Download Chapter 35 America in World War II

Chapter 35
America in World War II
America’s Motivation
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United States was plunged into the inferno of World War II with
the most humiliating defeat in history.
U.S was looking to avenge the devastating attack in Pearl Harbor
Americans adopted “Get Japan First” motto
However the government had adopted “Get Germany First”
motto
Allies Trade Space for Time
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The Allies had the great mass of world’s
population.
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Allies had the largest number of people while
Germany had fewer number of people
U.S had the mightiest military power on earth.
Also, expense was no limitation for the allies.
The only thing that the Allies didn’t have was
time.
Allies Spread Trade Space for Time
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America’s task was far more complex
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It had to feed, clothe, and arm itself
it also had to transport it forces to regions as
separated as Britain and Burma
It had to send a vast amount of food and
munitions to desperate allies
Burma is located in
Asia and has changed
its name to Myanmar.
The Shock of War
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WWII speeded the assimilation of many ethnic
groups into American society.
Japanese people in America were forcibly herded
together in internment camps
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Even though two-thirds of them were American born U.S
citizens
The camps deprived the people from dignity and basic rights
Supreme Court in 1944 upheld the constitutionality
of the internment camps in Korematsu vs. U.S
In 1988, more than 4 decades later, the government
officially apologized for its actions and approved the
payment of reparations of $20,000 to each camp
survivor
Japanese Internment Camps
State
Opened
Max Pop’n
Manzanar
California
1942
10,046
Tule Lake
California
1942
18,789
Poston
Arizona
1942
17,814
Gila River
Arizona
1942
13,348
Granada
Colorado
1942
7,318
Heart Mountain
Wyoming
1942
10,767
Rohwer
Arkansas
1942
9,397
Jerome
Arkansas
1942
8,130
Minidoka
Idaho
1942
8,475
Topaz
Utah
1942
8,497
Name
Location of the Camps
Japanese American
Internment Camps
Building the War Machine
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American factories poured forth an avalanche
of weaponry
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40 billion bullets, 300,000 aircraft, 76,000 ships,
86,000 tanks and 2.6 million machine gun
Lowered productions of nonessential items
Farmers also increased their output
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Armed forces drained the farms of workers
New heavy investments in agriculture machinery
and improve fertilizers made up the difference
Building the War Machine
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Labor Union increased from 10 millions to 13
millions
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Resented the government dictated wage ceiling
Had many walk-outs which plagued the war
In June 1943, Congress passed Smith- Connally
Anti-Strike Act
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Allowed federal government to seize and operate tied up
industries
Strikes against any government-operated industry were
made a criminal offense
Manpower and Woman Power
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Armed services enlisted nearly 15 million
men and 216,000 women for noncombatant
duties
Needed many workers so they brought in
women to work in factories
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more than 6 millions women took up jobs outside
of their homes
At the war’s end. Two-thirds of women war
workers were left in the labor force
Women’s Role in WWII
Rosie the Riveter
became a symbol for
women workers in
American Defense
Industries
Wartime Migrations
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War industries sucked people into
boomtowns like Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle,
and Baton Rouge
South experienced dramatic changes
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Received a disproportionate share of defense
contracts
1.6 million blacks left south for west and north
Segregation in the Armed Forces
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Black people were drafted into armed forces
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Assigned to service branches rather than combat
units and subjected to petty degradations
in general, the war helped embolden blacks
in their long struggle for equality
Holding the Home Front
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The war invigorated America’s economy and
lifted the country out of a decade-long
depression
Gross national product vaulted from less than
$100 billions in 1940 to $200 billions in 1945
The debt also skyrocketed from $49 billion in
1941 to $259 billions in 1945
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The war was costing about $10 million an hour
The Rising Sun in the Pacific
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Japanese launched widespread and
uniformly successful attacks on various Far
Eastern bastions
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Included Guam, Wake, and the Philippines
Also seized Hong Kong, British Malaya and cut off
the critical Burma Road
Far Eastern Bastions
Guam
Wake
The Philippines
Japan’s High Tide at Midway
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Japan also pushed southward
Invaded New Guinea, Australia, Solomon
Islands
Finally lost the battle at Midway Island to U.S
All the fighting was done by carrier-based
aircraft
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Didn’t fired a shot directly at each other
Admiral Nimitz
Plane
“Hellcat” Fighter
American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo
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Admiral Nimitz skillfully coordinated naval, air
and ground units
America’s new weapon “Hellcat”, a fighter
plane, destroyed 250 Japanese aircraft while
only losing 29 American planes
On November 1944, round the clock bombing
of Japan began
The Allied Halting of Hitler
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Hitler had formidable fleet of submarines in
the Atlantic Ocean
 At first getting the upper hand was difficult
 But British code-breakers broke the
German’s Enigma codes and track the Uboats lurking the North Atlantic
The Allied Halting of Hitler
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The turning point of the land-air war was in 1942.
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British and America were cascading bombs on German
cities
On October 1942, British general Bernard Montgomery
delivered a withering attack at El Alamein
The success gave a new lift to the Allied cause especially
for the Soviet
In November 1942, Russians unleashed a crushing
counteroffensive
A year later, Stalin regained about two-thirds of the Soviet
land
D-Day: June 6, 1944
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Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met in person to
coordinate their attack plan in Teheran, the capital
of Iran
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Went on from November 28th to December 1st, 1943
Preparations for the cross-channel invasion of
France were gigantic
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In Britain, more than 3 millions men were readied
U.S provided majority of the Allied warriors
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Overall command was entrusted to General Eisenhower
The attack was pinpointed to French Normandy which was
held by Germany
Stalin, Churchill and FDR
D-Day: June 6, 1944
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Germans were tricked into expecting a blow
to fall farther north
The Allies were able to block reinforcements
by crippling the railroads
Germans retreated in August 1944 when
American-French force swept northward
In August 1944, Paris was liberated
In October 1944, the first important German
city, Aachen, fell to the Americans
Map of Germany
FDR: The Fourth-Term of 1944
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Victory-starved Republicans
met in Chicago and
nominated Thomas E.
Dewey for President and
John W. Bricker of Ohio for
Vice President
FDR was the “indispensable
man” of the Democrats
He was nominated on the
first ballot by applause
Senator Harry S. Truman of
Missouri was nominated for
Vice-President
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
(FDR)
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Harry S. Truman
Roosevelt Defeats Dewey
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Roosevelt won his fourth term as President
over Thomas Dewey
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A sweeping victory: 432 to 99 in the Electoral
College
25,606,585 to 22,014,745 in the popular vote
He mostly won because the war was going well
The Last Days of Hitler
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By the end of December, Germany seems to
be losing its strength
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Desperate, Hitler staked everything on one last
throw of his reserves
On December 16, 1944, he attacked the
Ardennes Forest
Objective was the Belgian port of Antwerp
Americans were caught off guard but they
stabilize
The Last Days of Hitler
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In March 1945, American troops reached
Rhine River and found a bridge that led to
Elbe River in April 1945.
 In Berlin, they found concentration
camps where Nazis had murder the
“undesirables” including 6 millions jews.
Holocaust
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The Allies didn’t know
the extent of the
Holocaust until the
discovery of the
concentration camps
Tragedy Struck America
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On April 12, 1945, FDR, while relaxing at
Warm Springs, died from a massive cerebral
hemorrhage
Bewildered, unbriefed Vice President Truman
took the oath
On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered
unconditionally
May 8 was officially proclaimed V-E (Victory
in Europe)
The Atomic Bombs and Japan’s Defeat
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America was planning on an all-out invasion
of Japan
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Albert Einstein was pushed ahead to unlock the
secret of an atomic bomb
“The Manhattan Project” or the atomic bomb
pushed forward
Originally intended for Germany but now Japan
Robert Oppenheimer invented the bomb
Hiroshima Bombing
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On August 6, 1945, a lone American bomber
dropped one atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
Japan
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180,000 were killed, wounded or missing
70,000 died immediately
60,000 more perished from burns and radiation
disease
Hiroshima Bombing
The Atomic Bomb and Japan’s Defeat
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Two days after the bombing, Stalin entered the war against
Japan
However, Japan didn’t surrender
2nd atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki on August 9th.
 80,000 people were killed or missing
Finally, on August 10, 1945, Tokyo sued for peace on one
condition:
 Hirohito would be allowed to remain on his throne as nominal
emperor
 On September 2, 1945, official surrender ceremonies were
conducted
 America celebrated V-J (Victory in Japan Day) after the most
horrible war in history that ended with two mushrooming atomic
clouds
Japan surrender
on USS Missouri
on Sept 2, 1945
The Allies Triumphant
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WWII was terribly costly but profitable for U.S
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American lost 1 millions casualties
Soviet Union lost 20 millions people
America was untouched and healthy while the rest
of the world was destroyed
American military leadership proved to be of the
highest order
America industrialized more
American people preserved their precious liberties
without serious impairment.
America Celebrate Victory