World War II

APUSH/AP-DC/Dual Credit History

Dr. Benjamins

Adolph Hitler & Nazi Germany

Adolph Hitler & Nazis given emergency dictatorial powers in March 1933

Used resentment of treaty & Jews as scapegoats

Nuremburg Laws (1935) excluded Jews from citizenship & banned intermarriage

Kristallnacht (Nov. 9-10, 1938) began organized violence

Began secretly rebuilding military in 1935

Reoccupied Rhineland in 1936Aftermath of Kristallnacht

SS Blood Flag Ritual

Axis Aggression & Appeasement

Nov. 1937: Italy joined Germany & Japan’s Anti-Comintern Pact

March 1938: Germany annexed Austria (Anschluss)

Sept. 1938: British & French accepted German annexation of Sudetenland at Munich Conference

Aug. 1939: Germany & USSR agreed to divide eastern Europe in Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact

Sept. 1, 1939: Germany invaded Poland

Sept. 3, 1939: Britain & France declared war on Germany

© 2000 Wadsworth / Thomson Learning

Benito Mussolini & Adolph Hitler

The European Theater, 1939-41

Blitzkrieg revolu-tionized warfare

Planes

Tanks

April 1940: Germany conquered Denmark & Norway

May 1940: Germany overran Low Countries

June 1940: France surrendered to Germany

American Isolationism

Nye Committee (1934-37) investigated whether the U.S. had been duped into entering World War I

1937 Gallup Poll showed 2/3 of Americans thought U.S. involvement in WWI had been a mistake

1937 Neutrality Act:Americans couldn’t travel on belligerent ships

Belligerents could only purchase non-military goods, on “cash and carry” basis

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The Arsenal of DemocracyNov. 1939 – Neutrality Act amended to allow arms sales to belligerents

July 1940 – Republicans Henry Stimson & Frank Knox brought into cabinet as War & Navy Secretaries

Sept. 1940 –

Destroyer-Base Deal traded 50 “old” destroyers for 8 military bases

Selective Service Act – 1st peacetime draft

March 1941 – Lend-Lease Act allowed Britain (and later USSR) to “borrow” $50 billion worth of supplies

U.S. got into undeclared naval war in Atlantic

escorted British convoys – several shooting incidents in fall

Marines took over Greenland & Iceland to secure route

Declaring War Aims

Aug. 1941 – FDR & Churchill meet & issue Atlantic Charter:

Collective security

Disarmament

Self-determination

Economic cooperation

Freedom of the seas

The Four Freedoms:Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Worship

Freedom From Want

Freedom From FearNorman Rockwell,

“Freedom of Worship”

Churchill & Roosevelt, Aug. 1941

Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7, 1941

Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martins

U.S.-Japanese Conflict

Japanese had long resented U.S. immigration policy & coveted Philippines

U.S. condemned Japanese invasion of China in 1937

After Japan signed Tripartite Pact (Sept. 1940) & joined Axis, U.S. embargoed aviation fuel & scrap metal

U.S. froze all Japanese assets in U.S., July 1941

MAGIC intercepts revealed attack was coming, but not where it would come

Hideki Tojo,

Japanese

Prime Minister

1941-44

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

Japanese fleet crossed Pacific in radio silence

60 ships

6 carriers with 360 planes

U.S. lost:

19 ships sunk or disabled

160 aircraft destroyed

2,403 killed & 1,178 wounded

U.S. aircraft carriers spared because out at sea on exercises

USS Shaw

USS Arizona

Aerial Photo of Pearl Harbor

The War in Europe

Stalin wanted second front immediately

British preferred to attack “soft underbelly” (N. Africa & Italy)

Russians deserve most of the credit for winning the war in Europe

Battle of Stalingrad(Sept. 1942 - Jan. 1943)= turning point in Europe

The War in Europe

Nov. 1942: U.S. & British land at Casablanca

July 1943: U.S. & British invade Sicily, then Italy

June 1944: Normandy invasion (Operation Overlord)

May 7, 1945 = V-E Day

Race War in the Pacific

The Bataan Death March

The War in the Pacific

Turning point = Battles of Coral Sea (May 1942) & Midway (June 1942)

Naval & air superiority allows “island-hopping”

Victory at Leyte Gulf (Oct. 1944) began reconquest of Philippines

Bloodbaths at Iwo Jima(Feb.-March 1945) & Okinawa (April-June 1945), coupled with kamikazeattacks, made invasion of Japan unappealing

U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug. 6) & Nagasaki (Aug. 9)

Aug. 14/15, 1945 = V-J Day

The Pacific Theater

Marines Raising the Flag on Mt.

Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Feb. 1945

Gen. Macarthur Returns to the Philippines

WWII Deaths

USSR = 25 million

China = 15 million

Poland = 6 million

Germany = 4 million

Japan = 2 million

Yugoslavia 1.5 – 2 million

USA = 400,000U.S. Military Cemetery, Normandy

The Home Front

War Production Board oversaw plant conversion & production

Chairman = Donald Nelson

Cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts

Big business benefitted the most

Received 2/3 of gov’t contracts

Corporate profits doubled, 1939-43

Union membership rose from 8.5 million to 14.75 million, 1940-45

Wages rose 135%, from 1940-45

6 million women entered workforce

• 2.5 million in industry

• 75% married

WWII Propaganda Posters

Internment of Japanese Americans

300,000 aliens (1/2 Japanese) rounded up in week after Pearl Harbor

FDR issued Executive Order 9066 Feb. 19, 1942

120,000 (2/3 U.S. citizens)

West coast, but not Hawaii

War Relocation Authority ran internment camps

Upheld by Supreme Court in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944)

Nisei 442nd Regiment one of the most highly decorated units in WW II