Chapter 33 Key Terms and People APUSH, Key Events of World War II: 1942-1945

ABC-1 Agreement

An agreement between Britain and the United States developed at a conference in Washington, D.C., between January 29 and March 27, 1941, that should the United States enter World War II, the two nations and their allies would coordinate their military planning, making a priority of protecting the British Commonwealth. That would mean "getting Germany first" in the Atlantic and the European theater and fighting more defensively on other military fronts.

Executive Order 9066

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, it authorized the secretary of war to designate military zones from which certain categories of people could be excluded. Fueled by historic anti-Japanese sentiment as well as panic following the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, the order led to the forced removal of some 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry (70,000 of them U.S. citizens) from the Western Military Zone (the coastal sections of Washington, Oregon, and California). Most but not all of those removed were interned in relocation camps in the interior West. The order was rescinded in December 1944, and legislation passed in 1988 offered an official government apology and modest financial compensation to surviving citizen internees.

War Production Board (WPB)

Established in 1942 by executive order to direct all war production, including procuring and allocating raw materials, to maximize the nation's war machine. The WPB had sweeping powers over the U.S. economy and was abolished in November 1945 soon after Japan's defeat.

Office of Price Administration (OPA)

A critically important wartime agency charged with regulating the consumer economy by rationing scarce supplies, such as automobiles, tires, fuel, nylon, and sugar, and by curbing inflation by setting ceilings on the price of goods. Rents were controlled as well in parts of the country overwhelmed by war workers. The OPA was extended after World War II ended to continue the fight against inflation.

National War Labor Board (NWLB)

Established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to act as an arbitration tribunal and mediate disputes between labor and management that might have led to war stoppages and thereby undermined the war effort. The NWLB was also charged with adjusting wages with an eye to controlling inflation.

Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act

Passed amidst worries about the effects that labor strikes would have on war production, this law allowed the federal government to seize and operate plants threatened by labor disputes. It also criminalized strike action against government-run companies.

WACs (Women's Army Corps)

The women's branch of the U.S. Army established during World War II to employ women in noncombatant jobs. Women now participated in the armed services in ways that went beyond their traditional roles as nurses.

WAVES(Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service)

The women's branch of the U.S. Navy established during World War II to employ women in noncombatant jobs. The women's branch of the U.S. Army established during World War II to employ women in noncombatant jobs. Women now participated in the armed services in ways that went beyond their traditional roles as nurses.

SPARs (U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve)

The women's branch of the U.S. Coast Guard established during World War II to employ women in noncombatant jobs. The women's branch of the U.S. Army established during World War II to employ women in noncombatant jobs. Women now participated in the armed services in ways that went beyond their traditional roles as nurses.

Bracero Program

Program established by agreement with the Mexican government to recruit temporary Mexican agricultural workers to the United States to make up for wartime labor shortages in the Far West. The program persisted until 1964, by which time it had sponsored 4.5 million border crossings.

Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

Threatened with a massive "Negro March on Washington" to demand equal opportunities in war jobs and in the military, Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration issued an executive order forbidding racial discrimination in all defense plants operating under contract with the federal government. The FEPC was intended to monitor compliance with the executive order.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

Nonviolent civil rights organization founded in 1942 and committed to the "Double V"—victory over fascism abroad and racism at home. After World War II, CORE would become a major force in the civil rights movement.

Code Talkers

Native American men who served in the military by transmitting radio messages in their native languages, which were undecipherable by German and Japanese spies.

Battle of Midway

Japan wanted to seize Midway because it would be a strategic way to attack Pearl Harbor. A pivotal naval battle fought near the island of Midway on June 3-6, 1942. The victory halted Japanese advances in the Pacific. The fighting was all done by aircraft.

D-Day

A massive military operation led by American forces in Normandy beginning on June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which "we will accept nothing less than full victory." More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The pivotal battle led to the liberation of France and brought on the final phases of World War II in Europe.

Battle of the Bulge

So named because of the bulge in Allied lines caused by the last desperate German offensive on the western front in WWII. A force of some 400,000 German soldiers, 1000 aircraft, and several hundred tanks launched a surprise attack through the snow-clad Ardennes forest on December 16, 1944, aiming to divide and encircle the Allied forces and cut off access to the Belgian resupply port of Antwerp. The Germans were eventually stopped in late January 1945 at a cost of more than 8000 U.S. soldiers killed in action. It was the single costliest American battle of WWII.

V-E (Victory in Europe) Day

The source of frenzied rejoicing, May 8, 1945, marked the official end to the war in Europe, following the unconditional surrender of what remained of the German government.

Postdam Conference

From July 17 to August 2, 1945, President Harry S. Truman met with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British leaders Winston Churchill and later Clement Attlee (when the Labour party defeated Churchill's Conservative party) near Berlin to deliver an ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed.

Manhattan Project

Code name for the American commission established in 1942 to develop the atomic bomb. The first experimental bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the desert of New Mexico. Atomic bombs were then dropped on two cities in Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end: Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

V-J (Victory in Japan) Day

August 15, 1945, heralded the surrender of Japan and the final end to World War II.

A. Phillip Randolph

He was the black leader of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He demanded equal opportunities in war jobs and armed forces during WWII. He helped encourage the end of segregation in the military, although that happened after the war.

Douglas MacArthur

(1880-1964) The flamboyant, vain, and brilliant American commander in the Philippines and mastermind of the "leapfrogging" strategy for bypassing strongly defended Japanese islands during World War II. MacArthur would go on to command American troops in the Korean War until he was relieved of his duties by President Harry S. Truman for insubordination in 1951.

Chester Nimitz

(1885-1966) U.S. Navy admiral who was commander in chief of the Pacific naval forces for the United States and its allies during World War II. He strategized the important victories in the Battles of Midway and the Coral Sea.

Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower

(1890-1969) Supreme commander of U.S. forces in Europe during World War II, Eisenhower the war hero later became the thirty-fourth president of the United States. During his two terms, from 1952 to 1960, Eisenhower presided over the economically prosperous 1950s. He was praised for his dignity and decency, though criticized for not being more assertive on civil rights.

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

(1884-1972) Vice president under Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, Truman assumed the office of the presidency in April of that year, when Roosevelt died from a brain hemorrhage while vacationing in Warm Springs, Georgia. Truman won another term in his own right in a historically close election in 1948 against Republican Thomas Dewey. As president, he chose to use nuclear weapons against Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Albert Einstein

(1879-1955) German-born scientist who immigrated to the United States in 1933 to escape the Nazis. He helped to persuade FDR to push ahead with preparations for developing the atomic bomb, but he later ruefully declared that "annihilation of any life on earth has been brought within the range of technical possibilities."

Tehran Conference

Meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin in 1943 in Tehran, Iran from November 28th to December 1st to coordinate a second front.

Leyte Gulf Battles

Japan lost a series of 3 battles took place from October 23-26, 1944

MacArthur's Landing

Luzon invasion in January 1945, Manila captured March.

Battle of Okinawa

America captured the island after fighting from April to June 1945.

Hiroshima Bombing

Atomic bomb dropped August 6, 1945; 180,000 deaths.

Nagasaki Bombing

Second atomic bomb dropped August 9, 1945; 80,000 deaths.

Battle of Coral Sea

Naval battle in May 1942 between U.S. and Japan.

Guadalcanal Campaign

Fought from August 1942 to February 1943.

Mariana Islands Capture

Saipan and Tinian taken in July-August 1944.

Battle of Midway

Turning point in the Pacific War.

Soviet Capture of Berlin

Berlin fell to Soviets in April 1945.

Aachen's Fall

First major German city captured in October 1944.

Stalingrad Defense

Soviets repelled Germans in September 1942.

Tunisia Surrender

German-Italian forces surrendered in May 1943.

Casablanca Conference

Roosevelt and Churchill met January 1943.

Rome Capture

Allies took Rome on June 4, 1944.

Battle of the Bulge

Hitler's last major offensive began December 16, 1944.

Battle of El Alamein

Montgomery defeated Rommel in October 1942.

Unconditional Surrender Policy

Agreed by Roosevelt and Churchill at Casablanca.

American Task Force

Carrier task force supported by Australia in Coral Sea.