WWII and War on the Home Front

Miss EnglandSSUSH19: The student will identify the origins, major developments, and the domestic impact of World War II, especially the growth of the federal government.

Peace from WWI did not bring prosperity, but revolution fueled by economic depression.

Dictators rose to power driven by their belief in nationalism.

Joseph Stalin came to power in communist Russia.

In Italy, Benito Mussolini played on the fears of economic collapse and communism.

He established the Fascist Party-it stressed nationalism and placed the interest of the state above the people.

The Rise of dictators

Adolf Hitler believed in Nazism-the German brand of fascism. Once in power, he abolished the Weimer Republic.

In Japan, nationalistic military leaders were trying to take control of Japan.

In Japan, the militarists launched a surprise attack and captured the city of Manchuria, China.

The League of Nations was created to prevent acts of aggression. They sent representatives to investigate the situation, however, they did nothing to stop it from happening again.

The rise of dictators

When other dictators saw that the League did nothing to stop Japan, they saw it as the prime opportunity to proceed with their own acts of aggression.

Germany left the League in 1935, a year later Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland.

Mussolini sent troops to capture Ethiopia. Once again, the League did not act. The

Ethiopian emperor said, “It us today. It will be you tomorrow.”

Acts of Aggression

Hitler continued to take back German land. Next was Austria, then the Sudetenland.

In 1939, Stalin and Hitler signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, this allowed Hitler to invade Poland without opposition from Russia.

Once Germany entered Poland, Britain declared war on Germany, other countries soon followed.

Acts of Aggression

In 1935, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts. This outlawed arms sales or loans to warring nations.

FDR persuaded congress to pass a “cash and carry” provision that allowed warring nations to buy U.S. arms as long as they paid cash and transported then in their own ships.

Eventually countries could no longer pay cash. This led to the Lend-Lease Act. Allied countries could be loaned, sold, traded, or leased supplies without immediate payment.

Lend-Lease and Cash and Carry

U.S. imposed embargos on Japan-bound supplies.

The U.S. then ceased all shipments of gasoline to Japan.

Final negotiations with Japan took place during November and early December.

Officials in Washington had cracked Japanese’ code and new they planned for war.

Japan and the U.S.

On December 7, 1941, Japan bombers attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor.

In less than two hours, Japan had killed 2,403 and wounded 1,178.

The raid nearly destroyed the entire U.S. Pacific fleet-21 ships were sunk or damaged

On December 8, the U.S. declared war on Japan. Many former isolationist now supported all-out

war.

“A date which live in infamy.”

USS Arizona

Allies◦ Britain-1939◦ France-1939◦ Soviet Union-June 1941◦ United States- December1941◦ Italy-October 1942

Axis◦ Germany-1939◦ Italy-1939◦ Japan-1941

Allies vs Axis

After Pearl Harbor, many Americans would do whatever they could to help the U.S. mobilize for war.

Many young men rushed to join the military. 5 million volunteered. However, this was not enough

The Selective Service System expanded the draft and provided another 10 million soldiers.

Selective Service

Congress raised income tax rates and extended the tax to millions of people who had never paid it before.

The government urged citizens to use extra money to buy war bonds.

This allowed for inflation rates to stay extremely low.

Paying for the war

The government wanted to ensure that the armed forces and war industries received all that they needed.

Companies were assigned what they were to make for the war effort and how much of it was to be made.

The War Production Board (WPB) was created to do this. It decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production.

It also organized nationwide drives to collect scrap metal, paper, rags, and cooking fat for recycling.

War time conversion

Citizens were forced to ration. The government issued ration books which limited the about of sugar, meat, gasoline, and other goods that individuals could buy.

Americans accepted rationing as a personal way to contribute to war.

Since gas was rationed, it was hard to transport fruits and vegetables.

Americans answered the call by planting victory gardens, which supplied them and their neighbors with fresh fruit and vegetables.

Citizen Sacrifices

Women moved into jobs that had been held exclusively by men: railroad workers, cooks, bricklayers.

Also filled jobs as nurses, clerks, and teachers. Women also become involved in the military.

The Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. Women could serve in noncombat positions.

“Rosie the Riveter” was used to encourage women into the workforce. It was the most successful recruitment campaign-2 million women joined the war effort.

Role of Women

After Pearl Harbor, Americans feared that Japanese Americans would aid Japan in its attempt to destroy the U.S.

In 1942, the War Department called for all Japanese Americans to evacuate Hawaii.

Hawaiians tried to resist this because 37% of Hawaiians were Japanese Americans.

To evacuate them would have destroyed Hawaii’s economy.

Eventually 1% of the Japanese were forced into internment camps.

Fear of Japanese Americanse

On the West Coast, Americans still feared Japanese Americans and were prejudiced against Japanese Americans.

In California, only 1% of Americans were Japanese, but they were still considered a large minority.

Newspapers whipped up anti-Japanese sentiments by running ugly stories that attacked Japanese Americans.

Fear of Japanese Americans

On February 19, 1942 FDR signed the Japanese Relocation Order.

It directed the Secretary of War to establish military districts, which could intern people deemed to be a risk to national security.

112,000 Japanese Americans were forced to sell their homes and business, take what they could carry, and head to their assigned interment camps.

A small number of German and Italian Americans were also interned.

Interment

The camps were fenced, which prevented people from escaping.

The camps were separated into blocks, each block contained 14 barracks and 1 dining hall.

Most camps were placed in the desert. Many living in the camps were not use to the high temperatures.

Food was meager and was cultivated from the land.

Inside the camps

Most Japanese Americans had already join the war effort when the Japanese Relocation Order was signed.

No charges were ever filed against the Japanese Americans.

They decided to take their case to the courts. In 1944, the Supreme Court decided in

Koremastu v. U.S. that government’s policy was justified based on “military necessity.”

In the end, the court decision and the Japanese Relocation Order became a national embarrassment.

The Results of Interment

After Pearl Harbor, FDR met with Churchill to discuss war plans. They agreed to go after Germany and Italy first, they were viewed as a greater threat.

They also agreed to Unconditional Surrender. Once the Atlantic was won, they agreed to

take on Japan and the Pacific. Stalin’s main goal was to open a second

front, which would ease the Soviet Army.

War Plans

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the North African campaign, was in charge of planning D-Day.

A total of 3 million British, American, and Canadian troops planned to attack Normandy in Northern France.

This would open a second front in Europe. On June 6, 1944, the troops began to invade

Normandy

D-Day

Men parachuted down behind Germany. They were followed by thousands of seaborne

soldiers, the largest land-sea-air invasion in history.

The storming of the beach, was extremely hard and many were surprised that it actually succeeded.

After 7 days of fighting, the Allies held an 80 mile strip of France.

This allowed for Allied troops to finally liberate France.

D-Day

In 1944, journalist Ernie Pyle write, “It seems to me a miracle that we took the beach at all.” What can we infer about D-Day from this? A. There were not enough soldiers and

machines to go to warB. It was a long, bloody and difficult battleC. The U.S. was unpreparedD. The beach terrain was diffuclt

By the Spring of 1945, the German Army was military defeated.

In April, the Russian Army surrounded Berlin for a final assault.

Hitler began to force children and the elderly into the German army in an attempt to protect the city.

The Russian army made it their goal to destroy Berlin. As the Russian Army began to attack the city, citizens went into panic mode.

Fall of Berlin

Hitler spent his final days in a bunker. He blamed the Jews for starting the war and

his generals for losing it. He also stated that he would rather die than be captured.

The next day he “shot” himself, and his wife swallowed poisoning. Their bodies were then burned.

A week later, Eisenhower and his troops entered Berlin. He accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich.

On May 8, 1945 the Allies celebrated V-E Day.

Fall of Berlin

True or False: The Fall of Berlin was not the last major battle in Europe.A. TrueB. False

Japan extended its control throughout much of eastern Asia

In the Spring of 1942, the U.S. began to turn the tide against Japan.

Their first major win was in Doolittle’s Raid. This raid helped lift American spirits.

War in the Pacific

By June of 1942, Japan planned to attack Midway, an island that lies north of Hawaii.

The US had broken the Japanese code and new this was their next target.

The U.S. found the Japanese fleet and sent torpedo planes to attack it.

Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes.

The US had finally avenged Pearl Harbor.

Battle of Midway

What country was defeated at the Battle of Midway after their plans were discovered

A. Soviet UnionB. United StatesC. JapanD. Great Britain

The Holocaust was the systematic killing of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis.

Hitler believed that the Aryan race was the “master race.”

Hitler, along with other Germans, blamed the Jews for Germany’s failure.

Anyone deemed unfit to the master race was targeted

The Holocaust

As soon as Hitler took power, he ordered “non-Aryans” to be removed from government jobs.

Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenships.

Jews tried to leave Germany, but many could not find nations that would accept them.

The Holocaust

Many Jews and political opponents were loaded on trains and sent to concentration camps

They were forced to do hard labor. Death Camps were created for the extermination

of Jews. There primary function was genocide. The Germans built six death camps in Poland.

◦ Each camp had a gas chamber, as many as 12,000 could be killed a day.

Concentration Camps

Many died by deliberate mistreatment, disease, and starvation.

Some died of dehydration in the summer and froze in the winter.

In 1942, Hitler announced “The Final Solution.”

Many under went medical experiments

Life in the Camps

Those in the camps were finally freed when the Soviet Union and other Allies marched towards Germany.

Germans tried to hide what they had done at the camps.

Soldiers found mounds of unburied bodies and the survivors resembled skeletons

Liberation

Fighting Italy and Germany Used massive formations with tanks and

other vehicles. Fought in major towns and city. Used heavier weaponry than in the Pacific. Weather was cold and windy.

European Theater

Mainly fighting Japan Sea and air fighting Used Island Hopping-the idea was to capture

essential islands in the Pacific The U.S. was on the offense. Close range, often hand-to-hand combat Warm and very humid.

Pacific Theater

The atomic bomb was the best kept secret of the war.

Truman did not know it existed until after FDR’s death.

600,000 people worked on the project, but most did not know its final use.

It was centered in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

The Manhattan Project

J. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientist behind the development of the atomic bomb

The Manhattan Project combined American knowledge, industrial power, and the most advanced scientific knowledge

The 1st test of the new bomb took place on the morning of July 16, 1945 in an empty desert in New Mexico.

Manhattan Project

What were the military implications of the secret work at Los Alamos?

A. Strategic planning for a successful invasion of Normandy

B. Successful planning with Russia for the fall of Berlin

C. The ability to island hop in the PacificD. The power of having an atomic weapon

Truman was faced with decision to use the atomic bomb. He did not hesitate.

On July 25, 1945 he ordered the military to make final plans for dropping two bombs.

The U.S. warned Japan that it would face “prompt and utter destruction” unless it surrendered.

Deciding to use the bomb

On August 6, a bomber named Enola Gay released an atomic bomb over Hiroshima.◦ Japan still refused to surrender.

Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

On September 2, the Emperor of Japan finally agreed to surrender.

By the end of the year, 200,000 people died as a result of injuries and radiation poisoning from the atomic bomb.

Hiroshima and Nagaski

Truman authorized the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan as a way to

A. Bring WWII to a quick endB. Earn the backing of the Allies in the war

effortC. Gain the surrender of GermanyD. Spur international atomic research