Episode Details

1941 was the year when the final major chess pieces were put on the World War II chessboard. Neither the United States of America nor the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were full participants in the Second World War when 1941 began, even though the war was in its second year in Europe and its fifth year (or so) in East Asia. But the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany changed all that. First, Nazi Germany violated its own non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and began the Summer of 1941 with the largest land invasion in the history of mankind. And in response to an oil embargo (among other grievances), Japan chose to engage in a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, on December 7th, 1941, a date which lives in infamy. As 1942 began, all of the major powers were officially engaged in the biggest war in history.