United States History
Chapter 27:
Americans in World War II
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Strengths and Weaknesses
 By the time the US entered the war, Germany and Japan had
already controlled vast amounts of Europe and Asia
 Both nations had powerful militaries that had been rebuilt
throughout the 1930s
 However, Germany was fighting two fronts
 Western Europe front, unable to defeat the British
 Eastern Europe front, advance stopped by the Soviets
 Japan was spread throughout Asia, weakening their military
Mobilizing for War
 The United States had to convert from a peacetime to a wartime
economy, even though some had been down due to Lend-Lease
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Factories converted to produce tanks, planes, guns, etc.
Shipyards built carriers, destroyers, battleships, submarines, and
merchant ships
Farms began to produce great amounts of grain, vegetables, meat, etc.
People moved to cities that produced these goods, especially in the
Midwest and West and coastal areas
 The War Production Board was created in 1942 to oversee conversion
and building of new factories
 The Office of War Mobilization created in 1943 oversaw all gov’t
agencies involved in the war effort
Mobilizing for War
 The OWM set ration limits on scarce goods
 Cloth, metals, food commodities, gasoline and others were limited to
consumers
 People were issued ration coupons to obtain goods; no coupon, no
goods, but a black market did become successful
 Income taxes were increased, most people now had to pay taxes
 War bonds were sold to raise money for the war effort
 The Office of Price Administration was created to set prices on various
goods
 The Selective Service and Training Act of 1940 imposed a draft,
selecting men 18-45 for military service
War in the Pacific, 1942
 The goal of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor was to destroy the American
Naval fleet; however, this was not accomplished
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Many ships sunk in shallow water, thus able to be salvaged
No aircraft carriers were in port on Dec. 7th
 However, America was not ready to fight the Japanese, thus, after
Pearl, many areas throughout the Pacific, like American controlled
Philippines, fell quickly
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American forces retreated, and General Douglas MacArthur escaped,
proclaiming “I SHALL RETURN!”
Those troops that did not escape were led on a march on Bataan
Thousands died on the Bataan Death March, and many more in the
prison camps
War in the Pacific, 1942
 By the summer of 1942, Adm. Chester Nimitz has the US Navy ready
to fight
 Three major battles ensue that begins to turn the tide of the war into
the Americans favor
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Coral Sea: Began May 7, 1942, American and British forces stopped a
Japanese invasion of Australia
Midway: June 3-6 1942,destroyed much of Japan’s navy, including 4
carriers and hundreds of planes
Guadalcanal: August 1942, Marines came ashore of this small island in
the Solomons
 Fought for over 6 months
 First taste of jungle warfare and Japanese will to fight
 Eventually able to defeat the Japanese army in early 1943
War in Europe, 1942
 By 1942, Axis Powers controlled most of Europe, North Africa and
controlled the Atlantic Ocean
 German General Erwin Rommel threatened to invade the oil fields of
the Middle East and the Suez Canal by summer of 1942
 With a British force pushing from the East, and an American invasion
of Morocco from the West, the Germans became trapped at El
Alamein in the fall of 1942
 Rommel surrendered hundreds of thousands of German troops, much
to the dismay of Hitler
 By defeating the Germans in Africa, the Allies could focus on Europe
War in Europe, 1942
 Meanwhile, the Germans are also fighting the Soviets on the
Eastern front
 The Germans had pushed their way to within a few miles of
Moscow by mid-1942, now threatening the oil fields of
southern Russia
 The key city was Stalingrad
 If the city falls, the Soviet Union would likely fall
 In September 1942, the Germans laid siege to the city
 However, the Soviets held on and surrounded the German army
 Finally, in January 1943, over 300,000 German troops
surrendered, halting the advance and giving the Soviets the
chance to turn the Germans back
Promoting the War
 The US Gov’t needed to get as many people on board with the war as
possible in order to effectively fight
 Media and entertainment were encouraged to keep morale high
 The media told the news of the good things going on in the war
 Patriotic movies and propaganda shorts were shown in theatres across
the nation
 Posters encouraged people to buy war bonds, join the military,
consume less, recycle, etc
 Air raid drills and nightly blackouts prepare Americans for an attack on
the mainland
 In general, life did not change dramatically, there was just a more
pressing issue at hand
World War II Propaganda
World War II Propaganda
Rosie the Riveter
 With millions of men at war, war production jobs needed be filled by
women
 Women worked in jobs such as shipbuilding, welding, and other jobs
typically filled by men
 Rosie the Riveter encouraged women, even married women, to take
jobs that men had left behind
 Older women and African Americans still had a hard time finding
work and women were paid less than men
 Most thought it would be temporary, but others expected permanent
change in the American workforce
Discrimination and the War
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While blacks gained opportunities in jobs like never before, discrimination
and violence were still common
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FDR issued an executive order to forbid discrimination in war industries and
gov’t offices
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However, the Fair Employment Practices Committee struggled to enforce the
order
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Mexican Americans also struggled with discrimination, even though the
bracero program employed thousands in factories and farms around the
nation
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Mexican youths in the West were targeted and beaten on several occasions
for their zoot suits
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American sailors, especially in LA, beat several men for their long slicked
hair and baggy zoot suits in the zoot suit riots
Zoot Suit Riots
Japanese Americans
 Japanese Americans were treated especially horribly
 In 1942, FDR issued Executive Order 9066
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Instructed all people of Japanese decent, even Nisei, to report to
internment camps
The camps were located in desolate areas away from the West Coast
Caused by a fear of retaliation by Japanese Americans in the US after
Pearl Harbor
 Most of the people sent to the camps were American citizens
 Most lost all of there belongings and homes and herded into barb
wire and guarded camps to live until the war ended
Japanese Internment Camps
The North African Campaign
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Because a full-fledged assault was not possible in 1942, the Allies focused on
German and Italian strongholds in North Africa
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British troops had halted an Axis advance that prevented capture of the Suez
Canal, an important trade route to the Indian Ocean
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In November 1942, American troops invaded at Morocco and Algeria
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They easily defeated the Vichy French troops stationed
Allied troops from the west and east could begin a pincer tactic and trap the
Axis
By May 1943, British and American armies forced German General Erwin
Rommel to surrender in Tunisia
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Over 250,000 troops surrendered
Rommel escaped back to Europe
Italy
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After Africa, the Allies turned their attention to Italy
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Sicily was the first target in July 1943
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General George Patton, hero of N. Africa, conquered the island in about a
month
Fearing destruction of Italy, the Italian PM ordered Mussolini’s arrest
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Germany set up a puppet state in Northern Italy, sheltering Mussolini
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By September, Italy surrendered to the Allies, ending the war for them
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However, Germany continued to fight in Italy
After landing south of Rome at Anzio in Jan. 1944, the Allies began to push north
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Slowly, through brutal mountain warfare, the Germans were driven from
Italy
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Mussolini was captured and shot
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In July 1944, the Allies captured Rome
Battle of the Atlantic
 In the meantime, supply and troop carriers between the United States
and Europe were relentlessly hounded
 The German Navy used U-boats to stealthily attack Allied shipping
 However, the Allies turned the tide of the Atlantic with the use of
sonar
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Sonar uses sound waves to detect underwater objects
Sonar allowed surface ships to find subs and destroy them
 By 1944, the Allies had virtually eliminated the German Navy and
could focus their efforts on bombing Germany
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American forces bombed chiefly during the day
British forces bombed chiefly during the night
Operation Overlord
 Operation Overlord was the code name for the Allied invasion of
Europe
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Made possible by victory in the Atlantic and bombings of Germany
France would be the target for invasion
 Plans were kept top secret and the Allies used deception to keep the
Germans guessing as to where the invasion would take place
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Dummy forces were created across the English Channel from Calais, the
narrowest area of the Channel
Instead, a French area known as Normandy was chosen for the invasion
Five sections of beach, code named Utah, Omaha (American), Juno,
Gold and Sword (British and Canadian) were planned as landing spots
 D-Day, June 6, 1944 commenced the invasion of Europe
Operation Overlord
 Germany had fortified the coast with obstacles, barbed wire,
mines, and concrete bunkers with machine gunners
 However, Hitler thought the invasion would be elsewhere, so
resistance, while fierce, was much less than what it could have
been
 Millions of Allied troops made it ashore by early September
 With the help of the French Resistance, the Allies were able to
liberate Paris on August 25, 1944
 While the Germans were pushed eastward out of France, Soviet
troops pressed the Germans westward, creating a trap
Ending the War in Europe
 Hitler introduced a new weapon in September 1944, knowing the war
was becoming a lost cause
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The V-2 rocket was the first missile
While inaccurate, they were hard to shoot down
 The Allies, in a hope to end the war by Christmas, launched Operation
Market Garden in September
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Airborne troops landed in Belgium, hoping to drive the Germans from
Belgium and Holland, and pushing into Germany
However, the plan failed, ensuring the war would last into 1945
 Germany threw all that they had into one final counteroffensive in
December 1944
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The ensuing battle became known at the Battle of the Bulge
Ending the War in Europe
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The German push created a “bulge” in the lines, and completely surrounded
a 101st Airborne division at Bastogne, Belgium
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General McAuliff was asked to surrender by the Germans, to which he
responded, “NUTS!”
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General Patton’s 3rd Army “came to the rescue” of the surrounded troops,
ending Germany’s chance of regaining momentum
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In February, FDR, Churchill and Stalin met in the Yalta Conference to plan
how Europe would be reshaped and rebuilt after the war
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The Allies closed in on Germany, racing to Berlin
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On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide with Soviet troops occupying
Berlin
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On May 7, Germany unconditionally surrendered, declaring V-E Day
The Pacific
 All the while, Allied forces are also fighting in the Pacific
 Because of the extent of the Japanese empire, the Allies relied on an
“island-hopping” campaign to turn the tide of the war in their favor
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Only strategic islands would be captured, rather than every Japanese
controlled area
Airstrips and bases would be built on captured islands to assist the next
invasion
 The campaign began in November 1943 in the Gilbert Islands
 Tarawa was the next target, but much more difficult than Gilbert
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Thousands died trying to penetrate the fortified coral reefs of Tarawa
The Pacific
 Next in line was the Marshall Islands, and Saipan
 The Japanese navy had never recovered from Coral Sea and Midway,
but tried to stop the invasion of Saipan
 By August 1944, after fierce fighting with almost no surrendering
troops, the Allies controlled Saipan and nearby Guam
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Control of the islands gave American planes range to bomb mainland
Japan
 The Philippines were also targeted
 The Japanese Navy was destroyed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October
1944
 Troops, along with Filipino guerillas, were able to take the islands back
by February 1945
Navajo Code Talkers
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Gov’t created a code language
based on Navajo
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Navajo men were recruited to
serve and became radio
operators in the Pacific
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Very successful code that was
never broken by the Japanese
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Depicted in the movie
Windtalkers, starring Adam
Beach and Nicolas Cage
Ending the War in the Pacific
 Allied planes, now within range, could now bomb Japanese
cities, to which they did, with devastating effect
 However, military leaders refused to surrender, even as civilian
morale slouched
 Iwo Jima, a small island a few hundred miles from Tokyo, was
fought for fiercely for 6 weeks, starting in Feb. 1945
 Famous photo of Marines placing a flag on Mt. Suribachi was
taken during the fight for Iwo Jima
 After Iwo, the largest land invasion ever took place on April 1,
1945 at Okinawa
Iwo Jima, Feb.1945
Ending the War in the Pacific
 Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific
 49,000 Allied casualties
 Like many other battles, Japanese troops refused surrender and fought
to the death
 The use of kamikaze attacks were common
 The Americans were in range of invading Japan and the war in Europe
is complete, but FDR did not live to see it
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FDR died of an aneurysm on April 12, 1945
His vice President, Harry S. Truman, took over as president and
commander of the military in the war
However, an invasion of Japan would cost up to a million American lives,
so Truman had to figure out a way to end the war
The Atomic Bomb
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After escaping Germany, Albert Einstein warned the US Gov’t that Germany
was trying to develop a bomb from radioactive elements
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It was unanimous that the Americans must beat the Germans to the
development of an atomic bomb
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The secret Manhattan Project tested different materials and the science
behind fission
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On July 16, 1945, a successful explosion was made near Alamogordo, NM
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On July 26, unconditional surrender was demanded of the Japanese, to
which they refused
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Truman was now in charge of deciding whether to use the bomb to end the
war
V-J Day
 On August 6, 1945, a plane named Enola Gay dropped an
atomic bomb on Hiroshima, an industrial city in Japan
 90% of the city was destroyed and over 75,000 killed instantly
 Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki,
with similar results
 The Japanese surrendered on August 14, with the official
surrender signed on September 2 aboard the USS Missouri in
Tokyo Bay
The Holocaust
 Germany’s policy of anti-Semitism led to the destruction of 6 million
lives of people of Jewish faith, plus millions more of other
“undesirables”, such as gypsies, Poles, homosexuals, and the
handicapped
 What began as persecution became systematic murder and the “Final
Solution” to the “Jewish Question”
 Hitler’s SS and Gestapo rounded up Jews into ghettos in major cities,
where many died
 Eventually, concentration camps were set up to create materials for
the war effort on the backs of Jewish labor, but led to death camps
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Death camps led people into gas chambers and bodies were either
burned in large ovens or buried in mass graves
The Holocaust
 Some of the most notorious camps were Auschwitz, Treblinka, and
Sobibor
 Reports were sketchy at first and many people did not believe that
such camps existed
 Thousands tried to escape, but strict immigration laws led many
people to their deaths
 As the Allies liberated Nazi controlled areas, they experienced the
genocide firsthand
 Trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany after the war and several
Nazi officials were imprisoned or put to death for their role in the
Holocaust
Remember the Victims…
Remember the Victims…
Costs of the War
 Millions lost their lives, civilian and military
 Europe and Japan was nearly destroyed and billions would need
to be spent to rebuild
 Most people lacked basic necessities such as food, heat and
water
 The Allies vowed to help rebuild areas devastated by the war in
hopes that recovery would happen quicker and another war of
this scale could be prevented