Fighting the Good Fight in World War II, 1941-1945

American propaganda aimed to boost patriotism and support for the war.
The war pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression and spurred industrial growth.
It highlighted racial and ethnic divisions but also created opportunities for minorities and women.

27.1 The Origins of War: Europe, Asia, and the United States

Learning Objectives:
- Explain the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe.
- Discuss events in Europe and Asia leading to the war.
- Identify early steps by President Roosevelt to aid nations fighting totalitarianism while maintaining neutrality.
The interwar years were politically and economically turbulent.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Treaty of Versailles reshaped Europe.
President Wilson's vision of "collective security" through the League of Nations aimed to prevent power struggles.
The U.S. focused on domestic needs while totalitarian regimes rose in Europe and Japan expanded.
American involvement became necessary to fight Nazi Germany and Japan.

Isolationism

Most Americans were wary of involvement in European affairs, favoring isolationism.
The U.S. continued to intervene in the Western Hemisphere but avoided crises leading to global conflict.
The U.S. took steps to lessen the chances of war and cut defense spending.
- Washington Naval Conference (1921–1922): Reduced navies of signatory nations.
- Four Power Treaty (1921): U.S., Great Britain, France, and Japan committed to avoiding territorial expansion in Asia.
- Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928): Declared war an international crime, but lacked enforcement mechanisms.

The March Toward War

Economic depression and political instability grew in Europe while the U.S. focused on domestic issues.
The crash of 1929 and the drying up of American capital contributed to a global economic downturn.

Totalitarianism in Europe

Many European countries suffered economically before the Great Depression.
Benito Mussolini capitalized on Italian frustration with the Versailles Treaty, creating the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919.
- Fascism: Focused on national unity, militarism, social Darwinism, and loyalty to the state.
- Mussolini wanted a totalitarian state: "all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state."
- He became prime minister in 1922 with support from industrialists and the king.
- By 1927, he transformed Italy into a single-party state with unlimited power.
In Germany, political fragmentation and economic problems led to the rise of the National Socialist Party (Nazis).
- The German Communist Party grew, frightening the wealthy and middle class.
- The Treaty of Versailles caused resentment towards the Allies.
- Adolf Hitler's anti-Communist Nazi Party gained followers during the Great Depression.
- By 1932, nearly 30% of the German labor force was unemployed.
- Hitler promised to restore Germany to greatness and became chancellor in January 1933.
- The Enabling Act gave Hitler power to make all laws for four years, effectively making him dictator.
- Nazi Germany became a one-party totalitarian state and was anti-Semitic.
- The Nuremberg Laws (1935) deprived Jews of German citizenship.
Hitler rebuilt German military might, withdrawing from the League of Nations in 1933.
In 1936, he sent military units into the Rhineland, violating the Versailles Treaty.
In March 1938, Hitler invaded Austria to reunite ethnic Germans.
At the Munich Conference, Great Britain and France agreed to the partial dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the occupation of the Sudetenland by German troops.
- The Munich Pact offered a policy of appeasement, hoping to satisfy German expansionist appetites without war.
- Germany later occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, wary of Hitler's actions, sought accommodation with Germany.
In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Poland and not make war on each other.

Japan

Militaristic politicians took control of Japan in the 1930s.
The Japanese were pro-capitalist and concerned about the rise of Communism in the Soviet Union and China.
They found a common ideological enemy with Fascism and National Socialism.
In 1936, Japan and Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, pledging mutual assistance against the Comintern.
Italy joined in 1937, forming the Axis powers alliance.
Japan aimed to create an empire: In 1931, it created Manchukuo, a puppet state in northern China.
The League of Nations protested but did nothing else.
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 led to a full-scale invasion of China by the Japanese.
The Japanese committed atrocities in Nanjing, leading to international outcry.
Public sentiment against Japan in the United States reached new heights.

From Neutrality to Engagement

President Roosevelt was aware of the challenges facing targets of Nazi and Japanese aggression.
Congress's commitment to nonintervention was difficult to overcome, influenced by Senator Gerald P. Nye's claims that the U.S. was tricked into World War I.
Roosevelt initially refused assistance to those fleeing Nazi Germany and did little to aid Jewish refugees.
In 1938, he withdrew the American ambassador to Germany but did not relax immigration quotas.
In 1939, he refused to support a bill admitting twenty thousand Jewish refugee children.
He also did not intervene when German Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis were denied entry to the U.S.
Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts in the 1930s:
- 1935: Banned the sale of armaments to warring nations.
- 1936: Prohibited loaning money to belligerent countries.
- 1937: Forbade transportation of weapons or passengers to belligerent nations on American ships and prohibited American citizens from traveling on ships of nations at war.
After war began between Japan and China in 1937, Roosevelt sought ways to help China without violating U.S. law.
In 1940, Chiang Kai-shek prevailed upon Roosevelt to ship P-40 fighter planes and allow American volunteers to fly them.

War Begins in Europe

The Munich Agreement failed to satisfy Hitler.
In May 1939, Germany and Italy formalized their military alliance with the "Pact of Steel."
On September 1, 1939, Hitler launched the Blitzkrieg against Poland.
On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany, starting the European phase of World War II.
Roosevelt worked with Congress to alter the Neutrality Laws to permit "Cash and Carry" in munitions for Britain and France.
In 1940, Germany commenced its spring offensive and quickly defeated France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
Japan took advantage of France's surrender to occupy French Indochina.
The U.S. began to embargo shipments to Japan, starting with aviation gasoline and machine tools, and proceeding to scrap iron and steel.

The Atlantic Charter

Following the surrender of France, the Battle of Britain began.
In June 1941, Hitler broke the nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union and invaded Soviet territory.
August 1941: Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill and drafted the Atlantic Charter.
- Stated that the U.S. and Britain sought no territory.
- Proclaimed self-determination for all countries.
- Called for restoration of self-government.
- Lowered trade barriers.
- Mandated freedom of the seas.
- Renounced the use of force to settle international disputes.
- Called for postwar disarmament.
In March 1941, Congress authorized Lend-Lease, ending the policy of nonintervention.
- From 1941 to 1945, $45 billion worth of weaponry and supplies were distributed to Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and other allies.

A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

By the second half of 1941, Japan was feeling the pressure of the American embargo.
Japanese leaders planned to secure oil by taking control of the Dutch East Indies but realized this might provoke American intervention.
The Japanese government decided that if no peaceful resolution could be reached by the end of November 1941, then the nation would have to go to war against the United States.
At 7:48 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, the Japanese attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
- The attacks involved 353 fighters, bombers, and torpedo bombers from six aircraft carriers.
- All eight battleships in the harbor were hit, and four were sunk.
- Nearly two hundred aircraft were destroyed, and twenty-four hundred servicemen were killed.
- Japanese losses were minimal.
- The strike was part of a larger campaign to gain territory, including attacks on Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Guam, Wake Island, and the Philippines.
American reluctance to engage in conflict quickly evaporated.
President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war, which it delivered on December 8.
On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

27.2 The Home Front

Learning Objectives:
- Describe the steps taken by the United States to prepare for war
- Describe how the war changed employment patterns in the United States
- Discuss the contributions of civilians on the home front, especially women, to the war effort
- Analyze how the war affected race relations in the United States
The war greatly changed everyday life for all Americans.
The war effort ended the economic depression.
Americans united behind the war effort, sacrificing at home to assure success abroad.
New opportunities emerged for women and African Americans, but fear and racism also drove cracks in the nation’s facade.

Mobilizing a Nation

The United States had increased armament production since 1939.
War production increased further following the passage of Lend Lease in 1941.
The government agreed to assume all costs of development and production and also guarantee a profit on sales.
- Corporate profits rose from $6.4 billion in 1940 to nearly $11 billion in 1944.
- The top one hundred U.S. corporations received approximately 70 percent of government contracts.
A peacetime draft was established in September 1940, but draftees were initially to serve for only one year.
- By December 1941, the United States had only one division ready to be deployed.
- Military planners estimated that it might take nine million men to secure victory.
Over the course of the war, approximately fifty million men registered for the draft; ten million were subsequently inducted into the service.
Approximately 2.5 million African Americans registered for the draft, and 1 million of them subsequently served in segregated units.
Manpower needs resulted in African American recruits serving in the infantry and flying planes.
- First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt demonstrated her commitment to African Americans and the war effort by visiting Tuskegee in 1941.
Forty-four thousand Native Americans served in all theaters of the war.
- Navajo marines served as code talkers, using their native language to transmit information.
Some seventy-two thousand men registered as conscientious objectors (COs), and fifty-two thousand were granted that status.
George C. Marshall was promoted to Army Chief of Staff.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of the General European Theater of Operations in June 1942.

Employment and Migration Patterns in the United States

In August 1940, Congress created the Defense Plant Corporation.
- By 1945, 344 plants were built in the West.
- California became a training ground.
Cities like Richmond, California, and nearby Oakland, expanded quickly.
African Americans moved out of the rural South into northern or West Coast cities.
Women relocated to either follow their husbands to military bases or take jobs in the defense industry.
The Office of Price Administration (OPA) regulated prices and attempted to combat inflation.
Major labor unions pledged not to strike.
Americans purchased more than $185 billion worth of war bonds.
The federal government also instituted the current tax-withholding system.
The government once again urged Americans to plant victory gardens.
Civilians were issued ration booklets, enabling them to buy limited amounts of meat, coffee, butter, sugar, and other foods.
Other items were rationed as well, including shoes, liquor, cigarettes, and gasoline.
Civilians on the home front also recycled, conserved, and participated in scrap drives.
Civilian volunteers, trained to recognize enemy aircraft, watched the skies along the coasts and on the borders.

Women in the War: Rosie the Riveter and Beyond

World War II led many women to take jobs in defense plants and factories.
The government created a propaganda campaign centered on Rosie the Riveter.
Rosie was tough yet feminine.
To try to address the dual role of women as workers and mothers, Eleanor Roosevelt urged her husband to approve the first U.S. government childcare facilities under the Community Facilities Act of 1942.
Tens of thousands of women served in the war effort more directly.
- Approximately 350,000 joined the military.
- They worked as nurses, drove trucks, repaired airplanes, and performed clerical work to free up men for combat.
- Those who joined the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) flew planes from the factories to military bases.
- Many women also flocked to work in a variety of civil service jobs.
- Thousands of women were recruited to work on the Manhattan Project.

The Culture of War: Entertainers and the War Effort

During the war, movie attendance reached an all-time high.
Many feature films were patriotic stories that showed the day’s biggest stars as soldiers fighting the nefarious German and Japanese enemy.
Many male entertainers temporarily gave up their careers to serve in the armed forces.

Social Tensions on the Home Front

The need for Americans to come together encouraged feelings of unity, but the desire for unity did not always mean that Americans of color were treated as equals.
For African Americans, Mexican Americans, and especially for Japanese Americans, feelings of patriotism and willingness to serve one’s country was not enough to guarantee equal treatment.

African Americans and Double V

Through the intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt, Bethune was appointed to the advisory council set up by the War Department Women’s Interest Section.
Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which created the Fair Employment Practices Committee to bar racial discrimination in the defense industry.
During the war, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) used peaceful civil disobedience in the form of sit-ins to desegregate certain public spaces in Washington, DC, and elsewhere.
CORE’s actions were in keeping with the goals of the Double V campaign that was begun in 1942 by the Pittsburgh Courier.

The Zoot Suit Riots

The United States and Mexican governments instituted the “bracero” program on August 4, 1942.
Forced by racial discrimination to live in the barrios of East Los Angeles, many Mexican American youths sought to create their own identity and began to adopt a distinctive style of dress known as zoot suits
In the summer of 1943, “zoot-suit riots” occurred in Los Angeles.

Internment

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unleashed a cascade of racist assumptions about Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans in the United States.
Executive Order 9066, signed by Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, gave the army power to remove people from “military areas” to prevent sabotage or espionage.
After the order went into effect, Lt. General John L. DeWitt ordered approximately 127,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans—roughly 90 percent of those of Japanese ethnicity living in the United States.
Some sixteen thousand Germans, including some from Latin America, and German Americans were also placed in internment camps, as were 2,373 persons of Italian ancestry.
Nearly thirty-three thousand Japanese Americans served in the military during the war.
- Of particular note was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which finished the war as the most decorated unit in U.S. military history given its size and length of service.

27.3 Victory in the European Theater

Learning Objectives:
- Identify the major battles of the European theater
- Analyze the goals and results of the major wartime summit meetings
Roosevelt had been concerned about Great Britain since the beginning of the Battle of Britain and viewed Germany as the greater threat.
He leaned towards a “Europe First” strategy.
Roosevelt imagined an “empire-free” postwar world, in keeping with the goals of the Atlantic Charter.

Wartime Diplomacy

Franklin Roosevelt entered World War II with an eye toward a new postwar world.
Allied leaders, known as the Big Three, took steps towards working in concert despite their differences.
Jan 1943: Casablanca, Morocco:
- Churchill convinced Roosevelt to delay an invasion of France in favor of an invasion of Sicily
- Roosevelt enunciated the doctrine of “unconditional surrender.”
November 1943: Tehran, Iran:
- Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met to finalize plans for a cross-channel invasion.

The Invasion of Europe

Preparing to engage the Nazis in Europe, the United States landed in North Africa in 1942.
The Allied campaign secured control of the southern Mediterranean and preserved Egypt and the Suez Canal for the British.
A direct assault on Nazi Germany’s “Fortress Europe” was still necessary for final victory.

D-Day

June 6, 1944: Allied forces stormed the beaches of northern France on D-day.
Following the establishment of beachheads at Normandy, it took months of difficult fighting before Paris was liberated on August 20, 1944.
On December 16, in a surprise move, the Germans threw nearly a quarter-million men at the Western Allies in an attempt to divide their armies and encircle major elements of the American forces. 90,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or lost in action in what would be known as The Battle of the Bulge.

Confronting the Holocaust

The Holocaust, Hitler’s plan to kill the Jews of Europe, had begun as early as 1933, with the construction of Dachau.
Between 1941 and 1945 six extermination camps were established in Polish territory.
Ultimately, some eleven million people died in the camps.

Yalta and Preparing for Victory

The last time the Big Three met was in early February 1945 at Yalta in the Soviet Union.
Roosevelt and Churchill had to accept a number of compromises that strengthened Stalin’s position in eastern Europe.
Stalin reaffirmed his commitment to enter the war against Japan following the surrender of Germany.
By April 1945, Soviet forces had reached Berlin.
Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945.
On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered.
The victorious Allies set about determining what to do to rebuild Europe at the Potsdam Summit Conference in July 1945.
Plans to divide Germany and Austria, and their capital cities were finalized.
In addition, the Allies agreed to dismantle Germany’s heavy industry.

27.4 The Pacific Theater and the Atomic Bomb

Learning Objectives
- Discuss the strategy employed against the Japanese and some of the significant battles of the Pacific campaign
- Describe the effects of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Analyze the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan
Japanese forces won a series of early victories against Allied forces from December 1941 to May 1942.
The Allies turned the tide in May and June 1942, at the Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway.
Slowly, throughout 1943, the United States engaged in a campaign of “island hopping,” gradually moving across the Pacific to Japan.

The Pacific Campaign

During the 1930s, Americans had caught glimpses of Japanese armies in action and grew increasingly sympathetic towards war-torn China.
Stories of Japanese atrocities bordering on genocide and the shock of the attack on Pearl Harbor intensified racial animosity toward the Japanese.
Wartime propaganda portrayed Japanese soldiers as uncivilized and barbaric.
Kamikaze attacks that took place towards the end of the war were regarded as proof of the irrationality of Japanese martial values and mindless loyalty to Emperor Hirohito.
Rather than simply wait for the invasion of France to begin, naval and army officers such as General Douglas MacArthur argued that American resources should be deployed in the Pacific to reclaim territory seized by Japan.
In the Pacific, MacArthur and the Allied forces pursued an island hopping strategy.
By February 1945, American forces had reached the island of Iwo Jima.
Apr 1945: Battle For Okinawa -- American Forces invaded Okinawa. The island was finally secured at the cost of 17,000 American soldiers killed and 36,000 wounded.

Dropping the Atomic Bomb

All belligerents in World War II sought to develop powerful and devastating weaponry.
Albert Einstein urged President Roosevelt to launch an American atomic research project, and Roosevelt agreed to do so, with reservations.
In late 1941, the program received its code name: the Manhattan Project.
In July 1945, the project’s scientists successfully tested the first atomic bomb.
The Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb known as “Little Boy” on Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. Monday morning, August 6, 1945. 70,000 were killed in the initial blast.
When Japan refused to surrender, a second atomic bomb, named Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. At least sixty thousand people were killed at Nagasaki.
The decision to use nuclear weapons is widely debated.

The War Ends

The bombs had the desired effect of getting Japan to surrender.
Even before the atomic attacks, the conventional bombings of Japan, the defeat of its forces in the field, and the entry of the Soviet Union into the war had convinced the Imperial Council that they had to end the war.
Emperor Hirohito intervened and accepted unconditional surrender.
Japan's industries and cities had been thoroughly destroyed.
Korea was divided along the thirty-eighth parallel.
Germany was divided into four occupation zones.
In October 1945, the United Nations was created.
People around the world celebrated the end of the conflict, but America’s use of atomic bombs and disagreements between the United States and the Soviet Union at Yalta and Potsdam would contribute to ongoing instability in the postwar world.