World War II Notes

Total War

  • Total war meant that everyone was involved in the war effort.
  • Everyone was mobilized in some capacity, on the home front or the front line.
  • No one was immune, especially in Europe.

Women at War

  • The home front was vital to the war effort.
  • Women became more involved in military industries than ever before.
  • This production boom helped end the Great Depression as the US produced military machinery, weapons, and infrastructure for itself and the Allied powers.
  • Many men were off at war, leading to more women working in factories and contributing to military industries.
  • This ramped up women's participation in war, even more than in World War I.
  • Women's participation demonstrated their capabilities as workers outside the home, challenging societal expectations in the postwar era.
  • The propaganda image of Rosie the Riveter reminded women that they were vital to the overall victory in the war.
  • Rosie the Riveter is a famous image of a strong woman looking directly at the viewer, flexing her bicep, with the caption "We can do it."
  • She is dressed as a riveter, emphasizing women's ability to contribute to the war effort.
  • This image became lasting during the war and during the women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
  • Women's involvement in the war equated to their ability to express their capabilities in society, working outside the home and contributing to the economy as producers, not just consumers.
  • World War II also offered roles for women in auxiliary branches of the military, including the WAVES (Naval division), WAAC (Army division), and WASPs (Air Force auxiliary).
  • These branches did not offer direct frontline military duty but increased women's capability to join military service.
  • For instance, in the WASPs, women became test pilots, requiring application, training, and physical tasks like men.
  • They tested aircraft that would be sent to the Pacific Theater or Europe, supporting the war effort.

Executive Order 9066

  • After Pearl Harbor in 1942, the federal government issued Executive Order 9066, made by FDR.
  • Presidents can create executive orders based on executive power.
  • FDR argued that national security required the temporary quartering of individuals deemed threats.
  • This targeted people of Japanese descent because of Pearl Harbor.
  • Over 10,000 people were impacted by this executive order (over three fourths were American citizens), and they were taken to incarceration camps, called internment camps by the government, violating their constitutional rights as they had committed no crime other than their descent.
  • The federal government received Supreme Court challenges, but the camps existed through much of the war.
  • Individuals were first taken to detention centers for processing and then moved to incarceration camps.
  • These camps were located throughout the country; in California, Manzanar was one of the most infamous.
  • It was not until the 1980s that the federal government offered a formal apology for those incarcerated during World War II and provided reparations for the victims involved.
  • The apology recognized that these incarceration camps were created because of racism and hysteria.

Holocaust

  • Hitler believed that the Jewish population should be eliminated through what he called the "final solution."
  • At Nazi German concentration camps, systematic killing took place throughout the war, exemplified in the gas chambers.
  • Over 6,000,000 Jews were killed, and over 1,000,000 others were considered "unfit" in society.
  • During World War I, Germans innovated with chemical gases such as mustard gas and chlorine gas. During World War II, chemical gases were used in the Nazi concentration camps' gas chambers.
  • The epicenter of systematic murder was made possible by industrial and scientific progress.
  • Those considered "unfit" included various races, ethnicities, disabled communities, the gay community, and supposed criminals.
  • By April 1945, the war turned, and Hitler committed suicide. Eventually, the concentration camps were liberated.
  • The Holocaust exemplified the axis of evil and the extremes in which some leaders would take their dangerous ideologies.
  • Technology was manipulated to be deployed in war, particularly for mass destruction and killing.

Atomic Bomb Deployments

  • During World War II, a secret government project in the United States was created called the Manhattan Project.
  • This project brought together scientists to explore the power and deployment of nuclear technology.
  • The US hoped to never deploy a bomb, even if created.
  • The development of the atomic bomb was under the leadership of scientist Robert Oppenheimer.
  • This bomb was first tested in July 1945 in New Mexico.
  • The bomb was created in Los Alamos, New Mexico where it was tested.
  • On August 6th on Hiroshima and August 9th on Nagasaki, Japan, the atomic bombs were dropped, and approximately 200,000 people were killed.
  • Within a week, Japan surrendered, and World War II had finally come to an end.
  • The Allied powers of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom claimed victory.
  • The Soviet Union sacrificed the most in terms of human cost.
  • The axis of evil was defeated.
  • For The United States, it offered up a moment of changing their economy from an age of depression economically to an age of essentially ascension, meaning their economy would grow following World War two, leading into what was known as a postwar boom that certainly got them officially out of the great depression years that we started off tonight with.