December 7, 1941: “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy!”
11/27/41With tensions rising
between the Japanese and American
government, the War Department
issued warnings to U.S. bases in
Hawaii to be on guard, but said to
not expect a attack because the
Japanese did not have the resources
to launch such a long-range attack.
At 7:49 AM…12/7/41…183 Japanese
planes, including 40 torpedo bombers
and 49 high altitude bombers hit
Pearl Harbor. They attacked
battleship row and the air fields.
President Roosevelt
addressed Congress the next
day and Congress gave their
approval to go to war with
Japan and any nation that
supported Japan!
President Roosevelt addressed Congress the next day and
Congress gave their approval to go to war with Japan and
any nation that supported Japan!
Getting Ready For War
Pearl Harbor shocked the nation but the nation was actually ready for war…..HOW?
-For months Roosevelt
had been setting aside
money to loan to
companies to cover the
cost of converting to war
production.
-After the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor almost all
major American industries
and 200,000 companies had
converted to war production.
-Automobile factories produced
trucks, jeeps, tanks, rifles, mines,
helmets, pontoon bridges,
cooking pots, etc. Even Henry
Ford created an assembly line to
build B-24 bombers!
Building the United States Army
-As in WWI, the Selective
Service draft was used to recruit
an overwhelming number of of
G.I.s. The majority were young
recruits who had little training
-At the Beginning of the war the army was
completely segregated, but that would
quickly change
Roosevelt won his last election
with support of the Black vote….so
he launched the:
The Problem????
African Americans were still
greatly
Disfranchised….meaning they
were denied the right to vote.
“Double V Campaign”-campaign
that encouraged African
Americans to joint the military
because a victory would be a
victory over racism at home and
overseas. It would hopefully be a
step in gaining minorities respect
throughout the U.S.
The Impact of the War at HomeU.S. Society 1942-43
BELIEVE IT!!THE WAR HAD A POSITIVE EFFECT ON AMERICAN SOCIETY!!!!!!!
-The war led to 19 million
new jobs and double the
income of American
families
-Labor shortages caused
by the war forced
factories to hire women
in positions traditionally
held by men
The government created a
female character to use in
its war propaganda to
convince married women to
work in the factories while
their husbands were off
fighting the war in Europe
and Asia…that characters
name???
**ROSIE THE RIVETER
2.5 million women entered
into the manufacturing
workforce
The Impact of the War at HomeU.S. Society 1942-43
America was also on the move!
-Almost 15 million Americans moved from the
MidWest (Rust Belt) West and South during the
war to be closer to where new jobs were
available. *The growth and expansion of cities in
the Deep South created a new Industrial Region
called the…SUN BELT
-African Americans continued the Great Migration they started in
the 1920s…moving to the North to take factory jobs vacated by
men who were fighting in the war.
The Impact of the War at HomeU.S. Society 1942-43
There was a very ugly reality at home!
-The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor scared many
Americans living on the West Coast. Due to migration
throughout the late 1800s, California, Washington, and
Oregon had a large population of Japanese-American
citizens whose ancestors had come the the country during
the Great Western Expansion. Many Americans feared
that these citizens would be loyal to their ancestry and
help aide the Japanese Army in launching an invasion on
the American Pacific Coast.
The Japanese Internment Camps
Roosevelt’s Response to the West Coast Hysteria
-Roosevelt declared the entire Western portion of the
United States a “War Zone”. The U.S. army was given
police jurisdiction over the West Coast.
-Roosevelt then signed EXECUTIVE ORDER
9066this gave the U.S. army permission to remove
anyone from any region declared a military or war zone.
-Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, then ordered any person of “Japanese Ancestry” to be evacuated from the region and detained in one of 10
internment camps being constructed throughout the Midwestern region of the country. People were taken from their homes, separated from
their families, they property and possessions sold, and they were held in camps behind barbed wire for the duration of the war. The kicker is
that most of the detainees were American citizens…born in the good old U.S.A.!
The Legal Fallout of the Japanese Internment Camps
One of these Japanese-American detainees argued that his rights had been violated and took his case to the U.S. Supreme
Court in December 1944.
*Korematsu v. the United States (1944)
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the relocation WAS
CONSTITUTIONAL because it was not based on race, but on
“military urgency”.
-No Japanese-American citizen was ever tried for espionage or sabotage. Many Japanese-Americans served the U.S. during the
war, especially as code-breakers and translators. In 1988 the U.S government accepted fault for this act, apologizing to the
families that were detained and awarding $20,000 to each surviving Japanese American that had been interned during the
war!
V-E Day….VICTORY IN EUROPE!!!!
-American Forces continued to push German
forces back across the German border. As
Allied forces began to enter into Germany
unopposed Hitler realized it was just a matter of
time before the Americans were knocking on
the door of Berlin!
-On April 30, 1945 Hitler buried himself in a
bunker with his mistress and closest advisors
and committed suicide. His successor began
to arrange the surrender of the German army
as the Allies began heavily bombing Berlin.
On May 7, 1945 Germany
unconditionally surrendered to the Allied
Army. The next day was proclaimed “V-E
Day” for “Victory in Europe!
Ending the War in Japan
Japan refused to surrender unconditionally because they wanted their emperor to remain in power.
-For 10 Years the U.S. had been working
on……
**THE PROJECT TO BUILD A
ATOMIC BOMB WAS CODE NAMED
THE “MANHATTAN PROJECT”.
**The world’s most famous scientist,
Albert Einstein was the first to come up
with the idea and suggest it to President
Roosevelt.
-The first atomic bomb was detonated near
Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16,
1945. When Truman learned of the
successful test he realized the war would
soon be over!
August 6, 1945the first Atomic Bomb in
history was used on another country.
**The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima. Over 10,000 people died
instantly….vaporized! Thousands died later
from burns and radiation sickness.
-That same day a second Atomic Bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki, killing between 35,000
and 75,000 people.
ON AUGUST 15, 1945 THE JAPANESE
GOVERNMENT SURRENDERED IN FEAR OF
THE UNITED STATES UNLEASHING ANYMORE
HORRIFIC DAMAGE ON THE NATION’S
PEOPLE!
Building a New World
Taking a page out of the book of Machiavelli, President Harry Truman was determined to make sure the
U.S. played an active role in rebuilding Europe after this war!
-*United Nationsorganization
created after WWII that
consisted of 39 countries that
would work together to
maintain world peace
-The UN has a General Assembly (like our
Congress) with each member nation getting
one vote. HOWEVER, the U.S., USSR,
France, China, Great Britain have veto power
-The UN created International Military Tribunals to
punish Japanese and German leaders with a various
number of WAR CRIMES…including
GENOCIDEmass extermination of citizens based on
their race, creed, color, or religious affiliation.
**During the “Nuremberg Trials” many leaders of the
Nazi party were convicted of crimes against humanity
and hung!
**Nobody in the U.S. government or military was tried
for the mass killing of Japanese or German citizens!