Chapter 27 - World War II

Beginning of WWII

Needed to deal with Japan —> taking over territories
- War on 2 fronts —> Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz
  - Move North and West —> come together to invade Japan
- Regained control of Southern + Central Pacific —> stopped Japanese invasion (1943)
Germany
- North African campaign - lowkey angered the Soviet Union because the US decided to follow Britain’s plan
- German loss against Soviet Union —> could not continue fighting them
  - Siege of Stalingrad
- Attack on Sicily —> Mussolini deposed and his successor allied with Allies
  - Postponed invasion of France - angered USSR
Holocaust
- Concentration camps for Jewish people
- Public pressure to end the killing or rescue survivors —> American government resisted (“militarily unfeasible”)
- Did not admit Jewish Refugees —> 90% of the number of visas permitted by law was untouched
  - Officials in the State Department wanted to prevent Jewish people from entering the US

Economic recovery from the Great Depression - federal spending increase, more money into the economy
Person incomes grew, shortage of consumer goods so people put money into savings (help keep the economy alive postwar)

Most impact on the West (relied most on federal spending) - manufacturing facilities, bases, aircraft + shipbuilding industry

War created labor shortage —> many taken out of the workforce but civilian workforce increased (women)

New fear of inflation - rising prices

Anti-Inflation Act - administration can freeze agricultural prices, wages, salaries, and rents
- Office of Price Administration (Henderson and Bowles)
- Inflation less serious of a problem in WWII than WWI
Government borrowed money by selling bonds (to financial institutions), increase income tax (Revenue Act of 1942)

Mobilize the economy - War Production Board (WPB - Nelson)
- Not that much power - could not control military purchases and the army/navy often circumvented the board
- Could not satisfy the complaints
Power transferred to WPB’s authority to the Office of War Mobilization
Economy able to meet needs - factory complexes sprang up and funded by Defense Plants Corporations
- New industry for synthetic rubber
Produced more goods than the government needed

More funds into research and development - National Defense Research Committee
Tech. adv. with Germany and Japan
- Tanks + mechanized armor, submarines (U-boats), naval-air tech (fighter planes)
- Rocket Tech - rocket propelled bombs
American techniques of mass production - airplanes, ships, tanks, etc in much greater numbers
- Improvement in aviation and naval tech (Subs and tanks)
- Radar and Sonar to help fight against U-boats
  - Centimetric Radar
- Detecting and disable German Naval mines
- Antiaircraft tech/Aviation tech
  - Four-engine bombers - Boeing, B1, etc —> could lfy higher and longer than German planes (bombing missions)
  - Gee navigation system - guiding bombs to their targets
  - Oboe System
- Britain’s Ultra Project
  - Gathering of intelligence
  - Stealing German and Japanese Intelligence devices, deciphering messages, etc
  - Bombe Machine to decipher Enigma messages (German code), first programmable and digital computer (Colossus II)
  - American Magic operation - broke Japanese coding system

Wanted to use the war to improve their position in society - made demands
Wanted the government to require companies to integrate their workforces - threatened to march so Roosevelt established the Fair Employment Practices Commission
- Investigate Discrimination in war industries
Migration from South to cities increased (demand for labor)
- Better economic tensions but urban tensions created
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) - mobilized resistance to discrimination
- Organize sit-ins and demonstrations in segregated places
Military forced to make changes —> segregation wasted manpower and black servicemen increased (partially integrated)
- Sometimes riots broke out in integrated army bases

Served in combat or worked as “code-talkers” - military communications and speaking their own languages so enemies wouldn’t be able to understand
Brought Native Americans into close contact with white society
- Exposure to capitalism and material benefits - some never returned to reservations
People began to pressure for nations to assimilate into white society

Mexican workers entered the US —> American and Mexican governments agreed to a program where laborers would be admitted for a limited time to work
Farm owners rehired Mexican Americans and many found factory jobs
- Tensions-many Mexican American teenagers joined street gangs (Pachucos)
  - Zoot-Suit Riots - white sailors invaded Mex. American communities

Increase in female employment - replaced the men
- Jobs still categorized based on gender
“Rosie the Riveter” - importance of the female industrial workforce
Women joined unions
Began to work for the government - “government girls”, most jobs = clerical
Need for child-care
- No husbands and needed to care for children - not many child-care facilities and had to leave young children at home (Latchkey children/8-hour orphans)
- Family dislocations - increase in juvenile crime, etc
- Teenagers employed
Baby Boom
- Increase rate and lower the age of marriage - divorce rate increased, birth rate increased

Not much ethcni or cultural animosity - blurred ethnic distinctions
- Little hostility towards Germans and Italians —> believed it was the political system that was evil, not the people
Exception: Japanese Americans were hated
- Could not be assimilated (unliked European groups)
- Lived mostly in a community with only Japanese Americans
- Attack Pearl Harbor - people believed Japanese Americans were working with the enemy
Created Relocation Camps - War Relocation Authority (WRA)
- Like prison, conditions harsh and uncomfortable (not brutal)
- 1943 - people were beginning to leave camps to go to colleges/universities, get jobs, or join the military (Nisei men)
Korematsu v. US
- Military necessity made the forced relocation constitutionally permissible

American alliance with China helped enhance the legal and social status of Chinese Americans
Repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act
Declining of animosity towards Chinese

People finally had money to spend again - people attended movies, read magazines (life), listened to radios, etc
- Resort hotels/casinos/race tracks/dance halls (soldiers and sailors)
Government propaganda to support the war effort
- “Ensure a future of material comfort and consumer choice”
- Referred more to comfort at home than the ideals America was “defending”
- The Pinup
USO - recruited young women to serve as hostesses in clubs (men “needed” the company of women)

Victory was more important than reform (late 1943) - changed his ideology
Liberals in government were unable to enact new programs
- Liberals displaced by new managers of wartime agencies (conservatives)
Conservatives in congress used the war to dismantle the New Deal
- Decreased need for relief programs
- Increasing numbers of conservatives
Election of 1944
- Dewey vs. Roosevelt
- Revolved mostly around domestic economic issues and Roosevelt’s Health
- Won the election

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