Names of the Second World War

The global conflict that took place between September 1939 and September 1945 is generally referred to as the Second World War or World War II^[a], the latter being commonly used in the United States. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the conflict was sometimes called the Second Great War—a reference to the Great War, which was later renamed World War I—and the European War^[1] following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Official United States documents adopted the name World War II, though the term only gained popularity after the United States declaration of war on the Japanese Empire on 8 December 1941. The name eventually became popular among media outlets and was later officially adopted by the public.^[2] The conflict was officially established as World War II in the US when President Harry S. Truman approved the term.^[3] In addition to the generally used names, specific terms for different fronts are used for historical purposes, memorials, and wartime propaganda. These include the Great Patriotic War, used by the Soviet Union for the Eastern Front against Nazi Germany,^[4] and the Greater East Asia War, used by Imperial Japan for the Pacific War.^[5]

The earliest recorded usage of the term "Second World War" appeared just two years after the First World War ended. It was used by British soldier and author Charles à Court Repington; although he did not name a specific ongoing conflict, he referred to the Great War as the "First World War" in the belief that other global wars would follow. He wrote in his book The First World War:

I have called this great war the First World War because I believed it to be the first of a series of world wars.

On 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, the newspaper The Times became the first in the world to refer to the conflict as the Second World War, stating: "The Second World War broke out yesterday". Following this, British media and official documents widely adopted the term.^[3]

Ten days after the declaration of war by Britain and France, Time became the first American magazine to call the conflict "World War II", publishing the statement:

World War II began last week when Britain and France declared war on Germany.

In June 1941, US official documents named the ongoing European conflict "World War II" when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. On 8 December 1941, when the US declared war on Japan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt publicly referred to the conflict as World War II. From 1942 to 1945, it was widely conceived as a global war against fascism in English-speaking countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. In September 1945, just days after Japan surrendered, President Harry S. Truman approved the use of "World War II" in government documents.^[3]

In the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia, the term Great Patriotic War refers to the four-year war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The roots of the term lie in the 1812 French invasion of Russia, which Russians called the 'Patriotic War'. The term was also used during World War I when the Russian Empire fought the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. On 23 June 1941, one day after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, the newspaper Pravda first used the term in an article titled "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People" by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky. The term was chosen to motivate the Soviet people and promote defense against the invader.^[8] After the war in Europe ended, the term was mostly used within the Soviet Union and rarely mentioned elsewhere. In the 21st century, Russia and other post-Soviet nations continue to use the term. However, in 2014, Uzbekistan became the first post-Soviet nation to stop recognizing the term, designating "World War II" as the official name.^[9][10]

The term German–Soviet War (or Nazi–Soviet War) is mostly used in modern-day Germany and Ukraine to refer to the war on the Eastern Front. Historians such as John Erickson (in The Road to Stalingrad and The Road to Berlin) and David M. Glantz use the term in most of their works. The BBC^[11] and The National WWII Museum^[12] also occasionally use this term.

Most Allied nations did not commonly distinguish the Pacific War from the Second World War, simply calling it the War against Japan. In the United States, terms like the War in the Pacific, Asia–Pacific War, Pacific–Asian Theater, and Pacific Theater were widely used. Japanese official documents published on 12 December 1941 used the name Greater East Asian War after the attack on Pearl Harbor to include the ongoing wars between the Western Allies and China. The term was prohibited during the Allied occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952.^[13] Another term is the China Incident, which the Japanese government used to avoid declaring war before 7 December 1941.^[14] In China, the war is called the War of Resistance against Japan or the Eight-Year War of Resistance, though these terms refer to the Second Sino-Japanese War, which by definition is different from the Pacific War.^[b] Other names like the Far East War and War in the East were also used in Britain and the Commonwealth.

• Names of the American Civil War