US in World War II

1.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 Italy, Germany, Japan form alliance -Selective Service begins draft process -Roosevelt seeks third term Four Freedoms: speech, religion, want, fear -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 resembles 14 points of Wilson 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 –

2.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 -early success but then stalemate Germans halted at Stalingrad due to Russian winter Germans not used to the winter, cannot get supplies or reinforcements -Now war is on two fronts for Germany Hitler’s forces divided Eventually pushed out of USSR

3.U.S. Enters the War -U.S. has embargo on Japan for actions in the Pacific Japan invading lands in Indochina; U.S. cuts off essential oil trade -U.S. had warning of a possible Japanese attack somewhere Did not know where (could be any Pacific Island) – FDR wants Japan to attack first -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 declares 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.”

The Bombing of Pearl Harbor

3. U.S. enters the War -millions volunteered and millions more were drafted 5 million volunteered, needed more 10 million drafted -GI’s went to basic training for 8 weeks -Women’s Auxiliary Corps thousands volunteered Nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, pilots (noncombat 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.

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.

4.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” 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

5.Government Control -Inflation controlled by price freezes Could not increase prices -many products rationed to conserve resources Ration books -income taxes increased Government wanted people to have less money; 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.”