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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.