• Japan’s attack on China caused US alarm as to trade status – Open Door Policy

• Japan declared policy obsolete• US retaliated by loaning money to

China and asking US munitions makers not to sell to Japan

• Sep 1940 – US stopped sale of scrap iron to Japan – Japan retaliated by signing alliance with Germany and Italy

• FDR extended embargo to machine tools

• Neither Japan nor US wanted war – US made demands Japan refused to meet concerning expansion in Asia

• Japanese code broken – US knew attack imminent

• Surprise attack knocked US Pacific fleet out of action

• 2,300 killed 1,100 wounded• Admiral Kimmel and General Short

blamed• Defeat due to confusion and poor

communication at all levels

• Though Democrats retained majorities in both houses, conservatives kept lid on many of FDR’s initiatives

• Roosevelt good war leader but poor administrator – inspired the nation towards war effort but administration mired in confusion, inefficiency, bickering

• War caused huge increase in production effectively ending the Depression

• The South saw a revival with more manufacturing also establishment of many military camps

• By December 1941, Depression-era administrations squabbling with industry over resources, etc. FDR refused to get involved

• By 1943 economy was being managed by Office of War Mobilization under former Supreme Court Justice Byrnes

• Rents, wages, food prices were strictly regulated

• Important food and other items were rationed

• Labor shortages caused by draft and increased manufacturing gave unions more power

• FDR created National War Labor Board to arbitrate disputes between labor and management

• Coal strike caused Congress to give president power to take over any war plant threatened by a strike

• Despite war, average citizen saw no drop in standard of living

• Production of cars ceased and gas severely rationed but all other civilian activities went on

• Meat, sugar, shoes rationed but average needs met

• Skirts shortened, cuffs disappeared, as did vests to conserve cloth

• Silk stockings no longer available

• Federal government spent more $ between 1941-1945 than in its entire previous history

• National debt rose from <$49 billion to >$260 billion

• More than 40% of expenditures met through taxation – high taxes on high incomes

• Annual incomes limited to $25,000

• Taxes paid even by the poorest segments of society

• First time taxes withheld by employers

• Tax policies resulted in smaller wealth gap

• Migrations to new industrial areas

• Population of California rose >50 %

• Marriage and birth rates increased

• Population increased 3 million during 1930’s – in next five years it rose 6.5 million

• Blacks treated better in military than in WWI

• Segregation still maintained in all services

• Segregation led to several small riots and mutinies

• US Navy continued to keep blacks in demeaning non-combat tasks

• Doris “Dorie” Miller

• Black economic situation improvedMore employedMigration to Northern citiesAcquired more advanced skills Concentration in ghettos increased political clout

• NAACP adopted a more militant stance• Whites reacted to black advancements with strikes – riots erupted

killing blacks and whites

• Thousands of Mexicans came north to take jobs

• Bracero Program – migrant agricultural work

• Work plentiful and standards of living rose

• Many Mexican-Americans served in military

• Zoot Suit Riots

Who's that whisperin' in the trees?It's two sailors and they're on leavePipes and chains and swingin' handsWho's your daddy, yes I amFat cat came to play now he can't run fast enoughYou had best stay away when the pushers come to shoveZoot suit riot, (Riot) Throw back a bottle of beerZoot suit riot (Riot) Pull a comb through your coal black hairZoot suit riot, (Riot) Throw back a bottle of beerZoot suit riot (Riot) Pull a comb through your coal black hairBlow DaddyA whipped up jitterbuggin' brown eyed manA stray cat frontin' up an eight-piece bandCut me Sammy and you'll understandIn my veins hot music ranYou got me in a sway, and I want to swing you doneNow you sailors know, where your women come for love

Zoot suit riot, (Riot) Throw back a bottle of beerZoot suit riot (Riot) Pull a comb through your coal black hairZoot suit riot, (Riot) Throw back a bottle of beerZoot suit riot (Riot) Pull a comb through your coal black hairYou're in a Zoot Suit riotZoot zy-ow - Zoot za zoo zay Hey al-oo-ay-en - zay zay zayZoot zy-ay-ay ow - Zoot za zoo zay Ze-zoo-ze-zehoo - day de dayYou got me in a sway, and I want to swing you doneNow you sailors know, where your women come for loveZoot suit riot, (Riot) Throw back a bottle of beerZoot suit riot (Riot) Pull a comb through your coal black hairZoot suit riot, (Riot) Throw back a bottle of beerZoot suit riot (Riot) Pull a comb through your coal black hairYou're in a zoot suit riot

• Indian assimilation was encouraged - >24,000 served in the war while others moved to cities and worked in factories

• Windtalkers- Navajo tribe used as radio operators as Navajo was unwritten language

• Pearl Harbor caused fear of Japanese sabotage

• Executive Order 9066 - Japanese to be interned in camps throughout the West

• Korematsu v. The United States

• 442nd Regimental Combat Team

• Women worked in almost all fields including high-paying industrial jobs

• Others enlisted in women military auxiliaries

• Men initially resistant – “women not capable”

• Demand for labor broke all barriers• Loneliness brought on infidelity and

divorce rates skyrocketed

Rosie the Riveter

• Allies decided to tackle Europe first• USSR and Britain had backs to wall• Allied planes began bombing

German cities from 1942 on• First American assault on North

AfricaChurchill’s motivesVichy French – Admiral DarlanKasserine Pass

• Attack on Sicily• Attack on Italy

Surrender of Italy Stalemate at Monte

Cassino Invasion at Anzio Mussolini killed by Italian

partisans

D-Day 6 June 1944 Invasion of Western Europe

• Patton’s drive east• Operation Market-Garden

Airborne assaults on bridges – cross Rhine River

• Battle of the Bulge Last-gasp attempt by Hitler to

stop Allied advance in West

• Bridge at Remagen• Race to Berlin• Concentration camps• May – VE Day• Deaths of Roosevelt & Hitler

Scissors beats paper every time!

Every individual flag equals 100,000 soldiers dead

Every individual skull equals 100,000 dead civilians

Every individual Star of David equals 100,000 dead Jews

• Battle of the Coral Sea – carrier battle – peak of Japanese expansion

• Battle of Midway – Japan goes on defense

• General Douglas MacArthur• Island Hopping

GuadalcanalTarawa, Saipan, GuamPhilippines

• Kamikazes• Battle of Leyte Gulf• Iwo Jima and Okinawa• Invasion of the Japanese

home islands?

Hell in the Pacific Parts I and II

• The Manhattan Project Multi-national effort under US

leadership Director - J. Robert

Oppenheimer

• Russian declaration of war against Japan 8 August 1945

• VJ-Day – 15 August

The Atomic Bomb

• Little Boy Uranium core Gun method Dropped on Hiroshima 6August

1945

• Fat Man Plutonium core Implosion method Dropped on Nagasaki 9 August

1945

Little Boy Fat Man

• Debate Was the use of nuclear weapons against Japan necessary

and/or ethical? Did nuclear weapons force the surrender of Japan? Was an invasion of Japan necessary to win the war?

• US pushed image of Russia (USSR) as a friend during war

• Russia appeared to back US plans for post-WWII world including UN

• Russia: seeking domination or security?

• YaltaUS agreed to Russian

annexation of Poland in return for free elections

Discussed partition of GermanyAgreed to establishment of UN

• PotsdamAllies agreed on war crimes

trialsConfirmed division of Germany

into occupied zonesCalled on surrender of Japan

• The General Assembly• The Security Council

(Permanent Members)US, Great Britain, USSR,

France, ChinaVeto