Download World War II

WORLD WAR II
Unit Overview
ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE

The 1930s began with a Great Depression that kept all
American eyes fixed on domestic affairs. However, the
isolationism of the 1920s waned as a new international
menace threatened the future of democracy. At the close of
the decade, the United States was on the brink of war.
Japan’s decision to bomb Pearl Harbor pushed us over the
brink and dragged the U.S. into the conflict. During World
War II, America experienced changes that reached into
virtually every corner of the country. The conflict
revamped the economy and pulled us out of the Depression.
While the war effort started off as cumbersome, America
shaped up and prevailed on both fronts and redefined
America’s position in the world.
TRADING SPACE FOR TIME

Pressing issues

Retooling for all-out war production


Government and big business
German advancements
Rocket bombs
 Atomic bombs?
 Einstein’s letter

Allied survival—US readiness
 Selective Service

5 million volunteer
 10 million drafted



Distances to ship goods and troops
Winning the minds:
Hollywood
 Propaganda

THE MIRACLE OF PRODUCTION

Economic Recovery

Industry awakens


Farmers


Unemployment—decreases drastically
 $100 billion in military orders
 R.I.P. Great Depression
European demand
Labor
Opportunities in manufacturing
 Discrimination in hiring
 Unions
 Membership up 3 million (13 million total)
 Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act (1943)

ECONOMIC PLANNING

Office of Price Administration (OPA)

Battled inflation
Taxes
 Rationing
 War bonds


National War Labor Board (NWLB)
Ceilings on wage increases
 Restrictions on unions


War Production Board
Halted the manufacture of nonessential items
 Tanks, planes, boats, bomb parts, jeeps, liberty ships etc…
 Dictated transportation and access to raw materials
 Rationing


Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)

Manhattan Project
WOMEN AND WWII

Rosie the Riveter
6 million women working
 Wage prejudice
 “Men’s work”


WAACs, WAVEs, SPARs, WAFs

“Auxiliary”—non combat

Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force
 Clerical work
 Ambulance drivers
 Radio operators
 Electricians
 Pilots
AFRICAN AMERICANS

A. Philip Randolph
March for integration of workforce
 Fair Employment Practices Commission
(FEPC)


Military

Black servicemen: 700,000 plus
Served in segregated units
 Noncombat roles until 1943

Double “V”
 Tuskegee Airmen


Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

Sit-ins and demonstrations

Chicago, St. Louis
JAPANESE AMERICANS

Discrimination

135,000 Japanese
Issei
 Nissei



“Conspirators”
Relocation Centers
Executive Order 9066
 Prison camps in mountains and
deserts


Korematsu v. U.S.

Supports internment
MINORITY WARTIME EXPERIENCE

Mexican-Americas

300,000 served


Bracero program



High casualties
Contract laborers
Zoot-Suit Riots
Asian-Americans
13,000 Chinese serve
 30,000 Japanese serve


Native Americans
25,000 served
 “Windtalkers”


African-Americans
Second Great Migration
 Detroit

HOLDING THE HOME FRONT

Economic gains

Inflation, wage ceilings, expansive
income tax


Disposable personal income doubled (GD!)
Check please!

$ 330 billion

Note WWI cost 32 billion!
2/5 of war costs paid by revenues
 National debt rose from 49 billion to
259 billion


GDP

$100 billion to $200 billion in 4 years
HALTING HITLER

The Battle of the Atlantic

U-Boat hunting



Kept Britain alive—allied springboard
Cologne


1,000 plane bombing raid
North Africa

The “Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel



Convoys, depth charges, air patrol, radar and code breaking
Nazi sought the Suez Canal
Allies drove them back to Tunisia
Stalingrad

The tide turns on the eastern front
ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

The “soft underbelly”
Sicily falls in August 1943
 Mussolini deposed
 Italy joins the allies


German occupied Italy


Rome was taken 04 June 1944
Campaign diverts Nazi troop strengths
REOPENING THE WESTERN FRONT

Teheran Conference (11/28-12/1/1943)

Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin


Coordinating attacks
D-Day 06 June 1944

Allied invasion of Nazi occupied Europe


Led by Eisenhower
Began the decline of German dominance on the
Western front

“Lafayette, we are here again.”
REOPENING THE WESTERN FRONT

Teheran Conference (11/28-12/1/1943)

Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin


Coordinating attacks
D-Day 06 June 1944

Allied invasion of Nazi occupied Europe


Led by Eisenhower
Began the decline of German dominance on the
Western front

“Lafayette, we are here again.”
V-E DAY

Germany collapsing



Soviets were closing on East
British and Americans closing in on West
Battle of the Bulge

Last German offensive


Unveiling the genocide


Winter of 1944—allies push them back
Nazi death camps exposed
Russians capture Berlin
April 1945
 FDR passes
 Hitler takes his own life


V-E Day (07 May 1945)
THE RISING SUN IN THE PACIFIC

Japanese imperialists

Guam, Wake, Philippines, Hong Kong, British
Malaya, and Burma


Strategic locations and natural resources
Struggle in the Philippines



Bataan defensive
MacArthur evacuated—“I shall return”
Bataan Death March

POWs
THE SUN ALSO SETS…LEAPFROGGING TO
CHECKMATE

Japan sets its eyes on Australia

Battle of the Coral Sea


Carrier based aircraft—Allied victory
Midway

The tide turns—1,000 miles NW of Hawaii
Admiral Nimitz out maneuvers Japanese
 Japan loses three carriers


“Island-Hopping”

U.S. strategy—capturing nearby islands to weaken
fortified ones
V-J DAY

American Submarines


Sank 50% of Japanese merchant marine
Firebombing in Tokyo
March 9-10, 1945
 Killed 83,000


Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa
Crippled Japanese fleet
 “kamikazes”


Little Boy and Fat Man



Hiroshima—06 August 1945
Nagasaki—09 August 1945
V-J Day

10 August 1945— “unconditional” surrender