The United States in World War IIUnit 10 (B)

WARTIME AMERICA

Discussion Questions• What roles did minorities and women play in the armed forces

during World War II?• How did the U.S. government mobilize the economy for war?• What steps did the government take to stabilize wages and

prices?• How did World War II change life for women and minorities in

the United States?• How did the wartime relocation of many Americans affect U.S.

government and society?

Terms to Know• Disenfranchisement• Cost-plus• Rationing• Sunbelt• Victory garden• Draft• Propaganda

Building the Military• Selective Service and Training Act• Passed in September 1940• First peacetime draft in U.S. history

• More than 60,000 men joined army following the attack on Pearl Harbor• Army did not have enough training facilities or equipment• Department of Agriculture transferred over 350,000 acres of land

to the War Department• Naval Air Station- Jacksonville, FL

• Soldiers endured 8 weeks of basic training

African Americans in the Military• African American units were segregated from other soldiers• Often under supervision of white officers• Usually assigned to construction and supply units• Many felt disenfranchised- deprived of rights

• “Double V” campaign• Launched by the Pittsburgh Courier

• Leading African American newspaper• Urged readers to support the war to win two victories

• Against Hitler’s racism abroad• Against racism in the United States

• Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by President Roosevelt

• Tuskegee Airmen• First African American Air Force Unit

Other Minorities in the MilitaryJapanese Americans Hispanic Americans Native Americans Jewish Americans

• Were not allowed to serve when war began

• Second-generation Japanese Americans began serving as war continued

• Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team earned more medals than any other unit in the United States military

• 500,000 served in the armed forces

• 17 Hispanic American soldiers earned the Congressional Medal of Honor

• About 1/3 of healthy Native Americans between 18-50 served during the war

• Navajo marines served as “code talkers”

• Used Navajo language to create codes to transmit valuable information over raidos

• 500,000 served in the military

• About 52,00 earned medals for bravery

• Did not end all segregation during the war• Integrated military bases in 1943• President Truman fully integrated the military in 1948

Women in the Armed Forces• First time women were enlisted in the army• Served in office jobs (No combat)

• Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (1948)• Supporting group that is not part of the main army• Became the Women’s Army Corps in 1943

• Coast Guard, navy, marines formed women’s units as well• 68,000 women served as army or navy nurses• About 300 women served as Women Airforce Service Pilots• Flew more than 12,000 flights to deliver planes to the war effort

The American Economy During WWII• Industrial war production had to expand greatly after the attack on

Pearl Harbor• Needed to build thousands of warplanes• Expand navy to be able to fight in two oceans

• National Defense Advisory Committee• Committee of business and government leaders designed to find ways

to encourage businesses to produce war goods quickly• Cost-plus contracts• Agreements that said the government would pay a company the

production costs plus a certain percentage as profit• Much faster than contract bids• Quickly produced war materials in large quantities• Convinced many companies to change to war production

• Reconstruction Finance Corporation• Made loans to companies that wanted to change to war production

Industries Change to War Production• Automobile industry began making trucks, jeeps, and tanks,

and other war materials• Responsible for nearly 1/3 of all wartime military equipment

• Henry Ford created an assembly line in Detroit to build B-24 “Liberator” bombers• Built more than 8,600 aircraft

• Kaiser Shipyards• Henry Kaiser developed a means to produce ships fast• Most know for his basic cargo ships (Liberty Ships)• Parts of ships were built in different factories, then brought

together at the shipyard and assembled• Average production time dropped from 244 days to 41 days• Produced 30% of all American ships built during war

World War II Effects on American Society

BENEFITS DETRIMENTS

• Preparing economy for war ended the Great Depression

• Added production created almost 19 million new jobs

• Average family’s income nearly doubled

• People had to move to find work at defense factories where housing conditions were terrible

• Strikes and riots • Crime rate by young people

increased• Goods were rationed• Taxes were raised• Workers worked longer hours

Supplying the WorkforceWomen African Americans

• Labor shortage forced factories to hire women for industrial jobs

• “Rosie the Riveter”- symbol of the effort to hire women

• 2.5 million women worked in shipyards, aircraft factories, and other manufacturing plants

• Total number of women working grew from 12.9 to 18.8 million by end of war

• Most were laid off or left jobs after war• Women’s success during war

permanently changed American ideas about women in the workplace

• Many factory owners discriminated against African Americans

• A. Phillip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized a march on D.C. as a means to get fair treatment for African Americans in jobs related to war work and in armed forces

• President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25. 1941- Employers in defense industry could not discriminate against any group when hiring for jobs

• Created the Fair Employment Practices Commission to enforce order (First national civil rights agency since Reconstruction)

The Bracero Program• Established in 1942 (Continued until 1964)• Arranged for Mexican farmworkers to help harvest crops in

the Southwest• More than 200,000 Mexicans came to work in U.S. during war• Also helped to build and maintain railroads• Migrant workers became important to the Southwest’s

economic system

Wartime Relocation• Millions of Americans moved to find work during World War II• A new industrial region in the Deep South was created• Sunbelt

• Tent cities and trailer parks began appearing• Congress approved $150 million for housing in 1940• National Housing Agency created in 1942• Coordinated government housing programs

Racism leads to Violence• Racial tension led to violence and riots between African

American and white teens in Detroit on Sunday, June 20, 1943• 25 African Americans and 9 white teens were killed

• “Zoot suit” riots• Fears over teenage crime and racism against Mexican Americans

led to riots• Zoot suits were popular with the Mexican American teenagers in

Los Angeles• Baggy, pleated pants; Overstuffed, long jacket with wide lapels

• June 1943- rumors spread that zoot-suiters attacked sailors• 2,500 soldiers and sailors attacked Mexican American neighborhoods

in Los Angeles

Forced Relocation and Internment• President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February

19, 1942• Authorized military to exclude civilians from any area without

trial or hearing • Allowed the War Department to declare any part of the United

States a military zone• People of Japanese ancestry were moved to 10 internment camps

inland• In 1988, President Regan signed HR 442 into law

• Awarded $20,000 to each surviving Japanese American that had been in an internment camp

• More than 5,000 Germans and Italians were arrested and moved to internment camps

Government Stabilizes Prices and Wages• As wages and prices began to rise quickly, Roosevelt began to

worry about inflation• Created the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply

and the Office of Economic Stabilization to regulate wages and certain prices• Prices rose only about half as much as they had during World War

American’s Sacrifice and Help War Effort• Office of Price Administration began rationing products as high

demand created shortages • Limited how much of a product a person could buy

• Meat, sugar, fats, oils, processed foods, coffee, shoes, gasoline• Issued ration books

• Speed limit was set at 35 mph to save gas and rubber and driving distances were limited

• Many Americans planted victory gardens in their backyards, schoolyards, city parks, and empty lots• Produced more food for the war effort

• Government encouraged people to collect scraps of steel, tin, rubber, and aluminum

Discussion Questions• Why do you think some African Americans would not

support the war effort? • How could rapid population growth in an area lead to

violence?

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

Guiding Questions• Why was the Doolittle Raid important for U.S. forces in the

Pacific?• Why was the Battle of Midway a turning point in the Pacific

war?• What was the military strategy behind “island hopping”? Was

it succesful?

Terms to Know• Kamikaze• Island hopping

Fall of the Philippines• Japanese attacked the U.S. airfields in the Philippines shortly

after the Pearl Harbor Attack• Troops invaded 2 days later

• General Douglas MacArthur decided to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula where they were able to defend position for three months• Ran out of food and supplies

• President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave Bataan and go to Australia • MacArthur promised “I shall return” as he left

• On April 9, 1942 U.S. forces surrendered • Forced the POW’s to march 65 miles to a Japanese prison camp• Nearly 10,000 soldiers died (Bataan Death March)

Doolittle Raid• After the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the fall of the Philippines,

American public was very discouraged• Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle was put in charge of mission to

bomb Tokyo• President Roosevelt wanted to raise morale of American people

• Long range bombers were launched off of the aircraft carrier Hornet on April 18, 1942• Couldn’t get aircraft carriers close enough to launch normal short range

bombers• Bombers would have to fly to China to land after bombing Tokyo

• Could not land back on aircraft carriers• Showed Japan they were vulnerable to attack and caused them to

change strategy• Attack Midway island and draw U.S. ships into battle in Pacific• Felt destroying the American fleet was best way to prevent Tokyo from more

bombing

Navajo Code Talkers• Navajos were used to serve as “code talkers” in the war in the

Pacific• Navajo language had no written alphabet• Japanese could not break the code• Used code words based on their language

• Able to communicate messages much faster than using code-machine operators

• Code talkers mission was not revealed until 1971• Congress awarded the code talkers the Congressional Gold

Medal in 2001 to honor their contribution to the war

Battle of the Coral Sea• U.S. broke Japanese code and were alerted to Japan’s eminent

attack on New Guinea in the Coral Sea• Japan split it’s attack group and only sent 3 carriers (Sent 6

towards Midway Island)• Wanted to gain control of New Guinea to cut off U.S. supply lines

to Australia• Admiral Chester Nimitz sent 2 aircraft carriers, the Lexington

and Yorktown, to intercept the Japanese• Japanese sunk the Lexington and badly damaged the

Yorktown, but U.S. attacks prevented the Japanese from landing on New Guinea’s south coast• Kept supply lines to Australia open• First time a Japanese invasion had been stopped and turned back

Battle of Midway • U.S. again broke Japanese code and learned of planned Japanese

attack on Midway Island• Admiral Nimitz set up an ambush on the Japanese fleet near Midway• Japanese launched planes to attack on June 3, 1942• U.S. was ready and shot down 38 planes

• Before Japan could launch a second wave, the U.S. launched a counterattack• Caught the Japanese carriers with fuel, bombs, and airplanes on

unprotected decks• Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes• U.S. lost 1 carrier and a destroyer

• Greatly diminished Japanese navy and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific

• Allowed U.S. to begin “Island-hopping” campaign

“Island Hopping”• Pacific Fleet headed by Admiral Nimitz advanced through Pacific

by going from one island to the next• First goal was to capture Tarawa Atoll • Needed to capture Japanese base to allow U.S. to build air bases on

nearby Marshall Islands• Took very high casualties

• Soldiers had to wade hundreds of yards on shoulder high water to reach beach• Reefs prohibited ships from landing on beach

• Amphtrac used to transport one load of soldiers safely to beach• Amphibious tractor

• U.S. won Marshall Islands then invaded the Mariana Islands• Able to gain control of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian• Islands used as a base to launch long range bombers to attack

Japanese islands

Battle of Leyte Gulf• Largest naval battle in history• U.S. assembled a huge invasion force and sailed for Leyte Gulf

in Philippines in October 1944• Commanded by General MacArthur• More than 700 ships and 160,000 men

• Troops began landing on Leyte on October 20, 1944• MacArthur had returned to Philippines as promised

• First use of kamikaze attacks by Japanese• Pilots deliberately crashed their planes into U.S. ships

• Disaster for Japan (Lost 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers, and almost 500 airplanes)

• Japanese navy now only played a minor role in the defense of Japan

Discussion Questions• Why would control of islands enhance the ability of the

United States to attack Japan by air?

THE WAR IN EUROPE

Guiding Questions• Why did Churchill and Roosevelt want to attack German-

controlled areas in North Africa before areas in Europe?• What were the goals of strategic bombing in Germany and the

invasion of Sicily?• Why is D-Day considered to be the turning point for the

Atlantic theater?

Terms to Know• Convoy system• Turning point

Battle for North Africa• Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed

to attack North Africa before invading Europe• Were not ready for European invasion• Would give army experience without need for many troops• Help Britain gain control of Suez Canal in Egypt

• Battle of El Alamein• British troops fought German troops under General Erwin

Rommel (“Desert Fox”) in a 12 day battle• British able to win Suez Canal in November 1942

• General Dwight Eisenhower and American troops invaded North Africa in November 1942• American and British troops pushed back the Germans• May 13, 1943- last German troops in North Africa surrendered

Battle of the Atlantic• German submarines began attacking ships off of Atlantic coast

after the U.S. declared war• By August 1942, German ships sunk more than 360 ships along

the East Coast • U.S. and British shipyards were able to build ships fast enough to

limit the damage• U.S. began using convoy system to protect cargo ships• Navy warships escorted cargo ships

• U.S. began using new technology which allowed them to better attack German submarines• Sonar, radar, depth charges• Made German submarines easier to fight• Helped turn the Battle of the Atlantic in favor of the Allies

Battle of Stalingrad• Germany troops attacked Stalingrad in mid-September 1942• Hitler broke nonagression pact• Stalingrad was an important shipping and railroad center

• Germans and Soviets encountered heavy casualties• Each side lost over 500,000 soldiers

• Harsh winter kept German attack from being effective• Soviets were able to surround Stalingrad and over 250,000

German soldiers• Battle ended in Feb. 1943 and put the Germans on the

defensive in the East• About 91,000 German troops surrendered

• Only 5,000 survived the Soviet POW camps

Casablanca Conference• Roosevelt and Churchill met in Casablanca in January 1943• Agreed to increase bomber attacks on Germany• Destroy buildings, factories, and other structures• Hoped damage would hurt German’s morale• Dropped approximately 53,000 tons of explosives on Germany

every month• Created a serious oil shortage and destroyed railroad system and

aircraft factories• Agreed to attack the island of Sicily• Churchill believed Italians would quit if Allies invaded their

country

Italian Campaign• Allied forces under command of General Eisenhower launched

invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943• German troops had left island by August 17

• King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, decided to remove Mussolini from office• Mussolini arrested on July 25, 1943• King Victor Emmanuel began to negotiate terms of surrender to Allies

• After Italy’s surrender, German troops took control of northern Italy and returned Mussolini to power

• U.S. fought Germans at Cassino and Anzio for months• Germans finally retreated from Italy in late May 1944

• Allies captured Rome• Fighting continued for another year• One of the bloodiest campaigns in the war

• More than 300,000 Allied casualties

Tehran Conference• Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Tehran, Iran in late 1943• Reached several agreements• Stalin promised to fight the Germans when Allies invaded France

in 1944• Roosevelt and Stalin agreed to divide Germany after the war• Stalin promised the Soviet Union would help the United States

against Japan after Germany was defeated• Stalin accepted Roosevelt’s proposal of an international

peacekeeping organization after the war

Operation Overlord• Invasion of German occupied France• General Eisenhower was named commander of Allied Forces• Largest amphibious landing ever

• Allies would invade the beaches on the Normandy coast of France• Sheltered location with firm flat beaches within range of fighter

planes in England• Had roads for jeeps and trucks and paths for soldiers to move

inland• Launched on June 6, 1944• “D-Day”• Had to wait for proper weather conditions

“D-Day” Invasion• More than 7,000 ships with 100,000 soldiers headed sailed towards

Normandy• 23,000 paratroopers were dropped inland to the east and west of the

beaches• Warships began attack at dawn on the 5 Normandy beaches• Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha

• U.S. landing at Utah Beach was very successful• Captured beach in less than 3 hours• Fewer than 200 casualties• 23,000 American troops landed at Utah

• Omaha Beach • 4 miles long, surrounded by 150-ft high cliffs, with only 5 paths leading from

beach to top of cliff• U.S. troops slowly began destroying German defenses and began advancing• Nearly 2,500 American soldiers were killed or wounded• 35,000 American soldiers landed at Omaha by end of day

Discussion Questions• How did American and British military strategists hope to

weaken Germany?• Why is the Battle of Stalingrad considered a turning point in

the war? • Why was the D-Day invasion so important?

THE WAR ENDS

Guiding Questions• Why was the Battle of the Bulge so important to the Allied

forces?• What were the causes and effects of President Truman’s

decision to drop the atomic bomb?

Terms to Know• Nuclear

Collapse of the Third ReichLiberation of

Paris Battle of the Bulge Victory in Europe

• After D-Day invasion, Allied forces slowly moved towards Paris

• French Resistance in Paris staged a rebellion as Allies advanced

• Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944

• Germans attacked Allied supply lines in Belgium on December 16, 1944

• Germans broke through U.S. lines and advanced west

• General Patton arrived with reinforcements and began attacking German lines

• Improved weather allowed Allied aircraft to begin to bomb German positions

• German troops began to retreat on January 8, 1945

• Germany was left with very few resources to prevent the Allied advance into Germany

• By end of the Battle of the Bulge, Soviet forces had pushed German troops out of Russia and across Poland

• Soviets were within 35 miles of Berlin by February 1945

• American tanks crossed Rhine River on Mar 7, 1945 and were within 70 miles of Berlin

• Soviet troops were outside of Berlin by April 21, 1945

• Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945

• Germany accepted terms of unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945

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

Ending the War in the Pacific• Harry Truman became president on April 12, 1945• President Roosevelt died from a stroke while vacationing in Warm

Springs, GA• After Germany’s surrender, Japan continued its fight with the

United States in the Pacific

Battle of Iwo Jima• U.S. military planners chose Iwo Jima as a needed base to

launch more bombing raids on Japan• Halfway between the Mariana Islands and Japan

• Would be a very difficult island to capture• Japanese built huge system of concrete bunkers connected by

miles of tunnels• Volcanic ash covered the ground and it was carved up by deep

canyons, rocky cliffs, and caves• U.S. began landing 60,000 marines on Feb. 19, 1945• U.S. eventually was able to capture the island• More than 6,800 U.S. casualties• More than 20,000 Japanese casualties

Firebombing Campaign• U.S. began using bombs filled with napalm to attack Japanese

cities• Napalm was a jellied gasoline that started huge fires when

exploded in a bomb• Believed it was a quicker way to destroy Japan’s war

production• If bombs missed targets, it could still spread to intended targets

• By end of June 1945, Japan’s most important industrial cites had been firebombed

Invasion of Okinawa• U.S. needed a base near Japan to store supplies and assemble

troops in preparation for invasion of Japanese islands• U.S. troops landed on Okinawa on April 1, 1945• Japanese troops allowed U.S. troops to advance on beaches

and took up positions in mountains• Bloodiest battle of the Pacific War• Over 7,600 U.S. casualties• Over 110,000 Japanese casualties

• Chilling foretaste of what an invasion of Japanese mainland would entail• Estimated 1,000,000 possible U.S. casualties

Japanese Terms of Surrender• The United States wanted Japan to accept unconditional

surrender• Japanese were willing to surrender shortly after the invasion of

Okinawa as long as Emperor Hirohito could stay in power• President Truman did not want to go against the American

public’s opinion about removing Hirohito from power• American’s blamed Hirohito for starting the war

• President Truman also knew U.S. had a weapon that might force the Japanese into unconditional surrender

The Manhattan Project• Jewish scientist Leo Szilard was first scientist to suggest splitting the

atom might release enormous energy• Learned that German scientist had split a uranium atom in 1939• Was worried the Germans were working on an atomic bomb

• Szilard convinced Albert Einstein to write a letter to President Roosevelt warning him that uranium could be used to make an atomic bomb

• In 1941, a scientific committee set up by Roosevelt was able to convince Roosevelt to begin building an atomic bomb

• In 1942, Szilard and Enrico Fermi built the world’s first nuclear reactor• University of Chicago

• A team led by Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer began working in a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico to build an atomic bomb

• On July 6, 1945 the team set of the world’s first atomic bomb

Truman Decides to Drop the Atomic Bomb• Although there was much debate as to how the atomic bomb

should be used, President Truman believed the bomb was built to use as a weapon, not just as a threat.

• President Truman had be warned by advisors that an American invasion of Japan would result in massive U.S. casualties

• Truman was prepared to use any method possible to save U.S. lives

Hiroshima• After Japan ignored a warning from the U.S. that they would

be destroyed if they did not surrender, the U.S. dropped the 1st atomic bomb in history

• On August 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb, code named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima• Hiroshima was a very important industrial and military center

• Between 80,000 and 120,000 Japanese died instantly• Thousands more would die from burns and radiation sicknes

• Bomb destroyed about 63% of the city• Bomb was considered very inefficient• Worked at about 1.7% capacity

Nagasaki• After Japan refused to surrender again, the U.S. dropped a

second atomic bomb, code named “Fat Man” on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945• Important military center

• Killed between 35,000-74,000 people instantly• Combined with the Soviet declaration of war on Japan on Aug

9, 1945, the dropping of the two atomic bombs caused Emperor Hirohito to order his government to unconditionally surrender

• Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945• “V-J” day or “V-P” day

War Trials• International Military Tribunal was created in August 1945• Set up by the U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviet Union to punish

German and Japanese leaders for war crimes• Nuremburg Trails• 22 German leaders were prosecuted• 3 were found not guilty, 7 sent to prison, 12 sentenced to death• Trials of lower level leaders continued until 1949

• 24 more death sentences• 107 more prison sentences

• Tokyo Trials• 25 Japanese leaders were prosecuted (Did not try Hirohito)• 18 sent to prison, 7 sentenced to death

• Part of U.S. plan for building a better world• Trials were important to make sure people paid attention to horrible

actions that occurred in order to keep them from occurring again

Discussion Questions• What do you think was the most significant factor in the

Allied victory in Europe in World War II?• How did U.S. troops turn the tide of the war in Japan during

1944 and 1945?