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America Declares War

December 8, 1941

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TN Curriculum Standards:

• 3.0-Identify the countries affected by the totalitarian states and their acts of aggression and expansion considering geographic location.

*Identify the various theaters of war during WWII.

• 5.0-Understand the changing dynamics of American life during WWII.

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Student Performance Indicators (SPI)

• 8.7-Recognize WWII alliances.• 8.8-Analyze how WWII affected the American

economy (women in the workforce, movement to urban centers, minority employment, post war G. I. Bill, rationing, childcare)

• 8.10- Evaluate the impact of the Manhattan Project.

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War Production

• After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, FDR was determined to overwhelm the Axis powers with both our superior military equipment and the speed in which we could produce them.

• Factories suspended production on their regular contracts like passenger cars and household items and began manufacturing tanks and airplanes.

• War production was increased to records never seen before in the history of the U.S.

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War Production

• The federal government spent more than $100 billion on contracts for war supplies.

• At this time, the U.S. had more jobs than they actually had workers to fill the jobs.

• The government gave contracts to companies like General Electric and U. S. Steel.

• The increase in jobs led to an increase in Union membership although they agreed to not launch any strikes during the war.

• No one wanted to do anything to halt war production.

• The ramp in production came to a total of over $304 billion.

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Military Production

• The United States produced:

300,000airplanes80,000 tanks7000 ships3 million vehiclesBillions of bullets

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Fight On!!!!

• The attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed most of the U.S.’s Pacific fleet.

• This left us unable to successfully defend ourselves from the Japanese in the Pacific.

• Hitler’s u-boats were successfully sinking American ships in the Atlantic.

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Battle in the Pacific

• Japan’s military strategist Admiral Yamamoto believed that the way to defeat the Americans was to launch an all-out defensive in the southern Pacific.

• They struck U.S. airfields in the Philippines and captured bases on Guam and Wake Island.

• The British naval base of Singapore also surrendered to the Japanese.

• Japan needed a complete takeover of the Philippines before they could claim complete domination in the Southern Pacific.

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Admiral Yamamoto

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Japanese conquer of the Philippines

• The Japanese attack on the Philippines in January of 1942 forced American General Douglas MacArthur to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula .

• In the Bataan Peninsula, the troops held out for more than 3 months.

• The lack of food and supplies drove them to eat their cavalry horses and mules.

• Diseases like malaria and dysentery ran rampant.

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The Bataan

• FDR couldn’t risk having General Douglas MacArthur captured, so he had him escape to Australia.

• His capture would have destroyed morale both at home and abroad.

• Upon surrendering, 78,000 prisoners of war were forced to march 65 miles to a Japanese prison camp. 10,000 troops died along the way

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Japanese Domination

• Before the march, the soldiers were already malnourished, sickly, and fatigued.

• Female Allied nurses were also captured. They remained in Manila until 1945.

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Bataan Death March

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Japanese Imperialism

• Japan went on to conquer the oil-rich Dutch East Indies.

• In comparison to the U.S.’s ships, Japan’s ships were “larger, faster, and more heavily armed”.

• They routinely out-performed American ships.

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The Doolittle Raid

• After American defeat in the Philippines, FDR knew they needed a military strategy that would raise morale.

• He wanted to bomb Tokyo (capital of Japan), but American planes needed aircraft carriers to get them close enough to do the job.

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Preparing to attack Tokyo

• American aircraft carriers would have to get around Japanese ships that were already stationed in the North Pacific in order to complete the mission.

• The military decided to replace the short- range bombers that they normally used with long-range B-25s.

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Firebombing Tokyo

• The problem with using the long-range B-25s was clear immediately.

• They could take off from carriers, but they could not land on them because their decks were too short.

• If they attacked Japan, they would have to land in China.

• FDR assigned Lt. Colonel James Doolittle the task of coordinating the bombing of Tokyo.

• The aircraft carrier named Hornet was loaded with 16 B-25s.

• America firebombed Tokyo April 18th .

• This was the 1st time Japan had been bombed by America.

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April 18, 1942-Doolittle Raid over Tokyo

• The mission to bomb Tokyo was so secretive that the Commanding officer wasn’t informed of the mission until the B-25s were being loaded.

• While the damage wasn’t as extensive as the U.S. would have liked, it was still enough to infuriate and embarrass the Japanese.

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Japan Strikes Back

• After the attack on Tokyo, the Japanese decided to cut the American supply lines to Australia.

• In order to do this, they would have to also capture the southern coast of New Guinea.

• Admiral Yamamoto wanted to attack the last American base in the North Pacific- Midway.

• He wanted a battle with the American fleet because he believed Japan to be superior.

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Japan’s military strategy

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Battle in the Pacific

• Japan believed that destroying the U.S.’s fleet was the only way to protect Tokyo from further bombings.

• Japan assigned only 3 aircraft carriers to attack New Guinea. They rest were dispatched to Midway.

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Battle of the Coral Sea

• Japan was confident in proceeding with these two battles because they thought that their operations were top-secret.

• They did not know that American code breakers in Hawaii had already deciphered their secret code.

• American carriers met the Japanese on the Coral Sea and prevented them from landing on New Guinea– this enabled them to keep their supply lines open.

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Battle of the Coral Sea

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Battle of Midway

• Admiral Nimitz (American fleet) ordered his carriers to the Central Pacific after learning about the plan at Midway.

• From June 3rd to June 6th, American naval ships and planes dealt devastating blows to the Japanese navy.

• This turned the tide in the Pacific. The Japanese were at a disadvantage, but they still held strong to other places that it had conquered.