Download World War II Outline • Monday, July 16, 1945 o First atomic bomb

World War II
Outline
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Monday, July 16, 1945
o First atomic bomb exploded
 Heat generated by the blast was 4 times the temperature at the center of the sun
 Blew out windows in houses more than 200 miles away
 Killed every living creature within a mile
o Ruby Wilkening joined several other women waiting for the blast
 Worried about her husband who was already at the test site
 No one knew what to expect
o Franklin D. Roosevelt was convinced that the Nazis might develop an atomic bomb
 Inaugurated a small nuclear research program in 1939
o President released resources to create the Manhattan project
 Placed it under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers
o 1942: Enrico Fermi, Novel Prize winner, produced the first chain reaction in uranium under the University of
Chicago’s football stadium
o Government moved key researchers to Los Alamos, New Mexico
 slowly build houses
 men averaged at an age of 27
 these scientists and their families formed a close-knit community
 united by the need for secrecy & shared antagonism toward their army guardians
 Army atmosphere was oppressive
 Cordoned off by barbed wire and guarded by military police
 Scientists were followed by security personnel whenever they left Los Alamos
 Outgoing mail was censored
 Code names were used
16 million men and women left home for military service
o “a great arsenal of democracy”
o States in the South and Southwest experienced huge surges in population
o President Roosevelt ordered relocation for 112,000 people to internment camps
 Suspecting Japanese Americans of disloyalty
The coming of World War II
o The shadows of war
 War spread first across Asia
 Japan turned its sight on China
o Seized Manchuria in 1931
 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations
 Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937
 Japan’s army murdered 300,000 Chinese people while destroying the city
 Within a year, Japan controlled all but China’s western interior and threatened all of Asia and
the Pacific
 Italy and Germany
 Rise of authoritarian nationalism
 Germany
 Resentment over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
o Rise of demagogic mass movements
 National Socialists (Nazis)
o Led by Adolf Hitler
o Combined militaristic rhetoric & racist doctrine of Aryan supremacy
 Biological superiority for peoples of northern Europe and classified nonwhites as
“degenerate races”
 Hitler prepared for war
o Destroyed opposition and made himself dictator
o Began to rebuild German armies
 Hitler sent 35,000 troops to occupy Rhineland
o Region demilitarized by the Versailles treaty
 Italy
 Benito Mussolini
o Italian Fascist dictator
o “We have buried the putrid corps of liberty”
 Invaded Ethiopia and claimed the impoverished area as a colony
 When the Spanish Civil War broke out later in 1936, Italy and Germany both supported the fascist
insurrection of General Francisco Franco
 Drew up a alliance in November
o Rome-Berlin Axis
 Hitler then was ready to put his plan to secure living space for Germany into action
(Lebensraum)
o Further territorial expansion
 After annexing Austria, Hitler turned his attention to Czechoslovakia
 Both Britain and France were pledged to treaty to assist
 Munich Conference allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland
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Hitler pledged to stop his territorial advance
o Less than 6 months later, Hitler broke this pledge and seized the rest of Czechoslovakia
 1935: Hitler published the Nuremberg Laws
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Denying civil rights to Jews
 Campaign against them became more vicious
 November 9, 1938: Kristallnacht; “Night of Broken Glass”
 Nazis rounded up Jews
 Beat and murdered them
 Smashed windows in Jewish shops, hospitals, and orphanages
 Burned synagogues to the ground
 Hungary and Italy also enacted laws against Jews
o Isolationism
 Many Americans believed that the US should stay clear of “entangling alliances”
 In 1937, 70% of Americans in a poll thought that US involvement in WWI was a mistake
 Gerald P. Nye
 Headed a special Congress committee that charged weapons manufacturers with driving the
US into WWI
 1935
 Congress passed the first of five Neutrality Acts
o Deter future entanglements
o Required the president to declare an embargo on the sale and shipment of munitions to
all belligerent nations
 1938: Keep America Out of War Congress
 Led by Norman Thomas
 Communist-influenced
 Against War and Fascism
 More than 1 million members
 1940: Committee to Defend America First
 Led by Robert E. Wood
 Opposed US intervention
 Some members championed the Nazis; some simply advocated American neutrality
 Gained attention from many celebrities
o Roosevelt Readies for War
 October 1937
 FDR called for international cooperation to “quarantine the aggressors”
 2/3 Congress opposed economic sanctions
o “back door to war”
 FDR still won $1 billion to enlarge the navy
 September 1, 1939
 Hitler invades Poland
 Great Britain and France issued joint declaration of war against Germany
 After the fall of Warsaw, the fighting slowed
 French and German troops did not exchange fire even on their border
 Two weeks before Hitler attacked Poland, the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with its former
enemy
 Red Army entered Poland
 Split the nation between them
 Headed north; invaded Finland
 April 1940
 Hitler begins a crushing offensive against western Europe
 Blitzkrieg
o Lightning war
o Fast-moving columns of tanks supported by air power
 Nazis take Denmark and Norway; then Holland, Belgium, & Luxembourg
 Germany & Italy took over France in June 1940
 Battle of Britain
 Nazis pounded population and industrial centers while U-boats cut off incoming supplies
 Opinion polls in the US during this time still wanted to stay out of the war
 Roosevelt believed that the security of the US depended on
o A strong defense
o The defeat of Germany
 Neutrality Act of 1939
 Permitted the sale of arms to Britain, France, & China
 “all aid to the Allies short of war”
 Started to transfer surplus US planes and equipment to Allies
 First peacetime military draft in US history
 Selective Service Act of 1940
o Sent 1.4 million men to army training camps
 Roosevelt’s popularity weakened
 “Roosevelt recession”
 In his campaign for his third term, he promised not to “send your boys to any foreign wars”
 Beat Wendell L. Willkie of Indiana by 5 million popular votes
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 Lend Lease Act
 Roosevelt proposed a bill that would allow the president to sell, exchange, or lease arms to
any country whose defense appeared vital to US security
o Passed by Congress in March 1941
 Made Great Britain the first beneficiary of massive aid
 Congress authorized the merchant marine to sail fully armed while conveying lend-lease
supplies directly to Britain
o Formal declaration of war was coming
 Atlantic Charter
 Roosevelt met secretly with Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister)
o Mapped military strategy
o Declared common goals for the postwar world
 Specified the right of all peoples to live in freedom from fear, want, and tyranny
 Called for free trade among all nations
 Called to an end to territorial seizures
 Hitler set aside the Nazi-Soviet Pact to resume his quest for all of Europe
 1941; Hitler invaded the Soviet Union
o Promising its rich agricultural land to Germans
 US observed this event and moved closer to intervention
Pearl Harbor
o US had been focusing on Europe instead of Asia
o Roosevelt transferred Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor
 May 1940
 Oahu, Hawai’i
o Japan joined Germany and Ital as Asian partner of Axis alliance
 September 27
o Roosevelt wanted to save resources
o Japan thought that they could take over Southeast Asia if US was preoccupied
 French colonies in Indochina
 Vietnam
 Cambodia
 Laos
 British possessions
 Burma
 India
 Indochina invasion of July 1941
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 Roosevelt cut off Japanese assets and oil supplies
Confrontation with Japan became inevitable
 US intelligence broke through Japanese secret code
 Roosevelt knew Japan would attack Pacific
 All forces on high alert by end of November
December 7, 1941
 Japanese carriers attacked Pearl Harbor early in the morning
 Japanese pilots destroyed about 200 American planes in 2 hours
 2,400 Americans were killed
 1,200 Americans wounded
 Japan struck other US bases
 Philippines
 Guam
 Wake Island
Next day
 FDR – “date which will live in infamy”
 Congress voted on entering WWII
 Only pacifist Jeannette Rankin of Montana voted no
 Congress approved FDR’s declaration of war
3 days later
 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States
Arsenal of Democracy
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FDR called for “great arsenal of democracy” in 1940
o US economy already prepared for military purposes
o Federal government poured large amount of energy and money into economy once US entered war
o Gave power to federal government
o Brought an end to the Great Depression
Mobilizing for War
o War Powers Act
 Passed a few days after US declared war on Germany
 Established precedent for executive authority
 President had power to
 reorganize government and create new agencies
 establish programs censoring news and information
o abridged civil liberties
 seize property owned by foreigners
 award government contracts without competitive bidding
o Wartime agencies
 Reorientation and management of economy
 Supply Priorities and Allocation Board (SPAB)
 Oversaw use of scarce materials and resources
 Adjusted domestic consumption for war needs
 Office of Price Administration (OPA)
 Imposed price controls to prevent inflation
 National War Labor Board (NWLB)
 Mediated disputes between labor and management
 War Manpower Commission (WMC)
 Directed mobilization of military and civilian services
 Office of War Mobilization (OWM)
 Coordination operations among all agencies
o Propaganda
 Office of War Information (OWI)
 Created in June 1942
 Regulated media to sell the war to citizens
 Engaged press, radio, and film industry in an informational campaign
 Gathered data and controlled release of news
 Similar to the Committee of Public Information from WWI
o Banned publications of advertisements or photographs that showed dead Americans
 Thought they would demoralize public
 Worried that Americans had become too confident
o Published picture of wounded American in a 1943 Newsweek
o Sought to “harden home-front morale”
 War bonds
 Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
o Secretary of Treasury
o Encouraged Americans to purchase government bonds
o Planned campaign “to use bonds to sell the war, rather than vice versa”
 America felt more antagonism to Japan rather than Germany
o Morgenthau used more Japanese stereotypes in advertising
 Most Americans bought bonds to invest safely, counter inflation, and save for postwar
purchases
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o $185.7 billion in bonds by end of war
o Other supportive measures
 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
 Allotted money increased from $6 million to $16 million in two years
 Attorney general authorized wiretapping for espionage or sabotage
o Used illegally for domestic services as well
 Office Strategic Services (OSS)
 Created Joint Chiefs of Staff
 Used to:
o Assess enemy’s military strength
o Gather intelligence information
o Oversee espionage activities
 Headed by Colonel William Donovan
o Wanted to plot psychological warfare against enemies
o Increase in size of government
 Cost about $250 million a day to engage in warfare
 Spent twice as much during war than in entire prior history
 Number of federal employees quadrupled
 1 million in 1940 to 4 million at end of war
 1942 Roosevelt
 Went from “Dr. New Deal” to “Dr. Win the War”
 Shifted focus from getting country out of depression to allocating all resources for war efforts
 1942 election weakened New Deal coalition
o Many Democrats unseated
o Republicans gained 46 seats in the House of Representatives
 More opportunities to end special program proposals
o New Deal agencies vanished
Organizing the Economy
o US ability to out-produce enemies
 Decisive factor for victory
 US advantages
 Large industrial base
 Abundant natural resources
o Free from interference of war
 Large civilian population
o Increase labor force and armed forces
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 Defense spending ended Great Depression
 Created biggest economic boom in history of any nation
Government money in defense production
 Summer 1941
 Allocations for war equipment topped $100 billion six months after Pearl Harbor attack
 Preceded American production for previous wars
 Large war orders led to all-out production
 Factories operated around the clock
o Seven days a week
 War Production Board
 Created by Roosevelt in January 1943
 “exercise general responsibility” for activity
American productiveness
 Better equipment and more motivation
 Twice as productive as Germans
 Five times as productive as Japanese
 Military production increased from 2% of total gross national product in 1939 to 40% in 1943
Profits for businesses from military contracts
 Government provided low-interest loans and direct subsidies for expansion of facilities
 Generous tax write-offs for retooling
 100 largest corporations
 Produced 30% of all goods in 1940
 Received 70% of all war and civilian contracts and bulk of war profits
 Half a million small businesses closed between 1941 and 1943
Other impacts of defense production
 Strong impact in West
 Major staging area for war in the Pacific
 Federal government spent $40 billion for military and industrial expansion
 California
o 10% of all federal funds
o Los Angeles
 Second largest manufacturing center by 1944
 Detroit was largest
 South
 60 of the army’s 100 new camps
 Textile factories prospered
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o Army needed 520 million pairs of socks and 230 million pairs of pants
Lifted entire populations out of sharecropping and tenancy into industrial jobs in cities
Rural population decreased by 20%
American farmers could not keep up with demand
o Despite “Food for Freedom” program
o Domestic demand for milk, potatoes, fruits, and sugar
Sped up development of large-scale, mechanized production of crops
o First widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides
Farm income doubled by 1945
Thousands of small farms had permanently disappeared
New Workers
o New workers in labor force as a result of wartime economy
 Bracero program
 Negotiated by US and Mexico in 1942
 Brought over 200,000 Mexicans to US for short-term employment as farmers
 Opened trade such as shipbuilding to Mexicans
o Previously not open to Mexicans
 Sioux and Navajos were hired to build ordinance depots and military training centers
 African Americans
 Much greater variety of jobs
 Black workers increased from 2,900,000 to 3,800,000
o Wage-earning patterns in women
 Female labor force grew by 50%
 19.5 million by 1945
 Married women became majority of female wage earners
 Rate of growth high for women over 35
 Changed little for African American women
 90% in labor force in 1940
 Many left domestic service for higher-paying industry jobs
o No rush to recruit women
 Summer 1942
 Department of War advised businesses to stop hiring women until all make workers were
hired first
 Women not expected to keep jobs after war ended
 “Rosie the Riveter”
 Appeared in posters and advertisements
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 Model female citizen “only for the duration”
 Washington D.C. female bus drivers
 Wore patches that sais “I am taking the place of a man who went to war”
Gender stereotypes
 Made wartime jobs appealing to women
 Made industrial jobs look like simple variations of domestic tasks
o Curtains to parachutes
o Vacuuming to riveting on ships
WWII opened up new jobs for married women
 Different from Great Depression when married women were barred from many jobs
 Women automobile workers
 From 29,000 to 200,000
 Female electrical workers
 100,000 to 374,000
 When polled, 75% of women workers wanted to keep their jobs
Uneven distribution of economic gains
 17 million new jobs created total
 Wages increased up to 50%, but not as fast as profits or prices
 Produced one of the most turbulent periods in American labor history
 More workers went on strike in 1941 than in any other year except 1919
 United Auto Workers (UAW)
 Union drive at Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge plant
 One of most powerful labor organizations in world
 Union membership increased
 10.5 million to 14.7 million
 11% to 23% in women
 1,250,000 African American union members
o Double the prewar number
No-strike pledges
 For duration of US involvement in WWII
 Illegal “wildcat” strikes
 Most dramatic in 1943
 Half-million coal miners walked out
 Led by John L. Lewis
 Roosevelt ordered mines to be seized
o Saw that Lewis war right and coal could not be mined with bayonets
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 Democratic party of Congress passed first antistrike bill
 Gave president power to penalize or draft strikers
 Number of strikes grew regardless
While Americans benefited from the burst of prosperity brought on by wartime production, they experienced…
o Food rationing
o Long workdays
o Separation from loved ones
o Racial and ethnic hostilities flared repeatedly
 On several occasions erupted into violence
 National unity ran deep conflicts on the home front
Families in Wartime
o Men and women rushed into marriage due to wartime uncertainties
 Wartime economic boom allowed young couples to afford their own households
 “Economic conditions were ripe for a rush to the altar”
 Bureau estimated that between 1940 and 1943, over 1 million more people married than would be
expected without the war
 Marriage rate peaked in 1946
 Divorce rates set records by 1946
o Housing shortages were acute, rent was high
 Apartments were so scarce that taxi drivers became guides to vacancies
 Landlords frequently discriminated against families with children
 Even more so against racial minorities
o Retailers extended store hours
 Shopping time had to be squeezed between long workdays
 Extra planning needed for purchasing government-rationed staples
 Meat, cheese, sugar, milk, coffee, gasoline, and even shoes
 To free up commercially grown produce for troops overseas, many families grew their own fruits and
vegetables
 1943: Victory Gardens
 3/5 of the population was growing their own
o Amounted to 8 million tons of food that year
o Office of Price Administration
 Tired to prevent inflation to ensure an equitable distribution of foodstuffs
 Many women found it almost impossible to manage a job and a household
 Dual responsibility of women contributed to high turnover and absentee rates in factories
o Care of small children became a major problem
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 Wartime employment or military service separated husbands and wives
 Leaving children with only one parent
 Even families that stayed together normally had 2 parents working long hours
 Sometimes on different shifts
 War Manpower Commission estimated as many as 2 million children needed some form of child care
 Federally funded day-care centers served less than 10% of defense workers’ children
 Limited facilities sponsored by industry or municipal governments could not keep up with
growing number of “latchkey” children
o Juvenile delinquency rose
 Employers often relaxed minimum age requirements for employment
 Many teenagers quit school for high factory wages
 Runaways drifted from city to city, finding temporary work at wartime plants or military
installations
 Gangs formed in major urban areas
 Led to brawling, prostitution, or automobile theft
 With so many young men employed in the armed forces, crime by juvenile and adult males declined
 On the other hand, complaints against girls increased significantly
 Normally for sexual offenses or for running away from home
 Local officials created various youth agencies and charged them with developing more recreational and
welfare programs
 Local school boards appealed to employers to hire only older workers
 Toward the end of the war, student dropout rates declined
o Public health improved greatly
 While many were forced to cut back on medical care during the depression, many Americans began to
spend large portions of their wartime paychecks on doctors, dentists, and prescription drugs
 Over 16 million men inducted into the armed forces and their dependents were provided medical
benefits
 Incidents of communicable diseases fell by over a third
 Life expectancy increased by 3 years
 Death rate in 1942 (excluding battle deaths) was the lowest in the nation’s history
 South and Southwest racism and widespread poverty combined to halt or even reverse these trends
 These regions continued to have the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the nation
Internment of Japanese Americans
o Many Americans feared an invasion of the mainland and suspected Japanese Americans of secret loyalty to an
enemy government
o December 8, 1941, federal government froze the financial assets of those born in Japan who had been barred
from US citizenship
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 Known as Issei
o A coalition of politicians, patriotic organizations, business groups, and military officials called for the removal
of all Americans of Japanese descent from Pacific coastal areas
o State department intelligence report certified their loyalty
 Japanese American still became the only ethnic group signaled out for legal sanctions
 2/3 were American born citizens
o Sedition masked long standing racial prejudices
 Press used the word “Jap” in headlines while political cartoonists used blatant racial stereotypes
o February 19, 1942: FDR signed Executive Order 9066
 Authorized the exclusion of more than 112,000 Japanese American men, women, and children from
designated military areas
 Mainly in California, but also in Oregon, Washington, and southern Arizona
 Army prepared for forced evacuation
 Rounded up Japanese Americans from the communities where they lived and worked, sometimes for
generations
o Spring 1942, Japanese American families received one week’s notice to close up their businesses and homes
 Could only bring what they could carry
 Transported to one of ten internment camps
 Managed by the War Relocation Authority
 Camps were located as far away as Arkansas
 By August, almost every west coast resident who had at least one Japanese grandparent was interned
o Japanese American Citizens League
 Charged that “racial animosity” rather than military necessity dictated internment policy
o Korematsu v. United States (1944)
 Upheld the constitutionality of relocation on grounds of national security
 By this time, plans of gradual release was in place
o In protest, nearly 6000 Japanese Americans renounced their US citizenship
o Japanese Americans lost homes and businesses valued at $500 million
 Worst violation of American civil liberties during the war
o 1998: US Congress voted reparations of $20000 and a public apology to each of the 60,000 surviving victims
Double V: Victory at Home and Abroad
o African American activists conducted a Double V campaign
 Mobilized for the allied victory and their own rights as citizens
o Black militants demanded fair housing and equal employment opportunities
o A. Randolph: president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and National Negro Congress
 Mobilized against discrimination
o African Americans prepared for a “great rally” by the Lincoln Memorial on the 4th of July
 100,000 people expected to attend
 To stop the protest, FDR met with Randolph
 Randolph proposed an executive order that would make it mandatory for Negroes to be
allowed to work in defense plants
 Executive Order 8802 (1941): banned discrimination in defense industries and government
 FDR later appointed a Fair Employment Practices Committee to hear complaints and redress
grievances
 Randolph called off the march, but said they should still “shake up white Americans”
o Civil right organizations formed to fight discrimination and Jim Crow practices
 Interracial Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
 Formed by pacifists in 1942
 Staged sit-ins in restaurants that refused to serve African Americans
 Used nonviolent means to challenge racial segregation in public facilities
 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
 Took a strong stand against discrimination in defense plants and military
 Grew from 50,000 to 450,000 from 1940-1946
o Toughest struggles took place in local communities
 About 1.2 million African Americans left the rural South to take wartime jobs
 Faced serious housing shortages
 Whites were intent on keeping African Americans out of the best jobs and neighborhoods
 “hate strikes”
 Broke out in defense plants across the country when blacks were hired or upgraded to
positions normally held by white workers
 1942: 20,000 white workers at Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit walked out to protest
the promotion of 3 black workers
 US Rubber Company factory 1943: over half the white workers walked out when black
women began to operate machinery
o Detroit race riot
 February 1942: 20 black families attempted to move into new federally funded apartments adjacent to a
Polish American community
 Mob of 700 white protesters halted moving vans and burned a cross on the project’s ground
 Two months later, 1750 city police and state troopers supervised the move of families into
the Sojourner Truth Housing Project
 The following summer, racial violence reached wartime peak
 25 blacks and nine whites were killed and more than 700 were injured
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o By the time 6000 federal troops restored order, property losses were over $2 million
o In the summer of 1943, over 270 racial conflicts occurred in nearly 50 cities
Zoot-Suit Riots
o June 4, 1943: sailors poured into nearly 200 cars and taxis to drive through East Los Angeles to look for
Mexican Americans dressed in zoot suits
 Sailors assaulted victims at random
 Riots broke out and continued for 5 days
o Two communities collided
 Sailors had recently been uprooted from their hometowns an regrouped under the strict discipline of
boot camp
 Stationed in southern CA while awaiting departure overseas
 Saw Mexican American teenagers wearing long-draped coast, pegged pants, pocket watches
with oversized chains, and big floppy hats
o The sailors found the zoot suits as defiance to patriotism
o Zoot-suiters represented less than 10% of the community’s youth
 Over 300,000 Mexican Americans served in the armed forces
 A large number representing a greater proportion of their draft age population than other
Americans)
 Served in the most hazardous branches
o Paratrooper and marine corps
 Others were employed in war industries in LA
o For the first time, Mexican Americans were finding well-paying jobs
 Unlike African Americans, Mexicans expected government protection from discrimination
o Military and civilian authorities eventually contained the zoot-suit riots by ruling several sections of LA offlimits to military personnel
 City council passed legislation making the wearing of a zoot suit in public a criminal offense
 Many Mexican Americans showed concern for their personal safety
o Feared that government would send them to internment camps like the Japanese
Popular Culture and “The Good War”
o Global events shaped American civilians’ lives, but appeared to only indirectly touch their everyday activities
o Food shortages, long hours in factories, and separation from loved ones did not take away the pleasure of
wartime employment and prosperity
 Americans spent freely at vacation resorts, country clubs, racetracks, nightclubs, dance halls, and
movie theaters
 Book sales skyrocketed
 Spectator sports attracted huge audiences
o Popular music bridged the growing racial divisions of the neighborhood and work place
 Southern musicians brought regional styles to northern cities
 Music played on jukeboxes in bars, bus stations, and cafes
 Country and rhythm and blues won over new audiences and inspired musicians to cross old boundaries
 Musicians of the war years paved the way musically for the emergence of rock and roll a decade later
o Song featured war themes
 Personal sentiment meshed with government directive to depict “a good war”
 Justify massive sacrifice
 War was to be seen as a worthy and noble cause
o Hollywood artists threw themselves into fundraising and morale-boosting public events
 Movie stars called on fans to buy war bonds and support the troops
 Combat films made heroes of ordinary Americans under fire
 Movies with anti-fascist themes promoted friendship among Russians and Americans
 Other films portrayed the loyalty and resilience of families with servicemen stationed overseas
o Wartime spirits infected juvenile world of comics
 Nickel books spawned a proliferation of patriotic superheroes
 Green Lantern and Captain Marvel
 Bugs Bunny even started wearing a uniform and fought sinister-looking enemies
o Fashion
 Padded shoulders and straight lines became popular for men and women
 Patriotic Americans liked uniforms
 Civil defense volunteers and Red Cross workers
 Women employed in defense plants wore pants for the first time
 Material restrictions influenced fashion
 Production of nylon stockings was halted because the material was needed for parachutes
 Women’s skirts were shortened
 War Production Board encouraged cuffless “victory Suits” for men
 Executive Order M-217
 Restricted the colors of shoes manufactured during the war to black, white, navy blue, and 3
shades of brown
o Even those who did not serve in the war experienced intense change during the war years
 Popular music, Hollywood movies, radio programs, and advertisements encouraged a sense of personal
involvement in collective effort to preserve democracy at home and save the world from fascism
 All was screened by the Office of War Information
In World War I, Americans served for a short amount of time and in small numbers. World War II had 16.4 million Americans
in the armed forces where only 34% saw combat—majority saw combat during the final year of the war. However, the
experience of the war affected everyone in the military, reshaping their lives in unpredictable ways.
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Creating the Armed Forces
o European war broke out
 1939
 200,000 men in the U.S. armed force
 Patrolling Mexican border
 Occupying Philippines
 U.S. Marine Corps
o Planning since 1920s to extort control of western Pacific from Japan
o National Registration Day
 October 16, 1940
 Men between ages 21 and 36 were legally obligated to register
 During the war, the draft age was 18
 Local boards were encouraged to draft the youngest
o Selective Service
 1/3 of men were rejected from the draft
 Physically unfit
 Screened for “neuropsychiatric disorders or emotional problems”
o 1.6 million men for this reason
 Illiterate
 Those who passed the screening had entered the best-educated army in history
 Half of white draftees graduated high school
 10% went to college
o Command and General Staff School
 Fort Leavenworth
 Highly professional
 politically conservative
 personally autocratic
 General Douglas MacArthur
 Supreme commander in Pacific theater
 Admire German discipline
 General Dwight D. Eisenhower
 Supreme commander of All
o Transformation of the officer corps
 Shortage of officers in WWI
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Prompted expansion of the Reserve Officer Training Corps
Still could not meet demand
Racing to fix the problem
o Army Chief of Staff George Marshall opened schools for officers
o 1942
 17 week training
 Produced more than 54,000 platoon leaders
 GI’s (“government issue”)
 Majority of draftees
 Had limited contact with officers
 Forged bonds with company commanders and combat union
 “Everyone wants someone to look up to when he’s scared”
o Soldiers depended on solidarity between groups and loyalty between buddies to get
through the war
o Most soldiers wanted ”to get the task done” to return to their families
Women Enter the Military
o Edith Nourse Rogers
 Massachusetts Republican Congresswoman
 Proposed the formation of women’s corps
o Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), later changed to Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
 Supported by Edith Rogers and Eleanor Roosevelt
o Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WAVES)
 Creation of the women’s division of the navy
o Marine Corps Women’s Reserve
o Overall, more than 350,000 women served in WWII
o As a group, they were better educated and more skilled than an average soldier
 Paid less
o Military policy
 Prohibited women supervising men
o Women were prohibited from combat
o However, not protected from danger
 Nurses accompanied soldiers in Africa, Italy, France
 More than a 1,000 women flew planes (not in combat)
 Photographers and Cryptanalysts
o Majority of women were far from battle
 Stationed in the U.S.
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 Serving in administration, communication, clerical, or health-care facilities
o Bad Commentary and Publicity
 WAC’s and WAVES
 Most WAC’s were believed to be prostitutes
 War Department set stricter rules for women because of fear of “immorality”
 U.S. Marine Corps used intelligence officers to track down homosexuality in women
o Dishonorable discharge was granted if suspected
Old Practices and New Horizons
o Selective Service Act
 With demands of African American leaders, if stated:
 “there shall be no discrimination against any person on account of race or color”
 Draft brought hundreds of thousands black men to the army
o African Americans in the Armed Forces
 Enlisted at a rate of 60% above proportion to the population
 1944, they represented 10% of the army
 1 million served in the armed forces in WWII
 They were channeled into segregated units
 Poorly equipped
 Commanded by white officers
o Secretary of War Henry Stimson did not challenge this policy since he thought it
operated efficiently as “a sociological laboratory”
 Majority served in the Signal, Engineer, and Quartermaster Corps
 Constructing or stevedoring
 Towards the end of WWII
 Shortage of infantry permitted the first African Americans to enter combat
 The 761st Tank Battalion
o First African American unit in combat
o Won Medal of Honor after 183 days of action
 The 99th Pursuit Squadron
o Small number of African Americans in Airforce
o Despite that, they earned high marks against German airforce, Luftwaffe
 Marine Corps and Coast Guard agreed to recruit more African Americans
o A small number
 To improve morale, the army relaxed its policy of segregation
 Ordinary black soldiers, sailors, or marines
 Encounters discrimination
o
o
o
o
o Army canteen, chapel, blood banks, and more
 A black physician, Dr. Charles Drew invented the process of storing plasma
o 1943
 Violent confrontations of whites and blacks at military installations
 Especially in the South, where majority of blacks were stationed
 Policy of segregation was relaxed in the military
 Mainly in recreational facilities
 Military service provided a bride to postwar civil rights agitation
 Amzie Moore
o Helped organize Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
o “people are just people”
 He acquired this philosophy while in the military
Japanese Americans in the military
 Were stationed in segregated units
 Most were sent to fight in the Pacific theatre
 Nisei soldiers
 Knew Japanese and served as interpreters and translators
 The regiment of these soldiers created more than 10,000 volunteers step forward
o 1 in 5 were selected
 The Nisei 442nd heroically fought in France and Italy
Jews and second-generation European immigrants
 Military action described as:
 An “Americanizing” experience
Indian Peoples
 Left reservation for the first time
 25,000 serving in the armed forces
 Navajo “code talkers”
 They used a special code to transmit information among military units
 They learned English
Homosexuals
 Despite being barred from the military, some slipped through the screening
 Emotional pressure during wartime
 Created fear of death
 Encouraged close friendships
 Homosexuals found more room in the military than in civilian life
 Men often danced with one another (this would be subject to ridicule or arrest in the civilian
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world)
 “The war is a tragedy to my mind and soul, but to my physical being, it’s a memorable experience.”
o The war created a memorable experience to all soldiers that served in WWII
 Twenty-Seven Solider (1944)
 Film created for the troops by the government
 It sowed Allied soldiers or several nationalities working together
The Medical Corps
o Death and Injury chances
 There was a small chance of being killed in combat during WWII
 1 in 50 were killed
 175,000 were killed in action
 Risk of injury was higher
 949,000 causalities, including 175,000 killed in action
o European Theatre
 Produced most causalities
o Pacific Theatre
 Illnesses and artillery fire were the concerns for death in this region
 Soldier fought in hot, humid jungles
 Illnesses included malaria, typhus, diarrhea, or dengue fever
 The 25th Infantry Division
 Landed in Guadalcanal in 1943
 Malaria-carrying mosquitoes terrorized more than Japanese forces
o “Battle Fatigue”
 Prolonged stress of combat
 More than 1 million soldiers suffered debilitating psychiatric symptoms
 Soldier discharges for neuropsychiatric reasons was 2.5 times greater than in previous wars
 France
 Men spent up to 200 days in combat
o Self-inflicting injuries were popular in order to be sent home
 Private Eddie Slovik
 Fled the battlefront
 Tried and executed for desertion
o First such execution since the Civil War
 In 1944, 8 months in combat was the maximum
 Rotational system used to relieve exhausted soldiers
o Medical personnel
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 All soldiers received first aid training
 Doctors
 They worked in makeshift tent hospitals
 They advanced surgical techniques
o With help of “new wonder” drugs such as penicillin
 Saved many lives of wounded soldiers
o More than 85% survived emergency surgery on the fields
o Less than 4% died from their injuries after medical care
o Success of treatment came from the use of blood plasma
 Reduced shock from severe bleeding
o Red Cross Blood Bank
 Formed four years before war
 By 1945, they collected about 13 million units of blood which was converted to
dried plasma
 Surgeons were considered heroes of the battlefront
 Between 30 to 40 medics were assigned to each infantry battalion
 Nurses
 In military hospitals, supplied care to recovering soldiers
 Army Nurse Corps
o Created in 1901
 It was scarcely a military organization
 Nurses did not get military pay nor rank
o 1944
 To overcome shortage, military ranks were extended to nurses for six months
after the war
 By 1945, 56,000 women were active in the Army Nurse Corps
o Including 500 African American women
o Staffing medical facilities in every theatre
Prisoners of War (POW)
o About 120,000 Americans became POW’s
o Captured by the Germans
 Taken back to camps
 Oflag for officers
 Stalags for enlisted men
 They sat out the remainder of the war
 Russian POWs were starved and murdered
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o Captured in the Pacific theatre
 Worse than abysmal
 20,000 Americans were captured
 Only 40% survived to return home in 1945
 At least 6,000 Americans and Filipinos were:
 Beaten, denied food and water, died on the notorious “Death March”
 “Death March”
 Eight mile walk through the jungles on the Bataan Peninsula in 1942
 Survivors arrived at former U.S. Army base Camp O’ Donnell
o Hundreds died weekly of disease and squalor
 Japanese Army felt scorn for POWs
 Their own soldiers killed themselves before becoming POWs
 The Imperial Army assigned strict and brutal discipline in the POW camps
 Postwar survey from POWs in the Pacific Theatre
 90% reported to have been beaten
o To avenge fellow soldiers captured by other nations, GIs treated Japanese POWs more brutal than enemy
soldiers from Africa an
The World at War
o The World at War
 First year of declared war
 Allies remained on the defensive
 Axis powers were winning
 Allies had a few advantages
 Vast natural resources
 Skilled workforce with sufficient reserves to accelerate the production of weapons and ammo
 The determination of millions of antifascists throughout Europe and Asia
 The capacity of the Soviet Union (now an ally BTW) to endure immense losses
o Soviets Halt Nazi Drive
 Weapons and tactics of WWI and II were different
 WWII was a war of offensive maneuvers punctuated by surprise attacks
o Tanks
o Airplanes
o Combined mobility and concentrated firepower
 Artillery and explosives
 Major improvements in communication systems
o Two-way radio transmission
o Radiotelephony
 Hitler used these methods to grab an early advantage
 Battle of Britain
 The Royal Air Force (Britain) fought the Luftwaffe (Germany) to a standstill and saved
England
 1941
 Hitler tried to invade and conquer the Soviet Union before the US entered the war
 The invasion had to be delayed to support Mussolini
o His weak army had been pushed back in North Africa and Greece
 The attack was late, too late to achieve its goals before the Russian winter
 Burden of war fell to the USSR
 From June to September, Hitler’s forces overran the Red Army
 But the Nazis didn’t count on civilian resistance leading to the rally of the Soviets
o They cut German supply lines and sent all resources to troops in Moscow
 The onset of the severe winter weather =massive counterattack on the Germans. For the first
time, the Nazi war machine suffered a major setback.
 Summer 1942
 Germans headed toward Crimea (rich oil fields of the Caucasus) and attacked Stalingrad but
failed
 February 1943
 The German Sixth Army had been defeated (100,000 Germans surrendered); overpowered by
Soviet Union
 Battle of Kursk
 In retreat, the Germans tried one last desperate attempt to halt the Red Army
 Kursk, Ukraine, July 1943
 The greatest land battle in history
o 2 million troops and 6,000 tanks
 Germans were annihilated, turning the tide of the war
o The Allied Offensive
 Spring 1942
 Germany, Italy, and Japan
o Commanded a territory extending from France to the Pacific Ocean
o Central Europe
o Large Section of the Soviet Union, parts of China, and the Pacific
 Momentum was flagging
 US out produced them
o Sub-sinking destroyers reduced Nazi sub threat
o Landing craft and amphibious vehicles
 Two of the most important innovations of the war
 Still, German forces were a might opponent on the European Continent
 Soviets wanted a Second Front against Germany from the west
 “Desert Fox”
 October 23-24, 1942
 El Alamein in the desert
 British Eighth Army halted a major offensive and destroyed the Italian North African Army
and Germany’s Afrika Korps
 Operation Torch
 The landing of Brits and US troops on the coast of Morocco and Algeria in November 1942
o Largest amphibious military landing to that date
 January 1943
o Roosevelt meets Winston Churchill in Morocco to talk about plans for the war;
unconditional surrender
 May 1943
 Allied control of North Africa with a secure position in the Mediterranean
 Aerial bombing increased pressure on Germany
 B-17 Flying Fortess
o Capable of hitting specific targets and sparing civilian life
o Bombing missions over the Rhineland and the Ruhr successfully took out many
German factories
 The Royal Air Force (British Air Force)
 Determined to break German resistance
o Leveled Hamburg
o Destroyed Dresden (worst air raids)
o 60 other cities
 Weakened German economy and undermined civilian morale
 Trying to defend its cities, the Luftwaffe sacrificed many of its fighter planes
 When the allies finally invaded western Europe, they had air superiority
o The Allied Invasion of Europe
 Summer 1943
 Ally advance on southern Italy
 July 10, Brit/US troops conquered Sicily
o Italians celebrated
 Italy surrendered September 8
 But Hitler occupied northern peninsula and stalled the Allied campaign
 Armed Uprisings against the Nazis spread
 Warsaw had riots during the winter and spring of 1943
 Scattered revolts followed
 Operation Overlord (turns into D-Day)
 A campaign to retake Europe with a decisive counter attack through France
 Began with a pre-invasion air assault that dropped 76,000 tons of bombs on Nazi targets
 Dwight Eisenhower: commander in Europe
 Fake an invasion in Calle
o Inflatable tanks, etc
 D-Day
 June 6, 1944
 175,000 troops and 20,000 vehicles
 Allies storm Omaha Beach, Normandy
 Load up everything we got!
o LCVP
 Landing Craft for Vehicle and Personnel Use
 Boats with no roofs, have ramps, Higgins boats
 Paris
 July 14, 1944
 French Resistance unfurled the French flag on Bastille Day
 General Charles de Gaulle – head of new French government
o Arrived in Paris on August 25 to become president of the reestablished French Republic
 Occupied nation after nation fell to the allied armies
o The High Cost of European Victory
 1944
 Allied commanders searched for a strategy to end the war quickly
o Missed a chance to invade Berlin
o Turned north, opening the Netherlands for Allied armies on their way to Germany’s
industrial heartland
 Battle of the Bulge
 Hitler’s final, desperate effort to reverse the Allied momentum
 Quarter million men at Allied lines in the Belgian forest of the Ardennes
 Drove the allies back 50 miles before they were stopped
o The bloodiest single campaign Americans had been involved in since the battle of
Gettysburg
o Exhausted the German capacity for counterattack
 Christmas Day 1944
 The Germans fell back, retreating into their own territory
 March 1945
 Allies took the Rhine and the Ruhr Valley with its precious industrial resources
 May 8
 German surrender
 Hitler had committed suicide
 Nazi officials were planning their escape routes
 Eastern Front
 200,000 killed
 800,000 wounded
o The War in Asia and the Pacific
 Scattered fighting across a region of the world far larger than all of Europe
 Japan cut supply routes between Burma and China
 Seized
o Philippines
o Hong Kong
o Wake Island
o British Malaya
o Thailand
 China joined the Allies on December 9, 1941 but was still on the defensive
 Nationalist and anticolonial sentiment played into Japanese hands
 Took the occupations with only 200,000 men because Britain/France didn’t want to fight to
defend
 Japanese set up puppet governments in the conquered settlements
 Led to famines and guerilla resistance armies
 6 months after Pearl Harbor
 The US began to regain naval superiority in the central Pacific and halt Japanese expansion
 Battle of the Coral Sea
 May 7/8
 Blocking of Japanese threat to Australia
 Battle of Midway
 Fought over Midway Island
o Strategically vital to US communications and the defense of Hawai’i
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o US intelligence led to the knowledge of the attack
o American planes sank four of Japan’s vital aircraft carriers
o Destroyed hundreds of planes
o Ended Japan’s offensive threat to Hawai’I and the U.S. west coast
Pulled back the offensive perimeter
 Concentration of forces.
US Command
 Southwest
o General Douglas MacArthur
 Central
o Admiral Chester Nimitz
Allied counteroffensive
 Solomon Islands and Papua, near New Guinea
o Stronghold of Guadalcanal
 Victorious in February 1943
o Proved that they could defeat Japanese forces in brutal jungle combat
Island hopping
 U.S. Navy and Marine Corps pushed to capture a series of important atolls from their wellarmed Japanese defenders and open a path to Japan
o Tarawa – November 1943
o 1944 (Within air range of the Jap home islands)
 Guam
 Saipan
 Tinian
o Battle of the Philippine Sea
 June – the Jap fleet suffered a crippling loss
October 1944
 General MacArthur led a force of 250,000 to retake the Philippines
o Battle of Leyte Gulf
 The largest naval battle in history
 Japs lost 18 ships
 US control of the Pacific
o Iwo Jima invasion was successful
Okinawa
 350 miles southwest of the home islands of Japan
 Vital airbases
 The struggle proved even more bloody
 The invasion of the island, which began on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, was the largest
amphibious operation mounted by Americans in the Pacific war
 Kamikaze
o “divine wind”
o Pilots flying suicide missions in planes with a 500-pound bomb and only enough fuel
for a one-way flight
 More Americans died or were wounded in Okinawa than at Normandy
 Post-Euro war
 Allies concentrated on Japan
 The air and sea attacks on the mainland began to take its toll
 US subs reduced the ability of ships to reach Japan with supplies
 Since the taking of Guam, US bombers could reach Tokyo
 US wanted Japan to surrender ASAP so the Red army didn’t take any Japanese territories
 Set up for the last stages of war: the atomic bomb
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The Last Stages of War
o Roosevelt and his advisors focused on military strength rather than plans on peace
o Reconsidered their thoughts after the defeat of Nazi Germany
o Roosevelt wanted to crush the axis powers and establish a system of collective security to prevent another
war world
o Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchhill were known as the “Big Three”
 They met to “hammer out the shape of the postwar world”
o No nations expected to reach a final agreement and they did not anticipate the sudden global events
 Became clear that the only thing holding the Allies together was the mission of destroying the Axis.
The Holocaust
o Americans learned the extend of Hitler’s atrocities during the last stages of the war
 Hitler ordered the systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, other “inferior races,” homosexuals ,
and anyone deemed an enemy of the Reich
 1933-1941
- Nazis murdered as many as 6 million Jews, 250,000 Gypsies, and 60,000 homosexuals
o U.S. government released little information on the Holocaust
 Liberal magazines such as the Nation and small committees of intellectuals tried to call attention to
what was happening in German concentration camps
 Major news media like the New York Times and Time magazine made treated the Nazi genocide as

minor news
 1943- only 43 percent of Americans polled believed that Hitler was systematically murdering
European Jews
o Leaders of the American Jewish Community were better informed than the general population
 Mid 1930’s- petitioning the government to suspend the immigration quotas to allow German Jews to
take refuge in the United States
o Roosevelt and Congress denied their requests
 President maintained that the liberation of the European Jews depended on Allied victory
 brushed off a delegation that presented him with the solid evidence of Nazi genocide
December 1942
 Roosevelt agreed to change government policy
 Treasury Henry Morgenthau gave the president a report on “one of the greatest crimes in history, the
slaughter of the Jewish people in Europe”
- Suggested that it was-Anti-Semitism in the State Department that had stalled the development
of an aggressive plan of action
o Roosevelt issued an executive order creating the War Refugee Board in order to avoid scandal
 American Jews pleased with the president for a military strike against the rail lines
Lead to the extermination camp in Auschwitz, Poland
 The War of Department affirmed that Allied armed forces would not be employed “for the purpose
of rescuing victims of enemy oppression unless such rescues are the direct result of military
operations conducted with the objective of defeating the armed forcesecitver res of the enemy.”
- The government viewed civilian rescue as a diversion from the decisive military operations.
o The extent of the Nazi depravity was finally revealed to Americans when Allied troops invaded Germany
and liberated the death camps
 General Eisenhower found barracks crowded corpses and crematories while touring the Ohrdruf
concentration camp in April 1945
The Yale Conference
o In preparing for the end of the war, Allied leaders began to reconsider their goals
o The Atlantic Charter stated noble objectives for the world after the defeat of fascism
o Roosevelt realized that neither Britain nor the Soviet Union intended to abide by any code of conduct that
compromised its national security or conflicted with its economic interests in other nations or in colonial
territories
o Roosevelt held his last meeting with Churchhill and Stalin at Yalta
 Roosevelt recognized that prospects for postwar peace also depended on compromise
 U.S. and Great Britain objected to the to the Soviet Union’s plan to retain Baltic states and part of
Poland as a buffer zone to protect it against any future German aggression
 Britain planned to reclaim its empire in Asia, and the united states hoped to hold several pacific

islands in order to monitor any military resurgence in Japan
 The delegates also negotiated the terms of membership in the United Nations
o Soviet entry into the Pacific War
 Biggest and most controversial item
 Roosevelt believed it was necessary for a fast Allied victory
 Stalin agreed to declare war against Japan within two or three months of Germany’s surrender
o Roosevelt announced to congress that the Yalta meeting was a great success
 Proof that the wartime alliance remained intact
 Roosevelt concluded that the outcome of conference revealed that the Atlantic Charter had been
nothing more than a “beautiful idea.”
o Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 from a stroke
o Roosevelt had rebounded in 1944 to win a fourth term as president
o In an electoral college victory(432 to 99), he defeated Republican New York governor Thomas E. Dewey
o Surrender of Germany took place on May 8, 1945.
The atomic bomb
o Harry Truman
 Kansas City politician
 Missouri judge
 U.S. state senator
 Lacked diplomatic experience
 Roosevelt’s finesse
o Negotiations at the Potsdam Conference
 Held just outside Berlin from July 17th to August 2, 1945
 Lacked the spirited cooperation characteristic of the wartime meetings of allied leaders that Roosevelt
had attended
o The American, British, and soviet delegations had a huge agenda
 Reparations
 the future of Germany
 the status of other Axis powers such as Italy
o during the Potsdam ,Truman first learned about the success testing of an atomic bomb in New Mexico
o the U.S. had been pushing the Soviet Union to enter the Pacific war as a means to avoid a costly U.S. land
invasion
 Potsdam Truman secured Stalin’s promise to be in war against Japan by August 15
 After Secretary of War Stimson received a cable reading “Babies satisfactorily born” U.S. concluded
that Soviet assistance was no longer needed to bring that war to an end.
o An editorialist wrote in the Japanese Nippon Times, “This is not war, this is not even murder; this is pure
nihilism…a crime against God which strikes at the very basis of moral existence.”
 Several leading religious publications agreed
 The Christian Century interpreted the use of the bomb as a “moral earthquake”
 Albert Einstein observed that the atomic bomb had changed everything except the nature of man
o On August 7, the news media reported the destruction and death the bomb caused in Hiroshima
o Japan surrendered on August 14 after a second bomb destroyed Nagasaki
 Killed another 70, 000 people
o The Allied Insistence on unconditional surrender and the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan
remain 2 of the most controversial aspects of war
 Truman states that he gave the offer no such official estimate exists
 An intelligence document of April 30, 1946, states, “the dropping of the bomb was the pretext seized
upon by all leaders as the reason for ending the war, but [even if the bomb had not been used] the
Japanese would have been capitulated upon the entry of Russia into the war.”
o The use of the nuclear force strengthened the U.S. diplomatic mission
 it intimidated the Soviet Union
 Truman and his advisors knew their atomic monopoly could not last