World War II

World War II broke into active combat with Germany's attack on Poland (Sept. 1939). During 1939–41 the U.S. was split by views ranging from intervention to isolationism. Meanwhile Japan, seeking expansion in a so‐called Greater East Asia co‐prosperity sphere, pursued undeclared war in China and seized the opportunity of French defeat to establish troops in southeast Asia and enter the Rome‐Berlin “axis.” On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor, crippling the U.S. Pacific fleet, after which Germany and Italy followed Japan in declaring war on the U.S. After great losses in the Orient and the Pacific, including the Philippines, the U.S. and Allied forces began an offensive over island “stepping stones” to the Philippines (Oct. 1944) and to Iwo Jima and Okinawa, within bombing distance of the enemy's home islands. During this time the Russians had turned back besieging Germans at Stalingrad (Nov. 1942) and the U.S. air forces had joined Allied raids on strategic European military and industrial installations, systematically reducing Germany's ability to wage war. In November 1942, Anglo‐American forces landed in Algeria and Morocco and, in a campaign climaxed by a fierce struggle for Tunisia, drove the enemy from North Africa (May 1943). During 1943 the tide of Axis success was turned by the maturing of the vast industrial power of the U.S., the stubborn military might of the U.S.S.R., the tenacity of a Britain fighting for survival, and underground resistance in occupied countries. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had commanded Allied troops in the African campaign, led the invasions of Sicily (July 1943) and Italy (Sept. 1943), and became supreme commander of the Allied forces that invaded the Normandy peninsula on “D‐Day” (June 6, 1944). Germany finally capitulated on “V‐E Day” (May 8, 1945). Faced by the might of the Allied nations and appalled by the atomic bombs' devastation of Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 8), the Japanese surrendered on “V‐J Day” (Aug. 14, 1945). The wartime cooperation of the Allied nations was formalized into the United Nations.

Besides reportage, including the works of Ernie Pyle and William L. White, American writings concerned with the war include Maxwell Anderson's The Eve of St. Mark, Harry Brown's A Walk in the Sun, Cozzens's Guard of Honor; Joseph Heller's Catch‐22; Hersey's A Bell for Adano, Hiroshima, and The Wall; James Jones's From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line, and Whistle; Mailer's The Naked and the Dead; Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy; Shapiro's V‐Letter; Shaw's The Young Lions; Stein's Brewsie and Willie and Wars I Have Seen; Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse‐Five; and Wouk's The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.