AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II

1. AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II CHAPTER 35

2. The Allies Trade Space For Time • After Pearl Harbor, the free world was on the edge of disaster • Japan running amok in Pacific and Germany might drive England to the wall before US aid could stem the tide. • ABC-1 agreement • Get Germany 1st and then move to Japan • Why is stopping Hitler a bigger priority? • Hitler might be able to crush Soviets and British • Plan: Devote enough energy to Japan to keep them from getting any more and begin to try to drive them back, but make Europe the first priority. • This strategy criticized by public, pacific commanders, China and far-east allies, but was sound.

3. Revving the Economic Engine • US had massive economic potential, but needed time to get geared up. • England in desperate shape. • America needed to time to convert factories to all-out war production. • Fear that skilled German scientists would come up with dramatic new weapons. • Had to feed and arm itself and allies.

4. The Shock Of War • National unity wasn’t a problem—Pearl Harbor had silenced isolationists. • West-Coast Japanese • 110,000 interned in concentration camps. Why? • Most interned were well integrated into US • Lost millions in earnings and property. • Upheld by Supreme Court in Korematsu v. U.S. • Apologize in 1988 and pay reparations.

5. Japanese Internment Waiting for the Signal From Home

6. Building The War Machine • War snapped US out of the depression. • Full employment. • War Production Board. • Henry J. Kaiser -Ship-building king (14 days per ship)

7. Rationing • War production board halted manufacture of non-essential items • War industries had first priority in transport and raw materials • National speed limit and gas rationing. • Food Rationing • Meat and butter • Farmers have bumper crops and boom time.

8. Do Your Part

9. Economic Bumps • War caused Inflation. Why? • Full employment and scare consumer goods • WPB response. • Ceilings on wage increases • Unions gave no-strike pledge, but hated wage caps and some staged labor stoppages. • Mine workers under John L. Lewis were the worst. • Roosevelt took a tough stance. • 1943 Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act • Authorized federal gov’t to seize and operate tied up industry; strikes were a criminal offense.

10. Manpower Shortage • 15 Million men served in WWII. • 216,000 women served in military in one capacity or another • Severe manpower shortage at home. • Braceros.

11. Rosie the Riveter • 6 Million women took jobs outside the home; over half had never worked before. Rosie the Riveter. • Effect on Women’s movement • Wanted to keep working after the war • 2/3 left or lost their jobs after war.

12. Wartime Migrations • Reason for wartime migrations • 1.6 million blacks moved from the south. • New race problems in northern cities. • Blacks resent their treatment. • FDR issues executive order prohibiting discrimination in defense industries • Fair Employment Practices Commission.

13. Internal Migration in the United States During World War II

14. Blacks Demand Fairness • Blacks adopt the Double V slogan. • Victory over Military segregation and dictators • NAACP membership shoots up and Congress for Racial Equality is established (CORE) • Move north continues after the war.

15. Economic Effect of War • Americans at home suffered very little from the war, especially when contrasted to the Brits and Russians. • War invigorated the US economy to an unprecedented level. • GNP doubled from 1940 to 1945 and pay checks went way up. • Disposable income more than doubled, but not much to spend on because all factories devoted to war. • The war, even more than the New Deal, leads to the Big Government of the second half of the 20th Century.

16. Federal Spending • All the federal spending finally cures the depression. • War cost $330 billion. • Where did money come from? • Forced US to borrow at unprecedented level and to raise taxes. • National debt goes from $49 Billion in 1941 to $259 Billion in 1945.

17. Figure 36.1: The National Debt, 1930–1950

18. THE RISING SUN IN THE PACIFIC • Japan attacks islands around them • Burma Road – US had been using this to support Jiang Jieshi (China) • General Douglas MacArthur – Philippines – forced to surrender • He fled to Australia • Bataan Death March – prisoner of war camps

19. JAPAN’S HIGH TIDE AT MIDWAY • Coral Sea • Japan going for Australia • Heavy losses for Japan • Aircraft carriers – important • Midway • Japan lost 4 carriers and the battle • Turning Point!!!!!

20. AMERICAN LEAPFROGGING TOWARD TOKYO • Guadalcanal • Japan loss – 20,000 / US loss - 1,700 • New Guinea • Last buffer protecting Australia • Heavy Losses for Japan • MacArthur starts to return in Philippines • Leapfrogging

22. The Allied Halting Of Hitler • Battle of North Atlantic • German subs were sinking merchant ships faster than they could be built. • Code Breakers • North Africa • Erwin Rommel – Desert Fox • Bernard Montgomery (WINS) • 9/42 Russia stalls the German steamroller on the outskirts of Stalingrad Turning point in USSR

23. The North African Second Front • Soviets are begging the allies to open second front. Allies recognize they need to. • Stalin’s concerns and fears • Allies concerns • Americans are willing to make a cross-channel invasion in 1942 but Churchill and England’s high command are against this. • British argue for an attack at the underbelly of Europe in the Mediterranean.

24. Operation Torch • Invade North Africa 11/42. • Ike in command. • Biggest sea-born invasion up to that time. • American troops get pummeled by Germans in first battle at Kasserine pass. Patton takes charge. • U.S. and Brits begin to drive Germans East. • Forced Germans to surrender in Tunisia 5/43

25. Casablanca • Churchill and Roosevelt Jan. 1943. • Agree to invade Sicily. • Many on American staff don’t like this idea. • Churchill and Roosevelt agree to insist on unconditional surrender of Germany. Why? • Soviets would like it • Forestall charges of future broken treaties • Enemy must now fight until the last bunker

26. Sicily • Sicily invaded and falls 8/43. • Mussolini is deposed soon thereafter and Italy unconditionally surrenders. • Germans don’t leave and carry on fight in Italy

27. Invasion of Italy • 9/43 Allies invade toe of Italy and start fighting up the boot. • Bogs down; amphibious invasion along the Western coast at Anzio. • Very slow going in Italy fighting through the mountains. • Allies finally get Rome 2 days before D-Day. • Do not finish in Italy until 5 days before German surrender.

28. Italy Assessed • Benefits: • Does divert some German troops and provides us with air bases from which we can easily bomb Germany. • Does open the Mediterranean to Allies greatly restricting Germans. • Problems: • Delayed the cross-channel invasion by many months, giving Soviets a chance to get further into Eastern Europe before the war ends. • Increased Soviet suspicion

30. Tehran Conference • Late Nov. 1943 • Purpose • Plan an East and West simultaneous attack • First meeting of Roosevelt and Stalin Stalin Roosevelt Churchill

31. Eisenhower’s D-day Invasion Of France • Eisenhower is given command of D-day landing. • June 6, 1944. Biggest sea-borne invasion in history. • Land near Normandy. • Five beaches. Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, Omaha

32. D-Day • Very hard fighting; • Have to break out before Germans bring in reinforcements and drive invasion back into the ocean. • US has Air superiority. • US has used paratroopers the night of the D-day invasion • Hitler dithers on the day of the invasion. • August, 1944, invasion of southern France opens a second front. • Patton breaks out and races to the German border, but is forced to stall when he can’t get enough supplies.

33. Election of 1944 • Election of 1944 comes at a bad time—the war is reaching its climax • Republicans nominate Dewey, popular governor of New York. He is only 42 and is very liberal for a Republican. • FDR is re-nominated as a matter of course. • Roosevelt is in very poor health. • VP, Henry Wallace (distrusted), dumped and replaced by Truman. Why? • Inconspicuous Senator

34. Roosevelt Again • FDR wins by 3 Million votes and 432-99 in the Electoral College. Reasons?

35. Battle of the Bulge • December 1944, Germany was wobbling. • Dec. 16, 1944 Hitler unleashes a powerful all-out counter-offense in the snow-shrouded and foggy Ardennes forest. Battle of the Bulge. • Allies are thrown back in disarray. • German target is port of Antwerp. Why? • It was the key to the Allied supply operation

37. Battle of the Bulge • Problem—Germans are very low on fuel and lack air support. • 101st Airborne is surrounded but refuses to surrender at Bastogne. • Constantly shelled, low supplies, no winter clothing. • Patton drives north in record time and relieves Bastogne.

38. V-E Day • March 1945 American Troops reach the Rhine • April, 1945 just outside Berlin, US forces meet up with Soviets who have been driving in from the East. • Discover the concentration camps. • April 12, 1945, Roosevelt dies. • Truman, who is totally out of the loop, is hastily sworn in. • April 30, 1945, Hitler commits suicide as Berlin is falling around him. • May 7, 1945, Germany surrenders unconditionally.

39. Japan Dies Hard • American subs devastate Japan’s merchant fleet. • Massive fire-bomb raids of Japanese cities. • March, 1945, destroy ¼ of Tokyo and killed over 80,000. As devastating as later Nuclear attacks. • MacArthur recaptures New Guinea.

40. Leyte Gulf and Philippine • October, 1944, biggest naval battle in history. Leyte Gulf. • Japan’s naval power is destroyed. • Kamikazes. • Jan. 1945, recapture Philippine mainland. Douglas MacArthur returns to Philippines

41. Okinawa and Iwo Jima • Spring 1945 vicious battles on Okinawa and Iwo Jima. • Japanese fight to the last man, inflicting severe casualties. • Impact on US strategic thinking? • Japan will never unconditionally surrender

42. Atomic Awfulness • Invasion of Japan is assumed will cost America thousands of casualties. • Japan is sending out peace-feelers, but does not appear willing to surrender unconditionally. • Potsdam Conference - July 1945 Allies agree again to unconditional surrender. • Japan wants to keep the emperor. • Manhattan Project. Very secret. • First atomic bomb in New Mexico July 1945. • Nagasaki and Hiroshima—Japanese surrender. • Hiroshima—70,000 instant deaths and 60,000 more over next months due to radiation. • Nagasaki – 80,000 killed or missing • Soviets enter the war just after the first bomb and overrun Manchuria and Korea (hence North Korea) • Japan surrenders August 10, 1945 if they can keep their emperor Hirohito. US accepts on August 14, 1945

43. Why Does Truman Use the Bomb? • Avoid US casualties, but clear Japan would likely surrender before Invasion. • To show Soviets what we have • To prevent Soviets from being involved in Pacific longer and grabbing more territory and having a say in rebuilding of Japan. • Probably most important