WWII America & Pacific Terms Quiz

brisko disco's usa+pacific quizzam 2023

Allied Powers

international military coalition, principle members of which were the US, UK, and France

Atlantic Charter

issued on 14 August 1941, a book by Winston Churchill and FDR that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II

Battle of Coral Sea

May 4 to May 8, 1942 - a major naval battle that involved Japan vs US and Australia; stopped the Japanese from threatening Australia; first sea battle in history when neither opposing sides' ships sighted or fired directly upon the other.

Battle of Midway

6/4/1942: the U.S. Navy intercepted a Japanese invasion fleet heading for Midway Island, achieving an overwhelming victory and resulting in the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

Battle of Iwo Jima

2/19/1945: a major battle in which the US Marines and Navy captured the island of _________ from Japan; some of the bloodiest fighting of WWII; paved the way for Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

4/1/1945: major battle between Japan and the US; one of the bloodiest battles of WWII; an allied victory made possible by Battle of Iwo Jima; codenamed Operation Iceberg

Bombing of Tokyo

Apr 18, 1942 – Mar 10, 1945: a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II; Operation Meetinghouse, one of the raids, is the single most destructive bombing raid in human history

Cash & Carry

1939: Congress allowed the selling of weapons to WWII belligerents on a __________ basis: they could pay cash for American-made supplies and then transport them on their own ships

Destroyers for Bases

an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on September 2, 1940; US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the US Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions

Double V

“double v for victory”; the first V stands for victory of enemies from without and the second V stands for victory over enemies within

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz

a fleet admiral in the United States Navy; he played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II

General Dwight Eisenhower

military general; planned and supervised two of the most consequential military campaigns of World War II: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942–1943 and the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944

General George Patton

a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944

General Douglas MacArthur

an American military leader general, field marshal to the Philippine Army; commanded the Southwest Pacific

Good Neighbor Policy

FDR’s policy towards Latin America in which the United States emphasized cooperation and trade rather than military force to maintain stability in the hemisphere.

Little Boy

first ever nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, 8/6/1945, dropped by plane Enola Gay. Caused up to 166,000 deaths and a total upheaval of infrastructure, citizens’ lives, and the social order of Japan. Accelerated the end of WWII

J. Robert Oppenheimer

a leading American physicist in the Manhattan Project responsible for the research and design of an atomic bomb

Japanese Relocation/Internment Camps

Executive Order 9066 sent Japanese Americans from their homes to remote camps throughout the U.S. Some 1,600 prisoners died during their incarceration and many lost property and businesses that they were forced to abandon.

Kamikaze

Air commanders proposed the desperate act of suicide-crashing enemy ships with their planes, means Heavenly, or Divine, Wind

Lend-Lease

a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States."

Manhattan Project

the US military operated secret plants in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington, to produce the needed uranium and plutonium elements necessary for a bomb

Fat Man

The atomic bomb used on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945

Neutrality Act of 1935

August 31, 1935, Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license

Neutrality Act 1936

1936 U.S.citizens were forbidden from traveling on belligerent ships, and American merchant ships were prevented from transporting arms to belligerents 

Neutrality Act of 1937

1937 belligerent nations were allowed, at the discretion of the President, to acquire any items except arms from the United States

Neutrality Act of 1939

initially, this proposal failed, but after Germany invaded Poland in September, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939 ending the munitions embargo on a "cash and carry" basis. marked the beginning of a congressional shift away from isolationism.

Nye Investigation

investigated the financial and banking interests that underlay US involvement in World War I and the operations and profits of the industrial and commercial firms supplying munitions to the Allies and to the United States. Advocate for American neutrality from WWII

Office of Price Administration

Stabilized prices and rents by establishing maximum prices for commodities and maximum rents in defense areas. Rationed scarce essential commodities and authorized subsidies for production of some of those commodities

Panay Incident

December 12, 1937, a Japanese bombing attack on the U.S. Navy river gunboat Panay and three tankers on the Yangtze River (boat contained U.S. and Chinese civilians fleeing from Nanjing, China)

Pearl Harbor

December 7th, 1941 - this was an unprovoked attack on America’s most important Pacific naval base that destroyed aircraft carriers and led the US to declare war on Japan

FDR: Quarantine Speech 1937

The speech intensified America's isolationist mood, causing protest by non-interventionists and foes to intervene.

Rape of Nanjing

Japan’s invasion into this Chinese city in which they butchered 150,000 “war prisoners,” 50,000 male civilians, and raped 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process

Rosie the Riveter

an allegorical cultural icon in the United States who represents the women who worked in factories and shipyards during the WWII, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies

Selective \[Training and\] Service Act

September 16, 1940 - required all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for the draft

Smith Act

June 28, 1940 - legislation that forbade any attempts to “advocate, abet, advise, or teach” the violent destruction of the U.S. government

Stimson Doctrine

early 1932, the United States would not recognize any treaty or agreement between Japan and China that violated U.S. rights or agreements to which the United States subscribed

Tuskegee Airmen

the first African American soldiers to successfully complete their training and enter the Army Air Corps

VJ Day

August 15, 1945 - marks the end of World War II & Japanese surrender

War Production Board

established on January 16, 1942; its purpose was to regulate the production and distribution of materials during World War II in the United States and to convert peacetime industries to meet the demands of war

Tokyo Trials

a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during the Second World War

Yamato

lead ship of her class of battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy shortly before World War II