America’s HistorySeventh Edition

CHAPTER 24The World at War,

1937-1945

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

James A. HenrettaRebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self

I. The Road to WarA. The Rise of Fascism

1. Japan and Italy• 1931 Japan began a program of military expansion in Asia by occupying

Manchuria, full invasion of China 1937• Benito Mussolini, leader of Italy since 1922, invaded Ethiopia in 1935.

2. Hitler’s GermanyB. Isolationists versus Interventionists

1. Popular Front2. The Failure of Appeasement3. War Arrives

I. The Road to WarA. The Rise of Fascism

2. Hitler’s Germany• 1933 Hitler became German Chancellor• Germany suffered from post-World War I economic problems, labor unrest,

unemployment• political parties outlawed, rivals arrested• desired to overturn the Versailles Treaty and rid Germany of the “inferior

races” (Jews, Gypsies, Slavs)• blamed Jews for Germany’s economic problems• 1935 began to rebuild Germany’s military against the Versailles treaty.

B. Isolationists versus Interventionists1. Popular Front2. The Failure of Appeasement3. War Arrives

I. The Road to WarB. Isolationists versus Interventionists (Efforts to keep U.S. out of war in Europe

included Neutrality Act of 1935 and “cash-and-carry” policy for weapons sales.)1. Popular Front

• American intellectuals and social activists wanted the U.S. to enter war against fascism

• 1935-1938 Communist Party membership in the U.S. peaked at 100,000 members

• many more supported the ideas of the Party but did not join• Soviet leaders encouraged Communists in U.S. and Western Europe to join in a

Popular Front against fascism• they did so in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

2. The Failure of Appeasement3. War Arrives

I. The Road to WarIsolationists versus Interventionists (Efforts to keep U.S. out of

war in Europe included Neutrality Act of 1935 and “cash-and-carry” policy for weapons sales.)2. The Failure of Appeasement

• Germany annexed Austria in 1938• France and Britain allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland

(Czechoslovakia) if Hitler pledged to seek no more territory• Hitler continued his march into Czechoslovakia toward Poland;

1939 USSR-Germany sign a Nonaggression Pact• September 1 Hitler invades Poland; September 3 Britain and

France declare war.

3. War Arrives

I. The Road to WarIsolationists versus Interventionists (Efforts to keep U.S. out

of war in Europe included Neutrality Act of 1935 and “cash-and-carry” policy for weapons sales.)3. War Arrives

• U.S. interventionists stepped up their calls to enter the war but isolationists (“America Firsters”) convinced FDR to stay out; the president continued efforts to prepare for war, making trades with Britain to create U.S. bases on British soil); FDR reelected in 1940 and defined the “four essential freedoms”: speech, religion, from want and fear; March 1941 Lend-Lease Act passed to aid Britain; Atlantic Charter between U.S. and Britain: economic collaboration, national self-determination, political stability postwar.

I. The Road to WarC. The Attack on Pearl Harbor

1. Provocation• FDR criticized Japan’s invasion of China but did not intervene

when the city of Nanjing was attacked• 300,000 Chinese massacred and thousands of women raped• Japanese pursued the goal of a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity

Sphere” from Korea to Indonesia• invaded Indochina; U.S. froze Japanese assets and started an

embargo.

2. Plans for War

I. The Road to WarC. The Attack on Pearl Harbor

2. Plans for War• Prime Minister/General Tojo was making war plans

against the U.S., culminated in attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941

• killed more than 2,400 Americans• declaration of war against Japan brought the U.S. to

war against Germany and Italy (Axis Powers).

1. Consider the Pearl Harbor photograph and the Rosie the Riveter photograph together. What emotions does each of the images evoke in their audiences?

2. In your opinion, what was life like after the war for the three women pictured in the Rosie the Riveter photograph? How did war-time work experiences change the lives of such women?

II. Organizing for VictoryA. Financing the War

1. Business and Industry• significant cooperation had to exist between the

government and U.S. industries to mobilize for war• taxes on personal income and businesses paid for half

the war, the rest borrowed from the wealthy and other citizens who purchased bonds

• civilians working for the government increased to 3.8 million.

II. Organizing for VictoryA. Financing the War

2. War Production Board (WPB)• awarded defense contracts, allocated resources

(copper, rubber, oil), convinced businesses to convert to military production

• worked mostly with large corporations (ex: Henry J. Kaiser, contractor)

• beginnings of military-industrial complex of the Cold War period.

II. Organizing for VictoryB. Mobilizing the American Fighting Force

1. Soldiers and Workers• more than 15 million men and women enlisted in armed

forces• millions of civilians had to be mobilized in their

workplaces; segregated military• NAACP: “A Jim Crow army cannot fight for a free world• Native and Mexican Americans were not segregated;

Native Americans created undecipherable codes for the military to use.

II. Organizing for VictoryB. Mobilizing the American Fighting Force

2. Women• 350,000 women enlisted: 140,000 Women’s Army Corps

(WACS) and 100,000 WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services)

• 75,000 nurses; 1,000 Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs)

• limited duties and could not command men; no combat duty.

II. Organizing for VictoryC. Workers and the War Effort

1. Rosie the Riveter• women who worked in the defense industry; many left roles as

housewives and in lower-paying jobs to seek lucrative work for the defense industry

• riveters, ship welders, drill-press operators; by 1945 women were 36% of the labor force

• faced sexual harassment and wage discrimination; some child care provided by the government

• when men returned, women were expected to give up their jobs.

2. Wartime Civil Rights3. Organized Labor

II. Organizing for VictoryC. Workers and the War Effort

2. Wartime Civil Rights• “Double V” campaign: victories against Nazism and racism• A. Philip Randolph (head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car

Porters, largest black union) planned a march on Washington for civil rights in 1941

• FDR put forth EO 8802 prohibiting discrimination in defense industry and government jobs to halt the march; NAACP grew to 450,000 members

• founding of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a prominent 1960s organization

3. Organized Labor

II. Organizing for VictoryC. Workers and the War Effort

2. Wartime Civil Rights• Mexican Americans challenged discrimination and formed the

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and Congress of Spanish Speaking Peoples

• farm laborers began to organize in this period and would become increasingly active, including César Chávez and Delores Huerta.3. Organized Labor

• union membership increased• “no-strike” pledge during war years• creation of National War Labor Board (NWLB) to set wages,

work hours, conditions; consumer prices rose, as did corporate profits – angered many workers.

II. Organizing for VictoryD. Politics in Wartime

1. A Second Bill of Rights• 1944 State of the Union speech called for guaranteeing

Americans access to education, jobs, food, clothing, housing, medical care

• desired to extend the New Deal directly to individuals• Congress created benefits for military veterans (GIs) only• Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944) or the “GI Bill of

Rights” provided education, job training, medical care, pensions, mortgages.

II. Organizing for VictoryD. Politics in Wartime

2. Election of 1944• Democratic Party wanted Sen. Harry Truman (D-MO) as

running mate instead of VP Henry Wallace• ran against Gov. Thomas Dewey (R-NY)• FDR won 53.5% of popular vote.

III. Life on the Home FrontA. “For the Duration”

1. Popular Culture• Office of War Information (OWI) encouraged advertisers to link

their products to the war effort• movies and other forms of culture reinforced the connections

between the home front and the war• “Why We Fight” documentaries directed by Frank Capra• John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Spencer Tracy all played military

heroes in movies.2. Consumer Goods

• shortages due to rationing and regulation;• rubber shortages meant many people could/did not drive cars;

shoes rationed; meat, butter, sugar;• black market for goods developed.

1. What messages are being sent by these two posters from the Second World War?

2. From your perspective, why did the government believe such posters necessary during the war?

III. Life on the Home FrontB. Migration and the Wartime City

1. Racial Conflict• migration of population for work and military service• more than in previous years, racial and ethnic groups lived and

worked near each other• competition for jobs and housing• Rioting• in Los Angeles there was conflict between Hispanic teens (dressed in

“zoot suits”) and whites.

2. Gay and Lesbian Community Formation

III. Life on the Home FrontB. Migration and the Wartime City

2. Gay and Lesbian Community Formation• most kept silent by hostility, religious morality• cities such as NY, LA, Chicago, KC, Buffalo, Dallas

developed gay neighborhoods that would lead the gay rights movement in the 1960s-1970s

• military had difficulty screening out homosexuals• gay culture in military more extensive than in civilian

life.

1. Describe the physical appearance of the men being boarded onto the bus.

2. These so-called “zoot-suiters” were arrested after clashes with American servicemen in Los Angeles. Can you think of other examples of war-time division between ethnic groups?

III. Life on the Home FrontC. Japanese Removal

1. War Relocation• West Coast residents began to fear further attack by Japanese

following the bombing of Pearl Harbor;• history of anti-Asian sentiment in states like California

worsened during the war• EO 9066: War Department had the authority to force Japanese

and Japanese Americans into relocation camps for the rest of the war

• more than two-thirds were American-born• creation of War Relocation Authority (WRA).

2. Resistance

III. Life on the Home FrontC. Japanese Removal

2. Resistance• Gordon Hirabayashi was a student at the University of

Washington and a pacifist, registered as a conscientious objector (CO) with the draft board

• refused to evacuate but turned himself in• case went to the Supreme Court, ruled that internment

was legal because of “military necessity”• years later, Congress awarded $20,000 to survivors in

1988 with a public apology.

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarA. Wartime Aims and Tensions

1. The Big Three• FDR, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain, Premier Joseph Stalin of

Soviet Union• agreed that defeating Germany was top priority (then Japan), did not agree

over how to achieve• Stalin wanted a second front against Germany with an invasion through

France.

2. Battle of KurskB. The War in Europe

1. D-Day2. The Holocaust

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarA. Wartime Aims and Tensions

2. Battle of Kursk• British opposed an invasion in 1942, though FDR said Allies would

comply with Stalin’s wishes• American supplies were not ready when 1943 Battle of Kursk began• Soviet army had 860,000 casualties• agreement reached among Big Three to open a second front in early

1944• winter 1942-1943 Battle of Stalingrad stopped the German advance into

USSR; war turned to Northern Africa and Italy• Allies finally took Rome in June 1944, fighting in northern Italy continued

into May 1945.

B. The War in Europe1. D-Day2. The Holocaust

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarB. The War in Europe

1. D-Day•invasion of France, June 6, 1944; led by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower•terrible casualties at Normandy Beach; August 1944 liberated Paris•subsequent bombing of Hamburg and Dresden killed 305,000 civilians and soldiers, with hundreds of thousands injured•winter 1944 Germans attempted an offensive in Belgium (Battle of the Bulge), effort failed•Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, surrender occurred May 8.

2. The Holocaust

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarB. The War in Europe

2. The Holocaust•spring of 1945 Allied troops opened the extermination camps•6 million Jews and a combined 6 million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, “undesirables” killed•mass circulation of images shocked the world•widespread anti-Semitism had kept the U.S. from aiding Jewish refugees during the war years•21,000 Jews entered U.S. during World War II.

1. What is the central action of this photograph?

2. What aspects of American life had to be mobilized for our military to partake in this enormous military operation?

1. According to historians, President Roosevelt argued that victory over Hitler and Nazism would be the most effective way to end the Holocaust. In your opinion, was Roosevelt right? Why/why not?

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarC. The War in the Pacific

1. Naval Victories• through May 1942 the American Navy did not fare well in the

Pacific• crippled at Pearl Harbor, surrendered in the Philippines, Bataan

“death march” killed 10,000 American POWs• Battle of the Coral Sea and Battle of Midway were important

victories• early in 1945 victory appeared to be in sight though the death toll

in the Pacific was horrendous (13,000 Marines killed on the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa).

2. Racial Overtones3. Manhattan Project

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarC. The War in the Pacific

2. Racial Overtones• anti-Asian sentiment rampant in U.S.• Asians referred to as “yellow monkeys.”

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarC. The War in the Pacific

3. Manhattan Project• 1942 scientists at the University of Chicago produced first controlled

atomic chain reaction• persuaded FDR to develop an atomic weapon, believing the Germans to

be working on the same• Project cost $2 billion, employed 120,000 people• hidden from Congress, the public, VP Truman; successfully tested July 16,

1945• Truman ordered the bomb used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Aug. 6 and

9), arguing that that Japanese would not surrender until their country was devastated, believing that an invasion of Japan would have horrible casualties for the U.S. military

• Truman wanted to surprise Stalin, but he already knew of the weapon because of spies

• Japanese surrendered on August 10.

1. Who were the “Big Three”?

2. What was the intent of their war-time meeting at Yalta, a resort in the Black Sea?

1. Examine this image of Hiroshima more than six months after the atomic bomb was dropped. Can you identify any symbols of Japanese culture in this photograph?

2. How did the physical condition of Japanese cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki impact the United States after 1945?

IV. Fighting and Winning the WarD. Planning the Postwar World

1. Yalta• Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin met• debates over British and French colonies and the future of central

and eastern Europe• decided to divide Germany into four administrative zones and a

partition of Berlin• tensions grew.

2. A United Nations• the Big Three wanted to create an international body to replace

League of Nations• plan for a United Nations with a Security Council of five major

powers (U.S., Britain, France, China, USSR) to convene in San Francisco in April 1945.