• Students will explain the impact World War II
had on America politically, economically, and
socially
• Students will explain the role America played in
defeating Germany, Italy, and Japan
• Industrial output of US
astounded world
• US workers twice as productive
as Germans and five times as
productive as Japanese
• US had begun building up
military before Pearl Harbor
• Government used Cost-Plus
Contracts – paid companies cost
of product and percentage of
cost as profits
• Before Pearl Harbor some businesses
were making war materiel but most
produced consumer goods
• After Pearl Harbor 200,000 companies
began producing war goods
• Automobile factories began producing
tanks, trucks, and jeeps
• Henry Ford produced bombers using
the assembly line
• Automobile manufacturers eventually
produced 1/3 of all war materiel
• Henry Kaiser’s shipyards also
used mass production methods
• Liberty ships – main cargo ships
of the war; welded – hard to sink
• War Production Board –
established to control
production and allocate
resources
• Office of War Mobilization –
settled arguments between
agencies
• After the fall of France, Congress
passed Selective Service and
Training Act – first peacetime
draft in US history
• Equipment shortages
• GI – Government Issue
• Vets later complained training
was useless – too rushed and
too much physical training
• US military units segregated –
with white officers
• Double V Campaign – blacks
wanted to fight to win victory
over enemy but also victory over
racism at home
• FDR encouraged black combat
units and appointed Benjamin O.
Davis first black general
• African-Americans in Combat
 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee
Airmen) - Mediterranean
 761st Tank Battalion – Battle of the
Bulge
 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion –
won 8 Silver Stars, 28 Bronze Stars,
and 79 Purple Hearts
 US military bases integrated in
1943
• Women in WWII
 Women enlisted for first time –
barred from combat
 Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
(WAAC) replaced by Women’s
Army Corps (WAC)
 Oveta Culp Hobby – first director
• Japanese attacked US bases in
Philippines same day as Pearl
Harbor
• Commander of US forces, General
Douglas MacArthur, decided to
retreat to Bataan Peninsula
• US and Filipino troops held out 3
months before surrendering –
78,000 men marched into captivity
• March became known as Bataan
Death March
• Last US base in Philippines at
Corregidor surrendered May 1942
• The Doolittle Raid
 FDR wanted to raise US morale by
hitting back at Japanese
 US planned on launching bombers
from aircraft carrier to bomb Tokyo
 Bombers commanded by James
Doolittle
 Bombers attacked Tokyo April 18,
1942
 Pilots forced to bail out or crash land
in China
 Chinese punished for helping US
pilots
• Japan planned to attack US
supply lines to Australia by
seizing New Guinea
• US and Japanese forces met in
Battle of Coral Sea
• US lost an aircraft carrier (USS
Lexington) but caused Japan to
call of attack on New Guinea
• US broke Japanese naval code
• Knew Japan was going to attack
US base at Midway Island
• US carriers ambushed Japanese
Navy June 4, 1942
• US sank 4 Japanese carriers
• Battle was turning point in war –
Japan now on defense
• Josef Stalin asked US to open
second front against Germany to
relieve pressure on USSR
• US and Britain not strong enough
to hit France – attacked North
Africa
• North Africa was vital for Britain –
Suez Canal link to empire
• Battle of Kasserine Pass – Germany
embarrassed US
• US forces placed under command
of General Patton – forced
Germany out of North Africa
• Battle of the Atlantic
 Germany had sunk hundreds of US
cargo ships going to and from
Britain
 US Navy set up Convoy system –
cargo ships traveled in large
groups protected by US warships
 US built more ships than Germans
could sink
 New technology helped US track
and sink subs
• Battle of Stalingrad
 Germans attempted to capture
Russian city of Stalingrad
 Fierce house-to-house fighting
 Hitler ordered Germans to fight to
the death
 Almost 250,000 German soldiers
trapped
 Over 91,000 Germans surrendered
(only about 5,000 survived POW
camps)
 Battle was turning point in Eastern
Europe – Germans on defense
• WWII ended the Great
Depression
• Almost 19 million new jobs
created
• Women and minorities hired due
to labor shortage
• Even married women hired to
work in factories
• Rosie the Riveter
• Factories reluctant to hire blacks
• A. Philip Randolph, head of
Sleeping Car Porters Union,
threatened to have union march
on Washington
• FDR signed Executive Order 8802
– declared there shall be no
discrimination in hiring
• To help farmers, US introduced
Bracero Program
• US imported Mexican
farmworkers to help harvest
crops
• Program continued to 1964
• Migrant farmworkers became
part of US Southwest
agricultural system
• Navajo Code Talkers
 Radio codes often broken by
enemy
 Navajo language “hidden” – no
written alphabet
 Navajos developed simple code
and spoke in Navajo language
 Made communication in battle
more efficient
 Navajos were secret weapon
• Industrial production for war
effort caused migrations of
people across country
• Sunbelt - Deep South became
new industrial area
• Housing shortage – many people
lived in tents or trailers
• Government created cheap
fabricated housing
• Great Migration resumed in WWII
• Racial tensions increased as people
competed for scarce resources and
jobs
• Worst racial violence of the war
occurred in Detroit June 1943
• Fight started between white and
black girls
• Riots resulted in 25 blacks and 9
whites dead
• Zoot Suit Riots
 Racial tensions rose along with
teenage crime
 Racism against Latinos in LA
 Zoot suit versus victory suit
 June 1943, rumors spread that
Latinos attacked servicemen
 About 2,500 servicemen attacked
Latino neighborhoods
 Many Latinos served in military –
17 Mexican-Americans earned
Medal of Honor in WWII
• Japanese-American Internment
 Attack on Pearl Harbor caused
anger at Japanese
 People discriminated against
Japanese-Americans
 Many feared Japanese-Americans
would be disloyal
 FDR signed Executive Order
allowing military to remove
Japanese-Americans to relocation
camps
 Korematsu v. United States – US
Supreme Court ruled relocation
was constitutional
 442nd RCT – unit of JapaneseAmericans fought in Italy; most
decorated US unit
 Japanese American Citizens
League – established to help
internees recover property after
the war
• Wage and price controls
• Rationing – food, gasoline, tires,
meat, etc.
• Blue Coupons – processed foods
• Red Coupons – meats, fats, and
oils
• Victory Gardens
• Scrap Drives
• E-Bonds – over $100 billion in
bonds bought
• Strategic bombing – US and
Britain bombed Germany night
and day
• Did not succeed in destroying
German economy or morale but
did cause some shortages
• Bombing campaign controversial
– destroyed major cities like
Dresden
• The Italian Campaign
 Allies attacked and took Sicily
 Attacked Italy
 Italy’s king arrested Mussolini and
Italy surrendered
 Allies continued fighting Germans in
Italy – stopped at Cassino
 Hitler freed Mussolini (later killed by
partisans)
 US invaded Italy at Anzio – hoping to
bypass Cassino / capture Rome
 Italy fight still going when Germany
surrendered May 1945
• Meeting at Tehran
 FDR, Churchill, and Stalin
 Allies agreed to split up Germany
after the war
 Stalin agreed to help against Japan
after Germany defeated
 All agreed to FDR’s proposal for
establishment of United Nations
• D-Day
 Code-name Operation Overlord
 Allied deception plan as to
location of invasion
 Invasion at Normandy – June 6,
1944
 Largest naval armada in history
 Landings at five beaches
 Omaha - US
 Utah - US
 Gold - Britain
 Sword - Britain
 Juno - Canada
• Driving the Japanese Back – US
Navy
 Led by Admiral Chester Nimitz
 Island-Hopping strategy
 Tarawa – Coral reefs impede
landings causing high casualty rate
 Islands taken provided air bases to
strike Japanese bases
 Navy taking islands closer and
closer to Japan – Saipan and Guam
• Driving the Japanese Back – US
Army
 Led by General Douglas
MacArthur
 Guadalcanal – first island taken
 Attacked New Guinea
 Invaded Philippines
 Invasion resulted in heavy US and
Filipino civilian casualties
 First Japanese use of Kamikazes –
“Divine Wind” suicide planes used
to sink US ships
• D-Day was success but Allies
took month to take western
France due to hedgerows –
dense trees & bushes bordering
French fields
• Paris liberated August 1944
• Battle of the Bulge
 Last major German offensive in
west
 Tried to take Allied supply port
 “Battling Bastards of Bastogne”
• Bridge at Remagen
• Russia advances into Germany –
takes Berlin
• Death of Hitler – FDR died two
weeks earlier
• Unconditional German
surrender April 1945 – VE Day
• War in Pacific continued
• Airfields needed closer to Japan
for bombers
• Iwo Jima invaded – brutal battle
• General Curtis LeMay orders fire
bombing of Japanese cities using
napalm – jellied gasoline
• More Japanese killed in
firebombing of Tokyo (80,000 +)
than in later atomic blast
• Island of Okinawa invaded – 350
miles from Japan
• Brutal battle – 12,000 Americans
killed
• US demanded Japan’s
unconditional surrender – many
in Japanese government wanted
to keep fighting
• Emperor must stay in power
• The Manhattan Project
 Einstein wrote letter to FDR
warning of German attempt
to build atomic bomb
 US begins massive effort to
build atomic bomb
 If US forced to invade Japan
– massive US and Japanese
casualties expected
 President Truman to decide
if bomb should be dropped
on Japan
Fat Man
Little Boy
• Little Boy – Hiroshima 6 August
1945
• Fat Man – Nagasaki 9 August
1945
• USSR declared war on Japan –
overran Manchuria and
Mongolia
• Japan surrendered 15 August
1945 – VJ Day
• United Nations
 General Assembly
 Security Council – permanent
members – veto power
 United States
 USSR
 Great Britain
 France
 China (Nationalist)
 Charter – constitution / rules
• International Military Tribunal
• Nuremberg Trials
 Trials of Nazi war criminals
 Crimes against humanity
 Trials also conducted in Japan
 Emperor Hirohito not tried