Ch. 34: World War II 

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World War II

The Allies Trade Space for Time

• Attack on Pearl Harbor unites Country
• America needs military provisions and supplies
• Stopping Hitler takes priority
• ABC-1 Agreement (America and Britain Conversation) with England: “Get Germany first” strategy *Germany was a bigger threat to international security
• Time was the most needed munition:
• Expenses had no limitation because nobody cares about debts
  • The focus was defeat Nazis and Japanese
• America’s problem was to retool itself for all-out war production before:
• Germany could crush English and Soviets
• German scientists might develop secret weapons (Actually were)
• US fights two-front war: Soviets and Germans
  • Overwhelming fighting against Japanese was done by American forces

The US in WWII: Enlisting (voluntary sign up) and Draft (make you go into war)

Mobilizing for Defense

• America was angry after Pearl Harbor; Japan thought Pearl Harbor was going to devastate American Pacific Fleet
  • Japan also believed that America was too weak to fight prolonged conflict (stems to Panay incident)-
  • Japan underestimated enemy (Japanese have warrior culture and believed America was lazy and spoiled)
• “Remember Pearl Harbor” was the rallying cry as America entered WWII
• After Pearl Harbor 5 million Americans enlisted to fight in MONTHS after Pearl Harbor
• Selective Service expanded the draft and eventually provided an additional 10 million soldiers (18-45 was the age)
  • America had 15 million men in forces and had one of the largest forces in the world
• War was won by working class

Manpower & Womanpower

• Armed service enlistments:
• 15 million men in WWII
• 216,000 women employed for non combat duties
• Women in arms:
• WACs (Women’s Army Corps)
• WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) (navy)
• SPARs (US Coast Guard Women’s Reserve)

Women join the fight

• George Marshall pushed for formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
• Under this  program women worked in non-combat roles such as nurses, ambulance, drivers, radio operators, and pilots (put men in combat, and free up roles for women)

How does War change gender roles at home

• Over 6 million women took jobs outside home:
• More than half had never worked for wages before
• Gov. obliged to set up 3000 day-care centers for “Rosie the Riveter’s” children
• Rosie the riveter was promoting women to work in war industry in industry jobs
  • The purpose was to keep war production high and help America to win the war
• At end of war, many women not eager to give up work
• Change attitude about women working in workplace
• War foreshadowed eventual revolution in roles of women in American society
• Still maintain femininity
• Many other women did not work for wages in wartime economy, but continued traditional roles
• At war’s end, ⅔ of women war workers left labor force
• Many forced out by returning service-men
• Others quit jobs voluntarily because of family obligations
• Widespread rush into suburban domesticity and mothering of “baby boomers”

Draft Exemptions and the Bracero Program

• Certain industrial and agricultural workers exempt from draft
• Still shortage of farm and factory workers (women of minorities filled positions)
• Bracero Program:
• Mexican agricultural workers, called braceros, came to harvest fruit and grain crops of West
• Program outlived war by some twenty years, becoming part of agricultural economy in many western states
• All Americans Fought: African Americans, Mexican-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Native Americans

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The Shock of War

• War prompted changes in american mood
• Many New Deal programs ended
• ERa of New Deal Over
  • CCC and WPA die out, but Social Security was long-lasting
• WWII no idealistic crusade like WWI
• US government put emphasis on action
• Main goals of the War: Kill Nazis and the Japanese

Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms painting depicted freedom of speech, worship, from want (food, shelter), from fear (rights taken away, attacks from aggressive nations)

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A production Miracle:

• Manufacturing capabilities of US tipped war into favor of Allies
• Americans converted their auto industry into a war industry
• The nation’s automobile plants began to produce tanks, planes, boats, & command cars

War Production Board

• American economy snapped to attention
• Private businesses responded to war
• The WPB decided which companies would convert to wartime production and how to best allocate raw materials to those industries
• Halted manufacture of non essential items—passenger cars (didn’t make civilian passenger car in 1941: Made jeeps, tanks, planes, boats)
• Prioritize transportation & access to raw materials;  51 synthetic rubber plants
• Imposed national speed limit and gasoline rationing to conserve rubber
• By War’s end, these plants out producing pre-war supply
• The WPB also organized nationwide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper rags, and cooking fat for recycling
• Additionally, the OPA (Office of Price administration) set up a system of rationing
• Households had set allocations of scarce goods—gas, meat, shoes, sugar, coffee
• WWI (Voluntary) vs. WWII (Mandatory)

Building War Machine

• Office of Price Administration

• Brought prices under control with extensive regulations

• Froze prices on most goods

• encouraged the purchase of war bonds to fight inflation (to an extent)

• Rationing held down consumption of critical goods

• Black marketeers and meatleggers cheated system

• Wage ceilings

• Take money away from people through taxes (increased taxes)

• National War Labor Board

• Farmers increased output

• Armed forces drained farms of workers

• Heavy investment in machinery and improved fertilizers more than made up difference

• In 1944 and 1945, farmers hauled in record-breaking billion bushel wheat harvests

• Economic strains:

• NEAR full employment and scarce consumer goods fueled sharp inflationary surge in 1942 (not a lot of consumer goods sold/bought which resulted in a period of inflation)

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Labor’s Contribution

• By 1944, nearly 18 million workers were laboring in war industries
• More than 6 million of these were women (we don’t win the war without contributions of women in US) and nearly 2 million of laborers were minorities

Labor Conditions:

• Union membership increased from 10 million to more than 13 during war
• Labor resented government-dictated wage ceilings
• Labor walkouts
• United Mine Workers prominent among strikers:
• Called off job by union chieftain, John L. Lewis

Building the War Machine

• Smith-Connally Anti-strike Act, June 1943
• AUthorized federal gov. To seize and operate tied up industries
• Strikes against any gov. -operated industry made a criminal offense
• Govt. took over mines, and briefly, railroads
• Almost EVERYBODY was behind war effort, so there were not a lot of war stoppages

National Unity

• National Unity no Worry, after Pearl Harbor:
• American Communists had denounced Anglo-French “imperialist” war now clamored for assault on Axis powers
• Pro Hitlerites in US melted away
• Millions of Italian Americans and German Americans loyally supported nation’s war programs
• WWIII accelerated assimilation of many ethnic groups into American society
• No gov. Witch-hunting of minority groups

Japanese-Americans

• Painful exception—plight of 110,000 Japanese Americans, mainly on Pacific coast
• Gov. forcibly herded them into concentration camps
• Executive Order No. 9066
• Internment deprived these Americans of dignity and basic rights (afraid that Japanese Americans were spies)
• Internees lost hundreds of millions of dollars in property and forgone earnings (forced to sell homes in 72 hours and forced to sell businesses)
• The Supreme Court in 1944 upheld the constitutionality of Japanese relocation in Korematsu vs. US (constitution does give president authority to do so)
• In 1988, US gov. Officially apologized and paid reparations of $20,000 to each camp survivors (president bush)

Wartime Migrations

• Demographic Changes
• Many men & women in military decided not to return to hometown at war’s end
• War industries sucked people into boomtowns—Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle, Baton Rouge
• California’s population grew by 2 million
• South experienced dramatic changes
• Received disproportionate share of defense contracts
• People moved to sunbelt states
• Some 1.6 million Blacks left South for jobs in war plants of West and North
• Forever after, race relations constituted a national, not a regional, issue
• Explosive tensions developed over employment, housing, and segregated facilities
• FDR issued executive order forbidding discrimination in defense industries (A, Phillip Randolph threatened him with peaceful mass discriminations)
• Established Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance with edict
• Blacks drafted into armed forces:
  • Assigned to service branches rather than combat units
  • SUbjected to petty degradations like segregated blood banks
  • War helped embolden blacks in long struggle for equality
• Slogan “Double V” victory over dictators abroad and racism at home
• Membership in National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) shot up to half-million mark
• New militant Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) committed to nonviolent “direct action” (1942)
• Northward migration of African Americans accelerated after war:
• Thanks to advent of mechanical cotton picker in 1944
• Did work of 50 people at about 1/8th the cost
• Cotton South's historic need for cheap labor disappeared
• Some five million Black tenant farmers and sharecroppers headed north in decades after war
• One of great migrations in American history
• By 1970 half of Blacks lived outside South
• And urban became almost a synonym for Black
• Racial tensions

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Native Americans

• War prompted exodus of Native Americans from reservations
• Thousands found work in major cities
• Thousands more went into armed forces
• 90% of Native Americans resided on reservations in 1940
• Six decades later, more than ½ lived in cities, many in southern Calif.
• 25,000 men served in armed forces
• Served as “code talkers”
• Transmitted radio messages in native languages, incomprehensible to Germans and Japanese

Holding the Homefront

• Overall, Americans at home suffered little:
• War invigorated economy
• Lifted country out of decade-long depression
• GNP rose from $100 billion in 1940 to more than $200 billion in 1945
• Corporate profits rose from $6 billion in 1940 to almost twice that amount four years later
• Despite wage ceiling, disposable personal income more than 2x with overtime pay
• Government touched lives more than ever before
• Roots of post-'45 era of big-government interventionism
• Households felt constraints of rationing system
• Millions worked for government in armed forces and defense industries
• Office of Scientific Research and Development
• Channeled hundreds of millions of dollars into university-based scientific research
• Established partnerships because government and universities underwrote America’s technological and economic leadership in the postwar era.
• Government dollars swept unemployment from land
• War, not enlightened social policy, cured depression
• 1941-1945 as origins of “warfare-welfare state”
• WWII phenomenally expensive
• Bill amounted to more than $330 billion—
• 10 times direct cost of World War I
• Twice as much as all previous federal spending since 1776
• Roosevelt would have preferred pay-as-you-go
• Cost simply too gigantic
• Income tax net expanded and some rates rose as high as 90%
• Only two-fifths of war bill paid from current revenues
• Remainder borrowed
• National debt skyrocketed from $49 billion in 1941 to $259 billion in 1945
• When production slipped into high gear, war cost about $10 million an hour
• Price of victory over such implacable enemies

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The War for Europe and North Africa

• Days after Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister Winston CHurchill arrived at the White House and spent three weeks working out war plans with FDR
• They decided to focus on defeating Hitler first and then turn their attention to Japan

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Battle of the Atlantic

• Churchill: “the battle of the atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war..”
• Control over the seas was vital to give food, supplies, munition
• Largest continuous military campaign of WWII lasting from September of 1939 through May of 1945 (VE-Day: German surrendered unconditionally)
• Pitied the German Navy and Air Force against the forces of the British, Canadian, and American navies and air forces
• Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along america’s east coast
• German aim was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Britain and the USSR
• German wolf packs had destroyed nearly 700 Allied ships
• Allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys
• At the same time, the US launched a massive shipbuilding program
• By early 1943, launching of Allied ships began to outnumber sinkings
• Supplies (food, munitions, troops) were able to reach Europe without much loss
• Airplanes were used to track the U-Boats ocean surfaces
• With this improved tracking, Allies inflicted huge losses on German U-Boats

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Stalingrad: The Eastern Front and Mediterranean

• Hitler wanted to wipe out Stalingrad—a major industrial center
• In the summer of 1942, the Germans took the offensive in the southern Soviet Union
• By winter of 1943, the Allies began to see victories on the land as well as sea
• Brutal conflict and lasts from August to February (don’t fight Russians in winter conditions)
• Hitler hoped to capture the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus Mts.
• The first great turning point was the Battle of Stalingrad because it was huge Allied Victory (only Allied thing going on there was supplies, so essential it was a huge Soviet Victory)
• Germans surrendered in January of 1943
• Soviets retreat deeper into Mother Russia
  • Scorched Earth Policy: They destroyed their resources so Germans would not be able to utilize them
  • Millions of Russians died (Soviet Union had most casualties in WWI and WWII)
• Stalin drew German army further away from Germany and further from supply lines
• German command when they got to Stalingrad realized that they it might be in their best interest to retreat, but Hitler ignored it
• Stalingrad was an industrial city with no strategic purpose at all in the war
• Hitler wanted it because Stalingrad was named after Stalin
• Germans taking stalingrad would be a humiliation to stalin
• Stalin wanted to defend Stalingrad because it’s his name and it’s Ego \n Two narcissists who want stalingrad
• In defending stalingrad, the soviets lost a total of 1.1 million soldiers—-more than all American deaths during the entire war
• The Soviet victory marked a turning point in the war
• From that point on, the Red Army (Soviets) began to move westward Germany

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The North AFrican Front: Operation Torch

***know about soft underbelly

• Operation Torch

• Invasion of Axis-controlled North AFrica

  • launched by American General dwight D. Eisenhower in 1942 until Hitler’s Afrika Korps surrendered in May 1943

• Allied troops in Casablanca, Oran and the Algiers in Algeria and sped eastward chasing the AFrika Korps led by German General Erwin Rommel

• Gave Allied forces a base to launch attacks against the “soft” underbelly of Europe that would lead to the eventual liberation of France

• Underbelly was Italy and was weak defense point

• Allied command found weak point in North africa and Italy

• The delay in opening the second war front contributes to the cold war after victory over Axis powers

• Allies need to go through North Africa to Sicily to Berlin

• Tuskegee Air Force

• Casablanca Meeting *in Morocco

• FDR and Churchill met in Casablanca and decided their next moves

• Plan amphibious invasions of France and Italy

• Only unconditional surrender would be accepted

• Controversial

  • Japanese were willing to surrender under certain conditions
  • War in Pacific prolonged because they weren’t surrendering unconditionally, which resulted in more deaths on both sides

• Italian Campaign—-Another ALlied Victory

• The Italian Campaign got off to a good start as the Allies easily took Sicily

• At that point King Emmanuel III stripped Mussolini of his power and had him arrested

• However, Hitler’s forces continued to resist the Allies in Italy

• Heated battles ensued & it wasn’t until 1945 that Italy was secured by the Allies

• Gov. In Italy changes, so the Italians join the Allies at the end of the war

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  Allies liberate EUrope

  • allies sent fake coded messages indicating they would attack Calais

• Even as the ALlies were battling for Italy, they began plans on an invasion of France

• It was known as “Operation Overlord” and the commander was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Also called D-Day, the operation involved 3 million US and British troops and was set for June 6, 1944

• Hitler started building Fortress Europe because he was trying to make coast impenetrable from any invading force (barriers on beach, mining beaches, building turrets and machine gun stations in the cliffs all throughout western europe)

• Allies intelligence community allowed their code to be intercepted and transmit messages that they were putting together an invading force in Dover (southern England) and planning to invade Calais

• German intelligence were planning their defense

• German divisions were moved to northern France

• The real plan is in beaches of Normandy, which consisted of a combined assault of Brits, Canadians, & Americans

• Allied plan to invade France and free Western Europe from the Nazis

• Largest land-sea air operation in military history

• To keep their plans secret, the Allies set up a huge phantom army with its own headquarters and equipment

• Invasion began on June 6, 1944 (D-Day)

• Need weather, tide (low tide to see the barriers and land assault force), need light of the moon to be able torch level because it needs to be bright enough that the paratroopers can see where they’re going but not bright enough that snipers can shoot out of sky

• Weather doesn’t cooperate at all, call it off on consecutive days, last possible day for it to work is June 6, 1944 and then they’ll have to wait 5-6 more months

  • During the winter and if they waited longer, hitler’s even more dug in,
  • On the night of June 5, Dwight Eisenhower has fate of world in his hands
  • if he failed Germany knows about ruse going on and Eisenhower says: it’s going one of two ways: Success and we win the war or i’m going to be remembered as the man who lost WW2 (lot of pressure)

• Air part of battle begins the night before

  • The Allies then send in gliders (don’t make noise)

• Germans flooded hedgerows, so the allied paratroopers couldn’t be over 6 feet tall

• American parachute had a minor defect and it was Not easy for them to get out of them , so paratroopers died in hedgerows

• Despite air support, German retaliation was brutal—especially at Omaha beach

• Within a month, the Allies had landed 1 million troops, 567,000 tons of supplies and 170,000 vehicles, 5000 ships are coming to France

• D-Day was an amphibious landing—soldiers going from sea to land

• D-Day Begins liberation of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg

France Freed:

• 1944: FDR wins fourth term
• By September 1944 France was liberated

Battle of the Bulge

• In October 1944, Americans captured German town (Aachen)---Allies closing into Berlin
• Heavy losses

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Liberation of Death Camps

• While the British and AMericans moved westward into Germany, the Soviets moved eastward into German-Controlled pOland (they get to Polish camps)
• Americans British liberated German camps
• In July of 1944, Red Army liberated the first of the Nazi death camps
• SS guards attempted to cover evidence of the crimes
• First “outsiders’ to witness horrors of Holocaust
• Sorbibor was a successful revolt
• Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Men lived; concentration/labor camp and labored for war effort
  • killing centers executions
• Dachau-Germany
• FDR dies on April 12, 1945 because he Suffered a stroke and died (actually had a heart attack and was having sex with his mistress)
• Harry s. Truman became president
• Allies take Berlin Hitler commits Suicide with his girlfriend Eva Braun and they both kill themselves on April 30th in Bunker
• VE Day –Victory in Europe Day
• General Eisenhower accepted unconditional surrender of Third Reich
• On May 8, 1945, Allies celebrated VE Day
• War in Europe was finally over

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Pacific Theater: 1941-1945

1. Japan invades Manchuria and China: invasions create need for resources to fuel war efforts (iron ore and oil)
2. Japan takes French Indochina: does this because of need for natural resources

• America

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Doolittle raid (1942) effects:

• Japanese public believe that they were invulnerable to American attacks, so the raid shakes public confidence
• America knows that they’re capable of going after the Japanese and increased confidence and morale, which was a morale boost for Americans (realized it was possible to beat Japanese) and renews faith in gov. And military and more people enlist, and the sale of war bonds increased,

Battles of Iwa Jima and Okinawa impacted the decision to use the bomb

• The Battles strategically make it easier to bomb Japanese homelands
• there was fierce fighting in iwa jima and okinawa (high death tolls for Japanese and american) & the people of Japan (public, women, children) were being trained in deathly hand to hand combat in case of invasion force
• When Truman realizes there is a way to possibly avoid this and to end the war quickly, Truman did not hesitate to use the bomb; Iwa Jima (raising flag on Mt. Suribachi after victory)
• Iwa Jima: Japanese were fighting from underneath in Caves and tunnels; America filled in caves and brought bulldozers;

Most allied effort went for  Germany

• US has to deal with Pacific on their own
• Pacific theater was difficult and prolonged in Pacific because most fighting and attention was on defeating Hitler

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War Conferences:

• Yalta, Crimean: February 1945: meeting of big 3 (Churchill, FDR, Stalin)
• Most important of the WW2 conferences with lasting implications and contributes to cold war tensions between US and USSR
• Highlights:
• agreed to divide Germany into four occupation zones at the end of the war
• Stalin promised to have free elections in eastern europe after the war
• Stalin never fulfills that pledge, which contributes to cold war tensions
• Stalin agreed to join the war in the pacific after nazi germany had been defeated and pledged to join the united nations (was just an idea)

*Stalin was waiting for US to reveal Manhattan Project to him (he already knew but Truman didn’t know that he knew), which led to distrust

• Manhattan Project was Top-secret (churchill was aware but not Truman)

  • Truman had trepidation of sharing it with Stalin (trying to figure out stalin), and never tells Stalin at this point in time about the Manhattan Project but Stalin knew about the Manhattan Project, when FDR doesn’t share the information so there’s mistrust, Stalin knows because of spies in the program

• Potsdam, Germany: Big 3 change (FDR is dead in mid-July) Initially: Churchill, Stalin, and Truman, midway through conference Churchill no longer prime minister (voted out of office; his party wasn’t embraced by the people and they want a change of leadership) clement Attlee,

• At this conference, they issued an ultimatum to the Japanese gov: surrender or face utter destruction

• The Japanese believed we were bluffing; as soon as Truman becomes president, he knows about the Manhattan project (knew during the conference)

• After Okinawa it was understood that there would be enormous casualties on Japanese and Allied side

• Truman’s focus was on american lives, he says he does not hesitate to utilize the weapons to save american lives and end the war earlier

• Manhattan Project: J. Robert Oppenheimer was the lead researcher

• Albert EInstein encouraged FDR to recommend whole process, and knew that the Germans were in the process of doing so, but he later regretted it

• Truman gives order to drop the atomic bomb

• He never hesitated, he chose the targets and had to choose WHOLE industrial cities

  • The justification for targeting industrial cities was that it was not just civilian target, the cities were also supporting Japanese war effort

• List: Kyoto, Kokura, Hiroshima, Nagasaki,

• General went on a honeymoon to Kyoto w/wife (did not want Kyoto Destroyed)

• Kokura had messed up visual (forecast was bad)

• August 6, 1945: Hiroshima bombed

• Dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima (more powerful) more die from radiation and cancer and 70,000 die instantaneously

• Military command did not tell emperor what happened

• Soviets seized Japanese interest in Manchuria (japan was at war with USSR and US and Britain)

• Japanese were talking to soviets about surrender, soviets didn’t tell US

• 3 days after Hiroshima bombed, Nagasaki bombed

• Within a weeks time the Japanese were willing to surrender

• September 2, 1945:

  • Japanese surrender and General MacDougall officiated

• War’s over

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  Reasons for Allied Victory

• Allied leadership: FDR, CHurchill, and Stalin

• Brilliant generals and admirals: montgomery and soviet generals, eisenhower, macarthur, admiral spruance

• Resolve of british people when holding off Germany in Battle of Britain

• Valient fighting of the soviets in eastern europe

• Collaboration between FDR and Churchill

• THe industrial power of the US

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