Download The Road to War and World War II

The Road to War and World
War II
Chapters 17 and 18
Section 17.1
• Stalin’s Soviet Union
– Joesf Stalin takes over the USSR after Lenin’s
death and begins the “great leap forward”
• A series of five year plans to modernize and
industrialize the USSR
– Stalin’s economic plans
• Forced family farms to merge into large collective
state-owned farms
– Peasant farmers starved to death
– Nearly 5 million peasants sent to labor camps in Siberia
– Agricultural production fell to record lows, resulting in
food rationing
• Forced millions of citizens to build industrial
facilities
Section 17.1
• Purges: the process of
removing enemies and
undesirables
• Stalin “purifies” the
Communist Party of
his enemies
• By 1939, more than 7
million people were
arrested
– A million executed and
millions sent to labor
camps
Section 17.1
• Fascism in Italy
– Mussolini was a WWI
vet who believed the
Versailles treaty did
not give Italy enough
territory
– He organizes the
Fascist Party calling
himself “IL Duce” (the
leader)
• His party and message
attracts war veterans,
opponents of the
monarchy, anarchists,
etc…
Section 17.1
• Fascism in Italy continued
– Mussolini and his party used Black shirts (Fascist
thugs) to intimidate political opponents
– When he threatens to march on Rome, the king
makes Mussolini the Prime Minister
• To restore peace and prosperity, Mussolini suspends
elections, outlaws other parties, and becomes dictator
– Mussolini did begin an economic recovery and with
that came in 1935 an invasion and conquest of
Ethiopia in 1936
Section 17.1
• Hitler’s Rise to Power
– Hitler was an Austrian, who had served in the German Army
in WWI and was a failed artist
– He hated the Versailles Treaty for the humiliation it brought
upon his beloved Germany
– The Nazi Party
• In 1919, Hitler joined the National Socialist German Worker’s Party
(Nazi Party)
• Nazism: type of Fascism shaped by Hitler’s views of German
nationalism and racial superiority
• Hitler’s superior speaking ability made him the leader of the party and
by 1923 with 3,000 followers, Hitler tried to overthrow the German
government
– Hitler is arrested and while arrested writes his book, Mein Kampf (My
Struggle)
Section 17.1
• Hitler’s Rise to Power continued
– In Mein Kampf, Hitler lays out his
ideology
• Jews caused Germany’s defeat in
WWI
• Germany should expand and rearm
in violation of the Versailles Treaty
• Purifying the “Aryan Race” (blond,
blue-eyed Germans) by eliminating
less superior people
• Hitler promised to fix the economic
woes of the German people
– On his promise to fix the economy, by
1930 the Nazi Party became the
majority party in Germany’s lower house
(the Reichstag)
– Hitler placed second in the presidential
election of 1932, thus President
Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor
(head of the German government) in
1933
Section 17.1
• Hitler’s Rise to Power continued
– As chancellor, Hitler suspended free speech and free
press, had his brown shirts (Nazi thugs) silence his
opposition, used a fire of the Reichstag building,
which he planned but blamed on communists to get a
bill passed giving him dictatorial powers
– In 1934, President Hindenburg dies and Hitler
becomes both president and chancellor, he gives
himself the title of Der Furhrer (the leader)
– By illegally rebuilding the German armed forces and
financing public works, Hitler was able to end the
Depression in Germany and prepare Germany for
expansion
• Unemployment was nearly zero
Section 17.1
• Germany Expands
– March 7, 1936
• Germans troops enter the demilitarized Rhineland, which
was prohibited in the Versailles Treaty
– Also in 1936
• Hitler signs an alliance with Mussolini, which would later
include Japan creating the Axis Powers
– March 1938
• Hitler sends troops into Austria in a bloodless annexation of
the country (Anschluss)
– September 1938
• Hitler demands the Sudetenland (area of Czechoslovakia
with a large German population)
• Not wanting war Britain and France allow Hitler to take the
region with Hitler vowing he would take no more territory
– Appeasement: giving into a competitor’s demands in order to
keep the peace
Section 17.1
• The Spanish Civil War
– Spain erupts in civil war in
February of 1936 with the
liberal parties (Republicans) in
control of government battling
the Fascist leaning military
and its supporters called
Nationalists
– Hitler and Mussolini send aid
to the Nationalist forces
– Stalin sends aid to the
Republican forces
– By March of 1939, the
Nationalists won and their
leader Franco became ruler
for life
Section 17.2
• Europe goes to War
– Hitler goes back on
his promise to end
his quest for
territory in March of
1939 by invading
and annexing the
rest of
Czechoslovakia
– That following April,
Mussolini invaded
and annexed
Albania
Section 17.2
• The Invasion of Poland
– On March 31, 1939, France
and Britain pledged to
defend Poland from German
invasion
– Although bitter enemies,
Germany and the USSR
signed a ten year nonaggression pact in August
• A secret part of the pact was
the division of certain Eastern
European nations including
Poland between the two
countries
– Germany invades Poland on
September 1, 1939, two
days later Britain and France
declared war on Germany,
World War II had begun
• Lightning War
– Germany used a new
war tactic to quickly
defeat Poland
• Blitzkrieg (lightning
war): involved a fast
concentrated air and
land attack that took
the enemy by
surprise.
– Germany defeats Poland
in less than a month
• In Mid-September, the
Soviet Union joined
the war and took the
Eastern half of Poland
as part of the
German-Soviet pact
Section 17.2
Section 17.2
• War in the West
– After Poland falls, a tense waiting period begins, the
American press dubs the “phony war” sets in
– France hoped its impressive defenses at the FranceGerman border, the Maginot Line would keep the
Germans at bay
– On April 9, 1940, Hitler invades and conquers
Denmark and Norway
– May 10, 1940
• Germany launches a blitzkrieg attack on Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Luxembourg conquering each nation within
three weeks
– Dunkirk
• German troops had surrounded an army of British and
French troops at the city of Dunkirk
• Miraculously, in nine days, a makeshift fleet of every
available ship came from England and transported all
340,000 troops safely back to Britain
Section 17.2
• The Fall of France
– June 10th
• The French abandon Paris
• Italy declares war on Britain and France
– June 14th
• German troops enter Paris
– June 22nd
• France surrenders
• According to the surrender terms, Germany took
control of Northern France
• Part of Southern France went to Spain
• The remaining unoccupied portion of France with a
capital at Vichy, would become Vichy France with a
policy of collaboration (close cooperation) with
Germany
Section 17.2
• The Battle of Britain
– New British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
prepares Britain for German invasion after France
falls
– Hitler begins with his Lufwaffe (air force) in August
1940 launching the greatest air assault the world had
ever seen
– In early September, Hitler orders the bombing of
London to break the will of the British people
– Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) courageous fought the
Lufwaffe that greatly outnumbered them
• The RAF never allowed the Germans to gain air superiority,
which was the condition Hitler set before he would order an
invasion of Britain
– The average British citizen kept their will despite the
bombings that killed 20,000 Londoners
Section 17.3
• Japan Builds an Empire
– Growing Military Power
• In the early 1920s, recession hit the Japanese economy only
to worsen with the Great Depression
• Several radical nationalist factions formed in response to the
apparent weakness of the government to solve the economic
problems
– These groups assassinated politicians and business leaders
trying to force the military to take over the government
– Manchurian Incident
• Japan lacked the land needed to feed its rising population and
the raw materials and markets needed to power the Japanese
economy
– In September 1931, a Japanese army took maters into their own
hands by starting a war with China over the nation of Manchuria
without the permission of the civilian Japanese government
Section 17.3
• Manchurian Incident Continued
– By February 1932, the Japanese army had
conquered most of Manchuria
– Japan renamed Manchuria, Manchukuo, which was a
puppet state (a nation under the control of a more
powerful neighbor nation) of Japan
– The League of Nations demanded Japan leave
Manchukuo, so the Japanese withdrew from the
league
– Although the power of the military in government
greatly increased, it never overthrew the civilian
government
• However, when it come to foreign policy, the military was now
in control
Section 17.3
• War against China
– In July 1937, Japan used a minor clash near
the Marco Polo bridge to go to war with China
– By August, Japan controlled Beijing and
Tianjin and was moving in on the rest of
northern China
• The Chinese nationalist army under Jiang Jieshi
fought bravely, but the Chinese manpower
advantage could not overcome the superior
weapons of the Japanese
– “Rape of Nanjing”
• Japanese soldiers brutalized/killed at least 100,000
civilians including women and children
Section 17.3
• War with China continued
– The U.S. and other nations condemn Japan
• U.S. does nothing as Neutrality laws prohibit U.S.
intervention in foreign conflicts
• The Soviet Union sent warplanes and advisors to
China
• Britain sent supplies via the Burma Road (700-mile
long highway linking Burma to China
– War brings the leaders of the Nationalist
(Jiang) and the Communist (Mao Zedong)
factions together fighting against the
Japanese
– War becomes a stalemate by 1939
Section 17.3
• Looking beyond China
– In 1940, Japan’s Prime Minister announced a
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
• To be led by the Japanese and would extend from
Manchuria to the Dutch East Indies
• Japan said it wanted to liberate Asia from
European domination
– In reality Japan wanted the land and the resources
– Tripartite Pact
• Japan allies with Germany and Italy
– April 1941
• Japan signs a neutrality pact with the USSR
Section 17.4
• The United States chooses neutrality
– In 1930, Congress passed the Hawley-Smoot
tariff to protect American industries from
foreign competitors
– Neutrality Acts
• Banned the U.S. from providing weapons to
nations at war
• Banned loans to nations at war
• Permitted trading with nations at war for nonmilitary goods as long as said nation at war paid
with cash and transported the cargo themselves
(cash and carry)
Section 17.4
• American involvement grows
– Debating the American Role
• After the invasion of Poland, FDR asks Congress to revise the
Neutrality Acts
– Revisions allowed the U.S. to sell weapons to the Allies and to transport
those goods with American ships
– On September 2, 1940, the U.S. agreed to send 50 old destroyers to
Britain in return for permission to build bases on British territory in the
Western hemisphere
– America First Committee
» Group of isolationists formed to block any further aid to Britain
» At its height it had 800,000 members including Charles Lindbergh
– Lend-Lease Act
• In March 1941, Authorized FDR to aid any nation whose defense he
believed was vital to American security
• FDR would give/loan more than $49 billion in aid to over 40 nations
especially Britain and later the USSR
Section 17.4
• Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
– In 1940, FDR began limited what Japan could buy
from the U.S.
– In 1941, in response to Japan taking French
Indochina, FDR froze all of Japan’s financial assets in
the U.S.
• Then FDR cut off oil shipments to Japan
– Final Weeks of Peace
• Japanese and American diplomats were negotiating to
maintain the peace
– Meanwhile, General Tojo Hideki became Prime Minister and
supported war with the U.S. in October of 1941
• By November 27, the U.S. had cracked the Japanese secret
code and discovered the coming of an attack by the
Japanese, but the U.S. did not know where the Japanese
were going to strike
Section 17.4
• Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor continued
– The attack
• December 7, 1941
– Over 180 Japanese warplanes bombed or strafed (attacked
with machine guns), half of the U.S. Pacific fleet and airfields
nearby
– In less than two hours, 2,400 Americans were dead, 1,200
wounded, 200 warplanes were destroyed or damaged, 18
warships were sunk or damaged badly, including 8 of the nine
battleships
– The Japanese only lost 29 planes
• The U.S. declares war
– “A date that will live in infamy”
– Within hours of the attack, Congress passed a war
resolution against the Empire of Japan
– On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on
the U.S.
– The U.S. was now in yet another world war
Section 18.1
• Mobilizing the Armed Forces
– Selective Training and Service Act
• Passed by Congress in 1940 as the first peacetime
draft
• Required all males 21 to 36 to register for military
service
– Defense budget rises from $2 billion to $10
billion
• The GI War
– Over 16 million Americans served as soldiers,
sailors, and aviators in the war
• They called themselves GIs (Government Issue)
Section 18.1
• Diversity in the Armed Forces
– More than 300,000 Mexican Americans
served in the war
– Some 25,000 Native Americans served
• “Code talkers” Native Americans that created a
secret code using the Navajo language that the
Germans or Japanese never cracked
– Over a million African Americans served
• Were in segregated units and were in mostly
support roles
– 350,000 women volunteered for military
service and were clerks, mechanics,
photographers, and other non-combat roles
Section 18.1
• Preparing the Economy for War
– War production
• War Production Board (WPB)
– Directed industry to convert from consumer goods and products
to war goods and products
• Office of War Mobilization
– Served as a super-agency in the centralization of resources
• Each year, the U.S. would raise its production goals
– By 1944, U.S. production double that of all the Axis nations
combined
– The wartime workforce
• War production created millions of new good paying jobs,
finally ending the unemployment of the depression
• Union membership rose by 1.5 million with the massive job
creation
– By 1945, union membership increased to almost 15 million
• Financing the war
– Federal spending
increased from $8.9
billion in 1939 to over
$95 billion a year in
1945
• Overall the government
spent $321 billion during
the war
– This massive spending
finally brought the
economy out of the Great
Depression, but increased
the national debt from $43
billion to $259 billion
Section 18.1
Section 18.1
• Daily Life on the Home Front
– Shortages and Controls
• Familiar consumer goods were
unavailable
– Metal to make zippers and typewriters
went to make guns
– Rubber made tires for army jeeps not
bicycles
• Office of Price Administration (OPA)
– Job was to control inflation
– Oversaw the rationing of food and goods
during the war
» Assigned point values to certain
foods and distributed coupon books
worth a certain amount of points to
buy rationed goods
Section 18.1
• Popular Culture
– Popular song: “White
Christmas”
– People read more
books
– 60% of the population
went to the movies
each year
– Many flocked to
baseball games
• Many top players went
off to war
• Enlisting Public Support
– Office of War Information
(June 1942)
• Worked with writers,
magazine publishers,
radio stain owners,
artists to promote
public support for the
war effort
– Victory garden: home
garden made to replace
food bought at the store
so that food can go right
to the troops
Section 18.2
• Americans Join the Struggle
– Atlantic Charter
• Agreement between FDR and
Winston Churchill about the
aims of the Allies during and
after WWII
– Battle of the Atlantic
• After the U.S. entered the war,
German u-boats (submarines)
began attacks on merchant ships
near the American coast
– U-boat sank nearly 175 ships in
June 1942 alone
– Eventually better tactics and
defensive weapons (subhunting aircraft halt much of
the u-boat activity in the
Atlantic
Section 18.2
• North Africa Campaign
– August 1940
• A British army battles an Italian army in the
Egyptian and Libyan deserts
– February 1941
• Hitler sends General Rommel (Desert Fox) and a
German army to aid the failing Italian Army
– November 1942
• In months after his arrival, Rommel wins several
battles pushing back the British army, but fails to
take Egypt
• In November, the British under General
Montgomery defeat Rommel at the battle of El
Alamein sending the German and Italian armies in
retreat
Section 18.2
• North Africa Campaign continued…
– November 1942
• Allies land in Vichy France territories of Morocco and Algeria
under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and pushed
eastward
• February 1943
– American forces defeated trying to defend Kasserine Pass
• Americans learn from defeat and in May 1943, the Allies trap the
Axis forces in North Africa forcing over 250,000 Axis troops to
surrender against Hitler’s command
Section 18.2
• Casablanca (January 1943)
– FDR and Churchill meet again to map out the strategy
for the rest of the war
• Decide to focus on defeating Hitler before
defeating Japan
• Only would accept unconditional surrender from
Germany
• Invasion of Italy
– July 1943
• U.S. 7th Army under General Patton invaded the
island of Sicily
• Italians lose faith in Mussolini and his fascist party
votes to remove him from office and King
Emmanuel III has him arrested
– Hitler sends troops to free Mussolini and install
him as dictator in Northern Italy
• Invasion of Italy continued
– September 1943
• Allies near Rome and the Italian
government surrenders
– October 1943
• Italian government now under
Allied control declares war on
Germany
– May 1944
• German defenses in Northern
Italy under the command of
Mussolini are broken
• Rome is finally captured in June
1944
– April 1945
• German troops in Italy fully
surrender
• Mussolini is shot and hung
Section 18.2
Section 18.2
• War in the Soviet Union
– In Mein Kampf, Hitler
talks of conquering the
USSR for German
“living space”
– Invasion of USSR begins
on June 22, 1941
• 3.6 million Axis troops
march into Russia
• 3 million poorly trained
Russian troops opposed
German forces
• The German Luftwaffe
easily gained air
supremacy
Section 18.2
• War in USSR continued
– The USSR army is in full retreat and on Stalin’s orders destroys
everything they pass by to deprive the Germans of anything
• The Axis forces advance several hundred miles in the USSR
nearing Moscow and surrounding Leningrad (St. Petersburg)
• Stalin begs the Allies to open a second front to relieve
pressure on Russia, FDR and Churchill do nothing
– Battle of Stalingrad
• The Russian winter stops the German advance in October
• The Red army makes a stand at Stalingrad
• The Germans began firebombing and shelling the city in
September 1942 that lasted two months
• In mid-November using the harsh winter as an ally, the Soviets
counterattacked that left the German army surrounded (Hitler
ordered that the army could not surrender)
• On January 31, 1943: the remaining German army
surrendered
• Germany lost 330,000 troops at Stalingrad and the battle
turned the tide of war resulting in the USSR pushing the
Germans back out of Russia
• Allied Air War
Section 18.2
– By 1943, Royal Air Force and other Allied pilots began a
campaign of carpet bombing (planes scattered large
numbers of bombs over a wide area) causing high
German causalities
– By 1944, Allied commanders were conducting
coordinated air raids, American planes by day and British
planes by night
Section 18.2
• The Invasion of Western Europe
– D-day
• June 6, 1944
– Some 4,600 invasion craft and warships slipped out of their
harbors in England
– 1,000 RAF bombers began an air bombardment
– 150,000 Allied troops began to come ashore along 60 miles of
the Normandy (region in France) coast
» Largest landing by sea in history
• Within a week of the landing, half a million troops had come
ashore despite the fierce German resistance
– Liberation of France
• With D-day complete, the Allies began to expand into
occupied France meeting intense resistance
• In August, General Patton broke through the lines
• In August 1944, a French division of the U.S. army liberated
Paris from Nazi control
• Battle of the Bulge (December
1944)
– Germany launches a
counterattack in Belgium
and Luxemburg against the
Allied push towards Berlin
• The Germans smashed
into the U.S. First army
pushing it back and
forming a bulge in the
Allied line, thus the
battle gets its name
– With reinforcements from
General Patton’s forces and
within a few weeks the
Germans are knocked back
allowing the Allied
advance to continue
• 80,000 Allied casualties
• 100,000 Nazi
causalities
Section 18.2
Section 18.2
• The War in Europe ends
– The Soviet Advance
• At any given time 9 million soldiers were battling on the
Eastern front
– Some 11 million Soviets died and 3million Axis troops died on
this front
• April 1945
– Soviet troops fought their way to Berlin
– The Germans fought bitterly in Berlin against the Soviet army
• April 25, 1945
– The Red army meets up with American troops near the Elbe
River
– April 30, 1945
• Hitler commits suicide
– May 8, 1945
• Germany surrendered the day is called V-E Day (Victory in
Europe Day)
• Yalta Conference
– February 1945
• Months before Germany
surrendered, FDR,
Churchill, and Stalin meet
in Yalta to discuss a postwar
world
– Germany and Berlin were
going to be split into four
zones controlled by Britain,
the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and
France
– Stalin agreed to free
elections in Eastern Europe
and join the war against
Japan after Germany
surrenders
» Stalin will not keep his
promise of free
elections planting the
seeds of the Cold War
Section 18.2
Section 18.3
• Persecution in Germany
– Hitler made anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews) official policy in
Germany in 1933
• Nazi Policies
– Exclude Jews from all aspects of social, political, and
economic life in Germany
– April 1, 1933
• Nazis ordered one day boycott of Jewish businesses
– In 1935, Jews are stripped of German citizenship and forbid
marriage between Jews and non-Jews via the Nuremberg
laws
– Jewish businesses taken over and given to Aryan Germans
• Jews were forced to wear yellow ‘Stars of David” on their clothes to
identify themselves as Jews
Section 18.3
• Hitler’s Police
– The Gestapo was Hitler’s secret police and
the S.S. (Schutzstaffel) was the private army
of the Nazi party
• They combine in 1939
– The S.S. guarded concentration camps
(camps for political prisoners)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jews
Communists
Homosexuals
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Gypsies
Homeless
Section 18.3
• Kristallnacht
– In English, “Night of Terror”
• November 9, 1938
– Nazi thugs throughout Germany and Austria looted and
destroyed Jewish stores, houses, and synagogues
– The Nazis arrested thousands of Jews and shipped them
off to concentration camps
– German Jews fined to pay for the damages
• Refugees
– 130,000 Jews flee from Germany from 1933
to 1937
• Sadly many industrial nations including the U.S.
refused to allow more immigrants into their nations
limiting Jews from fleeing Germany’s persecution
Section 18.3
• From Murder to Genocide
– As German conquered Europe, more and more Jews
(2 million from Poland) are shipped off to camps
• Warsaw ghetto
– An area in Poland’s capital where Nazis confined 400,000 Jews
by placing walls and barb wire around the area, which was
guarded by S.S. troops
» Jews could not leave and received little food causing
thousands to die each month
– Einsatzgruppen
• Mobile killing squads sent into the Soviet Union during its
invasion
– These squads went around killing Communist political leaders
and Jews leaving their bodies in shallow graves
– Wannsee Conference
• January 1942, Nazi officials meet to agree on a new
approach to mass murder Jews
– They devise the “final solution to the Jewish questions”
» Camps were to be created to completely wipe out the
Jewish people (genocide)
Section 18.3
• The Death Camps
– Nazis saw poison gas as the most effective
way to kill people
• Nazis placed rooms that looked like showers at
several death camps, but once in the room poison
gas was released
• Death camps, the most famous being Auschwitz
existed primarily for mass murder
• Jews were herded like cattle off to these camps
– Once there, they were inspected and the weak (elderly,
children, and women with children) were gassed
immediately and their bodies were cremated
– Those not killed were worked to death
Section 18.3
• Death Camps continued
– Living conditions
• One pair of clothes
• Slept in crowded, unheated barracks
• Fed imitation coffee, soup made with rotted vegetables, and
stale bread
• Some were tortured others were killed in bizarre and
inhumane medical experiments
– The number of victims
• At Auschwitz, 12,000 people were gassed and cremated in a
single day
– In total 1.5 million people killed at Auschwitz
• Fighting Back
– Some Jews formed resistance movements that
attacked camps and sabotaged efforts to transport
Jews to camps
– An uprising in the Warsaw ghetto occurs in 1942, but
was harshly crushed by the Nazis
Section 18.3
• Rescue and Liberation
– The U.S. knew about the Holocaust since 1942, but did little to
stop it
– War Refugee Board (WRB)
• Created in January 1944 by FDR to help people threatened by the
Nazis
– The WRB saved over 200,000 lives
– As the Allies advanced towards Germany in 1944, the Germans
moved Jews and other prisoners from camps outside Germany
to ones inside
• American soldiers saw the horrors of the Holocaust up front in 1945
when the first camp was liberated
• After the war, several high ranking Nazi officials were tried for
crimes against humanity in Nuremberg, Germany (Nuremberg Trials
November 1945)
– 12 Nazis received death penalties out of 24 defendants
– In the end, 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust
• 2/3 of Europe’s Jewish population
– 5 to 6 million “others” homosexuals, communist, prisoners of war,
gypsies, and homeless were exterminated
The Horrors of the Holocaust
The Horrors of the Holocaust
The Horrors of the Holocaust
Section 18.4
• The Japanese Advance (1941-1942)
– By early March 1942, Japan overran the British
strongholds in Hong Kong, seized the Dutch East
Indies, and invaded Burma.
– The Philippines Fall
• The main island of Bataan surrenders in April 1942
• The Philippine government completely surrenders on May 6
• The Bataan Death March
– 10,000 Pilipino and American prisoners forced to march for 6 to
12 days straight
» Many died during the march of exhaustion, others seen as
weak by the Japanese were executed
» Prisoners that survived the march were sent to prison
camps, where an additional 15,000 soldiers died
– China officially joins the Allies on December 9, 1941
and the Allies send them supplies to defend Burma
from the Japanese
Section 18.4
• The War at Sea
– The Pacific fleet’s three aircraft carriers were
not at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,
which would be crucial for American victory
against Japan
– Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942)
• American fleet engaged the Japanese near
Australia
– The five day battle cost both sides half their planes
» The American carrier Lexington was destroyed and
Yorktown was badly damaged
» The Japanese had one carrier sank, one lose all its
planes, and another put out of commission
» This battle though a draw stopped a Japanese
invasion of Australia
Section 18.4
• Allied Victories Turn the Tide
– The Battle of Midway (June 4, 1942)
• Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku (mastermind
of the Pearl Harbor attack) sent a large part of the
Japanese navy to invade Midway Island and
destroy the American Pacific fleet under Admiral
Nimitz
• The battle was entirely from the air
– Americans sank three of the four heavy Japanese
carriers as they were refueling
– The two American aircraft carriers (Enterprise and Hornet
were unharmed
– In total, the Japanese lost four carriers, some 250
planes, and many of its most skilled pilots
– After this battle, the Japanese were unable to go on the
offensive and fought the rest of the war on the defensive
Section 18.4
• Allied Victories Turn the Tide Continued…
– Battle of Guadalcanal (August 1942)
• Guadalcanal was an island the Japanese
controlled and were building an airfield that
could threaten the U.S. with
• 11,000 American marines land on the island
and face 2,200 Japanese defenders in thick
jungles
• The battle lasts five months and while the
soldiers fought on the island, several fierce
naval battles occurred
• American forces took the island in February
1943
• Struggle for Islands
Section 18.4
– Island-hopping
• Military strategy the U.S. use of selectively attacking
specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others
• Between 1943 and 1944, the U.S. captured Taiwan, the
Marshall Islands, and ports in the Mariana Islands
– Philippines Campaign (October 1944)
• 160,000 American troops invaded the Philippine island of
Leyte
• Off the coast of Leyte, the greatest naval battle in world
history began (Battle of Leyte Gulf)
– The battle lasts three days and involves 280 warships
– The every Japanese warship attacked the American navy
» The Japanese began using kamikazes (suicide bombers)
– The Japanese navy is utterly destroyed
• After several months of fierce battle, the Philippines were
fully liberated in June 1945
Section 18.4
• Battle of Iwo Jima (November 1944)
– One of the bloodiest battles of the war
• For 74 days, American planes and warships poured 7,000 tons of
bombs and 20,000 shells unto the Japanese defenders
– American troops landed on the island in February 1945
• It took 110,000 American troops a month to conquer the island’s
25,000 defenders
– Only 216 Japanese were taken as prisoners
• Battle of Okinawa (April to June 1945)
– 100,000 Japanese defenders on the tiny island pledged to
fight the death
• 180,000 U.S. troops stormed the beaches
– The Japanese made banzai charges (attacks in which a soldier tries
to kill as many enemy troops before they are killed) against the
Americans
• After three months of intense fighting only 7,200 Japanese
remained to surrender
– 50,000 American causalities made this battle the costliness of the war
Section 18.4
• The Manhattan Project
– In August 1939, FDR received a letter from Einstein
stating the Germans were developing a bomb more
powerful than any bomb ever
• In response, FDR created the Manhattan Project to develop the
atomic bomb
• On July 16, 1945, Manhattan Project scientist field-tested the first
atomic bomb in New Mexico
• Ending the war against Japan
– The options
• Massive invasion of Japan, expected cost a million American lives
• Naval blockade to starve Japan, along with continued conventional
bombing
• A demonstration of the atomic bomb on a deserted island to
pressure Japan to surrender
• A softening of Allied demands for an unconditional surrender
• Using the atomic bomb directly on the Japanese mainland
Section 18.4
• Dropping the Bomb
– The decision to drop the
atomic bomb is made by
the new president, Harry
Truman (FDR died in
April 1945)
– August 6, 1945
• A single atomic bomb
dropped on the city of
Hiroshima
– 80,000 died in the blast
– 90% of the buildings
destroyed or badly damaged
• August 9, 1945
Section 18.4
– The U.S. drops another atomic bomb on the city of
Nagasaki
– August 14, 1945
• Japan surrenders ending the Second World War
• V-J Day (Victory in Japan Day)
– Japan’s formal surrender agreement was signed on
September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in
Tokyo Bay
• African Americans
Section 18.5
– June 25, 1941
• FDR signs executive order opening jobs and job training programs
in defense plants to all Americans regardless of race
– During the war, African Americans (2 million) migrated
from the South to the North for jobs
• Faced the opportunity of work with extreme segregation into urban
ghettos
– June 1943
• Race riot in Detroit ends in 34 people being killed and millions of
dollars in damage
– Blacks and whites in segregated units in the military
– Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)
• Founded in 1942
• Believed in using nonviolence techniques to end racism
• Mexican Americans
– Braceros
• Mexican farm workers brought to
the U.S. because of an
agricultural worker shortage
• 200,000 come to the U.S. and live
in barrios (Spanish Speaking
neighbors)
– Zoot Suit Riots
• Zoot suits are outfits worn by
Mexican American youth
• Zoot-suiters are beat up by soldier
on leave for looking un-American
• Early in June 1943, street fighting
between zoot-suiters and soldiers
escalated into full blown riots
– Navy began restricting where
sailors could go on leave
Section 18.5
• Native Americans
– 25,000 joined the armed forces
– 23,000 worked in war industries
•
•
•
Section 18.5
• Those who moved off the reservation for work rarely returned to the
reservation after the war
Japanese Americans
– Hostility against Japanese Americans increased after the Pearl Harbor attacks
– As a result of prejudices and fears of Japanese Americas being spies, FDR
signed an executive order that removed 110,000 Japanese (Americans and nonAmericans alike) to internment camps for the remainder of the war
• Being removed from their homes cost the Japanese their property,
businesses, and belongings
• The camps were in desolate areas like deserts and the shelter in the camps
were wooden barracks covered in tar paper
– Armed guards and barbwire fences surrounded the camps
– They were allowed to leave the camps in 1945 and were given compensation in
1988 for being interned
17,000 would serve in the armed services (most being Nisei [citizens born to
Japanese immigrant parents])
Most famous Japanese regiment is the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
– No Japanese soldiers served in the Pacific war, only the European
• Working Women
– New Kinds of jobs
Section 18.5
• WWII brought women into different parts of the
workforce
– High paying war industry job pulled women away from
traditional women’s jobs
– 19.4 million women were in the workforce by 1944
» Women at one point were 35% of the workforce
– Rosie the Riveter
» Fictional character created in the war to attract women into
defense industries
– After the war
• Women either because they saw working during a war
as patriotic but once over wanted to return to being a
homemaker or because of the pressure on women by
men and the government would leave the labor force
and return to their homes after the war
– Some continued to work however getting a new pride out of
being in the workforce