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Cover Slide
The American
Pageant
Chapter 35
America in World
War II, 1941-1945
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America First bumper sticker: "Keep Our Boys at Home"
America First bumper sticker: "Keep Our Boys at Home"
The isolationist America First Committee produced this bumper sticker in 1941 in a
vain attempt to halt the United States descent into war. America First was organized
in September of 1940 and attracted many prominent members, including the famed
aviator Charles Lindbergh. (Herbert Hoover Presidential Library)
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Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945
Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945
When the British liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hanover,
Germany, in April of 1945, they found this mass grave. It held the remains of
thousands of Holocaust victims who had been starved, gassed, and machine-gunned
by their Nazi jailers. This photograph and many others provide irrefutable proof of
the Holocaust's savagery. (Imperial War Museum)
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Col. Benjamin Davis, Jr., WWII pilot
Col. Benjamin Davis, Jr., WWII pilot
A leader of the Tuskegee airmen,
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. was the fourth
African American to graduate from West
Point. During the war, Colonel Davis
commanded the 332d Fighter Group,
which destroyed over two hundred
enemy planes in southern Europe.
(National Archives)
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Destroy this Mad Brute
Destroy this Mad Brute
(Library of Congress)
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Eisenhower at D-Day
Eisenhower at D-Day
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D. ("Ike")
Eisenhower gives the order of the day to U.S. paratroopers in England on the eve of
D-day. (National Archives)
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Hazel Ah Ying Lee, Women's Air Force Service Pilot
Hazel Ah Ying Lee, Women's Air Force Service Pilot
More than 350,000 women served in the military during the war, including Lt. Hazel
Ying Lee, a Women's Air Force Service Pilot. WASPs flew "noncombat," ferrying
planes and supplies across the United States and Canada. Already an experienced
pilot in China, Lt. Lee is seated here in the cockpit of a trainer. Lt. Lee died in 1943,
when her plane crashed. (Texas Woman's University)
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He CAN'T Forget Pearl Harbor--Can You?
He CAN'T Forget Pearl Harbor--Can
You?
This World War II poster encourages
support for the U.S. war effort by
pointing to one soldier's disabilities that
resulted from Japan's attack on Pearl
Harbor. (Library of Congress)
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Hitler
Hitler
The German leader Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) is surrounded in this propagandistic painting by
images that came to symbolize hate, genocide, and war: Nazi flags with emblems of the
swastika; the iron cross on the dictator's pocket; and Nazi troops in loyal salute. The antiSemitic Hitler denounced the United States as a "Jewish rubbish heap" of "inferiority and
decadence" that was "incapable of conducting war." (U.S. Army Center of Military History)
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Japanese American teens, 1942
Japanese American teens, 1942
In February of 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered that all Japanese
Americans living on the West Coast be rounded up and placed in prison camps.
These families were awaiting a train to take them to an assembly center in Merced,
California; from there, they would be sent to relocation camps in remote inland
areas. (National Archives)
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Jewish mother and son being rounded up by Nazis
Jewish mother and son being rounded up by Nazis
Hitler ordered the "Final Solution"--the extermination of Europe's Jews--soon after
the United States entered the war. In this picture, German troops arrest residents of
the Warsaw ghetto for deportation to concentration camps. Few would survive the
camps where over six million Jews died. (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)
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Navajo Code Talkers by Colonel C.H. Waterhouse, USMCR
Navajo Code Talkers by Colonel C.H.
Waterhouse, USMCR
Navajo "code talkers," who were U.S.
Marines, were among the first assault
forces to land on Pacific beaches.
Dodging enemy fire, they set up radio
equipment and transmitted vital
information to headquarters, including
enemy sightings and targets for
American shelling. The Japanese never
broke the special Navajo code. The
artist is Colonel C.H. Waterhouse, U.S.
Marine Corps (retired). (U.S. Marine
Corps Art Coallection/Colonel C.H.
Waterhouse)
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Operation Magic Machine and Decoded Message
Operation Magic Machine and Decoded Message
How do historians know... that American leaders knew in December 1941, before the
attack on Pearl Harbor, that Japan intended to go to war with the United States? In
September 1940, U.S. cryptanalysts--code breakers--of the Signal Intelligence Service
cracked the most secret diplomatic cipher used by the Japanese government. The code
breakers discovered patterns in the incoherent letters of telegraphed messages, produced
texts, and even duplicated the complicated PURPLE machine (shown here). Thereafter,
under Operation MAGIC, they decoded thousands of intercepted messages sent by
Japanese officials around the world. (National Archives)
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Poster by Thomas Hart Benton: "Back Him Up"
Poster by Thomas Hart Benton:
"Back Him Up"
This poster by the famous artist Thomas
Hart Benton emphasized the need for all
Americans to do their part in winning the
war by buying war bonds and laboring in
factories and fields, as well as by
fighting in the armed forces and, not
incidentally, contributing their artistic
talents. (Library of Congress)
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Roosevelt and Churchill at Atlantic Charter Meeting, 1941
Roosevelt and Churchill at Atlantic Charter Meeting, 1941
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874–
1965) confer on board a ship near Newfoundland during their summit meeting of August, 1941.
During the conference, they signed the Atlantic Charter. Upon his return to Great Britain,
Churchill told his advisers that Roosevelt had promised to "wage war" against Germany and do
"everything" to "force an incident." (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)
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Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter
Memorialized in song and story, "Rosie
the Riveter" symbolized the women war
workers who assumed jobs in heavy
industry to take up the slack for the
absent 15 million men in the armed
services. Here a very real Rosie the
Riveter is doing her job in April 1943 at
the Baltimore manufacturing plant for
Martin PMB mariners. Although
sometimes scorned by male workers, the
dedication and efficiency of most female
workers won them the praise of male
plant supervisors. (National Archives)
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Tarawa by Tom Lovell
Tarawa by Tom Lovell
On November 21, 1943, marines stormed ashore on the atoll of Tarawa, soon to be
called "Bloody Tarawa." The marines secured the island, but the cost was high. Of
the 5,000 marines who fought in the battle, more than 1,000 were killed and another
2,000 wounded. Nearly all of the 5,000 Japanese defenders died, many in a final
"death charge." (U.S. Marine Corps Museum)
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The U.S.S. West Virginia, Pearl Harbor
The U.S.S. West Virginia, Pearl Harbor
The stricken U.S.S. West Virginia was one of the eight battleships caught in the
surprise Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, on December 7, 1941. In this
photograph, sailors on a launch attempt to rescue a crew member from the water as
oil burns around the sinking ship. (U.S. Army)
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Tuskegee Airmen
Tuskegee Airmen
The pilots of the 99th Pursuit Squadron,
the first African American aerial fighting
unit, trained at a field adjacent to
Alabama's all-black Tuskegee Institute
and became known as the "Tuskegee
Airmen." They entered combat over
North Africa in June of 1943 and won
much praise for their battles against the
Luftwaffe. However, most blacks
throughout the war were confined to
noncombat service. (U.S. Air Force)
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U.S. Navy Recruiting Booklet
U.S. Navy Recruiting Booklet
"MEN MAKE THE NAVY…"
proclaims this U.S. Navy recruiting
booklet, which encourages men to enlist
by highlighting the good pay, food, and
shipmates, as well as the possibility of
"fighting action." One hundred thousand
women also responded to the navy's
recruiting efforts by joining the WAVES.
(Private Collection)
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Victory parade on Hotel Street, Honolulu, August, 1945
Victory parade on Hotel Street,
Honolulu, August, 1945
A spontaneous victory celebration on
Hotel Street, Honolulu, August 14, 1945.
For many servicemen in Hawai'i,
Emperor Hirohito's surrender meant they
would not have to take part in an
invasion of Japan. "We are going to
live," exulted one soldier. "We are going
to grow up to adulthood after all." ()
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Women in the service: black nurses
Women in the service: black nurses
Lining the rails of their ship, African American army nurses arrive at the European
theater of operations in August 1944. These nurses, like their white counterparts in
America's segregated army, served in field and base hospitals, often right behind the
fighting front. (Library of Congress)
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Women train operators, New York, 1942
Women train operators, New York, 1942
Women workers mastered numerous job skills during the war. In 1942 crews of
women cared for Long Island commuter trains like this one. (Corbis-Bettmann)
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Yalta, February, 1945
Yalta, February, 1945
The three Allied leaders--Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph
Stalin--met at Yalta in February of 1945. Having been president for twelve years,
Roosevelt showed signs of age and fatigue. Two months later, he died of a massive
cerebral hemorrhage. (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)
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Zoot Suit Riots
Zoot Suit Riots
One hundred people were injured during
the 1943 "zoot-suit riot" in Los Angeles,
when white mobs attacked Mexican
American men and tore off their zoot
suits. During the riot, Los Angeles police
arrested Mexican Americans for wearing
such attire in violation of a city
ordinance. These men in chains were
headed to jail. (Library of Congress)
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Map: A Nation on the Move, 1940-1950
A Nation on the Move, 1940-1950
American migration during the 1940s was the largest on record to that time. The farm population dropped dramatically as men,
women, and children moved to war-production areas and to army and navy bases, particular on the West Coast. Well over 30
million Americans migrated during the war. Many returned to their rural homes after the war, but 12 million migrants stayed in
their new locations. Notice the population increases on the West Coast, as well as in the Southwest and Florida.
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Map: Closing the Circle on Japan, 1942-1945
Closing the Circle on Japan, 1942-1945
Following the Battle of Midway, with the invasion of Guadalcanal (August 1942), American forces began the costly process of
island hopping. This map shows the paths of the American campaign in the Pacific, closing the circle on Japan. After the Soviet
Union entered the war and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
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Map: German and Italian Expansion, 1933-1942
German and Italian Expansion, 1933-1942
By the end of 1942, the Axis nations of Italy and Germany, through conquest and annexation, had occupied nearly all of
Europe. This map shows the political and military alignment of Europe as Germany and Italy reached the limit of their
power.
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Map: Japanese Advances, 1941-1942
Japanese Advances, 1941-1942
Beginning on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces began carving out a vast empire, the East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, by
attacking American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces from Pearl Harbor to the Dutch East Indies. This map shows the
course of Japanese expansion until the critical naval battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in the spring of 1942 that halted
Japanese advances in the Pacific.
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Map: Japanese Expansion Before Pearl Harbor
Japanese Expansion Before Pearl Harbor
The Japanese quest for predominance began at the turn of the century and intensified in the 1930s. China suffered the most at
the hands of Tokyo's military. Vulnerable U.S. possessions in Asia and the Pacific proved no obstacle to Japan's ambitions for
a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
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Map: Presidential Election, 1944
Presidential Election, 1944
Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth--and last--presidential election was his closest yet, but he still carried thirty-six of the
country's forty-eight states.
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Map: The Allies on the Offensive in Europe, 1942-1945
The Allies on the Offensive in Europe, 1942-1945
The United States pursued a "Europe first" policy: first defeat Germany, then focus on Japan. American military efforts
began in North Africa in late 1942 and ended in Germany in 1945 on May 8 (V-E Day).
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Map: The Fall of the Third Reich
The Fall of the Third Reich
In 1943 and 1944, the war turned in favor of the Allies. On the Eastern front, Soviet forces drove German forces back toward
Germany. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, British, Canadian, and American forces landed on the coast of Normandy to begin the
liberation of France. This map shows the course of the Allied armies as they fought their way toward Berlin. On May 7,
1945, Germany surrendered.
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Map: The German Advance, 1939-1942
The German Advance, 1939-1942
Hitler's drive to dominate Europe pushed German troops deep into France and the Soviet Union. Great Britain took a beating
but held on with the help of American economic and military aid before the United States itself entered the Second World
War in late 1941.
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Map: The Home Front
The Home Front
War-related production finally ended the Great Depression, but it also required many Americans to move, especially to
western states where the jobs were. This map shows major war-related industries and the states that gained and lost
populations. For Japanese Americans, relocation did not mean new jobs, but a loss of freedom as they were assigned to one
of ten relocation centers across the country.
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Map: The North African and Italian Campaigns
The North African and Italian Campaigns
Having rejected a cross-channel attack on Hitler's "Atlantic Wall," British and American forces in 1942 and 1943 invaded
North Africa and Italy, where victory seemed more assured. This map shows the British and American advances across North
Africa and the invasions of Sicily and Italy. German forces fought stubbornly in Italy, slowing Allied advances up the
peninsula. By February 1945, Allied forces were still advancing toward the Po Valley.
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Map: The Pacific War
The Pacific War
The strategy of the United States was to "island-hop"--from Hawai'i in 1942 to Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. Naval battles
were also decisive, notably the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in 1942. The war in the Pacific ended with Japan's
surrender on August 15, 1945 (V-J Day).
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Map: The U.S. and Latin America Between Wars
The U.S. and Latin America Between Wars
The United States often intervened in other nations to maintain its hegemonic power in Latin America, where nationalists
resented outside meddling in their sovereign affairs. The Good Neighbor policy decreased U.S. military interventions, but
U.S. economic interests remained strong in the hemisphere.
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Video: Atomic Bomb
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Atomic Bomb Explosion
(Archive Films.)
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Audio: Former Ambassador Watson Warns of the
German Peril
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Former Ambassador Watson Warns of the German Peril
(1917. Great Speeches of the 20th Century, Rhino Records, Los Angeles, CA 1991)
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Audio: Pulling the Skiff
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Pullin’ the Skiff
(1940. Performed by Ora Dell Graham, from “A Treasury of Library of Congress
Field Recordings,” Copyright © 1997 Rounder Records Corporation.)
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Audio: Truman Announces the Atomic Bomb Attack
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Truman Announces the Atomic Bomb Attack
(1945. Great Speeches of the 20th Century, Rhino Records, Los Angeles, CA 1991)
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