WAR AND PEACE
• The Road to Pearl Harbor
– relations between Japan and the United States
deteriorated after Japan resumed its war against
China in 1937
– neither the United States nor Japan desired war
– Roosevelt considered Nazi Germany to be a
more dangerous enemy and dreaded the
prospect of a two-front war
– in the spring of 1941, Secretary of State Cordell
Hull demanded that Japan withdraw from China
and pledge not to occupy French and Dutch
possessions in Asia
– even moderates in Japan did not accept Hull’s
demand for total withdrawal
– in July 1941, the United States retaliated
against Japan’s occupation of Indochina by
freezing Japanese assets in America and placing
an embargo on petroleum
– militarists assumed control of Japan’s
government, and while the pretense of
negotiation continued, Japan prepared to
implement war plans against the United States
– on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor
– Congress declared war on Japan the following
day, and on December 11, the Axis powers
declared war on the United States
• Mobilizing the Home Front
– Congress granted wide emergency powers to
the president
– however, Democratic majorities were slim in
both houses, and a coalition of conservatives
from both parties limited Roosevelt’s freedom
to act through fiscal oversight
– Roosevelt was an inspiring wartime leader but a
poor administrator
– nevertheless, Roosevelt’s basic decisions made
sense
– they included financing the war through taxes,
basing taxation on ability to pay, rationing
scarce resources and consumer goods, and
regulating wages and prices
– a lack of centralized authority impeded
mobilization, but production expanded
dramatically
– manufacturing nearly doubled; agricultural
output rose 22 percent
– unemployment virtually disappeared
– productive capacity and per capita output
increased especially dramatically in the South
• The War Economy
– Roosevelt selected James F. Byrnes as his
wartime “economic czar”
– Byrnes headed the Office of War Mobilization,
which controlled production, consumption,
priorities, and prices
– the National War Labor Board arbitrated
disputes and stabilized wages
– despite rationing and wage regulations,
American civilians experienced no real
hardships during the war
– prosperity and stiffer government controls
strengthened organized labor; the war did more
to institutionalize collective bargaining than the
New Deal had done
– the war also effected a redistribution of wealth
in America
– the wealthiest 1 percent of the population
received 13.4 percent of the national income in
1935; by 1944 this group received 6.7 percent
– the income tax was extended until nearly all
Americans paid
– Congress adopted the payroll-deduction system
to ensure its collection
• War and Social Change
– Americans became more mobile
– not only were those in the military moved to
training camps all over the United States and to
Europe and the Pacific, but wartime industries
drew millions of civilians to new areas
– wartime prosperity allowed new marriages and
a higher birthrate
• Minorities in Time of War: Blacks,
Hispanics, and Indians
– several factors improved the condition of black
Americans
– Hitler’s racial doctrines made racism less
respectable
– black leaders pointed out the inconsistency
between fighting for democracy abroad and
ignoring it at home
– blacks serving in the military were treated more
fairly than in World War I; however, the armed
forces remained segregated
– economic realities worked to the advantage of
black civilians
– unemployment had affected blacks
disproportionately; the labor shortage brought
full employment
– moreover, defense jobs often involved
opportunities to develop valuable skills,
opportunities that racist policies of unions and
employers had denied to blacks before the war
– blacks moved to the cities of the North,
Midwest, and West Coast
– although most migrants had to live in urban
ghettos, their very concentration (and the fact
that blacks outside the South could vote) gave
them greater political clout
– the NAACP grew in membership and influence;
it also assumed a more activist role
– to head off a threatened march on Washington,
the president established a Fair Employment
Practices Commission
– racial tensions resulted in race riots, the worst
of which took place in Detroit
– increased demands for labor led to a reversal of
the government’s policy of forcing Mexicans
out of the Southwest
– in Los Angeles, prejudice against Hispanics
erupted into rioting against young men wearing
zoot suits
– military service and mobility in search of
employment increased the American Indian’s
assimilation into white society
• The Treatment of German- and ItalianAmericans
– World War II produced less intolerance and
repression than World War I
– in marked contrast to the First World War,
Americans in World War II were generally able
to distinguish between the enemy in Italy and
Germany and Italian-Americans and GermanAmericans
– few Italian-Americans supported Mussolini,
and most German-Americans were vehemently
anti-fascist
– moreover, both groups were well organized and
prepared to use their political influence
• Internment of the Japanese
– in marked contrast to treatment of Americans of
Italian or German descent, 112,000 JapaneseAmericans, many of them native-born citizens,
were relocated into internment camps
– the government feared their potential disloyalty,
and the public was aroused by racial prejudice
and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
– Supreme Court upheld restrictions on JapaneseAmericans in Hirabayashi v. U.S. (1943)
– finally, in Ex Parte Endo (1944), the Supreme
Court forbade the internment of loyal JapaneseAmerican citizens
• Women’s Contribution to the War Effort
– millions of women entered the work force
during the war, and more married women than
ever worked outside of the home
– despite initial reluctance by employers and
unions, women made inroads into traditionally
male domains
– black women bore a double burden of race and
gender, but the demand for labor created
opportunities for them
– in addition to prejudice in the workplace,
working women faced housework as well
– war also affected women who did not take jobs
– wartime mobility caused problems for the
women who faced new, sometimes difficult,
surroundings without traditional support
networks
– war brides often followed their husbands to
training camps, where they faced problems
comparable to those of women who moved to
work in defense industries; in addition, they
faced the fear and emotional uncertainties of
newlyweds, compounded by separation from
husbands who were risking their lives overseas
• Allied Strategy: Europe First
– Allied strategists decided to concentrate on the
European war first
– the Japanese threat was remote, but Hitler
threatened to knock Soviet Union out of war
– the United States and Soviet Union wanted to
establish a second front in France as soon as
possible
– Churchill pressed instead for strategic bombing
raids on German cities and an invasion of
German-held North Africa
– Churchill got his way
– in 1942, Allied planes began to bomb German
cities, and an Allied force under Dwight
Eisenhower invaded North Africa
– the decision to offer conditional surrender terms
to the French collaborationist, Admiral Jean
Darlan, disturbed Charles de Gaulle and many
Americans, but it did yield strategic dividends
– Rommel’s Afrika Korps surrendered in May
1943
– by the fall of 1943, the Soviets had checked the
Nazi advance at Stalingrad, and the Allies were
pushing their way up the Italian peninsula
• Germany Overwhelmed
– on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allied forces
launched a massive attack on the Normandy
coast
– in the East, millions of Soviet troops slowly
pushed back the Axis lines
– while Eisenhower prepared for a general
advance, the Germans launched a counterattack
– Allies turned back Germans at the Battle of the
Bulge, which cost Germans their last reserves
– on May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany unconditionally
surrendered
– as the Allies advanced, the horror of the Nazi
death camps unfolded
– news of the camps had reached the United
States much earlier
– yet Roosevelt declined to take any action to
save refugees or even to bomb the camps or the
rail lines leading to the camps
• The Naval War in the Pacific
– while the first priority was to defeat Germany,
American forces in the Pacific fought to
prevent further Japanese expansion
– in spite of heavy losses, the American navy
turned back a Japanese convoy at the Battle of
the Coral Sea (1942)
– at Midway, the United States fleet decisively
defeated a Japanese armada
– thereafter, the initiative in the Pacific shifted to
the Americans
• Island Hopping
– American forces ejected the Japanese from the
Solomon Islands in a series of battles around
Guadalcanal in which American air power
proved decisive
– American forces advanced steadily, and by
mid-1944, American land-based bombers were
within range of Tokyo
– in February 1945, MacArthur liberated the
Philippines
– two battles in Philippine waters (1944)
completed the destruction of Japan’s sea power
and reduced its air power to kamikazes
– American forces took Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
only a few hundred miles from the Japanese
mainland, in March 1945
– the tenacity of Japanese soldiers made it seem
that the actual invasion and conquest of Japan
would take at least another year and cost an
additional million American casualties
• Building the Atom Bomb
– following Roosevelt’s death in April 1945,
Harry S Truman became America’s president
– America’s scientific community delivered a
powerful new weapon, the atom bomb, to
Truman
– the United States had devoted over six years
and $2 billion to develop this weapon
– after the first successful test on July 16, 1945,
Truman faced a difficult decision
– he could authorize bombing the Japanese cities
with this weapon, or he could finish the war
using conventional means
– the motives behind Truman’s decision are still
debated
– on August 6 and 9, 1945, atomic weapons
devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
– Truman’s decision was influenced by the
potential casualties involved in an invasion of
Japan as well as a desire to end the war before
the Soviet Union could intervene effectively
and claim a role in making peace
– hatred of Japan undoubtedly also influenced the
decision
– on August 15, Japan surrendered
unconditionally, and Second World War ended
– millions of people perished in the war, and
many areas lay in ruins. Despite the war's
horrible cost, improvements in technology and
medicine held out the promise of a better world
– scientists argued that the power of the atom
could also serve peaceful needs
– with the drafting of the United Nations charter
in 1945, the world hoped for international
cooperation
• Wartime Diplomacy
– hopes of world peace and harmony failed to
materialize, largely because of a split between
the Soviet Union and the western allies
– during the war, American propaganda spared no
effort to persuade Americans that the Soviet
Union was a devoted, peace-loving ally
– Joseph Stalin was portrayed as a kindly father
figure
– Americans representing viewpoints as diverse
as Douglas A. MacArthur and Henry A.
Wallace adopted pro-Soviet positions
– such views were naive at best, but the war
created an identity of interest in defeating a
common enemy
– moreover, the Soviets expressed a willingness
to cooperate in resolving postwar problems, and
the Soviet Union was one of the original
signers of the Declaration of the United Nations
– in May 1943, the Soviets dissolved the
Comintern
– in October, the “big three powers” established
the European Advisory Commission to set
policy for the occupation of Germany
– the Big Three met and cooperated
constructively at Teheran and Yalta
– at San Francisco, the Allies created a United
Nations Organization consisting of a General
Assembly (made up of all member nations) and
a Security Council (consisting of five
permanent members and six other, temporary
members)
• Allied Suspicion of Stalin
– long before the war ended, the Allies clashed
over important issues
– Stalin deeply resented the delay in opening a
second front
– at the same time, the Soviet leader never
concealed his determination to protect his
western frontier by exerting control over
Eastern Europe
– most Allied leaders conceded Stalin’s
dominance in Eastern Europe, but they never
publicly acknowledged this
– Conflicts between western commitments to
self-determination and Soviet desires for
security presented difficult problems,
particularly in Poland
• Yalta and Potsdam
– at Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to
Soviet annexation of large sections of eastern
Poland
– Stalin agreed to allow the Poles to hold free
elections, a commitment he probably never
intended to keep
– a pro-Soviet regime was installed in Poland.
The new president, Truman, met with Stalin
and the British leadership at Potsdam in July
1945
– Potsdam formalized the occupation of Germany
– fortified by news of the successful testing of an
atomic bomb, Truman made no concessions to
the Soviets
– Stalin refused to relinquish his hold on Eastern
Europe
– suspicions mounted and positions hardened on
both sides
– the end of World War II marked the beginning
of a new international order dominated by the
Soviet-American rivalry