America in World War II

America in World War II

Mobilization & The Home FrontThe North African Campaign

Unemployment in the United StatesUnemployment at the peak of the Depression? 25%

Unemployment by 1945? 1.9%

Iron & steel workers in the 1940s

Unemployed during the 1930s

The “Sleeping Giant”

Needs to be addressed1. Raise an army & supply it

2. Outthink the enemy3. Make the nation “safe”

The “Sleeping Giant”Raising an Army

US Army before WWII?180,000

Total size of military by 1945?15 million

Women?150,000 in the Women’s Army Auxiliary

250,000 across all branches

Minorities?1+ million African Americans

Asian citizens and Native Americans served in the Pacific as spies or “windtalkers”

The “Sleeping Giant”

Supplying the MilitaryIn 1944, the United States was on average

producing:One plane every five minutes

One ship everyday

How did the nation afford this?Bonds & Taxes

The “Sleeping Giant”

Outthinking the EnemyRadar & Sonar

M1 GarandBreaking Enigma & Ultra

And many more…

Office of Scientific Research & DevelopmentPlutonium and Uranium Discoveries

Making the Nation “Safe”

Japanese Internment in the United States

George Yamamoto & the Incident at Great Meadows

Japanese Internment

“A Jap is a Jap. It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen or not.”Gen. John L. DeWitt

127,000 Issei & Nisei interned in 1942

1944: Ruled constitutionally permissible due to the war.

George Yamamoto

& Great Meadows,

New Jersey

George YamamotoTorazo MatsumotoKazumasa “Frank”

KitagawaKatsuji “Edward”

TaniguchiTed Miyamura

Gila Relocation CenterPhoenix, AZ

to…Edward Kowalick’s Farm

Great Meadows, NJ

Mr. Kowalick was fond of Mr. Yamamoto as he “saved him time”.

“Mr. Yamamoto went to work cleaning up the cabin, unpacking his bedroll, caulking the windows and mending the latch on the front door… he sat down and wrote his family a letter. He told them he had had wonderful luck, that he had found a

good place and would be sending for them soon.”

Report in LIFE Magazine by Faith Fair

“But the telephones in Great Meadows were already ringing. ‘A Jap is in town. Saw him

with my own eyes. Got slant eyes and looks means.’ There were tales of arson and rape. The farmers had heard that Japanese could

produce celery cheaper than Americans. There was talk of how their children would soon be sitting next to yellow children in

school.”

Sign placed in the front of Mr. Kowalick’s farm

What Happened to Mr. Yamamoto?

The War in Steps

War in North Africa

WWII From Space (46:00)