Europe and japan in ruins

1. Europe and japan in ruins Section 5

2. Devastation in Europe • 40 million Europeans dead • Hundreds of cities reduced to rubble • Displaced persons from many nations were left homeless • Countrysides were destroyed and farming become near impossible • The transportation systems were destroyed, making it difficult for many citizens to gain access to food • Famine and disease killed thousands

3. Devastation in Europe

4. Costs of wwiI (p. 515)

5. Postwar governments & politics • Italians, Germans and the French did not want to see a return of fascist governments • Communist party membership skyrocketed temporarily but violence sponsored by the communists eventually caused a backlash and anti-communists governments were voted in

6. The Nuremberg trials • A series of court proceedings held in Nuremberg, Germany in which Nazi leaders were tried for aggression, violations of the rules of war, and crimes against humanity • Hermann Goring (commander of the Luftwaffe) received the death sentence but committed suicide before he could be executed • Rudolf Hess (Hitler’s former deputy) was sentenced to life in prison • The bodies of executed war criminals were cremated in the ovens at Dachau

7. Demilitarization of Japan • The process of disbanding the Japanese armed forces to only a small police force • Begun by Douglas MacArthur to ensure peace after he took charge of U.S. occupation of Japan • MacArthur also put Japanese war criminals on trial • Hideki Tojo and 6 others were condemned to hang

8. Democratization of japan • The process of creating a fair government in Japan • In 1946, MacArthur and his American political advisors drew up a constitution • Japan became a Constitutional Monarchy similar to Great Britain.