World War II, also known as the Second World War, occurred between 1937 and 1945. It was the largest and deadliest war in human history, beginning with imperial culminating with the dropping of the atomic bomb. The Allied Powers, led by Britian, the Soviet Union, and the United States, defeated the Axis Powers, led by Germany and Japan. The war was fought in response to the expansionist and racist aggression of Nazi Germany under dictator Adolf Hitler and the aggressive ambitions of Japan in Asia. Japan’s attack of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in December, 1941, forced American to enter the war. American forces were split between the European sector and the Asian sector on opposite sides of the globe. Germany surrendered to the Allies in the spring of 1945, and Japan capitulated in August after American forces dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Iowa Medal of Honor heroes served in both Europe and the Pacific.