Download Unit 17 ~ World War II

World War II
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy
– the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately
attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt asking for a Declaration of War
Congressional Record, December 8 , 1941
Timeline of Events
• 1931
• The Empire State Building opens in New
York City
• Japan conquers Manchuria in northern China
Timeline of Events
• 1932
– Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected
president
• 1933
– Adolf Hitler is appointed German
chancellor and sets up Dachau
concentration camp
– Prohibition ends
Timeline of Events
• 1934
• Stalin begins great purge in U.S.S.R.
• Chinese communists flee in the Long March
Timeline of Events
• 1936
– Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in
Olympics in Berlin, Germany
– Ethiopia’s Halle Selassie asks League of
Nations for help against Italian invasion
– General Francisco Franco leads a fascist
rebellion in Spain
– Roosevelt is reelected
Timeline of Events
• 1937
– Amelia Earhart mysteriously disappears
attempting solo round the world flight
• 1938
– Orson Welles broadcasts The War of the
Worlds, a fictional alien invasion
– Kristallnacht – Nazis riot, destroying
Jewish neighborhoods
Timeline of Events
• 1939
– Germany invades Poland, Britain and France
declare war on Germany
• 1940
– Roosevelt is elected to a third term
– Italy, Germany, and Japan sign a mutual defense
pact becoming the Axis Powers
– Selective Service begins
Timeline of Events
• 1941
– Lend-Lease Act is passed by Congress
– Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
– United States enters World War II
– A. Philip Randolph demands that war industries
hire African Americans
– Hitler invades the Soviet Union
Timeline of Events
• 1942
– Roosevelt creates the War Production Board to
coordinate mobilization
– Japanese Americans are sent to relocation
centers
– In the Pacific, the Battle of Midway turned the
tide in favor of the Allies
Timeline of Events
• 1942
– Nazis develop the “final solution” for
exterminating Jews.
– Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is
founded
– Manhattan Project begins
Timeline of Events
• 1943
– Zoot-suit riots rock Los Angeles
– Rommel’s forces surrender in North Africa
• 1944
– On June 6, the Allies launch D-Day, a massive
invasion of Europe
– Roosevelt is elected to a fourth term
Timeline of Events
• 1945
– U.S. marines take Iwo Jima
– Harry S Truman becomes president when
Roosevelt dies
– Nazi retreat begins after the Battle of the Bulge
– Japan surrenders after atomic bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Failures of the World War I
Peace Settlement
• The Treaty of Versailles caused anger and
resentment
• Germany was angry that they were blamed for
starting the war, and were forced to pay
reparations
• These problems overwhelmed the Weimar
Republic—the democratic government put in
place after WWI
• The Soviets were also angry with the carving up of
their territories
Europe 1914---Europe 1919
Failures of the World War I
Peace Settlement
• The world was still not “safe for democracy”
• New democratic governments that emerged
floundered
• Without a democratic tradition, people
turned to authoritarian leaders to solve their
economic and social problems
• Eventually many democratic governments
collapsed
• Dictators seized power
Emerging
Superpowers
Joseph Stalin transforms Soviet
Union
• In Russia, democracy gave way to civil war
• The result: a communist state officially called
the Soviet Union
• 1922—Lenin died
• 1924—Joseph Stalin took control of the
country
• He focused on creating a model communist
country
• He made agricultural and industrial growth the
prime economic goals
Joseph Stalin transforms Soviet
Union
• He abolished all privately owned farms and
replaced them with collectives—large
government owned farms—each worked by
hundreds of families
• By 1939, Stalin had established a totalitarian
government that tried to exert complete control
over its citizens
• In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights
and the government suppresses all opposition
The Rise of Fascist Italy
• Benito Mussolini was establishing his own
totalitarian government
• High unemployment and inflation produced
bitter strikes
• Alarmed by the threats, the middle and upper
classes demanded stronger leadership
• Mussolini took advantage of the situation and
played on fears of economic collapse and
communism
• Mussolini easily won the support of Italians
The Rise of Fascist Italy
• 1921—Mussolini established the Fascist Party
• Fascism—stressed nationalism and placed the
interests of the state above those of individuals
• Power must rest with a single strong leader and a
small group of devoted party members
• 1922-Mussolini and thousands of his followers,
called “black shirts”, marched on Rome
• When important government officials, the army,
and the police sided with the Fascists, the Italian
king appointed Mussolini head of government
The Rise of Fascist Italy
• Calling himself Il Duce, or “the leader”, he
extended control to every aspect of Italian
life
• Tourists marveled at how even the trains
were on time
• He completed his goals through the crushing
of all opposition and by making Italy
totalitarian
Nazis in Germany
• Hitler followed the same path Mussolini did to
gain power
• After WW1, Hitler was a jobless soldier
• 1919—he joined the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party (NAZI)
• He was a powerful public speaker
• He quickly became the party’s leader
• Calling himself Der Fuhrer, “the leader”, he
promised to bring Germany out of chaos
Nazis in Germany
• Adolph Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
• In the book, Hitler set forth the basic beliefs of
Nazism that became the plan of action for the
Nazi Party
• Nazism—German form of Fascism—based on
extreme nationalism
• Hitler was born Austrian and dreamed of uniting
all German speaking peoples in one empire
Nazis in Germany
• Hitler wanted to enforce
racial “purification”
• Germans—blue-eyed,
blond-haired “Aryans”—
formed a “master race”
destined to rule the world
• “Inferior races”—Jews,
Slavs, and all non-whites
were deemed only fit to
serve the Aryans
Nazis in Germany
• National expansion
• He believed that for
Germany to thrive, it
needed more living
space
• One of his goals was
to secure the land
entitled to the
German people by
any means necessary
Nazis in Germany
• The Great Depression helped the Nazis come to
power
• War debts and dependence on American loans
and investments caused Germany’s economy was
hit hard
• 6 million Germans were unemployed by 1932
• Many men out of work joined Hitler’s private
army—Storm Troopers (brown shirts)
• Germans were desperate and turned to Hitler for
help
Nazis in Germany
• By mid 1932, the Nazis had become the
strongest political party in Germany
• January 1933—Hitler appointed Chancellor
(prime minister)
• Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic
republic
• He established the Third Reich, or Third German
Empire
• Hitler said the Third Reich would become the
Thousand-year Reich
Militarists Gain Control in Japan
• On the other side of the world nationalistic
military leaders were trying to take control
of the imperial government of Japan
• These leaders shared Hitler’s belief for more
living space
• Ignoring protests from moderate officials,
the militarists launched a surprise attack and
seized control of Manchuria in 1931
Militarists Gain Control in Japan
• The attack proved to be the greatest test of
the newly formed League of Nations
• Representatives were sent to investigate
• Their report condemned Japan
• Japan quit the League
• The Militarists were now firmly in control of
the Japanese government
Heading For War
Aggression in Europe and Africa
• The League of Nations failed and European
dictators noticed
• In 1933, Hitler pulled out of the League
• In 1935, he began a military buildup—
violating the Treaty of Versailles
• He then sent troops into the Rhineland—
had been demilitarized as a result of the war
• The League of Nations did nothing
Aggression in Europe and Africa
• Mussolini also began building his own empire
• His first target: Ethiopia
• 1935—tens of thousands of Italian soldiers were ready to
march on Ethiopia
• The League reacted with brave talk of “collective
resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression”
• When Mussolini attacked, the League reacted with an
economic boycott
• The Ethiopian emperor who had been overthrown
appealed to the League for help, but to no avail
• He replied to the League—”It’s us today, it will be you
tomorrow”
Civil War breaks out in Spain
• General Francisco Franco and other army officers rebelled
against the Spanish republic
• Revolts broke out all over Spain
• The Spanish Civil War broke out
• The war aroused passions all over the world
• 3000 Americans formed the Abraham Lincoln Battalion
and traveled to Spain to fight against Franco and Fascism
• Among the volunteers were African Americans still upset
about Italy attacking Ethiopia the year before
• The limited aid was not enough to stop fascism
Civil War breaks out in Spain
• The Western democracies remained neutral
• The Soviet Union sent equipment and advisers
• Hitler and Mussolini backed Franco’s forces with
troops, weapons, tanks, and fighter planes
• The war forged a strong alliance between German
and Italian dictators
• After a loss of almost 500,000 lives, Franco’s
victory in 1939 established him as Spain’s fascist
dictator
Americans Cling to Isolationism
• In the 1930’s, many books were written arguing
that the U.S. had been dragged into WW1 by
greedy bankers and arms dealers
• Public outcries led to a congressional committee
• Led by North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye, the
committee fueled the controversy by
documenting the large profits that banks and
manufacturers made during the war
• As the furor grew over these “merchants of death,”
Americans became more determined than ever to
avoid war
Americans Cling to Isolationism
• to avoid appearing militaristic, the Girl Scouts
changed their colors from green and khaki
• American isolationism eventually had an impact
on Roosevelt’s foreign policy
• He officially recognized the Soviet Union in 1933
and agreed to exchange ambassadors with Moscow
Americans Cling to Isolationism
• He continued the nonintervention in Latin
America with his Good Neighbor Policy and
withdrew armed forces stationed there
• In 1934, he pushed the Reciprocal Trade
Agreement Act through Congress
– This act lowered trade barriers by giving the president
the power to make trade agreements
– It also aimed at lowering tariffs by as much as 50%
• Congress then passed a series of Neutrality Acts in
1935
Americans Cling to Isolationism
• The first two Neutrality Acts outlawed arms
sales or loans to nations at war
• The third act was passed in response to the
fighting in Spain
– This act extended the ban on arms sales and
loans to nations engaged in civil wars
Neutrality Breaks Down
• Despite efforts to legislate neutrality, Roosevelt found
it impossible to remain neutral
• When Japan formally declared war on China in 1937,
Roosevelt found a way around the neutrality acts
• The U.S. continued sending arms and supplies to
China
• A few months later, Roosevelt spoke out against
isolationism
• He called on peace-loving nations to “quarantine”
aggressor nations in order to stop the spread of war
Neutrality Breaks Down
• Isolationist newspapers spoke out claiming
Roosevelt was leading the nation into war
• Roosevelt backed off in the face of criticism,
but his speech began to shift the debate
The War in Europe
• Hitler met with his advisers and declared that the only
way to solve the “German Question” is through force
• The first phase was to absorb Austria and
Czechoslovakia into The Third Reich
• On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into
Austria unopposed
• There were about 3 million Germans living in the
Sudetenland
• Hitler charged the Czechs were abusing the Sudeten
Germans and began massing troops on the Czech
border
The War in Europe
• France and Britain both swore to protect Czechoslovakia
• Hitler invited both the French premier Edouard Daladier
and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to
Munich
• When they arrived, Hitler promised this would be his “last
territorial demand”
• They two leaders chose to believe him
• On September 30, 1938 all three signed the Munich
Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to
Germany without a single shot being fired
The War in Europe
• Chamberlain returned home proclaiming
peace
• Winston Churchill was not as satisfied with
the Agreement
• Churchill believed France and Britain had
adopted a form of appeasement—or giving
up principles to pacify an aggressor
• Churchill responded with a warning of war
on the horizon
German Offensive Begins
• Churchill was right
• March 15, 1939, Hitler invaded the remaining part of
Czechoslovakia
• About two months later, Hitler charged that the Poles
were mistreating Germans in Poland
• He began massing an army to invade Poland
• Some thought he was bluffing
• An attack on Poland would bring Germany at odds
with the Soviets
• At the same time it would also provoke war with France
and Britain who had promised to protect Poland
German Offensive Begins
• As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin signed a
nonaggression act with Hitler
• Once bitter enemies, Stalin and Hitler now
promised not to attack one another
• They then signed a second agreement
promising to split Poland between each
other
• With the danger of a two-front war
eliminated, the fate of Poland was sealed
Blitzkrieg in Poland
• Dawn, September 1, 1939—the German Luftwaffe
began bombing Poland
• German tanks raced across the countryside
• This invasion was the first test of Germany’s
blitzkrieg, or lightning war
• They made use of military technology to take the
enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all
opposition
• Two days later Britain and France declared war on
Germany
Blitzkrieg in Poland
• The blitzkrieg tactics worked perfectly
• Major fighting was over before the allies
could mount an offensive
• In the last week of fighting, the Soviet Union
attacked from the east and grabbed a portion
of Poland
• By the end, Poland ceased to exist and WW2
had begun
The Phony War
• For the next several months, French and
British soldiers sat on the Maginot Line
staring into Germany waiting for something
to happen
• A few miles away, the Germans sat on the
Siegfried Line staring back
• The Germans called this the sitzkrieg “sitting
war”
• Some newspapers called it the Phony War
The Phony War
• Stalin began annexing the Baltic states of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania
• Late in 1939, Stalin sent troops into Finland
• After three months of fighting Finland surrendered
• In April 1940, Hitler suddenly attacked Denmark and
Norway in order “to protect [those countries’]
freedom and independence.”
• Hitler really wanted their sea coasts for his naval bases
• Next, Hitler turned on Belgium, Luxembourg, and
the Netherlands
• The Phony War had ended
The Fall of France
• The Maginot Line proved to be ineffective
• The German threatened to bypass the line by going
through Belgium
• Hitler sent his generals through the Ardennes avoiding
British and French troops
• The Germans marched toward Paris
• The Germans had trapped almost 400,000 French,
British and Belgian soldiers
• They fled to the beaches of Dunkirk and escaped the
Germans by crossing the Channel on fishing barges and
small tugboats
The Fall of France
• A few days later, Italy entered the war on the
German side and began attacking France
from the south
• On June 22, 1940, at Compiegne, Hitler
handed French officers his terms of surrender
• Germans would occupy the northern part of
France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet
government, headed by Marshal Philippe
Petain, would be set up at Vichy in the south
The Fall of France
• Charles de Gaulle
fled to England
where he set up a
government-inexile and proclaimed
“France has lost a
battle, but France
has not lost the war.”
The Battle of Britain
• In the summer of 1940, the Germans assembled an
invasion fleet along the French coast
• Even though they could not compete with Britain’s
naval power, Germany launched an air war at the
same time it launched a naval war on Britain
• The Luftwaffe began making bombing runs over
Britain
• Its goal was to control the skies and defeat the RAF
• Hitler had over 2600 planes—in one day—August
15—he sent over 2000 towards London
• For two solid months, London was pounded
The Battle of Britain
• The fight lasted through the summer and fall
• At first the Germans targeted airfields, but then
went after the cities
• With the help of radar, the RAF brilliantly fought
against the Germans
• On September 15, 1940, the RAF shot down 185
German planes, and lost only 26 of their own
• Six weeks later, Hitler called off the invasion
• But German bombers still continued to bomb
British cities in order to disrupt production
Genocide
The Holocaust
• When Hitler took control, he ordered all “non-Aryans”
out of government jobs
• Jews were not the only victims of the Holocaust, but they
were the center of the Nazis’ targets
• Anti-Semitism, or hatred of Jews, had a long history in
many European countries
• For years Germans blamed the Jews for the economic
struggles
• Hitler found many willing to share his belief that Jews
were responsible for Germany’s economic problems and
defeat in WW1
Kristallnacht
• November 9-10, 1938, became known as
Kristallnacht, or “night of broken glass”
• Storm Troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses
and synagogues across Germany
• Around 100 Jews were killed
• Hundreds more injured
• 30,000 were arrested
• Afterward, the Germans blamed the Jews for the
destruction
Jewish Refugees
• Nazi’s tried to speed Jewish emigration, but ran
into difficulty
• Jews were having trouble finding nations that
would take them in
• France already had 40,000 refugees and did not
want more
• Britain worried about fueling Anti-Semitism and
refused to admit more than 80,000 refugees
• The U.S. allowed 100,000 refugees, but people
wanted to close the doors
Plight of the St. Louis
• Official indifference to the plight of the Jews
was evident in the case of the ship St. Louis
• The German Ocean Liner passed by Miami in
1939
• 740 of the 943 passengers had U.S.
immigration papers, the Coast Guard
followed the ship in case anyone decided to
jump ship
• The ship was forced to return to Europe
Final Solution
• By 1939, only about a quarter million Jews
remained in Germany
• Other nations the Nazi’s occupied had
millions more
• Obsessed with ridding Europe of Jews, Hitler
imposed his “Final Solution”—a policy of
genocide, or the systematic killing of an
entire population
The Condemned
• To accomplish the preservation of “the master
race” Jews and other races were enslaved and killed
• Other groups that were targeted included:
– Gypsies: Nazi’s believed were inferior
– Freemasons: Nazis charged them with supporting the
“Jewish conspiracy” to rule the world
– Jehovah’s Witnesses: who refused to join the army or
salute Hitler
• Other German’s were also targeted—thought to
be unfit to be in the “master race”
The Condemned
• Hitler began
implementing his
“final solution” in
Poland with special
Nazi death squads
• Hitler’s “security
squadrons” rounded
up Jews and shot
them on the spot
Forced Relocation
• Jews were ordered into dismal, overcrowded
ghettos—segregated Jewish areas in certain Polish
cities
• The Nazis sealed off the ghettos with barbed wire and
stone walls
• Life inside was miserable
• Bodies of victims piled up faster than they could be
removed
• Factories were built alongside the ghettos
• The people were forced to work in these factories
• Jews formed resistance movements inside the
ghettos—some public and some underground
Concentration Camps
• Jews in communities not reached by the
killing squads were shipped out to
concentration camps
• Families were often separated
• Originally used to house political opponents
and protesters
• Turned over to the SS and expanded to
include other “undesirables”
Concentration Camps
• Prisoners were crammed into wooden
barracks—1000/barrack
• They shared quarters, meals, and fleas
• Jews worked from dawn till dusk or until
they collapsed
• If they were too weak to work, they were
killed
The Final Stage
• The Final Solution reached its final stage in
1942
• Hitler and his officials instituted the final
phase of the mass killings—poisonous gas
• The overwork, beatings, bullets and
starvation were not killing fast enough for
the Nazis
• 6 death camps were built in Poland
The Final Stage
• Each camp had several gas chambers where as
many as 12,000 people could be killed in a day
• When prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, the largest
of the camps, they were paraded in front of SS
doctors
• The doctors would separate the ones that were
weak from the ones that were strong
• They were then told to leave all their belongings
with a promise of getting them later
The Final Stage
• The ones destined to die were ushered into a
room next to the chamber and told to
undress to prepare for a shower
• The prisoners were even given pieces of soap
• They were then taken into the chamber and
poisoned with cyanide gas
The Final Stage
• The mass extermination was sometimes
accompanied by cheerful music played by
prisoners temporarily spared execution
• At first, the bodies were put in huge pits dug
by other prisoners
• But other camps installed crematoriums to
better hide the evidence of the mass killing
• If prisoners weren’t gassed, they were shot,
hanged or injected with poison
The Final Stage
• Others died of the horrible medical
experiments carried out by camp doctors
• Some were injected with deadly germs in
order to study the effect of disease on
different groups of people
• Many others were used to test methods of
sterilization as another way of improving the
“master race”
Survivors
• About 6 million Jews
were slaughtered or
died as a result of the
concentration camps
• Still, others escaped
death—either with
help or because the war
ended
America Joins
the War Effort
America Moves Towards War
• 1939—Roosevelt asked Congress to pass a “cashand-carry” provision that allowed warring nations
to buy U.S. arms as long as they paid cash and
transported them in their own ships
• Roosevelt argued it would help France and Britain
defeat Germany but keep the U.S. out of the war
• Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939—
”cash-and-carry” act
Axis Threat
• The cash-and-carry policy was nearly too little to
late
• By 1940, France had fallen and Britain was under
siege
• By September 1940, the U.S. had provided Britain
with hundreds of thousands of weapons and over
50 ships for leases on British bases
• Churchill later remarked that this was a “decidedly
unneutral act”
Axis Threat
• September 27—Germany, Italy, and Japan
signed a mutual defense treaty, the Tripartite
Pact
• They became known as the Axis Powers
• This treaty aimed at keeping the U.S. out of
the war
• If the U.S. did enter the war, they would be
fighting a two ocean war
Building U.S. Defenses
• Meanwhile, Roosevelt asked Congress to increase
military spending
• In spite of years of isolationism, Nazi victories in
1940 changed minds
• Congress also passed the nation’s first peace-time
draft—Selective Training and Service Act
• 16 million men between 21 and 35 were drafted for
one year and served only in the Western
Hemisphere
Roosevelt Runs for a Third Term
• 1940—Roosevelt broke the tradition of a twoterm presidency and decided to run for a third
term (T.R. had done this nearly 40 years before
with non-consecutive terms)
• The Republican candidate, Wendell Willkie,
supported Roosevelt’s policies and they both
promised to keep us out of the war
• Since there was very little difference between the
two, the majority of voters chose the only one
they knew best
Roosevelt
Wendell Willkie
Lend-Lease Plan
• After the election, Roosevelt explained that
it would be impossible to negotiate a peace
with Hitler
• By late 1940, Britain had no more money for
the war
• Roosevelt suggested the Lend-Lease Policy
• Under this plan, the president lends or leases
arms and other supplies to any country
whose defense was vital to the U.S.
Lend-Lease Plan
• Isolationists
argued against the
plan, but most
Americans favored
it
• Congress passed
the Lend-Lease
Act in March 1941
Supporting Stalin
• In June 1941, Hitler broke his agreement
with Stalin
• Roosevelt began sending lend-lease supplies
to the S.U.
• Some Americans opposed working with
Stalin
• Roosevelt agreed with Churchill when he
said, “if Hitler invaded Hell, Britain would be
willing to work with the devil himself.”
German Wolf Packs
• To send the supplies, supply lines had to be kept open
• Hitler tried to stop the lend-lease supplies by sending
U-Boats to attack the convoys
• From spring to fall of 1941, individual surface attacks
by individual U-boats gave way to what became
known as the wolf pack attack
• U-boats were successful in sinking as much as
350,000 tons of shipments in a single month
• September 1941—Roosevelt gave the navy permission
to attack German U-boats in self-defense
German Wolf Packs
• By late 1943, the
submarine menace
was contained by
electronic detection
techniques and by
airborne
antisubmarine
patrols
Atlantic Charter
• In 1941, the House extended the term of draftees
• Roosevelt began planning for the war he knew would
come
• Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly at a summit aboard
the USS Augusta
• Both agreed to the Atlantic Charter—both countries
pledged collective security, disarmament, selfdetermination, economic cooperation, and freedom of
the seas
• Roosevelt told Churchill he could not ask Congress to
declare war on Germany, but that he would do everything
to “force an incident”
Atlantic Charter
• The charter became the basis of a new
document—”A Declaration of the United
Nations”
• The term United Nations was suggested by
Roosevelt to express the common purpose of
the Allies
• The declaration was signed by 26 nations
Shoot on Sight
• When German U-boats fired on the U.S. destroyer
Greer in the Atlantic September 4, 1941, Roosevelt
ordered the navy to shoot on sight
• Two weeks later, the Pink Star, a merchant ship, was
sunk off the coast of Greenland
• Again in October, U-boats sank the U.S. destroyer
Kearny and 11 lives were lost
• Days later, Germans sank the Reuben James killing
more than 100 sailors
• “…history has recorded who fired the first shot.”
Japan’s Ambitions in the Pacific
• Japan’s expansion began with Manchuria
• Only U.S. territories remained in their way
• Japan began with French military bases in
Indochina
• U.S. responded by cutting off trade with Japan
• The embargoed goods included oil—Japan
could be defeated without oil
• Japan had a choice—persuade the U.S. to end
its oil embargo or seize the oil fields in the
Dutch East Indies
Peace Talks are Questioned
• Hideki Tojo (prime minister) met with the emperor
Hirohito
• He promised to preserve peace with the U.S.
• But on November 5, 1941, Tojo ordered the Japanese
navy to prepare for an attack on the U.S.
• The U.S. had broken Japanese codes and learned they
were preparing for attack, but didn’t know where
• Late November—Roosevelt sent out a “war warning”
to the commanders in the Pacific
• Roosevelt wanted Japan to commit the first act
Peace Talks are Questioned
• The Peace talks went on for a month
• On December 6, 1941, Roosevelt received a
decoded message that instructed Japan’s
peace envoy to reject all American peace
proposals
• “This means war,” Roosevelt declared
Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941
• Early in the morning, a Japanese dive-bomber
swooped low over Pearl Harbor
• Followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes
launched from six aircraft carriers
• For an hour and a half, the Japanese planes were
barely disturbed by antiaircraft guns
• In less than 2 hours, the Japanese had killed 2,403
Americans and wounded 1,178 more
• They sank 21 ships and severely damaged or
destroyed 300 aircraft
Pearl Harbor
• The Pacific Fleet was
nearly wiped out
• Only three aircraft
carriers escaped the
destruction—this
proved vital to the
outcome of the war
Pearl Harbor
• In Washington, Roosevelt listened to report
after report realizing we now had to fight a
war on two fronts
• December 8—Roosevelt gave his famous
“Infamy” speech
• The greatest damage done by Pearl Harbor
was to the cause of isolationism
• Now, Americans felt that war was the only
way
Americans Join the War Effort
• After Pearl Harbor, Japan boasted that the U.S.
was now reduced to a third-rate power and was
“trembling in her shoes”
• Americans set out to prove Japan wrong
• Eager young Americans jammed recruiting offices
• 5 million volunteered, but this was not enough
for all-out war
• The Selective Service System expanded the draft
and provided another 10 million soldiers
• After 8 weeks of basic training the 15 million
soldiers were ready for the fight
The Home Front
Expanding the Military
• The military’s work force needs were so great that
Gen. George Marshall pushed for the formation of
the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)
• Women would serve in non-combat positions
• Some in Congress thought it to be “the silliest
piece of legislation”
• The law gave women salary and status but few of
the benefits granted to men
• In 1943, the Army dropped the Auxiliary part and
granted full Army benefits to WAC’s
Recruiting and Discrimination
• For many minority groups, they questioned
whether this was their fight
• “why die for democracy for some foreign country
when we don’t even have it here?”
• On receiving his draft notice, an African American
responded unhappily, “Just carve on my
tombstone, ‘Here lies a black man killed fighting a
yellow man for the protection of a white man’”
Dramatic Contributions
• Despite discrimination, more than 300,000
Mexican Americans joined the armed forces
• 1 million African Americans served—they lived
and worked in segregated units and were limited
mostly to non-combat roles until 1943
• 46,000 Asian Americans served as spies and
interpreters in the Pacific
• 25,000 Native Americans enlisted too, including
800 women
Production
• Early 1942, newspapers reported the end of car
production for private use
• The nation’s automobile plants had been retooled
to produce tanks, planes, boats, and command cars
• Other factories across the nation were converted as
well
• A maker of mechanical pencils turned out bomb
parts
• A bedspread manufacturer made mosquito netting
• A soft drink company filled shells with explosives
Labor’s Contribution
• By 1944, despite the draft, nearly 18 million workers
were laboring in war industries, three times as many as
in 1941
• More than 6 million of the new workers were women
• Industries feared that women lacked the necessary
stamina for factory work
• Once women proved they could operate welding
torches or riveting guns as well as men, employers
could not hire enough of them
• Women would only earn about 60 percent as much as
men doing the same jobs
Labor Contribution
• Defense plants hired more than 2 million minority
workers (janitors) during the war years
• To protest discrimination, A. Philip Randolph,
founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters, organized a march on Washington
• July 1, 1941—marched under the banner “We
Loyal Colored Americans Demand the Right to
Work and Fight for Our Country”
• Roosevelt called Randolph in and asked him to
back down
• In the end, it was Roosevelt who backed down
Labor Contribution
• The president issued
an executive order
calling on employers
and labor unions to
provide African
Americans and other
minorities jobs
without
discrimination
Mobilization of Scientists
• 1941—Roosevelt created the Office of
Scientific Research and Development
• OSRD spurred improvements in radar and
sonar
• It encouraged the use of pesticides like DDT
• As a result, U.S. soldiers were probably the
first in history to be free of body lice
• It also pushed the development of “miracle
drugs,” such as penicillin
Mobilization of Scientists
• The most significant achievement—atomic
bomb
• Interest in such a weapon began in 1939, after
German scientists succeeded in splitting
uranium atoms
• Albert Einstein, German refugee, wrote a
letter to Roosevelt warning that Germans
could construct a weapon of enormous
destructive power
Mobilization of Scientists
• Roosevelt created an Advisory Committee on
Uranium
• In 1941, the committee told Roosevelt it would
take 3-5 years to build an atomic bomb
• The OSRD set up an intensive program in 1942 to
develop the bomb as quickly as possible
• Much of the early research was done at Columbia
University in Manhattan giving it the code name
the Manhattan project
Government takes control of Economy 1942-1945
Agencies and Laws
What they did
Office of Price
Fought inflation by freezing wages, prices
Administration
and rents
National War Labor Limited wage increases, allowed negotiated
Board
benefits, kept unions stable by forbidding
workers to change unions
War Production Rationed fuel and materials vital to the war
Board
effort
Department of the
Issued war bonds to raise money for the
Treasury
war effort and to fight inflation
Revenue Act of
Raised the top personal-income tax rate to
1942
88%
Smith-Connally
Limited the right to strike, gave the
Anti-Strike Act
president power to take over striking plants
Rationing
• The OPA set up a system for rationing
• Under this system, households received ration books
with coupons to be used for buying such scarce goods
as meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, and gasoline
• Gas rationing was particularly hard on those who lived
in western regions
• Most accepted rationing as a personal contribution to
the war effort
• Many carpooled or rode bicycles
• Others bought scarce goods through the “black
market”
New Strategy on
the Western Front
War Plans
• The Allied strategy after 1941:
– First objective: Italy and Germany
– Second objective: Japan—after defeat of Hitler
• Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to the terms
of the strategy at the White House at the
end of 1941
Battle of the Atlantic
• After Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered sub raids
against ships along America’s east coast
• Hitler hoped to starve Britain and the Soviet
Union by cutting off their supply lines
• For a while, it looked like Hitler would succeed
• In the first 4 months of 1942, the Germans sank
87 ships
• Seven months into the year, 681 Allied ships were
sunk
Battle of the Atlantic
• Convoys were organized and reversed the
damage
• At the same time, the U.S. launched a crash
shipbuilding program—by mid-1943, 140
Liberty ships were produced each month
• By mid-1943, the tide had turned in the
Atlantic
• The Allies were beginning to sea significant
victories on land as well as sea
Battle of Stalingrad
• Germans had been fighting in S.U. since 1941
• Winter 1941—stopped short of Moscow and
Leningrad
• Summer 1942—Hitler focused his attention on the
oil fields in Caucasus Mts. and Stalingrad
• The Russians harvested their fields and burnt their
own buildings to keep the Germans from being
successful
• The Luftwaffe bombed Stalingrad while soldiers
fought hand-to-hand combat
• The Germans had taken 9/10 of the city by September
Battle of Stalingrad
• Another winter came—Soviets took this
opportunity to roll fresh tanks in for a massive
counterattack
• They cut off German supply lines and surrounded
the city
• Hitler ordered the Germans to stay and fight
• Winter turned Stalingrad into a frozen wasteland
and the fighting continued
• January 31, 1943—the German commander
surrendered and two days later his troops did too
Battle of Stalingrad
• In defending Stalingrad, the Russians lost
1,100,000 soldiers
• The battle marked a turning point in the war
• From that point on, the Soviets moved
westward toward Germany
North African Front
• While Stalingrad was being bombarded, the U.S.
and Britain launched Operation Torch
• The Allies, commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower,
invaded Axis controlled North Africa
• In November 1942, 107,000 Allied troops landed
in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers
• They sped eastward chasing General Erwin
Rommel through the desert
• He surrendered in May 1943
Italian Campaign
• Before Africa was won, the Allied powers met at
Casablanca and agreed to accept the unconditional
surrender of the Axis powers
• They also decided their next attack would come
on the Italian Peninsula
• In summer 1943, Sicily fell quickly
• Stunned by the collapse of their army, the Italian
government forced Mussolini to resign
• July 25, 1943—Mussolini was stripped of his
power and arrested
• Italy was not a threat anymore
Heroes of War
• The Tuskegee Airmen registered their first victory
at Sicily
• They won two Distinguished Unit Citations for
their outstanding aerial combat against the
Luftwaffe
• The 92nd Infantry “Buffaloes,” in just 7 months of
combat, won 7 Legion of Merit awards, 65 Silver
Stars, and 162 Bronze Stars for courage under fire
Heroes of War
• 17 Mexican Americans were awarded the Medal of
Honor
• All Mexican-American unit--Company E of the 141st
Regiment, 36th division became one of the most
decorated of the war
• The 100th Battalion, consisting of 1300 Hawaiian Nisei
became known as the Purple Heart Battalion
• Later they formed the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental
Combat Team and became the most decorated unit in
U.S. History
D-Day
• June 6, 1944—Operation Overlord
• Turning point of the Western Front
• 3 million Allied soldiers stormed the beaches
of Normandy
• This would be the largest land-air-sea
invasion in army history
• German retaliation was brutal, particularly at
Omaha beach
The Allies Gain Ground
• Despite heavy casualties, the Allies held the
beachheads
• After 7 days, they held an 80 mile strip of land
• After a month, they had landed millions of
soldiers, 567,000 tons of supplies, and 170,000
vehicles in France
• Gen. Omar Bradley unleashed massive air and land
bombardment at St. Lo providing a gap in German
defenses
• Gen. George Patton could now advance
The Allies Gain Ground
• On August 23, Patton reached the Seine
River south of Paris
• Two days later Paris was liberated from a 4
year German occupation
• By September 1944, the Allies had freed
France, Belgium and Luxembourg
• The good news helped elect Roosevelt to his
fourth term with Harry Truman as his V.P.
Battle of the Bulge
• In October 1944, Americans captured their first
German town, Aachen
• Hitler responded with a desperate last-gasp offensive
• He ordered his troops to break through the Allied
lines and to recapture the Belgian port of Antwerp
• December 16, eight German tank divisions broke
through weak American defenses
• Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory creating a
bulge in the lines that gave the desperate offensive its
name, the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
• The Germans captured 120 GI’s and mowed
them down with machine guns
• The battle raged for a month
• The Germans lost ground and 120,000
troops, 600 tanks, and 1600 planes
• From that point on, the Nazis could do little
but retreat
The Pacific Front
American Strategy
• Following the liberation of Europe (D-Day),
America set its eye toward the Pacific
• Due to Japan’s strategy of “fight to the
death”, America formed an “Island Hopping”
strategy
• Formed in order to get closer to Japan
• For the most part this strategy worked
Midway
• Midway:
– Turning point on the Pacific Front
– Major Naval battle took place Jun 4-7, 1942
– The Japanese plan was to lure America's few
remaining carriers into a trap and sink them.[6]
The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway
Atoll to extend their defensive perimeter. This
operation was considered preparatory for an
invasion of Hawaii.
– Put a stop to Japan’s advance toward Hawaii
Iwo Jima
• February-March 1945
• The Marine invasion was charged with the mission of
capturing the airfields on the island
• Once the bases were secured, they could then be of use in the
impending invasion of the Japanese mainland.
• One of the first objectives after landing on the beachhead was
the taking of Mount Suribachi
• Even after Iwo Jima was declared secured, about three
thousand Japanese soldiers were left alive in the island's caves
and tunnels.
• Eventually most surrendered and were surprised by many
Americans’ compassion
Okinawa
• March-June 1945
• was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific
Theater
• The battle has been referred to as the "Typhoon
of Steel“
• The battle has one of the highest casualties
• Okinawa would serve as a springboard for the
planned invasion of the mainland islands
• Japan surrendered before an invasion took place
Surrender and
Liberation
Liberation of the Death Camps
• Meanwhile, Allied troops pressed eastward into the
German heartland, and the Soviet army pushed
westward across Poland toward Berlin
• Soviet troops were the first to enter a death camp
• The German troopers worked to bury and burn all
evidence of their crimes
• The Soviets arrived to find a thousand starving
prisoners, the largest crematory in the world, and a
store house filled with 800,000 shoes
• Other death camps were in similar conditions
Unconditional Surrender
• April 25, 1945, the Soviet army had stormed
Berlin
• As shells burst overhead, the city panicked
• Soldiers in hiding ran out in the streets and
were shot on the spot or hanged from the
nearest tree
• On their chests they had placards reading
“We betrayed the Fuhrer (leader)”
Unconditional Surrender
• In his underground headquarters in Berlin, Hitler
prepared for the end
• On April 29, he married his long time companion, Eva
Bratun
• The same day, he wrote out his last address to the
German people
• He blamed the Jews for starting the war and his
Generals for losing it
• The next day, Hitler shot himself, and Eva drank poison
• The two bodies were dragged out and burned in the
street
Unconditional Surrender
• A week after Hitler’s
death, Eisenhower
accepted the
unconditional
surrender of the Third
Reich
• May 8, 1945—the Allies
celebrated V-E-Day—
Victory in Europe
Roosevelt’s Death
• Roosevelt did not live to see V-E Day
• He died April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait
in Warm Springs, Georgia
• The President had a stroke and died
• That night, V.P. Harry S. Truman was sworn in as
the 33rd president
Ending War in the Pacific
• War still waged between Japan and the U.S.
• Truman was given two choices:
– Send in troops to fight to the death against
Japanese soldiers
– Use a new weapon to end the war (Atomic
Bombs)
• Not wanting to lose so many lives, Truman
chose to use the weapons created from the
Manhattan Project
Ending War in the Pacific
• Manhattan Project:
– The project to
develop the first
nuclear bomb
– Developed between
Canada, United
Kingdom, and U.S.
– J. Robert
Oppenheimer took
nuclear research on
the fast track
Potsdam Conference
• Potsdam Conference—Germany
– July 11, 1945
– Allied leaders met and agreed upon the
unconditional surrender of Germany and
Japan—specifically stating “the alternative for
Japan is prompt and utter destruction” if they
did not surrender (this in part to their
destruction of Pearl Harbor)
Atom Bomb
• Japan refused to accept the terms of the
Potsdam Conference
• Truman ordered the dropping of two atomic
bombs
• The first on August 6, 1945 “Little Boy” was
dropped on Hiroshima
• Japan did not surrender
• The second on August 9, 1945 “Big Boy” was
dropped on Nagasaki
A World without War
• In order to maintain peace:
– The Allies formed the United Nations
– Decolonization began taking place in many parts
of the world
– Germany’s lands were divided up—even Berlin,
the capital of Germany, was split into 4 between
the Allies
• Unfortunately, peace would not last