Entering World War 2 + Discrimination

• After Pearl Harbor, the US and Britain signed the ABC-1 agreement, which said if the US entered the war, they would first focus on defeating Germany.

• This was important given that the US primarily wanted revenge against Japan, BUT if they focused

  their resources there first, Hitler could take over Britain and the Soviet Union, After defeating Germany, the Allied forces would attack Japan (until then, reinforcements were sent in).

• Meanwhile, many immigrants from Axis power countries (i.e Germany and Italy) loyally supported the war efforts, which sped up assimilation — this contrasted WW1, where the loyalty of immigrants was often questioned.

• However, both Japanese immigrants and first-generation Japanese-Americans fared much poorly.

• Under President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066: 110,000 Japanese Americans were placed in concentration camps, as the Fed govt feared that if Japan successfully attacked, Japanese-Americans would become traitors.

• Korematsu v. US (1944): the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the concentration camps (but in 1988, the fed. govt. apologized by paying every camp survivor $20,000 in reparations).

• Preparing for War: Federal Organizations

  • War Production Board (WPB): oversaw production of war products (i.e weaponry, planes, ships) and cut down on non-essential production, like passenger cars. They also mandated rationing vital supplies like rubber and gas — silver lining was that the extensive amounts of military

    orders completely ended the Great Depression

  • Office of Price Administration (OPA) (1942): brought down the inflated prices of consumer goods that had been caused by product scarcity. Also encouraged rationing of certain foods, like meat and butter.

  • National War Labor Board (NWLB): was created by FDR to mediate disputes between labor and management — prevented work stoppages that could have undermined the war effort. Also seta maximum for increasing wages.

  • Labor unions were upset by the new wage increase restrictions — govt. passes Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act (1943): criminalized strikes against government controlled companies and allowed the govt to seize and operate plants that were threatened by labor disputes.

  • WACSs (Women's Army Corps) & WAVES (Women Accepted For Volunteer Emergency Services): organizations where women were enlisted for noncombatant jobs in the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard. This was a new extension to their traditional role as nurses during war, and shows how the govt. needs all the help they can get.

    • Some women decided to continue working after the war ended, which foreshadowed the eventual shift in values regarding women’s roles in society.

  • Bracero Program: an agreement with Mexico that brought in Mexican agricultural workers to temporarily replace the American farmers who had been drafted for the war. This eventually became a fixed program in many Western states.

Domestic Changes

• Many people migrated to cities like Detroit, Seattle, and largely settled in California

• President Roosevelt wanted to accelerate the South's economic development, so he invested lots of money from defense contracts towards building industrial factories there.

• However, since the mechanical cotton picker made cheap labor useless and race realation continued to worsen, many African Americans chose to migrate North or West. — this made racism a national

  issue (not just regionally exclusive to the South)

• Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC): Following FDR's executive order prohibiting racial discrinimation in defense-based industries, this commission was created to make sure people complied with this order —+ gave African Americans hope to achieve the “Double V,” meaning the victory over facism abroad and with racism at home.

• Increased memberships to the NAACP and led to the creation of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) (1942): advocated for nonviolent, direct action and become influential in the civil rights movement following WW2

• Code Talkers: about 25,000 Native Americans who transmitted messages to Allied countries in their native languages, which were incomprehensible to Germany and Japan.

• By the end of the war, the US was completely out of the Depression and thriving once again (unlike other countries).

• The national debt rose immensely, but the disposable income for many American families increased.

World War 2

• Immediately following the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked many places, including the American outposts at Guam, Wake, and the Philippines.

• In the Philippines, a group of American and Filipino soldiers lead by General Douglas MacArthur fought back the Japanese for five months, but eventually the Philippines fell to Japan.

• Battle of Midway (1942): occurred on Midway island, near Honolulu. Japan

  hoped this island would allow them to launch another attack on Pearl Harbor and maybe even compel the US to negotiate a cease-fire in the Pacific. — US manages to block Japanese advances, marking a major victory.

• Following this victory, the US “leapfrogged” between islands controlled by the Japanese, capturing small islands to save their resources for the more heavily fortified ones. For example, in the Guadalcanal islands, the US fought to protect American shipping lanes to Australia and did so until the Japanese evacuated in 1943.

• Meanwhile, many Americans (including FDR) wanted to invade France as a diversion; they feared the Soviet Union wouldn't be able to fight Germany on it’s own forever and that they may sign a separate peace deal with them (like they had in 1918), leaving Western Allies to fight Germany alone — was eventually postponed because they didn't have the necessary resources

• Instead, they had a swift victory capturing French-held Tunisia, and eventually the Allied forces also captured Sicily, which led to Italy surrendering and Mussolini being overthrown. — Germany continues to fight for control of Italy, but is defeated, leading many of them to become prisoners of war and diverted some troops from Soviet and French fronts, and gave Soviets more time to take territory from Eastern Europe.

• EDR, Churchill, and Stalin meet in Iran to discuss a coordinated second attack. They decided the Soviet Union and other Allied nations would simultaneously attack Germany, with the Soviet Union coming from the East and the Allies from the West.

• D-Day (June 6th, 1944): with the troops lead by General Eisenhower, the Allied forces invaded the French coast city of Normandy (because it wasn’t as heavily fortified compared to other cities). Paris was soon liberated in August 1944, eventually causing major German cities like Aachen to fall soon after.

• Election of 1944: Republicans nominate Thomas Dewey and his isolationist VP John Bricker. Democrats nominate President FDR and his VP, Harry Truman.

• FDR wins by a landslide because the war was going well for the Allies, and people knew that FDR's experience would be vital in maintaining world peace after the war ended.

• Battle of the Bulge: Started when Hitler wanted to take a Belgian port of Antwerp, which was key to supplying the Allies. The Allies were driven back from the border in the Ardennes Forest for 10 days, but eventually the German push was stopped by the 101st Airborne Division.

  • Soon after, the Soviet Union captured Berlin in April 1945. The same month, FDR died by a brain hemorrhage and Hitler committed suicide.

  • In May, Germany surrendered unconditionally.

• Meanwhile, the US continued to fight in Japan and eventually captured the island of Okinawa in 1945. However, the US sustained damage from the Japanese kamikaze bombers. Japan was still unwilling to surrender unconditionally.

• Potsdam Conference (1945): President Truman meets with Stalin and other British leaders to issue an ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed.

• Meanwhile, the US worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, and the first intended target of it was supposed to be Germany. However, after a successful test and Japan still refusing to surrender, the US dropped the first bomb in Hiroshima in August 1945 (killing 180,000). Japan still refused to surrender, so a second bomb was dropped in Nagasaki (killing 80,000).

• Later that month, Tokyo surrendered on the condition that their emperor Hirohito could remain emperor (and the Allies agreed to this condition). World War 2 officially ended September 2nd, 1945.

• Compared to other countries, the US had relatively minimal casualties and was virtually untouched.