Unit 4 Part 2 (11) Key Terms

strategic bombing

The targeted aerial bombing of specific enemy infrastructure, factories, and military facilities to destroy a nation's capacity to wage war.

Tuskegee Airmen

The first African American military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces, famous for their distinguished service as escort pilots during WWII.

Chester Nimitz

Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet who directed Allied naval strategy and island-hopping operations against Japan.

Battle of Midway

A 1942 decisive U.S. naval victory in the Pacific that crippled Japan's aircraft carrier fleet and marked the turning point of the Pacific War.

war bond

A debt security issued by the U.S. government to raise capital from citizens to fund military operations during WWII.

rationing

The government-mandated restriction on the purchasing or consumption of essential goods (like gasoline, food, and rubber) to ensure military supply.

Office of War Information (OWI)

U.S. government agency created during WWII to produce war news, release propaganda, and build public support for the war effort.

internment

The forced relocation and confinement of over 120,000 Japanese Americans (the majority U.S. citizens) to camps following Executive Order 9066.

442nd Regimental Combat Team

An all-Nisei (Japanese-American) military unit that fought in Europe, becoming the most decorated unit of its size in U.S. military history.

A. Philip Randolph

Civil rights leader who threatened a march on Washington in 1941 to protest racial discrimination in defense industries and the military.

Executive Order 8802

Presidential decree signed by FDR in 1941 prohibiting discriminatory employment practices by federal agencies and defense contractors.

demographics

The statistical data of a population, such as age, race, gender, and migration patterns.

Bracero Program

A government agreement that brought millions of Mexican agricultural laborers into the U.S. to solve wartime farm labor shortages.

Battle of the Bulge

Hitler’s last major offensive in Western Europe (1944–1945); a massive German counterattack created a "bulge" in Allied lines before being repelled.

Harry S. Truman

The 33rd U.S. President who succeeded FDR in 1945 and made the decision to use atomic weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

island-hopping

The Allied Pacific strategy of bypassing heavily fortified Japanese islands to capture strategic ones closer to mainland Japan.

kamikaze

Japanese military pilots who carried out suicide crashes against Allied naval vessels in the final stages of WWII.

Albert Einstein

Renowned physicist who alerted FDR in 1939 about the potential for atomic weapons, pushing the U.S. to begin nuclear research.

Manhattan Project

The top-secret U.S. government program that successfully developed the world's first atomic bomb.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

The theoretical physicist who served as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is remembered as the "father of the atomic bomb."

Holocaust

The state-sponsored, systematic genocide of six million Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

Nazism

The totalitarian fascist ideology of the Nazi Party based on racial hierarchy, aggressive expansionism, and extreme anti-Semitism.

Kristallnacht

"Night of the Broken Glass" (1938)—a series of coordinated, violent state-sanctioned pogroms against Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Nazi Germany.

genocide

The deliberate, systematic destruction or extermination of a specific racial, ethnic, national, or religious group.

concentration camps

Detention facilities built by the Nazi regime to imprison, enslave, and execute political enemies, Jews, and other targeted groups.

death camps

Specialized camps (such as Auschwitz-Birkenau) designed exclusively for the systematic, industrial-scale mass murder of human beings.

War Refugee Board

A U.S. agency created by FDR in 1944 late in the war to rescue and assist victims of Nazi persecution.

Yalta Conference

A 1945 meeting between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin to plan the final defeat of the Axis powers and layout the postwar division of Europe.

superpowers

Domineering international nations capable of projecting global power and influence (refers to the United States and Soviet Union post-WWII).

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

A global treaty designed to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating tariffs and trade barriers.

United Nations (UN)

An international peacekeeping organization created in 1945 to prevent future global wars and foster international cooperation.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

A 1948 UN document setting out fundamental human rights to be universally protected for all individuals.

Geneva Convention

A series of international treaties establishing legal standards and humanitarian protections for war prisoners, military personnel, and civilians.

Nuremberg Trials

A series of military tribunals held in Nuremberg, Germany, to prosecute leading Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.