History

1. To get a feel for "counterfactual history," students might want to read the recent book What If? or other essays by historians on how history might have turned out differently if certain key events did not occur.

2. The U.S. Air Force Web site provides fact sheets on individual warplanes and a history of the air force. Information on the evolution of U.S. bombers can also be found at the Web site of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Information on the B-29 and other bombers made by Boeing is available at that company's Web site.

Civics

1. In this activity, the moral arguments should focus on whether dropping the bomb would lead to more or less human suffering. The military arguments should focus on whether dropping the bomb would shorten the war. The diplomatic arguments should focus on whether dropping the bomb would help the United States in its dealings with other nations.

2. You also could ask students to name other circumstances that might affect their views on what the U.S. policy should be in this area.

Economics

1. Students' graphs should accurately reflect the data, including the proper unit (e.g., numbers of ships, tons of bombs, thousands of pairs of boots). Students should also recognize that the 1940-1941 and 1945 figures are not comparable with those for 1942-1944 because they do not cover a time period of equal length (12 months), but that they are useful, for example, in showing the rapid increase in military production in 1942 compared to the previous two years.

2. You also might have students compare the casualties shown here to the Department of Defense's casualty update for the war on terror or in other wars. This link is directly to a .pdf document on the Department of Defense Web site. To get to the link via HTML, go to the department's Press Releases page and click on "OIF/OEF Casualty Update." (Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom).

Geography

1. To augment the events listed in the online maps, students can find more information on the war's early years in this timeline, and information on the war's final year in the Timeline on this Web site.

2. As background for this activity, you might ask students to research the Allies' "Europe first" strategy for fighting the war: the reasons behind it and its effects on the course of the war in each theater.