Title: The United States in World War II
1The United States in World War II
2Americans joined the war effort
- 5 million volunteers
- 10 million Additional draftees
- WAACS
- WAVES
- Recruiting of
- Minorities
- Japanese
- Immigrants
3Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service
(WAVES)
Womens Army Air Corps Pilots
Join the Womens Army Corps (WACs)
4Fords Willow Run Factory
Ford made one B-24 bomber every hour
5Henry Kaisers West Coast Shipyards
The Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, in
part, because the USA produced ships faster than
German u-boats could sink them
Kaiser standardized battleship building reduced
the time it took to make a battleship from 355
days to 14 days
6Labors contribution
- By 1944 18 million laborers worked to support the
war - 6 million of those were women
- 2 million minority workers
- A. Phillip Randolph Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters - Threatened a march on Washington if African
American workers didnt get to participate fully
in war work called off the march when Roosevelt
gave in
7Mobilization of Scientists
- Office of Scientific Research Development
- Anti-lice pesticides
- Penicillan
- Atomic bomb
- Manhattan Project
8Federal Government Takes Control
- OPA (Office of Price Administration)
- Fought inflation by freezing prices
- Set up rationing
- Congress raised income tax rates
- WPB (War Production Board)
- Converted companies to wartime production
- Organized national drives for tin, rubber, paper,
etc.
9War Rations
10Battle of the Atlantic
- Submarine attacks on shipping
- Wolf Packs
- January April 87 American ships lost
- Convoy
- By 1943 140 ships being produced per month
- Shipping was much safer by 1943
11Battle of Stalingrad
- August 1942-January 1943
- 1,100,000 Russians died
- 800,000 Germans and others died
- 6000 returned
- Turning point in the European front
12North Africa
13Italian Campaign
14Segregated Units
- 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee airmen)
- Mexican Americans (141st regiment)
- Japanese Americans (100th batallion)
15D-Day
- https//www.youtube.com/watch?vpCLJhxfj608
16The War in the Pacific theater
17Bataan Death March
- BATAAN DEATH MARCHThe Bataan Death March began
on April 10, 1942, when the Japanese assembled
about 78,000 prisoners (12,000 U.S. and 66,000
Filipino). They began marching up the east coast
of Bataan. Although they didn't know it, their
destination was Camp O'Donnell, north of the
peninsula. The men, already desperately
weakened by hunger and disease, suffered
unspeakably during the March. Regardless of their
condition, POWs who could not continue or keep up
with the pace were summarily executed. Even
stopping to relieve oneself could bring death, so
many chose to continue walking while relieving
themselves. Some of the guards made a sport of
hurting or killing the POWs. The Marchers were
beaten with rifle butts, shot or bayoneted
without reason. Most of the POWs got rid of their
helmets because some by Japanese soldiers on
passing trucks hit them with rifle butts. Some
enemy soldiers savagely toyed with POWs by
dragging them behind trucks with a rope around
the neck. Japanese guards also gave the POWs the
"sun treatment" by making them sit in the
sweltering heat of the direct sun for hours at a
time without shade. The Death Marchers received
almost no water or food, further weakening their
fragile bodies. Most POWs only received a total
of a few cups of rice, and little or no water.
Sympathetic Filipinos alongside the road tried to
give POWs food and water, but if a guard saw it,
the POW and the Filipino helper could be beaten
or killed. Some POWs had the water in their
canteens poured out onto the road or taken by the
Japanese just to be cruel. Although thirst began
to drive some of the men mad, if a POW broke
ranks to drink stagnant, muddy water at the side
of the road, he would be bayoneted or shot.
Groups of POWs were often deliberately stopped in
front of the many artesian wells. These wells
poured out clean water, but the POWs were not
allowed to drink it. Some were killed just
because they asked for water. The POWs marched
roughly 65 miles over the course of about six
days until they reached San Fernando. There,
groups as large as 115 men were forced into
boxcars designed to hold only 30-40 men. Boxcars
were so full that the POWs could not sit down.
This caused more to die of heat exhaustion and
suffocation in the cars on the ride from San
Fernando to Capas. The POWs then walked seven
more miles to Camp O'Donnell. At the entrance to
the camp, the POWs were told to lay out the few
possessions they still had any POW found with
any Japanese-made items or money was executed on
the spot.
https//www.youtube.com/watch?v8f4wvI5iAM0
18Doolittle Raid
- Spring 1942
- Raid on Tokyo
- https//www.youtube.com/watch?vxTJ6LSnNKjg
19Battle of Midway
- Admiral Chester Nimitz
- Turning point in the Pacific campaign
- Aircraft carrier battle
- Decisive American victory 4 of 6 Japanese
aircraft carriers destroyed - https//www.youtube.com/watch?vF4pUD9qWKs8
20Kamikaze
- By 1944 hope was almost gone for the Japanese
- Kamikaze divine wind
- Battle of Leyte Gulf 1st tried
- https//www.youtube.com/watch?vDkNLMzmwZmg
21Iwo Jima
- http//www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-
of-iwo-jima
22The Manhattan Project
- TIMELINE
- July 16, 1945 Bomb tested in New Mexico
- August 6 1st bomb dropped on Hiroshima
- August 9, 2nd bomb dropped on Nagasaki
- September 2 Japan surrenders
- J. Robert Oppenheimer
- 600,000 American workers
- 1st test July 16, 1945
23(No Transcript)
24The effects
http//www.domlife.org/Justice/Disarmament/bombfac
tsheet.pdf
25The Yalta Conference
- Agreement
- Temporary division of Germany in 4 zones
- Free elections for Poland
- USSR would join the war against Japan
- USSR would participate in UN meetings
26Nuremberg Trials
- 24 High ranking Nazis were put on trial for
crimes against humanity - The Nazis were only following orders
- never happened
- https//www.youtube.com/watch?v_pQJ42ONPDo
27Occupation of Japan
- MacArthur acted as a military dictator
- Free market practices
- New constitution w/womens suffrage
28The Home Front
29Economic Gains 1940s
- Defense workers
- 35 wage increases
- Farmers
- Farm income up 300
- Women
- New opportunities
- 35 of work force
30Population Shifts
- African Americans migrated North in search of
- Jobs
- Educational opportunity
- Equal rights opportunities
- California saw a huge increase in population
31Discrimination
- Civil Rights
- 1942 James Farmer founded Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) - Urban segregation in the North
- Zoot Suit riots
- https//www.youtube.com/watch?vHsFN2fMLL-s
32Japanese Internment Camps
- Executive order 9066
- Public law 503
- 1942 Mass evacuation of Japanese Americans
- No specific charges
- Found constitutional by Supreme court in
Korematsu vs. United States - Japanese American Citizens League
- 1965 38 million in reparations
- 20,000 to each interned person
https//www.youtube.com/watch?v6mr97qyKA2s
33Important Legislation
- GI Bill of Rights
- Education and training for veterans
- Federal housing loans
- Korematsu V. United States (1944)
- Court sanctioned racism