WWII

By: Mr. Mitchell

• Nazi victories in 1940 lead to increased U.S. defense spending

• First peacetime draft enacted—Selective Training and Service Act:– Draftees to serve for 1 year in Western Hemisphere only.

• FDR, Churchill issue Atlantic Charter– Joint declaration of war aims

• Charter is basis of “A Declaration of the United Nations” or Allies

US moving closer to the War

• The Japanese need oil from US, we refused to trade with them

• December 7, 1941 the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. – 2,403 Americans

killed; 1,178 wounded

– Over 300 aircraft, 21 ships destroyed or damaged

Pearl Harbor

US Enters the War • December 8, 1941 US declares war on Japan

• December 11, 1941 Germany declares war on the United States

Home Front during the War• The United States government

stirs patriotic feelings • Movies are used to build morale• Propaganda is used to keep war

effort going• People rationed goods/supplies

and started Victory Gardens• Many factories converted to

make weapons– Nearly 18 million workers

• Over 2 million minorities hired; face strong discrimination at first– A. Philip Randolph, head of

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters– Organizes march on D.C to protest

discrimination in defense industries. • FDR responded with an executive

order banning discrimination in war-time factories (Executive Order 8802)

Factories and Discrimination

• Many Americans were distrusting of Japanese Americans

• Thousands of Japanese Americans were forced into Internment Camps in the Midwest throughout WWII– German and Italian

Americans as well

Internment Camps

US War in the Pacific• In first 6 months after Pearl

Harbor, Japan conquers empire

• Gen. Douglas MacArthur leads Allied forces in Philippines

• March 1942 U.S., Filipino troops trapped on Bataan Peninsula

• FDR orders MacArthur to leave; thousands of troops remain (says he will return)

• Battle of Midway – Won by U.S. after breaking Japanese code. – Sink 4 Japanese Aircraft Carriers. – Battle is fought entirely in the air.– “TURNING POINT” OF THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC!!!

• US begins “Island Hopping” beginning with Guadalcanal– U.S. starts to capture islands closer to Japan

Midway and Guadalcanal

• Iwo Jima critical as base from which planes can reach Japan– 6,000 marines die taking island; of 20,700 Japanese,

200 survive• April 1945 U.S. Marines invade Okinawa– 170,000 Japanese defend island, only 10,000

surrender.– April–June: 7,600 U.S. troops, 110,000 Japanese die

• Allies fear invasion of Japan may mean 1.5 million Allied casualties

Iwo Jima and Okinawa

• Manhattan Project - U.S. develops atomic bomb (started many years earlier)

• 1. US Drops first atomic bomb on Hiroshima

• 2. Soviet Union invades Japan• 3. US Drops second atomic bomb on

Nagasaki• 4. Japan Surrenders

Victory in the Pacific

War in Europe

• Hitler broke the non-aggression pact and invaded the Soviet Union– Germans wanted to obtain the Soviet oil fields

quickly– The Germans were unsuccessful in the winter

months• EX: STALINGRAD

• Allies moved to Italy– Mussolini was overthrown and

moved his government to Northern Italy

• Allies freed Northern Italy– Mussolini was shot and killed

by Italians

War in Europe

D-Day Invasion

• June 6th, 1944 Allies open operation to free France– British and Canadian forces landed on other beaches. – US land on Omaha and Utah beaches

• Landed on the Beaches of Normandy under the command of Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Heavy loss of life but successful in freeing France

Battle of the Bulge• Nazi’s last

offensive attack• Attacked area

between France and Germany

• US soldiers attacked from the rear and defeated the Germans

• Soviet army surrounded Berlin

• Nazis surrendered to Eisenhower

• May 7, 1945: V-E Day• Hitler refuses to surrender

and commits suicide

Victory in Europe

• Hitler’s Final Solution• People effected: –Jews, Poles, Slavs,

Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled, mentally ill–11 million die, over

half are Jews

Holocaust

• February 1945, FDR, Churchill, Stalin meet in Yalta to discuss post-war world

• FDR, Churchill concession: temporarily divide Germany into 4 parts

• Stalin promises free elections in Eastern Europe; will fight Japan

• FDR gets support for conference to establish United Nations

Yalta Conference

• Occurred from July 17th to August 2nd, 1945• Discussed how to handle punishments for Nazi

Germany – Allowed military administration by US in Germany– De-centralized Nazi economy control

• Conference approved US usage of A-bombs

Potsdam Conference

• Geneva Convention– Set guidelines for POWs

• Nuremberg Trials –– 24 Nazi leaders tried, sentenced– War crimes

• Formation of Israel• Creation of United Nations– Prevent future wars

Other effects of WWII