The United States in
World War II
Unit 10 (B)
WARTIME AMERICA
Discussion Questions
• What roles did minorities and women play in the armed forces
during World War II?
• How did the U.S. government mobilize the economy for war?
• What steps did the government take to stabilize wages and
prices?
• How did World War II change life for women and minorities in
the United States?
• How did the wartime relocation of many Americans affect U.S.
government and society?
Terms to Know
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Disenfranchisement
Cost-plus
Rationing
Sunbelt
Victory garden
Draft
Propaganda
Building the Military
• Selective Service and Training Act
• Passed in September 1940
• First peacetime draft in U.S. history
• More than 60,000 men joined army following the attack on
Pearl Harbor
• Army did not have enough training facilities or equipment
• Department of Agriculture transferred over 350,000 acres of land
to the War Department
• Naval Air Station- Jacksonville, FL
• Soldiers endured 8 weeks of basic training
African Americans in the
Military
• African American units were segregated from other soldiers
• Often under supervision of white officers
• Usually assigned to construction and supply units
• Many felt disenfranchised- deprived of rights
• “Double V” campaign
• Launched by the Pittsburgh Courier
• Leading African American newspaper
• Urged readers to support the war to win two victories
• Against Hitler’s racism abroad
• Against racism in the United States
• Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was promoted to the rank of brigadier
general by President Roosevelt
• Tuskegee Airmen
• First African American Air Force Unit
Other Minorities in the Military
Japanese Americans
Hispanic Americans
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Were not allowed
to serve when war
began
Second-generation
Japanese
Americans began
serving as war
continued
Japanese American
100th Infantry
Battalion and 442nd
Regimental Combat
Team earned more
medals than any
other unit in the
United States
military
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500,000 served in
the armed forces
17 Hispanic
American soldiers
earned the
Congressional
Medal of Honor
Native Americans
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•
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About 1/3 of
healthy Native
Americans
between 18-50
served during the
war
Navajo marines
served as “code
talkers”
Used Navajo
language to create
codes to transmit
valuable
information over
raidos
Did not end all segregation during the war
Integrated military bases in 1943
President Truman fully integrated the military in 1948
Jewish Americans
•
•
500,000 served in
the military
About 52,00
earned medals for
bravery
Women in the Armed Forces
• First time women were enlisted in the army
• Served in office jobs (No combat)
• Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (1948)
• Supporting group that is not part of the main army
• Became the Women’s Army Corps in 1943
• Coast Guard, navy, marines formed women’s units as well
• 68,000 women served as army or navy nurses
• About 300 women served as Women Airforce Service Pilots
• Flew more than 12,000 flights to deliver planes to the war effort
The American Economy During
WWII
• Industrial war production had to expand greatly after the attack on
Pearl Harbor
• Needed to build thousands of warplanes
• Expand navy to be able to fight in two oceans
• National Defense Advisory Committee
• Committee of business and government leaders designed to find
ways to encourage businesses to produce war goods quickly
• Cost-plus contracts
• Agreements that said the government would pay a company the
production costs plus a certain percentage as profit
• Much faster than contract bids
• Quickly produced war materials in large quantities
• Convinced many companies to change to war production
• Reconstruction Finance Corporation
• Made loans to companies that wanted to change to war production
Industries Change to War
Production
• Automobile industry began making trucks, jeeps, and tanks,
and other war materials
• Responsible for nearly 1/3 of all wartime military equipment
• Henry Ford created an assembly line in Detroit to build B-24
“Liberator” bombers
• Built more than 8,600 aircraft
• Kaiser Shipyards
• Henry Kaiser developed a means to produce ships fast
• Most know for his basic cargo ships (Liberty Ships)
• Parts of ships were built in different factories, then brought
together at the shipyard and assembled
• Average production time dropped from 244 days to 41 days
• Produced 30% of all American ships built during war
World War II Effects on
American Society
BENEFITS
• Preparing economy for war ended
the Great Depression
• Added production created almost
19 million new jobs
• Average family’s income nearly
doubled
DETRIMENTS
• People had to move to find work at
defense factories where housing
conditions were terrible
• Strikes and riots
• Crime rate by young people
increased
• Goods were rationed
• Taxes were raised
• Workers worked longer hours
Supplying the Workforce
Women
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Labor shortage forced factories to hire
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women for industrial jobs
“Rosie the Riveter”- symbol of the effort •
to hire women
2.5 million women worked in shipyards,
aircraft factories, and other
manufacturing plants
Total number of women working grew
from 12.9 to 18.8 million by end of war
•
Most were laid off or left jobs after war
Women’s success during war
permanently changed American ideas
about women in the workplace
•
African Americans
Many factory owners discriminated
against African Americans
A. Phillip Randolph, head of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,
organized a march on D.C. as a means to
get fair treatment for African Americans
in jobs related to war work and in
armed forces
President Roosevelt issued Executive
Order 8802 on June 25. 1941Employers in defense industry could not
discriminate against any group when
hiring for jobs
Created the Fair Employment Practices
Commission to enforce order (First
national civil rights agency since
Reconstruction)
The Bracero Program
• Established in 1942 (Continued until 1964)
• Arranged for Mexican farmworkers to help harvest crops in
the Southwest
• More than 200,000 Mexicans came to work in U.S. during war
• Also helped to build and maintain railroads
• Migrant workers became important to the Southwest’s
economic system
Wartime Relocation
• Millions of Americans moved to find work during World War II
• A new industrial region in the Deep South was created
• Sunbelt
• Tent cities and trailer parks began appearing
• Congress approved $150 million for housing in 1940
• National Housing Agency created in 1942
• Coordinated government housing programs
Racism leads to Violence
• Racial tension led to violence and riots between African
American and white teens in Detroit on Sunday, June 20, 1943
• 25 African Americans and 9 white teens were killed
• “Zoot suit” riots
• Fears over teenage crime and racism against Mexican Americans
led to riots
• Zoot suits were popular with the Mexican American teenagers in
Los Angeles
• Baggy, pleated pants; Overstuffed, long jacket with wide lapels
• June 1943- rumors spread that zoot-suiters attacked sailors
• 2,500 soldiers and sailors attacked Mexican American neighborhoods
in Los Angeles
Forced Relocation and
Internment
• President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February
19, 1942
• Authorized military to exclude civilians from any area without
trial or hearing
• Allowed the War Department to declare any part of the United
States a military zone
• People of Japanese ancestry were moved to 10 internment camps
inland
• In 1988, President Regan signed HR 442 into law
• Awarded $20,000 to each surviving Japanese American that had
been in an internment camp
• More than 5,000 Germans and Italians were arrested and
moved to internment camps
Government Stabilizes Prices
and Wages
• As wages and prices began to rise quickly, Roosevelt began to
worry about inflation
• Created the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply
and the Office of Economic Stabilization to regulate wages and
certain prices
• Prices rose only about half as much as they had during World War
American’s Sacrifice and Help
War Effort
• Office of Price Administration began rationing products as high
demand created shortages
• Limited how much of a product a person could buy
• Meat, sugar, fats, oils, processed foods, coffee, shoes, gasoline
• Issued ration books
• Speed limit was set at 35 mph to save gas and rubber and
driving distances were limited
• Many Americans planted victory gardens in their backyards,
schoolyards, city parks, and empty lots
• Produced more food for the war effort
• Government encouraged people to collect scraps of steel, tin,
rubber, and aluminum
Discussion Questions
• Why do you think some African Americans would not
support the war effort?
• How could rapid population growth in an area lead to
violence?
THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC
Guiding Questions
• Why was the Doolittle Raid important for U.S. forces in the
Pacific?
• Why was the Battle of Midway a turning point in the Pacific
war?
• What was the military strategy behind “island hopping”? Was
it succesful?
Terms to Know
• Kamikaze
• Island hopping
Fall of the Philippines
• Japanese attacked the U.S. airfields in the Philippines shortly
after the Pearl Harbor Attack
• Troops invaded 2 days later
• General Douglas MacArthur decided to retreat to the Bataan
Peninsula where they were able to defend position for three
months
• Ran out of food and supplies
• President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave Bataan and
go to Australia
• MacArthur promised “I shall return” as he left
• On April 9, 1942 U.S. forces surrendered
• Forced the POW’s to march 65 miles to a Japanese prison camp
• Nearly 10,000 soldiers died (Bataan Death March)
Doolittle Raid
• After the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the fall of the Philippines,
American public was very discouraged
• Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle was put in charge of mission to
bomb Tokyo
• President Roosevelt wanted to raise morale of American people
• Long range bombers were launched off of the aircraft carrier Hornet
on April 18, 1942
• Couldn’t get aircraft carriers close enough to launch normal short
range bombers
• Bombers would have to fly to China to land after bombing Tokyo
• Could not land back on aircraft carriers
• Showed Japan they were vulnerable to attack and caused them to
change strategy
• Attack Midway island and draw U.S. ships into battle in Pacific
• Felt destroying the American fleet was best way to prevent Tokyo from
more bombing
Navajo Code Talkers
• Navajos were used to serve as “code talkers” in the war in the
Pacific
• Navajo language had no written alphabet
• Japanese could not break the code
• Used code words based on their language
• Able to communicate messages much faster than using codemachine operators
• Code talkers mission was not revealed until 1971
• Congress awarded the code talkers the Congressional Gold
Medal in 2001 to honor their contribution to the war
Battle of the Coral Sea
• U.S. broke Japanese code and were alerted to Japan’s eminent
attack on New Guinea in the Coral Sea
• Japan split it’s attack group and only sent 3 carriers (Sent 6
towards Midway Island)
• Wanted to gain control of New Guinea to cut off U.S. supply lines
to Australia
• Admiral Chester Nimitz sent 2 aircraft carriers, the Lexington
and Yorktown, to intercept the Japanese
• Japanese sunk the Lexington and badly damaged the
Yorktown, but U.S. attacks prevented the Japanese from
landing on New Guinea’s south coast
• Kept supply lines to Australia open
• First time a Japanese invasion had been stopped and turned back
Battle of Midway
• U.S. again broke Japanese code and learned of planned Japanese
attack on Midway Island
• Admiral Nimitz set up an ambush on the Japanese fleet near Midway
• Japanese launched planes to attack on June 3, 1942
• U.S. was ready and shot down 38 planes
• Before Japan could launch a second wave, the U.S. launched a
counterattack
• Caught the Japanese carriers with fuel, bombs, and airplanes on
unprotected decks
• Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes
• U.S. lost 1 carrier and a destroyer
• Greatly diminished Japanese navy and turned the tide of the war in
the Pacific
• Allowed U.S. to begin “Island-hopping” campaign
“Island Hopping”
• Pacific Fleet headed by Admiral Nimitz advanced through
Pacific by going from one island to the next
• First goal was to capture Tarawa Atoll
• Needed to capture Japanese base to allow U.S. to build air bases
on nearby Marshall Islands
• Took very high casualties
• Soldiers had to wade hundreds of yards on shoulder high water to
reach beach
• Reefs prohibited ships from landing on beach
• Amphtrac used to transport one load of soldiers safely to beach
• Amphibious tractor
• U.S. won Marshall Islands then invaded the Mariana Islands
• Able to gain control of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian
• Islands used as a base to launch long range bombers to attack
Japanese islands
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• Largest naval battle in history
• U.S. assembled a huge invasion force and sailed for Leyte Gulf
in Philippines in October 1944
• Commanded by General MacArthur
• More than 700 ships and 160,000 men
• Troops began landing on Leyte on October 20, 1944
• MacArthur had returned to Philippines as promised
• First use of kamikaze attacks by Japanese
• Pilots deliberately crashed their planes into U.S. ships
• Disaster for Japan (Lost 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13
cruisers, and almost 500 airplanes)
• Japanese navy now only played a minor role in the defense of
Japan
Discussion Questions
• Why would control of islands enhance the ability of the
United States to attack Japan by air?
THE WAR IN EUROPE
Guiding Questions
• Why did Churchill and Roosevelt want to attack Germancontrolled areas in North Africa before areas in Europe?
• What were the goals of strategic bombing in Germany and the
invasion of Sicily?
• Why is D-Day considered to be the turning point for the
Atlantic theater?
Terms to Know
• Convoy system
• Turning point
Battle for North Africa
• Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed
to attack North Africa before invading Europe
• Were not ready for European invasion
• Would give army experience without need for many troops
• Help Britain gain control of Suez Canal in Egypt
• Battle of El Alamein
• British troops fought German troops under General Erwin
Rommel (“Desert Fox”) in a 12 day battle
• British able to win Suez Canal in November 1942
• General Dwight Eisenhower and American troops invaded
North Africa in November 1942
• American and British troops pushed back the Germans
• May 13, 1943- last German troops in North Africa surrendered
Battle of the Atlantic
• German submarines began attacking ships off of Atlantic coast
after the U.S. declared war
• By August 1942, German ships sunk more than 360 ships along
the East Coast
• U.S. and British shipyards were able to build ships fast enough to
limit the damage
• U.S. began using convoy system to protect cargo ships
• Navy warships escorted cargo ships
• U.S. began using new technology which allowed them to
better attack German submarines
• Sonar, radar, depth charges
• Made German submarines easier to fight
• Helped turn the Battle of the Atlantic in favor of the Allies
Battle of Stalingrad
• Germany troops attacked Stalingrad in mid-September 1942
• Hitler broke nonagression pact
• Stalingrad was an important shipping and railroad center
• Germans and Soviets encountered heavy casualties
• Each side lost over 500,000 soldiers
• Harsh winter kept German attack from being effective
• Soviets were able to surround Stalingrad and over 250,000
German soldiers
• Battle ended in Feb. 1943 and put the Germans on the
defensive in the East
• About 91,000 German troops surrendered
• Only 5,000 survived the Soviet POW camps
Casablanca Conference
• Roosevelt and Churchill met in Casablanca in January 1943
• Agreed to increase bomber attacks on Germany
• Destroy buildings, factories, and other structures
• Hoped damage would hurt German’s morale
• Dropped approximately 53,000 tons of explosives on Germany
every month
• Created a serious oil shortage and destroyed railroad system and
aircraft factories
• Agreed to attack the island of Sicily
• Churchill believed Italians would quit if Allies invaded their
country
Italian Campaign
• Allied forces under command of General Eisenhower launched
invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943
• German troops had left island by August 17
• King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, decided to remove Mussolini from
office
• Mussolini arrested on July 25, 1943
• King Victor Emmanuel began to negotiate terms of surrender to
Allies
• After Italy’s surrender, German troops took control of northern Italy
and returned Mussolini to power
• U.S. fought Germans at Cassino and Anzio for months
• Germans finally retreated from Italy in late May 1944
• Allies captured Rome
• Fighting continued for another year
• One of the bloodiest campaigns in the war
• More than 300,000 Allied casualties
Tehran Conference
• Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Tehran, Iran in late 1943
• Reached several agreements
• Stalin promised to fight the Germans when Allies invaded France
in 1944
• Roosevelt and Stalin agreed to divide Germany after the war
• Stalin promised the Soviet Union would help the United States
against Japan after Germany was defeated
• Stalin accepted Roosevelt’s proposal of an international
peacekeeping organization after the war
Operation Overlord
• Invasion of German occupied France
• General Eisenhower was named commander of Allied Forces
• Largest amphibious landing ever
• Allies would invade the beaches on the Normandy coast of
France
• Sheltered location with firm flat beaches within range of fighter
planes in England
• Had roads for jeeps and trucks and paths for soldiers to move
inland
• Launched on June 6, 1944
• “D-Day”
• Had to wait for proper weather conditions
“D-Day” Invasion
• More than 7,000 ships with 100,000 soldiers headed sailed towards
Normandy
• 23,000 paratroopers were dropped inland to the east and west of the
beaches
• Warships began attack at dawn on the 5 Normandy beaches
• Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha
• U.S. landing at Utah Beach was very successful
• Captured beach in less than 3 hours
• Fewer than 200 casualties
• 23,000 American troops landed at Utah
• Omaha Beach
• 4 miles long, surrounded by 150-ft high cliffs, with only 5 paths
leading from beach to top of cliff
• U.S. troops slowly began destroying German defenses and began
advancing
• Nearly 2,500 American soldiers were killed or wounded
• 35,000 American soldiers landed at Omaha by end of day
Discussion Questions
• How did American and British military strategists hope to
weaken Germany?
• Why is the Battle of Stalingrad considered a turning point in
the war?
• Why was the D-Day invasion so important?
THE WAR ENDS
Guiding Questions
• Why was the Battle of the Bulge so important to the Allied
forces?
• What were the causes and effects of President Truman’s
decision to drop the atomic bomb?
Terms to Know
• Nuclear
Collapse of the Third Reich
Liberation of
Paris
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After D-Day
invasion, Allied
forces slowly
moved towards
Paris
French
Resistance in
Paris staged a
rebellion as
Allies advanced
Paris was
liberated on
August 25,
1944
Battle of the Bulge
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Germans attacked Allied supply
lines in Belgium on December 16,
1944
Germans broke through U.S. lines
and advanced west
General Patton arrived with
reinforcements and began
attacking German lines
Improved weather allowed Allied
aircraft to begin to bomb German
positions
German troops began to retreat
on January 8, 1945
Germany was left with very few
resources to prevent the Allied
advance into Germany
Victory in Europe
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By end of the Battle of the
Bulge, Soviet forces had
pushed German troops out
of Russia and across Poland
Soviets were within 35 miles
of Berlin by February 1945
American tanks crossed
Rhine River on Mar 7, 1945
and were within 70 miles of
Berlin
Soviet troops were outside
of Berlin by April 21, 1945
Hitler committed suicide on
April 30, 1945
Germany accepted terms of
unconditional surrender on
May 7, 1945
May 8, 1945- V-E Day
(Victory in Europe)
Ending the War in the Pacific
• Harry Truman became president on April 12, 1945
• President Roosevelt died from a stroke while vacationing in Warm
Springs, GA
• After Germany’s surrender, Japan continued its fight with the
United States in the Pacific
Battle of Iwo Jima
• U.S. military planners chose Iwo Jima as a needed base to
launch more bombing raids on Japan
• Halfway between the Mariana Islands and Japan
• Would be a very difficult island to capture
• Japanese built huge system of concrete bunkers connected by
miles of tunnels
• Volcanic ash covered the ground and it was carved up by deep
canyons, rocky cliffs, and caves
• U.S. began landing 60,000 marines on Feb. 19, 1945
• U.S. eventually was able to capture the island
• More than 6,800 U.S. casualties
• More than 20,000 Japanese casualties
Firebombing Campaign
• U.S. began using bombs filled with napalm to attack Japanese
cities
• Napalm was a jellied gasoline that started huge fires when
exploded in a bomb
• Believed it was a quicker way to destroy Japan’s war
production
• If bombs missed targets, it could still spread to intended targets
• By end of June 1945, Japan’s most important industrial cites
had been firebombed
Invasion of Okinawa
• U.S. needed a base near Japan to store supplies and assemble
troops in preparation for invasion of Japanese islands
• U.S. troops landed on Okinawa on April 1, 1945
• Japanese troops allowed U.S. troops to advance on beaches
and took up positions in mountains
• Bloodiest battle of the Pacific War
• Over 7,600 U.S. casualties
• Over 110,000 Japanese casualties
• Chilling foretaste of what an invasion of Japanese mainland
would entail
• Estimated 1,000,000 possible U.S. casualties
Japanese Terms of Surrender
• The United States wanted Japan to accept unconditional
surrender
• Japanese were willing to surrender shortly after the invasion of
Okinawa as long as Emperor Hirohito could stay in power
• President Truman did not want to go against the American
public’s opinion about removing Hirohito from power
• American’s blamed Hirohito for starting the war
• President Truman also knew U.S. had a weapon that might
force the Japanese into unconditional surrender
The Manhattan Project
• Jewish scientist Leo Szilard was first scientist to suggest splitting the
atom might release enormous energy
• Learned that German scientist had split a uranium atom in 1939
• Was worried the Germans were working on an atomic bomb
• Szilard convinced Albert Einstein to write a letter to President
Roosevelt warning him that uranium could be used to make an
atomic bomb
• In 1941, a scientific committee set up by Roosevelt was able to
convince Roosevelt to begin building an atomic bomb
• In 1942, Szilard and Enrico Fermi built the world’s first nuclear
reactor
• University of Chicago
• A team led by Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer began working in a
secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico to build an atomic
bomb
• On July 6, 1945 the team set of the world’s first atomic bomb
Truman Decides to Drop the
Atomic Bomb
• Although there was much debate as to how the atomic bomb
should be used, President Truman believed the bomb was
built to use as a weapon, not just as a threat.
• President Truman had be warned by advisors that an
American invasion of Japan would result in massive U.S.
casualties
• Truman was prepared to use any method possible to save U.S.
lives
Hiroshima
• After Japan ignored a warning from the U.S. that they would
be destroyed if they did not surrender, the U.S. dropped the
1st atomic bomb in history
• On August 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an
atomic bomb, code named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima
• Hiroshima was a very important industrial and military center
• Between 80,000 and 120,000 Japanese died instantly
• Thousands more would die from burns and radiation sicknes
• Bomb destroyed about 63% of the city
• Bomb was considered very inefficient
• Worked at about 1.7% capacity
Nagasaki
• After Japan refused to surrender again, the U.S. dropped a
second atomic bomb, code named “Fat Man” on Nagasaki on
August 9, 1945
• Important military center
• Killed between 35,000-74,000 people instantly
• Combined with the Soviet declaration of war on Japan on Aug
9, 1945, the dropping of the two atomic bombs caused
Emperor Hirohito to order his government to unconditionally
surrender
• Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945
• “V-J” day or “V-P” day
War Trials
• International Military Tribunal was created in August 1945
• Set up by the U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviet Union to punish
German and Japanese leaders for war crimes
• Nuremburg Trails
• 22 German leaders were prosecuted
• 3 were found not guilty, 7 sent to prison, 12 sentenced to death
• Trials of lower level leaders continued until 1949
• 24 more death sentences
• 107 more prison sentences
• Tokyo Trials
• 25 Japanese leaders were prosecuted (Did not try Hirohito)
• 18 sent to prison, 7 sentenced to death
• Part of U.S. plan for building a better world
• Trials were important to make sure people paid attention to horrible
actions that occurred in order to keep them from occurring again
Discussion Questions
• What do you think was the most significant factor in the
Allied victory in Europe in World War II?
• How did U.S. troops turn the tide of the war in Japan during
1944 and 1945?