Download AMERICA IN WWII

America in WWII
1941 - 1945
War Begins for the US
 Dec 8, 1941 – FDR asked & received from
Congress a declaration of war against Japan
 Dec 11, 1941 – Germany & Italy declare war on
US
 ABC-1 agreement with Britain- get Germany first
– Stop Hitler first & then all the Allies would focus on
Japan
– Limited American strength
would hold Japan
The Shock of War
 National unity – including immigrants
– WWII actually speeded the assimilation of immigrants
 Japanese – Americans
– Mainly on the Pacific Coast
– Forced into internment camps for fear of sabotage
– Many lost literally everything
– Korematsu v. US – upheld gov’t action of camps
• 1988 – gov’t apologized & paid the survivors $20,000
The New Deal Ends
 Conservative Congress was elected in 1942
– Wiped out the CCC, WPA, & National Youth
Administration
 Massive military orders ($100+ billion in 1942)
helped relieve depression
Production & WWII
 War Production Board
– Halted production of nonessential items
& focused on needed materials for war
 Gov’t imposed a national speed limit & gasoline
rationing & developed synthetic-rubber plants
 Farmers – increased production
 Office of Price Administration
– Brought inflation under control through regulation
– Rationing held down consumption of critical goods
Labor in WWII
 War Labor Board (WLB)
– Imposed ceilings on wage increases
 Labor unions membership grew but resented the
wage ceilings
– United Mine Workers were
called off the job by John L. Lewis
 Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act – June 1943
– Authorized the gov’t to seize & operate tied-up
industries
– Made strikes against gov’t-operated industry a crime
• Gov’t took coal mine & railroads
Manpower & Womanpower
 Armed services – enlisted 15 million men &
216,000 women
– Women /Noncombat units – WAACS, WAVES,
SPARS
 Key industrial & agricultural workers
were exempted from the draft
 Draft left many jobs open
– 1942 – Mexico sent “braceros” to work in the US
– Resulted in Zoot Suit Riots – 1943 in L.A.
• Sailors on leave beat Mexicans
Impact for
Women
 More than 6 million women
took jobs outside the home
– Gov’t had to start some 3,000 day-care centers for
“Rosie the Riveter’s” children
– Began the revolution in the roles of women
– Most women left the workforce after the war
– “Baby Boom” Generation occurred after the war
• Tens of millions of babies were born in the decade & a half
after 1945
Wartime
Migration
 Major population boom in War Industries areas
– Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle, & Baton Rouge
 FDR accelerated the South’s economic
development
 1.6 million African Americans moved out of the
South to seek jobs in the North & West
– Mechanical cotton picker eliminated the South’s need
for cheap labor
– Race relations developed over
employment, housing, &
segregated facilities
Fair Treatment
 A. Philip Randolph – (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters)
– 1941 - Threatened a march on Washington:
• demanded equal opportunities for
blacks in war jobs & the armed forces
 FDR responds:
– Forbid discrimination in defense industries
– Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)
monitored compliance
 Blacks were drafted but were still
assigned mainly to service branches
instead of combat
Minorities
 “Double V” - victory over the dictators abroad &
over racism at home
– Membership in NAACP increased
– 1942 – CORE is founded
• Congress for Racial Equality
 Native American Exodus
– Many left the reservations & moved to cities or
enlisted – 25,000 served
– “code talkers” – Comanches in
Europe & Navajos in Japan
• codes were never broken
Holding the Home Front
 Americans at home suffered little from the war
compared to other countries
– Economy was invigorated
– Employment was high
– Rationing
– Office of Scientific Research & Development
• Established a partnership between gov’t & universities
 National Debt skyrocketed - $259 billion in 1945
The Rising Sun
in the Pacific
 Japanese – win quickly or lose slowly
– Allied defeats: during the first 6 months, it looked like
the Allied Powers would lose the war
 Japanese took:
– Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma,
Dutch East Indies, & the Philippines
• Important Burma Road supply route into China from India
was cut
The Philippines
 US troops led by General Douglas MacArthur
withdrew to Bataan, close to Manila, but
eventually surrendered
– Bataan Death March – 85 mile forced march of GIs
who were tortured & eventually burned alive
– MacArthur was ordered by Washington to leave
secretly for Australia – “I shall return”
 Doolittle Raid : US executed a militarily
insignificant raid on Japan in April, 1942
– Helped US moral
Japan is
Pushed Back
 Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942)
– Entire battle fought with aircraft
– Japan prevented from successfully invading New
Guinea & Australia
 Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942)
– Turning point // Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
– Allies broke the Japanese code
– Japan suffered severe loses
– Japan no longer had any hopes of attacking US
mainland
Island Hopping
 Campaign begins in 1943
– Eventually pushed Japanese forces all the way back to
Japan
– Sought to neutralize Japanese island strongholds with
air and sea power & then move on
– Battle of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands – Aug 1942 –
Feb 1943)
• First Japanese land defeat after 6 months of bitter jungle
fighting
The Allied
Halting of Hitler
 German U-boats sunk 8 million tons
of allied supplies (25% of USSR’s)
 Germans were as far east as Stalingrad by fall
1942, & as deep as El Alamein, Egypt
 Battle of Stalingrad (Sept 1942)
– Very important battle
– First major NAZI defeat on land
– German army in retreat from the east until Berlin is
occupied by the Russians in the spring of 1945
– Stalin never forgave the Allies for not opening a 2nd
front earlier, USSR had to bear the brunt of Nazi
invasion
North Africa
 Operation “Torch” – led by
Gen. Eisenhower on Nov 8, 1943
– Germans were led by General Erwin Rommel (the
Desert Fox)
– Allied troops invaded N. Africa in Algeria & Morocco
 Battle of El Alamein – major victory for Allies
– Signaled end of Nazi presence in N. Africa
Italy
 Invasion of Italy commanded by George Patton
– July 10, 1943 – British & US forces land on Sicily;
victorious within 1 month
– Mussolini was forced out of power (1943)
– October 1943 – Italy declares war on Germany
– June 4, 1944 – Allied march into Rome
• First capital city freed from Nazi control
– Other parts of Italy remain under NAZI
control until Spring 1945
Tehran Conference
 Nov 28 – Dec 1, 1943
 First meeting of the “Big Three”
– FDR, Stalin, & Churchill
 Agree on an invasion of Western Europe
 Stalin confirmed Soviet commitment to war
against Japan
D-Day
 June 6, 1944 – “Operation Overlord”
– Commanded by Eisenhower
– 120,000 troops left England & landed at 5 beachheads
at Normandy Coast
• 800,000 more men within 3 weeks, 3 million total
 Significance:
– Established a second front
– Troops entered Paris on Aug 25
• By the end of summer, Belgium,
France, & Luxembourg liberated
Presidential Campaign
1944
 Democrat – FDR & Harry S Truman
 Republican – Thomas Dewey
– Platform: 12yrs was too long
 FDR is elected to a 4th term
– Experience played a major role
Last Days of Hitler
 Pre-invasion bombing
– Berlin & other major cities were hit repeatedly
• Especially factories & oil refineries
 Allied invasion (Sept 1944) repelled by Germany
– Allies arrived on the edge of Germany by mid Sept
 Battle of the Bulge – Dec 16, 1944
– Germans launched a major offensive on US positions
in Belgium & Luxembourg
– General George Patton & his
airborne division stopped Hitler’s
last gasp counter-offensive
– By Jan, the Allies were again
advancing toward Germany
War in Europe
Comes to an End
 April 1945
– US approach Berlin from west
while Soviets come from east
– Hitler committed suicide in an
underground bunker on April 30, 1945
– FDR dies of natural causes – April 12, 1945
• Truman steps in
 Depth of the Holocaust is uncovered
 V-E Day “Victory in Europe Day”
– May 7, 1945 – Germany surrendered unconditionally
Japan Dies Hard
 Feb 1945 – Iwo Jima
– Fighter planes were now close enough to bomb Japan
 April – June, 1945 – Okinawa
– Fierce fighting which virtually destroyed Japan’s
remaining defenses
 Japan still showed no willingness to surrender
Potsdam Conference
 Held in near Berlin in July 1945
 US & Soviet Union warn Japan to surrender or
be destroyed
– Tens of thousands leaflets were dropped in Japan
 Japan refuses removal of emperor
– show some signs that they may surrender if they can
keep their emperor
The 1st Atomic Bomb
 Manhattan Project – secret plans
to build an atomic bomb
– Albert Einstein worked on project
 Bomb was tested in New Mexico July 16, 1945
 Aug 6, 1945 –Atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima
– 180,000+ died
– Bomb was dropped by the Enola Gay
– Japanese still refuse to surrender
nd
2
The
Atomic Bomb
 Aug 9, 1945 – bomb dropped
on Nagasaki
– 80,000+ died
 Japan agreed to surrender under one condition:
keep Emperor Hirohito
– Allies accepted condition on Aug 14, 1945
 Sept 2, 1945
– Official surrender on board the USS Missouri
in Tokyo Bay (MacArthur was there)
– V-J Day - “Victory in Japan Day”