Download AP Outline Notes – 826

AP Outline Notes – 826 – 858
Chapter 36 – America in World War II
Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41 – “a date that will live in infamy” – brought
the U.S. into WWII. The strategy of the U.S. and its allies was to ‘defeat Hitler first’, and
to thus initially fight a defensive war in the Pacific.
A. The Allies Trade Territory for Time
1) America had to retool for war production, and time was of the essence.
a) Reasons –
1) The Fascists and the militarists had a big head-start.
2) Germany might develop a secret weapon – like an atomic
bomb.
3) U.S. had a daunting task of feeding and supplying
munitions to allies in far-away places, and transport its
forces to places as far away as Burma and Britain.
B. The Shock of War
1) WWII started with Hitler invading Poland 9/1/39 – Blitzkrieg
2) 1941 - Hitler violates the non-aggression pact with Stalin, and invades
Soviet Union – helps to unify opposition in U.S. against Hitler
a) WWII, unlike WWI, accelerated the assimilation process in U.S.
b) Virtually no government witch-hunting of minority groups like
happened in WWI, except for Japanese Americans.
1) Internment policy – 110,000 Japanese Americans were
rounded-up and put in camps on West Coast, beginning in
1942.
2) U.S. tried to justify this on basis that Japanese Americans
were security risks, but none of them were ever proven to
be security risks.
3) Japanese American Neisse Regiments were most decorated
in WWII
4) 1944 – Korematsu vs. U.S. – Supreme Court upheld
constitutionality of forced Japanese relocation. – Note:
1988 – Congress gave official apology for internment
program, and paid $20,000 to each camp survivor.
3) 1942 - ‘Dr. New Deal’ replaced by ‘Dr. Win-the-War’, as the need to win
the war was the top priority, and America had become more conservative.
C. Building the War Machine
1) Preparation and production for WWII was what finally pulled the U.S. out
of the Great Depression.
2) Led by War Production Board, American factories engaged in massive
production for WWII.
a) Henry J. Kaiser – “Sir Launchalot” – huge shipbuilder
b) War Production Board stopped manufacture of non-essential
items such as passenger cars.
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c) It set priorities for production - ex: rubber conservation with
reduction of speed limit.
d) Farmers increased production, with less help, better machines,
and better fertilizers.
3) Full employment and scarce consumer goods brought surge of inflation in
1942.
a) Office of Price Administration eventually brought inflation under
control.
b) Rationing held down consumption of critical goods such as meat
and butter.
4) War Labor Board (WLB) imposed ceilings on wage increases
a) Union membership grew during the war, but workers resented
wage caps imposed by government.
b) United mine workers, led by John L. Lewis, struck several times
during WWII.
c) 1943 – Simth Connally Anti-Strike Act – authorized the federal
government to seize and operate industries where strikes shut
down production. It made strikes against government-operated
businesses a criminal offense.
1) Under this act, Washington took over the coalmines, and
briefly the railroads.
2) Work stoppages accounted though for less than one percent
of total working hours of U.S. wartime labor force.
3) On the whole American workers supported the war effort
and went to work to do-so.
5) Manpower and Womanpower –
1) Almost 15 million men and about 216,000 women in noncombat roles) were in the armed services during WWII.
2) Best known of these women were the WAACS (army),
WAVES (navy) and SPARs (Coast Guard).
3) Before U.S. involvement in the war, America started its
first peacetime draft.
4) After Pearl Harbor, the draft took many more young men
than before.
a) certain key categories of agricultural and industrial
workers were exempted from the draft
b) 1942 – U.S. agreement with Mexico brought
braceros – farm workers – from Mexico into U.S. to
harvest fruit and grain crops in the West.
c) Women went to work in factories – “Rosie the
Riveter”, who helped to pave the way for the
modern role of women in the workplace.
d) The great majority of women, who had husbands at
home, with small children, did not go into the
workforce.
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e) At the end of the war, 2/3s women working for the
war effort left the labor force.
f) Women rushed to the suburbs, and began to have
the baby-boom generation (1945-1960).
D. Wartime Migrations
1) FDR, who had called the South the number-one economic problem of
America, focused states of the old Confederacy for many government
defense contracts. This laid the seeds of the Sunbelt.
2) Despite this, about 1.6 million blacks migrated from the South seeking
jobs in war plants in the North and West, and to escape Jim Crow.
a) Tensions over employment, housing, and segregated facilities
boiled over.
b) 1941 - Black leader A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened a huge ‘Negro March on
Washington’, to demand equality of opportunity for blacks in the
armed forces and in war jobs.
1) FDR responded by issuing an executive order forbidding
discrimination in defense industries.
2) FDR also established the Fair Employment Practices
Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance of order
forbidding said discrimination.
3) Blacks were drafted, but they were mostly assigned to
service units, and subject to degradations such as
segregated blood banks and serving in segregated units.
4) ‘Double V’ campaign – fighting for victory abroad and
equality at home – started by black newspaper –
Philadelphia Inquirer.
a) Membership goes up in NAACP, and in 1942,
Congress of Racial Equality formed (CORE.)
b) “Great Migration” accelerates even more after the
War, with the invention of the mechanical cotton
picker in 1944 – its impact rivaled Whitney’s
invention of the cotton gin. It marked the end of the
Southern need for cheap labor.
c) In the 30 years after the war, about 5 million black
tenant farmers and sharecroppers left the south and
went northward in the ‘Great Migration.’
d) By 1970 half of the American black population
lived outside of the South, and cities had become
typically heavily black.
5) Many Native Americans left the reservations during the
war.
a) Thousands of Indians found war employment in the
cities, and thousands also joined the service.
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b) In 1940, more than 90 percent of Indians lived on
reservations.
c) Sixty years later, more than half of them lived
cities, with a large concentration in Southern
California.
d) Comanche Indians in Europe and Navajos in the
Pacific made huge contributions to the U.S. war
effort as ‘code talkers’ – the Germans and the
Japanese could never understand these spoken
languages.
6) 1943- ‘zoot-suit’ riots - Mexicans and Mexican Americans
in L.A. wearing ‘zoot-suits’ were viciously attacked by
American sailors who cruised the streets searching for
victims.
7) 1943 – Rioting breaks-out in Detroit between blacks and
whites – reflective of the tension caused by job
competition, rapid and fast influx of minorities in the cities,
and racism – leaves 25 blacks dead and 9 whites.
E. Maintaining the Home Front
1) Though much of the globe was wrecked during WWII, the U.S. economy
was invigorated by the War. From 1940-1945, U.S. GNP grew by over
$100 billion.
2) Disposable personal income more than doubled during the War.
3) Price controls were able to keep inflation sufficiently reigned-in during the
war.
a) When price controls were lifted in 1946, prices rose 33 percent in
less than two years.
b) The war, more than maybe even the New Deal, signaled the post
1945 era of big government intervention.
c) Government imposed rationing was felt by all.
d) Millions served in the armed forces, and millions worked in the
defense industries, where employers and unions were monitored
by the FEPC and the WLB.
e) Government sponsored health plans, day-care, and housing
projects brought aid to millions.
f) The Office of Scientific Research and Development channeled
several hundred million dollars into university-based scientific
research – setting a precedent for partnership between the
government and universities that provided the basis for U.S.
technological and economic leadership in the post WWII era.
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g) War spending finally brought full employment to the U.S., and
thus it was war, not the New Deal that brought the U.S. out of the
Depression. The post-war economy would depend dangerously
on military spending, thus many view 1941-1945 as the
beginning of the ‘warfare-welfare state.”
h) WWII was incredibly expensive - $330 billion.
i) Sale of government “E” bonds, and income taxes were how the
U.S. paid for the war.
j) The national debt increased about five-fold – about $49 billion in
1941 to $259 billion in 1945.
F. The Rising Sun in the Pacific
1) Japan realized that it would have to win quickly, or suffer a slow loss.
2) Simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the period of time
directly following, the Japanese attacked
a) Guam
b) Wake
c) Philippines
d) Hong Kong
e) Malaya (with its important supplies of rubber and tin)
3) Burma Road – Over a rough route in the snake-infested jungles of Burma,
(where the U.S. had sent some aid to Chiang Kai-shek, who was resisting
the Japanese invaders into China) Japanese soldiers built Burma Road,
which cut off American access.
a) American fliers flew a handful of war supplies to Chiang ‘over
the hump’ of the huge Himalayan mountains from the IndiaBurma theater.
4) The Japanese moved southward against the oil-rich Dutch East Indies.
a) These islands fell quickly after the combined British, Dutch,
Australian, and American air and naval forces had been defeated
by the Japanese.
b) Japanese expansion was slowed in the Philippines.
1) After the Japanese landed in the Philippines, Gen. Douglas
MacArthur, the American commander, withdrew with his
troops to Bataan.
2) American forces supported by a larger Filipino force, heldoff huge Japanese attacks until, without supplies or
reinforcements, they were forced to surrender in April of
1942.
3) Before the surrender, MacArthur was ordered to secretly
depart to Australia, and from there lead the resistance to
Japan.
4) As he left, he said – “I shall return”
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5) After his army had surrendered, they were treated with
extreme cruelty in the horrible “Bataan Death March” to
POW camps.
6) The island fortress of Corregidor in Manila harbor,
surrendered in May 1942, leaving the Japanese in complete
control of the Philippines.
G. Midway – the turning point of the War in the Pacific
1) The Japanese continued to push southward, invading New Guinea, and
landing on the Solomon Islands – in both cases putting Australia in
jeopardy.
2) The Japanese were finally turned back at the Battle of the Coral Sea – May
1942.
a) This was the first time in history that the fighting was done by
carrier-based aircraft – neither fleet saw the other or fired a shot
directly at the other.
3) Japan next sought to seize Midway Island, about 1,000 miles northwest of
Honolulu. From Midway, the Japanese could attack Pearl Harbor
a) June 3-6 – 1942, American Admiral Chester W. Nimitz directed
a carrier strategy against the invading Japanese fleet.
b) The fighting was done entirely by planes.
c) The U.S. won the battle, as the Japanese withdrew after losing
four crucial aircraft carriers, several planes, and many of Japan’s
best pilots. .
d) MIDWAY WAS THE TURNING POINT OF WWII IN THE
PACIFIC.
e) In there expansion eastward though, the Japanese took islands of
Kiska and Attu in the Aleutian archipelago off Alaska – Japan
had overextended itself.
H. America Leapfrogging toward Tokyo
1) After Midway, the U.S. began its campaign of strategic Island hopping –
taking strategic islands in the direction of Japan, to establish refueling
stations for ships and submarines, and to build airfields for our planes, all
in preparation for attacking Japan, and for bombing some of the enemy
bases that the U.S. had bypassed. In the process, the Americans would
bypass many islands that the Japanese held and heavily fortified.
a) Guadalcanal – (in the Solomons) – the first in the island hopping
campaign, and strategically important for assuring supplies to
Australia. U.S. wins battle in February, 1943. The casualty ratio
at Guadalcanal – Japanese to Americans – at more than 10 to 1 in
favor of the Americans, would persist throughout the war.
b) MacArthur in command of American forces protecting Australia,
hung on to the southeastern tip of New Guinea – the last buffer to
Australia.
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c) The American navy turned the tide, as it inflicted deadly blows
to Japanese supply ships and troop carriers.
d) August, 1944 – U.S. and MacArthur achieve victory in New
Guinea – the first step in ‘return’ing to the Philippines.
e) Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy, with marines and army divisions was
doing tough fighting and ‘leapfrogging’ the Japanese-held
islands in the Pacific.
f) Admiral Nimitz skillfully coordinated naval, air, and ground
units in the island hopping campaign.
g) May and August of 1943 – Attu and Kiska were easily retaken
by U.S. in Aleutians.
h) November, 1943 – ‘bloody Tarawa’ and Makin, both in Gilbert
Islands, fell to the U.S. after bitter suicidal resistance.
i) Jan and Feb 1944, U.S. takes over key posts on Marshall Islands.
j) U.S. forces then focused on the valuable Mariana Islands,
including America’s Guam.
1) From bases in the Marianas, the U.S. would launch roundtrip bombing raids on the Japanese home islands with the
new B-29 superbombers.
2) June 19, 1944 – the ‘Great Marianas Turkey Shoot’ –
combination of the new American ‘Hellcat’ fighter plane
and the new antiaircraft proximity fuse technology,
destroyed about 250 Japanese aircraft, while only 29
American planes were lost.
3) Battle of the Philippine Sea – the following day (6/20) –
U.S. navy sank several carriers, and the Japanese recovered
from the heavy loss of planes, pilots, and ships.
4) With fanatical resistance finally failing, surviving Japanese
soldiers and islanders took part in a mass suicide leap from
‘Suicide Cliff’ on Saipan.
a) The major islands of the Marianas fell to the U.S. in
July and August of 1944.
b) With virtually unsinkable aircraft carriers at this
point, the U.S. began virtual round-the-clock
bombing of Japan in Nov, 1944.
I. The Allies Stop Hitler
1) Like in the Pacific, the war for America in the Atlantic would be fraught
with several early setbacks. It would not be until the spring of 1943 that
the Allies clearly had the upper hand against the U-boats.
a) Hitler started the war with a powerful fleet of ultramodern
submarines, which operated in ‘wolf packs’ with devastating
effect, particularly in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the
Gulf of Mexico.
b) During a 10-month period in 1942, more than 500 merchant
ships were reported lost.
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c) Slowly, the U.S. achieved the upper-hand, using old techniques
such as escorting convoys of merchant vessels and dropping
depth charges from destroyers, and also using new ones like air
patrol, the newly invented radar, and the bombing of submarine
bases. Merchant seamen would say ‘Keep ‘Em Sailing’ – many
of these seamen perished as unsung heroes of the war.
d) British code-breakers who had cracked the ‘Enigma’ codes of the
Germans, could now pinpoint locations of U-Boats in the North
Atlantic.
e) If the Allies had not won the Battle of the Atlantic, Britain would
have been lost.
2) Turing point of land-air war against Hitler – late 1942 –
a) May, 1942 – British launch a thousand-plane raid on Cologne,
Germany.
b) August, 1942 – American air force joins British RAF, bombing
German cities.
c) Turning point in North Africa - the “Desert Fox” – Marshall
Irwin Rommel and his German tank forces had driven eastward
into Egypt, and were threatening the Suez Canal.
1) Late October, 1942 - British General Bernard Montgomery
turned Rommel back at the Battle of El Alamein, and with
the aid of American-supplied Sherman tanks, quickly drove
the Germans back to Tunisia.
d) September, 1942 – The Soviets stall the German conquest of the
Soviet Union at Stalingrad.
1) With horribly cold winter conditions for which Hitler’s
troops were unprepared, more than 20 German divisions
were defeated or surrendered – Stalingrad was the turning
point of WWII in Europe.
2) Nov, 1942 – Russians unleash a counter-offensive, which
was never seriously turned back.
J. A Second Front from North Africa to Rome
1) By the end of WWII, about 20 million Soviets had been killed, and a huge
swath of their nation had been laid to waste.
2) In 1942, there had already been millions of soldiers and civilians who had
been killed in the war – but British and American losses combined were
only in the thousands.
3) The Soviets obviously wanted a western front to be opened to take some
of the pressure off the Soviet Union.
4) FDR wanted to open a western front in 1942 or 1943, fearful that the
Soviets would not be able to stand up to the Germans, and that the Soviets
would make a separate piece with Germany.
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5) Churchill and Britain opposed the opening of a western front, as they
clearly remembered the horrific losses that they had sustained in WWI.
a) Britain preferred to attack the ‘soft underbelly’ of Europe, in the
Mediterranean area.
b) The U.S. reluctantly agreed to postpone the huge invasion of
Europe.
c) The Compromise – an assault on French-held North Africa to
create a second front.
d) November 1942 – Dwight D. Eisenhower leads a joint Allied
(U.S., British, and French) secret attack, with about 850 ships, on
Algiers in North Africa. After brutal fighting, the German force
surrendered in May 1943, in Tunisia.
6) Jan, 1943 – Casablanca – FDR and Churchill held a conference, and agree
to
a) put more pressure on in the Pacific
b) invade Sicily
c) put more pressure on Italy
d) insist on ‘unconditional surrender’ of the enemy (would become
a very controversial decision, because many said it would cause a
‘bunker’ mentality among the enemy.)
7) With victory in North Africa, Allied forces now turned their focus on
Sicily, and the ‘soft underbelly’ of Europe.
a) August, 1943 – Sicily falls to Allies
b) Shortly before Sicily fell, Mussolini was deposed in Italy, and
Italy surrendered unconditionally in Sept 1943.
c) German troops stubbornly resisted Allied advances in Italy, and
attacked Italian troops, because ‘turncoat’ Italy had declared war
against Germany in October, 1943
d) For several months, the Germans halted the Allied advance in
Italy, focusing their defense at Monte Cassino.
e) The Allies were ultimately successful in their assault on the
beachhead at Anzio, and then took Rome on June 4, 1944.
f) May 2, 1945 – several hundred thousand Axis troops
surrendered.
g) The Italian second front drew some German troops and
equipment away from the Soviet and French fronts (D-Day was
June 6, 1944 – the Allied invasion of Europe at France.) But, it
also may have delayed by several months, D-Day, which gave
the Soviets more of a chance to advance into Eastern Europe – a
circumstance that would have profound effect on Post WWII
Europe.
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K. D-Day – June 6, 1944 –
1) Stalin was displeased with FDR and Churchill for failing to open a
western front in Europe. FDR and Churchill had promised Stalin that
there would be a western front opened up.
a) 1943 – Tehran Conference – Churchill, Stalin, and FDR met at
Tehran, Iran, and agreed to the following:
1) Broad strategy, including the launching of Soviet attacks on
Germany from the east simultaneously with Allied attacks
from the west.
2) The Allied attack to open up the western front would be
accomplished by a cross-English Channel invasion of
France.
3) Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was named commander of the
Allied invasion.
4) Normandy, France was to be the location of the invasion.
5) June 6, 1944 – D-Day – the invasion proceeded, with the
Germans providing heavy resistance, though they believed
that the invasion would take more northerly.
2) The Allied beachhead, though hard to establish, gradually was enlarged,
consolidated, and reinforced.
3) American armored divisions under the brilliant command of Gen. George
S. ‘Blood ‘n’ guts’ Patton were instrumental in the re-conquering of
France.
4) August 1944 - An American-French force landed on southern coast of
France, and pushed northward. With the help of the French
‘underground’, Paris was liberated.
5) Allied forces now proceeded onward toward Germany.
L. FDR REELECTED TO A FOURTH TERM – 1944
1) The Democrats re-nominated FDR, and nominated a new running mate
(dumping Henry A. Wallace) for him – Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman
– little known, but had recently made a name for himself as an effective
chairman of a Senate committee examining wasteful war expenditures.
2) The Republicans nominated young dapper, liberal New York Governor
Thomas E. Dewey, a former prosecutor in NY City. His running mate was
Sen. John W. Bricker of OH, an isolationist.
a) Dewey’s platform called for continued prosecution of the War,
and creation of a new international organization to keep world
peace.
3) FDR defeats Dewey – with the war going well, FDR easily won a fourth
term.
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M. The End of Hitler.
1) With Allied bombs raining on German cities, the Soviets coming from the
east and the Allies coming from the West, Hitler gambled everything on
one last offensive.
a) Dec 16, 1944 – Battle of the Bulge - Hitler unleashes a secret
force that he has been assembling, against weak American lines
in the Ardennes Forest.
b) Hitler’s objective was to capture the Belgian port of Antwerp – a
key part of the Allied supply system.
c) Surprised, the Americans were driven back, creating a large
‘bulge’ in the Allied line.
d) 101st Airborne Division halted the 10-day penetration of the
Allied line, at Bastogne.
1) The U.S. commander, Brig. Gen. A.C. McAuliffe, defiantly
responded to a German demand for surrender with simply
stating “Nuts.”
2) March, 1945 – American troops reach Germany’s Rhine River, where, by
a stroke of luck, they located one strategic bridge not blown-up.
a) Eisenhower’s troops reached the Elbe River in April, 1945.
b) There, American and Soviet troops clasped hands amidst cries of
“Ameriikanskie tovarishchi” (American comrades).
c) Americans found the horrible concentration camps where the
Nazis had implemented Hitler’s ‘final solution’ – the mass
murder of
1) ‘undesirables’
2) Jews (approximately 6 million)
3) homosexuals
4) persons with disabilities
5) gypsies
6) political dissidents
d) The U.S. government had known about Hitler’s genocide
program – though not to the full extent of same - against the
Jews but had been grievously slow to respond.
1) FDR had shut America’s door to huge numbers of Jewish
refugees, as did several other nations.
c) The Soviets, coming form the east, reached Berlin in April,
1945, while pillaging and raping, they captured the bombed-out
city.
d) Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker on April 30,
1945.
e) April 12, 1945 – FDR dies of a massive stroke.
f) May 7, 1945 – the remains of the German government
surrendered unconditionally. May 8 – V-E Day (Victory in
Europe) was wildly celebrated in Allied nations.
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N. Japan Finally Succumbs
1) By war’s end, American submarines in the Pacific – “the silent service” –
sank about half of the Japanese merchant marine.
2) Giant bomber attacks, launched from Saipan and other captured Mariana
islands, were destroying Japanese cities, converting them into burned-out
rubble.
a) March 9th and 10th, 1945 - huge American fire-bomb raid on
Tokyo – approximately 83,000 people were killed.
3) Meanwhile, Gen. MacArthur was proceeding northwest for the
Philippines, after he finished his conquest of New Guinea.
a) Oct 20, 1944 – MacArthur ‘return’s to the Philippines.
b) Oct 23-26, 1944 – Battle of Leyte Gulf - Japan’s navy made one
last-ditch effort to stop MacArthur by wiping out his troop
transports and supply ships.
1) Battle was fought on the sea and in the air, and was actually
three battles.
2) The Americans won each of them.
3) Japan was no longer a naval power – it had lost about 60
ships in the greatest naval battle of all time.
c) Jan 1945 - after Leyte Gulf, MacArthur landed on Luzon, the
main Philippine island.
1) Manila was his main objective, which he would accomplish
in March.
2) July, 1945 – MacArthur completes the conquest of the
Philippines, but not without terribly bloody fighting.
d) March, 1945 – Americans capture Iwo Jima – a tiny island
needed as a refuge for damaged American bombers returning
from raids on Japan.
1) Like Okinawa to follow, the Japanese put up some of their
stiffest resistance, fighting to the death, choosing suicide
rather than shameful surrender.
2) Over 4,000 Americans were killed in the 25-day assault on
Iwo Jima.
3) In what might be the most famous photograph of WWII,
U.S. marines hoisted the flag atop Mount Suribachi)
e) April – June, 1945 - Okinawa – well defended (as was Iwo
Jima,) needed by U.S. for closer bases for certain attacks on
Japan.
1) In horribly bloody fighting (50,000 American casualties,
and even more Japanese) U.S. finally captures Okinawa.
2) The U.S. navy sustained severe damage covering the U.S.
troops in the assault on Okinawa.
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a) Japanese suicide pilots (‘kamikazes’), committing
hara-kiri for their emperor-god, crashed their planes
into the decks and coning towers of the U.S. ships.
b) Kamikazes sank more than 30 ships, and badly
damaged many more.
O. The Atomic Bombs
1) An all-out invasion of Japan was being planned by the U.S.
a) It was estimated that this invasion would cost about one million
American lives, and even more Japanese, as the emperor had
instructed the citizens of Japan to fight when the invasion came.
b) Japan, recognizing imminent defeat, secretly sent four peace
feelers to the Soviet Union, which had not entered the Pacific
war.
1) Because the U.S. had broken the Japanese codes, it knew
about these peace overtures.
2) Japan outwardly expressed no desire to surrender
unconditionally.
3) July, 1945 – Potsdam Conference, held in a suburb of
Berlin – Truman met with Stalin and British leaders, and
issued an ultimatum to Japan – surrender or be destroyed.
a) Early in 1940, FDR was convinced by American
and exiled scientists – most notably Albert Einstein
– to proceed with research to develop an atomic
bomb. This top-secret project to develop an atomic
weapon would become known as the Manhattan
Project.
b) July, 1945 – U.S. detonated the first atomic
explosion in the New Mexico desert.
c) August 6, 1945 – U.S. dropped atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, leaving 70,000 killed instantly, and
another 60,000 or more to die from radiation and
burns.
d) August 8, 1945 – Stalin enters the war against
Japan.
e) Soviet armies roll over Japanese defenses at
Manchuria and Korea in six days.
f) August 9, 1945 – U.S. drops second atomic bomb –
this time on the city of Nagasaki – this time about
80,000 killed or missing.
g) August 10, 1945 – Japan asks for peace, on the
condition that Hirohito, the emperor, be allowed
remain on the ancestral throne as a nominal
emperor.
h) August 14, 1945 – the U.S. accepts the peace offer
of Japan.
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2) September 2, 1945 – MacArthur conducts the official surrender
ceremonies aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. At the same
time, wild celebration of V-J Day – Victory in Japan Day – was taking
place.
P. The Allied Victory
1) U.S. forces suffered a million casualties during WWI, about 1/3rd of which
were deaths.
2) The Soviets suffered about 20 million killed.
3) The U.S. itself had sustained essentially no damage, while much of the
rest of the world lay in ruins.
4) America was more ready for WWII when it entered it than it had been for
other wars.
a) The U.S. had tremendous military leadership –
1) Eisenhower
2) MacArthur
3) Chief of Staff George Marshall
4) Admirals like Nimitz and Spruance
5) Great leaders and strategists as heads of state – FDR and Churchill, were
critically important.
6) American industrial might and mass production were a critical part of
American success in the War.
7) Though an unusual amount of control was exercised over the American
individual during the war, the liberties of Americans were not seriously
impaired.