World War II 1941-1945

1
World War II1941-1945
That means 2

• Chapter 25

2
Why War?

• Dictators such as Adolf Hitler in Germany and
  Benito Mussolini of Italy seized control of their
  respective countries after promising to vanquish
  the effects of the world depression from their
  nations and instituted fascist policies.
• German citizens were angered over the harsh
  reparations and limitations put on Germany under
  the Versailles Treaty which ended WWI.
• Hitler invaded Austria, and the war-scared
  Britain and France appeased Hitler and agreed
  that he could occupy it as long as he stopped
  invading. This was known as the Munich Mistake.
• Japanese control of Manchuria (1931) and Northern
  China (1937) gave control of almost the entire
  Pacific to the imperialistic Japanese.

3
Early US Involvement

• Americans had a strong isolationist sentiment
  Pres. Washington warned of Permanent Alliances.
• Congress passed three Neutrality Acts
  (35,36,37) which allowed the president to
  stop sales of weapons to any warring nation, and
  avoid another World War I situation. which might
  be involved in war.
• The Selective Service Act of 1940 enlisted 1.4
  million men to training, for hemispheric
  defense, not European intervention.
• The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 (March) ensured aid
  would go to the United Kingdom, such that the
  U.S. could "sell, exchange, lease, lend, any war
  materials temporarily keeping the U.S. out of
  the War.

4
A day that will live in world history
Infamy

• Sunday, December 7th, 1941 Japanese fighters
  launched an aerial sneak attack on the U.S. Navy
  base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
• After 2 waves of attack, 12 ships, 200 aircraft,
  and 2403 Americans were destroyed and killed. The
  Japanese lost 29 of 441 planes.
• The principle targets of the attack, the three
  American aircraft carriers, were on missions
  elsewhere, and were saved from the attack.
• The attack ignited the American want to enter
  WWII, and on December 8th, President Roosevelt
  gave his famous speech and signed a Declaration
  of War against Japan.
• War with Germany and Italy was realized on
  December 11th, with Hitler calling the U.S. Half
  Judaized and Half Negrified
• After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans, were
  interned at remote prison camps, mainly on the
  west coast.
• In the Supreme Court Case Korematsu v. US 1944
  - it was established that it was legal for the
  U.S. internment of Japanese Americans to continue
  because it was based on the grounds of national
  security. (Shenck?)

5
The War Hits Home

• Full Employment
• Men go off to War
• Rationing
• Women, African American and Mexicans fill the
  workforce
• Civil Liberties Korematsu (like Sacco and
  Vanzetti) are violated
• New Wartime powers

6
War Boards
An OSS plot to plant these stamps in Germany to
undermine German morale.

• After Pearl Harbor, many special wartime agencies
  were established
• The Office of Price Administration checked
  inflation due to massive government spending.
• The National War Labor Board mediated labor
  disputes and strikes.
• The War Manpower Commission directed mobilization
  of civilian forces
• The Office of War Information coordinated
  propaganda to sell the American people.
• The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a
  precursor to today's NSA and CIA it oversaw
  espionage and other intelligence activities.
• The conservation of materials such as metal,
  food, and most importantly rubber, was vital to
  the survival of the troops on the front.

7
New Workers Strikes

• Because previously employed men were fighting
  overseas, other Americans had to fill their empty
  spots in the workforce.
• Women, symbolized by Rosie the Riveter, grew to
  have over 50 to 19.5 million jobs in 1945.
• Over 200,000 Mexicans entered the U.S. illegally
  in order to help harvest crops.
• African Americans gained 900,000 jobs (to 3.8
  million) by 1945.
• New job titles were offered to women mining,
  machinists, heavy machinery operators, electrical
  workers, and other jobs in which they received
  record wages.
• There were strikes, some organized by the new
  United Auto Workers (UAW), while others organized
  massive, illegal wildcat strikes. In 1943 John
  L. Lewis led a strike of half a million coal
  miners. In response, Congress passed a federal
  antistrike bill, giving the president power to
  penalize strikers, even draft them!

8
Military Mobilization

• October 16th, 1940 was National Registration Day,
  in which all men were legally obligated to
  register for military service. (yayhmmno)
• Only the Marines were ready for the war. The
  Army\AF and Navy were unprepared to enter war.
• African Americans enlisted 60 more than other
  Americans. Racism and segregation led to
  miserable existence in the beginning of the war.
• Many women joined the Womens Army Corps, the
  Womens Airforce Service Pilots, and were often
  more educated than the common GI.

9
The U.S. War Goals

• Stop Totalitarian
• Aggression
• Defeat Germany, Italy, Japan
• Europe First
• Win a Two Front War

10
Technology in the War

• Fighters and Bombers Air power was now a
  dominant force in war, and fighters and bombers
  were an important asset to both sides of the war.
  
• Aircraft Carriers Floating airports, they were
  able to carry planes and bombers to remote
  locations (a.k.a. Japanese mainland Deweys
  raid on Tokyo).
• Liberty Ships These were ships mass produced by
  America in order to keep supplies running to
  Europe.
• Submarines German U-Boats and Allied
  submarines in the Pacific sank hundreds of
  thousands of tons of
• Radar The development of radar by the British
  gave them an advantage over the numerically
  superior Luftwaffe (German Air force)
• Jet Engine The first German jet fighter was
  developed in 1943, but Hitler felt it would be
  more suited as a bomber
• The Manhattan Project The Top Secret American
  project to develop the Atomic Bomb,

11
War in Europe

• June 6th, 1944 Operation Overlord, the
  invasion of Europe with the largest invasion
  force in history (175,000 men) and 5,000 ships
  at Normandy, France.
• The allies made a slow but unstoppable push to
  Paris, then to the Rhine River, and finally to
  Berlin, the Capital of Germany.
• German superiority on both the ground and in the
  air had been devastated by the relentlessness of
  the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Battle
  of Britain and the determination of the Russians
  and the cold weather in Hitlers invasion of
  Russia.
• In the Battle of the Bulge, Hitlers last attempt
  at stopping the Allies, a surprise attack in
  Belgium against the Allies, drove them back 50
  miles before they recovered and counterattacked.
• The Germans no longer had the ability to
  counterattack, and Hitler committed suicide
  before he could be captured.

12
Pacific Campaign

• U.S. Pacific command was split between two rivals
  General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester
  Nimitz.
• A system of Island hopping enabled the
  Americans to slowly creep up on the Japanese home
  islands
• The Japanese, who were fearless fighters, fought
  to the death on many of the islands, including
  Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and in the
  Philippine Islands. As a result of this,
  extremely heavy losses were sustained as Marines
  invaded beaches and launched amphibious assaults,
  and towards the end of the war, Japanese
  kamikaze's slammed their planes into American
  ships in a last ditch effort to stop the
  Americans.
• Japans navy was decimated at the Battle of Coral
  Sea, Battle of Leyte Gulf and at the Battle of
  Midway, the later which caused the destruction of
  three of Japans mighty aircraft carriers, which
  spelled the coming of wars end.
• There was an internal disagreement between the
  civil emperor (Hirohito) and the commanding
  military authority. The honor of the Japanese
  could not be ruined by surrendering, which was
  finally brought about by a new type of weapon

13
Wars End

• Germany surrendered on May 8th, 1945, with the
  death of Hitler and the occupation of Berlin by
  Allied forces from both directions (US\UK and
  Russian).
• In February 1945, President Roosevelt held a
  meeting (his last) with Winston Churchill and
  Stalin at Yalta, located on the Black Sea. They
  discussed what would happen to the German and
  Japanese after they had fallen to the Allies, and
  how their territories would be brought back to
  civilized world society
• FDR died of a stroke on April 12, 1945, after
  winning his 4th term in office as President of
  the United States, (defeating Thomas E. Dewey 432
  to 99). His sucessor, Harry S. Truman, lacked the
  political experience that FDR had.
• At the Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945),
  held outside of Berlin, it was agreed that
  Japans unconditional surrender was to be
  demanded, and that Nazi war criminals were to be
  prosecuted (which they were at the Nuremburg
  Trials).
• The dropping of two atomic bombs by the Americans
  at Nagasaki and Hiroshima instigated the Japanese
  to an unconditional surrender, made formal on
  September 2nd, 1945 (VJ day)

BFFL
14
Results of World War II

• The U.S. economy continued preparing for the next
  war
• Post War Baby Boom
• New Consumer Goods
• United Nations
• Super Power