The 1944 Warsaw Uprising (not to be confused with the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising when the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto tried to overthrow their Nazi captors.) Poland, lying between Germany/Prussia and USSR/Russia, was, over the centuries, a political football for those and other European countries. One country or another was trying to subjugate the Poles and make the country…

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Disillusion with the country’s involvement in World War I characterized the national mood in the years between the wars. “World War I left a determination in millions of Americans never to fight again; at no time in our history has the hold of pacifism been stronger than the interlude between the first and second world wars…. The country was hostile…

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Against Woodrow Wilson’s advice, Germany was severely punished by the Allies after World War I, creating great German resentment over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Germans suffered depressed economic conditions as a result of reparation payments imposed on them by the Treaty. For example, during the 1920s, inflation in Germany was astronomical. There are anecdotes of prices for…

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In Italy, Benito Mussolini, known as “El Duce” or “the leader,” was installing a Fascist system similar to the Nazis in Germany. His political party was called the National Fascist Party. Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and ruled until he was deposed in 1943. Characteristic of the Fascist approach was a quote attributed to El Duce:   “We…

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In April 1931, the Spanish people elected a republican legislature that replaced the monarchy that had ruled the country for centuries. This event led to a struggle for power between those that supported the Republic (Loyalists) and those that backed the monarchy (Royalists). The Loyalists were made up of the Spanish working class, who advanced liberal policies of building an…

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Control of the Japanese government in the 1920s and 1930s was increasingly in the hands of the military and expansionists. The Japanese developed the idea of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” the concept of a Japanese sphere of influence encompassing Southeast Asia (Indochina), China, the Philippines, and the southern Pacific Islands. They were determined to exert their control over…

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On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland using a new military tactic called Blitzkrieg or “lightening war,” which was characterized by fast-moving columns of motorized armored vehicles supported by air power. This new style of warfare made WW I entrenchment tactics obsolete. The Poles fought bravely, but it was literally horse cavalry against tanks and panzers. They did not stand…

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Given the shifting winds of international affairs, Congress reversed course somewhat and passed the Neutrality Act of 1939. This legislation permitted “all aid to the Allies short of war.” The U.S. began the sale of arms to Britain, France and China, and started to transfer surplus military materiel to the U.S. allies. However, the authority in the 1939 Neutrality Act…

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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the “date which will live forever in infamy,” destroyed about 200 American planes in two hours and 150 others were damaged. Eight battleships and three light cruisers were sunk or damaged. Two thousand four hundred Americans were killed with 1,200 Americans wounded. Fortunately, no American aircraft carriers were in harbor…

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One hundred twenty five thousand people born in Japan or of Japanese descent, known as “Issei” lived in the United States at the time of Pearl Harbor. One hundred and ten thousand of them lived on the West Coast. There were an additional 70,000 persons of Japanese ancestry born in the U.S. These people were referred to as “Nisei.” (TFC,…

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