MW

WWII

The Pacific War

  • Japan was a part of the Triple Entente in WWI, but felt ignored after…

    • Prime Minister Tojo created Japan’s expansionist policy

      • to gain land and raw materials

    • invaded and took Manchuria, 1931

  • invaded China, 1937

    • Japan took advantage of China’s civil war, nationalists vs. communists

  • later also invaded Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines

    • these were already colonies of Britain, France, US

      • Japan claimed it was taking Asian for the Asians

    • only the US stood in Japan’s way

The War Begins in Europe

  • The Axis Powers were each unhappy with the results of the Treaty of Versailles

    • Germany, Italy, and Japan

      • after WWI, the German Empire → the Weimar Republic

        • suffered from their own depression

        • made Germany vulnerable to Nazism and Hitler

  • Nazi = National Socialism, white/Aryan supremacy

    • Nazi: racial superiority, and therefore nationalist

    • became increasingly totalitarian

    • ignored the Versailles Treaty and its arms limitations

      • reoccupied regions lost after WWI

        • Saarland/Rhineland/Ruhr, Austria taken without challenge = Appeasement

        • Sudetenland caused Britain and France to negotiate: the Munich Agreement

          • gave Germany all of Czechoslovakia with the promise of no more territory taken and no war

            • this gave Germany industrial territory and Lebensraum (living space)

            • Signed by Britain, France, and Germany

  • Poland

    • before taking Poland, Hitler signed a pact with the Soviet Union to divide Poland and prevent war between the 2 and 2-fronted war for Germany

      • WWII started when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939

        • Britain and France declared war on 9/3/1939

  • Spring 1940, Hitler invades Western Europe

    • took the low countries and France

      • divides France with a German occupation and Vichy France (unoccupied France, run by French Nazis)

  • By mid-1940, Britain is fighting alone on the Allies side

    • attempted to defeat Britain via air strikes before invading

      • The Blitz targeted cities and civilians

  • Hitler believed that he had subdued Britain and invaded the Soviet Union, summer 1941

    • became a protracted war heading into the winter

    • holds and ultimately defeats Germany on the East

  • Italy tried to recapture territories of the Roman Empire

    • around the Mediterranean and North Africa

The US in WWII

  • lend - lease: we sent supplies, but never claimed to support

    • Allies are in trouble, and we wanted to help. Would collect any payment later

  • Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan on December 7, 1941

    • Japan understood US would enter war, but they hoped to cripple us and delay our entrance

      • previously, US had an isolationist sentiment

  • Europe First

    • US recognized it needed to assist Britain in Europe to stabilize allies

      • US landed in N. Africa in 1942

        • would invade Italy in 1943

      • sent air force to Britain to share bombing Germany

  • the Soviet Union finally defeated Germany at Stalingrad in 1943

    • Roosevelt, Churchill, & Stalin = the Big Three

      • Stalin demanded a landing in France: Operation Overload, D-Day

      • met at Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam

        • agreed to Unconditional Surrender -

        • divide Europe after war’s end

  • Germany now fighting in East, South, and West

    • Germany tried a last effort at Battle of the Bulge

  • Island Hopping

    • the US was not prepared for war in either theater

      • the Philippines fell with the US and Phil soldiers surrendering

    • turning point at the Battle of Midway

    • each island would then provide an airbase to take the next one

      • within reach of Japan

        • had been bombing mainland for 2 years

    • Japanese not permitted to surrender, devotion to Hirohito

Economy

  • before Pearl Harbor the US began helping Britain, France through lend-lease

  • once at war, factories converted to wartime production

    • decrease in unemployment due to men at war officially ended the Depression

      • opportunities for Blacks are still limited, segregation

      • use Mexican immigrant labor

    • US was also supplying Britain and Soviet Union

    • Consumer production on hold

      • rationing

  • Women in the workforce

    • work in factories and armed forces

      • Rosie the Riveter

      • still, Black women had limited opportunities

    • after the war, expected leave positions for returning veterans.

Race

  • Blacks

    • Tuskegee Airman

    • fought for freedoms abroad but still second-class citizens at home

      • nonviolent action to combat inequality

    • northern migration

  • Japanese-Americans

    • interned in government camps

    • still fought for the US

    • lost homes and jobs

  • fewer Italian-Americans and German-Americans were interned

  • The Holocaust

    • the US did not intervene to aid Jews or other persecuted

      • would not bomb railroads and lowered immigration quotas

        • St. Louis turned away

Postwar World

  • VE Day (May 1945), VJ Day (Victory OVER Japan) (August 1945)

  • sought to end WWII more successfully than WWI so as not to create WWIII

    • L of N failed, so United Nations

      • also signed Atlantic Charter, granting right to self-determination

        • would eventually end Britain and France empires

      • UN Security Council: US, Britain, Soviet Union, China, France

  • Economy

    • GI Bill

      • veterans were promised jobs when they were discharged

        • not enough jobs, so the GI Bill paid veterans to go to school to delay them entering the workforce, also provided unemployment $

          • did not include Blacks, gays, and some women

      • VA home loans and farms