Ways America Prepared for War. Summer of 1940 First peacetime draft Men between 21 -- 35 ...
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Transcript of Ways America Prepared for War. Summer of 1940 First peacetime draft Men between 21 -- 35 ...
Summer of 1940 First peacetime draft Men between 21 -- 35 Registered 16.5 million men 5 million volunteered
250,000 women enlisted First time women were permitted to volunteer for armed forces
Non-combat roles (accountants, bookkeepers, drivers, radio operators)
Served in all branches WACS (women’s armed corp services) WAVES (women in the navy) WAFS (women in the air force)
Very strict guidelines for women to serve in the military
Age 20-49 No children under age 14 Minimum of two years of high school
Five million women entered the workforce
Many worked in industrial jobs in shipyards, defense plants, etc.
Received 60% less pay than men Women working in shipyards earned $6.95 a day; men earned $22.00 a day.
1.5 million AA left the south for jobs in the north and west
1 million left home to serve in the armed forces (segregated units)
Both civilians and soldiers continued to face discrimination and segregation
Civil Rights leaders under the NAACP encouraged AA to adopt the “Double V” slogan
V= victory over fascism abroad
V = victory for equality at home
New Civil Rights organization created in 1942 to work more “militantly” for AA rights. Named CORE = Congress of Racial Equality
1942: War Production Board (WPB) established to convert companies from peacetime to wartime production.
U.S. industries booming. By 1944 unemployment practically gone
Kaiser shipyard in California could make a new ship every five days “miracle man”
Started by Pittsburgh Courier (African American newspaper) 1942
Would you fight for a country that did not grant you full rights at home?
Do you think participation in the war effort would help or hinder African Americans’ quest for civil rights after the war?
OPA regulated almost every aspect of civilian life. Controlled Inflation. Froze prices, wages, rent, etc.
Set up a rationing system. Used coupon booklets. Meat, sugar, coffee, butter, gasoline, rubber, shoes (two pairs per year)
National speed limit set at 35 miles per hour to cut gasoline consumption
WW2 cost the U.S. $320 Billion (10x’s more than WW1)
Raised the money through income taxes (first time automatically deducted from paychecks) half the cost of the war
Selling war bonds (raised $135 Billion)
1945 National Debt $258.6 billion
1939 Albert Einstein wrote FDR a personal letter.
1941 Office of Scientific Research established to research and develop the atomic bomb
Team of American, British, European scientists headed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer
Three plants set up to produce uranium and plutonium
http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml - first
Hollywood began making war-time propaganda films.
60 million to 100 million moviegoers a week
“Prelude To War” one of the greatest propaganda films ever made. Frank Capra series “Why We Fight”
Musicals, romances, comedies
Transformed his cartoon studio into a moviemaking factory for Uncle Sam.
Made educational, training, fund-raising, and morale-building films.
Used the Seven Dwarfs to sell war bonds
Donald Duck to inspire Americans to pay their taxes on time
What does internment mean? What is an Executive Order? (9066)
What motivated FDR to issue the order? National security Military necessity Wartime hysteria
110,000-120,000 interned 10 camps California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona
Issei: Japanese born (first generation)
Nisei: Children of Issei (second generation)
http://www.asianamericanmedia.org/jainternment/camps/questions.html
1944 Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of internment camps
Court allowed removal of Japanese Ams. From the west coast on the basis of “military necessity”
Avoiding ruling on the constitutionality of the internment program
Demonstrated how fragile civil liberties were in times of war (Patriot Act 2001)
Congress issued apology and $20,00 in cash to the 80,000 surviving J. A. in 1988
Dwight Eisenhower Supreme Allied
Commander in Europe
Defeat Germany 1st
Operation Torch (invasion of North Africa)
Italian campaign
Objective: Free France from Germany
2 years planning U.S., British, Canadian troops landed along 60 mile stretch of beach (Normandy)
Largest amphibious attack (3 million troops)
Five landings: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword beaches
D-Day deception at Calais
Phantom landing force
Inflatable tanks, dummy landing crafts
Fooled Germans temporarily to allow landing at Normandy
Origins of “D-Day” Paratroopers Letters sent home describing the landing
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/
Last German offensive to stop Allies from entering Germany: Battle of Bulge
One month. Germans lost 120,000 troops
April, 1945 Allies seize Berlin April 29,1945 Hitler marries Eva Braun
April 30: Hitler shot himself and Braun swallowed poison. Bodies burned.
May 8, 1945: V-E Day
Spring 1945: Allied troops advanced into Poland and Germany and discovered extermination camps where 6 million Jews were put to death.
An additional 6 million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals and other “undesirables” were exterminated
Did the U.S. know of the persecution of German Jews earlier?
Why didn’t we allow Jews to immigrate to Am?
Feb. 1945: FDR, Churchill, Stalin met in Yalta, on the Black Sea.
Decisions made: Create a world peace-keeping organization at the end of WW2 (United Nations)
Soviets promised to enter the war against Japan, 3 months after war ends in Europe
“Free elections” in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe
April 12, 1945: FDR’s dies Harry S. Truman becomes President A few days later, learns about the Manhattan Project (employed 120,00)
July 16, 1945: A-Bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico
Three weeks later, Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on two Japanese cities
Aug. 6, 1945 Target: Hiroshima
Carried by B-29 bomber: Enola Gay
Uranium 235 Killed 75,000 Injured 68,000
Aug. 9, 1945 Target: Nagasaki plutonium
implosion-type bomb.
Over 200,000 died resulting from injuries and radiation poison
Sept. 2, 1945 official surrender
Japan unwilling to surrender; fight to their death (Kamakazi attitude)
Huge land invasion of Japan necessary
War could last additional 5 years; 1 million more lives lost
Eliminate Soviet input in post war negotiations
1945-1949 Nuremberg, Germany 22 Nazi leaders tried for war crimes (crimes against humanity)
12 sentenced to death. Rest to prison
200 lesser leaders found guilty First time a nation’s leaders held legally responsible for their actions during wartime