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WWII Overview
Balancing Isolationism and Intervention:
Follow America’s involvement in World War I, many questioned what the costly victory had
actually achieved. These feelings help explain why the U.S. Senate was unwilling for America to join
the League of Nations. Many feared that the League what drag America into future wars.
The desire to avoid involvement in foreign wars was known as isolationism. This view was
shared by both liberals and conservatives in the 1930’s. FDR was not an isolationist. After WWI, he
supported American entry into the League of Nations. During the early years of presidency however,
FDR rarely focused on foreign policy matters. Nearly all of the attention of his administration went to
New Deal programs.
In 1935, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which was meant to prevent the nation from
being drawn into a war as it had been during WWI. Despite the desire to remain neutral, events in
Europe and Asia were taking an alarming turn.
FDR was disturbed by Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia. As a result, he halted arms sales to both
nations. He urged businesses to voluntarily end oil shipments to Italy, few listened. After Japan
invaded China in 1937, FDR spoke out. He compared the spread of war to the spread of disease. Such
disease, he said, must be stopped by quarantine. FDR urged the U.S. to work with other peace loving
nations to prevent the spread of war. This was known as the Quarantine Speech. This speech upset
many isolationists.
Hitler’s aggressive actions strengthened FDR’s position. Isolationist cheered the appeasement
of Hitler in the Sudetenland. When Hitler then invaded Poland, FDR got Congress to change the
nation’s neutrality laws. The new policy, known as cash and carry, allowed countries at war to buy
American goods as long as they paid cash and picked up their goods at American ports.
Roosevelt hoped the cash and carry policy would aid the Allies in slowing the advances of
Germany. German victories in 1940 convinced FDR that more needed to be done. FDR urged a
policy of “all aid short of war”. The president agreed to trade fifty aging American Warships for eight
British military bases.
As Europe was erupting into war, Roosevelt decided to seek an unprecedented third term as
president in 1940. The nation decided to stick with FDR in the time of crises, and he won another
term.
Roosevelt continued to promote aid for the Allies. He wanted to make American the “arsenal
for democracy”. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act. This allowed the nation to send weapons to
Great Britain regardless of its ability to pay.
In 1941, FDR secretly met with British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. The two agreed to
the Atlantic Charter, which stated the two nations shared the same goals of opposing Hitler and his
allies.
The U.S. was looking more and more like a nation at war. Armed conflict was taking place on
the open seas. As the U.S. tried to deliver supplies to Britain, German U-Boats tried to stop them. In
1941 German U-Boats sank two American destroyers, killing 111 sailors.
America enters the war:
The United States was the biggest obstacle to Japanese conquest in the Pacific. The United
States had a large navy and bases in the Philippines and Hawaii. Japanese leaders developed a plan for
a surprise attack on the naval base of Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, which was home
to the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet. On Dec. 7, 1941, a Japanese strike force approached Pearl Harbor
undetected. As the sun rose, warplanes from Japanese aircraft carriers began a surprise attack at Pearl
Harbor. Japanese warplanes bombed and torpedoed the American fleet where it sat. All eight battle
ships suffered damage, four were sunk. Nearly 200 American aircraft were destroyed and 2,400
Americans were killed. The Japanese lost fewer than 30 aircraft and a handful of submarines. On
Dec. 8, 1941 Congress declared war with Japan. Four days later, Germany and Italy declared war on
the U.S.
Rosie the Riveter
The Home Front:
American life changed after the United States
entered into the war. Millions of men served in the armed
forces. For the first time, women were allowed to join the
armed forces. They did many types of military jobs, but
did not fight directly in battle. Because many men were
away fighting the war, women worked in factories building
tanks, planes and battleships. Rosie the Riveter became
the symbol of the millions of women, who entered the
workforce during WWII,
World War II helped end the Great Depression.
The war created millions of jobs in the defense industries.
Americans had to produce enormous amounts of weapons
and war equipment for Allied forces. By 1945, Americans
had produced 15 million guns and 300,000 aircraft.
Because the U.S. supplied the Allied armies with
food and equipment, many goods became scarce for the
American public. The government rationed, or limited,
scarce certain items such as soap, shoes, gasoline, meat,
sugar, and butter using coupon books. Once people used
up their coupons, they could not buy any more of the
rationed item. Recycling of tin, rubber and other goods was also important.
Japanese Internment Camps:
Prejudice toward Japanese Americans increased after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942,
President Roosevelt ordered that all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast, about 112,000
people, move to internment camps. About two-thirds of these people were American citizens. None
had ever shown disloyalty to the nation. In some cases family members were separated and put in
different camps. During the entire war only ten people were convicted of spying for Japan, and none of
these were Japanese. Life in the camps was hard. Internees had only been allowed to bring with then a
few possessions. In many cases they had been given just 48 hours to evacuate their homes. They were
housed in barracks and had to use communal areas for washing, laundry and eating. A high-barbed
wire fence and armed guards surrounded each camp.
In December 1944, Public Proclamation Number
21, which became effective in January 1945, allowed internees to return to their homes. Internment
affected all those involved. Some saw the camps as concentration camps and a violation of the writ of
Habeas Corpus, others though, saw internment as a necessary result of Pearl Harbor. At the end of the
war some Japanese remained in the US and rebuilt their lives, others though were unforgiving and
returned to Japan. About 33,000 Japanese-Americans fought for the United States. These soldiers
were known as Nisei, and had excellent combat records and showed a great deal of bravery.
Fighting in Africa and Europe:
After the U.S. entered the war, the Allies agreed on a strategy, or plan. First they would free
North Africa from Italy and Germany. Next, they would attack the southern part of Europe. Then they
would invade and free France. Finally, they would invade Germany.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower became the leader of the Allied troops. He led the battles in
North Africa. In May 1943, the Axis army in North Africa surrendered.
From Africa the Allied
troops invaded Italy. The Italian people were tired of war. They forced Mussolini to resign and later
killed him. In September of 1943, the Italian government surrendered. German soldiers in Italy did not
surrender until May 1945.
While the Allies fought in Africa and Italy, British and American planes bombed Germany.
Many factories and railroads were destroyed in Germany, and many civilians were killed in the
bombing. The Soviets continued to fight the Nazi’s in the Soviet Union. The turning point of the war
in the Soviet Union was the battle of Stalingrad in February of 1943. The Germans repeatedly failed
to capture the city of Stalingrad. After German defeat at Stalingrad, the Soviets slowly pushed the
German army out of the Soviet Union.
Victory in Europe:
The Allies made plans to cross the English Channel and invade France. D-Day, the day of the
invasion was June 6, 1944. Early that morning about 200,000 allied soldiers and about 4,600 ships
landed in Normandy, a region in Northern France. It was the largest invasion by sea in world history.
Within a month, 1 million soldiers arrived in France.
After D-Day, Hitler had to send soldiers to fight on three fronts; in the Soviet Union, in Italy
and in France. The Allies freed Paris on August 24, 1944. The Soviets drove the German Army out of
Poland, Romania and Hungary. At the end of 1944, the Soviet Union controlled most of Eastern
Europe.
In December 1944 the Germans started the Battle of the Bulge, the last major offensive against
the Allies. The battle took place in Belgium and Luxembourg. In January 1945, the Allies won the
battle.
In February 1945, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met at Yalta in the Soviet Union. They
agreed that Great Britain, France, the U.S. and the Soviet Union would each control part of Germany
after the war. They also planned a peace keeping organization called the United Nations. This was the
last meeting between the three leaders. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Harry S. Truman became
President.
The Soviets captured the city of Berlin in April, 1945. On April 30, 1945 Hitler committed
suicide. On May 8, 1945 Germany surrendered. As Allied troops defeated the Germans, prisoners in
the concentration camps were liberated, or set free. People around the world learned that the Nazis
had killed 6 million Jews and several million other people in the Holocaust.
Fighting in Asia and the Pacific:
While the Allies were fighting in Europe, they were also fighting with Japan. Admiral Chester
W. Nimitz became the commander of the Navy in the Pacific. Nimitz worked with General Douglas
MacArthur, the commander of the army in the Pacific.
After attacking Pearl Harbor, Japan conquered the Philippines. In 1942, Roosevelt ordered
MacArthur to leave the Islands. MacArthur promised the people of the Philippines, “I shall return”.
By 1942, the Japanese had conquered Eastern China, Guam, the Philippines, Southeast Asia and the
islands near Australia.
In June 1942, the Battle of Midway became the turning point of the war in the Pacific. The
Japanese attacked the Midway Islands, near Hawaii. The Allies sank four Japanese aircraft carriers
while winning the battle. The American victory gave the Allies control of the central Pacific.
After the battle of Midway the Allies began a strategy of “island hopping”. They planned to
capture important islands that would bring them close enough to invade Japan.
After
capturing Guan and other Pacific islands, General MacArthur returned to the Philippines. While
MacArthur fought on land, Admiral Nimitz used the navy to destroy Japan’s fleet of ships in the sea
around the Philippines. By February 1945 Americans had one control of the Philippine capital.
Americans won control of the island of Iwo Jima in February of 1945, and of the island of
Okinawa in June of 1945. They planned to use Iwo Jima and Okinawa as bases to invade Japan and
force its surrender.
The End of the War:
By 1945 the Japanese had lost most of their Asian empire. Most of their navy had been
destroyed. American planes bombed Japanese cities day and night. Japan refused to surrender.
American military leaders told President Truman that one million Americans soldiers would
probably be killed if the Allies had to invade and conquer Japan. Instead of invading Japan, Truman
decided to use a new power to defeat Japan. Truman warned Japan to surrender or its cities would
be destroyed. Japan still refused and on August 6, 1945 an American plane dropped an atomic
bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The atomic bomb was 2,000 times more powerful than an ordinary
bomb. In seconds, 75,000 Japanese people were killed and thousands of more were injured. Japan
still refused to surrender. On August 9, 1945, Americans dropped a second atomic bomb on the
Japanese city of Nagasaki. The bomb killed 40,000 people. Japan’s emperor told Japans military
leaders to surrender. Japan finally surrendered on September 2, 1945, ending World War II.
Results of World War II:
World War II caused terrible destruction. Much of Europe,
Japan, China, North Africa and the Soviet Union had to be rebuilt.
About 50 million people died as a result of the war. Many of these
people were soldiers, but the majority was civilians. About
300,000 American soldiers died during the war.
After the war, some Nazi leaders went on trial in
Nuremburg Germany for their crimes during the Holocaust. Some
were executed for their crimes, others went to prison.
The bombing of Hiroshima started the atomic age. Atomic
bombs could now be used to destroy cities in seconds. People
became afraid that an atomic war could end civilization. As a
result, the United States and other nations of the world created the
United Nations. The goal of this organization was to keep peace
among the world’s nations.
Directions: Answer the following on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Describe the series of events that led America from being an isolationist nation to an active
participant in the war.
2. How did World War II affect life on the Home Front?
3. Was the internment of Japanese citizens justified? Explain.
4. Explain the Allies strategies for the European and Pacific Fronts.
5. What were turning points of the war on the European and Pacific Fronts?
6. Do you think that Truman was justified in his use of the atomic bomb? Explain.