Big Picture

Questions

1. On what date did the Japanese launch a surprise attack against the American naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii?

2. What battle marked the turning point for the Americans in the war in the Pacific?
3. Which of America's allies in World War II suffered the greatest number of casualties?
4. Approximately how many European Jews were murdered by the Nazis?
5. Why is World War II, such a deadly and destructive conflict, remember as "The Good War"?

Answers

1. December 7th, 1941.
2. The Battle of Midway in which the American air force crippled the Japanese navy.
3. The Soviet Union, by a large margin.
4. Some 6 million.
5. Despite the destruction, death, and devastation, the war helped usher in a new world order, one in which Hitler's Third Reich in Europe was no more, and some of history's most heinous crimes had been exposed and resisted. In the United States, wartime mobilization pulled the American economy out of depression, employing millions. American women and blacks experienced some freedoms unattainable in pre-war society. And on the world stage, the United States earned a new, powerful and coveted role.