World War II
War on Two Fronts
- American strategists planned two broad offensives to turn the tide against the Japanese 1. Under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, would move north from Australia through New Guinea, and eventually back to the Philippines; and 2. Under Admiral Chester Nimitz, would move west from Hawaii toward major Japanese island outposts in the central Pacific
- Allies achieved their first important victory in the Battle of Coral Sea on May 7-8, 1942
- Americans took the offensive for the first time several months later in the Southern Solomon Islands to the east of New Guinea
- The initiative had shifted to the United States by mid-1943
- Japanese advance had come to a stop
- In the European war, the United States had less control over military operations
- It was fighting in cooperation with Britain and with the exiled "Free French" forces in the west; and it was trying also to conciliate its new ally, the Soviet Union who was combating Germany
- The Soviet Union wanted the Allied forces to proceed as quickly as possible but the British wanted to launch a series of attacks around the edges of the Nazi's Empire
- Roosevelt realized that to support the British plan would antagonize the Soviet Union
- He also knew that the invasion of Europe would take a long time to prepare, and he was reluctant to wait so long
- He was also eager to maintain good relations with Churchill
- And so, he decided to support the British plan
- The Germans threw the full weight of their forces in Africa against the inexperienced Americans and inflicted a serious defeat on them at the Kasserine Pasin Tunisia
- With the help of Allied air and naval power and of British forces attacking from the east under General Bernard Montgomery
- The Soviet victory had come at a terrible cost
- The siege had decimated the civilian population of the city and devastated the surrounding countryside
- The Soviet success in beating back the German offensive persuaded Roosevelt to agree to a British plan for an allied invasion of Sicily
America and the Holocaust
- In the midst of this intensive fighting, the leaders of the American government were confronted with one of history' great horrors: the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jew s of Europe
- Allied put in effort end the killing or at least rescue some of the surviving Jews, destroying railroad lines leading to the camp
- After 1941, there was probably little American leaders could have done other than defeat Germany, to save most of Hitlers camp
- They insisted that the most effective thing they could do for the victims of the Holocaust was to concentrate their attention solely on the larger goal of winning the war
The American People In Wartime
Prosperity
Stabilizing Boom
Mobilizing Production
Wartime Science and Technology
Mexican-American War Workers
Prosperity
- WWII ended Great Depression problems of unemployment, deflation, production b/c of wartime economic expansion and massive govt spending (federal budget grew from 1939 $9 billion to 1945 $100 billion)
- West shared disproportionally in massive govt capital investments;
- Businessman Henry Kaiser steered federal funds to make Pacific Coast major industrial center for shipbuilding, aircraft; launching stage for Japanese war
Stabilizing Boom
- 1942 Congress passed Anti-Inflation Act which allowed the President to freeze prices and wages, set rations; enforced by the Office of Price Administration
- Govt spent 2 times more $ between 1941-1945 than it had during whole existence; raised $ through bond sales, Revenue Act of 1942 created new high tax brackets
Mobilizing Production
- 1942 War Production Board created to organize mobilization effort but was largely unable to direct military purchases and include small businesses; program later replaced by White House Office of War Mobilization
- Nevertheless, US economy met all war needs; new factories were built, entire rubber industry created. By 1944 output 2X that of all Axis nations combined
Wartime Science and Technology
- Govt stimulated new military technologies by funneling massive funds to National Defense Research Committee
- Originally Germany (w/ sophisticated tanks and submarines) and Japan (w/ strong naval-air power) technologically ahead of Allies; US, however, had experience with mass production in auto industry and was able to convert many of these plants to produce armaments
- Allied advances in radar and sonar beyond Axis capabilities helped limit effectiveness of U-Boats in Atlantic; Allies developed more effective anti-aircraft tech and produced large amount of powerful 4-engine aircraft (British Lancaster and US B17) able to attack military forces and industrial centers
- Greatest Allied advantage found in intelligence gathering—British Ultra project able to break German “Enigma” code and intercept info on enemy movements; American Magic operation broke Japanese “Purple” code
- Blacks wanted to use war as means of improving own conditions. A Philip Roth (head of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters) wanted all companies with war contracts to integrate work force
- Fearing black workers strike, FDR created Fair Employment Practices Commission to investigate labor discrimination. Later, Congress of Racial equality combated discrimination in society at large using popular resistance
- War saw migration of blacks from rural South to industrial cities of North in greater numbers than those found of first Great Migration during WWI
- Some Native Americans served in military (some as famous “Code Talkers”), many others left reservations seeking work in war industries
Mexican-American War Workers
- War labor shortages lead to large Mexican immigration of braceros (contract laborers); ethnic tensions from growing immigrant neighborhoods with existing white communities led to “Zoot-Suit Riots” in Los Angeles in 1943
- Large number of women entered roles they were previously excluded from
- Many women worked in factories to replace men who had entered military, but some inequality existed in what jobs they could hold in factories
- Most women took service-sector jobs in growing govt bureaucracies; limited others worked in “male” heavy-industry (famous Rosie the Riveter image)
- Over 1/3 of teenagers took jobs during war; crime rate also rose during war
- Increased prosperity from war led to marked rise in theater and movie attendance, magazine and news circulation, hotel, casino, dance hall visits
- War effort largely seen as means of protecting material comfort and consumer choice of “home”; visions of home and future women romanticized by troops
- WWII did not largely see restrictions of civil liberties and growth of hatred toward fringe groups as during WWI; little ethnic tension in part due to propaganda attacking enemy’s political system but not people
- Glaring exception in treatment of Japanese Americans who were painted as scheming and cruel (re-enforced by Pearl Harbor); white Europe groups largely accepted by now, but assimilated Japanese faced prejudice and viewed as “foreign”
- Conspiracy theories of Jap-Americans aiding in Pearl Harbor attacks led government and military to see them as a threat; 1942 Roosevelt created War Relocation Authority to move Japanese citizens to “relocation camps” for monitoring
- Starting 1943 condition began to improve as some Japanese allowed to got to college or take jobs on East Coast; although 1944 Supreme Court case Korematsu v U.S. ruled relocation constitutional, by that time most of internees had been allowed to leave camps
- US war alliance with China helped Chinese Americans advance legal and social position—1943 Congress repealed Chinese Exclusion acts
- Many Chinese took jobs in industry or were drafted into the military
- FDR wanted to shift priority from reform to war effort and victory
- With massive unemployment no longer an issue and Republican gains, Congress dismantled relief programs and other New Deal programs
- In 1944 President election Republicans nominated Thomas Dewey; Democrats re-nominated Roosevelt but with new, less liberal VP candidate Harry Truman
- Despite deteriorating health Roosevelt was popularly elected; Democrats maintained control of both Houses of Congress
- By 1944 devastating Allied strategic bombing against German industry at Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin reduced production and complicated transport; German Luftwaffe forced to retreat to bases within Germany itself, weakened it
- After 2 year buildup in England Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower ordered invasion across English Channel into Normandy, France on “D-Day” (June 6, 1944); Allies drove Germans from the coast, by September forced them to retreat from France, Belgium
- In December Germany counter-attacked during Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest, but soon repelled; with Soviet advances on Eastern front, Allies began moving into Germany across Rhine
- April 30 Hitler commits suicide; May 8, 1945 full surrender and“V-E” Day
- After news in 1939 that Nazis pursuing atomic bomb, US and and Great Britain began race to develop one before them; work based on discovery of uranium radioactivity by Enrico Fermi 1930s, Einstein’s theory of relativity
- Army took over control of research and poured billions of $ into Manhattan Project which gathered scientists to create nuclear chain reactions with a bomb
- On July 16 1945 the plutonium bomb Trinity, created by scientist Robert Oppenheimer at the Los Alamos Laboratory, successfully tested
Atomic Warfare
- Pres Truman issues ultimatum to Japanese for “unconditional surrender” by Aug 3rd or face annihilation; after Jap moderates unable to convince military leaders to accept Truman ordered use of atomic weapon
- Some argue atomic weapon unnecessary because in time the Japanese would have sued for peace; others argue only atomic bomb could convince radical military leaders that surrender necessary. Truman saw weapon as military device that could end war quickly, but some say he used it to intimidate Stalin and Soviets
- August 6, 1945 bomber Enola Gay dropped atomic weapon on Japanese city Hiroshima, killing 80,000 civilians; because Japanese govt didn’t respond, on August 8 second atomic bomb dropped on city of Nagasaki killing 100,000
- By Aug 14 emperor agreed to surrender; September 2, 1945 Japan signed articles of surrender (“V-J Day”) marking end of WWII
- 14 million combatants had died during war, even more civilians; threat of nuclear war loomed between two emerging super-powers in US and Soviet Union