Transcript VUS 11 & 12 WWII - Suffolk Public Schools Blog

World War II
Mrs. Saunders
World War II
World War II began with Hitler’s invasion of Poland
in 1939, followed shortly after by the Soviet
Union’s invasion from the east of Poland and the
Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia).
At 4:45 a.m. on September 1,
1939, German troops had crossed
the border to invade Poland. At 10
a.m. the same day, Hitler made a
speech in the Reichstag to justify
the action. Within two days,
France and Britain declared war
on Germany, and the Second
World War had begun.
World War II
During the first two years of the war, the
United States stayed officially neutral, as
Germany overran both France and most of
Europe and pounded Great Britain from the
air. This German air attack on Britain was
called the Battle of Britain.
In mid-1941, Hitler turned
on his former partner and
invaded the Soviet Union.
World War II
Despite strong isolationist
sentiment at home, the United
States gradually abandoned
neutrality and increasingly
helped Great Britain.
In 1941 Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, which
allowed the President to sell, lease, or lend defense
equipment to nations whose defense the President
deemed (considered) vital to American security.
Under this law, the United States gave Britain war
supplies and old naval warships in return for military
bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean Sea. President
Franklin Roosevelt compared Lend-Lease to “lending a
garden hose to a next-door neighbor whose house is on
fire.”
World War II
During the 1930s a militaristic Japan invaded and
brutalized Manchuria and China as it sought
military and economic domination over Asia. The
United States refused to recognize Japanese
conquests in Asia and placed an embargo (ban)
on exports of oil and steel to Japan.
While negotiating with the United States and
without warning, Japan carried out an air
attack on the American naval base at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941.
• destroyed much of the
American Pacific fleet
• killed several
thousand
• President Roosevelt
called December 7th “a
date that will live in
infamy” as he asked
Congress to declare
war on Japan.
After Pearl Harbor, Hitler honored the Axis
pact (agreement) with Japan and declared
war on the United States. The debates over
isolationism in the United States were over.
World War II was now a true world war and
the United States was fully involved.
The United States, Great
Britain, and the Soviet Union
were the three most
important countries that made
up the Allies. Winston
Churchill was the British prime
minister during World War II.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union had come into existence in 1917,
when communist revolutionaries had overthrown
the czar (king) of Russia. Josef Stalin was the
communist dictator of the Soviet Union during
World War II. In theory communism is an
economic system in which all property and means
of production are owned by society as a whole.
As practiced in the Soviet Union, communism
was a form of government in which both
political and economic decisions were made by
a small group of government leaders.
Allied Strategy
The United States and its allies, Great Britain and
the Soviet Union, followed a “Defeat Hitler First”
strategy. Therefore, most American military
resources were targeted for Europe. In the Pacific,
American military strategy called for an “island
hopping” campaign. This meant the United
States would seize Pacific islands closer and
closer to Japan and use them as bases for air
attacks on Japan. In addition, the United States
would cut off Japanese supplies through
submarine warfare against Japanese shipping.
Axis Strategy
The Axis Powers were the World War II alliance of Germany,
Italy, and Japan. Germany hoped to
– defeat the Soviet Union quickly, gain control of Soviet oil
fields,
– force Britain out of the war through a bombing campaign
and submarine warfare,
– All before America’s industrial and military strength could
turn the tide.
Following Pearl Harbor,
– Japan invaded the Philippines and Indonesia
– planned to invade both Australia and Hawaii
– hoped that America would then accept Japanese
predominance (control) in Southeast Asia and the Pacific,
rather than conduct a bloody and costly war to reverse
Japanese gains.
Major Battles and Military
Turning Points
North Africa:
El Alamein – The British defeated German
forces, who were threatening to seize Egypt
and the Suez Canal. This defeat denied
Hitler control over Middle Eastern oil
supplies and prevented him from potentially
attacking the Soviet Union from the south.
Europe:
Stalingrad – The Soviet army killed or captured
hundreds of thousands of German soldiers in a
months-long siege of the Russian city of
Stalingrad. This defeat prevented Germany
from seizing the Soviet oil fields and turned the
tide against Germany in the east.
Normandy landings (D-Day) – American and
Allied troops under General Dwight D.
Eisenhower landed in German-occupied France
on 6 June 1944. Despite intense German
opposition and heavy American casualties, the
landings succeeded and the liberation (freeing)
of Western Europe from Hitler had begun.
Normandy
Invasion,
D-Day
Pacific:
Midway – In the “Miracle of Midway,” American
naval forces defeated a much larger Japanese
force as it prepared to seize Midway Island.
Coming only a few months after Pearl Harbor, a
Japanese victory at Midway would have enabled
Japan to invade Hawaii. The American victory
ended the Japanese threat to Hawaii and began
a series of American victories in the “island
hopping” campaign that carried the war closer
and closer to Japan.
Iwo Jima and Okinawa –
The American invasions
of the islands of Iwo
Jima and Okinawa
brought American
forces closer than ever
to Japan. Both
invasions cost
thousands of American
lives and even more
Japanese lives.
Japanese soldiers
fought fiercely over
every square inch of the
islands, and Japanese
soldiers and civilians
committed suicide
rather than surrender.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the atomic bomb) – Harry S.
Truman, who became president when FDR died in
April, 1945, faced the prospect of very heavy casualties
among both Americans and Japanese, if American
forces had to invade Japan itself. Therefore, President
Truman ordered the use of atomic bombs on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force the
Japanese to surrender. Tens of thousands of people
died in both cities. Shortly after the United States
dropped the atomic bombs, the Japanese leaders
surrendered. President Truman, thereby, avoided the
need for American forces to invade Japan.
Minority Participation in the
American War Effort
World War II solidified the United
States’ role as a global power. It
also ushered in (started) social
changes and established reform
agendas that would preoccupy
public discourse (discussion) in the
United States for the remainder of
the 20th century. When men left
the factories to serve in the armed
forces during World War II, women
entered into previously male job
roles. African-Americans struggled
to obtain desegregation of the
armed forces and end racial
discriminatory hiring practices.
Minority Participation in the
American War Effort
• required African-Americans to serve in segregated military
units and often assigned them to non-combat roles.
• Some African-Americans demanded the right to serve in
combat rather than support roles:
– Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American flyers, that
served with distinction in Europe.
• Other minority units also contributed to the American war
effort.
– Nisei regiments of Japanese-Americans earned a high number
of decorations.
– Second, the U.S. military used communication codes of the
Navajo Indians.
– Mexican-Americans, who also fought in the American armed
forces, were not segregated in separate units.
• Minority units suffered high casualties and won numerous
unit citations and individual medals for bravery in action.
The Geneva Convention and Treatment of
Prisoners of War during World War II
The manner in which a nation conducts war often
depends upon its social and moral codes. The
treatment of prisoners of war often reflects the
savage nature of military conflict and the cultural
norms of the nation.
The Geneva Convention was one of a series of
international agreements, first made in Geneva,
Switzerland, in 1864, which established rules for
the humane treatment of prisoners of war and of
the sick, the wounded, and the dead in battle. The
Geneva Convention tried to ensure the humane
treatment of prisoners of war by establishing rules
to be followed by all nations.
During World War II, the treatment
of prisoners of war varied greatly.
The treatment of prisoners in the
Pacific Theater often reflected the
savagery of the fighting there.
•
Bataan Death March,
American POWs suffered brutal
treatment by the Japanese after
the Americans surrendered the
Philippines.
•
Japanese soldiers often
committed suicide rather than
surrender.
In contrast, the treatment of
prisoners in Europe more closely
followed the ideas of the Geneva
Convention.
Australian War Memorial, From: Daws, p. 236
U.S. National Archives, From: Daws, p. 229
The Holocaust and its Impact on
Jews and other Groups
• The Holocaust was Nazi Germany’s systematic murder
of millions of European Jews.
• Hitler’s final solution was Germany’s decision to
exterminate (kill) all Jews. In short, Nazi Germany
attempted genocide of European Jews.
• Genocide is the systematic and purposeful destruction of
a racial, political, religious, or cultural group. In the
Holocaust the Nazis targeted not only Jews, but also Slavs,
Gypsies, Poles, and “undesirables.”
• The Nazis defined “undesirables” to include
homosexuals, the mentally ill, and political dissidents
(those who opposed Hitler’s government).
Nuremberg Trials
•The Nuremberg Trials were post-World War II
trials of Nazi leaders for war crimes.
– held in Nuremberg, Germany
– convicted many Nazi leaders of committing “crimes
against humanity”
– stressed individual responsibility for actions during a
war, regardless of the military orders
•Since these trials publicized the horrors of the
Holocaust’s Nazi death camps, they led to
increased demand for a Jewish homeland.
•In 1948 Jewish settlers living in the former British
mandate of Palestine founded the nation of Israel
as a homeland for Jews. Both Great Britain and
the United States quickly recognized the state of
Israel.
The
Home
Front
The American Home Front during
World War II
Success in World War II required the total
commitment of America’s resources.
– U.S. government forced most JapaneseAmericans to live in internment camps
– American public schools and the American
mass media promoted (encouraged)
nationalism or a strong feeling of patriotism.
Economic resources
Economic resources – government and
industry put together a close working
relationship to use resources effectively.
•
the federal government used rationing
to maintain an adequate supply of
products essential to the war effort. Under
rationing, each American family received a
monthly allowance of such essential items
as sugar, meat, and gasoline.
Economic resources
• the Roosevelt administration used war bonds
and the federal income tax to finance the war.
Bonds are government I.O.U.s that are repaid
with interest. In short, when the federal
government sold war bonds, it was borrowing
money from the people to finance the war effort.
•
American corporations retooled from
peacetime to wartime production. For example,
General Motors converted their automobile
assembly plants to factories that manufactured
tanks.
Human resources – Citizens volunteered in support of the
war effort.
– women and minorities entered the labor force as
men entered the armed forces.
– Women entered into previously male job roles.
“Rosie the Riveter” became a symbol of the
American woman who traded housework for factory
work
– Many women also joined the armed forces and
participated in non-combat military roles.
African-Americans
• struggled to obtain desegregation of the armed forces and
end discriminatory hiring practices.
• A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters and an African-American, fought against
job discrimination. Randolph planned a giant march on
Washington for July 1941 to demand equal hiring in defense
jobs and the “right to fight” in the military. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt met with Randolph and made a deal. Roosevelt
issued Executive Order 8802, which prohibited racial
discrimination in war industries, although not in the armed
forces. In return, Randolph agreed to cancel the march.
• During World War II, African-Americans migrated to cities
in search of jobs in war plants.
• Throughout the war, African-American leaders campaigned
for victory abroad and equality at home.
Military Resources – Fighting a war on two fronts
(Europe and the Pacific) required the United
States to add tens of thousands of servicemen to
the American Armed Forces.
– In 1940, at President Roosevelt’s request, Congress
passed the Selective Training and Service Act.
This law established the first peacetime draft in
American history. After the attack on Pearl Harbor,
the selective service or draft law required all men
between ages eighteen and forty-five to sign up for
military service. This gave the United States
government a large pool of men from which to draw in
order to meet the personnel needs of the American
military during World War II.
Internment of Japanese-Americans – During
World War II, the United States government
relocated most Japanese-Americans to
internment camps, where the government
required them to stay until the end of the war.
– Japanese-Americans could not leave these
camps without government permission.
Internment especially affected JapaneseAmerican populations living along the West Coast,
where most Americans of Japanese descent
resided.
– United States Supreme Court upheld the federal
government’s right to place Japanese-Americans
in internment camps.
– United States government later issued a public
apology to these Japanese-Americans and made
financial payment to their survivors.
The experience of Japanese-Americans during World
War II is a clear example of how racial prejudice,
coupled with wartime fears, can affect the civil
liberties of minorities in a democracy like the United
States. Two basic reasons existed for the internment of
Japanese-Americans during World War II.
• strong anti-Japanese prejudice existed on the
West Coast.
• Americans falsely believed that JapaneseAmericans were aiding the enemy.
Role of the American Media in the War Effort
During World War II, the American media and
entertainment industries saw their role as
supporting the American war effort by promoting
nationalism.
– Nationalism is a strong feeling of patriotism or
devotion to one’s country.
– The United States government maintained strict
censorship of the reporting of the war by the
American media.
– Public morale and ad campaigns kept Americans
focused on the war effort.
– The American entertainment industry produced
movies, plays, and shows that boosted morale and
patriotic support for the war effort, as well as
portrayed the enemy in stereotypical ways.