Chapter 24: World War II (1933–1945)

Isolationism

Isolationism

American foreign policy of the 1920s and 1930s based on the belief that it was in the best interest of the United States not to become involved in foreign conflicts that did not directly threaten American interests

Yalta Conference

Meeting held at Yalta in the Soviet Union between President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin in February 1945; at this meeting critical decisions on the future of postwar Europe were made

Bataan Death March

After the Japanese landed in the Philippines in May 1942, nearly 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners were forced to endure a 60-mile march; during this ordeal, 10,000 prisoners died or were killed

Manhattan Project

Secret project to build an atomic bomb that began in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in August 1942; the first successful test of a bomb took place on July 16, 1945

Rosie the Riveter

Figure that symbolized American working women during World War II

Internment camps

Mandatory resettlement camps for Japanese Americans from Americas West Coast, created in February 1942 during World War II by executive order of President Franklin Roosevelt

1935

Neutrality Act

1938

Hitler annexes Austria and Sudetenland

1940

Roosevelt reelected for third term

1941

Lend-Lease assistance begins for England

1942

American troops engage in combat in Africa

1943

Allied armies invade Sicily

1944

D-Day Invasion

1945

Yalta Conference

1939

Germany invades Poland

1939

Beginning of World War II

1940

American Selective Service plan instituted

1941

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

1941

United States officially enters World War II

1941

Germany declares war on United States

1942

Casablanca released

1942

Battle of Coral Sea, Battle of Midway

1942

Japanese interment camps opened

1943

United Mine Workers strike

1944

Roosevelt defeats Thomas Dewey, elected for fourth term

1944

Beginning of Battle of the Bulge

1945

Concentration camps discovered by Allied forces

1945

FDR dies in Warm Springs, Georgia; Harry Truman becomes president

1945

Germany surrenders unconditionally

1945

Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1945

Japan surrenders unconditionally

Nye Committee

The __________ did much to publicize concerns that the Merchants of Death were behind American engagement in the conflict, but it never discovered evidence.

Neutrality Act of 1935

American trading in arms and military supplies with warring states was prohibited by this statute.

Manchuria

In 1937, Japan declared war on China after seizing ______ in 1931.

Ethiopia

In 1935–36, Italy conquered _______.

Adolf Hitler

After _________ took power in 1933, Germany expanded its dominance throughout Europe.

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

The _____________ of August 1939 allowed Germany to invade Poland on September 1.

Neutrality Act of 1939

Roosevelt encouraged Congress to enact the _________, which featured a "cash and carry" clause that allowed belligerent nations to obtain American weaponry provided they paid cash and took them in their own ships.

Destroyers for Bases Agreement

The __________ was signed by Roosevelt and Britain in September 1940. Roosevelt traded 50 World War I-era American destroyers for leases on British sites in the Western Hemisphere.

Red Line Agreement

This agreement, signed in 1928, allowed American, British, French, and Dutch oil corporations to export oil from the area.

Standard Oil

Saudi Arabia's vast oil reserves were discovered by _________ researchers.

Middle East

Oilmen were the only Americans interested in the ________.

National Origins Act of 1924

German immigration was limited to 25,000 per year by legislation. Immigrants also had to show they could sustain themselves in the US, which was difficult during the Great Depression.

White Paper

In 1939, the British government released a __________ that severely limited Jews into Palestine.

Lend-Lease Act

Under the ________, the US would lend military equipment to the British without payment until the war's conclusion.

arsenal of democracy

In a 1940 address, Roosevelt called the US the "_____________."

Winston Churchill

In August 1941, British Prime Minister _______________ and President Roosevelt met on warships near Newfoundland, deepening Anglo-American collaboration.

Atlantic Charter

Churchill and Roosevelt's __________ supported national self determination, free commerce, and territorial expansion via conquest.

universal body

In the Atlantic Charter, Churchill and Roosevelt called for a _________ to regulate belligerent states to replace the League of Nations.

Manchuria

In 1931, the Japanese invaded ______, an easy target in civil war-torn China.

French Indochina

In 1941, Japan seized ___________ after Germany's European victories.

1940 Tripartite Pact

The ____________ included Germany, Italy, and Japan (the Axis). Germany and Italy mistakenly declared war on the US on December 11 to support their Axis ally. Here the global war confronted the US.

General Maximum Price Regulation Act

In early 1942, the _______________ tried to freeze prices and limit fuel, meat, and sugar.

Revenue Act of 1942

By raising tax rates and enlarging the federal income tax base, the ____________ funded the war.

Battle of the Atlantic

The Allies won the __________ using sonar and excellent anti submarine techniques.

Afrika Korps

The US and UK invaded French North Africa in late 1942 to outflank General Erwin Rommel's __________, which threatened the Suez Canal in Egypt.

Josef Stalin

He wanted a second front in Western Europe from the Americans and British due to German pressure on his soldiers.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

______________ led the D-Day landings in France on June 6, 1944.a The landing was successful, but Germany was militarily unsustainable.

Battle of the Bulge

The _____________ killed, injured, or captured almost 85,000 American soldiers. By this point, the Allied strategic bombing campaign had destroyed the Luftwaffe and crippled German industry.

6 million

Nazis killed ____________ Jews in the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945.

Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island

The _____________ in Manila Bay were controlled by American and Filipino soldiers until April and May 6, 1942.

Bataan Death March

These poor inmates were forced to march 60 miles on the __________ to a new incarceration camp by the Japanese.

Battle of the Coral Sea

American aircraft carriers defeated a Japanese fleet transporting soldiers to attack Australia during the __________.

Battle of Midway

The crucial _________ in early June 1942 included the American aircraft carriers. A massive Japanese armada attacking Midway was intercepted by American carriers.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

In late October 1944, General MacArthur returned to the Philippines to launch a liberation struggle that would endure until the war's conclusion. In the ____________, the Japanese Navy lost most of its ships.

kamikaze pilots

The desperate Japanese used ___________ to smash their aircraft onto American ships. The Americans lost 25,000 at Iwo Jima in February to March 1945 and 50,000 in Okinawa in April to June.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

The Los Alamos atomic bomb team was led by _____________. On July 16, 1945, the Alamogordo atomic bomb exploded.

Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, _________, home to many Japanese military offices, was bombed by the B-29 Enola Gay. The assault killed 75,000.

Nagasaki

On August 9, a second bomb was launched on _________, killing nearly 40,000 people. The Japanese refused to surrender at first but then completely surrendered after losing.

dollar-a-year men

Thousands of skilled businessmen worked in Washington to organize the war effort, earning the nickname "___________" because most were paid by their employers.

Blackouts

This prevented ships from being silhouetted against bright city skylines, making them easy targets for predatory submarines and defending against hypothetical enemy air attacks.

Victory shifts

Volunteers watched for and responded to bombings as observers and air raid wardens. To allow students to do war work, many high schools ran year-round. "__________" were common for workers.

Casablanca

Written in 1942, it brilliantly portrayed the self-sacrifice needed to defeat Nazism.

White Christmas

GIs loved Irving Berlin's "___________," sung by Bing Crosby, because it captured their homesickness.

Major League Baseball (MLB)

Despite many players being drafted, ____________ was the national pastime during the war.

All-American Girls' Baseball League

Baseball fans could also follow the 1943-founded ___________.

Rosie the Riveter

______ became the symbol of these wartime working women.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

In 1942, African-American and white civil rights activists created _______________. It organized early civil rights demonstrations

Executive Order 9066

In response to these worries, President Roosevelt enacted ________________, which put all Japanese on the West Coast, including Japanese-Americans, into internment camps.

Korematsu v. United States

In ______________, the Supreme Court upheld the internment as "military necessity." The U.S. apologized and compensated survivors in 1988.

442nd Regiment

The most decorated American fighting regiment was the ____________, largely Japanese Americans from Hawaii.