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War and Peace
HIS 1302 – Chapter 27
The Road to Pearl Harbor
Relations between Japan and the US
deteriorated after Japan resumed its war
against China in 1937
 Neither the US or Japan desired war.
 Roosevelt considered Nazi Germany to be
a more dangerous enemy and dreaded the
prospect of a two-front war

Cordell Hull’s demands
 Moderate viewpoint
 US retaliation against Japan over
Indochina
 Japanese militarism
 Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)

Mobilizing the Home Front
- Emergency Powers
- Democratic majorities slim
- Conservatives in Congress – fiscal oversight
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Characteristics of FDR (leader, not
administrator; common sense)
Financing the war, ration, taxes, economic
controls
Lack of centralized authority impeded
mobilization, but production expanded
dramatically
 Manufacturing nearly doubled;
agricultural output rose 22 percent
 Unemployment nearly disappeared
 Productive capacity and per capita output
increased especially dramatically in the
South

The War Economy
James F. Byrnes – “economic czar”
 Office of War Mobilization – controlled
production, consumption, priorities, prices
 National War Labor Board arbitrated
disputes and stabilized wages
 Despite rationing and wage regulations,
American citizens experienced no real
hardships during the war.

Organized labor; wars effects on
collective bargaining
 Effect on Redistribution of wealth

– Wealthiest 1% = 13.4 % in 1935
– Dropped to 6.7% in 1944
– Income tax extended
War and Social Change
American mobility
 Migration to jobs; military posts
 Wartime prosperity = more marriages,
higher birthrate

Minorities - Blacks
Effect of Hitler’s policies
 Arguments of black leaders
 Blacks in the military
 Effects of wartime economy
 Educational opportunities
 Great migration continues
 Political clout
 NAACP

Fair Employment Practices Commission
 Race Riots?
 Mexican labor
 Zoot Suit Riots
 American Indians

Treatment of German- and ItalianAmericans
WWII produced less intolerance than WWI
 Better able to distinguish between
foreigners and Americans
 American immigrants more opposed to
German and Italian policies
 More politically active

Internment of the Japanese
112,000 Japanese Americans relocated
into internment camps
 Fear of political disloyalty, and the public
was aroused by racial prejudice and Pearl
Harbor
 Hirabayashi vs. US (1943) upheld
restrictions
 Ex Parte Endo (1944) Supreme Court
forbade interment of loyal Americans

Women’s Contribution
Workforce
 Women in male roles
 Black Women
 Dual roles – workplace and home
 Support networks declined
 War-brides and separation

Allied Strategy: Europe First
Japanese threat was remote, Hitler was
the greatest threat – was working to
knock USSR out of the war
 US and USSR wanted to establish a
second European front in France
 Churchill wanted strategic bombing raids
on German cities and invasion of North
Africa – Churchill got his way

1942 – Allied planes began to bomb
German cities, and an Allied force under
Eisenhower invaded Africa
 Rommel’s Afrika Corps surrendered in May
1943
 Fall of 1943, USSR checked the Nazi
advance at Stalingrad and the Allies were
pushing their way up the Italian Peninsula

Germany Overwhelmed
D-Day, June 6, 1944 –
 Millions of Soviet troops slowly pushed
back the Axis lines
 While Allies prepared for a general
advance, the Germans launched a
counterattack
 Battle of the Bulge, costs and gains?

May 8, 1945
 Death camps
 Early news and FDR’s response

Naval War in the Pacific
 1st
priority – Germany
 2nd priority – stop Japanese expansion
 Battle of Coral Sea
 Midway – turning point
Island Hopping
Goal of Island hopping
 Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal)
 Mid 1944 – in range of Tokyo
 Feb. 1945 – Philippines, Leyte Gulf
 Okinawa and Iwo Jima
 Characteristic of Japanese fighting men

Atomic Bomb
FDR dies in April 1945 – Harry S Truman
becomes President
 July – learns of the A-bomb
 Decisions?

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
Desire to end the war quickly?
USSR intervention
Hatred of the Japanese
Use of the bombs
Effects
United Nations
Wartime Diplomacy
No peace – Split between US and USSR
 Propaganda –

– Wartime image
– Reality (Post-War image)
Big Three established European Advisory
Commission to determine fate of Germany
 Tehran and Yalta
 Establishment of UN (Sec. Council and
Gen. Assembly)

Allied Suspicion of Stalin
Division among the Allies
 Stalin resented the delay in a second front
 Spread of USSR into satellite nations
 Self-determination vs. Soviet expansion

Yalta and Potsdam
Yalta - FDR and Churchill agreed to allow
USSR control of Eastern Poland
 Stalin agreed to free elections in Poland
(never happened)
 Potsdam – formalized occupation of
Germany
 Truman takes “hard line” against USSR
 Suspicions – begins the Cold War
