Download WW2 Power Point (post Pearl Harbor)

Ways America Prepared for War
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Summer of 1940
First peacetime draft
Men between 21 -- 35
Registered 16.5 million men
5 million volunteered
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250,000 women enlisted
First time women were permitted to volunteer
for armed forces
Non-combat roles (accountants, bookkeepers,
drivers, radio operators)
Served in all branches
WACS (women’s armed corp services)
WAVES (women in the navy)
WAFS (women in the air force)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p
hp.?storyid=123773525
Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS)
First women to fly U.S. military planes
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Very strict guidelines for women to serve in the
military
Age 20-49
No children under age 14
Minimum of two years of high school
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Five million women entered the workforce
Many worked in industrial jobs in shipyards,
defense plants, etc.
Received 60% less pay than men
Women working in shipyards earned $6.95 a
day; men earned $22.00 a day.
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1.5 million AA left the south for jobs in the
north and west
1 million left home to serve in the armed forces
(segregated units)
Both civilians and soldiers continued to face
discrimination and segregation
Civil Rights leaders under the NAACP
encouraged AA to adopt the “Double V”
slogan
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V= victory over
fascism abroad
V = victory for
equality at home
New Civil Rights
organization created
in 1942 to work more
“militantly” for AA
rights. Named CORE
= Congress of Racial
Equality
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1942: War Production Board (WPB) established
to convert companies from peacetime to
wartime production.
U.S. industries booming.
By 1944 unemployment practically gone
Kaiser shipyard in California could make a
new ship every five days “miracle man”
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Started by Pittsburgh Courier (African
American newspaper) 1942
Would you fight for a country that did not
grant you full rights at home?
Do you think participation in the war effort
would help or hinder African Americans’ quest
for civil rights after the war?
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OPA regulated almost every aspect of civilian
life. Controlled Inflation. Froze prices, wages,
rent, etc.
Set up a rationing system. Used coupon
booklets. Meat, sugar, coffee, butter, gasoline,
rubber, shoes (two pairs per year)
National speed limit set at 35 miles per hour to
cut gasoline consumption
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WW2 cost the U.S. $320 Billion (10x’s more
than WW1)
Raised the money through income taxes (first
time automatically deducted from paychecks)
half the cost of the war
Selling war bonds (raised $135 Billion)
1945 National Debt $258.6 billion
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1939 Albert Einstein wrote FDR a personal
letter.
1941 Office of Scientific Research established
to research and develop the atomic bomb
Team of American, British, European scientists
headed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer
Three plants set up to produce uranium and
plutonium
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http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.sh
tml - first
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Hollywood began making war-time
propaganda films.
60 million to 100 million moviegoers a week
“Prelude To War” one of the greatest
propaganda films ever made. Frank Capra
series “Why We Fight”
Musicals, romances, comedies
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Transformed his cartoon studio into a
moviemaking factory for Uncle Sam.
Made educational, training, fund-raising, and
morale-building films.
Used the Seven Dwarfs to sell war bonds
Donald Duck to inspire Americans to pay their
taxes on time
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What does internment mean?
What is an Executive Order? (9066)
What motivated FDR to issue the order?
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National security
Military necessity
Wartime hysteria
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110,000-120,000 interned
10 camps
California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona
Issei: Japanese born (first generation)
Nisei: Children of Issei (second generation)
http://www.asianamericanmedia.org/jaintern
ment/camps/questions.html
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1944 Supreme Court case challenging the
constitutionality of internment camps
Court allowed removal of Japanese Ams. From
the west coast on the basis of “military
necessity”
Avoiding ruling on the constitutionality of the
internment program
Demonstrated how fragile civil liberties were in
times of war (Patriot Act 2001)
Congress issued apology and $20,00 in cash to
the 80,000 surviving J. A. in 1988
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Dwight Eisenhower
Supreme Allied
Commander in
Europe
Defeat Germany 1st
Operation Torch
(invasion of North
Africa)
Italian campaign
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Objective: Free France from Germany
2 years planning
U.S., British, Canadian troops landed along 60
mile stretch of beach (Normandy)
Largest amphibious attack (3 million troops)
Five landings: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno,
Sword beaches
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D-Day deception at
Calais
Phantom landing
force
Inflatable tanks,
dummy landing
crafts
Fooled Germans
temporarily to allow
landing at
Normandy
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Origins of “D-Day”
Paratroopers
Letters sent home describing the landing
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/
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Last German offensive to stop Allies from
entering Germany: Battle of Bulge
One month. Germans lost 120,000 troops
April, 1945 Allies seize Berlin
April 29,1945 Hitler marries Eva Braun
April 30: Hitler shot himself and Braun
swallowed poison. Bodies burned.
May 8, 1945: V-E Day
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Spring 1945: Allied troops advanced into
Poland and Germany and discovered
extermination camps where 6 million Jews
were put to death.
An additional 6 million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies,
homosexuals and other “undesirables” were
exterminated
Did the U.S. know of the persecution of
German Jews earlier?
Why didn’t we allow Jews to immigrate to
Am?
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Feb. 1945: FDR, Churchill, Stalin met in Yalta,
on the Black Sea.
Decisions made:
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Create a world peace-keeping organization at the
end of WW2 (United Nations)
Soviets promised to enter the war against Japan, 3
months after war ends in Europe
“Free elections” in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe
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Douglas
MacArthur:
Supreme Allied
Commander of the
Pacific
Island hopping
(strategy in Pacific)
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April 12, 1945: FDR’s dies
Harry S. Truman becomes President
A few days later, learns about the Manhattan
Project (employed 120,00)
July 16, 1945: A-Bomb tested at Los Alamos,
New Mexico
Three weeks later, Truman ordered the
dropping of the atomic bombs on two Japanese
cities
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Aug. 6, 1945
Target: Hiroshima
Carried by B-29
bomber: Enola
Gay
Uranium 235
Killed 75,000
Injured 68,000
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Aug. 9, 1945
Target: Nagasaki
plutonium
implosion-type
bomb.
Over 200,000 died
resulting from
injuries and
radiation poison
Sept. 2, 1945 official
surrender
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Japan unwilling to surrender; fight to their
death (Kamakazi attitude)
Huge land invasion of Japan necessary
War could last additional 5 years; 1 million
more lives lost
Eliminate Soviet input in post war negotiations
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1945-1949 Nuremberg, Germany
22 Nazi leaders tried for war crimes (crimes
against humanity)
12 sentenced to death. Rest to prison
200 lesser leaders found guilty
First time a nation’s leaders held legally
responsible for their actions during wartime