Ballpark Estimate: $288 Billion (1940 dollars)
In terms of losses in human lives and material resources, World War II was undeniably the most destructive military conflict to date. It was a global-military conflict that saw 61 countries taking part in a war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The major participants were the Allied powers, specifically the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, who were at war with the Axis Coalition of Germany and Italy in the European Theater. And concurrently in the Pacific Theater, the United States was engaged with the Imperial forces of Japan.
Japan
The events leading up to the war can be traced back to 1937 when Japan, seeking to extend her colonial realm and to secure vast raw material reserves and natural resources such as ores and petroleum, launched a full-scale invasion of mainland China. To force Japan to cease their hostility against China, in May 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered an embargo of all exports to Japan. Angered over this maneuver and now severely lacking in critical resources to fuel its war effort, Japan turned its aggression on its southern neighbors.
Nazi Germany
That same year, Nazi Germany, in pursuing its own expansionist agenda, invaded Poland and over the next two years continued its aggression by occupying Denmark, Norway, France, and then Russia in 1941, with Italy now entering the war allied with the Germans. Meanwhile, the Japanese army had invaded French-Indochina in 1940 and launched near simultaneous assaults on Malaya, Viet Nam, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Wake Island. Their subsequent attack on the U.S. naval fleet moored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with the loss of 2,403 lives, brought the U.S. into the war in December of 1941. more here
h/t PHenry
How Much Did World War II Cost?
The measure of Human life is incalculable. The $300 billion is chunk change in comparison to what this next adventure into insanity is going to cost. Unfortunately this time the Human Race is at stake so the money is meaningless.
Approximately $7 trillion in 2007 dollars. This means that Obiden and the Dementiacrats are spending more money than it cost the United States to defeat Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. Only this time, the United States is not freeing a single country from fascism or totalitarianism, it’s enslaving Americans with debt and welfare addiction.
Sorry but the Soviet Union ( AKA- communist d-bags) were not part of the “Allies” their non aggression pack with Nazi Germany ushered in WW2. Spread the word.
Fun fact: We spent more to develop the B-29 than we did the Atomic bomb.
But Marco makes the proper point about today’s dollars.
Biden has blown through that much in his first 100 days.
Not to mention all the other stuff he’s fucking beyond recognition. Lawlessness, borders, welfare state, foreign policy, and on and on and on.
My first thought, like Andy’s Dad, was the human cost; military and civilian, and too vast to comprehend.
Now, on to article.
Even though I was not born yet, it still is hard to believe it has been 76 years.
When I was young, pretty much everyone’s father caught in WWII. Then I started working with people who’s father fought in Korea. Then I worked with someone whose father fought in Viet Nam. Then I worked with someone whose grandfather fought in Viet Nam. That came as a shock.
My father was under Patton when they came upon Buchenwald. That haunted my father for the rest of his life.
Remember: you can’t take it with you. Had we not spent the money on defeating Hitler and Tojo, we’d be dead.
Mainstream history of WWII is a false narrative and what the elitists want us to believe. The bankers financed all sides and used the war to consolidate power and to further their agenda of eventual one-world government. We’re almost there.
The past week I have listened to numerous recordings of Veterans of WWII, The European and the Pacific Campaigns.
What they endured was horrific. What they accomplished was nothing less than Extraordinary. Beyond imagination.
One such recording:The Old Breed and the Costs of War | Eugene Sledge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCIJfM_CgWo
12,209,238 US Families were affected (not including civilian contractors)
US MILITARY CASUALTIES IN WORLD WAR II
Branch Killed Wounded
Army and Army Air Corps 318,274 565,861
Navy 62,614 37,778
Marines 24,511 68,207
Coast Guard 1,917 Unknown
TOTAL 407,316 671,278
MERCHANT MARINE CASUALTIES
Died as POWs 37
Dead 5,662
Missing/Presumed Dead 4,780
Killed at Sea 845
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-us-military-numbers
418,000 Americans died in WWII. As an aside, for those clamoring for reparations for slavery, 708 black Americans died. That’s right, 708. And 400 of that number died in a loading dock accident.
So thanks for the help, Tuskegee airmen. I consider that debt settled in full.
Sept. 18, 1931.
Mukden.
That’s when the war started.
The “Great Powers” put their hands over their eyes and pretended otherwise.
The invasion of Poland on Sept. 1 1939 was just the fulfillment of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement (the Stalin-Hitler Pact) and triggered the Alliances between France, Britain, and Poland.
izlamo delenda est …
The point of the post was not to relitigate WWII, nor to minimize the people who perished and suffered and were maimed.
THE POINT OF THE POST IS THAT AS MONUMENTAL AS THAT EFFORT WAS….JOE BIDEN HAS SPENT AS MUCH AS WWII COST IN HIS FIRST 100 DAYS WITH NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT.
Try to keep up, people. Jeez.
Sorry for being an asshole. What Biden is doing is an complete outrage. There is no excuse for it. It’s anti American at its core. He is purposefully trying to bankrupt us in servitude of his communist masters.
I had best sign off now.
I’ve been watching “World War II: Behind Closed Doors” a 2008 BBC documentary series on Stalin, the Nazis and the West. It is an incredible production with dramatic re-enactments of the crucial scenes interspersed with interviews of survivors and historic films. Watching this six hour documentary makes it very clear that the Soviet Union paid an unbelievable price for Stalin’s 1939 Pact with Germany and his mismanagement of the Red Army during the Nazi invasion in 1941. The Soviet Union suffered more than 26,600,000 civilian and military casualties defeating the Nazis and their fascists allies. Churchill and Roosevelt were outmaneuvered at nearly every meeting between the Big Three, and Eastern Europe paid the price for nearly forty-four years. Poland’s fate plays a big role in this series. Highly recommend this series to anyone interested in military history.
@Cato –
I would up you a THOUSAND times…thanks…that WAS the cost.
Salute.
“THE POINT OF THE POST IS THAT AS MONUMENTAL AS THAT EFFORT WAS….JOE BIDEN HAS SPENT AS MUCH AS WWII COST IN HIS FIRST 100 DAYS WITH NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT.”
Everybody knows that!
Check out a guy named Obola and his prodigal ways with OUR money.
And there’s “nothing to show for it” because it is STOLEN!
Nobody waves around stolen money for everyone to see.
izlamo delenda est …
How Much Did World War II Cost the United States ?
Ima’ go wit tree fiddy.