Chapter 27
The Second World War at Home and
Abroad, 1941–1945
Ch. 27: WWII at Home and
Abroad, 1941–1945
 Turning point:
 for USA and its people
 change global status of USA
 Home front change with migration:
 new race/gender/economic opportunities
 For war, USG mobilize:
 industry
 labor
 science and technology
I. A Nation Unprepared
 Despite pre-war rearmament, not ready
 War go poorly for Allies initially:
 Hitler dominate Europe by late 1941
 Japan expand rapidly at start of Pacific war
 capture Southeast Asia, including Philippines
 After Doolittle raid, Japan seek Midway
 Key US advantage = MAGIC intercepts
 Midway (June ‘42) turn tide of Pacific war
p. 740
II. Europe First Strategy
 Pursue because:
 if Hitler win Europe = direct threat to USA
 Tensions between 3 allies
 Stalin want 2nd front in France ASAP:
 relieve German pressure on USSR
 Churchill oppose 2nd front:
 fear high causalities
 want to protect empire
 FDR fear separate peace by USSR
III. Second Front Debate;
Stalingrad (1942–43)
 FDR initially side with Churchill:
 invade North Africa (1942)
 Stalingrad = turning point:
 stop Hitler’s army
 begin German retreat
Stalingrad
The Nazis were left
with little
supplies and
took many
losses during the
winter (200,000).
 The Nazis
surrendered in
Jan. 1943.
IV. The Production Front:
Business
 To FDR, mass production = key advantage
 War Production Board (1942):
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oversee conversion to wartime economy
guarantee profits
“cost + fixed-fee” contracts
generous tax deductions
 Corporate profits double, 1939-1943
 Big business grow bigger:
 ⅔ of WPB contracts go to 100 largest
corporations
p. 742
Americans made many sacrifices,
looking toward victory.
Americans were urged to do all they could
to support the war effort, and they
responded to the call.
• Shopped with
ration books
• Bought war bonds
• Planted victory gardens
• Collected scrap metal and
other materials
The war effort had a huge effect on the
economy
The national debt skyrocketed.
Taxes increased.
Wages and prices were controlled.
V. Universities and War;
Opportunities for Workers
 USG mobilize higher education:
 $117 million to MIT
 Manhattan Project = $2 billion
 Massive labor shortage:
 increase production and withdraw 16 million
 new jobs for women, African Americans,
 Mexican Americans, poor whites from South
 Business resist hiring blacks/women
VI. Opportunities for
African Americans and Mexicans
 Blacks protest:
 Randolph propose March on DC, 1941
 FDR ban discrimination in hiring for defense
jobs and USG
 New jobs spur 700,000 blacks to leave
South for cities in North and West
 USG encourage Mexican immigration:
 200,000 braceros
 17,000 work in LA shipyards by 1944
VII. Women at Work
 More than 6 million women enter
workforce
 Unlike 1930s, receive praise
 Many (white and black) enter traditionally
male jobs (riveters, welders)
 Some businesses offer healthcare
 USG fund childcare centers
Wartime changes to the
workforce had long-lasting
effects
Women earned paychecks and
gained knowledge and experience.
Future generations benefited
from new opportunities.
Day-care options for children
expanded.
Mrs. Doyle was unaware of the poster's existence until 1982, when, while
thumbing through a magazine, she saw a photograph of it and recognized
herself. Her daughter said that the face on the poster was her mother's, but
that the muscles were not."She didn't have big, muscular arms," [her
daughter Stephanie] Gregg said. "She was 5-foot-10 and very slender. She
was a glamour girl. The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face -that's her."
Norma
Jeane
Mortenson
 350,000 women in
non-combat duties
or nurses.
p. 744
VIII. Organized Labor;
Success on Production Front
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Unions work with USG (no strike pledge)
Nat’l War Labor Board mediate conflicts
Union membership almost double
Strikes occur when NWLB limit raises
USG pass War Labor Disputes Act (1943)
Mass production achieve huge increase in
key products (planes, ships, etc.):
 use assembly line production
 102,000 die on job in first 2 years
IX. Life on the Home Front
 Mobilization:
 end Depression
 spur prosperity
 Americans volunteer (victory gardens)
 Office of Price Administration:
 ration key goods (food, gas)
 Office of War Information:
 sell war at home
 Near unanimous support for war:
 in popular culture, = fight for way of life
X. Wartime Prosperity
 Employment/wages/savings skyrocket
 OPA set prices to control inflation
 USG finance war with deficits:
 debt balloon ($49 billion to $259 billion)
 More than 15 million civilians move (Map
27.2):
 strain resources of burgeoning cities
 some in North dislike poor whites from South
Map 27-2, p. 748
XI. Racial Conflicts
 Competition (jobs/housing) increase
tension/discrimination
 Mobs of whites attack African Americans:
 250 race riots (1943)
 Detroit = worse one
 Mexicans suffer zoot suit riots (LA, 1943)
XII. Families in Wartime
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3 million suffer separation
Marriage rate soars
Same for birth rate (“goodbye babies”)
More divorces with strain of war
Working mothers:
 criticized for “neglecting” children
 “victory girls”
 Some vets have trouble accepting
independence in wives
p. 749
XIII. The Limits of American
Ideals
 Tension between ideals and actions
 USG use censorship and propaganda:
 de-humanize enemy
 less than WWI
 Intern 14,426 Europeans (fear spies)
 Intern more than 112,000 Japanese and
Japanese Americans as “enemy race”:
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lose homes/businesses
most US citizens
none ever charged with treason
some enlist in military
By executive order, more
than 100,000 Japanese
Americans were forced to
sell their homes and belongings.
They were then sent to
isolated internment camps
They remained in
the camps for the
rest of the war
Some Japanese Americans
went to court to fight for their
civil liberties
Their efforts failed
 2/3s were American
born citizens
 none were ever guilty
of espionage
 not until 1983 were
these people given
some type of
restitution for
government paranoia
 The 442nd Infantry, formerly the 442nd
Regimental Combat Team of the United
States Army, was an Asian American unit
composed of mostly Japanese Americans who
fought in Europe during World War II. The
families of many of its soldiers were subject to
internment. The 442nd was a self-sufficient
fighting force, and fought with uncommon
distinction in Italy, southern France, and
Germany. The unit became the most highly
decorated regiment in the history of the United
States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of
Honor recipients.
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
The Facts
The Issue
The Decision
• In 1942, FDR ordered that
select people could be
banned from war zones.
• The army relocated
Japanese Americans on the
West Coast to internment
camps.
• Fred Korematsu was
arrested for resisting the
army’s orders.
Korematsu argued
that he was denied
equal protection
under the law
because he was a
Japanese
American.
The court held
that the military
order was
justified for
security
reasons.
p. 751
XIV. Segregation
at Home and in Military

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NAACP grow:
Advocate “Double V”
Defeat Axis racism and Jim Crow
CORE (1942) begin nonviolent protests
p. 752
XIV. Segregation
at Home and in Military (cont.)
 887,000 black men and women serve:
 segregated, usually service, units
 Red Cross segregate blood
 Military resist integration
 Navy disregard safety of black sailors:
 CA, 1944
 Black soldiers suffer violence from whites
 Black combat units perform well (pilots)
 WWII = turning point for civil rights
XV. America and the Holocaust
 Tragic failure to follow ideals
 Hitler murder 11 million:
 Jews
 “undesirables”
 Allies not attack death camps from air
 In 1944, USA saves 200,000 Jews
p. 753
XVI. Life in the Military
 More than 15 million men (draftees = 10
million)
 Almost 12% of population serve
 Broaden horizons by contact with different:
 races, ethnic groups, regions

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
350,000 women volunteer as clerks/nurses
Poor whites compose most combat units
Combat = carnage from high tech weapons
300,000 combat deaths
 most from explosives
 1 million wounded
XVII. War in Europe
 USA/England continue to delay 2nd Front:
 strain relations with USSR
 Tehran (1943) FDR overrule Churchill:
 set cross-channel invasion for 1944
 D-Day (June) = largest amphibious landing
 Map 27.1:
 USSR invade Germany from east
 USA/England attack from west
 win Battle of Bulge (1944-’45)
Map 27-1, p. 741
p. 756
XVIII. The Yalta Conference
(Feb. 1945)
 England want to preserve empire
 USSR want:
 reparations to help rebuild
 Poland as buffer against Germany
 install pro-USSR government
 USA want to:
 avoid errors of WWI peace
 advance self-determination and US power
 FDR want 4 Policemen to guide world
XVIII. The Yalta Conference
(cont.)
 Set up new UN:
 Security Council (4 Policemen + France)
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Military positions shape settlement
USSR dominate East Europe, esp. Poland
Big 3 compromise
Stalin will enter war against Japan
Allow France a German/Berlin zone
Sign treaty with pro-US Jiang
US support USSR regaining land from Japan
XIX. Harry Truman
 FDR picked inexperienced VP in 1944
 Germany surrender May 1945
 After FDR’s death (April) and defeat of
Hitler:
 less cooperation between Allies
 each jockey for influence
 HST less patient with USSR (Potsdam,
July)
 with atomic bomb, less need for USSR
p. 757
XX. War in the Pacific
 Carrier battles and “island-hop” invasions:
 Map 27.3: 1942–44, take
 Solomon, Gilbert, Marshall, Mariana islands
 retake Philippines
 Attack Japan’s shipping:
 disrupt flow of materials/supplies
 Iwo Jima (Feb/Mar 1945):
 huge losses for both sides
 Same at Okinawa (April/June)
p. 759
Map 27-3, p. 758
XXI. Bombing of Japan (1945)
 Fire bomb of Tokyo kill 100,000
 Bombing by June kill almost 900,000
 Japan’s leaders reject unconditional
surrender (esp. on Emperor)
 Extensive bombing during WWII:
 context to understand atomic bomb
 Bombing of civilians widespread:
 225,000 die at Dresden, Feb. 1945
XXII. The Atomic Bombs
(August 6 and 9, 1945)
 because of massive blast, fires, and
radiation:
 130,000 die at Hiroshima
 60,000 at Nagasaki
 Primary goal:
 end war ASAP and save US lives
 Truman want to avoid invasion
 Reject peace feelers:
 unlikely to make Japan surrender fully
 Anger at “beasts” (Pearl Harbor, Bataan)
p. 760
p. 760
XXIII. The Atomic Bombs and
End of the Pacific War
 HST and others assume A-Bomb:
 deter postwar aggression
 encourage USSR concessions (Eastern
Europe)
 end Pacific War before USSR entry
 Soviet declare war on Aug. 8:
 key to Japan’s surrender
 Allies allow Japan to keep emperor
XXIV. Effect of WWII
 55 million soldiers and civilians die
 USSR lose 21 million
 USA:
 escape devastation
 world’s dominate economic/military power
 WWII change USA at home and abroad
 WWII alliance strained by disagreements
Summary: Discuss Links to the
World and Legacy
 “Tokyo Rose” as link?
 Postwar debate over Iva Toguri?
 Complexities of case:
 US citizen in Japan after Pearl Harbor
 convicted by perjured testimony in 1949
 Fears of nuclear proliferation as legacy?
 “Hypocrisy” in Non-Proliferation Treaty?
 Current “nightmare scenario”?
p. 746
p. 750