NAME: ___________________ DUE DATE: ________________
Chapter 34
America in World War II, 1941–1945
KEY TERMS AND PEOPLE TO KNOW Executive Order No. 9066
War Production Board (WPB)
Office of Price Administration (OPA) National War Labor Board (NWLB) Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act WACs (Women’s Army Corps)
WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service)
Bracero program
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Code talkers
Battle of Midway D-Day
V-E Day (Victory in Europe) Potsdam Conference Manhattan Project V-J Day (Victory in Japan) Douglas MacArthur Chester Nimitz
Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower Harry S. Truman
Albert Einstein
CHAPTER THEMES
Theme: Unified by Pearl Harbor, America effectively carried out a war mobilization effort that produced vast social and economic changes within American society.
Theme: Following its “get Hitler first” strategy, the United States and its Allies invaded and liberated conquered Europe from Fascist rule. The slower strategy of “island-hopping” against Japan also proceeded successfully until the atomic bomb brought a sudden end to World War II.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
America was wounded but roused to national unity by Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt settled on a fundamental strategy of dealing with Hitler first, while doing just enough in the Pacific to block the Japanese advance. With the ugly exception of the Japanese-American concentration camps, World War II proceeded in the United States without the fanaticism and violations of civil liberties that occurred in World War I. The economy was effectively mobilized, using new sources of labor such as women and Mexican braceros. Numerous African Americans and Indians also left their traditional rural homelands and migrated to war-industry jobs in the cities of the North and West. The war brought full employment and prosperity, as well as enduring social changes, as millions of Americans were uprooted and thrown together in the military and in new communities across the country. Unlike European and Asian nations, however, the United States experienced relatively little economic and social devastation from the war.
France. The Allies moved rapidly across France, but faced a setback in the Battle of the Bulge in the Low Countries.
Meanwhile, American capture of the Marianas Islands established the basis for extensive bombing of the Japanese home islands. Roosevelt won a fourth term as Allied troops entered Germany and finally met the Russians, bringing an end to Hitler’s rule in May 1945. After a last round of brutal warfare on Okinawa and Iwo Jima, the dropping of two atomic bombs ended the war against Japan in August 1945.
*The first goal of the U.S. in the war was to mobilize. This meant signing up thousands of troops, and switching the American economy over to war. For example, it was time to stop making sedans, and start building bombers.
*The war affected all Americans. Men (of all races) went to war and women took the jobs the men had left.
*In the Pacific, the U.S. “island hopped” over four years from Hawaii all the way to Okinawa and were “knocking on Japan’s door.” Finally, the atomic bomb drove Japan to surrender.
*In Europe, the U.S. and her allies worked from North Africa up through Italy and toward the “soft underbelly” of Germany. Then, the massive D-Day invasion drove the Nazis back to Germany where Hitler committed suicide and his generals surrendered.
The Allies Trade Space for Time Know: ABC-1 Agreement, Germany First
1. "America's task was far more complex and back-breaking [in World War II] than in World War I." Explain.
The Shock of War
Know: Executive Order No. 9066, Korematsu v. U.S.
2. How did the war affect liberal ideals and goals at home?
Building the War Machine
3. What effects did the war have on manufacturing, agriculture and labor?
Makers of America: The Japanese (pp. 792-793) Know: Matthew Perry
Manpower and Womanpower Know: Braceros, Rosie the Riveter
5. What opportunities were opened to women as a result of the war?
Wartime Migrations
Know: A. Philip Randolph, Fair Employment Practices Commission, Double V, CORE, Code Talkers, Zoot Suit Riots 6. What effect did the war have on the nation's minorities? Be specific for African Americans, Native
Americans, and Mexicans. (FREQUENT AP ESSAY TOPIC)
Holding the Homefront
7. What economic effects resulted from American participation in the war?
The Rising Sun in the Pacific
8. Describe Japanese victories in the Pacific in the months following Pearl Harbor.
Japan's High Tide at Midway
American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo Know: Island Hopping
10. What strategy did the United States use to defeat the Japanese?
The Allied Halting of Hitler
11. "The war against Hitler looked much better at the end of 1942 than it had in the beginning." Explain.
A Second Front from North Africa to Rome Know: Dwight D. Eisenhower
12. Describe the purpose and outcome of the Invasion of North Africa.
D-Day: June 6, 1944
Know: D-Day, Normandy, George Patton
13. Why could June 6, 1944 be considered THE turning point of the war?
FDR: The Fourth-Termite of 1944 Know: Thomas Dewey, Harry S Truman
Roosevelt Defeats Dewey
15. What factors led to Roosevelt's victory over Dewey?
The Last Days of Hitler
Know: Battle of the Bulge, V-E Day
16. In no more than a sentence or two, tell how the Germans were defeated in 1945.
Japan Dies Hard
Know: Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Kamikazes
17. Explain the meaning of the title of this section.
The Atomic Bombs
Know: Potsdam Conference, Manhattan Project, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hirohito, V-J Day 18. What was the military impact of the atomic bomb?
The Allies Triumphant Know: George Marshall
Varying Viewpoints: The Atomic Bombs: Were They Justified? (p. 815)
20. In light of the discussion in this section, evaluate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki and the fire-bombing of Dresden & Tokyo.
Analysis Questions – Choose ONE of these questions. On a separate piece of paper, write a thesis statement (one sentence), and then outline (but don’t write out) your response. Include in the outline the main points you would discuss in the essay. Attach to this study guide.
1. What was the wisest strategic decision in World War II, and what was the most questionable?
2. How were the European and Pacific wars similar and how were they different? 3. What was the significance of the dropping of the atomic bomb, then and now?
4. How did America’s domestic response to World War II differ from its reaction to World War I?
5. Account for the increased urbanization of Black Americans in the period 1914 to 1945.
HISTORIC NOTES
Early in the war, Germany, Japan, and Italy have considerable military success. The Allies, except for France, which had surrendered in 1940, are fortunate not to be overwhelmed completely.
Fearing that they will be disloyal, FDR orders the detention of Japanese Americans, a serious violation of basic American civil rights.
Millions die in the Holocaust, a systematic attempt by the Nazis to destroy those they consider to be inferior – Slavs, the mentally ill, homosexuals, political prisoners, and, especially, Jews.
The war occasions extensive demographic changes. Urban areas expand to meet the demand for labor in war-related industries. Rural and less-developed areas in the West and Southwest grow as well, a result of receiving government military contracts.
As in every American war, blacks contribute significantly in WWII despite the obstacles placed before them. But the military will not be desegregated until 1948.
The considerable financial resources needed to wage war drive up the national debt. In fact, New Deal spending pales in comparison with wartime military expenditures.
The success of the D-Day landing in the summer of 1944 affords the Allies a bridgehead in France from which they can move inland and ultimately invade Germany itself. With the USSR counterattacking from the east and the British and Americans closing in from the west, Hitler’s Third Reich is doomed. In April, 1945, shortly after Hitler killed himself, Germany surrenders, a victory FDR does not see, having died suddenly the month before.
With the war in Europe over, the Allies turn all of their attention to defeating Japan. After bloody battles in the Pacific, Truman orders atomic bombs cropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, inflicting enormous civilian casualties. Japan soon surrenders.
