APUSH Chapter 33 - America in World War 2 (1941-1945)

ABC-1 Agreement

Agreement with Britain that adopted the strategy to defeat Germany before concentrating on Japan

Executive Order 9066

112,000 Japanese-Americans forced into camps causing loss of homes & businesses, 600K more renounced citizenship; demonstrated fear of Japanese invasion

War Production Board

Converted factories from civilian to military production. Manufacturing output tripled.

Office of Price Administration

Instituted in 1942, this agency was in charge of stabilizing prices and rents and preventing speculation, profiteering, hoarding and price administration. The OPA froze wages and prices and initiated a rationing program for items such as gas, oil, butter, meat, sugar, coffee and shoes in order to support the war effort and prevent inflation.

National War Labor Board

helped resolve labor disputes that might slow down war production.

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.

WAC

Women's Army Corps

WAVES

Women Appointed for Volunteer Emergency Service in the Navy

SPARs

Women serving in the coast guard.

Bracero Program

United States labor agents recruited thousands of farm and railroad workers from Mexico. The program stimulated emigration for Mexico.

Fair Employment Practices Commission

FDR issued this committee in 1941 to enforce the policy of prohibiting employment-related discrimination practices by federal agencies, unions, and companies involved in war-related work It guaranteed the employment of 2 million black workers in the war factories.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

Organization founded by pacifists in 1942 to promote racial equality through peaceful means

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

U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.

D-Day

June 6, 1944 - Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the largest invasion force in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II.

Battle of the Bulge

A 1944-1945 battle in which Allied forces turned back the last major German offensive of World War II.

VE Day

May 8, 1945; victory in Europe Day when the Germans surrendered

Potsdam Conference

The final wartime meeting of the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union was held at Potsdamn, outside Berlin, in July, 1945. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin discussed the future of Europe but their failure to reach meaningful agreements soon led to the onset of the Cold War.

Manhattan Project

Code name for the U.S. effort during World War II to produce the atomic bomb. Much of the early research was done in New York City by refugee physicists in the United States.

VJ Day

"Victory over Japan day" is the celebration of the Surrender of Japan, which was initially announced on August 15, 1945

A. Phillip Randolph

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

American general, who commanded allied troops in the Pacific during World War II.

Chester Nimitz

United States admiral of the Pacific fleet during World War II who used aircraft carriers to destroy the Japanese navy

Dwight Eisenhower

United States general who supervised the invasion of Normandy and the defeat of Nazi Germany

Harry Truman

33rd President of the United States. Led the U.S. to victory in WWII making the ultimate decision to use atomic weapons for the first time. Shaped U.S. foreign policy regarding the Soviet Union after the war.

Albert Einstein

Physicist born in Germany who formulated the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity.