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World War Two

World War Two. Ways America Prepared for War. Selective Service Act. Summer of 1940 First peacetime draft Men between 21 -- 35 Registered 16.5 million men 5 million volunteered. Women in the Armed Services. 250,000 women enlisted

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World War Two

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  1. World War Two Ways America Prepared for War

  2. Selective Service Act • Summer of 1940 • First peacetime draft • Men between 21 -- 35 • Registered 16.5 million men • 5 million volunteered

  3. Women in the Armed Services • 250,000 women enlisted • First time women were permitted to volunteer for armed forces • Non-combat roles (accountants, bookkeepers, drivers, radio operators) • Served in all branches • WACS (women’s armed corp services) • WAVES (women in the navy) • WAFS (women in the air force)

  4. WAFS

  5. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php.?storyid=123773525http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php.?storyid=123773525 Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) First women to fly U.S. military planes

  6. Women in WW2 • Very strict guidelines for women to serve in the military • Age 20-49 • No children under age 14 • Minimum of two years of high school

  7. Women in the work force • Five million women entered the workforce • Many worked in industrial jobs in shipyards, defense plants, etc. • Received 60% less pay than men • Women working in shipyards earned $6.95 a day; men earned $22.00 a day.

  8. Rosie The Riveter

  9. African Americans in WW2 • 1.5 million AA left the south for jobs in the north and west • 1 million left home to serve in the armed forces (segregated units) • Both civilians and soldiers continued to face discrimination and segregation • Civil Rights leaders under the NAACP encouraged AA to adopt the “Double V” slogan

  10. “Double V” Campaign • V= victory over fascism abroad • V = victory for equality at home • New Civil Rights organization created in 1942 to work more “militantly” for AA rights. Named CORE = Congress of Racial Equality

  11. Industrial Production • 1942: War Production Board (WPB) established to convert companies from peacetime to wartime production. • U.S. industries booming. • By 1944 unemployment practically gone • Kaiser shipyard in California could make a new ship every five days “miracle man”

  12. Double V Campaign • Started by Pittsburgh Courier (African American newspaper) 1942 • Would you fight for a country that did not grant you full rights at home? • Do you think participation in the war effort would help or hinder African Americans’ quest for civil rights after the war?

  13. Office of Price Administration • OPA regulated almost every aspect of civilian life. Controlled Inflation. Froze prices, wages, rent, etc. • Set up a rationing system. Used coupon booklets. Meat, sugar, coffee, butter, gasoline, rubber, shoes (two pairs per year) • National speed limit set at 35 miles per hour to cut gasoline consumption

  14. Financing the War • WW2 cost the U.S. $320 Billion (10x’s more than WW1) • Raised the money through income taxes (first time automatically deducted from paychecks) half the cost of the war • Selling war bonds (raised $135 Billion) • 1945 National Debt $258.6 billion

  15. Propaganda Poster

  16. Organizing Science • 1939 Albert Einstein wrote FDR a personal letter. • 1941 Office of Scientific Research established to research and develop the atomic bomb • Team of American, British, European scientists headed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer • Three plants set up to produce uranium and plutonium

  17. Albert Einstein’s letter to FDR • http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml - first

  18. The Atomic Bomb

  19. Changes in Entertainment • Hollywood began making war-time propaganda films. • 60 million to 100 million moviegoers a week • “Prelude To War” one of the greatest propaganda films ever made. Frank Capra series “Why We Fight” • Musicals, romances, comedies

  20. Walt Disney’s contributions • Transformed his cartoon studio into a moviemaking factory for Uncle Sam. • Made educational, training, fund-raising, and morale-building films. • Used the Seven Dwarfs to sell war bonds • Donald Duck to inspire Americans to pay their taxes on time

  21. Walt Disney Wartime Propaganda

  22. Japanese American Internment Camps • What does internment mean? • What is an Executive Order? (9066) • What motivated FDR to issue the order? • National security • Military necessity • Wartime hysteria

  23. Internment Camps • 110,000-120,000 interned • 10 camps • California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona • Issei: Japanese born (first generation) • Nisei: Children of Issei (second generation) • http://www.asianamericanmedia.org/jainternment/camps/questions.html

  24. Korematsuv. United States • 1944 Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of internment camps • Court allowed removal of Japanese Ams. From the west coast on the basis of “military necessity” • Avoiding ruling on the constitutionality of the internment program • Demonstrated how fragile civil liberties were in times of war (Patriot Act 2001) • Congress issued apology and $20,00 in cash to the 80,000 surviving J. A. in 1988

  25. European Front • Dwight Eisenhower • Supreme Allied Commander in Europe • Defeat Germany 1st • Operation Torch (invasion of North Africa) • Italian campaign

  26. Mussolini’s Death

  27. D-Day (June 6, 1944) • Objective: Free France from Germany • 2 years planning • U.S., British, Canadian troops landed along 60 mile stretch of beach (Normandy) • Largest amphibious attack (3 million troops) • Five landings: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword beaches

  28. D-Day • D-Day deception at Calais • Phantom landing force • Inflatable tanks, dummy landing crafts • Fooled Germans temporarily to allow landing at Normandy

  29. American Experience website • Origins of “D-Day” • Paratroopers • Letters sent home describing the landing • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/

  30. Germany Defeated • Last German offensive to stop Allies from entering Germany: Battle of Bulge • One month. Germans lost 120,000 troops • April, 1945 Allies seize Berlin • April 29,1945 Hitler marries Eva Braun • April 30: Hitler shot himself and Braun swallowed poison. Bodies burned. • May 8, 1945: V-E Day

  31. The Holocaust • Spring 1945: Allied troops advanced into Poland and Germany and discovered extermination camps where 6 million Jews were put to death. • An additional 6 million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals and other “undesirables” were exterminated • Did the U.S. know of the persecution of German Jews earlier? • Why didn’t we allow Jews to immigrate to Am?

  32. Yalta Conference • Feb. 1945: FDR, Churchill, Stalin met in Yalta, on the Black Sea. • Decisions made: • Create a world peace-keeping organization at the end of WW2 (United Nations) • Soviets promised to enter the war against Japan, 3 months after war ends in Europe • “Free elections” in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe

  33. Pacific Campaign • Douglas MacArthur: Supreme Allied Commander of the Pacific • Island hopping (strategy in Pacific)

  34. The Manhattan Project • April 12, 1945: FDR’s dies • Harry S. Truman becomes President • A few days later, learns about the Manhattan Project (employed 120,00) • July 16, 1945: A-Bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico • Three weeks later, Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on two Japanese cities

  35. Little Boy • Aug. 6, 1945 • Target: Hiroshima • Carried by B-29 bomber: Enola Gay • Uranium 235 • Killed 75,000 • Injured 68,000

  36. Fat Man • Aug. 9, 1945 • Target: Nagasaki • plutonium implosion-type bomb. • Over 200,000 died resulting from injuries and radiation poison • Sept. 2, 1945 official surrender

  37. Truman’s Justifications • Japan unwilling to surrender; fight to their death (Kamakazi attitude) • Huge land invasion of Japan necessary • War could last additional 5 years; 1 million more lives lost • Eliminate Soviet input in post war negotiations

  38. Nuremberg Trials • 1945-1949 Nuremberg, Germany • 22 Nazi leaders tried for war crimes (crimes against humanity) • 12 sentenced to death. Rest to prison • 200 lesser leaders found guilty • First time a nation’s leaders held legally responsible for their actions during wartime

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