World War II
American History II
Adolph Hitler & Nazi Germany
Adolph Hitler & Nazis given
emergency dictatorial powers
in March 1933
Used resentment of treaty &
Jews as scapegoats
Nuremburg Laws (1935)
excluded Jews from citizenship
& banned intermarriage
Kristallnacht (Nov. 9-10,
1938) began organized violence
Began secretly rebuilding
military in 1935
Reoccupied Rhineland in 1936
SS Blood Flag Ritual
Aftermath of Kristallnacht
Axis Aggression & Appeasement
Nov. 1937: Italy joined Germany &
Japan’s Anti-Comintern Pact
March 1938: Germany annexed
Austria (Anschluss)
Sept. 1938: British & French
Benito Mussolini & Adolph Hitler
accepted German annexation of
Sudetenland at Munich
Conference
Aug. 1939: Germany & USSR agreed
to divide eastern Europe in
Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact
Sept. 1, 1939: Germany invaded
Poland
© 2000 Wadsworth / Thomson Learning
Sept. 3, 1939: Britain & France
declared war on Germany
The European Theater, 1939-41
Blitzkrieg revolutionized warfare
Planes
Tanks
April 1940:
Germany conquered
Denmark & Norway
May 1940: Germany
overran Low
Countries
June 1940: France
surrendered to
Germany
American Isolationism
Nye Committee (1934-37)
investigated whether the U.S. had
been duped into entering World
War I
1937 Gallup Poll showed 2/3 of
Americans thought U.S.
involvement in WWI had been a
mistake
1937 Neutrality Act:
Americans couldn’t travel on
belligerent ships
Belligerents could only purchase
non-military goods, on “cash and
carry” basis
Copyright 1997 Prentice-Hall
The Arsenal of Democracy
Nov. 1939 – Neutrality Act amended to allow arms
sales to belligerents
July 1940 – Republicans Henry Stimson & Frank Knox
brought into cabinet as War & Navy Secretaries
Sept. 1940 –
Destroyer-Base Deal traded 50 “old” destroyers for 8
military bases
Selective Service Act – 1st peacetime draft
March 1941 – Lend-Lease Act allowed Britain (and
later USSR) to “borrow” $50 billion worth of supplies
U.S. got into undeclared naval war in Atlantic
escorted British convoys – several shooting incidents in fall
Marines took over Greenland & Iceland to secure route
Declaring War Aims
Aug. 1941 – FDR &
Churchill meet & issue
Atlantic Charter:
Collective security
Disarmament
Self-determination
Economic cooperation
Freedom of the seas
Churchill & Roosevelt, Aug. 1941
The Four Freedoms:
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
of Speech
of Worship
From Want
From Fear
Norman Rockwell,
“Freedom of Worship”
Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7, 1941
Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martins
U.S.-Japanese Conflict
Japanese had long resented U.S.
immigration policy & coveted
Philippines
U.S. condemned Japanese
invasion of China in 1937
After Japan signed Tripartite
Pact (Sept. 1940) & joined Axis,
U.S. embargoed aviation fuel &
scrap metal
U.S. froze all Japanese assets in
U.S., July 1941
MAGIC intercepts revealed attack
was coming, but not where it
would come
Hideki Tojo,
Japanese
Prime Minister
1941-44
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
Japanese fleet crossed
Pacific in radio silence
60 ships
6 carriers with 360 planes
U.S. lost:
USS Shaw
19 ships sunk or disabled
160 aircraft destroyed
2,403 killed & 1,178
wounded
U.S. aircraft carriers
spared because out at
sea on exercises
USS Arizona
Aerial Photo of Pearl Harbor
The War in Europe
Stalin wanted second
front immediately
British preferred to
attack “soft underbelly”
(N. Africa & Italy)
Russians deserve most
of the credit for
winning the war in
Europe
Battle of Stalingrad
(Sept. 1942 - Jan.
1943)= turning point in
Europe
The War in Europe
Nov. 1942: U.S. & British
land at Casablanca
July 1943: U.S. & British
invade Sicily, then Italy
June 1944: Normandy
invasion (Operation
Overlord)
May 7, 1945 = V-E Day
Race War in the Pacific
The Bataan Death March
The War in the Pacific
U.S. dropped atomic bombs on
Hiroshima (Aug. 6) &
Nagasaki (Aug. 9)
Aug. 14/15, 1945 = V-J Day
Turning point = Battles of
Coral Sea (May 1942) &
Midway (June 1942)
Naval & air superiority allows
“island-hopping”
Victory at Leyte Gulf (Oct.
1944) began reconquest of
Philippines
Bloodbaths at Iwo Jima
(Feb.-March 1945) &
Okinawa (April-June 1945),
coupled with kamikaze
attacks, made invasion of
Japan unappealing
The Pacific Theater
Gen. Macarthur Returns to the Philippines
Marines Raising the Flag on Mt.
Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Feb. 1945
WWII Deaths
USSR = 25 million
China = 15 million
Poland = 6 million
Germany = 4 million
Japan = 2 million
Yugoslavia 1.5 – 2
million
USA = 400,000
U.S. Military Cemetery, Normandy
The Home Front
War Production Board oversaw
plant conversion & production
Chairman = Donald Nelson
Cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts
Big business benefitted the most
Received 2/3 of gov’t contracts
Corporate profits doubled, 1939-43
Union membership rose from 8.5
million to 14.75 million, 1940-45
Wages rose 135%, 140-45
6 million women entered workforce
• 2.5 million in industry
• 75% married
WWII Propaganda Posters
Internment of Japanese Americans
300,000 aliens (1/2 Japanese)
rounded up in week after Pearl
Harbor
FDR issued Executive Order
9066 Feb. 19, 1942
120,000 (2/3 U.S. citizens)
West coast, but not Hawaii
War Relocation Authority ran
internment camps
Upheld by Supreme Court in
Korematsu v. U.S. (1944)
Nisei 442nd Regiment one of the
most highly decorated units in
WW II