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The Presidency of
Franklin D. Roosevelt –
Part II: FDR and World War II
NOTES
FDR had to deal not only deal with
those two major domestic crises, but
also an international crisis as World
War II—which can really be thought
about as two separate conflicts in
Europe and Asia—began.
Often overshadowed by the war in
Europe, the war between America and
Japan is perhaps more important and
was primarily America’s to fight, with
little support from the other Allies.
The conflict between the countries
built up over time.
The cause of the conflict was
imperialism. America and European
countries scrambled for colonies and
markets in Asia around the turn of the
century.
Seeing what happened to other Asian
peoples, the Japanese decided to
modernize and copy Western nations,
including rebuilding their economies
and governments. They also began
practicing imperialism, needing raw
materials for their newly created
industry.
When the Japanese aggressively
invaded Manchuria (northern China)
in 1931, the United States was upset.
By 1937, the Japanese invaded China
proper, escalating the tension.
In an effort to get the Japanese to
back down, America put embargos—
laws prohibiting trade with a foreign
country as a punishment—on steel
and oil. To Japan, these embargos
were almost the equivalent of acts of
war because they threatened to halt
Japan’s ability to expand.
As a pre-emptive strike, the Japanese
decided to knock the United States
Navy with a sneak attack at the fleet’s
base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The
attack took place on a Sunday
morning in an attempt to catch the
sailors’ with their pants down, so to
speak, on December 7, 1941. The
infamous day that will “live in
infamy.”
The war in Europe also built over
time. The rise of totalitarian
dictatorships in Germany and Italy
was need seen as an imminent threat
to America at first. Just as with World
War I, when wars began in Asia and
Europe, Americans overwhelmingly
wanted to stay out of it. But that
changed too.
World War II was created, more than
anything else, by unresolved issues
from World War I. The Axis nations—
Germany, Italy and Japan—all felt
mistreated by the Treaty of Versailles
and wanted revenge.
The Great Depression in the United
States affected the entire world.
Unemployment and financial
instability caused major problems
everywhere. People in the Axis
nations turned to extremists who
promised to solve these problems.
All three Axis nations were
expansionist—meaning they started
taking over other countries. The
League of Nations was unable to find
peaceful solutions to the crises that
arose.
Desperate to avoid another war like
World War I, Allied nations gave in to
Axis demands to try and keep the
peace. This most famously happened
at the Munich Conference when Hitler
was appeased by Britain and France
giving him half of Czechoslovakia if he
promised to stop expanding.
In 1939, Hitler broke the agreement
when he invaded Poland. All the
countries of Europe declared war on
each other, starting World War II.
The United States watched this from
afar, trying to stay out of it. FDR,
however, saw the need for America to
enter the war at some point and did
what he could to help the Allies in the
Conflict.
In 1935-1937, Congress passed the
Neutrality Acts. To avoid possible
entanglement with the war, American
companies were not to trade arms to
countries at war. Americans were
also prohibited from traveling on
ships of those nations too.
Roosevelt began preparing for war,
even if the public wasn’t ready for it.
He instituted the first peace-time
draft in history. The Army and Navy
were expanded.
In 1939, FDR urged Congress to pass
the Cash and Carry Policy, which
partially removed the ban on trading
arms as long as the other country paid
up front and transported the goods
themselves. These goods went only
to Allied nations.
In 1941, FDR urged Congress to
pass the Lend-Lease Act, which
allowed the United States to
supply Allied Nations war
materials on credit, increasing U. S.
involvement in the conflict.
As the final step, the United States
would officially enter the war after
the Japanese sneak attack on the
American naval base at Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
The Japanese planned to knock the
American navy out just as their
diplomats handed an official
declaration of war to the Secretary of
State in Washington, D.C.
Unfortunately, the diplomats arrived
late, after news had reached
Washington about the attack.
The Japanese attack did not inflict as
much damage as anticipated and
missed out on damaging the Pacific
Fleet’s three aircraft carriers—the
most important naval ship of the
war—all of which were not at dock
that morning. The rest of the fleet
was repaired quicker than expected.
The United States Congress declared
war on Japan the next day after
Roosevelt’s famous “day that will live
in infamy” speech. Japan’s allies
declared war on the United States
shortly after and the Americans joined
the war.
America really fought two wars at the
same time—one in the Pacific against
the Japanese and the other in Europe
against the Nazis and Italians (who,
after deposing Mussolini switched to
the Allied side).
Just as in World War I, American
industry was mobilized to help fight
this war.
Men were drafted into the military
and women moved into their factory
jobs while they were gone. Rosie the
Riveter was created as a piece of
American propaganda depicting this
trend. African-Americans continued
to move north to fill the factory jobs,
as the Great Migration continued.
As before, many goods were rationed
to make them available for the war
effort.
To help finance the war effort, war
bonds were sold by the U. S.
government.
All of the production of war materials
pulled the economy out of the
Depression.
During the war, FDR issued an
executive order forcing JapaneseAmericans to relocate to governmentrun prison camps.
An irrational fear that any persons of
Japanese descent were automatically
a spy took hold with people.
But German-Americans and ItalianAmericans did not face the same
discrimination.
In 1944, an attempt to fight the
relocation camps, the Korematsu v.
the United States Supreme Court case.
The Court did not agree that
Japanese-Americans Constitutional
rights were being violated for no
reason.
Instead, in a six to three decision, the
Court said that it was in the best
interest for the whole country, even if
some people’s rights were trampled.
The United States government would
later pay reparations to the Japanese
families that lost their homes and
businesses due to the relocation.
American troops help the Allies turn
the tide in the war.
With victories in North Africa, Italy
and France with the D-Day invasion at
Normandy. Germany was getting
squeezed from the west by the British,
French and American forces and from
the East by Soviet troops.
The Japanese were also being pushed
back to Japan through the American’s
island-hopping campaign.
In 1941, Britain and the United States
issued the Atlantic Charter that
outlined their goals for the post-war
world. Getting the other major ally—
the Soviet Union—to agree was a
challenge.
The leaders of the Allied nations met to
discuss how to end the war. Winston
Churchill (Britain) and Joseph Stalin
(USSR) joined FDR at the Yalta
Conference. There—along with the
Potsdam Conference (which took place
after Harry Truman replaces FDR as
President after his death) five months
later—they decided the end game of the
war with an eye on preventing another
future world war.
They agreed that an unconditional
surrender would be necessary.
The Allies would all occupy the
defeated nations and help them
rebuild their countries.
A new international peace-keeping
organization called the United Nations
would replace the beleaguered
League of Nations.
War criminals would be tried for their
crimes by multi-national tribunals and
held accountable for their crimes—
most notably the crimes of the
Holocaust, but other atrocities too.
This led to the Nuremberg Trials and
other war crimes trials that took place
after the war.
When Hitler and many of the other
Nazi leaders killed themselves with
the Soviets about to take over Berlin,
the war in Europe was abruptly over.
For the Americans, this allowed them
to concentrate on the war against
Japan.
Before the war with Japan could be
brought to an end, FDR died. He was
replaced by his Vice-President, Harry
Truman. Truman was charged with
the difficult task of wrapping up the
war. And to do so, he would have to
make a very difficult decision.