Current Events Lesson Plan: April 8-14, 2016
Current Event: Secretary Kerry at Hiroshima
Recently, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan. Kerry is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the memorial, which honors the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. Kerry is among the international foreign ministers in Hiroshima to begin the Group of Seven (G7) annual summit. In late May, U.S. President Barack Obama will attend further G7 meetings elsewhere in Japan, and he may visit Hiroshima as well. No sitting U.S. president has ever visited the city. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. Army plane, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. These were the first and last times that nuclear weapons were used in warfare. World War II ended when Japan surrendered soon afterward.
Objective:
World War II (1939-1945) was the most destructive war in history. It killed more people, destroyed more property, and disrupted more lives than any other war in history. Historians believe that about 50 million to 60 million civilians and soldiers died during the six years of fighting. As a result of the war, much of Europe and parts of Asia lay in ruins. In addition to the tens of millions of people who died, millions more were left starving and homeless. The war brought about the downfall of Western Europe as the center of world power. It led to the dominance of the Soviet Union and the United States, and set off a power struggle between the two countries called the Cold War. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore the people and battles of World War II.
Words to know:
Discussion Topics:
1. Ask your students to name military and political leaders of World War II. (Famous military leaders include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Bernard Montgomery, George S. Patton, and Erwin Rommel. Famous political leaders include Winston Churchill, Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin.)
2. Have your students debate, “How would the world be different today if World War II had never been fought?” Or, they can debate, “How would the world be different today if the Axis countries had won World War II?”
3. Ask your students to debate, “Since civilians help supply a country’s war effort, it is acceptable to target civilians during war.”
4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the World War II: Asia and the Pacific timeline.