Major Event of the 1940s, Essay Example

The 1940s was a historic epoch starting on first January 1940 and ending on 31^st December 1949 with major events as a characteristic feature (Best, 2002). This paper posits to critically analyze major event of the 1940s with particular interest on Second World War, bombing of Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US and the Holocaust. 

Most of the events that were associated with Second World War were executed during the first half of 1940 decade. The Second World War was associated with profound implications on majority of the countries as well as people across Asia, Europe and many other regions. The war-weary aftermaths of the Second World War was projected in the decade’s second half. One of the notable effects involved division of Europe in to the Soviet Union and the West, thus setting the pace for the Cold War. To a greater extent, the management of internal as well as external tensions that were associated with post-war epoch were executed by newly initiated institutions such as the Bretton Woods system, the United Nations as well as the welfare state which were significant facilitator of post–World War II boom that projected until 1970s.

The Second World War involved an international whole war involving majority of global countries. The effects of the war were severe on the civilian population with a characteristic feature of nuclear weapons application, thus making it to be the deadliest conflict ever witnessed in history. The aftermath Second World War involved decolonization coupled with emergence of other governments as well as states including Vietnam, India, Israel and Pakistan, with some of the new government establishments declared independence. This epoch was also associated with proliferation of new technologies such as jet propulsions, computers as well as nuclear power.

The bombing of Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US was executed towards the end of the Second World War on 6^th August 1945. The US B-29 bomber was used to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima city of Japan. The effects of the bomb involved an explosion that swabbed 90% of entire Hiroshima city leading to the deaths of approximately 80, 000 people and a further several thousand being subjected to radiations that consequently led to their deaths thereafter (Best, 2002). The Hiroshima attack was closely followed by another bombing, three days later, that targeted Nagasaki leading to the death of approximately 400, 000 people. This was an extremely cruel occurrence that prompted Emperor Hirohito of Japan to declare an unconditional surrender of his country. The bomb was perceived as the most cruel due to the devastating power that was witnessed. The end of the Second World War left Japan reconstructing most parts of Hiroshima. However, one of the areas destroyed by the bomb, called Peace Memorial Park was not rebuilt and was left intact to serve as a reminder of the devastating effects associated with the bombing. Most people gather at this place every 6^th day of august to conduct an interfaith religious ceremony in commemoration of the bombing.

The Holocaust was yet another significant event associated with the 1940s that involved a state-sponsored bureaucratic, systematic persecution as well as murder that was executed by the Nazi regime together with their collaborators targeting approximately six million Jews. The population of the Jewish in Europe was estimated at nine million in 1933 (Callahan, 2006). Majority of these people occupied the region that was later to be influenced by the Nazi during the Second World War (Bergen, 2003). The Nazi implemented the “Final Solution” policy that involved execution of European Jews. The Greek meaning of the Holocaust is “sacrifice by fire”. The Nazi ascended to power in Germany with a notion of racial superiority of the Germans while the Jews were considered as inferior and an alien threat thus culminating in to German racial community. The original intention of Germans was deportation of Jews but the dynamics of the war changed. The concentration camps were converted in to death camps. The holocaust was marked by a systematic execution of the Jews, the Soviet war prisoners, the Slavs, the physically as well as mentally disabled, political opponents and any other Nazi group that was perceived as being impure. The holocaust involved mass murder and sadistic experiments followed by creation of an ideology that served as a justification of crimes perpetrated against humanity as well as human dehumanization. The consequences of the holocaust were the deaths of about 15 to 20 million people (Hilberg, 2003).

Since the beginning of Nazi regime, the German government was involved in prosecution of of people whose behavior was perceived to contradict the social norms of the Germans such as homosexuals. The German government used police officials to target their political opponents who worked in organizations such as trade unions, the socialists as well as the communists and also religious dissidents with Jehovah witnesses as a good example. Most of these groups of people were subjected to high echelons of maltreatment and incarceration that consequently resulted to their deaths.

References

Bergen, D., (2003). War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Best, G., (2002). Churchill: A Study in Greatness. London: Continuum,

Callahan, R., (2006). “In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (review)”. The Journal of Military History 70 (2): 551–552.

Hilberg, R., (2003). The Destruction of the European Jews. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.