Transcript WWII and its Effects at Home and Abroad I can analyze the US

Real Change: WWII and its Effects at Home and Abroad
I can analyze the U.S. involvement in World War II and the war’s influence on
international affairs in the decades that followed; I will examine the reason why the
U.S. remained neutral at the beginning of WWII, but later became involved; I can
describe and analyze the effects of the war on American economic, social, political, and
cultural life, especially as relates to the Civil Rights Movement
“From Isolationism to Total War”: 1920-1945
Isolationism: Foreign Policy that says that the U.S.
should not get involved in issues overseas even if asked
to intervene.
The term is used to describe the Harding and Coolidge
administrations (because the U.S. refused to join the
League of Nations) but it overstates America’s lack of
involvement.
Isolationism is an accurate description for the policy
that many Americans wanted to pursue in the late 1930s.
Axis Powers: Alliance set in a 1937 Protocol, between three dictators: Adolf Hitler, Benito
Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito. The three agreed to fight the Soviets, but ended up going
to war with both the Soviets and the West.
Germany (Hitler) Nazism: “National Socialism” advocates
extreme nationalism, militarism, and control of industry by
the State under dictatorship, believes in superiority of
“Aryan race”
Italy (Mussolini) Fascism: Advocates extreme nationalism
and socialism under dictatorship, a militarist police state,
named for the fasces—Roman symbol of authority
Japan (Hirohito) Militarism: Advocates extreme nationalism,
values military virtues, selflessness, and dedication to the
emperor (who is viewed as a god)
Soviet Union (Stalin) Communism: “Command Economy”
entirely controlled by the State, no private property, one-party
regime dictated by premier and close advisors, does not
tolerate dissent
Appeasement: Allowing aggressors to get
away with aggression because you fear greater
problems, such as war.
As Hitler defied the Versailles Treaty, the
English and French gave in to his demands.
British Prime Minister Chamberlain epitomized
appeasement at Munich (September 1938) when
he accepted Hitler’s word that the Nazis would
not invade Czechoslovakia, declaring they had
achieved “peace in our time.”
Four Freedoms:
Offered in FDR’s 1941 State of the Union Speech, they represent what the U.S. was fighting
for in WWII. The freedoms are: (1) freedom of speech, (2) freedom of conscience or religion,
(3) freedom from want, (4) freedom from fear.
Japanese Aggression in East Asia
Attack on Pearl Harbor: On December 7, 1941, the “Day of Infamy” as FDR put it, the
Japanese attacked the U.S. Naval Base and Air Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and drew the
U.S. into the war.
The “surprise attack,” killed 2,400 U.S. military personnel, destroyed scores of aircraft, and
sank several U.S. battleships, but was, in truth, a strategic and tactical defeat for the
Japanese because as Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto noted, “We have woken a sleeping giant.”
Mobilization and Propaganda:
Rationing: So civilians could contribute to the
war effort and to conserve necessary materials for
soldiers, U.S. restricted food and fuel purchases.
To conserve gasoline and rubber, unnecessary
travel was not permitted and speed limits were set
at 35 miles per hour.
Children contributed by holding “scrap drives,” going door
to door, collecting tin cans, used pots and pans, old tires, etc.
Doing Our Part: Victory Gardens
Remember Pearl Harbor
Rosie the Riveter: A character from a popular song, she worked in an airplane factory.
She represents the role many women played in war production by joining the workforce in
traditionally male jobs while the men fought overseas.
Tuskegee Airmen: Segregated African-American Army Air Corps unit during WWII.
Nearly 1000 black military aviators trained at an isolated complex near Tuskegee, Alabama
and at Tuskegee Institute. 450 fighter pilots under the command of Col. Benjamin O.
Davis, Jr., fought in the aerial war over North Africa, Sicily and Europe
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
After the U.S. entered WWII, Eisenhower led U.S. troops in the North African campaign
and was named Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in 1943. He led all Allied troops
in the invasion of Normandy. After the war, he was elected POTUS in 1952.
D-Day (June 6, 1944): Operation Overlord was the Allied invasion of Normandy in
France to open a second front to relieve pressure on the Soviets. Within eleven months, the
Soviets took Berlin and the other allies took the western and southern parts of the Reich.
Harry S Truman
At the 1944 Democratic National Convention, a divided Democratic Party renominated FDR
for a fourth term despite his failing health. To satisfy conservatives and southerners in the
party, FDR named Truman as his running-mate.
In April 1945, FDR died. Truman became POTUS unaware of the country’s biggest issues,
notably the atomic bomb.
V-E Day (May 8, 1945): Day of the German surrender and end of the war in Europe.
Hitler had committed suicide along with several other Nazi leaders. V stands for victory.
The Holocaust:
Hitler’s “Final Solution” for victory: the planned and
systematic murder of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and
others in death camps, such as Auschwitz. .
The Holocaust led to the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
in which many Nazis were convicted and executed. It led
to the creation of a Jewish state, Israel. It had a profound
effect on U.S. racial and ethnic relations, providing an
impetus for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s.
War Against Japan
Internment of Japanese Americans
After Pearl Harbor, the Justice Department began rounding up Japanese nationals in the U.S.
as “enemy aliens.” Concern grew about spying and sabotage on the West Coast. In February
1942, FDR ordered the military forcibly to remove Japanese resident aliens and U.S. citizens
of Japanese heritage (Nisei) to “War Relocation Camps,” or internment camps in Arizona and
Colorado. The relocation was accompanied by seizure of property; so many lost their homes.
Several Nisei sued. In Korematsu v. United States (1944), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
internment legal because of the war emergency.
Battle of Midway, (June 1942): Turning point of the war in the Pacific: an important
strategic victory for the U.S. and caused the Japanese to retreat; the Japanese would never
be as strong again. It also was an important tactical victory, showing the importance of
aircraft carriers in the new warfare.
General Douglas MacArthur:
With Eisenhower, Pershing, and Patton, one of the greatest
U.S. military commanders of the twentieth century and
considered the best general in WWII.
He was Commander in the Philippines when the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese forced the U.S.
withdrawal of those islands, he declared, “I shall return.”
He was Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific,
retaking the Philippines in the Battle of Leyte Gulf
(where the Japanese first used kamikaze).
After Japan surrendered, he became military
commander of occupied Japan, reshaping
Japanese society through a new constitution and a
peace-oriented economy.
“island-hopping” (“leapfrogging”): Tactic of taking Pacific islands and building air
strips on them, getting closer to Japan so that they could bomb Tokyo and other cities. The
campaign was the toughest fighting the U.S. saw during the war, each new assault being
bloodier than the last.
The bloody battles caused some military commanders to believe that it would take an
invasion of perhaps 1,000,000 troops to defeat Japan.
Manhattan Project: top-secret plan to develop an
atomic bomb, culminating in July 1945 when the U.S.
successfully tested the bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Truman insisted that the bomb be used only on a military
target rather than on women and children.
On August 6th, 1945, a B-29, the Enola Gay, dropped “the
bomb” on Hiroshima. When the Japanese still did not
surrender, the U.S. dropped a second bomb, on Nagasaki,
three days later.
The bombs killed more than 200,000 civilians and caused
the Japanese finally to surrender. The U.S. celebrated the
end of the war as V-J Day.
Col. Thomas Ferebee
Bombardier
V-J Day, August 15, 1945