Download America in World War II

America in World
War II
Chapter 35
World War 2
• World War 2 started in September of 1939
• The United States joined World War 2 on December 8th of
1941 after Japan bombed the American Naval Base at Pearl
Harbor.
• Rather than an immediate focus on Japan as many Americans
wanted, the United States acted in accordance to the ABC-1
plan and adopted a strategy of winning in Europe first. This
plan was adopted to prevent Germany from knocking the
Soviet Union and Britain out of the war. After defeating
Germany, a combined thrust by each nation would crush
Japan in the Pacific.
Fighting the War
• The task of fighting a War in Europe
• The United States needed to retool for war production, to
provide full support to the allies: food, munitions, equipment
and raise a strong army.
Uniting the States
• National Unity backed the War Effort:
• The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor unified the United States’
citizens against the war.
• Communists supported the war because Germany invaded the
Soviet Union.
• Pro-Nazi/Hitlerites faded away as the war proceeded.
• Italian and German Americans also supported the war
especially due to the strict immigration laws of the pre-war.
Immigrants had been forced to assimilate into American
society and had now become settled members fully
supportive of the war effort and crucial to Roosevelt’s
Democratic Party.
The Japanese Blunder
• Fueled by Pearl Harbor hysteria and anti-Japanese sentiment
the United States government issued: Executive Order No.
9066
• Their justification being the narrow-minded fear Japanese
Americans might act as collaborators to a Japanese invasion of
the West Coast
• 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast robbed of
assets and rights were sent to internment camps.
• In 1944, The Wartime Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of internment in: Korematsu v. U.S.
• 44 years later in 1988 the United States government officially
apologized and gave reparations of $20,000 to internment
survivors.
Domestic Change
• War time Conservatism ended many New Deal programs in
effort to fight the war.
• Dr. New Deal became Dr. Win the War
• While programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the
Works Progress Administration and the National Youth
Administration faded out.
The War Machine
• Military order called for $100 billion in 1942 far more than the
country’s industrial output
• The War Production Board (WPB) was formed in response.
• The Board accompanied War time Socialism under the
dictation of the Government.
• Halted the production of non-essential items to the war effort
and assigned priority to military equipment ranging from
ammunition to aircraft carriers.
• Following the Japanese invasion of the rubber rich Dutch East
Indies and British Malaya rationing of gasoline, a national
speed limit and synthetic-rubber plants were instituted
• New investments in fertilizers and machinery also allowed
increased farm output.
Economic Strains
• Full employment and scarce consumer goods fueled inflation in
1942.
• The Office of Price Administration (OPA) limited ascending prices
through regulations.
• Rationing limited consumption of meat and butter.
• The National War Labor board (NWLB) imposed ceilings on wage
increases.
• Labor Union membership grew rapidly and resentment on wage
ceilings grew.
• Labor walkouts such as by the United Mine Workers under John H.
Lewis were squashed by the Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act. This act
authorized the federal government to seize and operate tied up
industries and strikes against those government operated industry
were in turn made criminal offenses.
Man&Women-Power
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“Women in Arms”
Approximately 216,000 women enlisted for the army during the war.
The Women’s Army Corps (WACs),
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)
And the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARs)
Were among the groups formed.
Meanwhile, 6 million women took up jobs outside the home. (Rosie the
Riveter’s)
Many who never before worked for wages; after the war this became a strong
point for women’s rights.
After the war 2/3 of women left the labor force often forced by the return of
men to the workforce and became “baby boomers”.
Men in the War
15 million men enlisted in World War 2 for the United States
Millions more via the draft became GI’s. (Government Issue).
Although some key workers in industry and agricultural remained in the U.S.
Despite exceptions: the Bracero program allowed thousands of Mexican
agricultural workers to cross into the United States to harvest the fruit and grain
of the west.
Migrations and African Americans
• War industry drew people into boomtowns such as Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle and Baton
Rouge. California’s population grew to 2 million while the South industrialized rapidly with
$6 billion of federally financed industrial factories.
• During the war 1.6 million Blacks left their ancestral south for the lure of jobs in the war
plants of the West and North.
• Racial bias and tensions culminated in black leader Philip Randolph’s threat to march on
Washington in 1941 in order to demand equal opportunity for blacks in jobs and the armed
forces.
• Roosevelt responded with an executive forbidding racial discrimination in defense
industries.
• The Fair Employment Commission (FEPC) monitored compliance.
• Blacks were also drafted though often assigned to segregated forces.
• Nonetheless, Blacks rallied for the “Double V”: victory over dictators and over racism.
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) membership
grew to nearly half a million and a nonviolent militant organization known as
• The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) formed in 1942.
• After the War a northward migration to cities of 5 million blacks followed the advent of the
mechanical cotton picker, sharecropping thus faded away as the need for labor dwindled in
the South.
Native Americans
• Many Indian men and women migrated to cities to find new
work and start a new life.
• In 1940, 90% of Native Americans resided on reservations
• 60 years later (2000), 50% resided in cities; especially in
southern California.
• 25,000 Japanese Americans served in the Armed Forces.
• Comanches in Europe, Navajos in Europe became valuable as
“Code Talkers”
• They transmitted radio messages in their own native tongues,
completely incomprehensible to the Japanese and Germans.
Racial Tension
• The Rapid mixture of races and culture led to sporadic clashes
and violence.
• 1943, “Zoot-suit” Mexicans and were attacked by white sailors
in Los Angeles.
• An appeal by the Mexican ambassador finally put an end to
the violence.
• Meanwhile, race riots in Detroit led to the deaths of 25 blacks
and 9 whites.
The Pacific War
• Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese continued their
violent and extremely successful attacks across the Pacific theater.
The Japanese occupied American islands such as Guam, Wake and
The Philippines extremely early in the war.
• General Douglas Macarthur held out with his garrison at Bataan on
the Philippine islands for 5 months until May of 1942.
• As he evacuated the island Macarthur is quoted vowing “I shall
return” afterwards the surrendered Americans were forced to
endure the Bataan death march.
• June 3-6 1942:The Battle of Midway marked the high tide for the
Japanese at Midway as the American fleet under Chester W. Nimitz
crushed the larger Japanese fleet in a decisive engagement which
ultimately forced Japan onto the defensive.
Turning the tide in the Pacific
• Following Midway, the United States went on the offensive in
the Pacific as dictated by the Casablanca conference
• The United States Navy adopted the strategy of leapfrogging
Japanese strong points in order to get close to Tokyo. The
bypassed islands could then be bombed into submission.
• This strategy allowed the United states to get extremely close
to the Japanese home islands without taking extreme
casualties.
The Atlantic War
• Prior to 1943, the Atlantic was a graveyard for allied shipping.
Advanced Germany submarines (U-boats) operating in wolf
packs sunk countless allied ships from the North Sea to the
Gulf of Mexico.
• However by 1943 the Allies had broken the German
submarine code, known as enigma.
• Finally the allied began to gain the upper hand in the battle of
the Atlantic.
Stemming the Germans
• Germany was halted in North Africa by the British in October
of 1942 at El Alamein.
• Germany was halted in Russia by the Soviet Union in
September of 1942 at Stalingrad.
• The Soviet Union continued to call for a Western front against
the Germans.
North Africa
• A compromise western front produced in North Africa by the
Americans during Operation Torch. In 1942 U.S forces landed
in French Morocco pushing east towards the Germans in
Tunisia.
• By May of 1943, the Germans in Tunisia surrendered between
the British and Americans.
Casablanca Conference
• In newly occupied French Morocco, Prime Minister Churchill
and President Roosevelt met to discuss the plan of the war.
• The decision to invade the “soft underbelly of Europe” Italy
was agreed upon.
• Stepping up in the Pacific theatre and calling for Unconditional
surrender were also affirmed.
The Not So Soft Underbelly
(Italy)
• Operation Husky: the allied invasion of Italy commenced in
August of 1943.
• The Italians surrendered in Italy thereafter in September of
1943
• However the Germans remained and fought viciously against
each allied step up the peninsula.
• Rome fell on June 8th of 1944 however focus had shifted to the
real Western front.
D-Day
• The Allied western front came in Normandy, France on June
6th 1942.
• This invasion came to be known as operation overlord.
• Following the invasion, Germany was forced to fight a war on
two fronts.
4 Terms and the Presidency
• Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey, the popular
governor of New York.
• Roosevelt was again nominated by the Democrats as he
worked to end the war.
• Dewey took to speech making denouncing New Dealism and
the fear of a “lifer” in the White House.
• Nonetheless, Roosevelt squashed Dewey in the Electoral
College 432 to 99.
• Roosevelt won mainly because the war was going well and his
experienced hand would be needed for peace making,
• The Democrats also pulled Henry A. Wallace from the Vice
presidency and replaced him with senator Harry S. Truman
The end of Hitler
• Germany was on the verge of collapse in late 1944.
• The Soviet Surge in the East captured Berlin in April of 1945.
• In a last ditch effort, German reserves were thrown against
the American lines in December of 1944 during in battle of the
bulge. Casualties were high on both sides however the attack
was defeated as German finally faltered.
• On May 7 1945, the remaining German government
surrendered. (VE Day)
Late Pacific
• Horrific bombing campaigns and submarine warfare have
fractured Japan’s economy and military might.
• At the battle for Leyte Gulf, Japan’s navy is obliterated at a loss
of 60 ships; the greatest ship battle of all time.
• Despite the overwhelming odds, Japan fights on and inflicts
heavy losses on American forces with new kamikaze tactics.
• Kamikazes are suicide pilots who crash their planes filled with
explosives into American ships.
Potsdam
• Following the German defeat in Europe, at the Potsdam
conference the Soviet Union agreed to enter the war against
japan in exactly 3 months.
• Germany was divided into east and west sectors
• An ultimatum was given to japan to surrender or be destroyed
by a new superweapon.
Japanese Surrender
• The atomic bomb became the means of forcing Japan to
surrender.
• 5 long years of work in the Manhattan project had culminated
in atomic weaponry.
• The bombs were detonated over Nagasaki and Hiroshima with
devastating results.
• Tokyo sued for peace on the condition their emperor would
remain on the throne; the allies accepted on Sept. 2 1945 (VJ
Day)
Triumph
• World War 2 pulled the U.S out of the Great Depression
• After the war the United States and the Soviet Union emerged
as superpowers on opposing sides of Europe.
• The United States had maintained itself to be a protector and
arsenal of
• Democracy.