WWII: The Price of Empire

WWII ended over 70 years ago, but for those who lived it, the memories endure. To grasp its depth, we begin before the start—what Churchill called The Gathering Storm.

Japan's invasion of China and fascist rises in Italy and Germany push the world to the brink. Mussolini and Hitler’s ambitions threaten peace across Europe and Asia.

Six months after France fell, Molotov visited Berlin to plan the postwar world. He was told Britain was defeated—but Britain wasn’t beaten, only alone.

In 1941, Britain held firm under threat. Japan’s actions made the war global—but first, the conflict was transformed by one word: Barbarossa, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union.

By mid-1941, Germany and the USSR were at war. By year’s end, the U.S. would join after what Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy”—shifting the fate of the world.

Hitler took half a war to build his empire—and half a war to lose it. Japan expanded rapidly too, only to begin its decline midway through the global conflict.

A grand Axis plan imagined Germany pushing east and Japan west, meeting in India. But crushing setbacks in 1942 ended that dream—and marked the end of the beginning.

In conference after conference, the Allies planned victory and peace. Fighting on two fronts, 1943 marked the turning point—for both the Allies and a now-defensive Axis.

In 1943, the Axis was on the defensive everywhere. In 1944, The Allies strength would grow in the East, and in the Soviet Union with the opening of the second front.

With the second front open, the Allies broke out of Normandy and backed the Red Army. In the Pacific, retaking the Philippines brought them closer to Japan’s home islands.

Germany and Japan started the war through aggression—but by 1944, both were losing ground fast, forced to retreat and facing demands for unconditional surrender.

After years of war, the defeat of Hitler and the Third Reich is inevitable. Peace in Asia will follow peace in Europe after the detonation of the atomic bomb.