Chapter 18 AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR II

1. Chapter 18 AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR II Section 1: Early Difficulties Section 2: The Home Front Section 3: Victory in Europe Section 4: Victory in Asia

2. Section 1: Early Difficulties Objectives: • What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Allied Powers and Axis Powers in 1941? • What steps did the United States take to prepare for war? • Where did the Japanese military attack after Pearl Harbor? • What were the early turning points of the war in the Pacific? • What were the major battles in Europe and North Africa in 1942?

3. Section 1: Early Difficulties Allied Powers • Production capacity of U.S. and manpower of Soviet Union were advantages. • Disadvantages included the enormous amount of land in enemy hands, the multi-front aspect of the war, and the long fight that had to be faced.

4. Section 1: Early Difficulties Axis Powers • Axis was better prepared economically and had been rearmed since the 1930s. • Axis had firm control over invaded areas and already had airfields, barracks, and military training centers. • Axis powers’ main difficulty was defending multiple fronts.

5. Section 1: Early Difficulties U.S. preparations for war • increased production • expanded the government • began to direct the economy • began to raise the army

6. Section 1: Early Difficulties Japanese attacks after Pearl Harbor • Clark Airforce Base in the Philippines • Burma • Borneo • the Netherlands East Indies • Wake Island • Hong Kong

7. Section 1: Early Difficulties Early turning points of war in Pacific • Battle of the Coral Sea • Battle of Midway • Guadalcanal

8. Section 1: Early Difficulties Major battles of 1942 in Europe and North Africa • Battle of El Alamein • Battle of Stalingrad

9. Section 2: The Home Front Objectives: • How did the U.S. government try to keep wartime morale high? • What was life like in the United States during World War II? • How did women contribute to the war effort? • What actions did the government take to protect the rights of minority groups? • How were Japanese Americans affected by the war?

10. Section 2: The Home Front Keeping wartime morale high • Office of War Information • radio programs • movies

11. Section 2: The Home Front Life in the U.S. during WWII • long work hours and many sacrifices • restrictions • blackouts • air-raid drills • victory gardens

12. Section 2: The Home Front Contributions of women • entered job market to replace soldiers • worked in plants • produced war products

13. Section 2: The Home Front Government actions to protect minority rights • Fair Employment Practices Committee • attempts to end discrimination in businesses with federal contracts

14. Section 2: The Home Front Effects on Japanese Americans • Many were relocated and interned. • Interned people lost their property. • Hawaiian islands put under martial law because Japanese population was too large to relocate. • Some Japanese received limited military service opportunities.

15. Section 3: Victory in Europe Objectives: • Where did the Allied offensive in Europe begin? • How did fighting in the Atlantic and in the air influence the land war in Europe? • How did the Allies successfully carry out the Normandy invasion? • What was the Holocaust? • How did the Allies finally defeat Germany?

16. Section 3: Victory in Europe Allied offensive in Europe The Allied offensive in Europe began in Sicily and Italy.

17. Section 3: Victory in Europe Effects of fighting in the Atlantic and in the air on the land war • Sea dominance allowed the Allies to protect cargo ships and bomb Axis vessels. • Strategic bombing from the air helped destroy German military factories and centers.

18. Section 3: Victory in Europe The Normandy Invasion • invasion of German-occupied France • disinformation campaign to distract Germans • dummy invasion used as a decoy • initial storming of beach caused high casualties • ultimately successful

19. Section 3: Victory in Europe The Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germany’s slaughter of European Jews. The Germans took advantage of long-standing anti-Semitism and Allied inaction to do it.

20. Section 3: Victory in Europe Final defeat of Germany • September, 1944: Battle of the Bulge • February, 1945: Yalta Conference • early 1945: Allies bomb Germany • March, 1945: Allies invade Germany • April, 1945: Hitler commits suicide • May, 1945: Germany surrenders

21. Section 4: Victory in Asia Objectives: • How did the United States carry out its island-hopping plan? • How did the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa affect the war? • What led the United States to use atomic weapons against Japan? • What were the human and economic costs of World War II?

22. Section 4: Victory in Asia Island-hopping • conquered strategically important islands • cut off other islands • some islands chosen as launching pads for invasion of Japan

23. Section 4: Victory in Asia Iwo Jima and Okinawa These two battles were incredibly difficult and bloody, and though the U.S. won, the fighting demonstrated that the Japanese would not surrender.

24. Section 4: Victory in Asia Reasons for use of the atomic bomb • enormous cost of an invasion • continued Japanese resistance • desire to demonstrate U.S. power to the Soviet Union

25. Section 4: Victory in Asia Costs of World War II • killed millions of people and wounded many more • resulted in the Holocaust • destroyed economies of many nations • ruined countless cities • destroyed national infrastructures