Ch. 25: The US & WWII




Allies
Plan of Attack
US Mobilizes
Minorities








War Time Economy
A. Phillip Randolph
War Production Board
Rationing
Hoarding
Farmers
Homefront














Scientists
Internment Camps
Korematsu vs. USA



Douglas MacArthur
Bataan Death March
Col. James Doolittle: April 1942
Coral Sea: May 1942
Midway: June 1942
Island Hopping
Guadalcanal: Aug. 1942
Battle of Stalingrad: Spring 1942
England Attacks
Operation Torch

War Bonds
Rosie the Riveter
Philippines

Women


Japanese Americans

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Erin Rommel
El Alamen: Oct. 1942
Belly of the Beast
Collapse of Italy

Partisans


Operation Overlord: D-DAY
1944 Election




Battle of the Bulge
V-E Day
Leyte Gulf: Oct. 1944





Oppenheimer
Potsdam Conference: July, 1945
Hiroshima






Big 3
Agreements
Manhattan Project



Kamikaze Pilots
Iwo Jima
Okinawa
Yalta Conference: Feb. 1945


Harry Truman
Enola Gay
Little Boy
Nagasaki
V-J Day
Post War Info.
United Nations
US Joins the War

After Pearl Harbor,
the US joins the
Allies


Fall of France &
attack of USSR
United under
“Remember Pearl
Harbor!”
 Japanese boastful
The Allies
France, Britain, Soviet Union &
USA
Allie Plan of Attack

Plan of Attack:
1.
2.

Defeat Germany 1st,
can’t let Hitler take
over Europe
THEN, worry about
Japan
Wanted unconditional
surrender
US Mobilizes

US mobilized troops &
economy

Selective Service &
changing industry


Many eager to join
service after Pear
Harbor
8 weeks of training then
off to fight
 Shortage of weapons,
make believe training
Minorities






Some had problems fighting for a country in which they didn’t have
equality
“Here lies a black man who killed a yellow man protecting a white man!”
Minorities did makes gains during WWII
Segregated units
33,000 Japanese Americans (Nesei) joined US military to show loyalty;
served as spies, translators etc.
25,000 Native Americans; 13,000 Chinese Americans
War Time Economy

Industries began to produce war materials




Instead of pencils, made bombs etc.
No cars, only tanks, planes etc.
140 Victory Ships per month
WWII production ended the Great Depression in
America
A. Phillip Randolph

1941: Planned march on Washington to demand right
to work in factories


Companies began to hire regardless of race b/c needed
workers
FDR agreed to avoid march during war
War Production Board
Organized scrap drives for paper,
rags, cooking fat, tin rubber etc.
Recycled for war effort
Life at Home
Nat’l. speed limit reduced to
conserve tires (Japan controlled
rubber production areas)
 Rationing: Limiting goods
deemed essential for war effort
 Used during WWII





Meatless, Wheatless
Rationing books
Gas rationing (West)
Hoarding was bad/unpatriotic
 Farmers increase production
 Billions in war bonds redeemable
after war & would aid economy,
no depression!
Homefront

America suffered less
than other nations
 Economy boomed &
employment increased
 More gov’t. intervention
in everyday life
 War Bonds raised $$ to
support the war effort
 Posters
 Propaganda films
(video)




6 mill. enter workforce
Worked in factories &
replaced men in other
jobs, just as in WWI
2/3 leave workforce after
war b/c opportunities
decline
Rosie the Riveter:
Nickname of women
who entered workforce

Over 200,000 women joined military
 Served as nurses, radio operators, record keepers etc.
 Woman’s Army Corps (WAC)
 WAVES, WAFS (Ferry Service)
 Didn’t received military benefits
Weird Science

Scientists play important role in war
effort – medical, industrial, military etc.
Pushed for penicillin, improved sonar &
radar
Race to Build the Bomb

Einstein warned FDR of
Germany’s ability to split
the atom

US & Germany raced to
develop the world’s 1st
atomic bomb
Treatment of Japanese
Americans

Fear of Japanese rampant

Lost homes, business,
rights…lives

Internment Camps: Prison
camps for possible threats to
national security (mostly
Japanese)
 100,000+
 Surrounded by armed
guards & barbed wire
 Southwest & South
Korematsu vs. USA: 1944
Challenged internment camps; they violated 5th Amendment
 Supreme Court said internment camps were legal b/c necessary
for national security
 1965: Compensated for lost business & property
 George Bush issued a formal apology in 1988, granted $20K/each






Japan invaded Philippines in
1942
Douglas MacArthur lead US
troops stationed there
 Forced out by Japanese
 “I Will Return”
Bataan Death March:
Captured US troops forced to
march over 50 miles to POW
camp
 Many died (30,000)
Japan controlled Philippines
Disproved theory of white
domination in SE Asia
Col. James Doolittle
April 1942

Showed Japan could be attacked by plane
 Japanese islands vulnerable to attack
 Dampened Japanese spirits & lifted US
morale
Coral Sea: May 1942





Japan eyeing
Australia
US & Australian
troops stop Japanese
advance (1st time)
Australia not invaded
New type of naval
warfare: no ships,
fought with airplanes
from aircraft carriers
Allies lost most, but
Japan unable to
continue, out of fuel
Battle of Midway: June 1942
“US Avenged Pearl Harbor”
• Led by Admiral Nimitz
• US intercepted info. abt. Japanese
movement toward strategic island of
Midway, then off to finish Pacific Fleet
in Pearl Harbor
• US outnumbered 4 to 1
• US took big chance, sent bulk of
Navy for this sneak attack
• Worst Japanese defeat
• 4 aircraft carriers, 322 planes &
1 cruiser
• Turning point of Pacific Theater
• Japan begins to weaken, loses
power in Pacific
Taking islands over one at a time,
bypassing well fortified ones, to
build airstrips
Guadalcanal: Aug. 1942
1st land offensive of
Pacific War
 6 months battle
 Island of Death
 Important for use as an
airstrip: toehold to attack
on Japan
 Showed how costly this
would be (30%)
 US moving closer to
Japan

Battle of Stalingrad: Spring 1942


Germany stuck on Eastern Front (Near Soviet Union)
Stalingrad major Soviet industrial center,
 Germany needs the resources because it’s low on oil & machinery
 Nov. 1942-Feb. 1943 Hitler tried to take Stalingrad, burned city
 Soviets retaliated, fighting back in -44 weather
 Turning point of the European Theater (1943)
• Stalin wants US & Britain to
get involved with land troops
ASAP
• Distract German troops




US upset because already
lost 200,000
USSR loses that many by
breakfast everyday
8 million soldiers (estimate)
16 million civilian (estimate)
• Fighting Germany alone for
months
England Attacks



England retaliates by launching bombing raids over Germany in
late 1942
 Retaliating for Bombing of Britain
France still under attack because Britain not ready & wanted an
attack on Africa
US needed British aid to make attack, so went along & attacked
Africa & then Italy
Operation Torch: North Africa




Operation Torch: Allied
assault on North Africa
Dwight Eisenhower
(USA): Led Allied
assault in N. Africa
Erwin Rommel
(Germany): Desert Fox
Oct. 1942: El Alamen:
Germany suffered major
defeat & surrendered in
1943 in Tunisia
Italy was the “Soft underbelly
of Europe” b/c it was the
weakest point to attack in
Europe
Collapse of Italy





Allies attack Sicily first, then on to
mainland
King stripped Mussolini of power –
“Most hated man in Italy”
Italy weak after long war &
surrendered in Sept. 1943
Northern Italy still under Nazi
control, where Mussolini fled
Mussolini captured by Partisans:


Underground resistance
movement
Mussolini & mistress shot & strung
up on display in Milan Square





Allies needed France to bring in heavy machinery; ports close to
Britain
Kept bombing Germany to prepare for invasion
Fed Germany false information, used decoys
Hitler expecting Belgian invasion
Allies planned to attack Normandy, France
Operation Overlord D-DAY





June 6, 1944: Allied invasion of Normandy, France
Gen. Eisenhower in charge of Allies
Largest amphibious invasion in history
Problems: Drop zones, fortifications, underwater mines etc.
Several beaches attacked – Omaha Beach heaviest
 Led to the Liberation of France
 By Sept. 1944, most of N. Europe was free
FDR wins 4th term b/c war going well
Wanted to see country through war
Died April 12, 1945
Harry Truman – FDR’s VP; became the Pres. After FDR
died
Battle of the Bulge





Dec. 1944 – Jan. 1945
Battle of Aachen: 1st
German city taken
Germany broke through
American lines (creating
bulge)
80 mile front & took 1
month to get back under
Allied control; Germany
defeated
Germany’s last major
attack
Germany’s Demise





2 front war: USSR & US
1945: US & Soviet
troops met in Berlin
Hitler hiding in bunker
with new wife & other
friends
April 30, 1945: Hitler
shot himself, wife took
poison, gave dog
cyanide-bodies burned
Hitler blamed Jews in
final letter
Victory in Europe Day
May 7, 1945
1st part of war over
Leyte Gulf, Philippines: Oct. 1944





Guess who made good on his promise to return to the Philippines?
 “People of the Philippines: I have returned!”
3 major battles take place
US takes the Philippines: MacArthur in charge
Islands completely taken by 1945
Japanese desperate & use Kamikaze pilots: Suicide pilots
 Lost 424 pilots
Iwo Jima



Feb.-Mar. 1945
Strategic: serve as base
for heavy bombers
(couldn’t take off from
carriers)
Most protected place on
earth – 20,000
Japanese
Only 200 survived
Okinawa
April – June 1945
 Last island in US’s way to Japan
 Heavy Casualties: Showed possible high losses if US
invaded Japan


Estimated over 1,000,000 would be lost in land invasion
of Japan
Yalta Conference:



Feb. 1945
Meeting of the Big 3 to discuss the war effort & post war reconstruction
Big 3: US (FDR); Britain (Churchill) & USSR (Stalin)
Agreements:
 USSR would enter war with Japan after 2 months
 Poland would have free elections & serve as a buffer btwn. Germany & USSR
 Creation of the United Nations
 Divide Germany after war
Manhattan Project

US began developing an atomic weapon
under the code name Manhattan Project
 Used Uranium 235 & Plutonium 239 (rare)
 Scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer
TRINITY EXPLOSION
• 1st atomic weapon detonated in Los
Alamos, New Mexico: 7/16/45
• 20,000 tons of TNT
• Flash seen 450 miles away & heard
200 miles away
• More powerful than dared hoped
• Oppenheimer: “I have become
Death, the shatterer of worlds,
waiting that hour that ripens to
their dooms.”
• $20 billion to develop
• 4 bombs made (1 test, 2 for war, I
unused)
Potsdam Conference: July 1945





Another meeting of Big 3:
Truman instead of FDR ( no
Churchill (out of ofc)
Truman informed about
atomic weapon
Didn’t tell Stalin, but he
knew…spies
Truman told Japan to
surrender or face prompt &
utter destruction, but didn’t
say how
Called for war crimes trials
after war





August 6, 1945: US drops A-Bomb on Hiroshima
Enola Gay: Plane which dropped 1st A-Bomb (Little Boy);
70,000 dead in blink of eye, 30,000 from radiation & injuries
W/i 43 seconds, most buildings collapsed into dust
Japan refused to surrender
 Why?
Before
After






Aug. 9, 1945
2nd A-Bomb dropped on
Japan - Fat Man
7,000 degrees
Centigrade
Emperor horrified &
surrenders: 8/14/45
V-J Day: Victory In
Japan – 8/15/45
Formal surrender:
9/2/45: USS Missouri
It was perhaps unforgivable, but in fact at the time, I was
completely calm & composed. In other words, it was
just too much, too enormous to absorb.
- Yosuke Yamahata
- Nagasaki Survivor
Post War Info.





War crimes trials were held in Nuremberg
Many Nazis & Japanese sent to prison, some
death
Japan under control of MacArthur who helped
create constitution & improve economy
Germany divided into 4 zones
300,000 Americans died, 800,000 wounded
International
peace keeping organization (replaces the
League of Nations)
General Assembly: made up of all members of UN
 Security Council: Permanent members (5)
USA,
England, France, China, Soviet Union