Hi Guys

From current information the dates of World War 2 appear to be from July 7, 1937 ending September 12, 1990.
Anybody care to discuss?

Welcome to the WWII Forums toojax! [img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img]

Great discussion topic!

It all depends on perspective I guess. The first of the conflicts did start with the China-Japan "7.7 incident", and different nations all have their own dates of entry into the war, and even their own names for the conflict, (eg: "The Great Patriotic War" for the Russians). I think I'm confortable with Sept 1, '39 as the start date, because that's truly when multiple nations were embrolied in the conflict, rather that just two (China Japan), or a even bunch with a low intesity commitment, as in the Spanish Civil War. When Poland was invaded, suddenly Germany, Poland, Russia, the UK, France, Italy, etc, etc were involved, thus making it a "world" war. Just my opinion anyway.

I had to look up your 1990 date to see which loose end from WWII was tied up then, and it's the formal decree of the allies to withdraw from Berlin. In my opinion, it's when open hostilities end, and again, I'm cool with the widely accepted VJ Day.

In any case, the dates for the start and end of the Second World War are a matter opinion, so your dates are as good as any.

Peppy >>> to date, has no opinions on dates

[ 10. January 2007, 03:54 AM: Message edited by: Peppy ]

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I go for 1st Sept 1939 to V-J day 15 Aug 1945.

That´s always a matter of taste but after all you could go for the start of WW2 then back to the Versailles treaty etc etc.

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I made a typo in my first post, I wrote VE day instead of VJ day. In any case I corrected it now.

Using your dates Kai, and a couple interweb tools, I discovered that on Friday, September 1, 1939 it started and 2,176 days later, on Wednesday, August 15, 1945, it ended.

Peppy >>> has 2,176 reasons to keep posting...

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HellFish love teh

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.