Chapter 35: World War II

Keys to the Chapter

• Attack on Pearl Harbor unites country but America needs military provisions and supplies

• Despite attack by Japanese, it is agreed that stopping Hitler takes priority

• Suspension of Civil Rights – Japanese Americans

• Korematsu v. US (1944)

  • Upheld constitutionality of Japanese internment

  • 1988 – US government apologized

  • Payment of $20,000 made to each survivor

  • Non-citizen Germans and Italians were also forced to register.

US Economy Changes Because of the War

• Run by War Production Board

  • Massive military orders ended Depression

  • Manufacture of nonessential items stopped

  • National speed limit; gasoline rationing

• Synthetic rubber factories

• Farm laborers left to work in factories

• Machinery increases productivity

• Problems include inflation; rationing; wage controls on workers; antistrike laws

Women and the War

• 6 million women worked outside home

  • Government-run day-care centers

  • Experienced new freedom

• After war many women left labor force

  • Some forced out to make room for men

  • Suburban family life and baby boom after war

• Bracero Program brings Mexican farm workers into California to replace field hands who left for war

Race Becomes a National Issue

• Black people start to demand equality (employment, housing, end segregation)

• A. Philip Randolph threatened march on Washington to demand equal opportunities

  • FDR issued executive order

• Black men were drafted but subject to segregation

• Double “V” victory over dictators abroad and racism at home

Postwar Migration of African Americans

• 1940s – 1970s – 1/2 of all blacks gave up South for urban centers in North

• Many Native Americans leave reservations for war work or military service

War Introduces the Era of Big Govt.

• Paying $330B for the War

  • Income tax

    • Expanded to tax 4 times number of people

    • Raised to high of 90% (on the very rich)

    • Debt increased from $49 to $259 billion during war

  • Introduction of “warfare-welfare state”

    • Postwar economy continued to depend dangerously on war spending for its health

Military Aspect of WW2

• Japan’s early successes in the Pacific

  • Guam, Wake, and Philippines

  • Hong Kong

  • British Malaya (rubber and tin)

  • Burma

  • Dutch East-Indies (oil)

  • Philippines (April, 1942) and MacArthur vows “return”

    • Bataan Death March follows capture of islands

USA Turns the Tide in the Pacific

• Coral Sea in May, 1942

• Midway, June 1942

• Guadalcanal, landing August, 1942, but no capture until February, 1943

• Losses were 10 (Jap) to 1 (U.S.)

  • 20,000 to 1,700 on Guadalcanal

• Leapfrogging/Island Hopping strategy

  • Bypass heavily fortified Japanese islands

  • Attack Japanese bases with heavy bombing

• Taking every island would have taken much longer and cost many more lives

Situation in Europe - Fall of 1942

• Air bombing raids hit inside Germany

• Allies push back Rommel in North Africa

• Russians stop German troops from advancing past Stalingrad and Hitler makes big mistake in not allowing Germans to retreat and regroup

• Despite success FDR unable to keep promise of opening a second front in Europe to help Russia

• November 1942 - Operation Torch

• Eisenhower led Allied forces to victory in North America

• Allies move to Southern Europe in 1942

  • Allies move to Southern Europe in 1943

  • August 1943 – Italy surrendered

  • September 1943 – German troops rescue Mussolini from exile and put him back in power in northern Italy where German troops control country Italy switches sides and joins the Allies but doesn’t mean much since Germany controls the Country.

  • Germany will not surrender Italy until May, 1945

D-Day: June 6, 1944

• 4,600 ships across English Channel

  • Germans believed attack would come further north

  • Allies blocked reinforcements by railroad

• Allied troops slowly move in to France and eventually drive to Germany

  • August 1944 – Paris liberated

  • Non stop bombing of Germany will begin in fall 1944

The Holocaust

• Troops find evidence of the murder of 12 million people (including 6 million Jews)

• US had known of genocide, but not the extent

• Allies had done little to help the Jews

  • Barred Jewish immigrants who sought to escape

  • May 7, 1945 – Germany surrendered unconditionally

• May 8, 1945 – V-E (Victory in Europe) Day

Battles in the Pacific

• US surrounds Japan

  • Islands used as bases to attack from the air

  • March 1945 – island of Iwo Jima

    • Fierce fighting left 4,000 US casualties

• April – June 1945 – island of Okinawa

  • Japanese fight fiercely; 50,000 US casualties

  • Japanese Kamikaze pilots used against ships

The Manhattan Project

• FDR approved it in early 1940

• $2 billion spent

• Use exiled scientists from Europe

• July 16, 1945 – first atomic bomb tried New Mexico

• Germany tried but abandoned similar project

• War against Germany ended before bomb was ready

• DEBATE CONTINUES SHOULD WE HAVE INVADED OR RIGHT TO DROP BOMB?

Arguments for Use of Bomb

• Japanese refused to surrender. Estimated an invasion would be needed to end the war.

• Estimated invasion would take up to 2 years.

• Estimated Allied casualties at 1 million

• Japanese leaders told of power and nature of the bomb and offered a chance to surrender
  but declined

Arguments Against Use of Bomb

• "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" were untested

• Both cities were not military targets and many civilians would be killed.

• Radiation poisoning, birth defects and contamination would have negative effects on the population.

• Would set a precedent about using weapons of mass destruction as allowable in war

Japan’s Surrender

• August 8, 1945 – USSR enters the war against Japan and Japan surrenders August 14th

• Exact date previously agreed upon by Allies (90 days after fall of Germany)

• Soviet armies grab land in Manchuria and Korea for post war territorial influence

• Stalin wanted armies in Asia to have voice in peace settlement after war {could he see the cold war coming?}