Download US in WWII - Ms. Mac`s Class


After WWI, US returned to isolationism





Exceptions:
Washington Naval Conference


Raised tariffs
Restricted immigration
Insisted wartime allies pay back debts
Limit size of navy
Kellog-Briand Peace Pact

Renounce the use of war


President Hoover and Roosevelt worked to
better relations with Latin American countries
“Good Neighbor Policy”


Not interfere with the internal affairs of Latin
American countries
Relations between US and the countries Latin
American began to improve

Rise of dictators
Joseph Stalin in Russia in Russia
 Emperor Hirohito and General Tojo in Japan
 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany
 Benito Mussolini and the Fascists in Italy


Extreme nationalistic, racist and anti-Semitic
views

Failure of the League of Nations



Too weak to resist dictators
Collective security – peaceful nations banning
together to stop aggressive nations – failed when US
and Soviet Union did not join
League did nothing to stop Hitler rebuilding army,
Italy attacking Ethiopia, Japan invading Manchuria
and China…

Appeasement

Hitler kept annexing
countries, Britain and
France let him to avoid
war
 Austria – 1938
 Sudetenland (part of
Czechoslovakia)

Munich Conference (1938)
 Gave Hitler part of
Czechoslovakia WITHOUT
asking Czechs to avoid war

Hitler decided Britain and
France were weak and
kept making more and
more demands



Hitler demands
Poland; France and
Britain say no
Hitler signs nonaggression pact with
Stalin and invade
Poland September
1939
France and Britain
declare war

World War II begins


Hitler used blitzkrieg
to defeat the Poles,
French, and most of
Europe
New technologies and
bombings made it a
more offensive war




Still “cautiously neutral”
Americans busy with Great Depression to be too
involved overseas
Congress starting passing laws to stay out of the
war
Neutrality Acts (1935-1937) – prohibited
Americans from traveling on ships of nations at
war

Could not sell arms to countries at war either
 Allowed to sell non-military goods to the Brits and other
non-aggressive nations on a “cash-and-carry” basis

Japan invaded China in 1937, Roosevelt gives
“Quarantine Speech”



Growing unrest in the world and peaceful nations
needed to act together to quarantine aggressive
nations
Boycott aggressors
Most Americans opposed military action

Britain didn’t want China to fall to Japan


Used Burma Road to send supplies
700 mile route cut off, American volunteer fighters
known as Flyer Tigers recruited to send supplies and
engage with Japanese pilots
 Destroyed 300 Japanese aircraft

1939 – started making preparations for war just
in case


More Army and Navy spending, peacetime draft,
Roosevelt ran for a third term
1941 – Lend-Lease Act

Sell, lease, or lend war materials to “any country
whose defense the President deems vital to the
defense of the United States”
 Began protecting British ships carrying supplies for the
British

Roosevelt told Americans he
hoped to establish a world
on the Four Freedoms


Freedom of speech and
expression, religion, from
want, and from fear
1941 – Met with British
Prime Minister Winston
Churchill

Announced their countries
wanted no territorial gains,
freedom of the seas, and
and end to war
 Atlantic Charter – laying
foundation for United
Nations

Japan had become industrial in
19th century





Needed raw materials and
markets
Wanted to replace European
imperialism in Asia
1931 – Japan invaded
Manchuria
1937 – Japan attacked the rest of
China
1941 – Japan occupied southern
Indochina



Roosevelt froze Japanese assets
in the US and cut off trade
with Japan
Resume trade if Japan
withdrew from China
Japan refused





Japan decided to attack Indonesia for oil
Doing so would bring US into war, so they
struck first
Japanese leaders believed a surprise attack
would eliminate US naval power from the
Pacific and allow Japan time to fortify
Before US could recover, Japan would be able
to finish taking over East Asia and the Pacific
Americans would quickly tire of war and
negotiate a peace compromise

December 7, 1941
Two waves of Japanese
planes attacked US
Pacific fleet stationed in
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
 Sank or severely
damaged 18 US ships
 More than 260 airplanes
damaged or destroyed
 6,000 Americans killed
or injured



Four days later,
Germany and Italy
declared war on the
US
US on a war of two
fronts – Atlantic and
Pacific

Paying for the war

War Bonds
 Citizens bought to help





fund the war
Reduced currency in
economy to combat
inflation
85 million Americans
bought bonds, bring $185
billion to treasury
War cost $350 billion
US became debtor nation
High level of
volunteerism –
willingness of Americans
to help in the war effort.

http://youtu.be/Ivqrjt
TQef8

Rationing
Americans asked to
conserve everything for the
war effort
 Ration books given on
certain goods to avoid
public anger over shortages


Draft and expansion of
industrial production during
the war finally brought an
end to the high
unemployment of the Great
Depression

Women, African
Americans, and other
minorities filled in gap as
workers went to war

Victory Gardens


Vegetable gardens to
ensure enough food
for everyone
Food grown by
farmers sent to
soldiers overseas

Office of War Information





OWI
Control of content and
imagery of war messages
Pro-Allied, anti Axis
propaganda
Own radio programs,
newsreels, and required
all movies to contribute in
some way to war effort
Voice of America
 Send messages overseas
 Stir up distrust of Germans,
Italians, and Japanese
leaders
 Lower morale of enemy
soldiers

Women in the work force

Could not enlist in regular
army, joined Women’s
Army Corps or WACS
 Took clerical jobs in the
military




Replaced many jobs
usually held by men
More men could go into
combat
Rosie the Riveter
1941-1945: 6.5 million
women entered the work
force

African Americans



Many worked in war
industries and
government agencies
Played a big role in
WWII
More than 2 and a
half million
registered for the
draft
 One million served,
even though they were
in segregated units

African Americans
Finally allowed to form
all black combat units
 Tuskegee Airmen

 Fighter group in the Air
Corps
 Provide escorts for
bombing missions
 Performed so well
bombers asked for their
support

1944 – Army had to
allow African
Americans to engage in
combat on the ground

Native Americans




Enlisted for service in
higher proportion than
any other group
More than 25,000 served
in combat
40,000 left reservations to
work in defense
industries
Mexican Americans


Both Army and Navy and
served in both campaigns
Continued to face
segregated housing, high
unemployment, low
wages

Pearl Harbor created
fear of Japanese
Americans


Afraid they would
commit acts of
sabotage
Racially motivated
since no evidence any
more disloyal than
German or Italian
Americans…

February 1942 –
Executive Order 906
Permitted military
commanders to require
Japanese Americans to
relocate to interior
internment camps away
from Western Coastal
regions
 In camps – primitive
and crowded
conditions




Raised constitutional issues
in wartime
Roosevelt justified that it
was a military necessity
Korematsu v. US
Korematsu was Japanese
citizen convicting of
remaining in restricted area
 SC upheld that
constitutional liberties may
be limited in wartime


50 years later, Congress
apologized and paid
compensation to the families
involved.



Small number of German and Italian resident
aliens also interned
2,000 German aliens forcibly sent back to
Germany
Germans also sent from Latin America to US to
be used in prisoner exchanges with Germany




Roosevelt decided to focus
on defeating Germany first
Hitler controlled most of
Europe and North Africa
Hitler invaded Soviet Union
in June 1941 and declared
war on US before defeating
Britain


Both big mistakes
Late 1941 – Hitler stopped
just before Moscow

Roosevelt and Churchill
promised Stalin to open a
second front against
Germany in the West to
help relieve Soviet Army



Churchill advised
delay before invading
Europe
1942 – Allies landed
in North Africa
Defeat Germans and
head into
Mediterranean and
into Sicily and Italy in
1943

George Patton






One of the commanders
Military family
Served under Pershing in
WWI
Given command of Third
Army
Popular commander and
unconventional leader
Went quickly through
Europe, capturing large
numbers of enemy
soldiers and freeing a vast
territory

June 6, 1944 – D-Day





156,000 Allied troops
under General Dwight
Eisenhower
Invaded 5 beaches of
Normandy
General Omar Bradley
chosen to lead first
American army in France
Allied planes attacked
Nazi forces
Amphibious landing
crafts carried thousands
of Allied troops to the
beaches of Normandy



After D-Day, began
moving eastward
Liberated Paris in
August 1944
Allies moved so quick
got surprised by
German counterattack in Battle of the
Bulge December 1944

German attack
collapsed afterward





Allied troops crossed
Rhine River and General
Bradley pushed troops for
final offensive into
German
American, British, and
French from the west,
Soviet rom the east
May 1945 – Soviets
captured Berlin
Hitler committed suicide
and Germany surrendered
More than 20 million
Soviet soldiers and
citizens were killed

Vernon Baker
One of the first African
American soldiers to see
combat in the war
 1945 – slipped through
mine fields, barbed wire,
and German defenses and
single-handedly removed 3
machine gun nests, 2
observation posts, and 2
bunkers
 Nominated for
Distinguished Service
Cross
 50 years later – President
Clinton gave him the
Congressional Medal of
Honor






The attempted genocide
of the entire Jewish race
Final Solution – murder
all European Jews
Housed and killed Jews
in concentration camps
6 million Jews killed
6 million gypsies, Slavs,
political prisoners,
elderly, mentally
disabled, and others
also died in
concentration camps

Liberation of
concentration camps



During last months of
the war, Allies
advanced into
Germany and found
camps
American army units
the first to liberate
camps
Shocked to see
prisoners


US was separated
from Japan by Pacific
Ocean
After Pearl Harbor,
Japanese took Malaya,
Burma, Indonesia,
Singapore, Hong
Kong, and threatened
Australia, India,
Midway, and Hawaii

Bataan Death March –
1942



Philippines
surrendered to
Japanese one month
after Pearl Harbor
Japanese forced
prisoners to walk 40
mile march through
the jungle
5,000 of Americans
died along the way.


1943 – War began to
turn against Japan
because of US “islandhopping” campaign
Navajo Code Talkers


Navajo language is
unwritten and
complex
Used this language
for all communication
and Japanese unable
to crack code

Battle of Midway



Turning point in the
Pacific
Japanese wanted to
lure US Pacific fleet to
battle near Midway
where he believed he
could destroy them
US Navy deciphered
Japanese codes and
knew of surprise
attack

Battle of Midway


Admiral Chester
Nimitz (Commanderin-Chief of US Pacific
fleet)
US destroyed 4
Japanese aircraft
carriers, ending
Japan’s strength in
the Pacific






Douglas MacArthur commanded US
Army in Pacific
Began campaign on the Solomon
Islands trying to take the
Guadalcanal
Series of assaults drained Japanese
resources
Took Philippines and Guam
June 195 – captured Iwo Jima and
Okinawa and close enough to
launch attacks against Japanese
homeland
General George C. Marshall acted as
Chief of Staff and “organizer of
victory”


Built up and supplied army of 8
million men
Helped oversee creation of first
atomic bomb


1939 – Albert Einstein
informed Roosevelt
Germany might be
developing atomic bomb
1942 – Roosevelt sent team of
scientists, several European
refugees, to New Mexico to
develop the first atomic
bomb.



July 1945 was successful
Germany already defeated
Roosevelt died of a heart
attack in April 1945 (after
being elected 4th time) – just
before Germany surrendered


President Harry
Truman (Roosevelt’s
vice president) feared
invasion of Japan
would cause too
many causalities
Truman decided
using the atomic
bomb would mean
less casualties

August 6, 1945


August 9, 1945




Atomic bomb on city of
Hiroshima
Atomic bomb on city of
Nagasaki
230,000 people killed in both
explosions combined
Critics argued Truman could
have detonated bombs on
uninhabited islands
Japan surrendered shortly
after second explosion

American leaders agreed to
let Japanese emperor stay
on the throne

Radar, sonar, cryptic
code breaking,
proximity fuze,
antibiotics, jet and
rocket engines



More than 70 million
people lost their lives
Most people killed
were civilians, making
it the deadliest
conflict in history
Over 100 million
military personnel
fought in the war,
making it the largest
war in history

Nuremberg Trials – 19451946
Full extent of Nazi brutality
revealed, Allies put
surviving Nazis on trial for
crimes against humanity
 Defended themselves
claiming they had been
following orders
 Many found guilty and
were hanged or imprisoned
 Individuals are responsible
for their actions, even in
times of war


Denazification of
Germany



Germany divided into 4
occupation zones split
between US, France, Great
Britain, and Soviet Union
Occupying powers
explained the evils of the
Nazi beliefs to the
German people
Nazi ideas show dangers
of racism, anti-Semitism,
Social Darwinism, and
eugenics
 Helped contribute to civil
rights movement in US





General MacArthur was
assigned to rebuild and
reform post-war Japan
Made Japan less
aggressive
Overseas empire taken
away, leaders put on trial
and punished, renounced
use of nuclear weapons
and waging war
Forbidden to have a large
army or navy
New constitution in 1947
turning Japan into a
democracy