Chapter 35 America in World War II. America’s Motivation United States was plunged into the inferno of World War II with the most humiliating defeat in.

Chapter 35America in World War II

America’s Motivation

United States was plunged into the inferno of World War II with the most humiliating defeat in history.

U.S was looking to avenge the devastating attack in Pearl Harbor Americans adopted “Get Japan First” motto However the government had adopted “Get Germany First”

motto

Allies Trade Space for Time

The Allies had the great mass of world’s population. Allies had the largest number of people while

Germany had fewer number of people U.S had the mightiest military power on earth. Also, expense was no limitation for the allies. The only thing that the Allies didn’t have was

time.

Allies Spread Trade Space for Time America’s task was far more complex

It had to feed, clothe, and arm itself it also had to transport it forces to regions as

separated as Britain and Burma It had to send a vast amount of food and

munitions to desperate allies

Burma is located in Asia and has changed its name to Myanmar.

The Shock of War

WWII speeded the assimilation of many ethnic groups into American society.

Japanese people in America were forcibly herded together in internment camps

Even though two-thirds of them were American born U.S citizens

The camps deprived the people from dignity and basic rights Supreme Court in 1944 upheld the constitutionality

of the internment camps in Korematsu vs. U.S In 1988, more than 4 decades later, the government

officially apologized for its actions and approved the payment of reparations of $20,000 to each camp survivor

Japanese Internment CampsName State Opened Max Pop’n

Manzanar California 1942 10,046

Tule Lake California 1942 18,789

Poston Arizona 1942 17,814

Gila River Arizona 1942 13,348

Granada Colorado 1942 7,318

Heart Mountain Wyoming 1942 10,767

Rohwer Arkansas 1942 9,397

Jerome Arkansas 1942 8,130

Minidoka Idaho 1942 8,475

Topaz Utah 1942 8,497

Location of the Camps

Japanese American

Internment Camps

Building the War Machine

American factories poured forth an avalanche of weaponry 40 billion bullets, 300,000 aircraft, 76,000 ships,

86,000 tanks and 2.6 million machine gun Lowered productions of nonessential items

Farmers also increased their output Armed forces drained the farms of workers New heavy investments in agriculture machinery

and improve fertilizers made up the difference

Building the War Machine

Labor Union increased from 10 millions to 13 millions Resented the government dictated wage ceiling Had many walk-outs which plagued the war In June 1943, Congress passed Smith- Connally

Anti-Strike Act Allowed federal government to seize and operate tied up

industries Strikes against any government-operated industry were

made a criminal offense

Manpower and Woman Power Armed services enlisted nearly 15 million

men and 216,000 women for noncombatant duties

Needed many workers so they brought in women to work in factories more than 6 millions women took up jobs outside

of their homes At the war’s end. Two-thirds of women war

workers were left in the labor force

Women’s Role in WWII

Rosie the Riveter became a symbol for women workers in American Defense Industries

Wartime Migrations

War industries sucked people into boomtowns like Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle, and Baton Rouge

South experienced dramatic changes Received a disproportionate share of defense

contracts 1.6 million blacks left south for west and north

Segregation in the Armed Forces Black people were drafted into armed forces

Assigned to service branches rather than combat units and subjected to petty degradations

in general, the war helped embolden blacks in their long struggle for equality

Holding the Home Front

The war invigorated America’s economy and lifted the country out of a decade-long depression

Gross national product vaulted from less than $100 billions in 1940 to $200 billions in 1945

The debt also skyrocketed from $49 billion in 1941 to $259 billions in 1945

The war was costing about $10 million an hour

The Rising Sun in the Pacific

Japanese launched widespread and uniformly successful attacks on various Far Eastern bastions Included Guam, Wake, and the Philippines Also seized Hong Kong, British Malaya and cut off

the critical Burma Road

Far Eastern Bastions

Guam Wake The Philippines

Japan’s High Tide at Midway

Japan also pushed southward Invaded New Guinea, Australia, Solomon

Islands Finally lost the battle at Midway Island to U.S All the fighting was done by carrier-based

aircraft Didn’t fired a shot directly at each other

Admiral Nimitz “Hellcat” Fighter Plane

American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo Admiral Nimitz skillfully coordinated naval, air

and ground units America’s new weapon “Hellcat”, a fighter

plane, destroyed 250 Japanese aircraft while only losing 29 American planes

On November 1944, round the clock bombing of Japan began

The Allied Halting of Hitler

Hitler had formidable fleet of submarines in the Atlantic Ocean At first getting the upper hand was difficult But British code-breakers broke the

German’s Enigma codes and track the U-boats lurking the North Atlantic

The Allied Halting of Hitler

The turning point of the land-air war was in 1942. British and America were cascading bombs on German

cities On October 1942, British general Bernard Montgomery

delivered a withering attack at El Alamein The success gave a new lift to the Allied cause especially

for the Soviet In November 1942, Russians unleashed a crushing

counteroffensive A year later, Stalin regained about two-thirds of the Soviet

land

D-Day: June 6, 1944

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met in person to coordinate their attack plan in Teheran, the capital of Iran Went on from November 28th to December 1st, 1943

Preparations for the cross-channel invasion of France were gigantic In Britain, more than 3 millions men were readied U.S provided majority of the Allied warriors

Overall command was entrusted to General Eisenhower The attack was pinpointed to French Normandy which was

held by Germany

Stalin, Churchill and FDR

D-Day: June 6, 1944

Germans were tricked into expecting a blow to fall farther north

The Allies were able to block reinforcements by crippling the railroads

Germans retreated in August 1944 when American-French force swept northward

In August 1944, Paris was liberated In October 1944, the first important German

city, Aachen, fell to the Americans

Map of Germany

FDR: The Fourth-Term of 1944 Victory-starved Republicans

met in Chicago and nominated Thomas E. Dewey for President and John W. Bricker of Ohio for Vice President

FDR was the “indispensable man” of the Democrats

He was nominated on the first ballot by applause

Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri was nominated for Vice-President

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)

Harry S. Truman

Roosevelt Defeats Dewey

Roosevelt won his fourth term as President over Thomas Dewey A sweeping victory: 432 to 99 in the Electoral

College 25,606,585 to 22,014,745 in the popular vote He mostly won because the war was going well

The Last Days of Hitler

By the end of December, Germany seems to be losing its strength Desperate, Hitler staked everything on one last

throw of his reserves On December 16, 1944, he attacked the

Ardennes Forest Objective was the Belgian port of Antwerp Americans were caught off guard but they

stabilize

The Last Days of Hitler

• In March 1945, American troops reached Rhine River and found a bridge that led to Elbe River in April 1945. In Berlin, they found concentration

camps where Nazis had murder the “undesirables” including 6 millions jews.

Holocaust

The Allies didn’t know the extent of the Holocaust until the discovery of the concentration camps

Tragedy Struck America

On April 12, 1945, FDR, while relaxing at Warm Springs, died from a massive cerebral hemorrhage

Bewildered, unbriefed Vice President Truman took the oath

On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally

May 8 was officially proclaimed V-E (Victory in Europe)

The Atomic Bombs and Japan’s Defeat America was planning on an all-out invasion

of Japan Albert Einstein was pushed ahead to unlock the

secret of an atomic bomb “The Manhattan Project” or the atomic bomb

pushed forward Originally intended for Germany but now Japan Robert Oppenheimer invented the bomb

Hiroshima Bombing

On August 6, 1945, a lone American bomber dropped one atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan 180,000 were killed, wounded or missing 70,000 died immediately 60,000 more perished from burns and radiation

disease

Hiroshima Bombing

The Atomic Bomb and Japan’s Defeat Two days after the bombing, Stalin entered the war against

Japan However, Japan didn’t surrender 2nd atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki on August 9th.

80,000 people were killed or missing Finally, on August 10, 1945, Tokyo sued for peace on one

condition: Hirohito would be allowed to remain on his throne as nominal

emperor On September 2, 1945, official surrender ceremonies were

conducted America celebrated V-J (Victory in Japan Day) after the most

horrible war in history that ended with two mushrooming atomic clouds

Japan surrender

on USS Missouri

on Sept 2, 1945

The Allies Triumphant

WWII was terribly costly but profitable for U.S American lost 1 millions casualties Soviet Union lost 20 millions people America was untouched and healthy while the

rest of the world was destroyed American military leadership proved to be of the

highest order America industrialized more American people preserved their precious liberties

without serious impairment.

America Celebrate Victory