Transcript Ch_12_WWIIx
Chapter 12
• Students will explain the impact World War II
had on America politically, economically, and
socially
• Students will explain the role America played in
defeating Germany, Italy, and Japan
• Industrial output of US
astounded world
• US workers twice as productive
as Germans and five times as
productive as Japanese
• US had begun building up
military before Pearl Harbor
• Government used Cost-Plus
Contracts – paid companies cost
of product and percentage of
cost as profits
• Before Pearl Harbor some businesses
were making war materiel but most
produced consumer goods
• After Pearl Harbor 200,000 companies
began producing war goods
• Automobile factories began producing
tanks, trucks, and jeeps
• Henry Ford produced bombers using
the assembly line
• Automobile manufacturers eventually
produced 1/3 of all war materiel
• Henry Kaiser’s shipyards also
used mass production methods
• Liberty ships – main cargo ships
of the war; welded – hard to sink
• War Production Board –
established to control
production and allocate
resources
• Office of War Mobilization –
settled arguments between
agencies
• After the fall of France, Congress
passed Selective Service and
Training Act – first peacetime
draft in US history
• Equipment shortages
• GI – Government Issue
• Vets later complained training
was useless – too rushed and
too much physical training
• US military units segregated –
with white officers
• Double V Campaign – blacks
wanted to fight to win victory
over enemy but also victory over
racism at home
• FDR encouraged black combat
units and appointed Benjamin O.
Davis first black general
• African-Americans in Combat
99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee
Airmen) - Mediterranean
761st Tank Battalion – Battle of the
Bulge
614th Tank Destroyer Battalion –
won 8 Silver Stars, 28 Bronze Stars,
and 79 Purple Hearts
US military bases integrated in
1943
• Women in WWII
Women enlisted for first time –
barred from combat
Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
(WAAC) replaced by Women’s
Army Corps (WAC)
Oveta Culp Hobby – first director
• Japanese attacked US bases in
Philippines same day as Pearl
Harbor
• Commander of US forces, General
Douglas MacArthur, decided to
retreat to Bataan Peninsula
• US and Filipino troops held out 3
months before surrendering –
78,000 men marched into captivity
• March became known as Bataan
Death March
• Last US base in Philippines at
Corregidor surrendered May 1942
• The Doolittle Raid
FDR wanted to raise US morale by
hitting back at Japanese
US planned on launching bombers
from aircraft carrier to bomb Tokyo
Bombers commanded by James
Doolittle
Bombers attacked Tokyo April 18,
1942
Pilots forced to bail out or crash land
in China
Chinese punished for helping US
pilots
• Japan planned to attack US
supply lines to Australia by
seizing New Guinea
• US and Japanese forces met in
Battle of Coral Sea
• US lost an aircraft carrier (USS
Lexington) but caused Japan to
call of attack on New Guinea
• US broke Japanese naval code
• Knew Japan was going to attack
US base at Midway Island
• US carriers ambushed Japanese
Navy June 4, 1942
• US sank 4 Japanese carriers
• Battle of Midway turning point
in Pacific war – Japan now on
defense
• Josef Stalin asked US to open
second front against Germany to
relieve pressure on USSR
• US and Britain not strong enough
to hit France – attacked North
Africa
• North Africa was vital for Britain –
Suez Canal link to empire
• Battle of Kasserine Pass – Germany
embarrassed US
• US forces placed under command
of General Patton – forced
Germany out of North Africa
• Battle of the Atlantic
Germany had sunk hundreds of US
cargo ships going to and from
Britain
US Navy set up Convoy system –
cargo ships traveled in large
groups protected by US warships
US built more ships than Germans
could sink
New technology helped US track
and sink subs
• Battle of Stalingrad
Germans attempted to capture
Russian city of Stalingrad
Fierce house-to-house fighting
Hitler ordered Germans to fight to
the death
Almost 250,000 German soldiers
trapped
Over 91,000 Germans surrendered
(only about 5,000 survived POW
camps)
Battle was turning point in Eastern
Europe – Germans on defense
• WWII ended the Great
Depression
• Almost 19 million new jobs
created
• Women and minorities hired due
to labor shortage
• Even married women hired to
work in factories
• Rosie the Riveter
• Factories reluctant to hire blacks
• A. Philip Randolph, head of
Sleeping Car Porters Union,
threatened to have union march
on Washington
• FDR signed Executive Order 8802
– declared there shall be no
discrimination in hiring
• To help farmers, US introduced
Bracero Program
• US imported Mexican
farmworkers to help harvest
crops
• Program continued to 1964
• Migrant farmworkers became
part of US Southwest
agricultural system
• Navajo Code Talkers
Radio codes often broken by
enemy
Navajo language “hidden” – no
written alphabet
Navajos developed simple code
and spoke in Navajo language
Made communication in battle
more efficient
Navajos were secret weapon
• Industrial production for war
effort caused migrations of
people across country
• Sunbelt - Deep South became
new industrial area
• Housing shortage – many people
lived in tents or trailers
• Government created cheap
fabricated housing
• Great Migration resumed in WWII
• Racial tensions increased as people
competed for scarce resources and
jobs
• Worst racial violence of the war
occurred in Detroit June 1943
• Fight started between white and
black girls
• Riots resulted in 25 blacks and 9
whites dead
• Zoot Suit Riots
Racial tensions rose along with
teenage crime
Racism against Latinos in LA
Zoot suit versus victory suit
June 1943, rumors spread that
Latinos attacked servicemen
About 2,500 servicemen attacked
Latino neighborhoods
Many Latinos served in military –
17 Mexican-Americans earned
Medal of Honor in WWII
• Japanese-American Internment
Attack on Pearl Harbor caused
anger at Japanese
People discriminated against
Japanese-Americans
Many feared Japanese-Americans
would be disloyal
FDR signed Executive Order
allowing military to remove
Japanese-Americans to relocation
camps
Korematsu v. United States – US
Supreme Court ruled relocation
was constitutional
442nd RCT – unit of JapaneseAmericans fought in Italy; most
decorated US unit
Japanese American Citizens
League – established to help
internees recover property after
the war
• Wage and price controls
• Rationing – food, gasoline, tires,
meat, etc.
• Blue Coupons – processed foods
• Red Coupons – meats, fats, and
oils
• Victory Gardens
• Scrap Drives
• E-Bonds – over $100 billion in
bonds bought
• Strategic bombing – US and
Britain bombed Germany night
and day
• Did not succeed in destroying
German economy or morale but
did cause some shortages
• Bombing campaign controversial
– destroyed major cities like
Dresden
• The Italian Campaign
Allies attacked and took Sicily
Attacked Italy
Italy’s king arrested Mussolini and
Italy surrendered
Allies continued fighting Germans in
Italy – stopped at Cassino
Hitler freed Mussolini (later killed by
partisans)
US invaded Italy at Anzio – hoping to
bypass Cassino / capture Rome
Italy fight still going when Germany
surrendered May 1945
• Meeting at Tehran
FDR, Churchill, and Stalin
Allies agreed to split up Germany
after the war
Stalin agreed to help against Japan
after Germany defeated
All agreed to FDR’s proposal for
establishment of United Nations
• D-Day
Code-name Operation Overlord
Allied deception plan as to
location of invasion
Invasion at Normandy – June 6,
1944
Largest naval armada in history
Landings at five beaches
Omaha - US
Utah - US
Gold - Britain
Sword - Britain
Juno - Canada
• Driving the Japanese Back – US
Navy
Led by Admiral Chester Nimitz
Island-Hopping strategy
Tarawa – Coral reefs impede
landings causing high casualty rate
Islands taken provided air bases to
strike Japanese bases
Navy taking islands closer and
closer to Japan – Saipan and Guam
• Driving the Japanese Back – US
Army
Led by General Douglas
MacArthur
Guadalcanal – first island taken
Attacked New Guinea
Invaded Philippines
Invasion resulted in heavy US and
Filipino civilian casualties
First Japanese use of Kamikazes –
“Divine Wind” suicide planes used
to sink US ships
• D-Day was success but Allies
took month to take western
France due to hedgerows –
dense trees & bushes bordering
French fields
• Paris liberated August 1944
• Battle of the Bulge
Last major German offensive in
west
Tried to take Allied supply port
“Battling Bastards of Bastogne”
• Bridge at Remagen
• Russia advances into Germany –
takes Berlin
• Death of Hitler – FDR died two
weeks earlier
• Unconditional German
surrender April 1945 – VE Day
• War in Pacific continued
• Airfields needed closer to Japan
for bombers
• Iwo Jima invaded – brutal battle
• General Curtis LeMay ordered
fire bombing of Japanese cities
using napalm – jellied gasoline
• More Japanese killed in
firebombing of Tokyo (80,000 +)
than in later atomic blast
• Island of Okinawa invaded – 350
miles from Japan
• Brutal battle – 12,000 Americans
killed
• US demanded Japan’s
unconditional surrender – many
in Japanese government wanted
to keep fighting
• Emperor must stay in power
• The Manhattan Project
Einstein wrote letter to FDR
warning of German attempt
to build atomic bomb
US begins massive effort to
build atomic bomb
If US forced to invade Japan
– massive US and Japanese
casualties expected
President Truman to decide
if bomb should be dropped
on Japan
Fat Man
Little Boy
• Little Boy – Hiroshima 6 August
1945
• Fat Man – Nagasaki 9 August
1945
• 8 August USSR declared war on
Japan – overran Manchuria and
Mongolia
• Japan surrendered 15 August
1945 – VJ Day
• United Nations
General Assembly
Security Council – permanent
members – veto power
United States
USSR
Great Britain
France
China (Nationalist)
Charter – constitution / rules
• International Military Tribunal
• Nuremberg Trials
Trials of Nazi war criminals
Crimes against humanity
Trials also conducted in Japan
Emperor Hirohito not tried