Download the united states in world war ii

THE UNITED STATES
Enters WORLD WAR II
Information in red is not
in your notes!
Prior to the Outbreak of WWII
• America’s isolationists policies:
– History of isolationism (except
imperialism and WWI)
– 1935 Neutrality Acts: outlawed the
transportation or sale of arms to
warring nations and banned loans to
nations at war outside the Western
Hemisphere (really a reaction to civil
war in Spain)
– Watch video clip 1
Who does the
bird represent
What is Dr.
Seuss’s opinion
of isolationism?
• According to
Seuss, what
is the impact
of the
formation of
the Axis
powers?
Moving Away from Neutrality
• 1939: Addition to Neutrality Act – the
“cash and carry” provision
– allowed sale of arms as long as it was
paid in cash and the buyer provided
their own transportation
– Really designed to help Allies
– U.S. hoped to retain neutrality while
helping to defeat Germany
• FDR broke two-term tradition and ran for reelection
against Republican Wendell Willkie
• Both claim to support neutrality
• FDR reelected with 55% of popular votes
• Watch video clip 2
• What is ironic
about “Uncle
Sam” claiming
that its “lucky” to
have a separate
bed?
• Does Seuss
believe America
will be unaffected
by war?
• “biding time”
means waiting.
• What does Seuss
believe the US
waiting will result
in?
Lend Lease Program
• By 1940 France had fallen; FDR wanted
to provide Britain “all aid short of war”
• But by late 1940, Britain has no more
cash to buy arms under the “cash and
carry” program
• FDR says if Britain falls, Axis powers
would be free to conquer the world;
thus the U.S. must be an “arsenal of
democracy”
Lend Lease Program
• 1941: Lend-Lease Act: the U.S. would lend or lease
supplies to any country “whose defense was vital to
the United States”
– Example: In exchange for leases on military bases
owned by Britain, the U.S. gave them 50 destroyers
– These goods could be returned or replaced after the
war (yeah right), thus avoiding the prospect of huge
new war debts
– 1941 -1945, U.S. exported $32.5 billion worth of goods
• $13.8 billion to Great Britain
• $9.5 billion to the Soviet Union
• Included: aircraft, ships, military vehicles, munitions
and food
• By the end of the war, the total value of American
aid to Allied countries was about $50 billion
– Watch video clip #3
Supporting Stalin
• June 1941, Hitler breaks pact with
Stalin, invades Soviet Union because:
– he wanted the agricultural capabilities
of Western Russia
– the Germans feared that Russia was
preparing to attack, thus their assault
was preemptive war
• Roosevelt sends lend-lease supplies to
Soviet Union because “the enemy of my
enemy is my friend”
German Wolf Packs and
Shoot on Site
• To prevent delivery of lend-lease
shipments, Hitler deploys U-boats to
attack supply convoys
– Wolf packs: groups of 40 German
submarines patrol North Atlantic Sink
350,000 tons of shipments in 1 month
• FDR allows navy to attack German Uboats in self-defense
German Wolf Packs
Shoot on Sight
• German U-boats fire at U.S. destroyer
Greer in September 1941
– documents later prove that the US fired at Uboats before they’d fired at the Greer
• German U-boats sink U.S. merchant ship
two weeks later
• German U-boats torpedoed U.S. destroyer
Kearney and sink the U.S. destroyer
Reuben James
• FDR ordered navy to shoot U-boats on
sight
• U-boat attacks led Senate to repeal ban on
arming merchant ships
The Atlantic Charter
• FDR and Churchill held a secret meeting
in Newfoundland
• Result was the Atlantic Charter—joint
declaration of war aims
– the United States and Britain would not
pursue territorial expansion
– every nation has the right to choose its
own form of government
– called for freedom of international
trade and equal access for all countries
to raw materials
– once the war was over, aggressor
states should be disarmed
The Atlantic Charter
• Charter is the basis of “United Nations”
– 26 Allied nations sign Declaration
• Including Britain, U.S., USSR,
France, China, India, Poland,
Canada, Australia, Belgium,
Yugoslavia, Greece, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Union of South Africa,
Norway, and Denmark
Japanese Ambitions in the Pacific
a. Invasion of Manchuria, China 1931-1932
b. Invasion of China (1937): French, Dutch, and
British colonies taken over = “total war”
c. Southward Push in 1941: Invasion of Indochina
(Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) most of which
were French colonial territories
d. In an effort to discourage Japan's war efforts in
China, the United States passes an embargo stopped selling oil and steel to Japan
i. Japan saw this as an “act of aggression;”
without these resources Japan's military
would be worthless
Peace Talks Questioned
• 1941 Japan begins preparations to attack
the U.S.
• The U.S. broke Japanese communication
codes
– learns Japan planning to attack U.S.;
but not where
– issued warning to military commanders
in Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines
– December 6, Japanese ambassador
instructed to reject all U.S. proposals
and to destroy key documents as well
as decoding machines
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
• On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes and
midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese
Navy issued a surprise attack on at Pearl Harbor,
the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific
– At 6:00 a.m. six Japanese carriers launched a
first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo
bombers, dive-bombers, horizontal bombers
and fighters
– hit American fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor
and military installations / airfields at 7:53 a.m.
Results
• Overall, 21 ships (8 battleships) of the U.S.
Pacific fleet and more than 300 aircraft damaged
or destroyed
• 2,403 Americans killed; 1,178 wounded
• Between 55 to 68 civilians were killed and
approximately 35 were wounded in the attack
• Watch video clip # 4
– Civilian Eye Witness account
http://saturdaybriefing.outrigger.com/dr-kelleys-weekly-briefing/pearl-harbor-attack-killeda-lot-of-civilians-too/
Results
• U.S. had not anticipated an aerial attack. They
wrongly believed:
– Pearl Harbor was too shallow for conventional
torpedoes to be dropped (they would bottom out);
• however, Japanese modified the tail to allow them to be
dropped into shallower water
– Japan seen as too far away to launch full attack
– Racism played a role – Japanese seen as not
strong enough / question of vision from aircrafts
• US Focused instead on chance of sabotage
– To guard planes and ships against sabotage, the
U.S. put all of their planes and ships together so it
would be easier to guard them
Clues to Pearl Harbor
• Japanese’s fleet went off radar and
“disappeared”
• The Radar station picking up the Japanese
aircraft but were dismissed as American B-17
Bombers flying in from mainland USA
• The Japanese Embassy closed and began
destroying all confidential documents
including their decoding machine
• Japanese sub sunk outside of Pearl Harbor
about 1 hour before attack
–
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/30/us/japanese-submarine-sunk-at-pearl-harbor-is-found.html
Primary source report from the
radar operator
•
•
•
•
they phoned the information center and persuaded the switchboard
operator to find someone in authority. Soon Lockard was talking with Lt.
Kermit A. Tyler. "I told him what we saw on this equipment and how
unusual it was and that it was coming from an unusual direction,"
Lockard said. "I talked to him about as forcefully as I could as a
private.“
The now-famous reply was short and simple: "He said, 'Don't worry
about it.' “ Tyler, now retired and living in San Diego, didn't say so at
the time, but he believed the radar was picking up a squadron of
American B-17s that were due from the U.S. mainland. In fact that
squadron was in flight, and encountered the Japanese planes during
their attack. "It was just a case of mistaken identity," said Tyler. "The
[radar] was pretty primitive. It would only tell you something was there,"
he said. The equipment could not differentiate between friend and foe.
Had the information center been fully staffed and trained, it might have
been able to track the B-17s and detect the attack, TC Tyler said.
It was the first U.S. military use of radar during wartime
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-1129/news/1991333114_1_lockard-attack-on-pearl-harbor-attack
Great Time Line of the Attack
• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pear
lharbor/history/pearlharbor_timeline.htm
l
• EVEN BETTER – interactive map
describing the attack
• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pear
lharbor/ax/frameset.html
Pearl Harbor Invasion
U.S. Ships at Pearl Harbor
The USS Arizona ablaze after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
B-17 Bomber
after the attack
on Hickam Field
A navy photographer
snapped this
photograph of the
Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii on December
7, 1941, just as the
USS Shaw exploded.
USS Utah took a torpedo hit
and capsized early in the
battle.
USS Pennsylvania, behind the
wreckage of the USS Downes
and the USS Cassin
Reaction to Pearl Harbor
•
•
•
•
•
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a
date which will live in infamy … the
United States of America was
suddenly and deliberately attacked
by naval and air forces of the
Empire of Japan”
Watch video clip # 5
Congress approves FDR’s request
for declaration of war against
Japan
Three days later Germany & Italy
declare war on U.S.
Japanese interment: Backlash
against Japanese-Americans
resulted in their removal and
detention in camps