World War II
on the Home Front
U.S. “Isolation” and the “Surprise Attack” on Pearl Harbor
The Wartime [Socialist] Economy
Role of Minorities in WWII
I.
II.
III.
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III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
African-Americans
Mexican-Americans
Native Americans
Role of Women in WWII
Japanese [American] Internment
U.S. Propaganda in Machine WWII
The Bombs
The first casualty of war is the truth.
U.S.
“Isolationism”
…Incremental steps towards intervention
U.S. “Isolationism”
• Nye Committee - 12 April 1934
(1) The anti-business climate caused Senator Gerald P. Nye (ND) to
investigate armament sales and manufacture during WWI, revealing that
huge profits had been made by American financiers and munitions
manufacturers
(2) Confirmed views of some that wars were fought to profit a small minority
(3) Set the stage for the rise of isolationist sentiment in the US
•
Johnson Debt Default Act - 13 April 1934 - Banned loans to foreign
governments in default to the US on their WWI debts (Finland was the only
nation not in default).
•
Ludlow Amendment - high point of isolationist sentiment
(1) Amendment offered by Rep. Louis Ludlow (IN) was narrowly defeated
by a vote of 202-200 in the 75th Congress.
(2) If passed, the US Congress could not have declared war without a
nationwide public referendum, unless the US or one of its possessions
were directly attacked.
(3) Showed the depth of isolationist sentiment among the American public.
U.S. “Isolationism”
•
FDR’s Chicago Quarantine Speech - 5 Oct 1937 - FDR's trial of collective security
(1) "When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in
a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of
the disease."
(2) FDR had moved ahead of public opinion polls that revealed a growing fear that the US might
be moving toward entanglement in another European war.
(3) 21 Mar 1938 - Hoover took issue with FDR, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations,
arguing against US involvement in collective security arrangements.
•
USS Panay Incident - 12 Dec 1937
(1) Japan, at war with China, attacked a river gunboat, the USS Panay on the Yangtze River, killing
two US citizens.
(2) Although the US government immediately protested Japanese actions, instead of demanding
action against Japan, US public opinion demanded to know what the Panay was doing, escorting
Esso oil tankers to China in a war zone.
(3) 14 Dec - Japan officially apologized for the attack, agreed to pay damages and promised to
avoid such attacks in the future.
(4) US public was reluctant to risk any actions which might involve the US in another war.
•
FDR began private correspondence with Churchill, promising to aid Britain in whatever capacity
he legally could.
•
1938 State of the Union Address - FDR noted a need for adequate strength in
self defense.
U.S. “Isolationism”
…in response to German invasion of Poland (Sept 1939)
• 3 Sept - During his "fireside chat," FDR stated that the US would
remain neutral, and he partially limited travel to Europe.
• 5 Sept - FDR ordered the reconditioning of 40 destroyers, beginning
a neutrality patrol around the Western Hemisphere.
• 8 Sept - A limited national emergency was declared.
• 27 Sept - A special session of Congress considered repealing the
arms embargo of the third Neutrality Act
• By May 1940 Germany had captured Norway, Denmark,
Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
• By June 1940, Vichy gov in France
• Sept 1940 - Tripartite Pact - Germany, Italy and Japan
U.S. “Isolationism”
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First Neutrality Act - 31 Aug 1935 - Feb 1936
(a) Created a federal agency to consider arms sales. Still an arms embargo
(b) US citizens could travel on belligerent vessels or into war zones at their own
risk.
(c) It was first used in Oct 1935 when Italy attacked Ethiopia.
Second Neutrality Act - Feb 1936 - 1 May 1937 - extended the first act
(a) It added a prohibition against extending loans or credit to belligerents
(b) US stated that it would not interfere in Spain's civil war. US recognized the
new government of Spain.
Third Neutrality Act - 1 May 1937 - revised the provisions of 1st 2 acts.
(a) Est. cash-and-carry system, effectively limiting US ships from carrying
goods into war zones.
(b) The US shipped much aid to China
(c) Est. embargo on armaments, and not to raw materials which could produce
munitions, allowing Japan to continue to purchase from US sources such items
as scrap iron, copper, and oil.
Fourth Neutrality Act - 4 Nov 1939
(a) After Germany invaded Poland, Congress repealed the arms embargo
(b) It allowed belligerent nations to purchase munitions on the same cash-and
carry basis, which obviously favored the sea power, Britain.
U.S. “Isolationism”
•
FDR added two interventionists to his cabinet.
a. Henry L. Stimson Secretary of War.
b. Frank Knox Secretary of the Navy.
•
Alien Registration Act - 28 June - required registration and finger printing of aliens
•
Declaration of Havana - 30 July - To ensure that European colonies in the Western
Hemisphere would not be taken over by Germany, if the mother country fell to
Germany, affected colonies would be administered by other Western hemisphere
nations.
•
First Peace Time Draft - 16 Sept 1940
a. Burke-Wadsworth (Selective Training and Service ) Act -- registering all men
aged 18-35, and authorized training of 1,200,000 over a 1-year period with 800,000
reserve forces.
b. 16 Oct - The first registration began - 16,400,000 registered.
c. 29 Oct - The first draft numbers were selected
Destroyers for Bases Deal - 3 Sept - The US transferred 50 destroyers to the
British, in exchange for 99-year leases on naval and air bases in British possessions
in the Western Hemisphere: Newfoundland, West Indies, Bermuda, the Bahamas,
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antiqua and British Guiana.
Pittman Resolution permitted the US arms sales to Latin America.
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U.S. “Isolationism”
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Committee To Defend America By Aiding the Allies - Chaired by William Allen White , favored
aid to the Allies short of American combat forces.
Friends of Democracy, stressed that fascism was a greater threat than communism.
Non-Interventionists: America First Committee
– Formed by Sears executive Gen. Robert Wood, peaked at 800,000 members including
Henry Ford, Alice Roosevelt Longsworth and Charles Lindbergh .
– Lindbergh made several speeches for the committee which stressed:
(1) Impossibility of a German attack across the Atlantic;
(2) Wealth of nations like Britain was acquired at the expense of poorer European nations
like Germany;
(3) German-dominated post-war Europe was not detrimental to our hemisphere
(4) Lindbergh used Nazi themes, like the Jewish press conspiracy, and the public linked the
organization to Nazism and it lost popularity.
Election of 1940
– Dems in Chicago nominated FDR for an unprecedented third term. Henry A. Wallace VP
– Republicans nominated Wendell L. Willkie (IN), corporate lawyer, who had never held public
office and Sen Charles McNary VP
– Both Willkie and FDR supported building up America's defenses and aiding the Allies, short
of combat troops, thus providing no referendum on this issue.
– Republicans attacked the New Deal, but favored most of its reforms, while the Democrats
stood on FDR's record.
– FDR won 449 electoral (27,244,160 popular) votes to Willkie's 82 electoral (10 states)
(22,305,198 popular) votes.
U.S. “Isolationism”
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Lend-Lease HR 1776 - "An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the US“
– 17 Dec 1940 - In a fireside chat, FDR proposed what became known as
"Lend-Lease" illustrated by his garden hose analogy—"Suppose my
neighbor's house catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four
or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it
up to his hydrant, I may help him to put out the fire. Now what do I do? I
don't say to him before that operation, 'Neighbor, my garden hose cost
me $15. You have to pay me $15 for it.' What is the transaction that
goes on? I don't want $15 - I want my garden hose back after the fire is
over.“
– 11 Mar - Congress approved Lend-Lease, appropriation of $7 billion
– Lend-Lease terminated in Sept 1946 after expending $50.6 billion.
29 Dec - A poll revealed that 39% believed that the US had made a mistake
participating in WWI, down from 64% in 1937.
6 Jan 1941 - State of the Union Address: enunciated his Four Freedoms
Speech - Freedom of speech and expression, of worship, from want, from
fear
U.S. “Isolationism”
• U.S. Occupation of Countries – 1941
– 9 April - The US occupied Greenland as a result of a joint agreement
between the US and the Danish government
– 7 July - US Marines occupied Iceland to keep the Germans from using it
as a strike base
• 18 Aug - The Selective Service Bill was extended for 18 months by a
vote of 203-202
• Atlantic Charter 14 Aug 1941. Provided a purpose for fighting the
war including
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a renunciation of all aggression
self-determination of peoples
equal access to raw materials
guarantees for freedom from want and fear
freedom of the seas
disarmament of aggressor nations.
became a blueprint for the UN
U.S. “Isolationism”
• Battle of Britain - 10 July - 31 Oct 1940
• German Violation of Non-Aggression
Pact with USSR 22 June 1941
• Immediate aid to the USSR 24 June 1941
• 25 Nov - the Germans inside the Soviet
Union were almost entirely surrounded
and the turning point of the European
war , the Battle of Stalingrad, began.
“Surprise” Attack on Pearl Harbor
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FDR's Quarantine Speech, Oct. 1937, called for Japan to be “treated like a
disease”
Economic sanctions designed to stop Japanese war machine
– Trade treaty with Japan not renewed in January, 1940
– Aviation fuel, scrap iron, and steel embargoed, September, 1940
– Japanese assets in American banks frozen, July, 1941
– Aid to China
• $125 million lent to China in 1940
• U.S. fleet to Pearl Harbor in 1940
• Lend--Lease" extended to China , April, 1941
• The "Flying Tigers" arrived in China, April, 1941 (Claire Chennault)
With Japan's occupation of Indochina in the summer of 1941, FDR froze all
Japanese credits in the US, nationalized forces in the Philippines under Gen
Douglas MacArthur's command and warned Japan against further
aggressive actions in the East.
By Oct 1941 signs appeared that Japan might attack an US Pacific
possession
3 Nov - US Ambassador to Japan, Joseph Grew, warned of a possible
attack on US positions, but the general consensus suggested the
Philippines, not Hawaii.
Entry into the War
• The Attack
– Sunday 7 Dec 1941 at 7:55 A.M. Honolulu time
– 19 ships were sunk or disabled, 170 planes were lost and 2,403 civilian
and military personnel were killed and 1,178 were wounded.
– Japan launched simultaneous attacks on the Philippines, Wake Island,
Guam, Midway Islands and on British forces at Hong Kong and in the
Malay Peninsula.
– That evening Japan officially declared war on the US
• 8 Dec - FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan
– Senate - 82-0.
– House - 388-1, lone dissenter vote, Jeannette Rankin (MT)
(Republican), who had voted no to war in WW I, making her the only
person to vote against both
• 11 Dec - Under the terms of the Tripartite Pact, Germany and Italy
declared war on the US. Reciprocated w/o debate in Congress.
• 19 Dec - Military conscription was extended to all men aged 20-44.
The
[Socialist]
Wartime
Economy
The [Socialist] Wartime Economy
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War Resources Board (1939):
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Designed to allocate resources for production
Proved inefficient and unable to meet the required needs
•
Office of Production Management: William Knudsen of GM and Sidney Hillman of
CIO.
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War Production Board (1942)
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to regulate the use of raw materials
Inefficiency and big profits hurt US production
1/2 of factory production went into war materials.
produced twice as many goods as all the enemy countries combined.
Office of Price Administration (1941). Designed to control inflation by
– fixing prices
– high taxes—Corporate taxes set at 40%.
• Taxes raised only 46% of the cost of the war
• 1939 -- 4 million filed tax returns; in 1945 --50 million!
– selling war bonds
– encouraging Victory Gardens
The [Socialist] Wartime Economy
• Office of Economic Stabilization of the Office of Price
Administration (OPA)
– Replaced all other agencies and held complete control of the
economy
– Successfully solved America's production problems
– Froze prices and rents at March 1942 levels
– Rationing
• Certificate Plan: buy cars, tires, typewriters, etc.:
• Coupon Plan -- more widely used. Family issued book of
coupons for the purchase of meat, coffee, sugar, gas, etc.
– Anti-inflation measures successful
• WWI cost of living up 170%
• WWII was less than 29%
• Beginning of National Debt
– 1941 = $49 billion; 1945 = $259 billion
– 2/5 was pay as we go; 3/5 was borrowed!
– New Deal + WWII = "warfare welfare" state.
War Production Board
Executive Order 9024
OPA Executive Order 8734
War Bond Propaganda
Rationing in Propaganda
Rationing in Propaganda
The Role of Minorities
During World War II
African-Americans
Mexican-Americans
Native Americans
Minorities in the Armed Services
• African Americans- 1,000,000+ worked in segregated
units and did not see much front-line action.
• Mexican Americans- 500,000 Saw a lot of front-line
action. 1/10 of the population of Los Angeles, yet
accounted for 1/5 of the casualties.
• Native Americans- 25,000 By enlisting, they were able
to leave reservations. Code talkers.
• Asian Americans - 46,000 Many Asians became spies
for the U.S., translating important information from China
and Japan.
Minorities in the Armed Services
Why did they fight?
• Most minorities realized that their lives would be
much worse if they were under the Axis Powers’
control. Germany, Italy, and Japan were more
racist than the United States.
• The U.S. was increasingly tolerant of racial
differences.
• Many minorities saw their commitment to the US
war effort as a means to the end of equality.
• Propaganda works
African-Americans: Tuskegee Airmen
"A couple of our fighters rescued a
crippled bomber and brought them back to
base. The bomber's flight crew came over
to look us up and when the pilot
discovered there was nothing but black
faces, he turned around and walked
away."
"We shared the sky with white pilots, but
that's all we shared. We never had contact
with each other. German prisoners lived
better than black servicemen...and the
Germans treated us better than the
Americans did. Our service is something
that just never got into history books. It
was just ignored."
--Joseph Gomer
African-Americans & Civil Rights
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During WWII, massive migration of minorities to industrial centers.
Competition for scarce resources (e.g. housing) & tension in the workplace.
Racial minorities struggled to fight restrictions of caste and color
Many whites rallied to the defense of the minorities
Violence plagued 47 cities
Detroit Race Riot in June, 1943; 25 blacks dead; 9 whites;
– 6,000 federal troops needed to restore order
– $2 million in property damage
A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
– African-Americans were excluded from well-paying jobs in war-related industries.
– Randolph made three demands of the president
• Equal access to defense jobs
• Desegregation of the armed forces
• End to segregation in federal agencies
Congress of Racial Equality (1942): est. 1942 by Chicagoan James Farmernonviolent action to promote better race relations and end discrimination.
Most minorities came home to pre-war racial segregation.
African-Americans: A. Philip Randolph
•
March on Washington Movement -Randolph proposed a black March on
Washington in 1941 if his conditions
were not met.
– FDR issued Executive Order 8802
in June, 1941 establishing the
Fair Employment Practices
Committee (FEPC) to investigate
violations in defense industries.
– FDR did not agree to other two
demands
– Randolph canceled the March
– Result: Gov’t agencies, job
training programs, and defense
contractors ended segregation
– Randolph dubbed "father of the
Civil Rights movement"
•
NAACP grows in membership from
50,000 before the war, to 500,000 by
war’s end
Black Nurses preparing to land in Greenock,
Scotland. August 15, 1944
Blacks making an airplane
Negro League All Star Team During
WWII
Mexican-Americans
Zoot Suit Riots L.A (1943)
• Young Mexican-Americans
became object of frequent violent
attacks in LA.
• Sailors on leave roamed streets
beating "zooters," tearing their
clothes, cutting their hair.
• The War Frauds Division got an
injunction forbidding one shop to
sell any of the 800 zoot suits in
stock. Claiming that the
shopkeeper had contributed to
"hoodlumism," agents said they
had found that great numbers of
zoot coats and pants were being
made in New York and Chicago.
• Radio reports blamed zooters but
a city committee under Earl
Warren revealed the truth and
need for improved housing.
Mexican Americans
The Bracero Program – 1942
During the war, the need for increased farm production led to a U.S.
government policy for short-term work permits to
be issued to Mexican workers
It was a dirty, miserable job that gave real meaning
to the term "backbreaking" labor. The work was
done with two "instruments of horror" designed by
the devil, according to one worker. One was the
infamous "short shoe," which had a handle twelve
to eighteen inches long. A regular long-handled
hoe could have been used, but it was considered
harmful to the plants. With the short hoe, there was
less margin for error. However, the modified hoe
required the user to work in a bent over position
and crawl along the dusty rows of beets for ten or
twelve hours a day. At the end of the shift, it was
nearly impossible to stand up straight. For young
bodies, it eventually meant assuming a partially
stooped position and suffering painful backaches
for life. The other tool, more rightly called a
weapon, resembled a razor-sharp machete with a
mean, semi-curved, three or four-inch hook riveted
on the end. Working at breakneck speed to pick up
the beet with the hook and slice off the top in one
swing was dangerous work. It was rare to meet a
betabelero (beet worker) who had not lost a finger
or did not bear the scars of his trade.
DECADE OF BETRAYAL, Francisco E. Balderrama and
Raymond Rodríguez, University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
Native Americans
The Navajo code talkers
took part in every
assault the U.S.
Marines conducted in
the Pacific between
1942 to 1945. The
Navajo language’s
extreme complexity
made it the perfect
language for “code
talk.” As of 1945 about
540 Navajos, out of
about 50,000 tribe
members, served as
Marines.
Japanese [American] Internment
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Background: 1942 was a critical year for the
survival of the Allied powers. Japan controlled
all of Southeast Asia and most of China;
Germany controlled Western Europe, N. Africa,
and were deep inside the Soviet Union.
23 Feb - Oil refinery near Santa Barbara CA
was shelled by Japanese sub.
June 1942- Japan occupied two Aleutian
Islands, Attu and Kiska
Japanese troops on US soil had great
psychological affects for Japan and US
Japanese [American] Internment
• 29 Feb 1942 - To counter fears of a Japanese invasion, FDR
authorized EO 9066 removing Japanese-Americans from the Pacific
coast states.
– FDR authorized the War Dept. to declare the West Coast a "war
theater".
– 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly interned.
• 1/3 were Issei -- foreign born
• 2/3 were Nisei -- American born usually too young to vote
– They were given 48 hours to dispose of their belongings. Most families
received only about 5% of their possessions’ worth.
– Camps were in desolate areas
– Conditions harsh, yet many remained loyal to US; after 1943, 17,600
Nisei fought in US Army.
– Relocation became "necessary" when other states would not accept
Japanese residents from California.
– Although gov’t considered relocation of Germans and Italians, the
Japanese were the only ethnic group singled out by the gov’t for action.
Japanese [American] Internment
8 March - War Relocation Authority was created for the purpose of interning all West Coast
Japanese-Americans . General John DeWitt organized the removal of people of Japanese
ancestry to 10 locations in 7 states
Japanese [American] Internment
Japanese [American] Internment
Japanese [American] Internment
• Supreme Court upheld these actions aimed at
Japanese-Americans
– Hirabayashi v. US - 21 June 1943 - unanimously upheld
internment citing the authority to wage war successfully.
• Could not second-guess military decisions Court also ruled that
persons couldn’t be held once loyalty was established.
– Korematsu v. US - 18 Dec 1944 - 6 to 3 upheld the exclusion of
the Japanese from the West Coast (a military decision because
the US was at war with Japan).
– FYI: The rulings of the US Supreme Court in the Korematsu and
Hirabayashi cases, specifically in its expansive interpretation of
government powers in wartime, have yet to be overturned.
Japanese [American] Internment
• Represented the greatest violation of civil liberties during
WWII.
– $105 million of farmland lost
– $500 million in yearly income; unknown personal savings.
• No act of sabotage was ever proven against any
Japanese-American
• Camps closed in March, 1946
• 1988, President Reagan officially apologized for its
actions and approved in principle the payment of
reparations to camp survivors totaling $1.25 billion.
• In 1990 Congress appropriated funds to pay $20,000 to
each internee.
Women in WWII
How women contributed to the war effort
Women in WWII
• More than 5 million women joined the labor force during
the war, often moving to new communities to find jobs in
the aircraft, munitions, and automobile industries.
• Propaganda campaigns worker
– Films characterized "Rosie the Riveter" as an American heroine
– Women’s magazines and newspapers discussed the suitability of
women’s smaller hands for "delicate" tasks.
• Women’s increased wages from jobs in industry helped
to swell family incomes and pave the way for postwar
consumer demand.
• Despite these gains, in 1945 an average woman’s pay
was still less than 2/3 that of a male worker, and at war’s
end, pressures increased on women to return to
homemaking rather than to stay in the work force.
Women Airforce Service Pilots
WASP
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to free male pilots for combat roles by
employing qualified female pilots on
missions such as ferrying aircraft from
factories to military bases, and towing
drones and aerial targets
More than 25,000 women applied for
WASP service, and less than 1,900
were accepted.
After completing four months of
military flight training, 1,078 of them
earned their wings and became the
first women in history to fly American
military aircraft.
No gunnery training and very little
formation flying and acrobatics
38 WASP fliers lost their lives while
serving their country during the war—
11 in training and 27 on active duty
Women in Propaganda
Women in Propaganda
Our women and children
MUST be protected!
“He not only attacks
our soldiers, but
ravages the women
we are trying to
protect!”
Other focuses of U.S.
Propaganda During WWII
Patriotic Propaganda:
The Four Freedoms, Norman Rockwell
Patriotic Propaganda:
The Four Freedoms, Norman Rockwell
Security Concerns in
Propaganda
Anti-Axis Propaganda
Anti-Axis Propaganda
Anti-Axis Propaganda
Pro-Allied Propaganda
Look familiar?
September 11, 2001?
The End?
The Atomic Bombs
Developing the Bombs
• Office of Scientific Research and Development was
established by executive order with J. Robert
Oppenheimer as chief scientist
• Its primary purpose was to coordinate the American
scientific effort to develop radar, proximity fuses, sonar
against submarines and an atomic bomb.
• 1 May 43 - Development of the atomic bomb was
transferred to the US Army and placed in the care of a
unit known as the "Manhattan Project" for security
reasons.
• 16 July 45 - First atomic bomb, code named Trinity, was
exploded in Alamogordo, NM
Dropping the Bombs
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At the Potsdam conference, Allies demanded the unconditional
surrender of Japan
26 July - The Allies warned Japan that they must surrender or face
sudden destruction from a newly developed weapon.
29 July - Japan formally rejected the Allied demand
When realizing a land assault on mainland Japan would likely result in
untold 1000s of Allied casualties, Truman's decided:
– Revenge for Pearl Harbor “sneak attack”
– To speed up the end of the war without thousands of Allied casualties
– To serve as a warning to the Soviet Union of US power
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6 Aug - An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima resulting in over
70,000 dead and 110,000 wounded or missing
8 Aug - USSR declared war on Japan, 90 days after VE Day
9 Aug - A second bomb dropped on Nagasaki - 80,000 casualties.
1/7 of victims were Korean conscript workers
10 Aug - Japan surrendered asking to let emperor Hirohito keep his
throne.
14 Aug - Japan accepted the Allied terms of surrender and its troops in
Korea surrendered to the Soviets above the 38th parallel and to Allied
forces below it.
15 Aug - VJ Day was declared.