Date post: | 16-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | paris-cator |
View: | 218 times |
Download: | 0 times |
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