Download AMERICA AND WORLD WAR II

AMERICA AND
WORLD WAR II
1941-1945
Hitler and Mussolini
WAR STARTS IN ASIA
Asia: Japanese seize control of Manchuria in
1931 and invade China in 1937
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IGNORED LEAGUE OF NATIONS PULL OUT IN
1935
GAMBLED TO MAKE AN ASIAN EMPIRE
Europe- In Italy, Italian fascist, Benito Mussolini
seized power in 1922
Germany- Nazis, led by Adolph Hitler, combined
militaristic rhetoric with a racist doctrine of Aryan
supremacy
Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in
January, 1933
America remains Neutral
America the Isolationist
Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936 limited
trade with any country at war, no loans
and limited travel by Americans on ships
belonging to nations at war
Neutrality act of 1937 enacted Cash and
Carry Provision
Japan invades
China
Quickly over run
China in 1937
Demands that China
become subservient
to them politically,
and economically
Rape of Nanking
300,000 slaughtered
in 6 weeks
RAPE OF NANKING
Prelude to
War
Hitler’s Brown Shirts quickly seized
absolute authority with terror on the streets
Hitler made himself dictator of Germany
He denounced the Treaty of Versailles and
begin to rebuild Germany’s armed forces.
1936- Rome-Berlin Axis was formed
1937- Hitler announced plans to obtain
“lebensraum” or living space for Germans
through territorial expansion
Prelude to War
1935- Nuremburg Laws in Germany denied
citizenship and many other rights to German
Jews
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)- November
9,1938- a pogrom against the Jews of Germany
and Austria
Windows were smashed in Jewish shops, and
synagogues were burned to the ground
Jews were excluded from all but the most menial
forms of employment
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uine5MhOc0I
Prelude to War
1935- Italy sent troops into Ethiopia
Hitler and Mussolini supported Franco’s
fascists in Spain in the Spanish Civil War
which broke out in 1936
Italy and Germany used Spain as a testing
ground for their new weapons
1938- Hitler sent troops into Austria and
annexed it to Germany
Prelude to War
Munich Conference- September, 1938
Britain and France agree to let Hitler
annex the Sudetenland, a part of
Czechoslovakia to Germany
In return, Hitler pledged to stop his
territorial advance
Policy of “appeasement”
Six months later, Hitler seized the rest of
Czechoslovakia
Prelude to War
US passed three Neutrality Acts in 1935
and 1936 authorizing the president to deny
American firms the right to sell or ship
munitions to belligerent nations
Isolationism spanned the political
spectrum
America First Committee was formed in
1940 to oppose US intervention in WWII
WWII
Germany invades Poland on September 1,
1939
Two days later, Britain and France declare
war on Germany
Germans took Poland in less than a month
In late August, Hitler and Stalin had signed
a nonaggression pact
Red Army entered Poland from the east
and the two split the country
Germany Invades Poland
HITLER’S GERMANY INVADES POLAND
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
RUSSIAN INVADES EASTERN POLAND
After war starts Congress
passes Neutrality act of 1939
Permits Britain and France
to purchase weapons on cash
and carry basis
Loans and credit purchases
still illegal
German aggression scared
Americans
Neutrality gives way
Congress authorizes first
peacetime draft in 1940
September 1940 FDR transfers
50 WWI era destroyers to the
British Navy in exchange for
building right for 8 bases on
British territory.
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Was this legal?
1940 FDR wins re-election
Roosevelt develops lead lease
plan becomes Lend Lease Act
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Allows President to aid any
nation whose defense he
believed was vital to American
security
Allows America to be the
Arsenal of Democracy
Roosevelt’s War Preparations
Coordinated strategy with Britain
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in the event of 2 front war Europe 1st
Deploys Marines to Greenland to relieve
Brits
August 1941 FDR and Churchill meet to
work on formal wartime alliance
Developed the Atlantic Charter
US agrees to convoy goods to Iceland
Inching closer to war
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Germany sinks USS Reuben James in August 1941
America still not ready for war
Spring, 1940
German technique of “blitzkrieg” (lightning war)massed, fast-moving columns of tanks
supported by air power
German troops took Denmark, Norway, Holland,
Belgium, and Luxembourg
Sent more than 300,000 British troops in retreat
across the English Channel from Dunkirk
Hitler’s troops easily conquered France in June,
1940
Battle of Britain, “The London Blitz”
Battle of Britain
British Royal Air Force defeats German
Luftwaffe in the Battle of BritainSummer of 1940
British invent radar and are able to
detect German planes
“Britain Stands Alone”
American Sympathy (and little else)
Goes to Britain
Americans in shock by German
attacks on British civilians.
Awed by British perseverance and
will.
FDR ordered Germany and Italy to
close their consulates and ordered
US ships to shoot any Nazi vessels
in US waters on sight
As a result of the
1937 Japanese
invasion of China.
America extends
aid to China and
halt sales of some
US equipment to
Japan
1940-41
Hitler had conquered all of the Balkan region
In June, 1941, he launched his invasion of
the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa)
FDR moved Pacific fleet from California to
Pearl Harbor in May, 1940
September 27th- Japan joined the Axis
powers
Tripartite Pact
German success leads to Japanese
expansion
German victories in 1940 sap strength of France,
Britain and the Netherlands in SE Asia.
1940 Japan joins the Axis with Germany and Italy
Creates a power vacuum in SE Asia
Japan to occupy Fr. Indochina
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Possessed raw material no longer available from
US
This success emboldens the Japan’s to think
bigger.
America tightens the
screws
1940 US bans sales of high-grade scrap metal
and aviation fuel to Japan
Mid-1941US freezes Japanese assets in US
Japan and America attempt to negotiate peace for
several months
Late November US discover a massive Japanese
fleet sailing for SE Asia
US demands that Japan withdraw from all
conquered territory
As the US and Japan try to work out a deal a
second undiscovered fleet sails for Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
Within 2 hours, Japanese pilots had
destroyed nearly 200 American planes
and badly damaged the fleet, more than
2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200
wounded
On the same day, Japan struck US bases
on the Philippines, Guam, and Wake
Island
Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Furthest expansion of
Japanese empire 1942
December 8th
Roosevelt called the attack on Pearl Harbor a
date that “will live in infamy,”
asked Congress for a declaration of war
against Japan
With only one dissenting vote- by pacifist
Jeannette Rankin of Montana- Congress
acceded
Hitler asked the Reichstag on December 11th
to support war against the “half-judaized and
the other half Negrified” American nation
Mussolini joined in the declaration of war on
America
Arsenal of Democracy
War Powers Act: the president gained the
power to reorganize the federal government
and created new agencies, to establish
censorship, to seize property owned by
foreigners
National War Labor Board (NWLB)- mediated
disputes between labor and management
Office of War Information (OWI)- propaganda
Selling of war bonds
It cost about $250 million a day to fight the
war
The Administration directed all resources
Internment of Japanese Americans
December 8, 1941, the government froze the
assets of the Issei, those Japanese who had
been born in Japan
Racial prejudice
February 19, 1942, FDR signed Executive Order
9066, suspending the civil rights of Japanese
Americans and authorizing the exclusion of
approximately 110,000 men, women, and
children from California, Oregon, Washington,
and southern Arizona
continued
Japanese families were given one week to close
homes and businesses before being transported
to one of the ten internment camps managed by
the War Relocation Authority
The Supreme Court, in Korematsu v. US (1944),
upheld the constitutionality of relocation on the
grounds of national security
Not until 1988 did the US Congress vote
reparations and public apology to the 60,00
surviving victims
Internment
War
Towards securing the planes, ships, guns,
and food required for victory
New Deal agencies vanished
War Production Board (1942)- nearly half
of everything produced in the US was war
material
Gross national product rose from $88.6
billion in 1939 to $198.7 billion five years
later
War
Female labor force grew by over 50%
17 million new jobs were created during
the war
Food rationing
Soldiers
WWII mobilized 16.4 million Americans into the
armed forces
The officer corps tended to be highly
professional, politically conservative, and
personally autocratic.
General Douglas MacArthur was Supreme
Commander in the Pacific theater
General Dwight D. Eisenhower was Supreme
Commander of Allied forces in Europe
continued
Many men succumbed to “battle fatigue” from
the prolonged stress of combat
In France, where soldiers spent up to 200 days
in the field without a break from fighting,
thousands cracked, occasionally inflicting
wounds on themselves in order to be sent home
All Black regiments were commanded by white
officers; most were not allowed to fight
continued
Even the blood banks kept blood
segregated by race
Americans came from every region of the
country and every ethnic background and
met fellow Americans from every part of
the country
Approximately 120,000 Americans
became POWs; conditions in the Pacific
were the worst for POWs
The World at War
Chief weapons were tanks and airplanes
Also important were artillery and
explosives
Major improvements in communication
systems, two-way radio transmission
The Soviet Union
Hitler’s forces overran the Red Army, killing or
capturing nearly 3 million soldiers
Soviet resistance- Russians cut German supply
lines and sent every available resource to
Russian troops outside Moscow
Summer of 1942, Hitler decided to attack
Stalingrad, a major industrial city on the Volga
River; Soviets suffered more casualties in these
battles than Americans did in the entire war
continued
February, 1943- German 6th Army was
defeated
In retreat, Germans lost another major
battle in the Ukraine
US lend-lease program helped the
Russians
Allied Offensive
Spring, 1942- Germany, Italy and Japan
commanded territory from France to the
Pacific Ocean
Battle of El Alamein- October, 1942Egypt- British 8th Army stopped a major
offensive by the German General
Rommel, the “Desert Fox”
Americans entered the war in Europe as
part of Operation Torch, the landing of
North Africa
Of British and American troops in Morocco
and Algeria in November
May, 1943- Allies controlled N. Africa
Casablanca Conference- January, 1943
FDR and Churchill announced that they
would only accept unconditional surrender
from their enemies
Aerial Bombing
US pilots preferred the daylight hours,
while the British bombed during the night
Bombing missions over the Rhineland and
the Ruhr took out many German factories
Royal Air Force leveled the city of
Hamburg
60 other cities were hit hard also
Air offensive weakened German morale
DR. SEUSS AND THE WAR
Allied Invasion of Europe
In August, 1943, British and
American troops conquered
Sicily
Mussolini was dismissed by the
king and Italy surrendered on
September 8, 1943
Hitler sent troops to northern
Italy
D-Day
June 6, 1944
Stalin continues to call for a “Second Front”
Operation Overlord- the invasion of Normandy
Allied fleet brought more than 175,000 troops
and more than 20,000 vehicles to France
Germans killed 2,500 troops.
In the next six weeks, one million more
Allied soldiers came ashore
D-Day, Invasion of France
D-Day
End of European War
Allied troops arrived in Paris in August, 1944
One occupied country after another fell
Battle of the Bulge- Allies were taken by surprise
driving them back 50 miles before they were
stopped
This last effort exhausted the German capacity for
counterattack
It was the bloodiest American battle since
Gettysburg
continued
March 1945- Allies rolled across
the Rhine
By the time of the German surrender
on May 8th, 1945, Hitler had
committed suicide
War in Asia and the Pacific
Japanese struck main US base in the Philippines
two hours after Pearl Harbor
General MacArthur had to withdraw his troops
from the Bataan Peninsula, “I shall return”
Bataan Death March- US soldiers were forced to
march to Japanese prison camps; many soldiers
were beaten or shot by the Japanese
Japan seized Hong Kong, Wake Island, British
Malaya, and Thailand
The Pacific, 1942
April, 1942- Japanese conquered most of the
Netherlands East Indies with its supplies of oil, tin,
and rubber
6 months after Pearl Harbor, the US began to
gain naval superiority in the central Pacific and
halt Japanese expansion
Battle of the Coral Sea- May 7th and 8th-US and
British blocked a Japanese threat to Australia
1942 THE TURNING POINT
Battle of Midway Island- June 4thAmerican planes sunk four Japanese
aircraft carriers, and destroyed hundreds of
planes, ending Japan’s threat to Hawaii
US Command- General Douglas
MacArthur- southwest Pacific; Admiral
Chester Nimitz- central Pacific
They needed a strategy to strangle the
Japanese import-based economy
The Pacific, 1943-45
Island Hopping in the Pacific
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Guadalcanal
Tarawa
Marshall Island
Marianas/Guam
Iwo Jima/ Mt. Suribachi
Okinawa
The Manhattan Project
Develop an Atom Bomb
Einstein warns FDR of German plans to
build super bomb
In 1942 Fermi creates successful chain
reaction
Oppenhiemer field tests it in July 1945
“I have become death, the destroyer of
worlds” Bhagavad Gita
Do you use it?
Moral question
The wars ends
8/6 1945 1st Atomic bombs its Hiroshima
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140,000 dead 90% building destroyed
8/9 1946 2nd bomb hits Nagasaki
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Similar results as Hiroshima
8/14 japans surrenders (V-J day)