WWII
Ch 23, Sect 1: Dictators & War
Soviet Union
• 1917 Russian Rev led by Lenin
• 1924 Lenin dies, replaced by Josef Stalin
• Stalin-Man of Steel-killed rivals, sent people to gulags in Great
Terror, 10 million dead
• Stalin wanted to industrialize factories & collectively run farms
Italy
• Didn’t get land promised in WWI
• Post WWI economy in depression, weak government, war veterans
can’t find jobs
• Benito Mussolini founded Fascist Party (followers were Black
Shirts)
• Given power because he was anti-liberal & anti-Socialist
• Outlawed other political parties, labor unions, freedom of press;
created secret police
Ch 23, Sect 1: Dictators & War
Germany
• Weimar Republic formed at end of WWI, arranged German surrender
• Severe econ troubles due to reparations & Great Depression
• Nazi Party-National Socialist German Workers Party-led by Adolf Hitler
• Hitler attempts to take over during Beer Hall Putsch; jailed & wrote Mein Kampf (manifesto of beliefs including
anti-Semitism)
• Pres of Weimar Republic made Hitler the Chancellor of Germany & later became President with no opposition
from Reichstag
• Germans followed him because improved economy; Hitler enacts Nuremburg Laws to take away rights,
property, citizenship from Jews
Japan
• 1920s reduced military, allowed suffrage for all men, legalized unions, allowed different political parties
• Military leaders argued that expansion would help economic problems of 1930s (Great Depression)
• 1931 Japan attacked Manchuria in NE China
• 1937 Japan gained control over coastal China & attacked Chinese capital (Rape of Nanking)
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Totalitarianism-GLOSSARY
Fascist Party-(pg 773)
Ch 23, Sect 1: Dictators & War
Weakness of League of Nations
• No US support, no power to take action against aggression
Fighting in Spain
• Spanish Civil War-fascists led by General Francisco Franco seize power-Hitler & Mussolini
send help
• USSR, Britain, France, & US help Spain’s Republic gov against fascists
Aggression Unchecked
• Hitler given Czechoslovakia (Sudentenland) by Britain’s PM Chamberlain to begin
appeasement
• European leaders didn’t want another world war; others want a stronger Germany to help
fight off Soviets
• Many thought Soviet communism was bigger threat than Fascism
Hitler & Mussolini Alliance
• Hitler reclaimed parts of France (Saar)
• Hitler wants to unite all German speaking people to make Lebensraum (“living space”)
• Hitler takes Austria (Anschluss)
• Hitler begins to rebuild military (violation of Treaty of Versailles)
• Mussolini invades Ethiopia (leader Haile Selassie ask League of Nations for help)
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AppeasementAnti-Semitism-
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Ch 23, Sect 2: Isolation to Involvement
1934 Senate committee led by Gerald Nye concluded that “merchants of death” had pulled
US into WWI only to sell weapons; isolationists want to focus on fixing problems of Great
Depression & believed our only threat were Soviets & Japan
US Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937 declared no sailing on ships who were at war or
giving loans to warring nations
Oct 1937 FDR Quarantine Speech -criticized Japanese terror, wants peaceful alliance
Spring 1939 Hitler violates Munich Pact, takes Czechoslovakia
August 1939 Germany signs Non-Aggression Pact with Soviets
Sept 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland in blitzkrieg (lightning war-use of speed &
firepower)
Sept 17, 1939 Soviets invade Poland; France & Britain declare war but do not attack “phony
war”
US Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed buying weapons from US if paid cash & carried back on
own ships; “cash & carry” program helped Britain so many US isolationists protested we
were violating neutrality
April 1940 Germany attacks Denmark & Norway
May 1940 Germany attacks Netherlands, Belgium, & Luxembourg; Germany attacks
Ardennes Forest in France; Britain evacuates troops out of French port of Dunkirk; Germans
take over Paris & force French to surrender; France divided into Nazi N & Unoccupied S
(Vichy Regime); New British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill
• July 1940 Germany begins Operation Sea Lion (Hitler’s plan to
invade Britain through blitz bombing “Battle of Britain”
• Sept 1940 Germany, Italy, Japan sign Tripartite Pact alliance
• January 1941 FDR delivers Four Freedoms Speech after his
reelection to encourage Congress to declare war
• March 1941 Britain needs help (CBS reporter Edward Murrow
informs Americans about London blitz bombing, Congress authorizes
sale or lending of “defense articles” to support Allies “Lend or Lease
Act”
• June 1941 Germany invades Soviets
• August 1941 FDR anti-Nazi & wants to help European allies; FDR &
Churchill secretly meet to discuss British problems & hopes for postHitler Europe; signed Atlantic Charter
Axis Powers-Germany, Italy, Japan
Allied Powers-Britain, France (later US, USSR, China)
Ch 23, Sect 3: America Enters War
Causes
• Japan-industrial & economic leader in Pacific &
resented US presence in Guam & Philippines
• FDR tried to stop Japanese expansion into China by
placing embargo on supplies to Japan
• 1941 General Hideki Tojo became Japan’s Prime
Minister, tried to maintain US neutrality but
continued expansion into China
• Summer 1941 US & Japan attempt to negotiate but
by November 1941, all negotiations stalled & Gen
Tojo decided to make 1st strike against US
Attack on Pearl Harbor
• Japan’s navy sailed for Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (main US
naval base in Pacific) on Dec 7, 1941
• Surprise attack planned by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
to prevent US from mounting resistance to Japanese
expansion
• Attack consisted of two waves of bombing aircraft,
beginning at 7:55 am and lasted for 110 minutes, after
a radar warning was ignored by US
• Nearly 2,500 people killed, 8 battleships severely
damaged, 160 aircraft destroyed, & 128 aircraft
damaged, allowing free access to raw materials for
Japanese for 6 months BUT most important US aircraft
carriers out at sea & untouched
• Japanese cancelled next wave of bombing, fled b/c
feared counterstrike
Effects
• Soviets had converted to Allied side after German
invasion in June 1941; despite allying with communists,
Americans realized need to declare war on Japan
• December 8, 1941 Congress approved declaration of
war; FDR gave “Day of Infamy” speech; Germany, Italy
declare war on US
• 16 million Americans serve in military; establishment of
Women’s Auxiliary (Army) Corps-WACs
• US industry mobilized, production increased ; War
Production Board oversaw conversion of peacetime
industry to war industry; massive wartime spending
ended Great Depression
Ch 23: Sect 3: America Enters War
Early War in Pacific
• Dec 1941 Japanese destroyed US Army under General
Douglas MacArthur & took Guam, Wake Island, & Hong
Kong; May 1942 Philippines under Japanese control &
US forced to flee Manila into Bataan; Japanese forced
75,000 Allied POWs (prisoners of war) to march up
Bataan Peninsula (7000 died on Bataan Death March)
• April 1942 Japanese dominated SE Asia & western
Pacific; as retaliation for Pearl Harbor, FDR ordered
bombing of Tokyo (Doolittle Raid)
• May 1942 US aircraft attacked Japanese ships off NE
coast of Australia (Battle of Coral Sea); forced Japanese
to cancel invasion of New Guinea (1st strategic defeat
for Japanese)
Ch 24, Sect 1: Allies Turn Tide in Europe
• Axis Powers-no coordinated strategy, common enemies but separate goals (Hitlerdomination Europe, Mussolini-domination of Med Sea, Japan-domination Pacific);
Allied Powers-unified goal of defeating Germany (Europe First strategy) because
bigger threat than Japan
• FDR wants to be “arsenal of democracy” but problem is how to deliver supplies to
Allies; Hitler cut off Atlantic from US supply deliveries; Allies use convoys & radar
• Germany sends 1st army into Russia toward Leningrad, 2nd army toward Moscow, &
3rd army Stalingrad; Hitler wants control of Russian oil fields & needs control of
Stalingrad; Germans starving, sick, & frostbitten so surrender Jan 1943 (end of
German plans to dominate Europe)
• Stalin wants US & Brits to relieve Soviets by opening 2nd front in France but Allies
thought less effort to invade N Africa & take out Italians; Battle of El Alamein in
Egypt was Allied victory led by Gen Dwight Eisenhower; Germans led by Erwin
Rommel (Desert Fox) stopped by Allies; Eisenhower promoted George Patton
(“Blood & Guts”)
• Jan 1943 Roosevelt & Churchill met in Casablanca, Morocco; decide to increase
German bombing, to invade Italy, & to accept only unconditional surrender
• July 1943 Allies invade Sicily (Italy) under Eisenhower to trap Axis powers but
escape to Italy; Sept 1943 Italy surrenders to Allies & declares war on Germans;
Hitler rescues Mussolini & places him in charge of puppet state in N Italy
• Early 1942 Allies begins strategic bombing by day & saturation bombing by night in
Germany; Allies helped by Afr Amer Tuskegee Airmen; paved way for all out
offensive by Allies
Ch 24, Sect 1: Allies Turn Tide in Pacific
• May 1942 Japanese attacked US, British, & Dutch colonies; gaining
control in Pacific until Battle of Coral Sea was turning point
• Admiral Yamamoto was commander of Japanese forces in Pacific;
wanted to take Midway (US naval base in Pacific) so US would have
to retreat back to California & Japan could establish military
presence in Aleutian Islands (off coast of Alaska)
• Admiral Chester Nimitz (commander of US Navy) intercepted
Japanese messages with Navajo Code Talkers; sent his only aircraft
carriers to guard Midway
• June 1942 Japanese began attack; US sank 4 Japanese aircraft
carriers with 250 aircraft on board; became turning point for War
in Pacific with offensive victory
• Aug 1942 US began Battle of Guadalcanal & drove Japanese out of
Solomon Islands; Used combined Army, Navy, & Marines to force
Japanese to fight two-front war; US wanted to capture naval bases
to bomb Japanese home islands
Ch 24, Sect 2: Home Front
Economy
• War cost $330 billion & national debt skyrocketed
• 5 % tax on all working Americans
• Increased production of war goods created scarcity of consumer goods, shortages
led to price increases
• FDR creates Office of Price Administration (control wages, set maximum prices)
• Rationing-issued coupon books that limited amounts of certain goods that
consumers could buy
• Office of War Information OWI highlighted reasons for war to media (propaganda)
& downplayed US problems (discrimination)
• Growth of black market-illegal underground network for sale of restricted goods
• Workers accuse employers of unfair practices
Effects on Women
• Many female jobs were outside traditional careers (heavy industry)
• Change in customary practices like women quitting jobs when married
• ¾ female workers were married
• Rosie Riveter was symbol for working women
• Government built day care centers & many women sent children to other child care
givers
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Ch 24, Sect 2: Home Front
Effects on Minorities
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Few Afr-Amer found employment with national defense employers so they stressed need for “Double V” campaign
(victory against fascism & victory against discrimination)
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A Philip Randolph organized Afr-Amer leaders to protest in Wash DC & sent list of demands to FDR; Many joined
organizations like NAACP to fight against segregation
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FDR issued Executive Order #8802 (fair hiring practices in any gov funded job & established Fair Employment Practices
Committee)
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Congress of Racial Equality CORE worked for nonviolent protest against segregation
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War encouraged migration to find work; California population grew while S & SW became cultural, social, political,
economic centers
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Bracero program brought farm workers from Mexico to US
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Racial violence erupted; Detroit, Michigan fighting over black housing; Los Angeles, California fighting over Zoot Suit
Riots (Mex-Amer zoot suits -- modeled on flashy, mobster attire – ridiculed in white media, military men targeted zoot
suit wearing youth)
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German, Italian, Japanese immigrant aliens subject to arrest or deportation; forced to leave
West Coast
Executive Order # 9066 designated certain areas as war zones & Jap-Amer forced to sell
property & later sent to internment camps
Korematsu v US (Supreme Court upheld right of US to wartime internment)
442nd Regimental Combat team (all Japanese) fought in Italy at end of war
Ch 24, Sect 3: Victory
Tehran Conference
• Soviets want Allies to open 2nd front
• Nov 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill, & Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran &
agree that Brit & US would invade France & march into
Germany
D-Day (Operation Overlord)
• Allies set up fake HQ in Calais to convince Germans they were
going to cross the English Channel to land in France so Hitler
sent his army there
• June 6, 1944 Surprising the Germans, Allies invaded France in
largest landing along 50 mile stretch of Normandy Beach
• Some portions of beach were easier landing but others had
German trenches, heavy artillery concrete firing stations, &
landmines, while some soldiers drowned after being weighed
down with heavy equipment
Ch 24, Sect 3: Victory
Liberation/VE Day in Europe
• Soviets advance from E while Allies advance from W into Germany
• July 1944 German Gen Erwin Rommel plans to overthrow Hitler & planted
bomb at HQ; 20 ppl killed or wounded but Hitler survived
• Aug 1944 Allies liberate Paris
• Dec 1944 Hitler ordered counterattack at Ardennes (Battle of Bulge) to
divide British & Americans; Germans caught Allies by surprise when cut
telephone lines, changed road signs, & spread confusion during snow storm
but Allies push Germans back out of France
• Jan 1945 Because of Battle of Bulge, Allies begin march toward Berlin:
Soviets reach Oder R outside Berlin, while Allies advance N into Italy
• April 1945 Mussolini tries to flee to Switzerland but captured & executed;
Allies reach Rhine R & later Elbe R outside of Berlin
• April 30, 1945 After nervous breakdown & excessive methamphetamine
usage, Hitler & top aides commit suicide
• May 7, 1945 Germans surrender at Gen Eisenhower’s HQ in France; Allies
celebrate VE (Victory in Europe) Day; New US President, Harry Truman,
after FDR died
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Ch 24, Sect 3: Victory
Allies used island-hopping strategy (capturing some Japanese islands to be used as military
bases & ignoring others)
Feb-March 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima (island SE of Tokyo) caused more than 23,000 Allied
casualties in 36 days of fighting; Battle of Okinawa fought for control of important air base &
caused more than 50,000 Allied casualties
Japanese low on fuel, ammunition, supplies, & pilots (Japanese kamikaze pilots deliberately
crashed planes instead of dishonorably surrendering)
With control of Pacific air bases, Allies could bomb Japanese home islands; Bombed
factories, military bases, & cities
Early 1930s scientists learned that splitting nuclei of atoms released energy; Albert Einstein
alerted FDR about need to proceed with development of atomic bomb
Manhattan Project funded by US government & led by physicist J Robert Oppenheimer from
Los Alamos, New Mexico; many scientists from Europe were recruited to help; each group of
scientists each worked on small part of project so didn’t know they were putting together an
atomic bomb
July 16, 1945 first atomic bomb tested outside Alamogordo, New Mexico; Pres Harry Truman
debated ethical issues associated with dropping atomic bomb on Japanese civilians &
decided that dropping bomb once would save more lives than prolonging war
Aug 6, 1945 US dropped 1st atomic bomb on Hiroshima & within 2 minutes, more than
60,000 out of 344,000 were dead or missing
Aug 9 Soviet Union declared war on Japanese & invaded Manchuria; US dropped 2nd atomic
bomb on Nagasaki, killing 35,000
Aug 15 Emperor Hirohito decided to surrender & Allies celebrate VJ (Victory in Japan) Day
Ch 24, Sect 4: Holocaust (Nazi attempt to kill all Jews; blamed Jews for
Germany’s problems, including defeat in WWI)
• 1933 Hitler becomes dictator of Germany, begins persecution of Jews;
Encourages boycotts of Jewish businesses, barred from civil service,
banking, stock exchange, law, journalism, & medicine
• 1933 First concentration camps (Dachau & Buchenwald) used to imprison
“undesirable” member of society; given tattooed numbers, had to wear
colored stars; death by starvation & disease,
• 1935 Enacts Nuremberg Laws (denied German citizenship to Jews, banned
intermarriage & segregated Jews) & began spread of propaganda
• Nov 9, 1938 After Jewish refugee killed German diplomat in Paris, Nazi
officials ordered attacks on Jewish synagogues & businesses; killed 200,
injured 600, & arrested 1000s (Kristallnacht-Night of Broken Glass)
• Jan 1942 At Wansee Conference, decide to begin Final Solution (systematic
extermination of all Jews living in regions controlled by Third Reich) after
invasion of Poland; 1st moved Jews into walled ghetto & then transported
by train to death camps (Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibar); at first, soldiers
shot Jews & buried in mass graves
• Later, due to stress on soldiers, Jews arrived & were herded into “showers”
& killed with insecticide Zyklon B; Bodies burned in crematorium;
Belongings were seized & human fat, hair, & teeth were repurposed
Ch 24, Sect 4: Responses to Holocaust
• 1933-1937 129,000 Jews fled Germany & Nazi Austria;
most not welcomed into other countries due to antiSemitism
• 1942 Allies issued statement acknowledging genocide
(willful annihilation of racial, political, or cultural group)
• April 1943 British & US hosted Bermuda Conference to
discuss possibility of rescuing Jewish refugees
• Early 1944 FDR established War Refugee Board to work
with Red Cross saving 1000s of Jews
• July 1944 Soviets were 1st to begin liberating camps;
Stalin refused to help Jewish refugees; British & US
became more sympathetic
• 1948 US recognizes Israel (Jewish community in
Palestine)
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Ch
24,
Sect
5:
Effects
of
WWII
Establishment of United Nations UN (cooperation among Great Powers, member
nations sat on General Assembly & Allied Nations part of Security Council, provided
food & aid to nations in need of help), International Monetary Fund & World Bank
(work for global economy & financial stability), signed General Agreement on Tariffs
& Trade GATT (expand world trade), UN issued Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (drafted by Eleanor Roosevelt, condemn slavery & torture, uphold freedoms)
Yalta Conference-Big Three (FDR, Stalin, Churchill) agreed that Poland, Bulgaria,
Rumania would choose free elections; Potsdam Conference-agreed to divide
Germany into 4 zones (Soviet, American, British, & French) & divide Germany into
Communist E & Non-Communist W; Japan wrote new constitution with democratic
reforms
US & Soviet became superpowers; US-no battles fought on US soil, booming
industry, economic growth, control of atomic bomb; Soviet-largest military, major
battles fought there, industry & cities crumbling
Axis Powers had violated Geneva Convention (international agreement governing
humane treatment of soldiers & prisoners), including medical experimentation;
Nuremberg Trials sentenced Nazi officials who said they were “following orders”;
Tokyo Trials sentenced Japanese officials
End of imperialism-colonial peoples wanted independence & mother countries
didn’t have resources to continue; Beginning of Globalization-US realized that what
happened in world affected them; Renewed efforts in US by Afr Amer to work for
civil rights