The Allied Home Fronts
• Wherever Allied forces
fought, people on the home
fronts rallied to support
them. In war-torn countries
like the Soviet Union and
Great Britain, civilians
endured extreme hardships.
Many lost their lives. Except
for a few of its territories,
such as Hawaii, the United
States did not suffer invasion
or bombing. Nonetheless,
Americans at home made a
crucial contribution to the
Allied war effort. Americans
produced the weapons and
equipment that would help
win the war.
Mobilizing for War
• Fighting the war requires complete use of all
national resources
• 17 to 18 million U.S. workers—many of them
women—make weapons
• People at home face shortages of consumer
goods
• Propaganda aims to inspire civilians to aid war
effort
Fighting the Enemy on the
Battlefield &
on the Home Front
Working on the Assembly Line
First Ever Peacetime Draft
Segregated Units
Tuskegee Airmenall-black squadron
of fighter pilots
during WWII that
successfully
protected every
bomber they
escorted during
the war.
Join the Women’s Army Corps
Women’s Army Air Corps
Pilots
Pacific Theater of Operations
Farthest Extent
of Japanese Conquests
Allied Counterattacks in the
Pacific
• Midway
• Southeast Asia
• Island hopping
• Japanese main
islands
Singapore Surrenders
[February, 1942]
U.S. Surrenders at Corregidor,
the Philippines [March, 1942]
War in the Pacific
• The Second front of the war.
• Japanese troops landed in the Philippines after
bombing Pearl Harbor.
• Forced Americans to surrender
• General Douglas McArthur-gifted general who
was forced to flee the Philippines promising
the people of the Philippines, “I shall return.”
Two years later, he did leading the U.S.
offensive in the Pacific.
Bataan Death March: April, 1942
76,000 prisoners [12,000 Americans]
Marched 60 miles in the blazing heat to POW
camps in the Philippines.
Bataan: British Soldiers
A
Liberated
British
POW
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle:
First U.S. Raids on Tokyo, 1942 The
Doolittle Raid
Sixteen U.S. bombers, led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle, take off from an aircraft
carrier 800 miles off Tokyo and make the first bombing raid against Japan.
Battle of the Coral Sea:
May 7-8, 1942
The Battle of Coral Sea
• Took Place on May 7th and
8th, 1942
• Was SW of the Solomon
Islands and E of New
Guinea
• It was the first Pacific War
battle of 6 battles between
opposing forces.
• The Battle of Coral Sea
resulted from Japanese
forces trying to capture
Fort Moresby on New
Guinea’s E coast, which
would threaten Australia’s
safety also.
Turning Point
• Japanese seemed to be winning the war.
• May 1942, the U.S. navy defeated the Japanese fleet
in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
• In June, American ships sank four enemy aircraft
carriers at the Battle of Midway.
• Japan’s navy never recovered its losses!
• Allies began forcing Japanese from the lands they had
taken over.
Battle of Midway Island:
June 4-6, 1942
Having achieved its initial
military goals by early
1942, the Japanese
decided to take more
Pacific outposts-including Midway Island
Although the Japanese
failed to achieve a clear
victory in the Coral Sea
and therefore had to
abandon their plans of
taking Port Moresby in
Papua New Guinea, they
nevertheless launched a
major naval expedition
towards the island of
Midway.
The Japanese planned to attack the Island of Midway, expanding
their hold on the Central Pacific. American intelligence intercepted
Japanese plans and knew of the impending Japanese attack. The
Americans sent their entire carrier force, including the recently
damaged "Yorktown," to intercept the Japanese force. The
Americans succeeded in sinking four Japanese carriers, losing
only the "Yorktown." This was the turning point in the Pacific War.
Yamamoto erred in dividing his force
of more than 160 vessels. The U.S.
commander, Adm. Chester Nimitz;
commander of the U.S. Navy in the
Pacific, with 76 ships available,
including the carriers Hornet,
Enterprise, and Yorktown, was
stronger than the Japanese thought.
Searches by U.S. aircraft established
the position of the Japanese fleet
BATTLE OF MIDWAY, a decisive naval battle of WW II
where U.S. dive-bombers sunk four Japanese carriers; and lost
one U.S. carrier. It is the turning point of the Pacific War.
This victory by the U.S. over Japan ended the Japanese
advance in the Pacific.
Battle of Midway Island:
June 4-6, 1942
Maximum Axis Control (Sept 1942)
The Tide Turns on Two Fronts
• Churchill wanted Britain and the United States to
strike first at North Africa and southern Europe. The
strategy angered Stalin. He wanted the Allies to open
the second front in France. The Soviet Union,
therefore, had to hold out on its own against the
Germans. All Britain and the United States could
offer in the way of help was supplies. Nevertheless,
late in 1942, the Allies began to turn the tide of war
both in the Mediterranean and on the Eastern Front.
The North Africa Campaign:
The Battle of El Alamein, 1942
Gen. Ernst Rommel,
The “Desert Fox”
Gen. Bernard
Law
Montgomery
(“Monty”)
Gen. Erwin Rommel with the 15th Panzer Division
between Tobruk and Sidi Omar. Sdf. Zwilling, Libya,
January or November 24, 1941.
The North African Campaign
• Rommel takes Tobruk, June 1942; pushes toward Egypt
• British General Montgomery attacks at El Alamein, forces Rommel back.
• What followed in the subsequent days was one of the fiercest tank battles in
world war history with both sides achieving mixed results. But at the end,
Allied forces gained the upper-hand and Rommel's forces had to
retreat, thereby not only losing one of the most crucial battles of
the war but also paving the way for the Allies to launch their
offensive against Mussolini's Italy.
• American forces land in Morocco, November 1942
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower— U.S. general who led allied
forces in North Africa and commanded the Allied forces that
landed at Normandy on D-Day.
• In May 1943, Rommel’s forces were defeated by Allies
George C. Scott
Playing General Patton in the
1968 Movie, “Patton”
The Eastern Front
• Hitler Invades the Soviet Union
– Germany invades an unprepared Soviet Union in
June 1941
– Soviet troops burn land as they retreat(Stalin’s
scorched earth tactics); Germans move into
Russia
– Germans stopped at Leningrad, forced to
undertake long siege
– Germans almost capture Moscow, but forced to
pull back
The Battle of Stalingrad
• German army moves to capture Soviet oil fields
• Battle of Stalingrad—Soviets, Germans battle for control of the
city
• German troops capture city, Finally, on January 31, 1943, after
what came to be considered as one of the greatest battles
of World War II, the German forces totaling around
91,000 men surrendered to the Russians in Stalingrad.
The Battle of Stalingrad was therefore a turning point in
WWII and marked the beginning of the German defeat
that was to with end in the capture of Berlin in 1945.
Russian soldiers prepare to attack German lines outside Leningrad.
Battle of Stalingrad:
Winter of 1942-1943
German Army
Russian Army
1,011,500 men
1,000,500 men
10,290 artillery guns
13,541 artillery guns
675 tanks
894 tanks
1,216 planes
1,115 planes
The Home Front
“Rosie the Riveterbased on a popular
song, became a
symbol of women
who entered the
workforce to fill the
jobs left vacant by
men serving in the
war.
Mexican Farm Workers
Bracero Program:
200,000 MexicanAmericans were sent to
LA in 1943, to work
• The U.S. forced
rationing of goods such
as wool, gas, butter, and
sugar were limited.
• The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots
that erupted in Los Angeles, CA during
WWII, between sailors and soldiers
stationed in the city and Hispanic youths,
who were recognizable by the zoot suits
they favored.
• While Mexican Americans were
mostly beaten, African American and
Filipino American youths were also
targeted.
http://www.library.ucla.edu/special/scweb/slwar11.htm
• The riots began in Los Angeles,
amidst a period of rising racial
tensions between American
servicemen stationed in southern
California and the Los Angeles’
Chicano community.
http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/13038/mcms.html
• Many of the tensions between the
Chicano community and the sailors
existed because the servicemen walked
through Chicano neighborhoods on the
way back to their barracks after nights of
drinking.
http://www.library.ucla.edu/special/scweb/slwar14.htm
• The discrimination against the Chicano
minority community was compounded by
robberies and fights during these
drunken interactions.
http://www.library.ucla.edu/special/scweb/slwar12.htm
• Clashes between white servicemen
and Hispanic youths increased. In May
1943, sailors claimed that “zoot suiters”
stabbed a sailor, and they retaliated by
beating young Hispanics leaving a local
dance.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_timeline/timeline2.html
• On May 31, 1943, a group of white sailors on
leave clashed with a group of young Hispanics
in the downtown area. One sailor, was badly
injured. In response, 50 white sailors gathered
and headed out to downtown and East Los
Angeles, which was the center of the Hispanic
community.
http://www.1947project.com/blog?from=245
• The sailors attacked young people,
especially targeting males in “zoot suits.”
In many instances, the police intervened
by arresting Hispanic youths for
disturbing the peace. The police left the
sailors to the military justice system.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_timeline/timeline2.html
Windtalkers
The Navajo Code Talkers
During WWII, on the dramatic day when
Marines raised the flag to signal a key
and decisive victory at Iwo Jima, the first
word of this amazing news crackled over
the radio in an odd language.
Throughout the war, the Japanese
were repeatedly baffled and confused
by these odd strange sounds.
The language conformed to no linguistic
system known to the Japanese.
http://www.cinema.com/image_lib/5087_004.jpg
The curious sounds were the U.S.
military’s one form of communicating
orders and plans that the master code
breakers in Tokyo were unable to
decipher.
This perfect code was the language of
the Navajo tribe.
http://www.lapahie.com/Pictures/Navajo_Platoon9_Sh.jpg
After a string of cryptographic (secret
codes) failures, the military in 1942 was
desperate for a way to send messages
among troops that would not be easily
intercepted by the enemy.
http://www.bulldozer.nu/bilder/windta3.jpg
Standard codes were an option, but the
cryptographers in Japan could quickly
crack them. The Japanese were excellent
at intercepting short-distance
communications…
…on walkie-talkies for example, and then
having well-trained English-speaking
soldiers either sabotage the message or
send out false commands to set up an
ambush.
Since Navajo had never been written
down or translated into any other
language, it was an entirely limited to
Navajos alone.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncollierjr/323361279/
Not long after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, the military sent 29 Navajos to
Camp Pendleton in California to begin a
test program.
http://www.larin.org/images/windtalkers_-_new_pic_3.jpg
These first recruits had to develop a Navajo
alphabet since none existed.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/images3/navajo-codetalkers01.jpg
And because the Navajo lacked words for
military technology, the men developed
symbols specific to their task.
Turtle = Tank
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39143222@N02/3709312850/
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/tanks/jap-tank-type95-ha-go2.jpg
“Everything we used in the code was
what we lived with on the reservation
every day,
like the ants, the birds, bears.”
– Code Talker Chester Nez
• Thus, the term for a tank was “turtle,” a
tank destroyer was “tortoise killer.” A
battleship a “whale.” A hand grenade
was “potato.” A fighter plane was
“hummingbird,” and a torpedo plane
“swallow.”
Japanese Zero fighter plane & bomber
http://www.gregscott.com/rwscott/rwscott.hummingbird_small.jpg
http://www.damninteresting.net/content/Japanese_Zero.jpg
It didn’t take long for the original 29
recruits to expand to an elite corps of
Marines, numbering at its height 425
Navajo Code Talkers, all from the
American Southwest.
http://www.samuelholiday.com/images/127-MN-69896.jpg
• Each Navajo Talker traveled everywhere
with a personal bodyguard. In the event
of capture, the Talkers had agreed to
commit suicide rather than allow the
valuable code from falling into the hands
of the enemy.
http://www.wpt.org/wayofthewarrior/images/WWII_Navajo-CT3.jpg
If a captured Navajo was unable to follow the grim
instructions, the bodyguard’s instructions were
understood: shoot and kill his code talker-Native
American radio operators who served in the Marines
during WWII, interpreting and communicating in a
secret code based on the Navajo language.
http://www.einsiders.com/reviews/archives/images/windtalkers.jpg
The language of the Code Talkers, and
their mission was a secret they were all
ordered to keep, even from their
families.
http://mprofaca.cro.net/codetalkers_obv.jpg
It wasn’t until 1968, when the military felt
convinced that the Code Talkers would
not be needed for any future wars…
http://www.wpt.org/wayofthewarrior/images/WWII_Navajo-CT3.jpg
…that America learned of the incredible
contribution a handful of Native
Americans made to winning history’s
biggest war.
http://www.wpt.org/wayofthewarrior/images/WWII_Navajo-CT3.jpg
http://gallery4collectors.com/images/VisionsofValorDavidBehrens.jpg
U.S. Wartime Propaganda
War Limits Civil Rights
• Japanese Americans face
prejudice and fear
• Army puts Japanese Americans
in internment camps in 1942
• Japanese interment- Over
100,000 Japanese Americans
were forced to relocate during
the war due to fear and
suspicion. Many lost everything.
Many people were afraid that Japanese Americans
that lived on the West Coast might be acting as
spies helping Japan attack the U.S.
• HOWEVER…There was NEVER any evidence that
Japanese Americans acted as spies during WWII.
Relocation
On February 19, 1942,
President Roosevelt issued
Executive Order 9066. This
forced Japanese Americans
to move from their homes to
“internment” camps.
This was to keep them from
spying by monitoring their
lives.
“Yellow Peril” became rampant
throughout the U.S.
11,000 Japanese families had to sell
their homes and businesses to
relocate to these camps. Evacuees
were allowed to take only what they
could carry. What they couldn’t sell
was just left for the taking.
Japanese Americans were put on buses
and shipped to one of 10 relocation
centers around the United States.
The barracks were
surrounded by barbed
wire and overseen by
high wooden
watchtowers. Privacy
was almost nonexistent.
Evacuees tried to make
the best of it by living
their lives with some
degree of normalcy.
Schools, libraries,
sports teams, churches,
and Americanization
classes were created.
Originally, FDR
considered the relocation
“legal” under
constitutional powers
granted to the president
during times of war.
Korematsu vs. U.S. -the
Supreme Court
supported the claim the
relocation was
constitutional because it
was based on “military
strategy,” not race.
Later, this was overturned
Japanese Men in WWII
• Later on into the war,
• Attended Military
Americans realized that
Intelligence Specialist
Japanese-Americans
School and eagerly
could be used as secret
enlisted in the military
weapons
• By Dec. 1944, 1500
• Japanese speaking
Japanese men had
individuals translated
enlisted in the 442nd
captured Japanese
regimental Combat Team
documents and
monitored radio traffic
An Apology
In 1988, the U.S.
government apologized
to Japanese Americans
for these internment
camps and paid all
internees $20,000.