Era · c. 1800 – 1945
Industry, science and global conflict: the century and a half that built the modern world.
Soviet victory; the Kwantung Army surrendered, about 600,000 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner, and the Soviet entry into the war contributed to Japan's decision to surrender.
The Allies agreed on the occupation, denazification and demilitarisation of Germany, placed eastern German lands under Polish administration and issued the Potsdam Declaration to Japan, but deep disagreements remained.
Hitler and Eva Braun died by suicide, their bodies were burned, and Germany surrendered a week later; Soviet investigators recovered the remains and secretly destroyed them in 1970.
British forces took over the camp and fought a typhus epidemic, but about 13,000 former prisoners died in the weeks after liberation; the evidence filmed there shaped Western understanding of Nazi crimes.
About 41 square kilometres of eastern Tokyo burned, an estimated 80,000–100,000 or more people died and over a million were made homeless in the deadliest single air raid in history.
The historic centre of Dresden was destroyed and an estimated 18,000–25,000 people were killed, making the raids one of the most debated Allied actions of the war.
Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and signed the Instrument of Surrender on 2 September 1945, ending the Second World War and beginning the Allied occupation of Japan.
The second and so far last use of a nuclear weapon in war devastated the Urakami valley of Nagasaki and killed an estimated 40,000–80,000 people by the end of 1945.
The first use of a nuclear weapon in war destroyed most of Hiroshima and killed an estimated 90,000–140,000 people by the end of 1945.
Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, ending the war in Europe; Victory in Europe Day was celebrated on 8 May in the West and on 9 May in the Soviet Union.
Soviet victory; Berlin surrendered on 2 May 1945, two days after Hitler's suicide, and Germany surrendered unconditionally within a week.
US victory after nearly three months; Okinawa became the main staging base for a planned invasion of Japan, at a cost of well over 200,000 military and civilian lives.
