America in a World at War

1. America in a World at War

2. I. War on Two Fronts Containing the Japanese • Allied territories begin to fall shortly after Pearl Harbor • American forces in the Philippines destroyed ten hours after the strike • Guam • General Douglas MacArthur • move north from Australia into Philippines • Admiral Chester Nimitz • move from Hawaii toward major Japanese island outposts • Victorious Battles for U.S. • May 7-8 1942: Coral Sea… first major victory… just northeast of Australia • June 3-6 1942: Midway Island… US Navy destroys four Japanese aircraft carriers • Aug 1942: Solomon Islands east of New Guinea • Gavutu • Tulagi • Guadalcanal • With help from Aussies and Kiwis… US began long, slow march towards Japan

3. Holding off the Germans • In Europe US had less control over military operations than in Pacific • forced to work with other allies • George C. Marshall, supported a plan for a major Allied invasion of France across the English Channel in the Spring of 1943 • Soviets wanted invasion to take place at earliest possible moment… taking brunt of German attack • British wanted to attack Germany through Africa • Roosevelt decides to support the British plan, against advice of advisors • October 1942, British and US launch counter offensives against German General Erwin Rommel • African difficulties • Germans throw full weight against Allied African offensive • Inexperienced troops from US suffer serious losses

4. Holding off the Germans Continued • General George S. Patton • takes command and regroups American troops and began effective counter offensive from the West • General Bernard Montgomery from Britain… leads successful British counter offensive from the East • Allies drive off last of Germans from Africa in May of 1943 • Russians able to hold off huge German offensive in the winter of 1943 • Stalingrad • Soviets would lose 20 million people during war… far more than any other country • Soviets believed that Allied invasion of France was being deliberately postponed to sabotage communist government • First U.S. European Invasion: Sicily • July 9, 1943 • One month later, Sicily would fall • Amid defeat Mussolini would be kicked out of power • Italian forces still form a powerful defensive south of Rome • June 4, 1944 captured Rome

5. America and the Holocaust • As early as 1942 America had evidence of Nazi extermination of Jews, poles, gypsies, homosexuals and communists • American government continually resisted almost all plans to rescue individuals from Nazi death camps • U.S. Planes flew missions within miles of Auschwitz: Military refused to destroy crematoriums… “militarily unfeasible” • Jews escaping refused entry into the United States • St. Louis, arrived in Miami in 1939 carrying as many as 1,000 escaped German Jews… refused entry and sent home • State department did not even use up the number of visas permitted by law… 90% of the quota remained untouched! • Anti-Semite Assistant Secretary Breckinridge Long • Allied forces insisted the most important thing they could do to combat Nazi genocide was concentrate all forces in an attack against Germany

6. II. The American People in WartimeProsperity • WWII’s most profound impact on American Life was the ending of the Depression • Most important agent in recovery: federal spending • After 1939 fed was putting more money into economy each year than all the New Deal relief agencies combined had done.

7. The War and the West • US gov’t created large manufacturing facilities in California and elsewhere to serve the needs of it’s military • Gov’t made almost $40 billion in capital investments • Henry J. Kaiser • construction companies built some of the great dams of the west • steered billions of dollars to capital investments in the West • Western cities grow in size Henry J. Kaiser

8. Labor and the War • war created a serious labor shortage • took 15 million men and women out of civilian work • demand for labor was rising rapidly • Civilian workforce increased by almost 20 percent during the war… groups of people began working who before it was considered in-appropriate to work • very young • elderly • several million women

9. Labor and the WarContinued • Increase in union membership, but increase in federal restrictions on work stoppages • 15% wage increase set • “no-strike” pledge • “maintenance-of-membership” agreements: increased union membership • Despite these plans, nearly 15,000 work stoppages during the war • mostly “wildcat” strikes (strikes unauthorized by union leaders) • Smith-Connally Act … passed despite FDR’s veto… required unions to wait thirty days before striking and empowered the president to seize a struck war plant

10. Stabilizing the Boom • from fear of deflation (not enough currency, low prices) to inflation (too much, high prices) during the war • Anti-Inflation Act: gave president the authority to freeze agricultural prices, wages, salaries and rents • enforced by Office of Price Administration (OPA) • successful, inflation not a problem • OPA not popular… black marketing grew • Government Spending • 1941-1945 spent $321 billion… twice as much as it had spent in the entire 150 years of existence • national debt rose from $49 billion to $249 billion in 1945

11. *Fake Smile* Mobilizing Production • one failed agency after another finally leads to War Production Board (WPB) • “superagency”, but not as much power as WWI counterpart War Industries Board • never able to exert control over military purchases • army and navy often circumvented • small businesses angry that contracts were going to big businesses • WPB’s authority is transferred to Office of War Mobilization (OWM)… only slightly more successful • Despite administrative problems, economy met all of the nation’s critical war needs • Development of synthetic rubber over natural rubber • USA output was twice of all the Axis countries combined

12. The Internment of Japanese Americans • WWII different from WWI … not as much propaganda or hatred directed towards Europe • Americans looked at Italians and Germans as victims of tyrannical gov’t • Different attitude towards Asian enemy than towards European enemy • certain racial and cultural characteristics made it easier to hold Japanese Americans in contempt • small group, politically powerless • gov’t and private organizations printed Anti-Japanese propaganda… hatred quickly spread towards Japanese Americans • Pearl Harbor increased animosity and suspicion • Despite cultural assimilation, belief was widespread that Japanese Americans could never become “real” Americans • Executive Order 9066 • Leaders make scathing and unfounded comments • Earl Warren “passivity as a threat” • General Frank Knox blamed Japanese Americans for “sabotage” of Pearl Harbor • General John DeWitt “A Jap is a Jap”

13. The Internment of Japanese Americans Continued • War Relocation Authority (WRA) • oversee project of relocating over 100,000 Japanese Americans and immigrants • concentration camps were like desert prisons • goal to “Americanize” Japanese… people in charge of committee were same people who were in charge of similar projects for Native Americans • WRA hired out many inmates as agricultural laborers • Japanese Americans lost everything • businesses sold for cheap • property sold for cheap • Nisei army fights with high distinction in Europe • Korematsu v. U.S. • Supreme Court rules U.S. gov’t action during WWII as constitutional • “loyal” citizens allowed to be free • 1988 Japanese Americans win compensation for their loses

14. Chinese Americans and the War • Relations increased due to Alliance with China • Congress finally repealed the Chinese Exclusion Acts which had barred Chinese immigration since 1892 • 4,000 Chinese women entered the United States in the first years after the war… mail order brides • Improving image • positive propaganda towards Chinese • Chinese taking jobs at manufacturing plants • 22% of Chinese males were drafted… higher than any other group

15. The Retreat from Reform • replacing “Dr. New Deal” with “Dr. Win the War” • Republicans gaining ground in Washington • Administration: Wall Street brokers • Congress: movement to destroy New Deal plans • Replacing Wallace with Truman • 1944 Election • Thomas E. Dewey, Republican: young charismatic governor from NY • Roosevelt: ill (maybe dying) • Roosevelt wins 53.5% to / Dewey 40% • Victory marks the only time in history a president won FOUR elections

16. III. The Defeat of the AxisThe Liberation of France • By 1944 American and British bombers were attacking German industrial centers and other targets around the clock • Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin • Feb 1945 raid on Dresden caused a huge fire that killed 135,000… most of which were civilians • Air battles weakened the Luftwaffe • American forces obtain an “Ultra” machine… able to crack German code • June 6, 1944: D-Day • Germans expected Allies to land on the most narrow area of the English Channel… but attack came further west… Normandy • Intense fighting along the beach • Paratroopers dropped in behind enemy lines amid confusion • Slow advance • Battle of Saint-Lo: General Omar Bradley breaks through German lines • Patton follows with heavy tank support

17. The Liberation of France Continued • Battle of the Bulge • Rhine River: firm line of German defenses • mid December, German forces strike in desperation • Germans push Allies back 55 miles before being stopped at Antwerp…. Battle ended serious German resistance in the West • Surrounding all corners • Soviets made strong advances in the East… Oder River • Omar Bradley moving in from west… Cologne • discovered intact bridge on the Rhine and was able to cross • Montgomery pushed into Northern Germany with a million troops • Taking Berlin • Omar Bradley in position to take the city, as was Patton and Montgomery • Decision made from high up to allow Russians to take the city • April 30, 1945 Hitler killed himself in his bunker in the capital • May 8, 1945 remaining German forces surrender unconditionally • V-E Day: “Victory in Europe” Day • Focus now shifts towards Japan

18. The Pacific Offensives • Feb 1944 Chester Nimitz wins a series of victories in the Marshall Islands and cracked the outer perimeter of the Japanese Empire • American submarines destroying Japanese shipping and crippling the nation’s domestic economy • food shortage • critical gasoline shortage • Land battles encounter frustration • General Joseph W. Stilwell pushed back out of Burma • Frustration dealing with Chaing Kai-shek, leader of China, who used troops to protect his gov’t from rebel communists, rather than to fight Japanese

19. The Pacific Offensives Continued • Decisive battle for Pacific in the Pacific • June 1944, enormous American armada struck the heavily fortified Mariana Islands, Tinian, Guam and Siapan • arguably the bloodiest fighting of the entire war • Oct 1944 General MacArthur landed in the Philippines • Japanese used entire fleet to try to stop American advance and lost • Battle of Leyte Gulf largest naval entanglement in history • Destroyed Japan’s capacity to continue a naval war • Very difficult for troops to advance on land • only island U.S. is able to capture is tiny Iwo Jima • costliest battle in Marine Corp history: 20,000 dead • Okinawa: taken at the cost of 50,000 troops • What next? • hard to fight troops on land • BUT Japanese has no navy left • July 1945, Tokyo firebombed: 80,000 dead • US Navy able to shell coastal targets in Japan from offshore • Emperor Hirohito gives directions to military leaders to make surrender negotiations… could not persuade military leaders to give up • kamikaze • background: Japanese “code of honor” • would moderates have prevailed?

20. The Manhattan Project • 1939 reports reach U.S. military intelligence that the Germans are attempting to produce atomic fission in uranium • Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi – physicists from Europe, exile to the U.S. • From 1941 on, gov’t secretly poured $2 billion dollars into the Manhattan Project… massive scientific effort conducted at hidden laboratories • Oak Ridge, Tenn: create fuel for bomb • Los Alamos, NM: create the bomb • J. Robert Oppenheimer in charge of creating the bomb • War in Europe ends just before they are ready to test the first bomb • July 16, 1945 near Alamogordo, New Mexico: first atomic explosion in history • Bomb instantly moves from a scientific project to a weapon of war

21. Atomic Warfare • Roosevelt dies in office in April 1945… News of explosion reaches Truman (Truman had no knowledge of weapon prior to FDR’s death) • Truman issues warning to Japan, signed jointly by Britain: “unconditional surrender or face complete devastation” • Japanese premier wanted to surrender, could not persuade military officials to agree… • Should the bomb have been dropped? • Did the Japanese have any idea what “complete devastation” was? • Was this the only way force Japanese militants to surrender? • Would moderates in the Japanese gov’t who urged surrender eventually prevailed?

22. Atomic Warfare Continued • Truman orders the use of atomic weapons on Japan • August 6, 1945 Enola Gay drops atomic weapon on Hiroshima… within moments… • a four-square mile area is completely destroyed • 80,000 civilians dead…more would die slow and painful deaths from radiation poisoning + birth defects for generations • Japanese government, stunned, unable to agree to a response • August 8, 1945 Russia declares war on Japan • August 9, 1945 another atomic bomb dropped… Nagasaki • 100,000 deaths • September 2, 1945 Japanese surrender signed aboard American battleship Missouri • In the end… • 14,000,000 combatants killed • far more civilians dead from bombings, disease, starvation, genocide • 322,000 American soldiers dead / 800,000 injured • new fear of nuclear warfare and tensions between the U.S.A and Soviet Union • one Manhattan Project scientist in a letter to President Truman • “This thing must not be permitted to exist on this earth. We must not be the most hated and feared people in the world.”