The Allies Trade Space for Time

• The U.S. went from being isolationist to being an avenger due to the attack on Pearl Harbor with it resisting pressures

• The U.S. sent just enough troops to Japan to keep it in check

• U.S. faced hardship mobilizing for war with it having to clothe, feed, and transport its forces worldwide

The Shock of War

• National unity was strengthened after the attack on Pearl Harbor

• 110,000 Japanese-Americans on the Pacific Coast were put into internment camps which took away property and freedom

  • Japanese Internment Camps were constitutionalized by 1944 in the case of Korematsu v. United States and it took more than 40 years before the U.S. admitted to fault and made $20,000 reparation payments to survivors

• Many of the New Deal programs were wiped out

Building the War Machine

• Large military orders ended the depression by creating a demand for jobs and production

• War Production Board stopped the manufacture of nonessential items

• Farmers produced more food, making prices soar with this being regulated by the Office of Price Administration

• Labor Unions promised not to strike during war but some still did, nonetheless

Manpower and Womanpower

• Armed forces had approximately 15 million men and 216,000 women

• Mexican workers were brought to the United States as resident workers due to the draft

• Women took up jobs in the workspace and ⅔ of women returned home after the war

Wartime Migrations

• FDR used war as an excuse to pump money into the South, in order to revitalize it

• Randolph threatened “Negro March to Washington” in 1941 to get better rights and treatment

• Fair Employment Practices Commission was meant to discourage racism and oppression in the workplace

• Native Americans left their reservations during the war and found work in cities or joined the army
  

Holding the Home Front

• America was the only country to emerge from World War II unscathed with it better off than before going to war

• The abundance of spending during WWII lifted the United States from the Great Depression

  • The national debt rose, with most costs being borrowed

The Rising Sun in the Pacific

• The Japanese conquered Guam, Wake, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Burma, etc.

• After fighters in the Philippines surrendered, they had to make the infamous 85-mile Bataan death march

Japan’s High Tide at Midway

• Japanese onrush was checked in Coral Sea by American and Australian forces in the world’s first naval battle with this being fought with aircrafts via carriers

  • Japan had taken over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska

• Midway was a turning point in the Pacific War with U.S. success in Midway helping in halting the Japanese

American Leapfrogging towards Tokyo

• Americans won at Guadalcanal in August of 1942 and got New Guinea by 1944

• American sailors shelled beachheads with artillery

• The Marshall Islands fell to the United States in January and February of 1944

• The assault on Marinas began on June 19, 1944 with superior planes

The Allied Halting of Hitler

• United States, at first, had trouble against Germany as German U-boats were very effective

• The British launched a large raid on Cologne, France and were joined by U.S. air corps in August of 1942

• Russians launched a counteroffensive and regained ⅔ of the land they’d lost

A Second Front from North Africa to Rome

• Soviets begged the Allies to open the second front against Hitler with Americans being eager to comply and British being reluctant

• FDR and Winston Churchill met and agreed on terms of “unconditional surrender” at the Casablanca Conference

• Sicily fell in August of 1943 and Mussolini was deposed a new government was set up

• Allies took Rome on June 4, 1944 and the Axis troops in Italy, surrendered on May 2, 1945

D-Day: June 6, 1944

• FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met at Tehran Conference and agreed that Soviets and Allies would launch simultaneous attacks with the plan for cross-channel invasions being entrusted to General Eisenhower

  • The point of attack for the cross-channel invasions was French Normandy with D-Day beginning on June 6, 1944

• Paris was freed in August of 1944

FDR: The Fourth-Termite of 1944

• Republicans nominated Dewey, a liberal governor of New York

• FDR was the democratic presidential nominee and the vice president nominee was Harry S. Truman, with him being chosen due to FDR’s age and him winning over Henry A. Wallace

Roosevelt Defeats Dewey

• Dewey went on offensive campaign while FDR stuck to addressing WWII problems

• Roosevelt won 433 to 99 electoral votes

The Last Days of Hitler

• Hitler, losing and retreating, started the Battle of “the Bulge”

• Americans reached Rhine River of Germany in March of 1945 and joined Soviet troops and marched towards Berlin

  • Allies found concentration camps upon entering Germany, where millions of Jews and “undesirables” had been slaughtered in attempted genocide

• Hitler, knowing he’d lost, committed suicide in his bunker on April 30, 1945

• FDR died on April 12, 1945 and Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945

Japan Dies Hard

• American submarines and fire-bomb raids on Tokyo were wearing Japan out

• General MacArthur returned to the Philippines on October 20, 1944

• Okinawa was won and was captured at the cost of 50,000 American lives

The Atomic Bombs

• Allies issued ultimatum at Potsdam Conference: surrender or be destroyed

• The first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945

  • Americans dropped A-bombs on to Hiroshima and Nagaski when Japan refused to surrender which killed 180,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagasaki

  • The war formally ended with the surrender of Hirohito on September 2, 1945

The Allies Triumphant

• America suffered 1 million casualties and the number of people killed by disease and infections were low due to penicillin

  • Success in the war was partly thanks to the United States’ generals, admirals, and leaders

• The industry rose significantly with the U.S. being better prepared for war compared to others as it had a year and half to prepare