The United States in

World War IICPUSH Chapter 25

Americans joined the war effort• 5 million volunteers

• 10 million Additional draftees

• WAACS

• WAVES

• Recruiting of• Minorities

• Japanese

• Immigrants

WomenWomen’’s Army Air s Army Air Corps PilotsCorps Pilots

WomenWomen’’s Army Air s Army Air Corps PilotsCorps Pilots

Join the WomenJoin the Women’’s s Army Corps Army Corps

(WACs)(WACs)

Join the WomenJoin the Women’’s s Army Corps Army Corps

(WACs)(WACs)

Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)

Ford’s Willow Run Factory Ford made one B-24 bomber every hour

Henry Kaiser’s West Coast ShipyardsThe Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic,

in part, because the USA produced ships faster than German u-boats could

sink them

Kaiser standardized battleship building & reduced the time it took to make a

battleship from 355 days to 14 days

Labor’s contribution

• By 1944 18 million laborers worked to support the war• 6 million of those were women• 2 million minority workers

• A. Phillip Randolph – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters• Threatened a march on Washington if African

American workers didn’t get to participate fully in war work – called off the march when Roosevelt gave in

Mobilization of Scientists

• Office of Scientific Research & Development• Anti-lice pesticides

• Penicillan

• Atomic bomb

• Manhattan Project

Federal Government Takes Control

• OPA (Office of Price Administration)• Fought inflation by

freezing prices• Set up rationing

• Congress raised income tax rates

• WPB (War Production Board)• Converted companies to

wartime production• Organized national drives

for tin, rubber, paper, etc.

War Rations

Battle of the Atlantic

• Submarine attacks on shipping

• Wolf Packs

• January – April 87 American ships lost

• Convoy

• By 1943 – 140 ships being produced per month

• Shipping was much safer by 1943

Battle of Stalingrad

• August 1942-January 1943

• 1,100,000 Russians died

• 800,000 Germans and others died• 6000 returned

• Turning point in the European front

North Africa

• Operation Torch

Italian Campaign

Segregated Units

• 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee airmen)

• Mexican Americans (141st regiment)

• Japanese Americans (100th batallion)

D-Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCLJhxfj608

The War in the Pacific theater

Bataan Death March

• BATAAN DEATH MARCH

The Bataan Death March began on April 10, 1942, when the Japanese assembled about 78,000 prisoners (12,000 U.S. and 66,000 Filipino). They began marching up the east coast of Bataan. Although they didn't know it, their destination was Camp O'Donnell, north of the peninsula. 

The men, already desperately weakened by hunger and disease, suffered unspeakably during the March. Regardless of their condition, POWs who could not continue or keep up with the pace were summarily executed. Even stopping to relieve oneself could bring death, so many chose to continue walking while relieving themselves. 

Some of the guards made a sport of hurting or killing the POWs. The Marchers were beaten with rifle butts, shot or bayoneted without reason. Most of the POWs got rid of their helmets because some by Japanese soldiers on passing trucks hit them with rifle butts. Some enemy soldiers savagely toyed with POWs by dragging them behind trucks with a rope around the neck. Japanese guards also gave the POWs the "sun treatment" by making them sit in the sweltering heat of the direct sun for hours at a time without shade. 

The Death Marchers received almost no water or food, further weakening their fragile bodies. Most POWs only received a total of a few cups of rice, and little or no water. Sympathetic Filipinos alongside the road tried to give POWs food and water, but if a guard saw it, the POW and the Filipino helper could be beaten or killed. Some POWs had the water in their canteens poured out onto the road or taken by the Japanese just to be cruel. Although thirst began to drive some of the men mad, if a POW broke ranks to drink stagnant, muddy water at the side of the road, he would be bayoneted or shot. Groups of POWs were often deliberately stopped in front of the many artesian wells. These wells poured out clean water, but the POWs were not allowed to drink it. Some were killed just because they asked for water. The POWs marched roughly 65 miles over the course of about six days until they reached San Fernando. There, groups as large as 115 men were forced into boxcars designed to hold only 30-40 men. Boxcars were so full that the POWs could not sit down. This caused more to die of heat exhaustion and suffocation in the cars on the ride from San Fernando to Capas. The POWs then walked seven more miles to Camp O'Donnell. At the entrance to the camp, the POWs were told to lay out the few possessions they still had; any POW found with any Japanese-made items or money was executed on the spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f4wvI5iAM0

Doolittle Raid

• Spring 1942

• Raid on Tokyo

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTJ6LSnNKjg

Battle of Midway

• Admiral Chester Nimitz

• Turning point in the Pacific campaign

• Aircraft carrier battle

• Decisive American victory 4 of 6 Japanese aircraft carriers destroyed

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4pUD9qWKs8

Kamikaze

• By 1944 hope was almost gone for the Japanese

• Kamikaze “divine wind”

• Battle of Leyte Gulf – 1st tried

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkNLMzmwZmg

Iwo Jima

• http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima

The Manhattan Project

TIMELINE

• July 16, 1945 Bomb tested in New Mexico

• August 6 1st bomb dropped on Hiroshima

• August 9, 2nd bomb dropped on Nagasaki

• September 2 Japan surrenders

• J. Robert Oppenheimer

• 600,000 American workers

• 1st test July 16, 1945

The effects

http://www.domlife.org/Justice/Disarmament/bombfactsheet.pdf

The Yalta Conference

• Agreement:• Temporary division of

Germany in 4 zones

• Free elections for Poland

• USSR would join the war against Japan

• USSR would participate in UN meetings

Nuremberg Trials

• 24 High ranking Nazi’s were put on trial for crimes against humanity

• The Nazi’s were “only following orders”

• “never happened”

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pQJ42ONPDo

Occupation of Japan

• MacArthur acted as a military dictator• Free market

practices• New constitution

w/women’s suffrage

The Home FrontSection 4

Economic Gains 1940’s

• Defense workers• 35% wage increases

• Farmers• Farm income up 300%

• Women• New opportunities

• 35% of work force

Population Shifts

• African Americans migrated North in search of• Jobs

• Educational opportunity

• Equal rights opportunities

• California saw a huge increase in population

Discrimination

• Civil Rights

• 1942 James Farmer founded Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)• Urban segregation in

the North

• Zoot Suit riots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsFN2fMLL-s

Japanese Internment Camps

• Executive order 9066

• Public law 503

• 1942 Mass evacuation of Japanese Americans• No specific charges• Found constitutional by

Supreme court in Korematsu vs. United States

• Japanese American Citizens League• 1965 $38 million in

reparations• $20,000 to each interned

personhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mr97qyKA2s

Important Legislation

• GI Bill of Rights• Education and training

for veterans

• Federal housing loans

• Korematsu V. United States (1944)• Court sanctioned racism