Transcript Chapter 25: The United States in World War II

U.S. Home Front:
Office of Scientific Research and Development
• Radar
• Sonar
• Medicines: Penicillin
• Atomic Bomb
Office of Price Administration
• Rationing
War Production Board
 Raised taxes
 Sold war bonds
Allied War Plans
 Churchill & FDR
 Top priority to the defeat of Germany
 Only accept unconditional surrender
 Caused Axis powers to fight longer and harder
 110,000 put into 10 prison camps
 People lost homes, businesses and possessions
 Korematsu vs. USA (1944)
 Supreme Court ruled that internment was constitutional
based on national security
 1965/1988: government compensated Japanese
Americans but not close to what they actually lost
 Turning point on Eastern Front
 Soviets capture German 6th Army (Hitler mistake:
refused to allow them to retreat to safety)
 Tremendous casualties on both sides (over 1.5 million)
 Soviets on the offensive for the rest of the war
• D-day invasion by Allies at Normandy, France
• Largest land-sea operation in history
• U.S., British, & Canadian troops land at Sword, Juno,
Gold, Omaha, and Utah beaches. U.S. & British
paratroopers dropped behind the beaches to cause
confusion and keep reinforcements from moving up.
• Hitler mistake:
– Thinks invasion is a diversion and the real attack will
come at Calais. Holds back troops and tanks allowing
the invasion to succeed.
• FDR & Harry Truman defeat the Republican Thomas
Dewey
• 4th term for FDR
Battle of the Bulge (December 1944)
• Last German offensive of the war
• Try to break through to Antwerp, cut Allied supplies,
and drive Allies from continent
• U.S. 101st Airborne hold up advance at Bastogne
• Bad weather allows Germany early success but clear
skies later allow Allied air power to stop advance
• FDR dies
• Harry Truman becomes new president
April 30, 1945
• Hitler and Eva Braun (just married on the 29th)
commit suicide
May 8, 1945
• Victory in Europe Day (V-E)
• Germany formally surrenders
Read the article
passed-out
at the beginning
of class. Then,
answer questions
1-2.
 Consider the following quote:
 The marines of Camp Pendleton were about to ship out
to the Pacific. “Behind them, in safe America, Bing
Crosby sang of a white Christmas, just like the ones he
used to know. Ahead lay a hot island of black sand,
where many of them would ensure a long future of
Christmases in America by laying down their lives.”
 James Bradley – Flags of Our Fathers
When you go home
Tell them for us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today
-Engraving outside entrance to
Marine cemetery
Battle of Midway (June 1942)
 U.S. breaks Japanese codes and knows about Midway
attack
 Japan lost 4 carriers, 300 planes, and their most
experienced pilots
 Japan on defensive for rest of war (turning point)
Leap frog islands across Pacific on way to Japan
• Guadalcanal (August 1942)
• Tarawa (November 1943)
• Philippines (October 1944)
• Iwo Jima (February 1945)
• Okinawa (June 1945)
Japanese fighting style
• Fight to the death. Surrender is the greatest dishonor a
soldier can do.
• Kamikaze (Divine Wind): suicide planes that kill over
5,000 Americans in the Pacific
General Leslie Groves & J. Robert Oppenheimer
July 16, 1945: Trinity Test
• Alamogordo, New Mexico
• 1st atomic bomb explosion
July 26, 1945:
• Truman warns Japan to surrender or face total destruction
August 6, 1945:
• “Little Boy” dropped by B-29 Enola Gay on Hiroshima
August 9, 1945:
• “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki
• About 200,000 dead from atomic bombs by end of war
• Estimates on American casualties for the invasion of Japan
are over 1 million
• U.S. had spent millions of dollars on building the bomb
• Send message to the USSR: don’t mess with the U.S. after
the war
The Targets
• Military & Industrial targets
• Virgin targets so that the U.S. could study the effects of the
bomb
September 2, 1945
• Japan formally surrenders (V-J Day)
 Germany and Berlin divided into 4 zones (USA,
Britain, USSR, and France)
 Western part of the country rebuilt by the Allies and
eventually formed into West Germany. Italy would be
rebuilt by the Allies.
 Berlin which lies entirely inside the Soviet zone would
become a major issue of the Cold War
 Douglas MacArthur
 Free market economy
 New constitution guaranteed basic rights and
freedoms
 Women’s suffrage granted
 Rebuilt by the U.S.
USA:
• Killed 292,000
• Wounded 670,000
• Cost $288 billion
World
• Soldiers killed: 25 million
• Civilians killed: 38.5 million
• Cost: $1.6 trillion
• War ends the Great Depression
• U.S. emerges as one of the two greatest powers (USSR
the other)
• United Nations established
• Start of the Cold War
• G. I. Bill of Rights:
– Federal loan guarantees for buying homes, farms or
starting a business
– paid for college education
– Unemployment compensation