Double V Zoot Suits War on the Home Front

Mobilizing for Defense Selective Service Act: drafted 10 million men War industries exploded 6 million women Bracero Program: import Mexican workers to fill agricultural labor shortage Rationing of food and gas

Double V Campaign for Victory against Germany/Japan AND at home against Racism http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/vtl07.la.rv.text.doublev/the-double-v/

Zoot Suits Zoot Suits: style adopted by Mexican-American youth as a symbol of rebellion against tradition Seen as flashy and even un-American

Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial 1942 Los Angeles police detained 600 Mexican-American teenagers after finding one teenager dead. 22 teens found guilty (all released years later)

Zoot Suit Riots May and June 1943 in Los Angeles Thousands of servicemen stationed in LA participated in the attacks Targeted with beatings and racial slurs and stripped of their Zoot suits 500 Mexican Americans arrested and 0 servicemen

Japanese Aggression and Internment Camps

“A day which will live in infamy” “A dagger aimed at America’s heart” –Hideki Tojo 2,403 Americans killed and 1,178 wounded Damaged 21 ships

Japanese-American War Contributions 33,000 Joined the war Thousands volunteered as spies and interpreters

POW Treatment/Bataan March After Japanese took the Philippines POW’s “disgracefully” surrendered 65 miles March to camps Beheading Starvation

Executive Order 9066 Issued by FDR in 1942 Response to aggressive anti-Japanese sentiment Removal and Internment of Japanese Americans (Nisei)

The War in the Pacific and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb The Manhattan Project “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” The War in the Pacific and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

Allies Strike Back Doolittle’s Raid: 16 bombers bomb Tokyo Does little damage but raises morale

The Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway June 1942: Allies intercepted news of an attack on Midway, a key airfield. 322 Japanese planes bombed before they took off Began island hopping campaign

Iwo Jima Crucial Base to reach Japan 21,000 Japanese entrenched: only 200 survived

Okinawa 1,000 Kamikaze attacks damaged over 300 ships 110,000 Japanese & 7,600 Americans Now Americans feared a ground war in Japan!

The Manhattan Project Development of the atomic bomb led by J. Robert Oppenheimer 600,000 workers but few knew its purpose Truman unaware of existence until elected

Truman’s Decision Less than 10 days after test he warned the Japanese of “prompt and utter destruction”

Opinions on the Atomic Bomb “I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used” -Harry Truman I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” J. Robert Oppenheimer

Hiroshima and Nagasaki August 6 B-29 Enola Gay dropped Little Boy over Hiroshima Plutonium August 9 Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki Uranium