World War II

Changes At Home, 1941-1945

U. S. Entry into War

• Response to Japanese gamble at Pearl Harbor

• Germany and Italy declare war on the U. S. on Dec. 11– Bringing the U.S. into

the war in Europe

Changes on the Home Front• U. S. had to mobilize society and economy at

unprecedented levels• War shape experiences of a generation:

– and had particular impact on Women, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Japanese-Americans.

War Transforms a Nation

• Western states experience population boom due to war industries

• Women serve in military (over 200,000) and 6 million worked in war related industries.

• Executive Order 8802 provides non-discrimination in Defense hiring for African Americans

• Military remained racially-segregated: Tuskegee Airmen defy stereo-types, but race riots occurred around bases where large numbers of African Americans were stationed.

Mobilization In the U.S.

• The war effort required all of America’s huge productive capacity and full employment of the workforce.– Government expenditures soared.

• U.S. budget increases– 1940 $9 million– 1944 $100 million– Expenditures in WWII greater than all previous

government budgets combined (150 years)– GNP 1939 91 billion 1945 166 million

War Transforms a Nation

• 1943 Zoot Suit Riots• 33% of eligible Native Americans Serve in War—

many as “Code Talkers”• Executive Order 9066—Japanese Americans

interned

Native American Code Talkers

Zoot Suit Rioters

Japanese Internment

Restoration of U.S. Prosperity

• World War II ended the Great Depression.

• Factories run at full capacity– Ford Motor Company – one bomber plane per

hour

• People save money (rationing)

• Army bases in South provide economic boom (most bases in South b/c of climate)

• The national debt grew to $260 billion (6 times its size on Dec. 7, 1941)

Key Battles

A Grand Alliance

The Big Three– Great Britain (Winston

Churchill)– The U.S. (FDR)– The Soviet Union

(Joseph Stalin) Strategies for War

– Defeat Germany first, then focus on Japan

Gloom & Doom for the Allied Powers

• By 1942- the Allies faced defeat. – The chain of spectacular victories disguised fatal

weaknesses within the Axis alliance: • Japan and Germany fought separate wars, each on

two fronts. They never coordinated strategies.– The early defeats also obscured the Allies’ strengths:

• The manpower of the Soviet Union and the productive capacity of the United States.

Invasion of the Soviet Union• It was then that Hitler made his pivotal mistake. He

invaded the Soviet Union. – The obliteration of Bolshevism was a key element of Hitler’s

ideology; however, it was a gigantic military mistake.• On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa,

consisting of an attack army of 4 million men spread out along a 2,000-mile front in three massive offensives.

• The German army quickly advanced, but at a terrifying cost. For the next three years, 90 percent of German deaths would happen on the eastern front.

Action in the Pacific• Pacific had become a Japanese Empire

– Spring ’42 the Philippines fell to Japan Philippines.

• U. S. victories at Coral Sea (May 7-8, 1942), Midway (June 4-5, 1942), and Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942-February 21, 1943) arrested Japanese expansion, and crippled their naval airpower

• This permits U. S. to focus on Europe

The Pacific Theater: Early Battles

• American Forces halted the Japanese advances in two decisive naval battles.– Coral Sea (May 1942)

• U.S. stopped a fleet convoying Japanese troops to New Guinea

• Japanese designs on Australia ended

– Midway (June 1942)• Japanese Admiral Yamamoto hoped to capture Midway

Island as a base to attack Pearl Harbor again• U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz caught the Japanese by surprise

and sank 3 of the 4 aircraft carriers, 332 planes, and 3500 men.

– American cryptanalysts

War in Europe

• Operation Torch (November 1943)• Casablanca Conference (1943)—unconditional

surrender of Axis• Battle of Atlantic—won by U. S. in 1943• Sicily invaded on July 10, 1943• September 1944, Italy mainland invaded• Anzio landings on January 22, 1944• Rome fell on June 4, 1944

Operation Overlord and After

• Teheran Conference—Cross-channel invasion• June 6, 1944—landings in Normandy (5,000 U. S.

casualties on Day One)• Paris fell August 25, 1944• Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 16, 1944—January 26,

1945• March 7, 1945, Bridge at Remagen seized• May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered

Ike with Paratroopers

What the Allies found in the 3rd Reich

War in the Pacific

• Island Hoping and Leapfrogging

• January 1943, New Guinea Invaded

• Tarawa invaded, Nov. 20, 1943

• Marianas secured on June 19, 20, 1944

• Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 25, 1944

• Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945

• Okinawa, April 1, 1945

War in the Pacific

• U. S. plans to invade Japan: Operations Coronet and Olympic, but war casualties rise

• Firebombing raids on Tokyo, March 1945• Decision to use Atomic Bomb• August 6, 1945—Hiroshima; August 9, 1945,

Nagasaki• Japanese sue for peace on August 14, 1945• Formal Surrender on U. S. Missouri, September 2,

1945.

Hiroshima: courtesy RW & B

Ongoing Controversies

• Did FDR know about Pear Habor in advance?

• Could U. S. have done something to liberate death camps sooner?

• Did the U. S. really need to nuke Japan?

Balance Sheet

• 17 Million soldiers and 19 million civilians died world wide

• War cost approximately $1,000,000,000,000

• 6 million Soviets died in Battle

• U. S. lost 294,000 servicemen in combat, 600,000 wounded, and 114,000 others killed in war related accidents.

U. S. Military Cemetery at Omaha Beach

U. S. Cemetery, Luxembourg