WWII, Boeing, Executive Order 9066,

50’s Headlines, 1962 World’s Fair1941-1962

WWII• In the late 1930’s the

American economy was improving and the worst of the Great Depression was over, but there was trouble in other parts of the world.

• Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, believed that the Germans were a superior race.

• Hitler set out to conquer Europe and to cleanse it of what he called inferior peoples—especially Jewish people.

America Enters WWIISurprise Attack on Pearl

Harbor• Sunday morning,

December 7, 1941, was a beautiful one at Pearl

Harbor, Hawaii.• Many Navy ships were

docked.• Suddenly, wave after

wave of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs on US ships.

William Boeing• Boeing had been fascinated

with flight since January 1910, when he attended the first U.S. air races in Los Angeles.

• In Seattle, William Boeing and Conrad Westervelt built their first plane, the “B&W” in 1916.

• They formed the Pacific Aero-Products Co. in 1916, which later become The Boeing Company.

Boeing

The Boeing Company usedaluminum to make airplanes.• Just in case enemy planes

flew over the area, Boeing’s plant was disguised to look like a residential neighborhood.

• Using paint and wire, buildings were made to look like homes with trees in the yards.

Boeing• At the peak of production, the

Seattle plant produced sixteen B-17s every day.

• The B-17 was the main weapon in the air war against Germany.

• At its Renton plant, Boeing began work on the larger B-29.

• The B-29 “superfortress” was the most advanced bomber of its time.

• It was used in the air war against Japan.

• By mid-1945, six new B-29s rolled out of the plant every day.

Boeing• Boeing employed 50,000 people

by the end of the war. • Nearly half of them were women.• By the end of the war, Boeing

had built nearly seven thousand B-17s and more than one thousand B-29s.

• Boeing sales were ten times the income of all other Seattle industries combined.

Roosevelt asks Congress to Declare War on Japan

• December 8, 1941 • US joins the Allied

Forces (France, Britain, USSR)

• Fighting against Axis Powers (Italy, Germany, Japan)

Big 3 – Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill

Relocation of Japanese Americans• The surprise attack on Pearl

Harbor produced an irrational, almost hysterical, fear of Japanese invasion.

• Some people thought that Japanese Americans might give aid to Japan or secretly try to destroy American companies.

• Without any evidence to support their decision, government leaders decided to classify anyone of Japanese ancestry as a security risk.

Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066

• On March 2, 1942, all persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast were given relocation orders.

• Many lost their property or were forced to sell at low prices.

• They were removed from coastal areas, including Washington.

Executive Order 9066

• Bainbridge Island's Japanese American residents become the first to be interned under Executive Order 9066 on March 30, 1942.

Bainbridge Island High School pupils cut classes to bid farewell to their Japanese American classmates, March 1942

Questions to Consider

– Why was Bainbridge Island the first place to inter Japanese-Americans?

– To where were the Japanese-Americans moved after Bainbridge Island?

– What happened to their homes and belongings?– What was camp like?

Possible Scrapbook Entry

Pretend that you have received a letter from a Japanese-American friend of yours who was taken to a camp. What would that letter have said?

Little Rock 9• Nine African-American students

involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.

• September, 1957 sparked a nationwide crisis

• Arkansas governor Orval Faubus defied a federal court order

• Called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Nine from entering school

• President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and sent units of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the Nine into the school on September 25, 1957.

• The military presence remained for the duration of the school year.

Headlines of the 1950s - Sputnik

• History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I.

• It marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.

Possible Scrapbook Entry

-Cut and paste several headlines from the 1950s in your scrapbook.

-Include your reaction to the events.

Century 21- Seattle’s Second World’s Fair -1962

• Must See!• Monorail• Space Needle

Century 21 had 5 Themed Areas• Area #1- The World of

Science: Science exhibits surrounded the “space gothic” arches that towered over the southern section of the fairgrounds.

• The most popular attraction here was Boeing’s Spacearium, which took up to 750 visitors on an imaginary 10-minute excursion to the outer galaxies.

Century 21 – 4 more Themed Areas

• The World of Tomorrow• The World of

Commerce and Industry• The World of Art• The World of

Entertainment

Question to Consider

Why did Seattle have another World’s Fair?

Possible Scrapbook Entry

Compare your visit to the 1962 World’s Fair with the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition when you were 18.

Final Scrapbook Entry

Complete your scrapbook with an obituary of your life.

You’re done! What a life! What a project!