Like Wednesday, we worked on our timeline for most of the hour. We started with Russia aka the USSR and learned about the Great Purge and all the horrible things Stalin did. In the Great Purge, Stalin killed everyone who was not on his side. He killed armies, generals, his own party- Communists- and many more. Communists believed in the redistribution of wealth and by decreasing the population, Stalin believed that the average Russian person would become wealthier. After that we learned about Germany's and Japans involvement in the war. In 1937, Japan was involved in "The Rape of Nanking" which I learned was when the Japanese invaded the Chinese capital and about half of the population- three hundred thousand out of six hundred thousand- died in just under six weeks. That's an incredible feat... but not in a good way!! Another thing I learned was that Germany became very nationalistic around the time Hitler became chancellor then dictator. In 1935, Hitler helps to build up Germany's military which was an act of German aggression. Hitler promised he would help Germany get out of the debts that the Treaty of Versailles put them in. By making many promises, Hitler magnifies Germany's hatred toward the Treaty and he also magnifies his own greatness. I also learned that in1939, Hitler was nominated man of the year by Time magazine, to my surprise.
Today in class we worked on a timeline of the causes of WWII. The timeline started at 1919 (World War I ends), ends at 1941 (USA enters WWII), and everything in between. At first, we just collected any information we could get our hands on involving the causes of WWII and we put it on the timeline. Then we shifted gears, and focused just on Italy's involvement. After writing all about Italy's entrance into the war, we focused on Japan, then the Russians/ USSR... starting with Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. One thing I learned today is that when Mussolini- the dictator of Italy at that time- invaded Rome and took over in 1922, Italy was still young, approximately 50 years. I was impressed that a fairly young country could take over ancient Rome. I also learned that Ethiopia had embarrassed Italy during a previous war and therefore, Italy threw a child-like tantrum and told other European countries not to buy arms and weapons from Ethiopia. Because of that, Italy and Ethiopia were nemesis' and when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935, Italy got revenge.
In the beginning of the class, we completed a KWHL chart with our partners on the McCollum Memo. After finishing that, we were instructed to prove (again) if the memo was real/ if FDR saw it/ dig deeper and get actual evidence and facts. After much frustration, Jaynie and I found evidence (finally!!!) online proving that the McCollum Memo was real and that FDR did see it because the USA did follow through with all 8 of the memo's steps in provoking Japan. One thing we found evidence for was the 6th step of the memo. On our worksheet that has an excerpt of the memo, the 6th step says, "Keep the main strength of the U.S. fleet now in the Pacific in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands". On the website we found out that FDR permanently base fleets in Hawaii instead of its normal base in the U.S. West Coast. There could've only been one reason for this, and that reason is because he saw the memo and was trying to provoke Japan!!!
Easing into working and learning after coming back from break was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. It helped that today's class was very relaxed and chill.
We started off by doing a quick write and the essential question was "How does the public's attitude change during wartime?" I approached this question by taking a more general approach, as in how does the attitude/opinions of the general population (of the world) change during times of war. Overall, I said that during wartime, people tend to lean towards the side that's winning the war. And even if people have their own opinions about the war, it doesn't really matter because the government in which they are held in makes the decisions anyways. Also, based on previous wars, people might still side with their previous allies, regardless if their previous allies are wrong or right- in terms of the war. As we discussed the question in class, I learned of a few wars that showed how people's attitudes change during wartime: Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan/Iraq. We then filled out a wiki Id- "The Arsenal of Democracy". I learned that in order to keep Great Britain from collapsing,and from Hitler taking over, the U.S. passed the lend-lease act, supported Stalin, and was involved in German wolf packs. The lend-lease act had women take on a huge industrial role in wartime production, opened many jobs, and helped production and mobilization. After discussing the Arsenal of Democracy, we continued watching the "America the Story of Us" video that we started before break. I learned about the harsh combat and war tactics that took place on D-Day, aka Operation Overload. The average life expectancy for a U.S. soldier on the beaches of Normandy fighting on D-Day was less than one minute... truly terrifying!! I also learned about theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer who worked on the Manhattan project. This project improved the atomic bomb. The U.S. launched atomic bombs on Japan and after the second bomb, Japan surrendered. These bombs were about 10,000x hotter than the sun (I didn't think it could get hotter than 15 million degrees Celsius?!?) Today in class, we started off by working on our website and our inquiry questions. I worked on the Causes of WW2 and I was surprised to find that Hitler committed suicide... I did not know that?! I had just never given any thought as to how Hitler died... but I just assumed it was not by suicide. Also, it was also very obvious how much control Hitler had over the Nazi party because a few days after he died, his party surrendered to the Allies.
For the rest of the hour, we watched an "America: The Story of Us" video. We were takin' it easy since it was the last day before spring break (yay!!!). I had known that the role of women was major in this war, but I didn't realize how dangerous it was. Women were taking over all of the jobs men had once fulfilled, and even new jobs since there was such a high demand for weapons. Many women worked in factories that produced bombs, detonators, etc., and if there was even the slightest static electricity- say from, brushing your hair for example- that was a recipe for disaster. I found that interesting, along with the use of the radar during the attack on Pearl Harbor. I just found that the guy that decided to ignore the messages displayed on the radar was not very bright. If he had not ignored the signs of the radar, he could've saved many lives. To start off the class today, we finished the back of our specificity chart using the Origins of WWII packet. I blamed the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations for having a major role in causing the WW2. If the League would have done it's job right and had not been so intimated by Hitler, none of these invasions (Japan in China, Italy in Abyssinia, and Hitler re- militarizing) would've happened and WW2 would have never started.
After finishing the specificity chart, the class split up into their partners, and so Jaynie and I worked on designing and adding information to our website. Today, I worked on the "Causes of WW2" tab and Jaynie worked on the "Mcollum Memo" tab. I have only just started the tab today, but I will be finalizing it within the next few days. So far, I believe that that the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations, the many invasions, Hitler/Nazi Party, and the Treaty of Versailles were the main causes of WWII. I have also learned a few people that were crucial in the events of WW11, such as: Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin... yet there are many more. To start off the class, we had to do a "Causes of World War 2- Issue Analysis" which was a specificity chart. The facts in the text on this worksheet contained 4 major invasions of different countries that helped spark the war. One of them was, "In March 1936, Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland- which was forbidden under the Treaty of Versailles".
After this worksheet, we had to fill out a packet which contained the origins of the war. One document I found interesting was document 5- an excerpt of "Fascism" by Benito Mussolini. I learned that Benito Mussolini deeply believed in fascism and that British and French leaders shouldn't have placed reliance on Mussolini's offers (to help keep peace in Europe) because Mussolini wasn't as interested in keeping peace as he was keeping the superior race, because he was fascist. Another document that interested me was Document 7 which was a picture featured in the Chicago Tribune. This picture has different people representing different countries: Japan, England, France, Italy, and the U.S. They are all harmoniously singing the song "Everlasting Peace" and following a conductor. From the conductors point of view, everything seems peaceful, yet what the conductor doesn't know is that Japan, England, France, and Italy are all holding guns behind their backs, ready to fight at any given moment. The guns represent the countries control/ what they hope to control/ military power. One thing I noticed was the the man representing U.S. did not have a gun, yet I couldn't seem to figure out why. To start off the class we analyzed the McCollum memo again. We had to go through it and determine what was a claim, evidence, reasoning, or recommendations... and some parts of the document might be more than one of those. We then went through it and acted like this was a 'history' lab- instead of a science lab- and labeled the document with an '*H' which meant that the piece of claim, evidence, reasoning, or recommendation on the memo could be backed up with evidence that we had to find. For example, #1 in the summary says, "The United Sates is faced by a hostile combination of powers in both the Atlantic and the Pacific." I marked it with *H because I could verify if around 1940 which countries were in the Atlantic and the Pacific that were against US and our allies.
After this, we had to find the evidence to the document. We started looking for it in our textbooks and I found out about how America became involved with the war. U.S. started to back away from neutrality; congress passed the cash-and-carry policy in which it allowed warring nations to buy U.S. arms as long as they paid cash and transported them in their own ships. Congress passed this because it was supposed to help Britain and France defeat Hitler and keep us out of war. Three nations- Germany, Italy, and Japan- formed a pact that was also aimed at keeping U.S. out of war. They were the Axis Powers. If U.S. were to declare war on one of the Axis Powers, we would end up in a 2 ocean war with war in both the Atlantic and Pacific. After this, U.S. also started to militarize. Congress passed the Selective Training and Service act and Franklin Roosevelt ran for a third term in his presidency. To keep Britain from falling and to keep the Axis Powers from being left unchalenged to conquer the world, U.S. had to help defeat the Axis Powers. Out of this came the Lend Lease Act in 1941 in which we lent or leased arms and supplies to any country whose defense was crucial to the U.S. We were the 'Great Arsenal of Democracy". U.S.'s Roosevelt ended up meeting with Britain's Winston Churchill and they agreed upon a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter became part of the basis for "The Declaration of the United Nations. First, we had to write a quick write and the essential question was, “What is the story of WW2?” I wrote, “Germany was mad for being blamed for all the reparations of WW1 due to the Treaty of Versailles, so Hitler promised that if the citizens of Germany followed him, then he would get Germany out of the Treaty. Hitler and his army of followers- the Nazis- became powerful through propaganda and started to dominate Germany. The Holocaust was a part of WW2. Germany invaded Poland and that helped start the war because it went against the Treaty. The U.S. entered after the Pearl Harbor attack”.
Second, we had to analyze a document that was reproduced at the national archives. The document is real because I determined that it was the McCollum Memo. I learned that in 1940, Lieutenant Arthur McCollum submitted the memo to Walter Anderson and Dudley Knox –navy captains that were two of presidents Roosevelt’s most trusted military advisors. The McCollum memo contained a plan for provoking Japan to attack the U.S. Throughout 1941; Roosevelt put the plan into action. The eighth step to the plan talked about why it was beneficial to have Japan attack us- “A prompt and early declaration of war after entering into suitable arrangements with England and Holland, would be most effective in bringing about the early collapse of Japan and thus eliminating our enemy in the pacific before Germany and Italy could strike at us effectively. Furthermore, elimination of Japan must surely strengthen Britain's position against Germany and Italy and, in addition, such action would increase the confidence and support of all nations who tend to be friendly towards us.” Japan did end up attacking America at Pearl Harbor and the U.S. finally entered WW2. |