Chapter 17 The US in WWII

• WAAC
• Minorities dilemma black men killing yellow men for white men
• 500,000 Mexicans
• 1,000,000 African Americans
• 13,000 Chinese 33,000 Japanese
• 25,000 native Americans
• 6 of 18 million workers were women
• Hard for women and minorities to get hired in industry
• A Philip Randolph, Pres of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized a march on Washington July 1, 1941
• The threat of 100,000 blacks marching on Washington: Randolph called it off in exchange for FDR issuing an exec order calling on labor unions and employers to end discrimination on basis of race, creed, color, or national origin.
• Scientists: miracle drugs like penicillin and the A bomb
• Japanese internment 110,000 Jap-Americans 2/3 were Nisei
• Economic Controls
• OPA (Price Administration) Froze prices income tax increased inflation was kept down
• and WPB (War Production) set up rationing meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, gasoline
• decided which industries would switch to war production

17.2 The War for Europe and N. Africa.

• Churchill and FDR meet after Pearl Harbor.
• #1 objective: defeat Hitler
• #2 unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. "essential to defend life, liberty and religious freedom."
• Battle of the Atlantic. 7 months into the war Germans had destroyed 681 Allied ships.
• Convoys. Destroyers with sonar, and airplanes with radar to spot U boats.
• U boats could now be destroyed faster than they could be built.
• US launches a crash ship building program. 1943, 140 ships a month; launchings outnumber sinkings
• mid-1943 tide of battle of Atlantic turned
• Eastern Front
• Operation Barbarosa
• Battle of Stalingrad. After stalling in attack on Moscow, Hitler changes tactic to take Stalingrad.
• There he could cut supplies to Moscow on the Volga R.
• 91,000 German troops left of original 330,000 who came to Stalingrad; surrendered to Russians
• Russians lost 1,250,000 soldiers and civilians
• Turning point…Soviets began to move steadily toward Germany.
• North African Front
• Operation Torch, invasion of Axis controlled N Africa commanded by DDE
• Nov 1942 107,00 Allied troops land in Algiers in N Africa
• Defeat Gen. Rommel, the Desert Fox
• Italian campaign
• Churchill thought it best to first attack Italy, "soft underbelly of the Axis."
• Sicily captured summer 1943
• King Victor Emmanuel strips Mussolini of power, but Hitler seizes control of Italy and reinstalls M.
• It took 18 months of miserable fighting to drive the Germans from Italy.
• "Bloody Anzio" 40 mi from Rome 4 month battle ; Allies aided by 50,000 Italian partisans, from underground resistance movements.
• Allies liberate Europe
• Operation Overlord
• D Day June 6, 1944 3 million troops
• Largest land-sea-air invasion in history 156,000 troops, 600 warships 11,000 planes
• Bombed supply routes for a month and a half first
• Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword within a month,1 million troops 170,000 vehicles
• Geo. Patton and his 3^rd Army advance In August, Paris was liberated from 4 yrs of German occupation
• By Sept France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands
• Battle of the Bulge Once the Allies entered Germany, Hitler’s counterattack
• Eventually Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks and 1600 planes
• From that point on, the Nazis could only retreat.
• Liberation of Death Camps.
• Unconditional Surrender.

17.3 The War in the Pacific

• The Jap. Empire dwarfed Hitler’s: Indochina, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand, half of China.
• Also, the Pacific Destroyed myth of white supremacy in Asia.
• MacArthur had to abandon the Philippines "I shall return"
• April 18, 1942 B-25 bombings of Tokyo Col. James Doolittle
• Lifted American spirits, led to doubt of Japanese invincibility
• Battle of Coral Sea new type of naval warfare planes fighting from carriers
• The Battle prevented Japanese attack of Australia. Not enough fuel.
• Battle of Midway. Japanese, largest assemblage of naval power in history, headed toward Midway, and then would go on to Pearl Harbor
• …Admiral Nimitz, outnumbered 4 to 1, inflicted major damage on Japanese; they lost 4 irreplaceable aircraft carriers and 322 planes.
• Island hopping. Selective targeting. Japs: "Our strong points were eventually starved out."
• Guadalcanal. First American offensive. 1/3 of our soldiers were casualties. Japan’s first defeat on land.
• McArthur returns to Philippines, Leyte Gulf, 1944. Japanese threw their entire fleet into the battle. Used the Kamikaze: sunk 16 ships, damaged 80.
• But Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 13 cruisers, 400 planes.
• The Philippines were ours.
• Next: Iwo Jima, most heavily defended spot on earth, 20,000 Japanese entrenched in tunnels and caves…Only 200 survived attacks by marines—6,000 died, most to that point in the war.
• One final obstacle before final assault on Japan: Okinawa. Fierce Kamikaze raids, severe damage. More than 7,000 Americans died, but the Japanese suffered loss of 110,000! Two generals committed suicide over the shame of surrender. Small foretaste of what the cost would be in invading Japan.
• Truman becomes Pres
• The Manhattan Project
• J Robert Oppenheimer, built it in Los Alamos, New M tested near Alamogordo, NM
• Scientists: immoral to use this without warning.
• Drop now! Reasons:
• 1. Save American lives
• 2. It would be a gigantic waste of money if not used. (600,000 people had worked on it)
• 3. Getting a powerful edge over Soviets in the post-War world.
• Hiroshima, Nagasaki Enola Gay Little Boy Fat Man 200,000 deaths after a year.
• Hirohito ends war on Sept 2, 1945, formal surrender ceremonies
• 1945 Yalta Conference FDR, Stalin, Churchill
• Stalin promised to enter war against Japan after surrender of Germany. He also promised free elections in Eastern Europe.
• UN created in April 1945 11 member security council with permanent member veto power: England, US, Soviets, France, China
• July 1945 Potsdam, Germany. Truman, Churchill, Stalin. Agreed to dish out justice to war criminals.
• Also, Germany divided into 4 sectors. US, Britain, France, Soviet Union. Germany’s capital, in Soviet zone, also divided into 4.
• Nuremberg War Trials. For the first time in history a nation’s leaders had been held legally responsible for their actions during wartime.
• Occupation of Japan
• 1100 Japanese arrested and put on trial during early months of US occupation of Japan. 7 were sentenced to death, including prime minister Hideki Tojo. US occupied Japan 6 years. MacArthur brought in free-market practices, and reform their government.

17.4 The Impact of the War

• WWII a change from Depression. Time of opportunity. Jobs abounded. US emerged as dominant econom and military power.
• Farmers prospered during the war, unemployment low, pay rose
• Women 35% of the work force.
• Great African-American migration, 1940-1950.
• Acute housing shortage.
• GI Bill of Rights payed for college for veterans, helped them buy homes
• Discrimination.