The U.S. in World War II
1941-1945
Declarations of War


U.S. declared war on Japan on December
8, 1941
December 11, Germany and Italy declared
war on the U.S.
• “Germany first”

Declaration of the United Nations
• January 1, 1942, representatives of 26 nations
met in D.C. and signed the Declaration of the
United Nations
• Pledged themselves to principles of Atlantic
Charter
• Promised not to make a separate peace with
their common enemies
Japanese Empire

Conquests in Pacific
• U.S. islands of Guam, Wake Island, & Gilbert
Islands fell by end of December
• Philippines taken in March 1942

Resources
• Controlled 95% of world's raw rubber; 70% of
tin; 70% of rice
• Oil from Dutch East Indies
• Rice from Indochina

Dominated population of 450 million
• Played on Asians’ bitterness of European
colonial rule
• "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere”

"Asia for the Asians”
The Home Front

Military mobilization
• Selective Service registration expanded to
men 18-65 after Pearl Harbor
• 258,000 women enlisted as WAC's
(Women's Army Corp), WAVES (Women
Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service),
and WAF's (Women's Auxiliary Ferrying
Squadron)

By war's end, 16 million men and women
served
• only 72,000 claimed "conscientious objection”
• only 5,500 refused to register; were jailed
• Nearly a million African Americans served in
segregated units

Economic mobilization
• OWM (Office for War Mobilization)
established to supervise various agencies
intended to increase war production
• War Production Board

WPD est. in 1942 by FDR to regulate the use of raw
materials

"Rosie the Riveter“
• Over 5 million women joined labor force
during the war, work in aircraft, munitions,
and automobile industries
• Propaganda:

American heroine- movies, magazines, ads
• Women’s increased wages increased family
incomes
• Despite gains, women return to homemaking
Women played an important role in the war effort on the
homefront

Controlling inflation
• More people were working but less consumer
goods were available
• Too much $ = inflation; cost of living
increased
• War Labor Board: sought to maintain
workers' standard of living; wages kept pace
with rise in cost of living
• Office of Economic Stabilization -Office of Price Administration (OPA)


Froze prices and rents at March 1942 levels
Rationing
• Coupon Plan -- more widely used
 Families issued coupon books to buy of meat, coffee,
sugar, gas, etc.
• Anti-inflation measures successful


WWI cost of living up 170%
WWII -- less than 29%
RATIONING
SUGAR LINE
GASOLINE LINE
TO LEARN
HOW TO
USE
RATIONING
STAMPS,
THESE
SCHOOL
CHILDREN
SET UP A
BOOTH
WITH
CHARTS
AND
PRODUCTS
TO FIGURE
OUT HOW
TO BUY
NEEDED
GOODS
DURING
THE WAR

Taxes were increased to finance the war
• Many who had never had to pay taxes were
now required to
• 1939 -- 4 million filed tax returns; in 1945 --50
million!

National Debt
• 1941 = $49 billion; 1945 = $259 billion
FEDERAL SPENDING INCREASE
IN BILLIONS OF DOLLARS,
1940-1945
100
80
BUDGET
60
MILITARY
40
ALL OTHER
SPENDING
20
0
1940
1945

Smith-Connolly Antistrike Act (1943)
-- expired in 1947
• Authorized gov’t seizure of plant or mine idled
by a strike if war effort affected
• Response to strikes especially by John L.
Lewis

1943, 450,000 United Mine Workers members
went on strike who were denied a raise by the
National War Labor Board

Science goes to war: Office of Scientific
Research and Development (OSRD)
• Organized before Pearl Harbor, led to
advances in technology (radar, insecticides)
• Manhattan Project—1942


Established to research all aspects of building Abomb
Formed after Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi
warned FDR in a letter in 1939 that Germany was
working on building a bomb through nuclear
fission
• Los Alamos, New Mexico -- group charged
with building the bomb itself

Headed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Trinity -- first test July 16, 1945 in desert
outside Alamogordo, New Mexico
Discrimination during the war

African American civil rights issues
• During war years, there was massive
migration of minorities to industrial centers

Competition for scarce resources (e.g. housing) &
tension in workplace
• Violence plagued 47 cities, the worst example
occurring in Detroit

Detroit Race Riot in June, 1943; 25 blacks dead;
9 whites
• 6,000 federal troops needed to restore order
• $2 million in property damage
Despite
improved
economic
opportunities
African
Americans still
suffered
discrimination in
housing and
other areas. In
Detroit tensions
erupted into full
scale rioting in
the summer of
1943, where 34
people lost their
lives.
• A. Philip Randolph, president of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters


Blacks were excluded from well-paying jobs in warrelated industries
Randolph made three demands of the president
• Equal access to defense jobs
• Desegregation of the armed forces
• End to segregation in federal agencies

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 1941
establishing 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, & defense
contractors ended segregation
• Randolph dubbed "father of the Civil Rights movement”

NAACP grew from 50,000 before the war, to
500,000 members by war’s end

Mexican Americans
• Bracero Program

During the war, need for increased farm
production led to a U.S. gov't policy for short-term
work permits to be issued to Mexican workers
• Zoot Suit riots in L.A. (1943)



Young Mexican-Americans became object of
frequent violent attacks in LA.
Sailors roamed streets beating "zooters," tearing
their clothes, cutting their hair
Radio reports blamed zooters but a city committee
under Earl Warren revealed the truth and need for
improved housing
RACIAL
TENSIONS
IN LOS
ANGELES
LED TO THE
“ZOOT
SUIT”
RIOTS,
1943

Internment of Japanese Americans - Japanese relocation
• Executive Order 9066 (Feb. 19, 1942)


FDR authorized the War Dept. to declare the West
Coast a "war theater“
110,000 people of Japanese ancestry forcibly
interned. Pearl Harbor left public paranoid that
people of Japanese ancestry living in California
might help Japan
THESE POSTERS
WERE PUT UP IN
LOS ANGELES,
INSTRUCTING
PEOPLE OF
JAPANESE
DESCENT,
CITIZENS AND
NON-CITIZENS
ALIKE, TO
REPORT TO THE
CIVIL CONTROL
STATION TO BE
DEPORTED TO
THE CAMPS
JAPANESE
AMERICAN
GIRL WAITS
WITH HER
FAMILY’S
BELONGINGS
TO BE
EVACUATED
TO AN
INTERNMENT
CAMP
• General John DeWitt organized the removal
of people of Japanese ancestry to 10 locations
in 7 states




They were given 48 hours to dispose of their
belongings
Camps were in desolate areas
Conditions harsh, yet many remained loyal to US;
after 1943, 17,600 fought in US Army
Although gov’t considered relocation of Germans
and Italians, the Japanese were the only ethnic
group singled out by gov’t for action
JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS
THE DOTS
REPRESENT THE
LOCATION OF THE
CAMPS
CANAL CAMP, AZ
CRYSTAL CREEK, TX
MANZANAR, CA
GILA, AZ
• Army considered Japanese potential spies

Korematsu v. US – Supreme Court upholds
internment
• Court could not second-guess military decisions

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
The Grand Alliance


Coalition of the nations at war with the
Axis Powers created with the signing of the
"United Nations Declaration", Jan 1, 1942
Objectives
• Hitler first: Churchill & FDR wanted to
concentrate on defeating Germany before
giving Japan higher priority
• Many who were outraged from Pearl Harbor
complained

Military Plans:
•
•
•
•
Economic blockades on Germany & Italy
Air attacks on Germany
Peripheral strikes in the Mediterranean
Final direct assault on Germany
Allied Defeats

During first 6 months, it seemed Allied
Powers would lose the war
• Asia and the Pacific

Japanese took Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Burma, Dutch East Indies and the
Philippines

U.S. loss of the Philippines
• 20,000 U.S. troops led by General Douglas
MacArthur withdrew to Bataan, close to
Manila, but eventually surrendered
• Bataan death march – 85-mile forced
march of U.S. GIs who were tortured and
eventually burned alive
• MacArthur ordered by Washington
to leave for Australia: "I shall
return”

Assumed command of all Allied
Pacific forces
BATAAN DEATH MARCH AND THE HORROR OF JAPANESE
CAPTIVITY

Doolittle Raid: militarily insignificant raid
on Japan in April, 1942 in retaliation for
Pearl Harbor
• Helped American moral since U.S. had not yet
struck back after Pearl Harbor

Early Defeats in Europe
• German U-boats sunk 8 million tons of allied
supplies -- 25% of the USSR's
• Germans pushed east to Stalingrad by fall
1942, and to El Alamein, Egypt
Allied Turning Points in the War

Battle of Stalingrad (Sept. 1942)
• First major German defeat on land

Henceforth, German army in retreat from the east
until Berlin occupied by the Russians in the spring
of 1945
• Stalin never forgave the Allies for not opening
a 2nd front earlier; USSR had to bear the full
brunt of German invasion

Churchill opted for North Africa instead

North Africa – “Operation Torch" - led by Gen.
Eisenhower, Nov. 8, 1942
• British had been fighting German Panzer divisions in
North Africa since 1941

Germans led by General Irwin Rommel (the "Desert Fox")
• Battle of El Alamein (Oct 23-Nov. 3)—signaled end
of German presence in North Africa


British forces pushed Rommel out of Egypt and all the way
back to Tunisia; massive German casualties
Considered one of the major turning points of the war
• In “Operation Torch” 100,000 Allied troops invaded
North Africa in Algeria & Morocco
GERMAN GENERAL ROMMEL KNOWN AS THE “DESERT FOX”
FOR HIS BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP IN NORTH AFRICA
BRITISH GENERAL BERNARD MONTGOMERY, VICTOR IN
THE DESERT WAR IN NORTH AFRICA
THE END IN NORTH AFRICA: GERMAN TROOPS
SURRENDERING TO ALLIED FORCES

Europe
• Invasion of Italy (commanded by George C.
Patton)



July 1943, British and U.S. forces land in Sicily;
victorious within 1 month
Mussolini forced out of power
June 4, 1944 -- Allies march into Rome
• First capital city freed from Nazi control

U.S. military leaders frustrated with focus on Italy;
want a second front in Western Europe
• Churchill wanted Italy so FDR acquiesced; Stalin
extremely frustrated

D-Day (June 6, 1944): Invasion of
Normandy -- "Operation Overlord”
• Perhaps war’s most important battle
• Commanded by General Dwight D.
Eisenhower
• 120,000 troops left England and stormed 5
beachheads at Normandy Coast


800,000 more men within 3 weeks; 3 million total
Demonstrated significance of Battle of Britain four
years earlier
German bunker at
Utah Beach
THOUSANDS
OF ALLIED
SOLDIERS
ENTERED
BATTLE
FROM THE
AIR
A HEAVY PRICE WAS PAID FOR THE
SUCCESSFUL INVASION OF FRANCE
• Casualties during D-Day: 2,245 Allies killed;
1,670 wounded
• Significance of battle:

Second front established (to Russia’s joy)
• August 25, 1st Allied troops enter Paris
• By end of summer, Belgium, France and Luxembourg
liberated

Had Allies failed, Hitler could have focused on
Eastern Front and perhaps negotiated a peace with
Stalin leaving most of Europe under Nazi control
Liberation of Paris

Invasion of Germany
• Pre-invasion bombing


Hamburg all but wiped out in summer 1943
Berlin and other major cities and targets hit
repeatedly especially factories and oil refineries
• Allied invasion in Sept. 1944 repelled by
Germany

Germany held the Rhine by mid-September on the
edge of Germany
• Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944)



Germans launched last major offensive on U.S.
positions in Belgium and Luxembourg -- U.S.
casualties: nearly 80,000
General George Patton and his 101st Airborne
Division stopped Hitler’s last counter-offensive
By January, the Allies were once more advancing
toward Germany
• Britain & US attacked Dresden with fire
bombs killing 100,000 & destroying factories
and rail lines
Soldiers in the Ardennes at the
Battle of the Bulge

April 1945
• U.S. approached Berlin from west while
Soviets came from east


German resistance in Italy collapsing
Mussolini caught by Italian resistance and killer
• Hitler went into bunker under Chancellery in
April and committed suicide on April 30
• Germany surrendered unconditionally on May
7, 1945

Allies celebrated V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)
THE END
APPROACHES
FOR NAZI
GERMANY
AND HITLER
AS THE U.S.,
BRITAIN
AND CANADA
ATTACK
FROM THE
WEST WHILE
THE
RUSSIANS
MASSIVELY
ATTACK
FROM THE
EAST
U.S. AND SOVIET SOLDIERS GREET
EACH OTHER AT TORGAU, GERMANY
IN APRIL OF 1945.
Japan pushed back to its mainland

Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942)– entire
battle fought with aircraft
• Japan prevented from successfully invading
New Guinea and Australia

Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) –
turning point in the Pacific
• Allies broke the Japanese code
• Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers (of 10)--7 of 11
other ships destroyed; 250 planes
• Significance: Japan no longer had any hopes
of attacking US mainland

Island Hopping campaign began in
1943, eventually pushed Japanese forces
all the way back to Japan
• Sought to neutralize Japanese island
strongholds with air and sea power and then
move on
• Battle of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands -August 1942-February 1943)

First Japanese land defeat after 6 months of bitter
jungle fighting
OKINAWA
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

Iwo Jima (February, 1945)
• Fighter planes now close enough to bomb Japan

Okinawa (April 1, 1945 -- ends in June)
• 50,000 American casualties resulted from fierce
fighting which virtually destroyed Japan’s remaining
defenses
• Bloodshed influenced the eventual use of the atomic
bomb to prevent further U.S. casualties from ground
assaults

Bombing of Japan resulted in destruction of
most major cities
• March 1945, 100,000 die in a single Tokyo raid; 60%
of buildings destroyed
IWO JIMA
OKINAWA
MAP SHOWING INVASIONS OF IWO JIMA AND
OKINAWA
American casualties on Okinawa would exceed 68,000.
Of the nearly 16,000 servicemen killed the burden fell
to the naval forces: 8,343 dead sailors, coast
guardsmen and marines, the highest toll in naval
history. Much of the naval loss was due to the
Japanese use of kamikaze suicide plane attacks.
KAMIKAZE
Kamikazes were the
suicide attacks the
Japanese began late in
the war when they
realized they could not
defeat conventional US
forces. While the attacks
were made mainly in
aircrafts against US ships
there were other types of
kamikaze vehicles as
well. These included
small boats, flying human
missiles or ohkas,
human torpedoes and
even the great battleship
Yamato.
U.S. SHIPS
HIT BY
KAMIKAZES
The horrendous losses the U.S. suffered at Iwo Jima
and Okinawa combined with the devastating
kamikaze attacks was only a prelude to the
slaughter which happened when the U.S. invaded
the Japanese home islands
All combined
kamikaze
operations
combined sunk 34
ships, and damaged
288 ships.
The most damage
done by kamikaze’s
was at Okinawa
where 1465 suicide
planes sank 30
ships and damages
130 more.
70000
60000
50000
40000
KILLED
WOUNDED
TOTAL
30000
20000
10000
0
IWO JIMA
OKINAWA
US losses at both battles
Election of 1944 and death of FDR

FDR, with running-mate Harry S. Truman,
defeated Republican Thomas Dewey
• FDR elected to an unprecedented fourth term
in office


April 12, 1945 -- FDR died at Warm
Springs, GA
Vice President Harry Truman become
president
PRESIDENT
FRANKLIN
DELANO
ROOSEVELT
DIED ON
APRIL 12,
1945.
The Atomic Bomb

Potsdam Conference (Mid-July - August)
• Three allied leaders (Truman, Stalin, and Clement
Atlee) warned Japan without specifics to surrender or
suffer "complete and utter destruction”
• Japan refused removal of emperor but showed signs
in secret dispatches it might be willing to surrender if
emperor remains on throne
• Military advisors warn of casualties as high as 46,000
if U.S. invades Japan

August 6, 1945 -- First atomic bomb
("Little Boy") dropped on Hiroshima
• 80,000 killed immediately; 100,000 injured

Countless die later of radiation sickness or cancer
• Bomb dropped by the Enola Gay
• Japanese gov’t still did not surrender

August 8, Soviet Union entered the war
against Japan as promised
AUGUST 6TH, 1945, 70,000
KILLED AND EVEN MORE
WOUNDED
THE FIRST ATOMIC
BOMB WAS
DROPPED ON THE
CITY OF
HIROSHIMA


August 9, 2nd bomb ("Fat Man") dropped
on Nagasaki; 60,000 dead
August 14, Japan surrendered
• World War II is over
• Sept 2, Japanese formally surrendered aboard
U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay
AUGUST 9TH, 40,000 KILLED
A second atomic bomb
was dropped on Nagasaki
and the Japanese
surrendered
FOREIGN MINISTER SHIGEMITSU SIGNS JAPANESE
SURRENDER DOCUMENT
VJ DAY, AUGUST 14, 1945 WORLD WAR II ENDS

The decision to drop the atomic bomb
became controversial in later few decades
• Most compelling reason for dropping the
bomb was that it saved countless U.S. lives
who would have had to invade Japan
• Scholarship suggests Truman sought to
intimidate Soviet Union in the post-war world
by using the bomb
Allied Diplomacy during the war

Casablanca Conference (January 14-25,
1943)
• FDR and Churchill declare policy of unconditional
surrender for "all enemies"
• Agreed that Italy would be invaded first before
opening 2nd Front in France

Moscow Conference (October 1943)
• Secretary of State Cordell Hull obtained Soviet
agreement to enter the war against Japan after
Germany was defeated and to participate in a world
organization (UN) after the war was over

Declaration of Cairo (issued December 1,
1943)
• FDR met with Chang Kai-shek in
November, demanding Japan’s unconditional
surrender
• All Chinese territories occupied by Japan
would be returned to China; Korea would be
free and independent

Tehran Conference (Nov-Dec, 1943)
• First meeting of the "Big Three" -- FDR,
Stalin, and Churchill
• Allies agree to an invasion of the Western
Europe in 1944
• Stalin reaffirmed the Soviet commitment to
enter war against Japan and Allies discussed
coordination of Soviet offensive with Allied
invasion of France
• Disputes over post-war world



Stalin insisted on Soviet control of Eastern Europe
and division of Germany
Churchill demanded free governments in Eastern
Europe and a strong Germany after the war to
preserve a balance of power in Europe
Roosevelt acted as a mediator and believed he
could work with Stalin to achieve a post-world
peace within the construct of the United Nations

Yalta Conference (Feb, 1945)
• "Big Three" met to discuss post-war Europe
• Stalin agreed to enter Pacific war within 3
months after Germany surrendered
• Stalin agreed to "Declaration of Liberated
Europe" which called for free elections
• Called for a world organization to meet in the
U.S. beginning on April 25, 1945 and agreed
Soviets would have 3 votes in the General
Assembly and that the U.S., Great Britain, the
Soviet Union, France and China would be
permanent members of the Security Council
YALTA CONFERENCE, 1945: FDR, CHURCHILL
AND STALIN MET TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE
OF EUROPE AFTER THE WAR.

Germany divided into occupied zones and
a coalition government of communists and
non-communists was agreed to for Poland
• U.S.S.R. allowed to keep its pre-1939 territory

Potsdam Conference (July-Aug, 1945)
• Truman, Stalin, and Clement Atlee (Britain)
met at Potsdam, eastern Germany
• Conference disagreed on most issues; war
alliance beginning to break down
• During conference, Truman ordered dropping
of the atomic bomb on Japan
• Approvals given to concept of war-crimes
trials and the demilitarization and
denazification of Germany
Aftermath of WWII

Massive casualties
• 46-55 million dead; 35 million wounded; 3
million missing
• About 30 million soldiers died (including
about 405,000 Americans)
• 25 million civilians

15 million in USSR alone

Massive destruction of cities
• 4 million homes in Britain
• 7 million buildings in Germany
• 1,700 towns destroyed in USSR)

Holocaust
• Six million Jews were liquidated as part of Hitler's
"Final Solution”
• Six million others also killed including Gypsies,
Homosexuals, physically handicapped, Jehova's
Witnesses and political opponents
• U.S. response to Europe’s Jews before and during the
war was biased



"Americanism" of 1920s continued into 1940s with strong
anti-Semitism
40% of German immigration quota between 1933 & 1945 was
unfilled while German Jews tried to get into the U.S.
At one point, U.S. forced a ship full of German Jews that had
made it to U.S. shores to turn around and go back to
Germany
HITLER’S NEXT
STEP WAS TO ISSUE
IDENTIFICATION
CARDS TO ALL
PEOPLE LIVING IN
GERMAN
TERRITORIES.
JEWISH CARDS HAD
A YELLOW STAR TO
EASILY IDENTIFY
THEM.
HITLER THEN MADE
JEWS WEAR THE
YELLOW STAR ANY
TIME THEY LEFT
THEIR HOMES
JEWS REBEL IN THE WARSAW
GHETTO IN POLAND
WARSAW GHETTO
JEWS ARE ROUNDED UP AND DEPORTED TO EXTERMINATION
CAMPS
MAP FROM
UNITED
STATES
HOLOCAUST
MEMORIAL
MUSEUM

Warning: images on next slides are
graphic
• You are not required to look at them
ZYKLON B POISON
GAS
STARVATION
DEATH
CAME
IN
MANY
FORMS
GAS CHAMBER
EINSATZGRUPPEN
Post-war Political issues

WWII made allies of ideological enemies
• Prior to WWII, Stalin's communist
dictatorship was condemned by the West
• Soviets conversely denounced "Western
Imperialism"
• Once the war was over, the rivalry between
East & West quickly reemerged: The Cold War

The U.S. and USSR emerged as the world’s two
superpowers

Fate of Eastern Europe
• By war's end, the Soviets controlled most of Eastern
Europe


Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary surrendered to Soviets
Soviets drive Nazis from Poland and Czech
• Stalin promised free elections; West was wary that
Eastern Europe would have communist governments
imposed

Germany was divided into four zones among the
Allies
• Soviets wished for a weak Germany
• Britain & US wanted a strong economic Germany and
a healthy democracy

As Europe declined, their colonies demanded
their independence
• India had been promised greater freedom as a reward
for fighting in the war
• French Indochina determined to resist European rule;
nationalists had fought against Japanese; later fought
France and U.S. in Vietnam War

Technology
• Synthetic materials such as plastics were developed to
replace natural ones in short supply
• Improvement in airplanes and radar changed war
• A-bomb changed course of human history; years after
1945 called "Atomic Age"