Atom Warfare
On August 6th and 9th, 1945, during the closing month of World War II, the US dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese city-ports of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over 120,000 were killed in the combined damage of the two explosions, while others got injured or sick from bruises or nuclear radiation. Japan surrended two weeks later, precipitating the end of the world’s deadliest confrontation.
This photo and event are powerful because they deonstrate just how much the stakes of war have been elevated after the bombings and after World War II, and that if nuclear was ever to break out throughout the world, it would’ve been more catastrophic than most people think.
War’s End and Securing of Peace
On October 24th, 1945, in San Francisco, the Organization of United Nations, also known as the UN, was founded to prevent future world conflicts, after the barbarie of World War II. The UN served as a successor to the League of Nations, established in 1919, after World War I. However, unlike its predecessor, the UN had the cooperation of the US and other important countries, which is why it was more effective.
Currently, the UN is still operating and still takes major world issues into its hands. Its efforts have been very effective into making an example and securing peace in the postwar world.
1945-49 Division in the Post-War World
After World War II ended, the victorious Allies (The United States, The Soviet Union, England, and France) divided the city of Berlin among themselves. The resulting division of Berlin into a capitalist and communist bloc was the beginning of the so-called Iron Curtain. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill used this term to refer to the emerging rivalries between the communist Soviet Union and its capitalist former allies.
The Iron Curtain is an important part of history because it’s the first incident of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1949: Chairman Mao and Communism in China
Since 1927, China had been under a civil war: The Nationalist Kuomintang Party against the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong. A short ceasefire was given to resist Japanese invasion during World War II. However, after Japan surrended n 1945, the war resumed. In 1949, Mao won and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China. His Kuomintang oppositors fled to Taiwan. For almost 30 years, Mao ruled with an iron fist, jailing, exiling or killing his oppositors. He reamined in power until his death in 1976.
Mao promised that he was a flawless leader who could transform economy, but he actually was a crazed, brutal dictator who did nothing to better his country’s situation. His tyrannic rule left a permanent mark in the Chinese people, and his opposition to Western influence is a good example of the capitalist-communist rivalries during the postwar era.