Transcript This battle was a turning point in the Pacific War

Chapter 17: The United States In World War II p.
586
Section 1 p. 588 Mobilizing for Defense
OBJ: Explain how the US expanded the armed
forces in WWII.
Describe the wartime mobilization of industry,
labor, scientists, and the media.
Main Idea: Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the
United States mobilized for war.
Why it matters now: Military industries in the US today
are a major part of the American economy.
Americans Join the War Effort
• The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor with the
expectation that once Americans had experienced Japan’s
power, they would shrink from further conflict.
• After Pearl Harbor, eager young Americans jammed
recruiting officers.
• The Selective Service System expanded the draft and
eventually provided another 10 million soldiers to meet the
armed forces’ needs.
• GI: originally stood for galvanized iron but later meant
government issue – their uniforms and supplies and even
later stands for American soldiers.
• Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall
pushed for the formation of a Women’s Auxiliary
Army Corps (WAAC).
• Women volunteers would serve in noncombat
positions.
• Became law on May 15, 1942.
• Eventually received U.S. Army benefits.
• Worked as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio
operators, electricians, and pilots.
Recruiting and discrimination:
• Many minority races (Afr-Am., Nat-Am., Mexican• Am., Asian-Am.) questioned whether or not this was
their war to fight.
• Some, not all, were enlisted however segregation
within still existed.
How did the American response to the Japanese raid on
Pearl Harbor differ from Japanese expectations?
The Japanese expected the US to act like a defeated nation,
instead enraged Americans mobilized for war.
A Production Miracle
• Early in February 1942, American newspapers reported
the end of automobile production for private use.
• The nation’s automobile plants were now retooled to
produce planes, boats, tanks, and command cars.
• Many factories around the world were converted to
war production.
• Shipyards and defense plants expanded with
dizzying speed. By the end of 1942 7 new massive
shipyards turned out Liberty ships (cargo carriers)
tankers, troop transports and baby aircraft carriers at
an astonishing rate. Shipyards could build a Liberty
ship in 4 days because of the use of prefabricated
factory-made parts that could be quickly assembled.
Of course the workers worked at record speed also.
Labor’s contribution:
Because of selective service, defense contractors did
not have enough men to meet the industrial needs of
the nation. What made it possible to provide a large
workforce? WOMEN!
• By 1944, despite the draft, nearly 18 million
workers were laboring in war industries, three times
as many as in 1941.
• More than 6 million of these new workers were women.
• Around 2 million minority workers.
What difficulties did women and minorities face in the wartime work
force? Women and minorities faced discrimination. Some defense
plants refused to hire blacks. Women were not paid as much as men.
• A. Philip Randolph was president and founder of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the nation’s
most respected African American labor leader.
• He protested discrimination both in military and industry
jobs.
• Organized a march on Washington.
• “We Loyal Colored Americans Demand the Right to Work and Fight
for Our Country”
• Randolph and Roosevelt conversation led to Roosevelt
backing down.
• Issued an executive order which called for all employers and
labor unions “to provide for the full and equitable
participation of all workers in defense industries, without
discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national
origin.
• Hollywood Helps Mobilization: After the
attack on Pearl Harbor Hollywood churned out
war –oriented propaganda films. Heroic
movies glorified Americans and stirred up
hatred against the Nazis. They energized
people to join the war effort. As the war
dragged on, people tired of propaganda war
themes and Hollywood responded with
musicals, romances, and other escapist movies
designed to take filmgoers away from the grim
realities of war – if only for an hour or two.
• The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was created
in 1941 to bring sciences into the war effort.
• Scientists Improved radar and sonar technologies, for locating
submarines underwater.
• It encouraged the use of pesticides to fight insects.
• The most significant development of the OSRD was the atomic bomb.
• The Manhattan Project
Why did Pres. Roosevelt create the OSRD, and what did it do? To
bring scientists into the war effort; it developed improvement in radar
and sonar, pesticides and “miracle drugs.” It also launched the
Manhattan project to create an atomic bonb.
The Federal Government Takes Control
•As war production increased, there were
fewer consumer products available for
purchase.
•Office of Price Administration (OPA) was
created to control extreme price changes.
•Fought inflation by freezing prices on most
goods.
•Congress also raised income tax rates and
extended the tax to millions of people.
•The government encouraged the citizens to
use their extra cash to buy war bonds.
• The War Production Board (WPA) was created to
ensure that the armed forces and war industries
received the resources they needed to win the war.
• Decided which companies would convert from
peacetime to wartime production.
• Allocated resources to key industries.
• Organized drives to collect certain goods.
• The OPA also set up a system for rationing:
• Establishing fixed allotments of goods deemed
essential for the military.
• Under this system, households received ration books
with coupons to be used for buying such scarce
goods.
•What basic problems were the OPA and
WPB created to solve? Controlling
inflation, managing shortages, and
making sure that the armed forces and
war industries got the resources they
needed.
Section 2: The War for Europe and North
Africa p. 595
• Main Idea: Allied forces, led by the United States
and Great Britain, battled Axis powers for control of
Europe and Africa.
• Why it matters now: During WWII, the US assumed
a leading role in world affairs that continues today.
• OBJ: summarize the Allies’ plan for winning the war.
The United States and Britain Join Forces
• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill asks to meet with President Roosevelt.
• They create a remarkable alliance
• Churchill arrived at the White House in December 22, 1941
and stayed for three weeks creating war plans with
Roosevelt.
• Churchill believed Germany and Italy were a bigger threat
than Japan therefore urging Roosevelt to go after Hitler
first in Europe – rather than the Pacific. Once the Allies
had gained the upper hand in Europe, they could pour
more resources into the Pacific war.
• The Battle of the Atlantic
• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered
submarine raids along the east coast of America.
• The German aim was to prevent food and supplies
from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union.
• In the first four months of 1942, Germans sank 87
ships off the Atlantic shore.
• Seven months into it, German wolf packs had
destroyed a total of 681 Allied ships. Something had
to be done or the war at sea would be lost.
• United States were able to combat some of the
attacks by using the convoy system – groups of ships
traveling together for mutual protection. The
convoys were escorted by destroyers equipped with
sonar for detecting submarines underwater. The also
had planes that used radar on the ocean’s surface to
find subs. With improved tracking, the Allies were
able to find and destroy German U-boats faster that
the Germans could build them.
• Also, by 1943, the US was launching 140 Liberty ships
each month
• By mid 1943, The Battle of the Atlantic had turned.
Why had the tide turned in the Battle of the Atlantic
by mid-1943? The Allies had succeeded in using
convoys, the US had greatly increased the production
of ships.
Allied tanker Dixie Arrow torpedoed by the German submarine U-71 in 1942.
• Battle of Stalingrad – The first great turning point on land.
• Spring 1941 the Germans were ready to roll in the Soviet
Union.
• Hitler wanted to capture Soviet oil fields and Stalingrad (a
major industrial center).
• On August 19, 1942 the Germans approached Stalingrad.
• The German air force prepared the way with nightly bombing
raids over the city.
• The whole city was continually under attack – house by
house – hand to hand. It was completely destroyed. Stalin
urged the citizens to defend his name.
• By the end of September, the Germans controlled 9/10 of
what was left of the city.
• When winter set in, the Soviets saw this as an advantage
to use their tanks and counterattack. They were
successful. The winter in Stalingrad turned it into a frozen
wasteland.
• Although they lost many lives – 1,100,000 soldiers – more
that all American deaths during the entire war. The Soviet
victory was a major turning point in the war. From that
point on, the Soviet army began to move westward
towards Germany!
• What 2 decisions determined the final outcome at
Stalingrad? Stalin’s decision to defend the city and
Hitler’s decision to besiege it no matter what the
cost.
• The North African Front: While the Battle of
Stalingrad raged, Stalin pressured Britain and US to
open a “second front.” in Western Europe. Hitler
would be forced to divert troops from the USSR
front. Churchill and Roosevelt didn’t thing they had
enough troops to attempt an invasion in Europe so
they launched Operation Torch – an invasion of
Axis-controlled North Africa – to be commanded by
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• Operation Torch
• November 1942, 107,000 Allied troops landed
in North Africa spewing Eastward.
• After many months of heavy fighting, the last
of the Afrika Korps (Rommel) surrendered in
May 1943.
• During this operation , Churchill and his
commanders met and agreed only to accept the
unconditional surrender of the Axis powers.
• Enemy nations would have to accept whatever
terms of peace the Allies dictated.
• What was the outcome of the North African
campaign? The defeat of Hitler’s troops.
• Where to strike next? US thought the best way to
approach victory was to assemble a massive
invasion fleet in Britain and to launch it across the
English Channel, through France into the heart of
Germany. Churchill thought it was best to attack
Italy first!
• Italian campaign: off to a good start with the
capture of Sicily. The Italian gov’t forced Mussolini
to resign. July 25, 1943 King Emmanuel III
summoned him to his palace and stripped him of
power and had him arrested. “At this moment you
are the most hated man in Italy.”
• Hitler was determined to stop the Allies in Italy
rather than on German soil.
•.
• Bloody Anzio – lasted 4 months and was one
of the hardest battles the Allies encountered –
fought less than 40 miles from Rome.
• 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis powers
casualties.
• During the year after, German armies
continued to put up strong resistance.
• The effort to free Italy did not succeed until
1945, when Germany itself was close to
collapse.
• During the year after Anzio, German armies
continued to put up strong resistance. The effort to
free Italy did not succeed until 1945, when
Germany itself was close the collapse.
• What were the results of the Italian campaign?
The Allies freed Italy despite Hitler’s efforts at the
Battle of Anzio. Mussolini was removed from
power .
• Rather than leave Italy, Mussolini stayed in hoped of
regaining power. Finally, Apr. 1945 he attempted to
sneak across the border into Austria with his
mistress, was recognized by Communists, captured,
and they were killed – hung upside down in a plaza
in Milan. Italians rejoiced his death and the end of
the war.
• Heroes in Combat
• All Black 99th Pursuit Squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen(Red
Tails). In Sicily, they registered its first victory against enemy
aircraft and sent on to more impressive strategic strikes against
the German forces throughout Italy. They won two
Distinguished Unit Citations for their outstanding aerial combat
against the German Luftwaffe.
• 92nd Infantry Division, the Buffaloes. The won seven Legion of
Merit awards, 65 Silver Stars, and 162 Bronze Stars for courage
under fire.
• Many Mexican Americans 17 awarded Congressional Medal of
Honor. An all Chicago unit was the most decorated during the
war. Japanese Americans served in Italy – the 100th battalion –
consisted of 1,300 Hawaiians, Nisei, became known as the
Purple Heart Battalion. Later they merged together and
became the most decorated unit in us HISTORY.
The Allies Liberate Europe: Even as the Allies were
battling for Italy in 1943, they had begun work on a
dramatic plan to invade France and free Western
Europe from the Nazis. The commander over Operation
Overlord was US General Dwight D. (Ike) Eisenhower.
D-Day: Allies gathered a force of nearly 3 mill.
Americans, British, and Canadian troops, mountains of
equipment and supplies to attack Normandy in northern
France. They sent fake messages to trick the Germans
to believe they would attack at Calais – 150 miles away.
It worked. Hitler sent a large army to Calais.
Operation Overlord: originally set for June 5 – changed
to June 6 (bad weather) for the first invasion.. After
midnight, 3 divisions parachuted behind German lines.
Thousands/on thousands of seaborn soldiers – the
largest in history landed on the Normandy coast.
• Despite the massive air and sea bombardment
– the German retaliation was brutal –
particularly at Omaha Beach.
• Despite heavy causalities, the Allies held the
beachheads. After 7 days of fighting, the Allies
held an 80-mile strip of France. Within a
month, they had landed a million troops. An
massive air and land bombardment by Gen.
Bradley (July 25)provided a gap in the German
line of defense through which Gen. George
Patton and his 3rd Army could advance –
reaching the Seine River south of France Aug.
23. Two days later, French resistance forces
and American troops liberated Paris from 4
years of German occupation. By Sept. ‘44, the
Allies had freed France, Belgium, and
Luxembbourg.
• This good news-and the American people’s
desire not to “change horses in mid-stream,”
helped elect Franklin Roosevelt to an
unprecedented 4th term with Senator Harry
Truman as his vice president.
• Was the Allied invasion of Europe
successful?
• Yes, on D-Day, the Allies penetrated the
beaches along the Normandy Coast. Despite
heavy losses, they held the beacheads and
began moving inland.
• Battle of the Bulge
• October 1944 Americans captured their first
German town, Aachen.
• Hitler responded with a desperate last-grasp
offensive.
• He ordered troops to recapture Belgium, hoping to
disrupt enemy supply lines and demoralize the
Allies.
• German tanks drove 60 miles into enemy territory.
As the Germans drove westward, they captured 120
American troops – herded them into a field and
mowed them down with machine guns and pistols.
• The battle raged for a month.
• When it was over, Germans had been pushed
back, and little seemed to have changed.
• Germans lost costly, numerous troops and goods.
They had nothing left to do but retreat. Even
though it seemed little had changed (land). The
Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks and
assault guns, 1,600 planes – in the Battle of the
Bulge – soldiers and weapons that could not be
replaced. From that point on, the Nazis could do
little but retreat.
• Why was the Battle of the Bulge important? The
Germans lost men and equipment that they
could not replace. The battle weakened their
offense.
Liberation of the Death Camps: As Allied
troops pressed eastward into the German
heartland, the Soviet army pushed west across
Poland toward Berlin. The Soviets were the first
to come upon one of the Nazi death camps –
July 1944. Majdanek, Poland- The SS guards
worked feverishly to bury and burn all evidence
of their hideous crimes – but they ran out of
time! When the Soviets entered, they found a
thousand starving prisoners barely alive, the
world’s largest crematorium, and a storehouse
containing 800,000 shoes. They were horrified,
later when Americans liberated Nazi death
camps in Germany, they were equally horrified.
• Unconditional Surrender: By Apr. 25, 1945,
the Soviet army had stormed Berlin. German
soldiers stationed in Berlin deserted and were
shot on the spot or hanged from the nearest
tree- for betraying the Fuhrer.
• Hitler prepared for his end in his underground
bunker in Berlin with Eva Braun, 29, his
companion he married. In his last address to
the German people he wrote that he blamed
the Jews for starting the war and his generals
for losing it. He also states that he and his wife
will end their lives rather than surrender – Hitler
shoots himself while his wife took poison. Their
bodies were then to be taken outside, soaked
with gas and burned.
•A week later Gen. Eisenhower accepted
the unconditional surrender of the Third
Reich. On May 8,1945, the Allies
celebrated V-E Day. Victory in Europe
Day! The war in Europe was over!
•Pres. Roosevelt did not live to see V-E
Day, Apr.12,1945, he had a stroke and
died while in Warm Springs, GA. That
night, Harry S. Truman became the
nation’s 33rd president.
Section 3: The War in the Pacific p. 604
•Main Idea: In order to defeat Japan and end
the war in the Pacific, the United States
unleashed a terrible new weapon, the atomic
bomb.
•Why it matters now: Countries of the
modern world struggle to find ways to
prevent the use of nuclear weapons.
•Obj: ID key turning points in the war in the
Pacific.
The Allies Stem the Japanese Tide
• The Pacific War was a savage conflict fought with raw courage. Few
who took part in the fearsome struggle would return home
unchanged.
• While the Allies agreed that the defeat of the Nazis was their first
priority, the United States did not wait until V-E Day to move against
Japan.
Japanese Advances:
• After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese conquered an empire
that dwarfed Hitler’s Third Reich. Mainland Asia:
Japan overran – Hong Kong, French Indochina,
Malaya, Burma, Thailand and much of China. They
swept across the Pacific conquering Dutch East Indies,
Guam. Wake Island, the Solomon Islands and many
other small islands including 2 islands in the Aleutians
– a part of Alaska.
• In the Philippines, 80,000 American and Filipino
troops battled the Japanese for control.
• At the time of the Japanese invasion in December
1941, General Douglas MacArthur was in
command of Allied forces on the islands.
• When American and Filipino forces found
themselves with their backs against the wall on
Baatan, Roosevelt ordered MacArthur and his
wife/son and staff to leave.
• As he left he pledged: “I shall return.”
• Doolittle’s Raid
• In the Spring of 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James
Doolittle led 16 bombers in an attack on Tokyo and
other Japanese cities.
• The next day, Americans awoke to headlines that
read “Tokyo Bombed! Doolittle Do’ed It.”
• Pulling off a Pearl Harbor-style air raid over Japan
lifted America’s sunken spirits while dampening
Japanese spirits
• Battle of the Coral Sea
• The main Allied forces in the Pacific were Americans and
Australians.
• In May 1942 they succeeded in stopping the Japanese
drive toward Australia in the five-day Battle of the Coral
Sea.
• The fighting was done by airplanes taking off from
carriers.
• Since the first time since Pearl Harbor, a Japanese
invasion had been stopped and turned back.
• The Battle of Midway
• Midway was a strategic island which lies north-west of Hawaii.
• Here the Allies succeeded in stopping the Japanese. The
Americans had broken the Japanese code and knew that
Midway was to be their next target.
• Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander of American naval
forces in the Pacific, moved to defend the island.
• By the end of the battle, the Japanese had lost four aircraft
carriers, a cruiser, and 250 plans.
• This battle was a turning point in the Pacific War. Soon the
Allies began “island hopping.” Island by island they won
territory back from the Japanese.
In what ways were the American victory at Midway and the
Japanese triumph at Pearl Harbor like? Both were surprise
naval attacks that resulted in substantial destruction of the
enemy’s fleet.
The Allies Go on the Offensive
• The first Allied offensive began in August 1942 when
19,000 troops stormed Guadalcanal in the Solomon
Islands.
• This marked Japan’s first defeat on land, but not its
last.
• General MacArthur later stated, “People of the
Philippines: I have returned.”
• The Japanese tried a new tactic during the Battle of
Leyte Gulf called, the kamikaze.
• Suicide-plane attack; in which Japanese pilots
crashed their bomb laden planes into Allied ships.
• Translation: divine wind
• Americans watched these attacks with “a strange
mixture of respect and pity.”
• Despite the damage done by the kamikazes, the
Battle of Leyte Gulf was a disaster for Japan. In 3
days of battle, it lost 3 battleships, 4 aircraft
carriers, 13 cruisers, and almost 500 planes. From
then on the Imperial Navy played only a minor role
in the defense of Japan.
• Iwo Jima
• After retaking much of the Philippines and liberating the
American prisoners of war there, the Allies turned to Iwo
Jima (sulfur island), an island that was crucial to America.
• It was crucial to America as a base from which heavily
loaded bombers might reach Japan. It was also the most
heavily defended spot on earth – 20,700 Japanese troops
entrench in tunnels and caves. More than 6,000 marines
died taking this desolate island – greatest number in any
battle of the Pacific at that point. Only 200 Japanese
survived. Only obstacle and final assault on Japan?
Okinawa!
• The Battle of Okinawa
• In April 1945, U.S. Marines invaded Okinawa.
• The Japanese unleashed more than 1,900 kamikaze
attacks on the Allies during the Okinawa campaign
sinking 30 ships, damaging more than 300 and killing
around 5,000 seamen.
• Once on shore the Allies faced a fierce opposition and
experienced many causalities. More than 7,600 US dead.
Japanese lost 110,000 lives
• This battle was a chilling foretaste of what the Allies
imagined the invasion of Japan’s home islands would be.
Churchill predicted the cost would be a million American
lives and half that number of British lives.
• Why was Okinawa a significant island in the war in the
Pacific? It was the last island that stood between the
Allies and a final assault on Japan. The battle itself was a
foretaste of what the Allies imagined the final invasion of
Japan would be.
The Atomic Bomb Ends the War
• The taking of Iwo Jima and Okinawa opened the way for an invasion
of Japan. But Japan still had a huge army and would defend every
inch of its homeland.
• President Truman saw only one way to avoid the invasion of Japan–
the atomic bomb.
• The Manhattan Project
• The atomic bomb was led by General Leslie Groves and
researched by and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
• It was the best kept secret of the war.
• At its peak, more than 600,000 people were involved in the
project, although few knew its purpose. Truman didn’t even
know about it until he became president.
• The first test of the bomb took place on July 16, 1945 in New
Mexico. THE BOMB WORKED. There was a blinding flash
that was seen 180 miles away, followed by a deafening roar
as a tremendous shock wave rolled across the trembling
desert. Then a huge mushroom cloud rose over the desert.
The bomb worked!
• Truman did not hesitate in deciding to use the bomb to end
the war. He saw it as a military weapon that should be used
it needed.
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• On August 6, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay released
an atomic bomb, code named Little Boy, on Hiroshima, an
important Japanese military center.
• Every building dropped. Within forty three seconds
Hiroshima had ceased to exist.
• Japan’s leaders refused to surrender.
• Three days later, a second bomb, code named Fat Man,
was dropped on Nagasaki, leveling the city.
• Emperor Hirohito horrified by the bomb’s destruction
surrenders
• By the end of the year, an estimated 200,000 people had
died as a result of injuries and radiation poisoning.
• On September 2nd, formal surrender ceremonies took
place on the US battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Rebuilding Begins
• With Japan’s surrender, the Allies turned to the challenge of rebuilding
war-torn nations.
• The Yalta Conference
• In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin all met at the Black
Sea resort city of Yalta in the Soviet Union.
• They toasted to the defeat of Germany.
• For eight grueling days they discussed the fate of Germany and the
postwar world.
• Stalin favored a harsh approach towards Germany. Churchill strongly
disagreed, and Roosevelt served as mediator.
• Roosevelt wanted Stalin’s support because:
• He hoped the Soviet Union would stand by his side to wage
against Japan in the war that was still happening in the Pacific.
• He wanted Stalin’s support for a new world peace organization,
the United Nations.
• A series of compromises were addressed at this conference.
• Churchill agreed to a zoning of Germany between the
Americans, the British, the Soviets, and the French.
• Stalin agreed to join in the war against Japan.
• Stalin also agreed to join in on the creation of the United
Nations.
Why was Roosevelt anxious to make concessions to Stalin
concerning the fate of postwar Germany? Roosevelt wanted
Soviet help in the war against Japan; He also wanted Soviet
cooperation in establishing the United Nations.
What decisions did Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin make at
the Yalta Conference? They agreed to temporary division of
Germany into 4 zones; Stalin promised that Soviet-occupied
Eastern European countries would have free elections; Stalin
agreed to send troops to defeat Japan; Stalin agreed to the
establishment of the United Nations.
• Nuremberg War Trials
• The discovery of Hitler’s death camps led the
Allies to put 24 surviving Nazi leaders on trial for
crimes against humanity, peace, and war crimes.
• In the end, 12 of the 24 defendants were
sentenced to death, and most of the remaining
were sent to prison.
• In later trials of lesser leaders, more than 200
more Nazis were found guilty of war crimes.
• Controversial
• Many Nazis who took part in the Holocaust did
indeed go free.
•The principle of individual responsibility
was now firmly entrenched in international
law. The Nuremberg Trials established an
important principle – the idea that
individuals are responsible for their own
actions – even at times of war. Nazi
executioners could not escape punishment
by claiming that they were merely
“following orders.” The principle of
individual responsibility was now firmly
entrenched in international law.
• The Occupation of Japan
• More than 1,100 Japanese including former Prime
Minister Hideki Tojo were arrested, put on trial and
several were put to death (Tojo). All over Asia
Japanese officials were tried for atrocities against
civilians and POWs.
• During the seven-year American occupation,
MacArthur reshaped Japan’s economy by
introducing free-market prices that led to a
remarkable economic recovery.
• He also reshaped their government into a
democratic government and called for a new
constitution. To this day, their constitution is
called the MacArthur Constitution.
• Human Rights Legacy
• The atrocities committed during WWII motivated the
world to take a strong stand to protect human rights.
• In 1948 the United Nations adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights which voiced the world’s
commitment to human dignity and nondiscrimination
and formed the basis for international human rights
law.
• Also in 1948, the UN adopted a resolution that made
genocide a crime under international law. This
resolution asserts the obligation of all nations to
punish mass murder and other acts intended to
destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
Section 4: The Home Front p. 618
• Main Idea: After World War II, Americans
adjusted to new economic opportunities and
harsh social tensions.
• Why it matters now: Economic opportunities
afforded by WWII led to a more diverse middle
class in the US.
• Obj: Describe the economic and social changes
that reshaped American life during WWII.
At the end of the war, returning veterans- even those
who weren’t disabled – had to begin dealing with the
very real issues of reentry and adjustment to a
society that offered many opportunities but still had
many unsolved problems.
Opportunity and Adjustment:
• In contrast to the Great Depression, World War II
was a time of opportunity for millions of Americans.
Jobs abounded and despite rationing and shortages,
people had money to spend. At the end of WWII,
the nation emerged as the world’s dominant
economic and military power.
• Economic Gains:
• The war years were good ones for working people.
• As defense industries boomed, unemployment fell to a low of 1.2
percent.
• Average weekly pay grew 10 percent during the war.
• Farmers benefited from good weather, improvements in farm
machinery and fertilizer, and reaped the profits from rising crop
prices. Crop production increased 50% and farm income tripled.
Many farmers were able to pay off their mortgages
• Women gained employment opportunities during the war –
although many lost them after the war ended. The war created
opportunities for women. For the first time, women had a chance
to show that they could do a lot of things that only men had done
before.
Population Shifts:
• The war triggered one of the greatest mass migrations in
American history.
• Americans whose families had lived for decades in one
place suddenly uprooted themselves to seek work
elsewhere.
• California was a major hotspot of migration – more than a
million 1941 - 1944.
• Cities with defense industries saw a major influx and
population doubled or even tripled – sometimes
overnight.
• There was a migration of many African Americans from
the South to the North in record numbers.
How did WWII cause the US population to shift? In towns
and cities with defense plants, population increased.
Af/Am left the South for factory jobs in the North.
Social Adjustments
Families had adjusted to changes brought on by the war
such as – 1 parent homes, child-care centers, working
mothers. Children/teens sometimes drifted into juvenile
delinquency. When fathers did not return – period was
painful and another readjustment.
The war creates new families also. Couples rushed to
marry before shipping out.
In 1944, the help ease the transition of returning
servicemen to civilian life The GI Bill of Rights was a bill passed by Congress that
provided education and training for veterans, paid for by
the federal government.
• About 7.8 million veterans attended colleges and
technical schools under this bill.
• The act also provided federal loan guarantees to
veterans buying homes or farms or starting new
businesses.
How did the war affect families and personal
lives? During the war, mothers became single
parents and women took jobs outside the home.
The war helped create new families.
Discrimination and Reaction:
• Despite the opportunities that opened up for
women and minorities during the war, old
prejudices and policies persisted.
• Civil Rights Protests: African Americans made
some progress on the home front.
• Between 1940-1944, the percentage of African
Americans working in skilled or semiskilled jobs
rose from 16 to 30 percent.
• Wherever African Americans moved, however,
discrimination presented tough hurdles.
• In 1942, civil rights leader James
Farmer founded an interracial
organization called the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) to confront the
urban segregation in the North.
• CORE staged their first sit-in movement
at a segregated restaurant in Chicago.
• Tensions rose in cities where migration
occurred – cities were already overcrowded.
• In 1943 a tidal wave of racial violence swept
across the country.
• 1943 in Detroit – hot day in June – started as
a tussle between blacks/whites on the beach
mushroomed into a riot when white sailors
stationed nearby joined in. The fighting
raged for 3 days fueled by rumors. By the
time Roosevelt intervenes, 9 whites and 25
blacks were hurt, dead, or dying.
• This violence made Americans realize how
bad racial tensions had become.
• By 1945, over 400 committees had been
created to improve race relations.
• Progress was slow, but Af/Am were determined
not to give up the gains they had made.
• What caused the race riots in the 1940s?
Discrimination, racism, concentration of
minorities in cities.
• Mexican Americans also experienced prejudice during
the war years.
• In the violent summer of 1943, Los Angeles exploded in
anti-Mexican “zoot-suit” riots.
• The “zoot suit” was a style of dress adopted by
Mexican-American youths as a symbol of their
rebellion against tradition.
• The riots began when 11 sailors in LA reported that
they had been attacked by zoot-suit-wearing Mexican
Americans.
• this charged triggered violence involving thousands
of servicemen and civilians.
• During the riots, the Mexicans were stripped of their
dress and beat senseless.
• The riots lasted about a week long.
Internment of Japanese Americans
•When the war began 120,000 Japanese
Americans lived in the United States. Most of
them were citizens living on the West Coast.
•After the attack on Pearl Harbor, an
overwhelming sense of fear and uncertainty
caused a wave of prejudice against Japanese
Americans. Frightened people heard false
rumors that they were committing sabotage
by mining coastal harbors and poisoning
vegetables. A wave of prejudice and fear
against Japanese/Amer made the War Dept.
•Early in 1942, the War Department ordered
for the mass evacuation of all Japanese
Americans from Hawaii.
•General Delos Emmons, the military
governor of Hawaii, resisted the order
because the Japanese Americans made up
about 37 percent of the population and
would have destroyed their economy
hindering US operations there.
•He was eventually forced to order the
internment or confinement of 1,444
Japanese Americans, 1 percent of the 37
percent population.
•In California, only 1 percent of the
people were Japanese, but they
constituted a minority large enough to
stimulate the prejudice of many whites,
without being large enough to
effectively resist internment.
•Newspapers whipped up antiJapanese sentiment by running ugly
stories attacking Japanese
Americans.
•On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt
signed an order requiring a removal of
people of Japanese ancestry from
California and parts of Washington,
Oregon, and Arizona.
•He justified this step as necessary for
national security.
•In the following weeks the army rounded
up some 110,000 Japanese Americans and
shipped them to ten hastily constructed
remote “relocation centers,” euphemisms
for prison camps.
•About two-thirds were Nisei, or Japanese
people born in this country of parents who
emigrated from Japan.
•No specific charges were filed against
Japanese Americans, and no evidence of
subversion was ever found.
•The Japanese tried to fight for justice in
the courts.
•In 1944, the Supreme Court decided that
the government’s policy was justified on
the basis of “military necessity.”
• After the war, The Japanese American Citizens
League (JACL) pushed the government to
compensate those sent to the camps for their lost
property.
• In 1965, Congress authorized the spending of $38
million for that purpose– less than a tenth of
Japanese Americans’ actual loses.
• A decade later, Ronald Regan later passed a bill
that gave $20,000 to every Japanese American
sent to a relocation camp. The checks were sent
in 1990 with a letter from Pres. Bush:
• “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past.
But we can take a clear stand for justice and
recognize that serious injustices were done to
Japanese Americans during World War II.”
(George Bush, 1900)
•Why did Pres. Roosevelt order the
internment of Japanese Americans?
•Because some people perceived them as a
threat to national security.