250 likes | 317 Views
U.S Involvement in WW II. Isolationist's feelings were starting to waiver due to: Fall of France Battle of Britain. September 1940. US transfers 50 Destroyers to the British navy. March 1941 - Congress passes Lend-Lease Act.
E N D
Isolationist's feelings were starting to waiver • due to: • Fall of France • Battle of Britain
September 1940 • US transfers 50 Destroyers to the British navy
March 1941 - Congress passes Lend-Lease Act • U.S. will furnish military supplies to any Nation "vital to the defense of the United States" • U.S. begins to ship tons of arms and ammunition to Britain and Soviet Union • American merchant vessels come under attack from German subs
August 1941 • FDR and Churchill meet secretly • Issue the Atlantic Charter • set goals for the war: • final destruction of Nazi Tyranny • After the war: • will support the right of all people to choose their form of government • Called for a permanent system of general security
Japan grew increasingly militaristic • 1931 - took Manchuria • 1937 - full scale war against China • 1940 - signed alliance with Germany & Italy • occupies French Indochina & Dutch East Indies • the resources there necessary in fight against China
U.S. response: • cancelled its commercial treaty with Japan • stopped exporting resources to Japan • moves American Pacific Fleet to Pearl to demonstrate readiness
October 1941 • General Hideki Tojobecomes Prime Minister of Japan
November, 1941 • Japan sends representatives to Washington D.C. to negotiate economic treaty.
But the decision to attack the US was already approved by Emperor Hirohito
Japan hoped a surprise attack would give them the advantage. • Americans expected an attack on the Philippines or SE Asia
December 7, 1941 • Japanese planes roared out of the sky over the navel base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for two hours • badly damaged or destroyed: • 8 American battleships • 10 other ships • 350 planes • killed over 2500 Americans
December 8, 1941 • Pres. Roosevelt called an emergency session of Congress and asked for a Declaration of War • Congress complied • Three days later Japan's allies declared war on the United States
Japan had made a tactical error. • But for a while Japan was successful
With lightening speed they took: • Guam • Wake Island • Hong Kong • Malay Peninsula • the Philippines
military conquests provided Japan with resources • 3/4 of the world's rubber and tin • oil - for fuel • Indochinese rice fed the Japanese soldiers
By 1942 the Japanese Empire stretched from Southeast Asia to the Western Pacific. • But the U.S. was now committed to the war effort.