“There never was a good war or a bad peace.” So wrote Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Josiah Quincy on September 11, 1773. Interesting thought—interesting date. Studs Terkel wrote a book about World War II, in which he called it “The Good War,” a sentiment often felt, most probably because the enemies of World War II—Nazi Germany and militarist Japan—were of such evil character that anything necessary to defeat them was deemed good. In the aftermath, most Americans accepted that view, at least for a decade or two. But nobody has ever argued that there was anything good about the war itself. In the end at least 50 million human beings had perished—a level of destruction scarcely imaginable, even after the carnage of World War I—World War II took slaughter to new levels. It was the most destructive war in history and, so far, the last world war.
Resources
Overview
Background
Rise of Nazi Germany
America at War
The “Good War”
The Pacific War
The European War
The Air War
The Home Front
In 1939 when the war began in Europe, one had a sense that it was nothing but the latest round in an endless cycle of violence going back through the centuries—to the Hundred Years War, the Thirty Years War, the War of the Roses, the imperial wars and wars of revolution—and only a fool could hope that this would be the last war. Woodrow Wilson had dreamed of making the world safe for democracy, but now it seemed as if what happened at Versailles had merely made the world safe for totalitarian dictators and their appeasers. During the 1920s and 1930s men of good will in all parts of the world worked to avoid the next eruption. But the world was too fragmented, people too frightened, governments too timid, and the means of preserving peace were never achieved. In 1937 in Asia, 1939 in Europe and in 1941 for America, despite the heartfelt efforts of many good people, it all started once more.
So once again the world was plunged into darkness, into the hideous abyss of destruction and despair, until, on the other side of the conflict, the nations emerged to yet another dangerous world, full of uncertainty, shrouded by the clouds of radiation that floated across the heavens from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As the Cold War took shape over the ensuing decades, people took it for granted that there would be a third world war. People wondered, “What will the next one be like? Will there be anything left?”
Here is information about the “last” world war.
Left: The Japanese Surrender in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II