World War II: The Road to WarIV. From Isolationism to War

Objectives

• Find out why the US chose neutrality in the 1930s.

• See how American involvement in the European conflict grew from 1939 – 1941.

• Discover why Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor led the US to declare war.

Bell Ringer

• Name some places today where there is armed conflict.

• Is the US involved in these conflicts?• What does isolationism mean?• Why would the US be isolationist in the

years leading up to WWII?

A) The US Chooses Neutrality

• Great Depression kept US policy domestic.• Hawley-Smoot tariff kept US isolated.15)Neutrality Acts: laws designed to keep the

US out of war• 1935 – banned giving weapons to countries at war

– 1936 banned loans to warring nations – 1937 trade to warring nations okay as long as paid cash and used their ships

16)Cash and carry: trade to warring nations okay as long as paid cash and used their ships

• Roosevelt pointed out that this stance actually promoted aggression

B) American Involvement Grows

• Roosevelt's gets Neutrality acts lessened to help Britain and France

• After France fell – shocked – “all aid short of war”

• US gave 50 destroyers to Britain for land for bases

17)America First Committee: group of influential people determined to keep US neutral – Lindbergh

Lend - Lease

• US still would not lend money to allies

• Churchill wrote letter – “we are bankrupt”18)Lend – Lease act: President can

aid any nation he deems vital to US security – (fireside) (50 destroyers)

• US sent aid to UK and eventually USSR

• During war we lend 49 billion dollars to 40 countries

C) Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

• To stop Japanese aggression, Roosevelt restricts trade – steel, oil, iron – actually promotes it.

• New Japanese PM – General Tojo Kideki – anti-US.

• US had broken Japanese codes – knew their fleet was missing but where?

Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

• Wanted to avoid war with the US• Had lived here and studied at Harvard• He believed that he could knock the US

out of the war for 1 year, by then, Japan had to have conquered land where they could get the much needed supplies.

• November 26th, 1941 – 33 ships left Japan towards Pearl Harbor

The Plan

• Pearl Harbor: US military base in the Pacific Ocean. Located on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu.

Pearl Harbor is shallow natural harbor with Ford Island in the center

Battle ship row is located off Ford Island Main targets were the 3 aircraft carriers at

Pearl Harbor – secondary targets were battleships

USS Lexington, USS Saratoga, USS Enterprise

First Wave Attack

• December 7th, 1941• 10 midget submarines try to sneak into

Pearl Harbor• One sunk by Ward, one beached itself

on Oahu, one made it into the harbor and was rammed by the Monaghan, one was sunk by the St. Louis, rest never heard from.

USS Ward

• Destroyer – 7:00 am, sighted a submarine and sank it

• Sent message, “We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges on a submarine in the defensive sea area” Message was ignored

Radar Confirmation

• Radar was new and untested• 12 B-17 bombers were flying in from

California that morning• Harbor radar picked up the Japanese

planes and thought it was the B-17s.• The B-17s were actually passed by the

Japanese attack force and US crew took pictures of them

Tora! Tora! Tora!

• 7:40 am, Lt. Commander Fuchida gave the order to began achieving complete surprise.

• Hickman field was destroyed, Wheeler was hit, and Haleiwa field was ignored. Some US planes did get up in the air.

• All US planes were crammed together in the middle of the runway to protect against sabotage.

• 8 battleships were lined up nice and neat near Ford Island

USS Utah

• WWI Battleship• Outdated and was going to be used as

a target ship• She was moored where the aircraft

carriers were supposed to be.• She was hit by 2 torpedoes and

capsized• 61 men killed

USS Arizona

• A bomb penetrated her forward magazine and detonated her cartridges completely incinerating her forward deck.

• Ship immediately sunk to the floor killing 1,100 men

• They are still entombed their today

USS West Virginia

• Hit by 7 torpedoes on the port side• Captain died on the bridge• A young officer quickly directed a

counter flooding and prevented the ship from capsizing

USS Oklahoma

• Hit by 3 torpedoes and capsized in 20 min.

• Her crew were strafed when they climbed over the rolling ship.

• 415 men killed• 32 men were cut out of the bottom the

next day, alive

USS Nevada

• Protected from smoke of the Arizona• Young officer gave orders for an emergency

boiler start.• Got steam up in 45 min, (usual 2 hours) and

took off after the Japanese fleet• Under way when the 2nd wave of the attack

began.• Hit 5 times and beached herself before it

would block the harbor entrance

Japan’s Mistake

• Failed to destroy the 4,500,000 barrels of fuel at harbor

• Did not destroy the ship repair facilities• Sunk 0 submarines• All but 3 of the 18 ships were repaired

and fighting within 8 months (Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah)

• US would fight with subs for 8 months

D) US Declares War

• 18 out of 96 ships sunk of seriously damaged• Roosevelt – Dec 7th, 1941,

“a date which will live in infamy”• Dec 8th, 1941 – asks Congress for a

declaration of war – one no vote – Renkin• December 11th Germany and Italy declare

war on US – WWII is now official• Hitler gives “Honorary Aryans” title to

Japanese.

Review

• Why did the US choose neutrality in the 1930s?

• How did American involvement in the European conflict grow from 1939 to 1941?

• Why did Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor lead the US to declare war?