III

I don't know when it will become fashionable to talk about "World War 3", I am surprised it is not already. 

So I got to wondering: in WW2, at what point did this become a common term, given that up until Germany and Japan became military allies (1940) and the US became directly involved (1941) it was more of simultaneous wars in Europe and Asia (up until 1937, the Rape of Nanking, we were calling it an "incident"; then we switched to "Sino-Japanese War").

Well:

"The term World War I was coined long before the war even started to describe a hypothetical future conflict."

"The first time the name was applied to the actual conflict as it happened was by Time Magazine in its September 11, 1939 issue."

"FDR is most responsible for cementing the name in the public consciousness when he began publicly referring to it as the "Second World War" in 1941. Interestingly, he actually hated the name."

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