The Reason behind United States’ Involvement in World War II

After the World War I, Nazi Germany started the World War II led by Hitler for the purpose of regaining its power in Europe and rescuing the country from economic and social crisis. Joining the Nazi Germany, Japan also hoped to solve its inland problems by expanding in China and other Asian-pacific countries and areas. Besides, Italy was just a follower and tried to benefit from Germany’s victory in Europe. Therefore, the mainland of United States could not possibly be affected by the war. It is right that the United States entered the war because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, however, which was only the flash point. The involvement in the most widespread war in history would mean such many huge effects and numerous casualties that the decision of it must have been under preparation for a long time.

Even though didn’t participate in the war from the beginning in 1939 and claimed neutrality, the United States had worked against the arms embargo provisions and sold weapons to the allies, and built up her military force to help Britain through the lend-lease deal with the significant efforts of President Roosevelt. As cleared by Roosevelt, America should be "the great arsenal of democracy." At the time of World War II, the old powerful countries in Europe such as Brain and France were severely damaged because they were in the center of the battlefield. Germany and Italy started the war with an unjust cause and became the enemy of the majority of the world, so they were doomed to loose. It was evident to the United States that the leading positions of the world would be changed, and that was a great opportunity. Notably, both the military force and economic status had been well prepared in the United States. A person may be selfless, but a country is definitely “selfish” with all the competitions existing between other nations. In summary, benefits are the reasons behind most of the decisions any country makes.

The United States fought the war both on European land and Pacific ocean, such as the Normandy landing against the Nazis led by General Eisenhower and the battle of Midway in the Pacific led by General MacArthur. The millions of military soldiers fought at the front line, and all the rest Americans worked inland to produce necessary weapons and materials, which made the United States become a major role in the war.

However, the nature of United States involving in the World War II is far more than only benefits. What Germany did to Jew and what Japan did to Chinese during the war were against the humanity and condemned by the people in the rest of the world, so the United States entered the war for the right cause.

Because the mainland of United States was not on the battlefield and the industrial and scientific development were substantially motivated by the war, the great depression ended, and the economy started booming after the war. With inputting significant efforts in military production, untied stated had dramatically increased the military power and created the nuclear power. Only the Soviet Union and the United States could compete for the leading position in the world because all the powerful European countries needed recovery from the war. Later the completion between them escalated to cold war, which forced the United States to increase military and defense spending further resulted in increasing unemployment rate and many social problems.

The same pattern which emerged with the World War I continued with the second: warring European powers, blockades, official U.S. neutrality (Combs 21). However, during the World War II, United States were a real participator rather than an associate as in the world war I. united states had joined in the world business more often and had a bigger ambition for her position in the world. It is very clearly shown by the fact that the United States led the establishment of United Nations for global peace and development.