Ways America Prepared for War

Summer of 1940 First peacetime draft Men between 21 -- 35 Registered 16.5 million men 5 million volunteered

250,000 women enlisted First time women were permitted to volunteer for armed forces

Non-combat roles (accountants, bookkeepers, drivers, radio operators)

Served in all branches WACS (women’s armed corp services) WAVES (women in the navy) WAFS (women in the air force)

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS)First women to fly U.S. military planes

Very strict guidelines for women to serve in the military

Age 20-49 No children under age 14 Minimum of two years of high school

Five million women entered the workforce

Many worked in industrial jobs in shipyards, defense plants, etc.

Received 60% less pay than men Women working in shipyards earned $6.95 a day; men earned $22.00 a day.

1.5 million AA left the south for jobs in the north and west

1 million left home to serve in the armed forces (segregated units)

Both civilians and soldiers continued to face discrimination and segregation

Civil Rights leaders under the NAACP encouraged AA to adopt the “Double V” slogan

V= victory over fascism abroad

V = victory for equality at home

New Civil Rights organization created in 1942 to work more “militantly” for AA rights. Named CORE = Congress of Racial Equality

1942: War Production Board (WPB) established to convert companies from peacetime to wartime production.

U.S. industries booming. By 1944 unemployment practically gone

Kaiser shipyard in California could make a new ship every five days “miracle man”

Started by Pittsburgh Courier (African American newspaper) 1942

Would you fight for a country that did not grant you full rights at home?

Do you think participation in the war effort would help or hinder African Americans’ quest for civil rights after the war?

OPA regulated almost every aspect of civilian life. Controlled Inflation. Froze prices, wages, rent, etc.

Set up a rationing system. Used coupon booklets. Meat, sugar, coffee, butter, gasoline, rubber, shoes (two pairs per year)

National speed limit set at 35 miles per hour to cut gasoline consumption

WW2 cost the U.S. $320 Billion (10x’s more than WW1)

Raised the money through income taxes (first time automatically deducted from paychecks) half the cost of the war

Selling war bonds (raised $135 Billion)

1945 National Debt $258.6 billion

1939 Albert Einstein wrote FDR a personal letter.

1941 Office of Scientific Research established to research and develop the atomic bomb

Team of American, British, European scientists headed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Three plants set up to produce uranium and plutonium

http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml - first

Hollywood began making war-time propaganda films.

60 million to 100 million moviegoers a week

“Prelude To War” one of the greatest propaganda films ever made. Frank Capra series “Why We Fight”

Musicals, romances, comedies

Transformed his cartoon studio into a moviemaking factory for Uncle Sam.

Made educational, training, fund-raising, and morale-building films.

Used the Seven Dwarfs to sell war bonds

Donald Duck to inspire Americans to pay their taxes on time

What does internment mean? What is an Executive Order? (9066)

What motivated FDR to issue the order? National security Military necessity Wartime hysteria

110,000-120,000 interned 10 camps California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona

Issei: Japanese born (first generation)

Nisei: Children of Issei (second generation)

http://www.asianamericanmedia.org/jainternment/camps/questions.html

1944 Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of internment camps

Court allowed removal of Japanese Ams. From the west coast on the basis of “military necessity”

Avoiding ruling on the constitutionality of the internment program

Demonstrated how fragile civil liberties were in times of war (Patriot Act 2001)

Congress issued apology and $20,00 in cash to the 80,000 surviving J. A. in 1988

Dwight Eisenhower Supreme Allied

Commander in Europe

Defeat Germany 1st

Operation Torch (invasion of North Africa)

Italian campaign

Objective: Free France from Germany

2 years planning U.S., British, Canadian troops landed along 60 mile stretch of beach (Normandy)

Largest amphibious attack (3 million troops)

Five landings: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword beaches

D-Day deception at Calais

Phantom landing force

Inflatable tanks, dummy landing crafts

Fooled Germans temporarily to allow landing at Normandy

Origins of “D-Day” Paratroopers Letters sent home describing the landing

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/

Last German offensive to stop Allies from entering Germany: Battle of Bulge

One month. Germans lost 120,000 troops

April, 1945 Allies seize Berlin April 29,1945 Hitler marries Eva Braun

April 30: Hitler shot himself and Braun swallowed poison. Bodies burned.

May 8, 1945: V-E Day

Spring 1945: Allied troops advanced into Poland and Germany and discovered extermination camps where 6 million Jews were put to death.

An additional 6 million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals and other “undesirables” were exterminated

Did the U.S. know of the persecution of German Jews earlier?

Why didn’t we allow Jews to immigrate to Am?

Feb. 1945: FDR, Churchill, Stalin met in Yalta, on the Black Sea.

Decisions made: Create a world peace-keeping organization at the end of WW2 (United Nations)

Soviets promised to enter the war against Japan, 3 months after war ends in Europe

“Free elections” in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe

Douglas MacArthur: Supreme Allied Commander of the Pacific

Island hopping (strategy in Pacific)

April 12, 1945: FDR’s dies Harry S. Truman becomes President A few days later, learns about the Manhattan Project (employed 120,00)

July 16, 1945: A-Bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico

Three weeks later, Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on two Japanese cities

Aug. 6, 1945 Target: Hiroshima

Carried by B-29 bomber: Enola Gay

Uranium 235 Killed 75,000 Injured 68,000

Aug. 9, 1945 Target: Nagasaki plutonium

implosion-type bomb.

Over 200,000 died resulting from injuries and radiation poison

Sept. 2, 1945 official surrender

Japan unwilling to surrender; fight to their death (Kamakazi attitude)

Huge land invasion of Japan necessary

War could last additional 5 years; 1 million more lives lost

Eliminate Soviet input in post war negotiations

1945-1949 Nuremberg, Germany 22 Nazi leaders tried for war crimes (crimes against humanity)

12 sentenced to death. Rest to prison

200 lesser leaders found guilty First time a nation’s leaders held legally responsible for their actions during wartime