America in World War II

•Early in the war, Germany, Japan, and Italy have considerable military success. The allies, except for France, which had surrenders in 1940, are fortunate not to be

overwhelmed completely.

•Fearing they will be disloyal, FDR orders the detention of Japanese Americans, a serious violation of basic American civil rights.

•Millions die in the Holocaust, a systematic attempt by the Nazis to destroy those they consider to be inferior—Slavs, the mentally ill, homosexuals, political prisoners, and,

especially Jews.

•The war encourages extensive demographic changes across the country.

•Blacks contribute significantly in WWII despite obstacles.

•Considerable financial resources needed to wage war drive up the national dept. New Deal spending down compared to war-time spending.

•The success of D-Day affords the Allies a bridgehead in France from which they can move inland and ultimately invade Germany itself. With the Soviets counterattacking

from the east, Hitler’s Third Reich is doomed.

•With the war in Europe over, the Allies turn all their attention to defeating Japan. After bloody battles in the Pacific, President Truman orders atomic bombs dropped

on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan soon surrenders.

I. Military Mobilization

A. Declaration of War1. Congress 12/8/41-Japan and 12/11//41-

Germany

2. UN: 1/1/42 pledge to principles of Atlantic Charter

B. Objectives1. Hitler first!

2. Japan 2nd

C. Raising an Army1. Selective Service

a. 72,000 “conscientious obj.”

b. Segregation

2. 15,000,000 enlisted men

3. 216,000 women (WAC, WAVES, SPARs)

4. 1,000,000 African Americans

5. 25,000 Native Americans helped

6. Off o f Scientific Research and Development

a. Manhattan Project

II. Economic Mobilization

A. Government Response1. War Production Board regulated raw

materialsa. Henry Kaiser

2. Office of Price Adm. froze pricesa. rationing

3. War Labor Board maintained worker’s standard of living

4. Smith-Connolly Anti. Act, 1943 prevented strikesa. United Mine Workers

5. National Debta. Although income taxes up, still had to

borrow 3/5’s of the cost of the war

b. Conservatives elected in 1942 wiped out much of New Deal to fight the war

B. Private Sector1. “Rosie the Riveter” (over 5 million

women joined labor force)a. Women increased industrial wages

2. Population shift away from Northeast to Sunbelt states

III. Cultural Mobilization

A. African Americans1. A. Philip Randolph

2. CORE and NAACP

3. Fair Employment Practices Committee

B. Mexican Americans1. Bracero program

2. Zoot Suit riots, 1943

C. Japanese Americans1. Exec. Order 9066 authorized War

Department declare West Cost a “theatre of war”a. 110,000

2. Gen. John DeWitt moved Japanese-Americans to one of 10 locations

3. Korematsu v. U.S. SC upholds internment

D. Native Americans1. Urbanization

2. Navajo Code Talkers

War and Diplomacy Timeline

A. 19421. Loss of Philippines

a. MacArther, “I shall return”

b. Bataan Death March2. Doolittle’s Raid

3. Battle of Coral Sea and Midway in Pacific

4. Battle of Stalingrad-1st major German defeat

B. 19431. Operation Torch led by Eisenhower

2. British win El Alamein

3. Island Hopping in Pacific

4. Allies invade Italy and Italy surrenders

5. Casablanca Conference-FDR and Churchill agree unconditional surrender and invasion of Italy

6. Tehran Conference-1st meeting of Big Three. Agreed to an invasion of Western Europe in 1944.

C. 19441. D-Day at Normandy led by Eisenhower

a. 120,000 Allied troops land 5 beaches and paratroopers

b. Establishes 2nd Front2. Battle of Bulge was last major offensive by Nazis

a. General Patton helps stop.3. Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Pacific

4. FDR defeats Dewey

D. 19451. Yalta Conference-Big Three discuss post-war. Stalin agrees to liberated Europe. Called for creation of UN. Germany divided into 4 zones

2. FDR dies and Truman takes over

3. Germany surrenders, May 7, 1945

4. Atomic Bomb tested, July

5. Potsdam Conference

6. Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9)

7. Japanese Surrender (September 2)

Axis Europe, 1941

Ch. 35 Vocabulary

• Harry Stimson

• A. Philip Randolph

• Douglas MacArthur

• Bernard Montgomery

• George Patton

• Chester Nimitz

• Dwight Eisenhower

• Joseph Stalin

• Chiang Kai-shek

• Thomas Dewey

• Admiral William “Bull” Halsey

• Harry Truman

• Albert Einstein

• Robert Oppenheimer

• War Production Board

• Office of Price Administration

• WAACs

• “Rosie the Riveter”

• Braceros

• Fair Employment Practices Commission

• Casablanca Conference

• Second front

• Teheran Conference

• D-Day

• Battle of the Bulge

• Potsdam Conference

• Manhattan Project