World War II: At Home & Abroad

1. World War II: At Home & Abroad

2. Rise of Aggression in Europe and Asia • 1930s = Authoritarian governments in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Greece • 1922 – 1943 = Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy • Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazis) gained power in Germany in late 1920s • 1933 = Hitler became Chancellor of Germany • Nazis targeted Jews, homosexuals, communists, & disabled as “inferior races”

3. Appeasement • Practiced by Great Britain & France • 1938 = Hitler demanded Germany’s right to Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia • Britain’s Chamberlain gave in to Hitler

4. Japan • Interested in expansion • 1937 = Declared war against China

5. Neutrality Acts, 1935 - 1937 • Outlawed the sale of weapons & loans to nations at war • Forbade Americans from traveling on ships of warring countries

6. August 1939 = Hitler & Stalin formed German-Soviet pact • Soviet Union & Germany promised not to fight & to divide Poland after it was invaded by Germany • Britain & France promised to defend Poland • September 1, 1939 = Hitler invaded Poland • September 3, 1939 = Britain & France declared war on Germany

7. Cash & Carry Plan, 1939 • Neutrality Acts amended for U.S. to sell weapons to countries at war • Required they pay cash & carry weapons on their own ships • Allowed the U.S. to profit from the war

8. Pearl Harbor • Japan wanted empire to include China, southeast Asia, western Pacific • September 1940 = Japan, Germany, Italy signed “Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis” military alliance • Japan warned attack in December 1941

10. Sunday, December 7, 1941 = Japanese planes attacked navy base on Oahu, Hawaii • 2,400 Americans killed, 1,200 wounded • December 8, 1941 = U.S. declared war against Japan • 3 days later = Germany & Italy declared war against U.S.

11. The Battlefront in Europe • Approach of Allies = Attack Germany first, Japan second

12. War in the Pacific • Philippines, Australia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, plus smaller South Pacific Islands • General Douglas MacArthur’s “Island Hopping”

14. Jewish Migration? • By 1939 = 300,000 Jews fled Germany, 200,000 fled Austria • June 1939 = 900 Jewish refugees arrived on St. Louis ship in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida & sent back to Germany • 700 of the 900 died in concentration camps

16. Victory in Europe • April 12, 1945 = FDR died • April 30, 1945 = Hitler committed suicide • May 2, 1945 = Berlin captured by the Soviet Union • May 8, 1945 = Germany surrendered, “V-E Day”

17. WWII at Home

18. Mobilizing for War • Pearl Harbor, December 1941 = 1.6 million in Army • War Power Act granted FDR authority over war mobilization • 15 million men, 350,000 women served in military • Economy, government, military coordinated

19. War Production Board = distributed defense contracts • War Manpower Commission = supervised mobilization of soldiers • Office of Price Administration rationed food • End of 1942 = 1/3 of economy devoted to war production • 300,000 aircraft, 2.6 million machine guns, 6 million tons of bombs, 86,000 warships

20. Defense Spending Ends Great Depression • U.S. spent $320 billion total to defeat the Axis • 17 million new jobs created • Brought prosperity to many American workers

21. Rationing

22. O.P.A. rationed gas, coffee, sugar, butter, cheese, meat • “Uncle Sam’s Scrappers” & “Tin Can Colonels” collected scrap metal and trash

23. War Bonds

24. Propaganda & Politics • Office of Censorship suppressed war footage & casualty numbers • Office of War Information hired 4,000 advertisers, writers, artists to create unity through propaganda

27. Rosie the Riveter • Federal government urged women to work in 1942 • Over 6 million women worked in war production • 1945 = 1/3 of workforce were women • 75% married, 60% over 35, 33% had kids under 14

30. Hostility Towards Rosie • Women earned 35% less pay than men • Government portrayed their work as temporary • “A woman is a substitute like plastic instead of metal” • 1945 poll = Only 18% approved of married women working

31. Japanese Internment • Issei: First generation Japanese Immigrants (37,000 interned) • Nisei: U.S.-born Japanese Americans (75,000 interned) • FDR’s Executive Order 9006 = February 1942, all Japanese on West Coast forcibly removed from homes

33. Star Trek’s George Takei Reflecting on Life in an Internment Camp

36. $2 billion lost in property & belongings • Supreme Court upheld constitutionality of internment policy, Korematsu v. U.S. (1942) • 1982 = U.S. government admitted internment “not based on military necessity” &$20,000 given to 62,000 survivors in 1988

37. The Atomic Bombs • 1939 = Einstein warned U.S. about German development of A-bomb • Manhattan Project began in 1941 between U.S. and Britain • 2 bombs completed in Los Alamos, NM • July 16 1945 = test bomb exploded in Alamogordo, NM

38. U.S. threatened to drop bomb if Japan did not surrender by August 3, 1945 • August 6, 1945 = Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over Hiroshima

39. August 8, 1945 = Bock’s Car dropped “Fat Man” over Nagasaki • September 6, 1945 = Japan surrendered

40. Hiroshima = 60,000 died immediately, 75,000 later from radiation and burns • Nagasaki = 30,000 died immediately