.jpg)
| World War II |
|---|
| Navigation |
Opposition to World War II was expressed by the governments and peoples of all combatant nations to various extents. Initial reluctance for conflict in theAllied democratic nations changed to overwhelming, but not complete, support oncethe war had been joined. Some politicians and military leaders in theAxis powers opposed starting or expanding the conflict during its course. However, thetotalitarian nature of these countries limited their effect.Noncombatant nations opposed joining the war for a variety of reasons, including self preservation, economic disincentives or a belief inneutrality in upon itself. After the war the populations of the former Axis powers mostlyregretted their nations' involvement. In contrast, the people of Allied nations celebrated their involvement and the perceived just nature of the war, particularly in comparison withWorld War I.[1]
Following World War I theLeague of Nations was formed in the hope that diplomacy and a united international community of nations could prevent another global war.[2][3] However, the League and theappeasement of aggressive nations during the invasions ofManchuria,Ethiopia and theannexation of Czechoslovakia was largely considered ineffective. Opposition to these invasions sometimes also came from politicians within the aggressor nations such as Japanese MinisterKijūrō Shidehara.[4] A school of historical thought held the appeasement precipitated a wider war by emboldening aggressive nations.[5]
Opposition to what would become World War II reached its height in the German military with theOster conspiracy, a plot to remove Hitler from power should the pressure placed on Czechoslovakia lead to war.[6] No similar plans are known for the invasion of Poland.
The public sentiment of interwar Poland was dominated by the idea that their nation was formed through war and could only be maintained by a willingness for future wars.[7] Diplomatic negotiations were pursued with Germany, but fear of compromise leading to a slow loss of sovereignty, as with Czechoslovakia, led Polish leaders to put their faith in a British and French military alliance.
Throughout the British Empirepacifists were jailed for expressing antiwar sentiment.[8] AlsoOswald Mosley and hisBritish Union of Fascists were opposed to war, believing that another world war against Germany was not in Britain's national interest and that Britons should "fight for Britain alone".[9] Editorials and cartoons inAction often asserted that the British Empire needed to prepare for a defensive war againstJapan and that war with Germany would put Britain's interests in Asia in jeopardy. Mosley devoted all of the party's efforts to the "Peace Campaign", calling for a referendum on the continuation of the war and advocating a negotiated peace treaty with Germany. The campaign ended after Mosley and many other senior BUF members were interned underDefence Regulation 18B in May 1940.[10]
Socialists in Britain were divided in the 1930s. There was a strong element of pacifism in the socialist movement, for example in Britain'sIndependent Labour Party. The commitment to pacifism, however, was balanced by militantanti-fascism. During itsPopular Front period, theComintern allied with other anti-fascist parties, includingright-wing parties. This policy was terminated by the Comintern when theSoviet Union signed anon-aggression pact withAdolf Hitler in August 1939.
InBritish India, independence leaderMahatma Gandhi led theQuit India Movement in order to obstruct any efforts to support the British in the war and to demand complete independence of India from the British rule.[11][12]
In a Gallup poll conducted in the first days of the war (between September 1 and September 6, 1939), Americans were asked if the US should "declare war on Germany in support of England, France and Poland and should deploy forces to assist those countries." with 90% of respondents saying no and 8% saying yes. In a separate question from the poll, respondents were asked what level of assistance should be given to the British, Polish and French. When asked about selling food, 74% agreed while 27% disagreed; for sending airplanes "and other war materials" to the United Kingdom and France 58% would agree with 42% disagreeing; when asked if army and naval forces should be deployed "abroad" to fight Germany 16% said yes with 84% saying no.[13]
During the stalemated "Phoney War" (October 1939 to spring 1940), public opinion in the US was strongly opposed to entering the war. A poll in March 1940 found that 96 percent of Americans were against going to war with Germany.[14] A September 1940 poll fromFortune Magazine found that 40% of "business leaders" were in favor of appeasing Japan while less than 20% supported an embargo or threatening force toward Japan.[15]
The Communist Party opposed American involvement in the early stages of World War II, starting in August 1939, when theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact launched a deal between Stalin and Hitler that allowed Moscow to split control of Eastern Europe with Berlin. Communist activists in CIO labor unions tried to slow the flow of munitions to Britain. Leftist organizations like theAmerican Peace Mobilization and veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade protested in opposition to the war, the draft, and theLend-Lease Act. They said of Lend-Lease, "Roosevelt needs its dictatorial powers to further his aim of carving out of a warring world, theAmerican Empire so long desired by the Wall Street money lords."[16] Overnight on June 22, 1941, the date of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Communists reversed positions and became war hawks.[17]
Numerous women activists, notably within theMothers' movement led byElizabeth Dilling, opposed American involvement on the basis that it would be preferable for Nazism rather than Communism to dominate Europe. These women also wished to keep their own sons out of the combat US involvement in the war would necessitate, and believed the war would destroy Christianity and further spread atheistic Communism across Europe.[18]
Henry Ford, a long-time pacifist, opposed US participation in the war untilthe attack on Pearl Harbor. Before then he refused to manufacture airplanes and other war equipment for the British.[19]Father Charles Coughlin urged the US to keep out of the war and permit Germany to conquer Great Britain and the Soviet Union.[20] Asked Coughlin, "Must the entire world go to war for 600,000 Jews in Germany?"[21] The most radical of isolationists would say that all of the current problems in the US were because of World War I. US SenatorGerald Nye from North Dakota would even blame the Great Depression on America's economic expansion during World War I.[14]
Isolationism was strongest in the United States, where oceans separated it on both sides from the war fronts. TheGerman-American Bund even marched down the avenues of New York City demanding isolationism. The isolationists, led by theAmerica First Committee, were a large, vocal, and powerful challenge toPresident Roosevelt's efforts to enter the war.Charles Lindbergh was perhaps the most famous isolationist. Isolationism was strongest in theMidwest with its strongGerman-American population.
Students at UC Berkeley in 1940 led a large protest in opposition to the war.[22] The Keep America Out of War Congress (originally known as the Keep America Out of War Committee) or KAOWC from its founding on March 6, 1938,[23] until when the America First Committee formed in the fall of 1940 was the only nationwide organization to oppose any foreign intervention and President Roosevelt's foreign policy.[24] The KAOWC was for most of its lifetime composed of 6 pacifist groups apart from theSocialist Party of America: The Peace Section of theAmerican Friends Service Committee (ALSC), Fellowship for Reconciliation (FOR), World Peace Commission of the Methodist Church, American Section of theWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom (WIL), National Council for the Prevention of War (NCPW) and the War Resisters League (WRL). After theAttack on Pearl Harbor, the KAOWC would end up dissolving.[23] The KAOWC drew primarily liberals and socialists while conservatives on the other hand were drawn to the No Foreign War Committee.[25]
The Committee on Pacific Relations was a pro-Japanese isolationist organization created in 1941 by a conservative activist and politician from Missouri namedOrland K. Armstrong which was tiny in comparison to the America First Committee. Members of the organization beliefs ranged from being simply against having a war between the United States and Japan to those who were strongly pro-Japanese. However,the war broke out before a planned conference they were going to have in Washington to create a more permanent organization and it began to fall apart when its acting chairman resigned in late November 1941. A Japanese diplomat named Terasaki Hidenari would be sent to the United States in an attempt to stir up isolationists and pacifists to prevent the country from entering the war.[26]
With the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, nearly all the noninterventionist elements quickly switched to support the war.[27]
TheCommunist front organizations opposed the war during the period of the Nazi-Soviet pact. Most dutifully followed orders from Moscow. In 1940, Britain'sDaily Worker referred to the Allied war effort as "the Anglo-French imperialist war machine."[28] At the same time,Joseph Stalin ordered a series of military attacks onPoland,Finland,Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, andRomania. He used communist parties and front groups to oppose the war and military preparations to prepare for the war in other countries so theAllies (Britain and France) were less able to resist aggression and to keep the US out of the war.[citation needed]
France'squick defeat by Germany led to an increase in war opposition among the Allies. It also galvanized war support and confidence in the Axis powers. Many French politicians encouraged Britain to negotiate an end to the war.Rudolf Hess, a high rankingNazi politician, traveled to Scotland in May 1941 in an attempt to start peace negotiations. The attempt was not taken seriously by the British. His full motives are unclear, however, he had no intention of opposing the upcominginvasion of Russia by Germany, however his success would have brought a temporary end to the war.[29][30]
Communist parties around the world reversed course whenGermany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and then advocated that material support be extended to the Soviets.
A small number of socialists (but very few Comintern members, who obeyed Moscow) continued to oppose the war.Leon Trotsky had drawn up theProletarian Military Policy, calling for opposition to the war and support for industrial action during it.
Somecommunist-led organizations with links to theComintern opposed the war during the period of theHitler-Stalin pact but then backed it afterGermanyinvaded the Soviet Union.[citation needed] However, the most popular communist organization in the US at the time, theCommunist Party of the USA, firmly maintained an anti-fascist outlook on intervention throughout WWII, basing their policies on the need for aPopular Front against fascism.[31][32]
In Japan, while the majority of the population supported the increased militarism and governmental policies, a minority did exist.Wataru Kaji would help create theJapanese People's Anti-war Alliance, an antiwar organization in China after he had served his sentence for violating thePeace Preservation Law and go on to help the Nationalist government fight the Japanese. Kaji managed to persuade the Nationalist government into building a detention facility in July 1939 and selected 11 captured men from there to do subversive activities with the effect of provoking antiwar attitudes with these soldiers travelling to the battlefield speaking with a megaphone urging them to stop fighting. Similar activities were done by Japanese, Chinese and Korean communists as well.[33]
The secrecy of the Japanese attacks on British and American colonies in the Pacific region and the lack of a free media has reduced the ability to determine the nature of their war opposition.Admiral Yamamoto was part of a military faction that argued against attacking America in particular, however, once war was decided upon he was a key contributor.[34]
In the United States, over 125 African-Americans were imprisoned for resisting the draft or sedition, includingElijah Muhammad. Many of them were associated with thePacific Movement of the Eastern World or theNation of Islam and viewed the Japanese as the champions of the non-white people of the world.[35]
A few nationalist movements incolonial countries would take no part in the conflict, which they saw as one of the colonialists' making. This was perhaps strongest in India, where some nationalists went beyond opposition to the war to form theIndian National Army and fight alongside Japanese forces. Opposition was also seen among theCeylonese garrison on theCocos Islands whichmutinied, in part due to the influence of theTrotskyistLanka Sama Samaja Party.
At theYalta Conference in February 1945 the Allies agreed that onlyunconditional surrender would be accepted from the Axis powers. This reduced the options open to those who opposed a continuation of the war. This was particularly true for the Japanese who sought tonegotiate a conditional surrender with the Allies in 1945.[36]
The post war view in Allied nations was that it was necessary and noble, with it being referred to informally as the 'good war' orGreat Patriotic War.[37] Within the defeated former Axis powers the war has been represented as anational shame leading toJapanese pacifism and Germansubdued nationalism. In the less significant Axis countries of Italy andHungary, the war is viewed negatively and the extent to which they were victims or perpetrators of the war is debated.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Whereas many liberals and socialists were drawn to the Keep America Out of War Congress, founded two years earlier, many conservatives now backed the No Foreign War Committee.
