Transcript America and World War II - Public Schools of Petoskey

Sec. 1 - Mobilizing the War
 Converting the Economy
 U.S. industrial output was twice that of
Germany and 5 times that of Japan
 Turned the tide of the war for the Allies
 Success due to government mobilizing
for the war before U.S. entered
 Government gave incentives and
loans to companies to make products
for the war
American Industry Gets the Job Done
 All American industries and 20,000
businesses convert to war production
 Auto factories
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Made trucks, jeeps, tanks
Helmets, rifles, mines, etc.
Ford made B-24 bombers
1/3 of all military equipment
War Production Board
 Similar to World War I and
Great Depression
 Agencies created to set
production, and control
raw materials
Building An Army
 Peace time draft already in
existence
 Soldiers (GIs) went
through training that was
too short, but built
camaraderie
 GI – “government issue
Minorities in the Army
 African Americans
 Segregated units
 Many units receive awards (Tuskegee
Airmen)
 Racism at home against African
Americans

“Double V” campaign: African Americans
to join the war to fight racism in Germany
(Hitler and the Jews) and at home (themselves)
 Women
 Women allowed in armed forces, but not
in combat
Sec. 3 - On the Home Front
 World War II had
positive effect on
American society
 ended the Great
Depression
 Creation of 19 million
new jobs
 Doubled the income of
most families
Minorities on the Home Front
 Women
 Labor shortage forced factories to hire married
women into jobs mostly for men
 “Rosie the Riveter”
 African Americans
 Still discriminated against by factories
 Roosevelt declares no discrimination in defense
industry work place
 Mexicans/Bracero program
 Federal program to bring them to U.S. to harvest
fruits and vegetables
Discrimination against Japanese
 Roosevelt declares the west coast a
military zone
 Removes Japanese Americans to
10 internment camps
 Regan apologizes in 1988 and
reimburses those affected
 Nisei – Japanese Americans who
served in US military
Daily Life in America
 Raising taxes and selling
bonds
 Government regulated wages
and some prices
 Ration coupons given for
processed foods, meats, fats and
oils, gas
Helping out the War Effort
 Victory gardens
 Scrap drives
 Spare rubber, tin, aluminum,
steel
 Bacon grease and meat
drippings used for production of
explosives (fats & oils)
 “V” for Victory
Section 2
Holding the Line Against Japan
 Japan’s Strategy:
 Cut supply lines and destroy American Pacific Fleet
 Japan attacked Americans on their bases in the
Philippines
 Trapped on the Bataan peninsula
 Thousands surrender and die on the Bataan Death
March to Japanese prison camp
 General MacArthur evacuates to Australia
 American Strategy:
 Island hop getting close enough to bomb islands of
Japan
 Doolittle Raid: bomb Japan from aircraft carrier
 American advantages
 Could decode Japanese messages and aware of Japanese
offences
 Battle of Midway: turning point in the Pacific
 Stopped Japanese offence, on defense for rest of war
Turning Back the German Army
 Attack the “soft under belly”
 American strategy to fight in Northern Africa
 Trapped the “Desert Fox”: German General Erwin
Rommel
 Battle in the Atlantic
 German subs in American coastal waters
 East coast told to dim lights
 Convoy system helps against sinking ships
 American and British shipyards replaced more ships
than were sunk
Stalingrad: Turning Point of War
 Hitler wanted to cripple
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Soviet economy by
capturing major city on
river
Soviets protected city at all
costs
91,000 Germans surrender
by Feb. 1943
Only 5,000 prisoners
survive
Germans on the
defensive the rest of the
war
Striking Back at the Third Reich
 Allied Strategies:
 1. Roosevelt and Churchill decided to increase
bombing of Germany to destroy military,
industrial and economic systems
 Successful in destroying RR, aircraft, and created oil
shortage
 2. Allies strike Sicily (Italian island) successfully
 Italy surrendered and arrested Mussolini
 Germany seized control of Italy and put Mussolini back
in power
D-Day
 Operation Overlord: key
name for invasion
 Advantage of surprise:
Germany thought the
attack would happen Pasde-Calais, shortest route
across the Channel
 June 6, 1944
 Utah Beach immediate
success, Omaha Beach
intense German defense
The Third Reich Collapses
 Allies liberate Paris in August 1944
 Within three weeks they are 20 miles from German
border
 Battle of the Bulge: last German offensive
 Caught Americans off guard and raced west bulging
forward
 U.S. won in one month
 Hitler committed suicide when realized end was
near
 Germany unconditionally surrendered May 8, 1945
= V-E Day (Victory in Europe)
War in the Pacific
 America’s Two Strategies:
 1. Island Hopping:
 Marshall Islands
 Mariana Islands: bomb Japan from there
 2. Retake Philippines
 Guadalcanal
 New Guinea
 Leyte Gulf: largest battle in navy history, use of
kamikaze attacks by Japanese
 All said and done: 100,000 Filipino civilians dead and
Manila in ruins
Japan is defeated
 Roosevelt died and Harry Truman (VP) became
president April 12, 1945
 Attack Iwo Jima to make bombings more effective
 Tokyo firebombing:
 bombs filled with napalm
 80,000 killed , very controversial
 Okinawa attacked
Unconditional Surrender?
 Japan would not unconditionally surrender because
they wanted their emperor to remain in power.
Americans wanted him out of power.
Building the Bomb
 Manhattan Project: code name
 J. Robert Oppenheimer in charge (Einstein warns
President)
 Truman’s perspective:
 Use every weapon available to save American lives

Claims would have saved 600,000 soldiers
 Allies threaten Japan with “utter destruction”- no response
 Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 (tens of
thousands die instantly and more later from radiation)
 2nd bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9 (35,000 to
74,000 die instantly)
 V-J Day (Victory over Japan) on August 14, 1945
Revisionist Historians
Reasons to Drop the Bomb
1. show Soviets who is boss
2. Justify $2 billion spent
on bomb
3. Crush a brutal enemy
(Pearl Harbor, Bataan
Death March, kamikazes,
treatment of POWs)
Little Boy
Effects of the Bomb
Building a New World
 United Nations created
 General Assembly made up of all countries who each
have a vote
 Security Council has veto powers: China, Britain,
France, Soviet Union, and U.S.A.
 International Military Tribunal created to punish
leaders of Japan and Germany through the Nuremberg
trials