The United States in World War II

“The Good War”

Background Remember that WWII began when

Germany invaded Poland. When? Americans worried and wondered; still,

most Americans thought that the United States was safe and could stay out of war.

Although most American sympathized with the British, the public opinion in the United States was strongly against the war.

These hopes were destroyed on December 7, 1941, the day of the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

It was the 9/11 of that generation. Millions of Americans still recall exactly what they were doing when the news flashed over the radio.

United and Activated Pearl Harbor unified Americans. Debate about whether or not to go to war

vanished.

A Transforming Event WWII, like the Depression before it, was a

transforming event. Over 400,000 Americans lost their lives. 300,000 died of war wounds and about another

100,000 died of disease and accidents. More than 670,000 were wounded.

Yet, paradoxically, many found the military to be a high point of their lives.

All pitched in. School kids went on scrap drives, saved tin

foil, helped plant family “victory gardens” Housewives went to work in factories in

large numbers. From Hollywood a flood of propaganda

movies. Simplistic but appealing stories.

Women worked in Factories“Rosie the Riveter” became a hero

Popeye Propaganda Popeye the Sailor Man was a popular cartoon

character in the 1940’s. In the video clip I am about to show you, notice the intense hatred we had for the Japanese. Also notice that this hatred was tinged with racist overtones. (Do we do similar things to Arabs?) While admittedly corny and in spots funny, this also was considered to be so insensitive that it was banned after the war. I show it to amuse you and horrify you at the same time. This is a good example of how all encompassing the war mood was in the United States.

Two weeks after Pearl Harbor- Winston Churchill and his advisors went to Washington to plan strategy.

26 nations signed the United Nations Declaration promising to stay in the war against the Axis. Public approval of this reflected a sharply changing view in America.

But we ain’t winning Japan has multiple successes at first.

Seize Malay Peninsula Seize Hong Kong Seize the Philippines Dutch East Indies Guam Landed on Solomon Islands threatening Australia

By end of April 1942, Japan controlled the entire Western Pacific Ocean as well as the mainland of Southeast Asia up to the border of India.

Japanese Empire at start of 1943

More bad news Germany also has multiple successes.

Remember the sneak attack on the Soviet Union? On the Eastern Front, German forces had taken the Ukraine-

the breadbasket of Russia. Seized oil fields of USSR- the Caucasus- advance to Volga

river Crushed resistance in the Balkans In North Africa, Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps pushed

Montgomery’s army all the way to Egypt. Where the Germans made plans to smash into Egypt and move into the rich oil fields of the Middle East

With air bases in Italy and North Africa, the Germans control the Mediterranean Sea.

U-boats sink ships faster than Allies can replace them Over England, German bombers rain death and destruction

daily

Before the U.S.A. even joined, it seemed the war was already over.

See?

Today we have the tendency to view the Allied victory in 1945 as inevitable. But it wasn’t. The Allies should have lost.

Why did Hitler lose instead?

Some reasons for defeat. Quality of leadership.-The Allies allowed better

leaders to rise to the top. production capability- German weapons were

superior; but US made so many more. moral dimensions- right was on the allies side the eastern front – a debacle for Hitler American economic power- we turned the most

powerful economy in the world over to war production.

Hitler- went mad.

Tide Turns in the Pacific In May, the Japanese forces suffer

first defeat US carrier- based planes damage thirty warships in the battle of Coral Sea

In June, Japanese suffer heavier losses at the battle of Midway

From this point until the end of the war, Japan was on the defensive.

Tide Turned in Africa Too. In the Fall of 1942, Montgomery’s army defeated Rommel

and drove the Afrika Korps back across the North African desert.

Four days later, a large American invasion force under command of Eisenhower- Ike, land in Algeria and Morocco- with Patton in charge of the Moroccan landing

With the British pushing west and the Americans driving East, German and Italian armies are caught in between. After bitter fighting, the Axis surrender in Africa in May, 1943.

This is hugely important because Germans lose power over the Mediterranean Sea

Onto Europe Summer 1943- Allies invade Sicily and quickly take the

island September 1943- Italians overthrow Fascist Dictator

Mussolini and put him in jail. The new Italian government not only surrendered but quickly joined the Allied side.

Italy was hard to control though. The long march up the peninsula of Italy took most of the rest of the war.

In Russia, the German army had been devastated. Germans suffered their worst defeat of the war at Stalingrad. A terrible Russian winter and heroic defense by Russians combined to kill 500,000 German soldiers. the Russians began to push the German army back- and kept pushing them back for the rest of the war. By early 1944- they had driven the Germans out of the USSR and were entering Poland

Meanwhile Meanwhile, the Allies were taking control

of the Atlantic Ocean. Improved anti-sub tactics cut shipping losses by 80%. So, by mid- 1943 – mountains of supplies were being shipped across from America to Europe.

American bombers and British bombers were pounding German industrial centers

Closing in on Germany D-Day- June 6, 1944 the largest fleet ever assembled in the

history of the war crossed the English channel to invade France. In top command was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Within two weeks, a million troops along with thousands of tanks and artillery pieces had been put ashore.

By late July, they broke out of the small beachhead and fanned out across France.

On August 25- Paris was liberated by American and Free French troops

During those same months- Russians were pounding the Germans along a broad front all the way from the Baltic Sea to Romania

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2-loss.htm

Remember though that this was incredibly bloody. Each symbol stands for 100,000 people. This was death on an unprecedented scale. WW1 actually killed more soldiers, but civilians bore the brunt of WW2.

The End of the War

From Friends…to Friction

An Enemy of an Enemy is a Friend Like the USA, the USSR entered the war because

of an unprovoked sneak attack. Americans admired the perseverance of Russian troops and the great sacrifices the Russians made in defending their homeland. Victory was near.

But there was a darker side. The two countries were fundamentally different

But we are too different USA- democracy, freedom of religion, free

enterprise USSR- dictatorship, communism-no private

property or business, no freedom of assembly or religion.

He’s a bad dude In addition, Josef Stalin, “Uncle Joe” was a

dictator whose evil rivaled Hitler’s. In fact, his work camps served as models for Hitler’s concentration camps.

FDR Worries Roosevelt was aware as anyone that

Stalin’s control of Poland was almost as repressive as Hitler’s had been. The President, however, was ready to let the Soviet Union have a “buffer zone” or “sphere of influence”. What he didn’t want was a series of puppet states. He wanted the people of Eastern Europe to choose their own governments in elections.

Poland Special attention was focused on Poland.

After all, the British declared war on the Germans to protect Polish freedom- remember Sept. 1 1939?

World War Two started because of Poland. So 6 years later and over 30 million dead and Poland isn’t free?

Roosevelt’s Final Days Roosevelt’s last

weeks of life were filled with apprehension about the Soviet Union’s intentions.

Roosevelt Dies The Unfinished Portrait is an unfinished

oil painting of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that was in progress at the time of his death. Elizabeth Shoumatoff had begun working on the portrait of the president around noon on April 12, 1945. FDR was eating lunch when he stated "I have a terrible headache" and then became unable to breathe. Later that day he died, and she never finished her portrait of the man, leaving the world with an unfinished portrait, which many consider to be mysterious and quite eerie.

The portrait hangs at Roosevelt's former health and relaxation retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia, known as the Little White House.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfinished_portrait_of_Franklin_D._Roosevelt"

The Manhattan Project

US scientists had begun work on such a bomb in 1941. After the USA entered the war, the top-secret program was given to the War Department and assigned the code name, the Manhattan Engineering Project. Only a small fraction of those working on the project knew the details of the program.

As the war with Japan progressed, the US planned Operation Downfall- the invasion of Japan itself. The plans called for thousands of ships, tens of thousands of planes and over 4 million soldiers!

The war against Japan had already made it very plain that losses would be extreme. In the battle of Okinawa- just 360 miles SW of Japan, the US tenth army fought mightily to take the island. The Japanese used suicide pilots called kamikazes. The US lost 11,260 in this single battle. The Japanese lost 110,000. The Japanese leadership was prepared to fight to the very end.

Summer 1945Summer 1945

Potsdam Conference- Summer 1945Potsdam Conference- Summer 1945 At this conference again between the BIG 3 powers after the war, At this conference again between the BIG 3 powers after the war,

in was clear the Soviets intended to remake Eastern Europe into in was clear the Soviets intended to remake Eastern Europe into a Soviet controlled buffer.a Soviet controlled buffer.

Truman tried to get what he could from the conference, but he Truman tried to get what he could from the conference, but he grew frustrated, “You never saw such pig-headed people as the grew frustrated, “You never saw such pig-headed people as the Russians” he wrote to his mother.Russians” he wrote to his mother.

The Big 3 agreed on enough to keep the alliance together- Berlin The Big 3 agreed on enough to keep the alliance together- Berlin to be divided into 4 zones- recognized Soviet occupation of the to be divided into 4 zones- recognized Soviet occupation of the Eastern third of GermanyEastern third of Germany

At the conference in Potsdam, Truman learned that an atomic At the conference in Potsdam, Truman learned that an atomic bomb had been tested in New Mexico- the British knew that we bomb had been tested in New Mexico- the British knew that we were working on it- but the Russians hadn’t been told about it yet. were working on it- but the Russians hadn’t been told about it yet. Truman told Stalin, “we have perfected a very powerful explosive Truman told Stalin, “we have perfected a very powerful explosive which we are going to use against the Japanese”which we are going to use against the Japanese”

Japan Fights On… The use of the bomb was viewed by American leaders as a way of

reducing the death toll in the invasion of Japan. With the bomb’s successful test, President Truman lost all interest in getting the USSR involved in the war against Japan.

Instead, he made one final direct offer to the Japanese government. He called for the occupation of Japan and the punishment of war criminals, but promised the Japanese people would not be destroyed or punished. The proclamation went onto say, “The alternative to surrender is prompt and utter destruction.”

Japanese diplomats were pressing for peace through the Russians, Soviet leaders did not report this to London or Washington because they had plans for declaring war on Japan themselves.

When the Japanese received the warning from the US, they chose to fight on. They feared that surrendering would mean that their emperor- a god in their eyes- would be treated as a war criminal. They had no idea what “prompt and utter destruction meant.

Hiroshima On August 6, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay took

off carrying a bomb made of uranium 235. At 8:15, the plane dropped the 10 foot long bomb on the military post of Hiroshima. The bomb exploded almost 2,000 feet above the city in a blinding flash. Thousands of people in the center of the city were incinerated-vaporized in an instant. The blast that followed leveled every building in a two mile radius around the blast point. Finally, a powerful fire wind blew toward the city’s center. Many who had found safety in the water were drowned by the waves the wind created.

Unimaginable Destruction 100,000 were dead tens of thousands more were dying of

burns many survivors were deformed beyond

recognition. The city disappeared. Survivors died of cancer for years

afterward and child defects were common into the 1960’s.

The Nuclear Age Had Begun Five days later, the Japanese emperor made a

radio plea to his people to stop fighting. With this imperial decree, Fighting ended.

Critics have said that the bomb was actually dropped to send a message to the USSR

Others have said the Truman decided to end the war with a tremendous display of power that might make the Soviets more flexible in Europe.

Truman himself believed that he saved millions of American and Japanese lives. “I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used.