WAR AND PEACE

1
WAR AND PEACE

• The Road to Pearl Harbor
• relations between Japan and the United States
  deteriorated after Japan resumed its war against
  China in 1937
• neither the United States nor Japan desired war
• Roosevelt considered Nazi Germany to be a more
  dangerous enemy and dreaded the prospect of a
  two-front war

2

• in the spring of 1941, Secretary of State Cordell
  Hull demanded that Japan withdraw from China and
  pledge not to occupy French and Dutch possessions
  in Asia
• even moderates in Japan did not accept Hulls
  demand for total withdrawal
• in July 1941, the United States retaliated
  against Japans occupation of Indochina by
  freezing Japanese assets in America and placing
  an embargo on petroleum

3

• militarists assumed control of Japans
  government, and while the pretense of negotiation
  continued, Japan prepared to implement war plans
  against the United States
• on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor
• Congress declared war on Japan the following day,
  and on December 11, the Axis powers declared war
  on the United States

4

• Mobilizing the Home Front
• Congress granted wide emergency powers to the
  president
• however, Democratic majorities were slim in both
  houses, and a coalition of conservatives from
  both parties limited Roosevelts freedom to act
  through fiscal oversight
• Roosevelt was an inspiring wartime leader but a
  poor administrator
• nevertheless, Roosevelts basic decisions made
  sense

5

• they included financing the war through taxes,
  basing taxation on ability to pay, rationing
  scarce resources and consumer goods, and
  regulating wages and prices
• a lack of centralized authority impeded
  mobilization, but production expanded
  dramatically
• manufacturing nearly doubled agricultural output
  rose 22 percent
• unemployment virtually disappeared
• productive capacity and per capita output
  increased especially dramatically in the South

6

• The War Economy
• Roosevelt selected James F. Byrnes as his wartime
  economic czar
• Byrnes headed the Office of War Mobilization,
  which controlled production, consumption,
  priorities, and prices
• the National War Labor Board arbitrated disputes
  and stabilized wages
• despite rationing and wage regulations, American
  civilians experienced no real hardships during
  the war

7

• prosperity and stiffer government controls
  strengthened organized labor the war did more to
  institutionalize collective bargaining than the
  New Deal had done
• the war also effected a redistribution of wealth
  in America
• the wealthiest 1 percent of the population
  received 13.4 percent of the national income in
  1935 by 1944 this group received 6.7 percent
• the income tax was extended until nearly all
  Americans paid
• Congress adopted the payroll-deduction system to
  ensure its collection

8

• War and Social Change
• Americans became more mobile
• not only were those in the military moved to
  training camps all over the United States and to
  Europe and the Pacific, but wartime industries
  drew millions of civilians to new areas
• wartime prosperity allowed new marriages and a
  higher birthrate

9

• Minorities in Time of War Blacks, Hispanics, and
  Indians
• several factors improved the condition of black
  Americans
• Hitlers racial doctrines made racism less
  respectable
• black leaders pointed out the inconsistency
  between fighting for democracy abroad and
  ignoring it at home
• blacks serving in the military were treated more
  fairly than in World War I however, the armed
  forces remained segregated

10

• economic realities worked to the advantage of
  black civilians
• unemployment had affected blacks
  disproportionately the labor shortage brought
  full employment
• moreover, defense jobs often involved
  opportunities to develop valuable skills,
  opportunities that racist policies of unions and
  employers had denied to blacks before the war
• blacks moved to the cities of the North, Midwest,
  and West Coast

11

• although most migrants had to live in urban
  ghettos, their very concentration (and the fact
  that blacks outside the South could vote) gave
  them greater political clout
• the NAACP grew in membership and influence it
  also assumed a more activist role
• to head off a threatened march on Washington, the
  president established a Fair Employment Practices
  Commission
• racial tensions resulted in race riots, the worst
  of which took place in Detroit

12

• increased demands for labor led to a reversal of
  the governments policy of forcing Mexicans out
  of the Southwest
• in Los Angeles, prejudice against Hispanics
  erupted into rioting against young men wearing
  zoot suits
• military service and mobility in search of
  employment increased the American Indians
  assimilation into white society

13

• The Treatment of German- and Italian-Americans
• World War II produced less intolerance and
  repression than World War I
• in marked contrast to the First World War,
  Americans in World War II were generally able to
  distinguish between the enemy in Italy and
  Germany and Italian-Americans and German-Americans

14

• few Italian-Americans supported Mussolini, and
  most German-Americans were vehemently
  anti-fascist
• moreover, both groups were well organized and
  prepared to use their political influence

15

• Internment of the Japanese
• in marked contrast to treatment of Americans of
  Italian or German descent, 112,000
  Japanese-Americans, many of them native-born
  citizens, were relocated into internment camps
• the government feared their potential disloyalty,
  and the public was aroused by racial prejudice
  and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
• Supreme Court upheld restrictions on
  Japanese-Americans in Hirabayashi v. U.S. (1943)
• finally, in Ex Parte Endo (1944), the Supreme
  Court forbade the internment of loyal
  Japanese-American citizens

16

• Womens Contribution to the War Effort
• millions of women entered the work force during
  the war, and more married women than ever worked
  outside of the home
• despite initial reluctance by employers and
  unions, women made inroads into traditionally
  male domains
• black women bore a double burden of race and
  gender, but the demand for labor created
  opportunities for them
• in addition to prejudice in the workplace,
  working women faced housework as well

17

• war also affected women who did not take jobs
• wartime mobility caused problems for the women
  who faced new, sometimes difficult, surroundings
  without traditional support networks
• war brides often followed their husbands to
  training camps, where they faced problems
  comparable to those of women who moved to work in
  defense industries in addition, they faced the
  fear and emotional uncertainties of newlyweds,
  compounded by separation from husbands who were
  risking their lives overseas

18

• Allied Strategy Europe First
• Allied strategists decided to concentrate on the
  European war first
• the Japanese threat was remote, but Hitler
  threatened to knock Soviet Union out of war
• the United States and Soviet Union wanted to
  establish a second front in France as soon as
  possible
• Churchill pressed instead for strategic bombing
  raids on German cities and an invasion of
  German-held North Africa
• Churchill got his way

19

• in 1942, Allied planes began to bomb German
  cities, and an Allied force under Dwight
  Eisenhower invaded North Africa
• the decision to offer conditional surrender terms
  to the French collaborationist, Admiral Jean
  Darlan, disturbed Charles de Gaulle and many
  Americans, but it did yield strategic dividends
• Rommels Afrika Korps surrendered in May 1943
• by the fall of 1943, the Soviets had checked the
  Nazi advance at Stalingrad, and the Allies were
  pushing their way up the Italian peninsula

20

• Germany Overwhelmed
• on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allied forces
  launched a massive attack on the Normandy coast
• in the East, millions of Soviet troops slowly
  pushed back the Axis lines
• while Eisenhower prepared for a general advance,
  the Germans launched a counterattack
• Allies turned back Germans at the Battle of the
  Bulge, which cost Germans their last reserves

21

• on May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany unconditionally
  surrendered
• as the Allies advanced, the horror of the Nazi
  death camps unfolded
• news of the camps had reached the United States
  much earlier
• yet Roosevelt declined to take any action to save
  refugees or even to bomb the camps or the rail
  lines leading to the camps

22

• The Naval War in the Pacific
• while the first priority was to defeat Germany,
  American forces in the Pacific fought to prevent
  further Japanese expansion
• in spite of heavy losses, the American navy
  turned back a Japanese convoy at the Battle of
  the Coral Sea (1942)
• at Midway, the United States fleet decisively
  defeated a Japanese armada
• thereafter, the initiative in the Pacific shifted
  to the Americans

23

• Island Hopping
• American forces ejected the Japanese from the
  Solomon Islands in a series of battles around
  Guadalcanal in which American air power proved
  decisive
• American forces advanced steadily, and by
  mid-1944, American land-based bombers were within
  range of Tokyo
• in February 1945, MacArthur liberated the
  Philippines

24

• two battles in Philippine waters (1944) completed
  the destruction of Japans sea power and reduced
  its air power to kamikazes
• American forces took Iwo Jima and Okinawa, only a
  few hundred miles from the Japanese mainland, in
  March 1945
• the tenacity of Japanese soldiers made it seem
  that the actual invasion and conquest of Japan
  would take at least another year and cost an
  additional million American casualties

25

• Building the Atom Bomb
• following Roosevelts death in April 1945, Harry
  S Truman became Americas president
• Americas scientific community delivered a
  powerful new weapon, the atom bomb, to Truman
• the United States had devoted over six years and
  2 billion to develop this weapon
• after the first successful test on July 16, 1945,
  Truman faced a difficult decision

26

• he could authorize bombing the Japanese cities
  with this weapon, or he could finish the war
  using conventional means
• the motives behind Trumans decision are still
  debated
• on August 6 and 9, 1945, atomic weapons
  devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Trumans decision was influenced by the potential
  casualties involved in an invasion of Japan as
  well as a desire to end the war before the Soviet
  Union could intervene effectively and claim a
  role in making peace

27

• hatred of Japan undoubtedly also influenced the
  decision
• on August 15, Japan surrendered unconditionally,
  and Second World War ended
• millions of people perished in the war, and many
  areas lay in ruins. Despite the war's horrible
  cost, improvements in technology and medicine
  held out the promise of a better world
• scientists argued that the power of the atom
  could also serve peaceful needs
• with the drafting of the United Nations charter
  in 1945, the world hoped for international
  cooperation

28

• Wartime Diplomacy
• hopes of world peace and harmony failed to
  materialize, largely because of a split between
  the Soviet Union and the western allies
• during the war, American propaganda spared no
  effort to persuade Americans that the Soviet
  Union was a devoted, peace-loving ally
• Joseph Stalin was portrayed as a kindly father
  figure
• Americans representing viewpoints as diverse as
  Douglas A. MacArthur and Henry A. Wallace adopted
  pro-Soviet positions

29

• such views were naive at best, but the war
  created an identity of interest in defeating a
  common enemy
• moreover, the Soviets expressed a willingness to
  cooperate in resolving postwar problems, and the
  Soviet Union was one of the original signers of
  the Declaration of the United Nations
• in May 1943, the Soviets dissolved the Comintern
• in October, the big three powers established
  the European Advisory Commission to set policy
  for the occupation of Germany

30

• the Big Three met and cooperated constructively
  at Teheran and Yalta
• at San Francisco, the Allies created a United
  Nations Organization consisting of a General
  Assembly (made up of all member nations) and a
  Security Council (consisting of five permanent
  members and six other, temporary members)

31

• Allied Suspicion of Stalin
• long before the war ended, the Allies clashed
  over important issues
• Stalin deeply resented the delay in opening a
  second front
• at the same time, the Soviet leader never
  concealed his determination to protect his
  western frontier by exerting control over Eastern
  Europe

32

• most Allied leaders conceded Stalins dominance
  in Eastern Europe, but they never publicly
  acknowledged this
• Conflicts between western commitments to
  self-determination and Soviet desires for
  security presented difficult problems,
  particularly in Poland

33

• Yalta and Potsdam
• at Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to
  Soviet annexation of large sections of eastern
  Poland
• Stalin agreed to allow the Poles to hold free
  elections, a commitment he probably never
  intended to keep
• a pro-Soviet regime was installed in Poland. The
  new president, Truman, met with Stalin and the
  British leadership at Potsdam in July 1945

34

• Potsdam formalized the occupation of Germany
• fortified by news of the successful testing of an
  atomic bomb, Truman made no concessions to the
  Soviets
• Stalin refused to relinquish his hold on Eastern
  Europe
• suspicions mounted and positions hardened on both
  sides
• the end of World War II marked the beginning of a
  new international order dominated by the
  Soviet-American rivalry