Download Chapter 18

• Japan’s attack on China caused US
alarm as to trade status – Open
Door Policy
• Japan declared policy obsolete
• US retaliated by loaning money to
China and asking US munitions
makers not to sell to Japan
• Sep 1940 – US stopped sale of
scrap iron to Japan – Japan
retaliated by signing alliance with
Germany and Italy
• FDR extended embargo to
machine tools
• Neither Japan nor US wanted
war – US made demands
Japan refused to meet
concerning expansion in Asia
• Japanese code broken – US
knew attack imminent
• Surprise attack knocked US Pacific
fleet out of action
• 2,300 killed 1,100 wounded
• Admiral Kimmel and General Short
blamed
• Defeat due to confusion and poor
communication at all levels
• Though Democrats retained
majorities in both houses,
conservatives kept lid on
many of FDR’s initiatives
• Roosevelt good war leader but
poor administrator – inspired
the nation towards war effort
but administration mired in
confusion, inefficiency,
bickering
• War caused huge increase in
production effectively ending the
Depression
• The South saw a revival with
more manufacturing also
establishment of many military
camps
• By December 1941, Depressionera administrations squabbling
with industry over resources,
etc. FDR refused to get involved
• By 1943 economy was
being managed by Office of
War Mobilization under
former Supreme Court
Justice Byrnes
• Rents, wages, food prices
were strictly regulated
• Important food and other
items were rationed
• Labor shortages caused by draft and increased
manufacturing gave unions more power
• FDR created National War Labor Board to arbitrate
disputes between labor and management
• Coal strike caused Congress to give president power to
take over any war plant threatened by a strike
• Despite war, average citizen saw
no drop in standard of living
• Production of cars ceased and gas
severely rationed but all other
civilian activities went on
• Meat, sugar, shoes rationed but
average needs met
• Skirts shortened, cuffs
disappeared, as did vests to
conserve cloth
• Silk stockings no longer available
• Federal government spent more $
between 1941-1945 than in its
entire previous history
• National debt rose from <$49 billion
to >$260 billion
• More than 40% of expenditures met
through taxation – high taxes on
high incomes
• Annual incomes limited to $25,000
• Taxes paid even by
the poorest segments
of society
• First time taxes
withheld by
employers
• Tax policies resulted
in smaller wealth gap
• Migrations to new industrial
areas
• Population of California
rose >50 %
• Marriage and birth rates
increased
• Population increased 3
million during 1930’s – in
next five years it rose 6.5
million
• Blacks treated better in military than
in WWI
• Segregation still maintained in all
services
• Segregation led to several small
riots and mutinies
• US Navy continued to keep blacks
in demeaning non-combat tasks
• Doris “Dorie” Miller
• Black economic situation improved
 More employed
 Migration to Northern cities
 Acquired more advanced skills
 Concentration in ghettos increased political clout
• NAACP adopted a more militant stance
• Whites reacted to black advancements with strikes – riots erupted
killing blacks and whites
• Thousands of Mexicans came
north to take jobs
• Bracero Program – migrant
agricultural work
• Work plentiful and standards
of living rose
• Many Mexican-Americans
served in military
• Zoot Suit Riots
Who's that whisperin' in the trees?
It's two sailors and they're on leave
Pipes and chains and swingin' hands
Who's your daddy, yes I am
Fat cat came to play now he can't run fast
enough
You had best stay away when the pushers
come to shove
Zoot suit riot, (Riot)
Throw back a bottle of beer
Zoot suit riot (Riot)
Pull a comb through your coal black hair
Zoot suit riot, (Riot)
Throw back a bottle of beer
Zoot suit riot (Riot)
Pull a comb through your coal black hair
Blow Daddy
A whipped up jitterbuggin' brown eyed man
A stray cat frontin' up an eight-piece band
Cut me Sammy and you'll understand
In my veins hot music ran
You got me in a sway, and I want to swing
you done
Now you sailors know, where your women
come for love
Zoot suit riot, (Riot)
Throw back a bottle of beer
Zoot suit riot (Riot)
Pull a comb through your coal black hair
Zoot suit riot, (Riot)
Throw back a bottle of beer
Zoot suit riot (Riot)
Pull a comb through your coal black hair
You're in a Zoot Suit riot
Zoot zy-ow - Zoot za zoo zay
Hey al-oo-ay-en - zay zay zay
Zoot zy-ay-ay ow - Zoot za zoo zay
Ze-zoo-ze-zehoo - day de day
You got me in a sway, and I want to swing you
done
Now you sailors know, where your women
come for love
Zoot suit riot, (Riot)
Throw back a bottle of beer
Zoot suit riot (Riot)
Pull a comb through your coal black hair
Zoot suit riot, (Riot)
Throw back a bottle of beer
Zoot suit riot (Riot)
Pull a comb through your coal black hair
You're in a zoot suit riot
• Indian assimilation was encouraged
- >24,000 served in the war while
others moved to cities and worked
in factories
• Windtalkers- Navajo tribe used as
radio operators as Navajo was
unwritten language
• Pearl Harbor caused fear of
Japanese sabotage
• Executive Order 9066 Japanese to be interned in
camps throughout the West
• Korematsu v. The United
States
• 442nd Regimental Combat
Team
• Women worked in almost all fields
including high-paying industrial jobs
• Others enlisted in women military
auxiliaries
• Men initially resistant – “women not
capable”
• Demand for labor broke all barriers
• Loneliness brought on infidelity and
divorce rates skyrocketed
Rosie the Riveter
• Allies decided to tackle Europe first
• USSR and Britain had backs to wall
• Allied planes began bombing
German cities from 1942 on
• First American assault on North
Africa
 Churchill’s motives
 Vichy French – Admiral Darlan
 Kasserine Pass
• Attack on Sicily
• Attack on Italy
 Surrender of Italy
 Stalemate at Monte
Cassino
 Invasion at Anzio
 Mussolini killed by Italian
partisans
 D-Day
 6 June 1944
 Invasion of Western Europe
• Patton’s drive east
• Operation Market-Garden
 Airborne assaults on bridges –
cross Rhine River
• Battle of the Bulge
 Last-gasp attempt by Hitler to
stop Allied advance in West
•
•
•
•
•
Bridge at Remagen
Race to Berlin
Concentration camps
May – VE Day
Deaths of Roosevelt & Hitler
Scissors beats paper every time!
Every individual flag equals
100,000 soldiers dead
Every individual skull equals
100,000 dead civilians
Every individual Star of David
equals 100,000 dead Jews
• Battle of the Coral Sea –
carrier battle – peak of
Japanese expansion
• Battle of Midway – Japan goes
on defense
• General Douglas MacArthur
• Island Hopping
 Guadalcanal
 Tarawa, Saipan, Guam
 Philippines
•
•
•
•
Kamikazes
Battle of Leyte Gulf
Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Invasion of the Japanese
home islands?
Hell in the Pacific Parts I and II
• The Manhattan Project
 Multi-national effort under US
leadership
 Director - J. Robert
Oppenheimer
• Russian declaration of war
against Japan 8 August 1945
• VJ-Day – 15 August
The Atomic Bomb
• Little Boy
 Uranium core
 Gun method
 Dropped on Hiroshima 6August
1945
• Fat Man
 Plutonium core
 Implosion method
 Dropped on Nagasaki 9 August
1945
Little Boy
Fat Man
• Debate
 Was the use of nuclear weapons against Japan necessary
and/or ethical?
 Did nuclear weapons force the surrender of Japan?
 Was an invasion of Japan necessary to win the war?
• US pushed image of Russia
(USSR) as a friend during war
• Russia appeared to back US
plans for post-WWII world
including UN
• Russia: seeking domination or
security?
• Yalta
 US agreed to Russian
annexation of Poland in return
for free elections
 Discussed partition of Germany
 Agreed to establishment of UN
• Potsdam
 Allies agreed on war crimes
trials
 Confirmed division of Germany
into occupied zones
 Called on surrender of Japan
• The General Assembly
• The Security Council
(Permanent Members)
 US, Great Britain, USSR,
France, China
 Veto