US in World War II Page 56 NCSCOS Goal 10

U.S. Prepares for War -”Cash and Carry” policy begins U.S. will sell arms to countries who pay cash and can transport them on their own (help France and Britain) -Axis Powers formed Japan, Italy, Germany form alliance -Selective Service begins draft process -Roosevelt seeks third term -Lend-Lease policy begun to help supply allies-Arsenal of Democracy The U.S. must defend Britain or we will fall to Hitler next U.S. will give Allies supplies -Atlantic Charter signed between U.S. and Britain Freedom of seas, mutual protection The three Axis nations—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were a threat to the entire world. They believed they were superior and more powerful than other nations, especially democracies. By signing a mutual defense pact, the Axis powers believed the U.S. would never risk involvement in a two-ocean war. In response, the Allied nations enter into the Lend-Lease policy and Atlantic Charter with the U.S.

— Franklin Delano Roosevelt – In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want--which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt –

Hitler’s Mistake -Battle of Britain has stalled Hitler turns his attention to U.S.S.R. -June 1941 Germany attacks Russia Breaks non-aggression pact and begins invasion; U.S. sends lend/lease aid to USSR Germans halted at Stalingrad -Russian winter sets in and halts advance Germans not used to the winter, cannot get supplies or reinforcements -Now war is on two fronts Hitler’s forces divided Eventually pushed out of USSR                                                                      

U.S. enters the War -U.S. had warning of a possible Japanese attack somewhere Did not know where (could be any Pacific Island) -Dec. 7th, 1941 Pearl Harbor is attacked “day that will live in infamy” 2400 dead, 1200 wounded; destroyed nearly the entire Pacific fleet -U.S. declares war on Japan and then Germany, Italy declare war on U.S. “It was a mess. I was working on the U.S.S. Shaw. It was on a floating dry dock. It was in flames. I started to go down into the pipe fitter’s shop to get my toolbox when another wave of Japanese came in. I got under a set of concrete steps at the dry dock where the battleship Pennsylvania was. An officer came by and asked me to go into the Pennsylvania and to try to get the fires out. A bomb had penetrated the marine deck, and…three decks below. Under that was the magazines: ammunition, powder, shells. I said, “There ain’t no way I’m gonna go down there. It could blow up any minute. I was young and 16, not stupid.”

Overview Map of Pearl Harbor Japanese Zero Plans Taking off in the Pacific

The Bombing of Pearl Harbor

"A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy'; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack." Isoroku Yamamoto

Americans in the Service -millions volunteered and millions more were drafted 5 million volunteered, needed more 10 million drafted -GI’s went to basic training for 8 weeks Government Issue -Women’s Auxiliary Corps Jobs women could do better than men thousands volunteered Worked as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, pilots (noncombatant positions) -Minorities served in segregated units Tuskegee Airmen “The civilian went before the Army doctors, took off his clothes, feeling silly; jigged, stooped, squatted, wet into a bottle; became a soldier. He learned how to sleep in the mud, tie a knot, kill a man. He learned the ache of loneliness, the ache of exhaustion, the kinship of misery. He learned that men make the same queasy noises in the morning, feel the same longings at night; that every man is alike and that each man is different.”

A few weeks after the bill to establish the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) had become law, Oveta Culp Hobby, a Texas newspaper executive and the first director of the WAAC, put out a call for recruits. More than 13,000 women applied on the first day. In all, some 350,000 women served in this and other auxiliary branches during the war. The WAC remained a separate unit of the army until 1978, when male and female forces were integrated. In 2001, almost 200,000 women served in the U.S. armed forces.

Women’s Auxiliary Corps

Among the brave men who fought in Italy were the pilots of the all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron—the Tuskegee Airmen. In Sicily, the squadron registered its first victory against an enemy aircraft and went on to more impressive strategic strikes against the German forces throughout Italy. The Tuskegee Airmen won two Distinguished Unit Citations (the military’s highest commendation) for their outstanding aerial combat against the German Luftwaffe.

Life on the Home Front -War Production Board industries were retooled to make war materials Industries turn to war production, esp. shipyards and defense plants -Scientists are mobilized radar, sonar, penicillin, atomic bomb (Manhattan Project) Einstein warns Roosevelt of Germany’s intention to create atomic bomb U.S. rushes to build one first -women stepped into many war jobs “Rosie the Riveter” 6 million women working; symbolized women workers in the U.S. -Entertainment propaganda – make Americans hate Germany

Life on the Home Front -War Production Board industries were retooled to make war materials -Scientists are mobilized radar, sonar, penicillin, atomic bomb (Manhattan Project) -women stepped into many war materials jobs “Rosie the Riveter” -Entertainment propaganda

Life on the Home Front -War Production Board industries were retooled to make war materials -Scientists are mobilized radar, sonar, penicillin, atomic bomb (Manhattan Project) -women stepped into many war materials jobs “Rosie the Riveter” -Entertainment propaganda

-War Production Board industries were retooled to make war materials -Scientists are mobilized radar, sonar, penicillin, atomic bomb (Manhattan Project) -women stepped into many war materials jobs “Rosie the Riveter” -Entertainment propaganda

Government Control -Inflation controlled by price freezes Could not increase prices -many products rationed to conserve resources Ration books with coupons -income taxes increased Government wanted people to have less money to spend to conserve consumer products -War Bonds sold -Japanese Internment Executive Order 9066 – all persons of Japanese descent living in the West sent to “relocation centers” Korematsu v. United States Justified internment as a mode of national defense discriminatory policy???

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed an order requiring the removal of people of Japanese ancestry from California and parts of Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. Based on strong recommendations from the military, 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. No specific charges were ever filed against the Japanese Americans, and no evidence of subversion was ever found. Faced with expulsion, terrified families were forced to sell their homes, businesses, and all their belongings for less than their true value.

After the war, the Japanese American Citizens League 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 1/10 of Japanese Americans’ actual losses. In 1978, the JACL called for the payment of reparations to each individual that suffered internment. A decade later, Ronald Reagan signed a bill that promised $20,000 to every Japanese American sent to a relocation camp. When they were mailed in 1990, a letter from George Bush accompanied them. In them he stated, “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 the Japanese Americans during World War II.”

Japanese Victories -Pearl Harbor Successful Japanese attack against America -Victories in much of Pacific Japanese creating an empire in Asia and the Pacific -MacArthur retreats from the Philippines Outnumbered by the Japanese Americans and Filipino troops were backed up to the Bataan Peninsula General Douglas MacArthur pledges “I shall return.” He will, two years later.

America Recovers American planes taking off from aircraft carrier. Some took off with broom handles a painted black as gun turrets to conserve fuel. --Battle of Midway, 1942 Allies knew Japan’s next target because had broken code Adm. Chester Nimitz inflicted great damage to much larger Japanese fleet Crippled the Japanese -Japan never recovered its naval power Battle of Midway = Turning point of the war in the Pacific - Allies retaking land

America Recovers American planes taking off from aircraft carrier. Some took off with broom handles a painted black as gun turrets to conserve fuel. --Battle of Midway, 1942 Allies knew Japan’s next target because had broken code Adm. Chester Nimitz inflicted great damage to much larger Japanese fleet Crippled the Japanese -Japan never recovered its naval power Battle of Midway = Turning point of the war in the Pacific - Allies retaking land

Island Hopping -as the U./S. built its naval and air advantage the Japanese fortified every island Every island in the Pacific was crucial to both sides - U.S. bypasses many islands and takes weaker ones for airfields U.S. wants to fortify islands and move closer to attack Japan -

High Costs Mount Suribachi One US soldier called Iwo Jima an “ugly, smelly glob of cold lava squatting in a surly ocean.” This island was the most heavily defended spot on earth, with more than 20,700 Japanese troops entrenched in tunnels and caves Mount Suribachi -Japanese defending with every man every man sacrifices himself for country kamikaze attacks - suicide attack to crash bomb-laden planes into Allied ships -Iwo Jima, 1945 6,000 Marines die Needed as a base from which to bomb Japan Only 200 Japanese survive -Okinawa, 1945 higher death totals Last stop before Japan 7,600 US lives lost 110,000 Japanese lives lost -warnings of what invasion would cost

Rebuilding the World -Yalta Conference, 1945 meeting of the Big Three Before the end of the war, Stalin wants to divide Germany into zones (4 zones to each ally) -Creation of the United Nations Peacekeeping union created after V-E Day to prevent world wars Sets up 2 houses: General Assembly and Security Council Created at San Francisco Conference -Potsdam Conference, July 1945 division of Germany 4 sections to be occupied by major Allied nations, Berlin also divided -Nuremburg Trials German leaders tried for actions during the Holocaust war crimes several leaders executed