The Second World WarChapter 28

Introduction--WWII

Threats to the balance of power

A conflict among nations, peoples, and ideals

The new methods of warfare

The Holocaust and the atomic bomb

From Isolation to Intervention

Following WWI, successive U.S. administrations backed away from intervention in foreign countries

Foreign Crises

Russia

Lenin 1917

Stalin 1924

Italy and Germany

Benito Mussolini became leader of Italy in 1922

Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933

Lenin and Stalin

Mussolini

Hitler

Weimar Republic Germany 1918-1932: Problems and More Problems Problems with Legitimacy

Major changes introduced by unelected Council of People’s Commissioners in November 1918

Introduced 8 hour workday, legalized labor unions, required re-hiring of WWI veterans; farm labor reforms; social welfare; national health insurance.

Conservatives opposed these measures and Communists thought they did not go far enough

Elections held January 1919

Great Depression

Treaty of Versailles indignities

War guilt

Disarmament

Reparations

Exclusion from major diplomatic events

Hitler and the National Socialists

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)

After the war, Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party (1919)

Re-definition of “socialism” into “National Socialism”

German Worker’s Party was created by conservative working class Germans who rejected the Treaty of Versailles and the liberal reforms of the Weimar Republic

“Socialism” was popular among many working class Germans.

Hitler hated “socialism” because it called for equality of race and gender

Hitler coined the term “National Socialist” to mean Aryan German Workers who came together as equals to support the moral, racial and cultural superiority of the German “Fatherland”.

National Socialist German Worker’s Party was aligned with German conservatives who acquiesced in Hitler’s ascension to be the Chancellor of Germany by forming a coalition government with the Nazi Party.

Hitler and the National Socialists

November 1923: Munich (Beer Hall) putsch

Along with other Nazi’s Hitler attempted a coup d'état

Hitler dictated Mein Kampf while in prison

Portrayed himself as the savior of the German people

Weimar elections

1924: Nazis polled 6.6 percent of the vote

Beer Hall Putsch Defendants

Proportional Representation and the Parliamentary System

Parliamentary System: Political parties offer a slate of candidates

Voters elect a party not individual candidates

Many parties may participate in parliamentary elections

Each party receives seats in parliament equal to the proportional number of votes it received in the election

If no one party gets 51% or more, the party with the most seats has an opportunity to form a coalition with other parties. The leader of the party with the most votes is usually the Prime Minister

Parliamentary system differs from U.S. system where voters elect a candidate

How did Hitler come to power?

1930 election

Nazis won 107 of 577 seats in the Reichstag

No party gained a majority (289 seats)

Conservative Party attempted for form a coalition government with the Nazis.

Nazis demand that Hitler be made Chancellor (Prime Minister)

Nazi refusal caused the conservative coalition government to fail, requiring new elections

Street battles between Nazis and Communists

Political Parties in the Reichstag June

1920

May

1924

Dec.

1924

May

1928

Sep.

1930

July

1932

Nov.

1932

Mar.

1933

Communist Party (KPD) 4 62 45 54 77 89 100 81

Social Democratic Party (SDP) 102 100 131 153 143 133 121 120

Catholic Centre Party (BVP) 65 81 88 78 87 97 90 93

Nationalist Party (DNVP) 71 95 103 73 41 37 52 52

Nazi Party (NSDAP) - - - 12 107 230 196 288

Other Parties 98 92 73 121 122 22 35 23

How did Hitler come to power?

July 1932 elections

Nazi party became the largest party in the Reichstag (Parliament) but did not have a majority

Two largest parties were Social Democratic Party (Liberals and Socialists) and Nazi party

Nazi party refused to join any coalition with the conservative Nationalist Party unless Hitler was made Chancellor

Conservatives refused to name Hitler as Chancellor

Stalemate resulted in caretaker government

Street battles continued between Communists and Nazis

Government paralyzed and cannot perform basic functions

Economic situation worsens

Freikorps

Communists

How did Hitler come to power?

November 1932 elections

Nazi Party lost significant seats but still the largest party

Social Democratic Party & Communist Party increased seats significantly but not enough to form a government

President Hindenburg agreed form a government with Hitler as Chancellor under pressure from industrialists and conservatives who argued that Hitler could be controlled

Hitler Coalition: Nazis (196 seats) German National People’s Party (51seats) and Centre party (70 seats)

Nazis appointed to major posts in the government

How did Nazis Consolidate Power?

Hitler as chancellor

January 1933: Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor

February 27, 1933: Reichstag set on fire by mentally challenged Dutch anarchist (perhaps set up by Nazis)

Hitler suspended civil rights

March 5, 1933: New elections

Hitler granted unlimited power for four years

Hitler proclaimed the Third Reich

The Reichstag Fire,27 February, 1933.

How did Nazis consolidate power?

Nazi Germany

A one-party state

Hitler’s first acts sharply limited freedom of the press and enabled the cabinet to issue decrees without the consent or approval of the Reichstag.

Reichstag Fire Decree suspended all civil liberties guaranteed by the German constitution.

Widespread arrests of known or suspected opponents of the Nazi party—mainly outspoken liberals and Communists in the SDP and KDP

Hitler turned on opposition within his own party

June 30, 1934: Night of the Long Knives purged SA who were not loyal to Hitler personally.

Secured the support of the Army generals (Reichweir)

Hitler and the National Socialists

Nazi Germany

Support

Played off fears of communism

Spoke a language of national pride

Hitler as the symbol of a strong, revitalized Germany (the Führer cult)

The recovery of German national glory

Nazis and German Racism

Nazi racism

Nazi racism inherited from nineteenth-century social Darwinism

Nations and people struggle for survival

Superior peoples strengthen themselves through struggle

Anti-Semitism

Joined by nationalist anti-Jewish theory: The Jew as outsider to the German nation

An “international Jewish conspiracy” based in part on Protocols of the Elders of Zion – a conspiracy theory claiming that International Jewish leaders were intent on taking over the world.

Protocols of the Elders of Zion created in 1903 by the Tsar’s Security police.

Nazi Racism

Nazi racism

April 1933: New racial laws excluded Jews from public office

1935 Nuremberg Decrees

Deprived Jews of citizenship (determined by bloodline)

November 1938: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

Nazi Boycott of Jewish Shops in Berlin, 1933

Still Image from Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will (1935),

a Film about a Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg, Germany, 1934

The 1930s –The “Dishonest Decade”

Appeasement

Assumptions in Europe and the U.S.

The outbreak of another world war was unthinkable

Fascist states were a bulwark against Soviet communism

Ends—how to maintain Europe’s balance of power?

Soviets the greater threat, so accommodate Hitler

U.S. Isolationism

Nye Committee 1934-1936

Formed in the U.S. Senate to investigate the Munitions industry profits from WWI

Headed by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota (R)

Claimed that U.S. entered WWI because the munitions industry profited by selling arms to both sides

Claimed that bankers pressured Woodrow Wilson to enter WWI to preserve their loans

Neutrality Acts: U.S. may not ship arms to belligerent nations

The 1930s –The “Dishonest Decade”

The League of Nations

Japanese invasion of China turned into an invasion of the whole country

The Rape of Nanjing (1937)

The League expressed shock but did nothing

Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935

Avenging the defeat of 1896

League imposed sanctions on Italy but without enforcement

The Outbreak of Hostilities and the Fall of France

Poland

The Blitzkrieg (lightning war)

Soviet troops invaded from the East

Poland fell in four weeks

The Outbreak of Hostilities and the Fall of France

Scandinavia—Germans took Denmark in one day (spring 1940)

The fall of France

Poorly organized French army overwhelmed by the German advance

Mid-June 1940: the Germans reached Paris

June 20, 1940: French surrendered

Germans occupied northern France

Southern France fell under the Vichy regime, headed by Marshall Petain followed German orders

The Free French movement: Charles De Gaulle

The Battle of Britain & the Beginnings of a Global War

The Battle of Britain (July 1940–June 1941)

Forty thousand civilians dead

Stalemate in the air

British resistance

London during the Battle of Britain

Mothers urge defeat of the Lend-Lease program, kneel in prayer in front of the Capitol

Degrees of Neutrality

Selective Service Act of 1940

First peace-time conscription in U.S. history. Drafted men between 18 & 45 for one year

FDR’s request that term of service be extended beyond 1 year passed the House of Representatives by 1 vote on August 12, 1941

Lend-Lease Program

March 11, 1941

U.S. sent armaments to Great Britain, Free France, China and the USSR in return for leases on military bases around the world

Public Opinion

February 1941: Gallup 54% of Americans favored Lend-Lease without qualifications

22% (primarily among Republicans) opposed to any aid

Senate Vote: 49 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted in favor; 13 Democrats and 17 Republicans voted against

House vote: Democrats 238 to 25 in favor; Republicans 135 against, 24 in favor

FDR signs Selective Service Act into Law

The Storm in the Pacific

Japanese Aggression

As Japan’s invasion of China became bogged down, Japan was forced to look to other Pacific Islands for natural resources

As Japan became more aggressive, FDR limited exports of American goods to Japan

Oil, scrap, and iron shipments prohibited

Japan decided to eliminate U.S. Pacific fleet

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941

19 American ships sunk or disabled

2,400 people killed; 1700 wounded

FDR asked for a declaration of war against Japan on December 8

Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11

Doolittle Raid

April 18, 1942

Joint action by the Army and Navy to retaliate against Japan by bombing Japanese industrial centers on Japanese home islands

Primary purpose: boost morale at home and hurt Japanese morale

Photos by Doolittle Raiders: http://www.doolittleraider.com/raid_photos.htm

Early U.S. Losses in the Pacific

Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong and Manila fell to Japanese in early 1942

Bataan Death March: April 8, 1942

Forcible transfer of 60,000- 80,000 American and PhilipinoPOW’s following the 3 month battle of Bataan Peninsula

80 mile march

Japanese atrocities

Racism?

General Homma tried and executed for war crimes in 1946

American public did not learn about the “Death March” until January 1944

Battles of Coral Sea and Midway

Coral Sea—May 4-8, 1942

Americans took more damage than Japanese

Repulsed Japanese threat to Australia

Midway—June 4-7, 1942

U.S. had broken the Japanese code

Knew attack coming but not exactly where

Confirmed location by sending a false message

3 of 6 Japanese aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor destroyed at Midway

Cumulative effect of these two battles was turning point in Pacific theatre

Japanese carrier destroyed in Battle of Coral Sea

Photo by Kiyoshi Oniwa: Sinking of Hiryu

Mobilization at Home

Economic Controls

Congress authorized office of Price Administration in 1942 to set wages and prices

War Production Board

Allowed for central control of industry from peacetime production to war production

Congress forced FDR to sell war bonds to finance the war

Did not raise taxes

Domestic Conservatism

FDR won election of 1940

Midterm elections of 1942: Republicans regained many seats in Congress and attempted to abolish most New Deal Programs

Franklin D. Roosevelt E.C. 449 Popular: 27,243,218 Wendell Willkie E.C. 82 Popular: 22,334,940

African American Soldiers in WWII

Segregated units

Separate accommodations

Job opportunities

Tuskegee Airmen

Red Ball Express: African Americans drove 500,000 TONS of supplies to 1st and 3rd Armies’ advance through France

D-Day 1,700 African Americans at Omaha and Utah beaches

Omaha Beach (2014)

Double V Campaign

Victory at Home and Victory Abroad

Attitudes of white servicemen who saw the courage of African American servicemen

Latinos

Southern farmers recruit Mexican workers for harvest time

Zoot Suit Riots: series of riots in Los Angeles in 1943 between white U.S. servicemen stationed in California and Latino youths

Native Americans

Supported war effort

1/3 of all eligible Native Americans served

Code Talkers

Japanese-American Internment

1942: 110,000 Japanese Americans

Name State Opened Max. Pop'n

Manzanar California March 1942 10,046

Tule Lake California May 1942 18,789

Poston Arizona May 1942 17,814

Gila River Arizona July 1942 13,348

Granada Colorado August 1942 7,318

Heart Mountain Wyoming August 1942 10,767

Minidoka Idaho August 1942 9,397

Topaz Utah September 1942 8,130

Rohwer Arkansas September 1942 8,475

Jerome Arkansas October 1942 8,497

Court Cases

Hirabayashi v. United States (1943): upheld the legality of using racial criteria in the military’s curfew orders.

Korematsu v. United States (1943): upheld the constitutionality of the military detention process during wartime.

Ex Parte Endo (1944): the War Relocation Authority could not detain U.S. citizens who were shown to be loyal—incarceration effectively ended.