -Yamaoka Michiko