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WWII And the US Pre-1941 • • • • • Little interest in events in Europe Disgust with Munich Agreement Mounting anger towards Japan But no public desire for war, or even sanctions FDR, however, enlarges navy in 1939 The Anglo-American accord • Neutrality Act of 1939 permits selling of weapons to Allies • “Arsenal of Democracy” speech, 1940 • 1940 Selective Service Act • The big one: 1941’s Lend-Lease Act— allowed FDR to sell, exchange or lease arms to any country whose security to the US was deemed vital Lend-Lease, cont’d • "Suppose my neighbor's home catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire.... • ...I don't say to him before that operation, "Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it."... I don't want $15--I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. " A convoy crossing the Atlantic during the Battle of Britain, 1940 President Roosevelt was a gifted communicator. On January 6, 1941, he addressed Congress, delivering the historic "Four Freedoms" speech. At a time when Western Europe lay under Nazi domination, Roosevelt presented a vision in which the American ideals of individual liberties were extended throughout the world. Alerting Congress and the nation to the necessity of war, Roosevelt articulated the ideological aims of the conflict. Eloquently, he appealed to Americans' most profound beliefs about freedom. In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression --everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere in the world. Norman Rockwell turned these words into the most reprinted Saturday Evening Post covers ever! After winning public approval, the paintings served as the centerpiece of a massive U.S. war bond drive and were put into service to help explain the war's aims… The accord, cont’d • The Atlantic Charter, August 1941 –All people have the right to live in freedom without fear, want, or tyranny Japan • Very quietly, compared to Europe, the US was moving towards war with Japan • --1937—conquest of Nanking • --1939—US support for Chiang Kai-Shek • --1940—Japan signs Tri-Partite Pact w/ Germany • --1940 US sanctions against Japan, freezing of assets • --Tojo gov’t, October 1941 Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941 “I praise the Army for cutting down like weeds large numbers of the enemy…” --Emperor Hirohito Japanese Victories 1941--1942: Pearl Harbor Hong Kong The Philippines Malaya Borneo Burma Singapore Hideki Tojo The Bataan Death March, 1941 Despite their claims to be liberating Asian people from European imperialism, the Japanese army left a trail of corpses throughout their new empire. These are Filipino children after the “liberation” of Manila. The Allies Regroup: --the Battle of Midway, June 5, 1942 -Guadalca nal, 19421943 --”Island Hopping” Guadalcanal--the US’ first land victory against the Japanese Army FDR—another progressive president at wat Creates: War Powers Act: reorganizing fed gov’t creating new agencies authorization to suppress civil liberties seizure of foreign-owned property award gov’t contracts w/o competitive bidding Office of War Information It would end up costing 250 million dollars per day to fight the war Wartime production solved the problems of the Depression Created new industries and began emigration of people and capital to the West The need for uniforms industrialized and enriched the South Same for large-scale farmers But it finished the monopolization of America essentially, as small producers disappeared. Labor signed a no-strike deal, tho’ wildcat strikes cont’d despite FDR’s threat to draft strikers Women entered the workforce, as did migrant Mexican labor and black labor WORLD WAR II: A HISTORY IN POSTER ART “The Good War” ‘Nuff Said? Masculine strength was a common visual theme in patriotic posters. Pictures of powerful men and mighty machines illustrated America's ability to channel its formidable strength into the war effort. American muscle was presented in a proud display of national confidence. REPRESENTING THE ENEMY… Under their system, the individual is a cog in a military machine, a cipher in an economic despotism; the individual is a slave. These facts are documented in the degradation and suffering of the conquered countries, whose fate is shared equally by the willing satellites and the misguided appeasers of the Axis. --Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry, Office of War Information Many of the fear-inspiring posters depicted Nazi acts of atrocity. Although brutality is always part of war, the atrocities of World War II were so terrible, and of such magnitude, as to engender a new category of crime--crimes against humanity. The images here were composed to foster fear. Implicit in these posters is the idea that what happened there could happen here. The Sowers by Thomas Hart Benton, 1942 Artist Thomas Hart Benton believed that it was the artist's role either to fight or to "bring the bloody actual realities of this war home to the American people." In a series of eight paintings, Benton portrayed the violence and barbarity of fascism. "The Sowers" shows the enemy as bulky, brutish monsters tossing human skulls onto the ground. Lidice was a Czech mining village that was obliterated by the Nazis in retaliation for the 1942 shooting of a Nazi official by two Czechs. All men of the village were killed in a 10-hour massacre; the women and children were sent to concentration camps. The destruction of Lidice became a symbol for the brutality of Nazi occupation during World War II. This is Nazi Brutality by Ben Shahn, 1942 From the US’ Life Magazine Time magazine, Dec. 22, 1941 “HOW TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS FROM THE JAPS: Virtually all Japanese are short. Japanese are likelier to be stockier and broader-hipped than short Chinese. Japanese are seldom fat; they often dry up and grow lean as they age….The Chinese expression is likely to be more placid, kindly, open; the Japanese more… dogmatic, arrogant. Japanese are hesitant, nervous in conversation, laugh loudly at the wrong time. Japanese walk stiffly erect, hard heeled. Chinese, more relaxed, have an easy gait, sometimes shuffle.” Chinese immigrants in this country, previously scorned by the public, and often homesick, found themselves caught up the war. 40% of New York Chinatown’s population was drafted, the most of any national grouping (most Chinese immigrants were young, single men.) As a reward for this and amazingly lucrative war bond drives, and as a slap in the face to Japanese propaganda stressing anti-Asian racism in the U.S., Congress finally repealed the Chinese Exclusion Laws, and Chinese immigrants could actually gain civil rights in America. This poster was part of a general line in the “Know your allies” collection—as the following items suggest… Another of the evils of war… War on the Home Front “Words are ammunition. Each word an American utters either helps or hurts the war effort. He must stop rumors. He must challenge the cynic and the appeaser. He must not speak recklessly. He must remember that the enemy is listening.” --Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry Office of War Information A woman--someone who could resemble the viewer's neighbor, sister, wife, or daughter--was shown on a "wanted" poster as an unwitting murderess. The viewer was to conclude that this woman's careless talk resulted in the death of American soldiers. How can any one of us here at home sleep peacefully tonight, unless we're sure in our hearts that we have done our part? --Who Died? Treasury Department motion picture Rationing was a feature of wartime life, even if it wasn’t all that painful in reality… “The Civilian Defense Corps grew to 12 million Americans in mid1943, from 1.2 million in 1942. In Chicago, 16,000 block captains in the corps took an oath of allegiance in a mass ceremony; they practiced first aid, supervised blackouts and planned gas decontamination. Nationwide, Red Cross volunteers swelled to 7.5 million in 1945, from 1.1 million in 1940. By 1943, volunteers at 4,300 civilian-defense volunteer offices were fixing school lunches, providing day care and organizing scrap drives. Eighth graders in Gary, Ind., were especially busy. They sold an average of $40,000 worth of war stamps a month. They campaigned against buying black-market goods. They took auxiliary fire- and police-training courses. They held tin-can drives. And this was just in one medium-sized Midwestern city.” Robert Putnam, October 19, 2001, New York Times In case you weren’t getting the picture… “Civilians must have the war brought home to them. Every individual must be made to see the immediacy of the danger to him. . . . He must be made to understand that he is an integral part of the war front, and that if he loses the war, he loses everything.” Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry Office of War Information Poster makers used fear to mobilize the public. In the absence of any immediate physical danger, American propagandists exaggerated the physical proximity of enemy forces. Though separated from the actual warfare by great distances, Americans appeared within arm's reach of the enemy. They were shown to be in imminent danger--their backs against the wall and living in the shadow of Axis domination. In the pictures to follow, the Canadian poster on the left served as a model for the American poster on the right. A study undertaken by the U.S. Government found that images of women and children in danger were effective emotional devices. How about these faces? AND WHAT OF EQUALITY? “We say glibly that in the United States of America all men are free and equal, but do we treat them as if they were? . . . There is religious and racial prejudice everywhere in the land, and if there is a greater obstacle anywhere to the attainment of the teamwork we must have, no one knows what it is.” Arthur Upham Pope, Chairman of the Committee for National Morale, in America Organizes to Win the War Doris ("Dorie") Miller joined the Navy and was in service on board the U.S.S. West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Restricted to the position of messman, he received no gunnery training. But during the attack, at great personal risk, he manned the weapon of a fallen gunman and succeeded in hitting Japanese planes. He was awarded the Navy Cross, but only after persistent pressure from the black press. You may have seen him portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the worst WWII movie ever made—Pearl Harbor The Gov’t was well aware of the demoralizing effects of racial prejudice on the African American population. In its publicity campaigns, the Gov’t presented an idealized view of race relations in America. Racial tensions disappeared in portrayals of black Americans as full and equal participants in American society. The images of racial harmony belied the profound feelings of unrest that, on occasion, erupted into episodes of racial violence during the war years. During World War II, the military employed policies of racial restriction and segregation. At the beginning of the war, for example, blacks could join the Navy but could serve only as messmen. The message was rather obvious. Dear lord, today I go to war: To fight, to die, Tell me what for? Dear Lord, I’ll fight, I do not fear, Germans or Japs; My fears are here. America! From a 1943 Black newspaper “The Army Jim Crows us….The Red Cross refuses our blood. Employers and unions shut us out. Lynchings continue. We are disenfranchised, Jim-Crowed, spat upon. What more could Hitler do than that?” “The Negro…is angry, resentful, and utterly apathetic about the war. ‘Fight for what?’ he is asking. ‘This war doesn’t mean a thing to me. If we win I lose, so what?’” In spite of overt racial discrimination and segregation in the military and in civilian life, the overwhelming majority of black Americans participated wholeheartedly in the fight against the Axis powers. They did so, however, with an eye towards reconciling American ideals of equality with American practices of discrimination. This objective was expressed in the call, initiated in the black press, for the "Double 'V'"--victory over fascism abroad and over racism at home. “These jobs will have to be glorified as a patriotic war service if American women are to be persuaded to take them and stick to them. Their importance to a nation engaged in total war must be convincingly presented.” --Basic Program Plan for Womanpower Office of War Information Of all the images of working women during World War II, the image of women in factories predominates. Rosie the Riveter-the strong, competent woman dressed in overalls and bandanna-was introduced as a symbol of patriotic womanhood. The accoutrements of war work-uniforms, tools, and lunch pails-were incorporated into the revised image of the feminine ideal. Back to the European Campaign… Rommel Montgomery Patton The heavily reinforced Allied forces under Montgomery and Patton beat Rommel at the 2nd Battle of El Alamein in late 1942, and chased the Afrika Korps all the way to Tunisia, and far from Egypt’s oil fields. The Afrika Korps was decisively defeated in May, 1943, paving the way for… Despite the fact that the US may have been more motivated to fight in the Pacific, it agreed to concentrate its forces with Britain’s on a joint attack in Europe. The Italian Campaign was made possible by the German losses in the North African desert. The Italian defeat led to Mussolini’s overthrow, though the Germans quickly invaded Northern Italy and set up the Gothic Line across Tuscany to protect the German underbelly--and to give Mussolini a tiny Fascist state to rule--the Salo Republic. The Beginning of the End 1944-1945 The invasion of Normandy The liberation of France The invasion of Germany on two fronts The Battle of Berlin D-Day, and everything after The End… By 1944, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin were meeting to discuss what should be done with Germany and establish a basis for Collective Security At the same time, the war with Japan was winding down FDR wanted USSR to help with Japan, Stalin wanted secure borders against Germany In 1945, at Yalta, FDR more or less assented to Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe in exchange for help against Japan, and Russian acceptance of the UN August 6, 1945