Chapter 17: The United States and WW II
Unit 4 World War II
...From Isolation, Instability and Fascism, to Victory in WWII
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Essential Question: What were the causes, course and consequences of World
War II?
Standards 9-12 1.1: Visual Representations: Interpret and evaluate a variety of
visual representations of data (maps, graphs, flow charts, etc.)
o 9-12.2.5: Trace the causes, course, and legacy of World War Two
(Totalitarian regimes, Pacific Theater, European Theater, Home Front)
Focus Questions:
1. How did totalitarianism affect the nations Europe and Asia?
2. What were effects of the US policies of isolationism and neutrality?
3. What events led to increased tensions between the U.S. and Japan?
4. What was the initial response of the United States regarding the Holocaust, and how
did it change over time?
5. Why were Japanese Americans placed into internment camps?
6. What were major Allied war strategies in World War II?
7. How did the transition from peacetime to wartime affect the U.S. politically,
socially, and economically?
8. What were several advantages and disadvantages of the United States dropping
atomic bombs on Japan?
I Can Statements:
1. I can identify totalitarianism and fascism and explain how they were developed in
Italy, Germany, and Japan.
2. I can explain the U.S. policies of isolationism and neutrality prior to WWII.
3. I can identify the events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
4. I can explain the U.S role in the Holocaust.
5. I can evaluate the internment of Japanese American citizens during WWII.
6. I can identify the major Allied war strategies against the Axis powers (including
Germany, Japan, Italy) in WWII.
7. I can explain economic, social, and political impacts WWII had on the U.S home
front.
8. I can develop an argument for the advantages and disadvantages for the U.S use of
atomic weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Chapter 17: The United States and WW II
Section 1: Mobilizing for Defense
I.
II.
Americans Join the War Effort
A. Selective Training and Service Act (1940): first peacetime draft in
American history
1. All men b/w the ages of 21 – 35 had to register (later 18 – 37)
a. Local draft boards determines fitness and deferments
2. Of the 15 million members of the armed service during WW II,
2/3rds were draftees and rest were volunteers
a. The volunteers and draftees received only eight weeks of basic
training
B. Because the military’s work force needs were so great Army Chief of
Staff General George Marshall pushed for the formation of a
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)
1. WAAC became law on May 15, 1942
a. Female volunteers would serve in noncombat positions
b. Est. the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) and Navy Nurse Corps
(NNC)
C. Restricted to racially segregated neighborhoods and reservations and
denied basic citizenship rights, some minority groups questioned if the
war was really their fight
1. Quote: “Just carve on my tombstone, ‘Here lies a black man
killed fighting a yellow man (Japanese) for the protection of a
white man.’”
2. 300,000 Mexican Americans fought
3. One million African Americans served, but were forced to live
and work in segregated units, and often served in noncombat
positions
4. 13,000 Chinese Americans and 33,000 Japanese Americans put
on the uniform and fought
a. Thousands served as spies and interpreters in the Pacific
war
5. 25,000 Native Americans enlisted in the war
A Production Miracle
A. In Feb 1942, the last automobile for private use came off the assembly line
1. Auto factories were retooled to produce tanks, planes, and
command cars
a. Soft-drink companies filled shells with explosives
2. Henry J. Kaiser built seven massive shipyards in 1942
building cargo ships (Liberty ships), tankers, etc at an
astonishing rate
a. In four days Kaiser was able to produce a Liberty ship
b. He used prefabrication (factory-made parts assembled in
advance) and encouraged his employees to work at record
speed
B. More than 6 million of the 18 million workers in the war industries
were women
1. Women earned 60% of what a man earned, although women
were completing the same industrial tasks
2. Before the war, 75% of defense contractors refused to hire
African Americans, and another 15% would only hire blacks to
complete menial jobs (cleaning)
a. Hate Strikes: were staged by white workers to keep black
workers out of high-paying factory jobs
b. Combined, 25 blacks and whites died after a fight broke out
in a Detroit park and spread to the rest of the city
3. A. Philip Randolph: president and founder of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters and the nation’s most respected AfricanAmerican labor leader
a. Randolph called on African Americans throughout the
U.S. to travel to the capital on July 1, 1941 for a March
on Washington
4. FDR feared the march would provoke white resentment and
violence
a. FDR asked Randolph to back down, but Randolph stated he
could not; telling FDR he expected 100,000
b. A strike that large could impact industrial output and
would show a lack of unity in America
5. In return for Randolph ending the strike, FDR promised to
issue an executive order calling on employers and labor
unions to not discriminate when hiring
a. Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC):
investigated companies to make sure that all qualified
applicants, regardless of race, were considered (often
unsuccessful)
C. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD-1941): spurred
improvements in radar and sonar, new technologies for locating
submarines underwater
1. Encouraged the use of pesticides like DDT for fight insects (free
from body lice) and created miracle drugs such as penicillin
2. Also OSRD was responsible for the development of the atomic
bomb
a. In 1939, the Germans succeeded in splitting uranium
atoms, which released enormous energy
b. Physicists and German refugee, Albert Einstein, wrote a
letter to FDR warning that the Germans could construct a
weapon of mass destruction
III.
3. FDR responded by creating the Advisory Committee on
Uranium to study the new discovery
a. Manhattan Project (1942): intensive program focused on
developing the atomic bomb as soon as possible
b. Most of the early research was performed at Columbia
University in Manhattan, therefore it was called the
Manhattan Project
The Federal Gov’t Takes Control
A. With demand for consumer products increasing (higher wages) and
supplies dropping (war materials produced), prices were likely to rise
significantly (inflation)
1. Office of Price Administration (OPA): fought inflation by
freezing prices on most goods
a. Congress also raised income tax rates and extended the tax
to millions of Americans that never paid income taxes
(reduced consumer demand by reducing the money
consumers had to spend)
b. Gov’t also encouraged Americans to buy war bonds
2. War Production Board (WPB)/Office or War Mobilization
(OWM): decided which companies would convert from
peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to
key industries
a. Supervisor James F. Byrnes was called the “assistant
president” b/c of the enormous power possessed by the
agency
B. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) set up the Food Ration
Program (1942): establishing fixed allotments of goods deemed essential
for the military
1. Each family member received ration books, each month, with
coupons to be used for buying scarce goods such as meat, shoes,
sugar, coffee, and gasoline
a. 64 red points a month for the purchase of meats and fats (2
lbs a week)
b. 48 blue points for canned foods
2. A black market developed for the purchase of rationed goods
without stamps
a. Counterfeit stamps were also being created and sold
Section 2: The War for Europe and North Africa
I.
The United States and Britain Join Forces
A. Prime Minister Churchill arrived in D.C. on Dec 22, 1941 and spent
several weeks discussing war plans with FDR
1. Churchill convinced FDR to strike at Hitler first and then
pour more money in the Pacific War
II.
a. FDR had a note waiting for Churchill when he arrived
home, which stated “It is fun to be in the same decade with
you.”
B. Battle of the Atlantic: after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered
submarine attacks against ships along America’s east coast
1. Germany wanted to prevent food and war materials from
reaching G.B. and the S.U.
a. If Hitler could cut 3,000 mile Atlantic lifeline, G.B. would
surrender
b. Within only seven months of 1942, German wolf packs
sunk 681 Allied ships in the Atlantic
2. The Allies soon learned to organize cargo ships into convoys:
groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection
a. The convoys were escorted by destroyers equipped with
sonar (detect u-boats under water)
b. Airplanes also used radar to detect submarines on the
surface
c. The Allies were destroying subs faster than the Germans
could build them
3. The U.S. also created a mass production technique for ships
a. By 1943, 140 Liberty ships were produced each month
(launchings outnumbered sinkings)
The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean
A. The Germans broke the Nonaggression Pact (signed in late 1939) in
less than two years by attacking the Soviet Union in June 1941
1. Hitler wanted to capture the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus
Mountains and wipe out the industrial city, Stalingrad,
named after the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
a. The Germans began bombing the city in August 1943
wiping out almost every structure in the city
b. Based on the mass devastation, Soviet officers
recommended blowing up the city’s factories and fleeing
the city (Stalin ordered them to defend the city at all costs)
2. In August 1942 the Germans approached Stalingrad and
took the city after engaging in urban fighting
a. Once winter set in, the Soviets engaged in a massive
counterattack cutting off all German supplies entering
Stalingrad
b. Hitler ordered the Germans to, “Stay and fight! I won’t go
back from the Volga.”
3. The Germans commander finally surrendered on January 31,
1943
a. The Soviets lost 1.1 million soldiers and the Germans
lost 850,000 soldiers
B. Hitler sent the German Afrika Korps, under the command of Erwin
Rommel (Desert Fox) to help the Italian invasion of North Africa
C.
D.
E.
F.
1. The Axis powers wanted to take the Suez Canal and reach
the oil fields of the Middle East
2. Battle of El Alamein (1942): British General Bernard
Montgomery led the attack against Rommel’s troops pushing
them westward into Libya away from the Suez and the Middle
East
Stalin wanted the U.S. and G.B. to open a second front by crossing the
English Channel and invading Western Europe in hopes that Hitler would
be forced to divert troops for the Eastern front to the West
1. Instead of invading Western Europe, the Allies engaged in
Operation Torch (1942): an invasion of Axis-controlled North
Africa, commanded by American General Dwight D.
Eisenhower
a. Allies established beachheads in Morocco and Algeria,
while Allied planes and ships cut off Axis supplies from
Italy
2. In the winter of 1942-1943 the Allied forces trapped the Axis
forces b/w them causing the Axis powers to surrender in 1943
Before the North Africa front was won, Roosevelt and Churchill meant in
Casablanca, Morocco in 1943 (agreed on several issues)
1. Demand the unconditional surrender of their enemy
2. Agreed to attack Hitler on a second front to relieve pressure of
the S.U.
a. FDR agreed with Churchill’s plan to invade Italy and then
liberate France
The Italian island of Sicily was captured in the summer of 1943
1. Appalled by the loss, the Italian gov’t forced Mussolini to
resign, King Victor Emmanuel III stripped Mussolini of his
power, and had him arrested
a. On April 27, 1945 Mussolini and his mistress were
captured while attempting to board a plane in an effort to
escape to Austria, April 28 Mussolini and his mistress were
both shot, April 29 both their bodies were found hanging
upside down from meat hooks, and finally the bodies were
beaten
b. The Italian gov’t signed an armistice with the Allies in
Sept 1943, and the capital, Rome, was taken in June
1944
Numerous minority groups were decorated for the service in WW II
1. The all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen) fought in
Italy, scoring their first victory
2. The all-black 92nd Infantry Division was highly decorated
3. An all-Chicano unit Company E of the 141st Regiment, 36th
Division became highly decorated
4. The 100th Battalion, consisted of 1,300 Hawaiian Nisei (Japanese
Americans)
III.
a. B/c of all the brutal fighting they took part in, the Battalion
became known as the Purple Heart Battalion
b. Eventually the 100th became part of the all-Nisei 442nd
Regiment Combat Team, which became the most decorated
unit in U.S. history
The Allies Liberate Europe
A. Operation Overlord/Normandy/D-Day (June 6, 1944): an Allied force
of nearly 3 million troops planned to attack Normandy in northern France
in an effort to liberate the country from German control
1. On July 25, General Omar Bradley unleashed massive air and
land bombardments, which opened a gap in the German lines
allowing General George Patton and his Third Army to advance
2. On August 25, the Allies liberate Paris, and by Sept 1944 France,
Belgium, and Luxembourg were freed from German control
3. Operation Fortitude (occurred while prepping for D-Day):
Allies set up a phantom army with its own headquarters and
equipment
a. A radio message was sent to the phantom army, which they
new the Germans could read, to invade the French port of
Calais where the English Channel is narrowest
b. Hitler kept a large force at Calais, in anticipation of a
Allied invasion that actually occurred 150 miles away at
Normandy
4. The good news helped FDR and his running mate, Harry S.
Truman, win an unprecedented fourth presidential election in
1944
B. Battle of the Bulge (Dec 1944): under the cover of dense fog eight
German tank divisions broke through weak American lines creating a
bulge in the American lines
1. Those Americans captured by the Germans were marched into a
large field and executed by machine gun and pistol fire
a. British code breakers deciphered a message indicating a
huge German offensive, but it was ignored
2. Once the weather cleared, the American air power caused the
Germans to loose ground
a. The Germans lost 120,000 troops, while the Americans lost
75,000 troops
C. The S.U. pushed West into Germany, while the Allies pushed East
into Germany
1. Soviet troops were the first to come upon a Nazi death camp
in July 1944
a. As the Soviet troops drew near to camp Majdanek in
Poland, the SS feverishly worked to bury and burn the
bodies
b. The Soviets discovered the world’s largest crematorium
and over 800,000 shoes
D. In his underground headquarters in Berlin, Hitler married Eva Braun on
April 29
1. Hitler wrote out his last comments to the Germans, which
blamed the Jews for starting the war and his generals for
losing the war
2. On April 30, 1945, Hitler shot himself and his new wife
poisoned herself
a. Hitler asked that that his body and his wife’s body be
carried outside and burned
3. V-E Day (May 8, 1945): General Eisenhower accepted the
unconditional surrender of the Third Reich
a. FDR had a stroke and died on April 12, 1945 while posing
for portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, causing FDR to not
witness the Victory in Europe (Truman takes over)
Section 3: The War in the Pacific
I.
The Allies Stem the Japanese Tied
A. In the Philippines, 80,000 American and Filipino troops battled the
Japanese for control in Dec 1941
1. General Douglas MacArthur commanded the Allied forces
defending the island
a. With Allied forces losing, FDR ordered MacArthur to leave the
island and head to Australia
b. MacArthur vowed, “I shall return.”
2. Bataan Death March: the captured Allied soldiered defending
the Philippines were forced to march 60 miles through the jungle
and eventually ended up at a prison camp called Camp
O’Donnell
a. 10,000 out of the 70,000 captures died on the march
B. Battle of Java Sea (Feb 1942): American-British-Dutch-Australian
Command (ABDA) suffered major naval defeats at the hands of the
Imperial Japanese Navy
1. We realized the Japanese were highly trained, experienced, and
prepared
C. Doolittle’s Raid (April 1942): 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, led by
Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, raided Tokyo and other Japanese
cities
1. The planes wouldn’t make it back the USS Hornet, so plans were
made to crash land in China (one landed in Russia)
D. Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942): Americans and Australians
succeeded in stopping the Japanese drive toward Australia
1. All the fighting occurred b/w planes that took off from aircraft
carriers (not a single shot was fired by surface ships)
a. The Japanese no longer had enough fuel to reach Australia
II.
2. For the first time since Pearl Harbor, a Japanese attack was
stopped
E. The Battle of Midway (June 1942): Allies succeeded in stopping the
Japanese from taking the strategic island of Midway that would pave the
way for another Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
1. One unit of the Japanese naval force occupied two of the
Aleutian Islands near Alaska in an effort to divert American
ships away from Midway
2. The U.S. had broken the Japanese code and knew Midway was
their next target, so Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander of
the Naval forces in the Pacific, moved into position
a. American scout planes found the Japanese, and U.S.
torpedo planes were called in to attack
b. The Japanese didn’t even have their planes in the air
The Allies Go on the Offensive
A. Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands (August 1942): the first Allied
offensive and victory against Japanese troops
1. It was the first defeat on land for the Japanese
B. Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944): the Japanese lost almost all
their carrier-borne aircraft and 1/3rd of their carriers involved in the battle
1. The Japanese air force no longer posed a threat to the Allies
2. The U.S. has airstrips from which American bombers can attack
Japan itself
C. Battle of Leyte Gulf/Island in the Philippines (Oct 1944): the Japanese
naval fleet was greatly damaged and no longer posed a major threat to the
Allies
1. Kamikaze: tested this new tactic of having Japanese pilots crash
their bomb-laden planes into Allied ships
a. 424 kamikaze pilots sunk 16 ships and damaged another 80
2. MacArthur waded ashore and announced, “People of the
Philippines: I have returned.”
D. Iwo Jima (Feb 1945): critical island that the U.S. needed in order to
establish a base from which heavily loaded bombers might reach Japan
1. 750 miles from Tokyo, 6,000 marines died, and only 200 out of
the 20,700 Japanese survived
2. Also, the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi
occurred at the beginning of the battle
E. Okinawa (April 1945): critical island that the U.S. needed in order to
make an invasion of Japan a realistic possibly
1. It was the last major battle in the Pacific
a. It is only 350 miles away from Japan
2. 1,900 Kamikaze attacked the Allies
a. They were told, “It is absolutely out of the question for you
to return alive. Your mission involves certain death.”
b. 7,600 Americans died, and 110,000 Japanese were killed
III.
IV.
c. The battle demonstrated what lies ahead for the Allies if
they choose to invade Japan
3. A significant U.S. force is still garrisoned in Okinawa and it
remains the largest U.S. air base in Asia
The Atomic Bomb Ends the War
A. Led by General Leslie Groves with research directed by American
scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the development of the atomic bomb
moved forward (Truman didn’t know about the bomb until he
became President)
1. The first successful test of the bomb took place in Alamogordo,
New Mexico on July 16, 1945
2. On July 26, 1945 the U.S. warned Japan that it faced
“prompt and utter destruction” unless it surrendered at once
B. President Truman said, “I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and
never had any doubt that it should be used.”
1. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay
released an atomic bomb names Little Boy over Hiroshima
a. Killed 70,000 on impact, wounded 69,000, and destroyed
67% of the city
2. On August 9, 1945 a bomb named Fat Man was dropped on
Nagasaki
a. Killed 39,000 on impact, injured 25,000, and destroyed
40% of the city
3. The two atomic blasts were not the worst blows absorbed by
the Japanese
a. On March 9, 1945 334 B-29 bombers bombed Tokyo
creating a firestorm that killed 83,000, wounded 125,000,
and left 1.2 million homeless
4. On September 2, 1945 formal surrender ceremonies took
place on the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay
a. General Douglas MacArthur commented, “The entire world
is quietly at peace.”
Rebuilding Begins
A. In February 1945 FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Black Sea
resort city of Yalta in the Soviet Union
1. For eight days the Big Three discussed the fate of Germany
a. Stalin wanted to keep Germany divided into occupation
zones-areas controlled by Allied military forces (Churchill
disagreed)
b. Churchill wanted free elections and democratic institutions
in Eastern Europe, while Stalin wanted to establish a Soviet
sphere of influence across Eastern Europe (especially
Poland)
2. FDR worked as the mediator b/w Stalin and Churchill for
several reasons:
a. FDR gave in to Stalin’s demands to keep the eastern part of
Poland in exchange for Stalin’s half-hearted promise to
eventually allow free elections in Poland (didn’t happen)
b. FDR hoped the S.U. would honor its promise to join the
war against Japan in the Pacific (a-bomb hadn’t been tested
yet)
c. FDR wanted Stalin’s support for a new world peacekeeping
organization, to be named the United Nations
3. The Yalta Conference resulted in the following compromises:
a. Agreed to temporarily divide Germany into four occupation
zones
b. Stalin agreed to “free and unfettered elections” in Poland
and other Soviet-occupied countries in Europe
c. Stalin agreed to join in the war against Japan
d. Stalin, also, agreed to participate in an international
conference to take place in April in San Francisco (form the
U.N.)
B. Nuremberg trials (1945): German war crime trials that took place in
Nuremberg Germany, which was Hitler’s rallying place for the Nazi party
1. International Military Tribunal delivered its first verdict(s) in
September of 1946 (24 surviving Nazi leaders were on trial)
a. 11 out of the 24 Nazis were put to death by hanging, 7
received jail time, 3 acquitted
b. It was decided one Nazi was too old and sick to go on trial,
another committed suicide on the eve of the trial, and one
was tried in absentia
2. Adolf Eichmann was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina in
1960 and sentenced to death in Israel for committing crimes
against humanity
3. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’s “Angle of Death” who fled to
Brazil, died while swimming
4. The trial set a precedent that nations and individuals are
responsible for their own actions, even in time of war
a. War criminals and crimes can’t be excused by saying,
“I was just following orders.”
C. Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur and his staff created a new
constitution for Japan on May 3, 1947 (Japan was occupied for seven
years)
1. A parliamentary system of gov’t similar to Great Britain’s was
created
a. Japanese citizens elected a two-house parliament, called
the Diet
b. The Prime Minister was elected by majority of Diet
c. Emperor Hirohito became only a figurehead (Monarch) in
Japanese politics and admitted to the Japanese people he
was not divine but just a man
2. Demilitarization of Japanese forces, but maintained a police
force
a. Article 9 of the constitution stated Japan could not wage
war only fight against attack
b. Today Japan has a very large police force, which is also
serving in Iraq
3. Large landowners had to sell some of their land to tenant
farmers at fair prices
a. Labor unions could organize
b. Zaibatsus were broken up: huge corporations run by
single families that formed monopolies
4. Tokyo trials: trials held to punish Japanese war criminals
a. More than 20 were tried, and seven, including Prime
Minister Hideki Tojo, were put to death
Extra Notes for the Purpose of Organization
All the following occurred in 1945
1. Yalta Conference (Feb 4): Germany still in the war, but allies deciding what to do
with post-war Germany if/when the Germans surrender (occupation zones)
2. FDR (April 12): dies from a massive stroke
3. VE Day (May 8): the war with Germany ends
4. President Truman (June 7): warns Japan to give up or suffer the same consequences
as Germany
5. Potsdam Conference (July 16 – Aug 2): reviewing what was discussed at the Yalta
Conferences and deciding what to do with Japan
6. Atomic bomb (July 16): first atomic bomb testes in the U.S.
7. Potsdam Declaration (July 26): President Truman demands that Japan surrenders are
face complete destruction
8. Hiroshima bomb (Aug 6): first atomic bomb dropped on Japan
9. Nagasaki bomb (Aug 9): second bomb dropped on Japan
10. Japan surrenders (Sept 2): formal surrender ceremonies took place on the U.S.
battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay
Section 4: The Home Front
I.
II.
Opportunity and Adjustment
A. The war years helped the working class forget about the Great
Depression
1. As defense industries boomed, unemployment fell from 2.5
million in 1942 to a low of 1.2% (700,000) in 1944
a. U.S. became the Allies biggest armament supplier
2. Earnings increased by 35% and factory workers wages rose from
$25 to $47 a week
3. Crop production increased by 50%, and farm income tripled
a. The U.S. was feeding all of Europe
4. Over 6 million women entered the work force for the first time,
boosting the percentage of women in the total work force to 35%
B. The war triggered one of the greatest mass migrations in U.S. history
1. Over a million people migrated to California b/w 1941 and 1944
a. Towns/cities with defense industries increased massively
b. African Americans left the South for the North
C. With millions of fathers in the armed forces, some mothers struggles
to strike a balance b/w work and family
1. Children were often being raised by someone other than their
parent(s)
a. Teenagers left home without any real guidance
b. When fathers returned home a difficult period of
adjustment took place
2. New families were created in haste
a. Many rushed to get married before their sweetheart was
rushed off to war
b. In towns like Seattle, marriage licenses jumped by 300%
3. Servicemen’s Readjustment Act/GI Bill of Rights (1944):
provided education and training for veterans, paid for by the
federal gov’t
a. The act also provided federal loan guarantees to veterans
buying homes or farms or starting a new business
b. Today it is called the Montgomery GI Bill, which can
provide up to $71,000 for college
c. Visit http://www.va.gov/ to find out more
D. Rosie the Riveter was the symbol of patriotic women doing their part to
help win the war
1. Factories reported that the work done by women was equal to
that of men
2. Women were still paid less for doing the same work as men
Discrimination and Reaction
A. B/w 1940 and 1944, the percentage of African Americans working in
skilled and semiskilled jobs rose from 16% to 30%
III.
1. Congress of Racial Equality: founded by James Farmer to
confront urban segregation in the North
a. Held their first sit-in at a segregated Chicago restaurant
2. A tussle occurred b/w blacks and whites at a beach on the
Detroit River, which spread into the city (1943)
a. Fighting raged for days b/c false rumors were spread that
whites had murdered a black woman and her child and
supposedly in an act of revenge black rioters killed 17
whites
b. FDR sent in federal troops to restore order
B. In 1943, Los Angeles exploded in anti-Mexican “zoot-suit” riots
1. Zoot-suit: style of dress adopted by Mexican-American youth as
a symbol of their rebellion against tradition
a. Long jackets, pleated pants, and broad-brimmed hats
2. The riots started when 11 sailors falsely reported that several
zoot-suit-wearing Mexican Americans attacked them
a. Hundreds of Mexican Americans were beaten by sailors
and civilians
b. Citizen committees placed partial blame on the police for
arresting the innocent Mexican Americans
Internment of Japanese Americans
A. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, false rumors were being spread that
Japanese Americans were committing sabotage by mining coastal
harbors and poisoning vegetables (120,000 Japanese Americans lived
in the U.S.)
1. In 1942 the War Department called for the mass evacuation
of all Japanese Americans from Hawaii
a. General Delos Emmons, the military governor, would not
enforce the order b/c 37% of the people were Japanese
Americans and their relocation would have destroyed
Hawaii’s economy
b. Eventually he was forced to place 1,444 Japanese
Americans in internment/confinement camps
2. On Feb 19, 1942, FDR signed an order requiring the removal
of people of Japanese ancestry from California and parts of
other states
a. 110,000 Japanese Americans were shipped to ten hastily
constructed remote relocation centers/prison camps
3. Nisei: Japanese Americans that were born in the U.S. and
therefore American citizens
a. 2/3rds of those interned were Nisei, and no specific charges
were ever filed against those relocated
b. Issei: Japanese that were not citizens of the U.S. and
regarded as aliens and ineligible for citizenship
4. Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) pushed the gov’t
to compensate those sent to the camps
a. In 1965, Congress authorized the spending of $38 million
to compensate those interned, which amounted to less than
1/10th of their actual losses
b. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that promised
$20,000 to every Japanese American sent to relocation
camps (1990 the checks were mailed)
B. Korematsu vs. the U.S. (1944)
1. Facts of the Case:
a. During World War II, Presidential Executive Order 9066
and congressional statutes gave the military authority to
exclude citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed
critical to national defense and potentially vulnerable to
espionage. Korematsu remained in San Leandro, California
and violated Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34 of the U.S.
Army.
2. Question:
a. Did the President and Congress go beyond their war
powers by implementing exclusion and restricting the
rights of Americans of Japanese descent?
3. Conclusion:
a. The Court sided with the government and held that the need
to protect against espionage outweighed Korematsu's
rights. Justice Black argued that compulsory exclusion,
though constitutionally suspect, is justified during
circumstances of "emergency and peril."