World War II

December 7th

• Two waves of Japanese fighters/bombers tore into American battleships and destroyers during this sneak attack

• Over 3,600 American casualties

• 8 battleships sunk or badly damaged

• 10 smaller ships destroyed along with 164 airplanes

• 3 aircraft carriers luckily out at sea

Japanese Internment

• Public paranoid that Japanese-Americans might help Japan. – 110,000 were forcibly interned– 1/3 were Issei -- foreign born – 2/3 were Nisei -- American born

• Given 48 hours to dispose of their belongings

• Korematsu v. US – Supreme Court upholds internment

Japanese Internment

• Represented the greatest violation of civil liberties during WWII– $105 million of farmland loss– $500 million in yearly

income; unknown personal savings

• After 1943, 17,600 Nisei fought in U.S. Army

• No act of sabotage was ever proven against any Japanese-American

The Pacific Theater

The Philippines

• US territory from the Span.-Amer. War– US Army stored diesel here

• Japanese Army invaded the country in December 1941, and quickly overran US and Filipino forces

• Gen. Douglas MacArthur decided to make Bataan the site of a last stand.

• Bataan fell on April 9, 1942 and the Bataan Death March began.

• 70,000 captured American and Filipino soldiers were forced to march more than a 70 miles from Bataan to Tarlac

Bataan Death March

• Prisoners of war were beaten and denied food and water for several days

• Those who fell behind were executed: shot, beheaded or bayoneted

• 16,000 American and Filippino soldiers died during this forced march

• Bataan became a symbol of Japanese brutality and cause equal U.S. treatment

Battle of Java Sea

• February 1942• Japanese defeated the collected forces of four

navies (American, British, Dutch, Australian)

– Forces Involved• Allied - 5 cruisers & 12 destroyer• Japanese - 4 cruisers & 14 destroyers

• Uncoordinated attack was costly for the Allies – a painful lesson learned

• 2,300 sailors lost, along with ALL five Allied cruisers and five destroyers

• Allied forces sunk NO Japanese vessels

Halting the Japanese Advance

• Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942)– entire battle fought with aircraft

– Forces Involved• Allied – 3 carriers & 3

cruisers• Japanese - 4 carriers & 4

cruisers

• Allies win a strategic victory– Japan prevented from

successfully invading New Guinea and Australia.

– Japanese lost 1,047 highly trained crew to Allies 543

– However, US lost large carrier USS Lexington

Battle of Midway

• Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942)– turning point in the Pacific war– Allies broke the Japanese code.– Japan lost FOUR aircraft carriers (of 10) --7 of 11

other ships destroyed; 250 planes. – Significance: Japan no longer had any hopes of

attacking US mainland.

• Island Hopping campaign began in 1943– Sought to neutralize Japanese island

strongholds and then move on.– Islands not strategically important “skipped”

Battle of Guadalcanal

• Solomon Islands between August 1942-February 1943– First Japanese land defeat

after 6 months of jungle fighting.

• The naval battle of Guadalcanal ended Japanese control of this important supply route – The Tokyo Express of supply

convoys began to run in reverse, evacuating Japanese soldiers to New Guinea.

– Japanese lost two battleships and suffered 25,000 casualties

The European Theater

Battle of Stalingrad (Sept. 1942)

• Perhaps most important battle of the war -- First major Nazi defeat on land.

• Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Spring of 1942, quickly advancing deep into USSR

• Having suffered defeat after defeat during 1942, Soviet forces counter-attacked in the Battle of Moscow in December 1942. – Germans stopped– Long siege began

Battle of Stalingrad (cont.)

• German high command knew that time was running out for them - United States had entered war following Pearl Harbor

• Southern Russia and Stalingrad became the target:– Hoped to secure control the oil-rich area of the

Caspian Sea– the Volga River – major water lane in East– agricultural production

Stalingrad Aftermath– Germans surrendered on 2 February. – The results were:

• the destruction of the city• millions of casualties• the collapse of Germany's 6th Army

– Henceforth, German army in retreat from the east until Berlin is occupied by the Russians in the spring of 1945.

– Stalin never forgave the Allies for not opening a 2nd front earlier; USSR had to bear the full brunt of Nazi invasion

Allied Diplomacy

• Casablanca Conference (Jan 1943) – FDR and Winston Churchill declare a policy of

unconditional surrender for "all enemies" – Agreed that Italy would be invaded first before

opening a 2nd Front in France

• Tehran Conference (Nov-Dec 1943) – First meeting of the "Big Three" -- FDR, Stalin, and

Churchill– Allies agree to an invasion of the Western Europe in

1944. – Stalin promised to enter the war against Japan and

coordinated offensive with the US/UK invasion of France

The Home Front

Rosie the Riveter• Rosie the Riveter is a

cultural icon of the United States, representing the 6 million women who manned the manufacturing plants which produced munitions and material during World War II

• The men who traditionally performed this work were off fighting the war.

War Production Board

• The WPB decided which/how companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production

• It allocated raw materials to key industries.

• It rationed such things as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, and plastics

War Production Board

• The WPB also organized nationwide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and cooking fat for recycling into war goods.

• Across America, children took part in “scrap drives” as they scoured attics, cellars, garages, vacant lots, and back alleys looking for useful junk

Summary of Production

Minorities and the War

African Americans WWII

• One million AA’s served in the military– Segregated fighting units

throughout war

– Segregated units of blood

– Kept out of combat until 1943

• Women joined the WAAC

Fair Employment Practices Committee/Act

• The Fair Employment Act was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 25, 1941

• It prohibited racial discrimination in the national defense industry

• It was the first federal law to prohibit employment discrimination in the US– "there shall be no discrimination

in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin."

Fair Employment Practices Committee

• It was issued in response to pressure from civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, who had planned a march on Washington, DC to protest racial discrimination.

• The march was cancelled after Executive Order 8802 was issued.

• Later, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in private employment

Bracero Program

• Prompted by a demand for manual labor during WW II

• U.S. government brought 300 experienced Mexican agricultural laborers to harvest in California

• The program soon spread to cover most of the United States and provided workers for the agriculture labor market

• By 1945, more than 75,000 braceros working in railroad system and 50,000 braceros working in agriculture

Zoot-Suit Riots

• Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, California during World War II

• Sailors and soldiers stationed in the city fought with Mexican American youths

• The local press lauded the attacks by the servicemen, describing the assaults as having a "cleansing effect”

North Africa – “Operation Torch” November 1943

• Operation Torch was headed by General Dwight Eisenhower (73,500 American troops)

• Germans led by General Irwin Rommel (the "Desert Fox")

• The aim of Torch was to push Axis out of N. Africa and control Mediterranean

• British fighting German Panzer divisions in North Africa since 1941– Battle of El Alamein – ended Axis push to Suez

Canal

North Africa – “Operation Torch”

• Allied forces in the Mediterranean cut-off Rommel's supply lines

• Axis forces were caught in the pincers of a twin advance from Algeria (west) and Libya (East)

• Some 250,000 Axis soldiers were taken prisoner

• Rommel escaped to Italy

ITALY 1943-1944

• Newly captured North Africa was used as a springboard for the invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943

• Allies then invaded mainland Italy. Italy surrendered, but Germans continued fight

• Allied forces advanced north but were stalled for the winter at the Gustav Line

• Rome was captured on 5 June 1944

• Nazis not fully removed until 1945

This American combat patrol advanced three miles north of Lucca to contact an enemy machine gun nest.

Invasion of Italy

Convoys in the Atlantic

• The German anti-convoy tactics included:– long-range surveillance

aircraft to find convoys– strings of U-boats (wolf

packs) that could be directed onto a convoy by radio

– breaking the British naval codes

– improved anti-ship weapons, including magnetic and sonic homing torpedoes.

• The Allied responses included:– air raids on the U-boat bases – convoy escorts– anti-submarine weapons

such as depth charges and the hedgehog

– long-range aircraft patrols – improved sonar – breaking the German code– improved radar and radio

direction finding allowing planes to find U-boats

D-Day ”Operation Overlord” June 6, 1944

• One of the war’s most important battles - Commanded by Gen. Eisenhower

• 120,000 troops left England and landed at Normandy– 800,000 more men within 3 weeks– 3 million total by war’s end

D-Day (cont.)

• Casualties during D-Day:

– 4,950 US killed;

1,670 wounded

• Significance of battle: – 2nd front established

(to Russia’s joy)

– March toward Berlin had begun

Push Across France

• August 25, 1st Allied troops enter Paris.

• By end of summer, Belgium, France and Luxembourg liberated

• Had Allies failed, Hitler could have focused on Eastern Front and perhaps negotiated an end to the war with Stalin leaving most of Europe under Nazi control.

Pushing on to Germany

• Pre-invasion bombings– Hamburg, Dresden,

Berlin and other major cities and targets hit repeatedly

– American B-17’s took part in bombing raids on military and civilian targets

• Incendiary bombs

• Allied invasion stalled at Rhine River by mid-September

Battle of the Bulge• December 16, 1944 – Hitler’s last

attempt at saving the Reich• The German army intended to split

the Allied line in half, and then proceed north to destroy four Allied armies

• Hitler hoped to force the Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis' favor

• Although ultimately unsuccessful, the offensive nevertheless tied down huge amounts of Allied resources

• Slow Allies march to Berlin by months.

Battle of the Bulge (cont)

• US casualties numbered over 80,000 - however,

• The cream of the German army severely depleted outside the defenses of the Siegfried Line

• Germany's remaining forces were left in a poor state of supply, thus greatly easing the assault on Germany afterward.

• In numerical terms, it is the largest land battle the United States Army has fought to date.

Entering Germany

• By January, the Allies were advancing toward Germany

• U.S. approached Berlin from west while Soviets moved from east.

• Hitler hid in his bunker (The Fuherbunker) under the Chancellery in Berlin and committed suicide on April 30, 1945 .

• Germany officially surrendered on May 8, 1945

• V-E Day

April 20, 1945, photo of Adolf Hitler with his

child soldiers in Berlin (Hitlerjugend)

The Holocaust

• Six million Jews were liquidated as part of Hitler's "Final Solution"

• Six million others also killed including Gypsies, Homosexuals, physically handicapped, Jehova's Witnesses & political opponents.

• U.S. response to Europe’s Jews before and during the war was extremely biased. (US Anti-Semitism)– 40% of German immigration quota between 1933 &

1945 was unfilled while German Jews tried to get into the U.S.

Voyage of the Damned

• Sailed in May 1939 carrying 936 (mainly German) Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution

• The ship was turned back by Cuba

• On 4 June 1939, the St. Louis was also refused by FDR as the ship waited in the Caribbean Sea

• The ship sailed back to Europe – 288 go off in England, and were

thus spared from the Holocaust. – The remaining 619 passengers

disembarked in Western Europe, safe from Hitler's persecution until the German invasions of these countries.

German soldiers of the SS look on as a member murders a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942.

The back of the photo is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa". It was found in the personal album of a German soldier.

Ausschwitz aerial view RAF reconnaissance picture 1944

Ebensee concentration camp prisoners 1945

Crematorium at Auschwitz

These charred bodies were found by U.S. troops of the 80th Division, 3rd US army in furnace of horror chamber at the Buchenwald concentration camp near Jena, Germany. 4/16/45.

The Pacific Theater

ISLAND HOPPING

Saipan and Tinian

• June-July 1944• Japanese Losses

– (Saipan) 24,000 killed, 5,000 suicides921 prisoners

– (Tinian)8,010 killed, 313 POW• PM Hideki Tojo Forced to step

down from power• Transformed into the busiest

airbase of the war– Two B-29 airfields with six

runways– New bomber able to hit Japanese

mainland from this island base

Battle of Leyte Gulf

• Fought in the seas surrounding the Philippines from October 23-25, 1944– Largest naval battle in modern

history– Allies invaded Leyte to cut off

Japan from her South East Asia colonies - a crucial source of oil for the Imperial Japanese Navy

– Japanese gathered remaining naval forces in an attempt to repel the Allies, but suffered heavy losses

Battle of Leyte Gulf

• Last major naval engagement of war– Japanese lost FOUR aircraft carriers– Japanese Navy, deprived of fuel, returned to Japan to

sit inactive for the remainder of the war– Kamikaze used during this battle for the first time

• The battle of Leyte Gulf secured beachheads on the Philippines

• Much hard fighting would be required before the islands were completely in Allied hands in the Spring of 1945

I have returne

d!

The Battle for Iwo Jima

• February, 1945• For 72 hours straight, Allied

bombers and battleships “softened” the target to prepare for an amphibious landing

• Japanese soldiers had dug protective caves into the volcanic earth and stiffly resisted US forces

• The island’s shifting sand surface made it difficult for tractor vehicles and impassible for wheeled 4x4’s

Iwo Jima’s Aftermath• Casualties were the highest to this point in the

Pacific Theater:– US: 7,000 dead, 19,000 wounded– Japan: 21,800 dead, 200 POW’s

• Over a quarter of the Medals of Honor awarded to Marines in World War II were given for conduct in the invasion of Iwo Jima - 27 in total– “On Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue“

— Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

• Effects– US began to question X-Day’s viability– Fighter escort now available for B-29s raids of mainland

Japanese troops were literally burnt out of their caves and concrete bunkers.

The Battle for Okinawa

• Began April 1, 1945 and ended in June

• American losses were over 52,000 casualties, of whom 12,900 were killed or missing, over twice the number killed at Iwo Jima

• The Japanese lost over 100,000 soldiers and +120,000 civilian Okinawans

The Battle for Okinawa

• Japanese propaganda stated that the Americans were "barbarians" who would commit horrible atrocities and kill their families

• Some of the civilians, having been convinced killed themselves (and their families) rather than being captured.– Some Japanese committed

seppuku

U.S. deaths vs. wounded

Jap. deaths vs. wounded

- 7,465 Kamikazes flew to their deaths - 120 US ships were sunk, with many more damaged - 3,048 allied sailors were killed and anther 6,025 wounded

Transcend life and death. When you eliminate all thoughts about life and death, you will be able to totally disregard your earthly life. This will also enable you to concentrate your attention on eradicating the enemy with unwavering determination, meanwhile reinforcing your excellence in flight skills.(A paragraph from the kamikaze pilots' manual.)

Yalta Conference Feb 1945

• "Big Three" met to discuss post-war Europe. • Stalin agreed to enter Pacific war within 3 months

after Germany surrendered • Stalin agreed to a "Declaration of Liberated

Europe" which called for free elections • Called for a world organization to meet in the U.S.

beginning on April 25, 1945 (United Nations)

– U.S., Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France and China would be permanent members of the Security Council

• Germany divided into occupied zones and a coalition government of communists and non-communists was agreed to for Poland

Growing Disputes over the

Post-War World

• Stalin insisted on Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the carving up of Germany

• Churchill demanded free governments in Eastern Europe and a strong Germany after the war to preserve a balance of power in Europe.

• Roosevelt acted as a mediator and believed he could work with Stalin to achieve A post-world peace within the construct of the United Nations.

Air Raid on the Mainland

• Bombing of Japan results in destruction of most major cities – March 1945, 100,000 die

in a single Tokyo raid– Incendiary bombs

destroyed largely wooden Japanese structures

– 60% of buildings destroyed

– Large cities of Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe also were firebombed

The Atomic Bomb

• Military advisors warn of extremely high casualties if U.S. invades Japan (X-Day scrapped)

• August 6, 1945 -- First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima – 80,000 killed immediately; 100,000 injured countless

die later of radiation sickness or cancer – Bomb dropped by the Enola Gay

• August 8, Soviet Union declared war against Japan as promised

• August 9 -- 2nd bomb dropped on Nagasaki; 60,000 dead instantly

'A just and workable peace -

OR ELSE!‘

This British cartoon of 1945 shows the Atomic Bomb overshadowing the peace-makers at the Potsdam Conference.     

V-J Day

• August 14, 1945 Japan surrenders

• World War II is over.

• September 2, Japanese formally surrender aboard U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

MacArthur’s Speech on the USS Missouri

We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace

may be restored. The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the

world and hence are not for our discussion or debate. Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the

people of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred. But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to

that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purposes we are about to serve, committing all our people unreservedly to

faithful compliance with the understanding they are here formally to assume.

It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge

out of the blood and carnage of the past -- a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished

wish for freedom, tolerance and justice.