Peppy and Kai

Thank you you for your thoughtful responses. I was just provoking a discussion of the wider implications of the Second World War. My take is...

World War 2 began on July 7 1937, because this is the date, involving 2 nation states, after a series of of aggressive Japanese annexations of Chinese Territory, when confrontation turned into a shooting war, continuing and later absorbed into the the larger conflict that developed post December 1941.

September 12th 1990 is the end date because that is when a sovereign German government ratified the the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, the German government did not exist then. Also same government abandoned any territorial claimes east of the Oder/Neisse Line. 12th of September, as Peppy mentioned, was the day that Allied Control or de facto Occupation of German territory (Berlin)ended.

You may think the this is but a mere technicality, but consider the long view for a moment.

I think that in the future Historians will consider the whole of the 20th Century was one long war. A bit like we consider the 100 years war between England and France (1337-1453) today. One vast racial war that began in the middle east with Turkey commiting genocide against Armenians in the early part of the century and ending sometime in the 1990s in downtown Sarajevo.