Chapter 25- WWII

The Coming of the War

• Militaristic authoritarian regimes that had emerged in Japan, Italy & Germany threatened peace throughout the world.
• Japan took over Manchuria and then invaded China. (1937- Nanking, killed over 300,000 Chinese)
• Italy made Ethiopia a colony. (Bentito Muslinia)
• German aggression against Caechoslovakia threatened to force Britain & France into the war. (Adolf Hitler)
  

Isolation

• By the mid-1930's, many Americans had concluded that entry into WWI and an active foreign role for the United States had been a serious mistake.
• College students protested the war.
• Congress passed the Neutrality Acts to limit the sale of munitions to warring countries
• Prominent Americans urged a policy of "America First" to promote non-intervention FDR promoted military preparedness, despite little national support.
  

FDR Readies for War

• FDR had a hard time getting ready at home.
• The combined German-Soviet invasion of Poland plunged Europe into war.
  
  
  • Blitzkrieg Western Europe 1940
• German blitzkrieg techniques quickly led to takeovers of Denmark, Norway, and later Belgium & France.
• As the Nazi air force pounded Britain, FDR pushed for increased military expenditures.
• Since 1940 was an election year, FDR said he would 'keep the boys' out of war. After winning his 3^rd term, FDR expanded American involvement.
• FDR met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill & drafter the Atlantic Charter- a statement of war aims.
  

Pearl Harbor

• Japan joined with Italy and Germany in 1940.
• The Japanese threatened to seize Europe's Asian colonies after taking Indochina.
• FDR cut off trade with Japan, including oil supplies.
• Japan attacked the base in Pearl Harbor Dec. 7^th, 1941. (A day that will live in infamy…)
• The United States declared war; declarations against Germany & Italy followed.
  

Mobilizing for War

• Congress and FDR created laws and new agencies to promote mobilization.
• President given power in the War Powers Act (reorganize Federal Government, create new agencies, abridging civil agencies, seize property owned by foreigners, create contracts w/o federal biding)
• The Office of War Information controlled war news and promoted morale at home.
• War bonds were used to promote support as well as raise funds.
• As mobilization proceeded, New Deal agencies vanished. (didn't need any more > now have the jobs)
• War Productions Board transformed civilian firms civilian firms to operate for war purposes and industry was prepped for all-out production
• An unprecedented economic boom pulled the country out of the depression.
• The largest firms, especially those in the West and South, received large shares of wartime contracts.
• The war increased farm profits, but thousands of small farms disappeared.
  

New Workers

• The demand for labor brought Mexicans,
  Indians, African Americans, and women into the industrial labor force.
• The entry of these new female workers broke down many stereotypes. (Changing gender roles at home)
• Many woman wanted to keep working past the war but plans were already in place to give their jobs to returning war veterans.
• Workers' wages went up (50%), but not as fast as profits or prices.
• Prior to American entry, militant unions had led a number of strikes.
• Once the United States entered the
  war, the major unions:
  
  
  • agreed to no-strike pledges
  • increased their membership and won new benefits
• African American union membership doubled.
• Some illegal strikes did break out, leading to federal antistrike legislation.
  

The Home Front

• The war spurred marriage rates.
• Shortages of housing and retail goods added to the difficulties families encountered. (Ration Cards)
• With one-parent households increasing, childcare issues arose. Some day-care assistance was available, though it scarcely met people's needs.
• The rise in unsupervised youths created problems with juvenile crime. The availability of jobs led to higher high school dropout rates.
• Public health improved greatly during the war. (Technology is advancing- increased earnings lead to dental care) (Lowest death rates in the country.)
  

The Internment of Japanese Americans & Race Relations at Home

• In 1942, over 112,000 Japanese were removed from their homes in the West to relocation centers, often enduring harsh living conditions.
• The Supreme Court upheld the policy (challenged with Koretmatsu vs US, 1941), though in 1988 the U.S. Congress voted reparations and public apologies.
• (Pg. 756- "action will be taken.")
• African American activists launched a "Double V" campaign calling for victory overseas and equal rights at home.
• FDR responded to a threatened march on Washington by banning racial discrimination in defense industries.
• New civil rights organizations emerged while older ones grew. (NAACP increased from 50,000 in 1940 to 250,000 in 1946?)
• Over 1 million blacks left the South to take jobs in war industries. (Langston Hughes poem pg. 758)
  
• *Flipside ("US History")
  
• They often encountered violent resistance from local whites.
  

Zoot-Suit Riots

• Whites' bitter resentment against Mexican Americans exploded in 1943.
• The zoot-suit riots erupted when whites concluded that Mexican youths that wore the flamboyant clothes were unpatriotic. (West Coast- LA.)
• Most Mexican Americans served in the military or worked in war industries.
• Popular culture seemed to bridge the racial divisions. (Southerners were bringing their music up North, & African Americans- mixing different sounds together- "the tie that binds.")
• Southerners moving to northern cities brought musical styles and changed the sound of popular culture.
• Popular entertainment, whether in film or comic books, emphasized the wartime spirit, as did fashion. (Superman) (Everything you see was being regulated by the Office of War Information)
  

Men and Women in Uniform

• Even before formally entering the war, the government had begun a draft.
• The officer corps, except for General Eisenhower, tended to be professional, conservative, and autocratic.
• Junior officers were trained in special military schools and developed close ties with their troops. {Saving Private Ryan- maintaining ties well past the war}
• For the first time, the War Department created women's divisions of the major services.
  
  
  • WAC
  • WAVES
  • Marine Corps Women's Reserve
• Most women stayed in the country and performed clerical or health-related duties. Some flew planes and others went into combat with the troops. (1,000 woman participated)
  

African Americans in the Military

• Despite suspicions of the military's racism, 1 million African Americans served in the armed forces. (Henry Stinson- army can't be a sociological laboratory, pg. 761. Blood separated by white & black blood.)
• These soldiers encountered segregation at every point.
• Many racial or ethnic minorities (along with homosexuals) also served and often found their experience made them feel more included in American society.
• In Europe, American troops met a mixed welcome, in part dictated by their actions.
  

The Medical Corps and POW's

• The risk of injury was much higher than that of getting killed in battle. (Only 1 in 50 would die in a battle.)
• Battle fatigue was a huge problem. (Battles could last up to 200 days.)
• The army depended on a wide variety of medical personnel to care for sick and wounded soldiers. {Flags of Our Fathers} (85% of emergency surgeries on battlefront survived- medical technology had vastly improved.)
• The true heroes of the battlefront were the medics attached to each infantry battalion.
• Nurses during the war were given military rank.
• POWs held in German camps were treated much better than those held by the Japanese. (Japanese POWs were treated ruthlessly. Treatment was worse than death.) (Russians held in German camps were starved and murdered in the German camps- Americans were just "bored.")
• This treatment, along with racism, led Americans to treat Japanese POWs more harshly than those captured in the European theater.
  
• (What John McCain went through)
  

The World at War

• During the first year of American involvement, FDR called the war news "all bad."
• The burden of fighting the Nazis fell to the Soviets who blocked the German advance on Moscow.
• The Soviets broke the siege of Stalingrad in February 1943 and began to push the Germans back. (Russians lost more men in Stalingrad than America lost during the whole war.)
• Although the Soviets appealed for the Allies to open up a "second front" in Western Europe, they instead attacked North Africa and Italy. (Towards the end of the war- the Soviets were pleading for a second front.)
• Churchill and FDR met in Casablanca and agreed to seek an unconditional German surrender. (Stalin did not want this- felt that if we kept pushing, it would keep angering the Germans)
• American and British planes poured bombs on German cities that:
  
• weakened their economy
• undermined civilian morale
• crippled the German air force
• (Flying Fortress V-17, great for day- but at night, not good)
  

The Allied Invasion of Europe

• The Allied invasion forced Italy out of the war, though German troops stalled Allied advances. {Life is Beautiful}
• Uprisings against Nazi rule tied up German power.
• By early 1944, Allied units were preparing for the D-Day assault on France.
• Paris was taken on August 25, 1944. France and other occupied countries fell as Allied units overran the Germans. (D-Day invasion- June 6, 1944)
• The Battle of the Bulge temporarily halted the Allied advance. (By Christmas 1944- the Germans were moved back to their own territory.)
• On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered. (Hitler also committed suicide.)
  

The War in Asia and the Pacific

• In the Pacific theater Allied forces stopped Japanese advances by June 1942.
• Naval battles and island hopping brought United States forces closer to the Japanese home islands. (3.5 million people died.)
• Victories in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa enabled the Allies to bomb Japanese cities. (US lost more guys in Okinawa than Normandy.) {Grave with the Fireflies}
• Britain and the United States pressed for rapid surrender to prevent the Soviets from taking any Japanese-held territories.
• The US saw a very bloody result were we to involve ourselves in that conflict.
  

The Holocaust

• The horror of the Nazi's systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other "inferior" races was slow to enter American consciousness. (We were very weary after coming out of WWII about these holocaust camps- FDR started doing backtracking to help the refugees)