Gratitude

Gratitude. The Rise of Victory. On May 8, 1945, V-E Day, Nazi Germany surrendered. Japan would follow in September. The Allied victory, however, brought an uncertain future., The end of hostilities led to economic recovery and strengthened democracy in the West. Nevertheless, a Cold War followed the fighting as the Allies became polarized between the American-led western alliance and totalitarian communist empires in the Soviet Union and China., The Allies destroyed the fascist Axis empire at a staggering cost of human lives.: 7 million Soviet, 4 million German, 1.2 million Japanese, 244,000 British military, and nearly 300,000 US battle deaths. Civilian deaths, including the victims of the Holocaust, were over 20 million. War crime trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo in 11945 and 1946 passed death and prison sentences for senior Nazi German and Imperial Japanese officials convicted of crimes against peace and humility. Almost 370,000 men and women from Tennessee, about ten percent of the stat's population, had served during the long war. , Under US sponsorship, diplomats meeting in San Francisco drafted a charter for a new international organization to promote world peace and protect universal human rights, including self government. Cordell Hull, elected to the US Congress from Tennessee in 1907, and President Roosevelt's Secretary of State from 1933 until 1944, led the drive to establish this new organization chartered on June 26, 1945: the United Nations.