UNIT VIII - THE NEW DEAL AND
WORLD WAR II
The New Deal
Objective:
The learner will identify what made FDR an effective
leader and describe the policies/programs of his New
Deal.
Warm-up: What qualities do you think are necessary for a person
to become an effective government leader? Who do you think is an effective government leader
today? Why?
Roosevelt Takes Charge
In his inaugural address, President
Roosevelt promised ACTION against
the Depression and called for
immediate legislation to provide relief
for people in need.
Roosevelt, popularly known as FDR,
was an experienced politician and
perhaps his greatest strength as a
politician was his warm and
understanding approach to people. In 1921, at age 39, Roosevelt was
stricken with polio. He regained the use
of his hands and arms, but remained
paralyzed from the waist down.
Roosevelt’s illness had toughened him,
and it also made him sympathetic to
human suffering and less fortunate
people.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
The First New Deal
When Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office in
March of 1933 the nation’s economy was on the brink
of collapse and unemployment stood at 13 million,
nearly one-forth of the labor force.
Roosevelt then reached out to the American people
in a series of fireside chats - informal radio talks - in
which the President explained how he planned to
fight the Depression. His first task as President was to address the nation’s
banking crisis. Because banks needed depositors in
order to issue loans, Roosevelt, in his first fireside
chat, reassured the American people that their money
would be safer in reopened banks.
The next day, banks began to reopen, with the
government behind them, and deposits eventually
exceeded withdrawals - restoring public confidence
and ending the banking crisis.
His first week was just the beginning and in
Roosevelt’s first “Hundred Days,” Congresses
passed much of Roosevelt’s program without debate.
These proposals were part of the New Deal — the
name given to FDR’s plan to end the Depression.
The First New Deal
From 1933 to 1935, the main
goals of the Roosevelt
administration were relief,
recovery, and reform. During this phase, known as
the “First New Deal,” the
President attempted a series
of temporary measures to get
the economy moving again,
hoping that long-term
recovery would come from the
momentum of these changes. The New Deal, therefore, was
not a carefully worked out
reform plan, but a series of
measures quickly drawn up to
attack the Depression in many
ways at once.
Relief, Recovery, and Reform
Roosevelt believed that prosperity would return with a
little help and looked to both businesses and the federal
government to solve national problems and spark the
economy.
In order to solve the those problems, FDR and Congress
enacted a series of programs that focused on the "3
Rs": Relief for victims, Recovery from the
Depression, and Reform of the economic system .
In June 1933, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act.
This law prohibited banks from investing in the stock
market and set up the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) to insure depositors’ savings. The
act increased public confidence in banks. In 1934, Congress created the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock
market. When the stock market crashed in October
1929, so did public confidence in the U.S. markets,
therefore the act was created so that brokers would
treat investors fairly.
Relief, Recovery, and Reform
One of the most ambitious of Roosevelt’s New Deal
measures passed during the Hundred Days was the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
This innovative effort at regional planning resulted in
the building of a series of dams in seven states to
control floods, ease navigation, and produce
hydroelectricity.
Although expensive and impactful on the
environment, it went far toward bringing one of
the most underdeveloped parts of the country
into the modern era.
Another New Deal program launched during the
Hundred Days was the National Recovery
Administration (NRA).
This program, aimed at industrial and agricultural
recovery, was FDR’s attempt to achieve economic
advances through planning and cooperation among
government, business, and labor.
The goal was to eliminate "cut-throat competition"
by bringing industry, labor, and government together
to create codes of "fair practices" and to set prices,
production limits, and a minimum wage.
Relief, Recovery, and Reform
To keep relief agencies from closing
and millions of Americans from
starving, Roosevelt embarked on a
policy of deficit spending. This meant
that the federal government spent
more money than it took in. In May 1933, Congress established the
Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA), which gave
money to states for direct aid to the
homeless and unemployed. The Public Works Administration
(PWA), created in June 1933, offered
jobs instead of handouts. The PWA put
people to work on numerous
construction projects, from improving
highways to building dams and
schools.
Relief, Recovery, and Reform
The most generally admired
New Deal relief agency was the
Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC), which offered outdoor
work to unemployed single
men from the nation’s cities. The CCC helped conserve the
nation’s natural resources by
putting more than 2 million men
to work on the nation’s public
lands by planting trees, cutting
trails, building bridges, fighting
forest fires, paving roads, and
stopping soil erosion.
Relief for Agriculture
Since 1929, banks had foreclosed on
nearly 10% of the nation’s farmers. The
New Deal therefore provided relief for
heavily indebted farmers by placing a
moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. However, New Dealers recognized that the
root of farmers’ problems remained low
prices brought on by overproduction and
in response, Congress passed the
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) in
May 1933. Under the act, the government paid
farmers who cut production of crops such
as cotton, wheat, and corn. By 1936, surpluses had dropped and total
farm income had risen by more than 50
percent.
Relief for Agriculture
In 1934 and 1935, a terrible disaster struck
the Great Plains and further added to
farmers’ problems. The origins of the disaster arose when
farmers’ plows broke up the deep, tough
sod that prevented erosion and conserved
moisture.
The years from 1933 to 1935 were unusually
dry on the Plains, and the area began to
look like a desert. Then dust storms blew
away much of the topsoil. By 1939, nearly 350,000 farm families left
the Dust Bowl. The government tried to help farmers by
providing new seed and livestock. It also
helped them by planting millions of trees to
help stop erosion. It encouraged the farmers
to return the land to grazing.
The Second New Deal
By 1935, the ranks of New Deal
critics had grown. Some wanted a
more active government. Others
felt that the government was
interfering too much. In response to his critics, Roosevelt
announced a “Second New Deal.”
This new phase showed greater
concern for the less fortunate and
called for large-scale work relief. During the Second New Deal,
Roosevelt abandoned many
attempts at bipartisanship and
sought to strengthen the party by
reaching out to labor unions,
farmers, and African Americans.
The Second New Deal
In 1935, Congress created the Works
Progress Administration (WPA), which
provided hundreds of thousands of jobs
for a wide range of workers, from
writers and teachers to musicians and
artists. To help those who could not work,
Congress passed the Social Security
Act in 1935. It provided financial
support to the aged, unemployed, and
disabled.
Social Security was an attempt to
limit what were seen as dangers in
the modern American life, including
old age, poverty, unemployment, and
the burdens of widows and
fatherless children.
Election of 1936
When the time came for
reelection, Roosevelt won in
1936 by a landslide. FDR defeated Republican
challenger Alf Landon, 523-8.
Those who supported Roosevelt
included farmers, labor unions,
and retirees. So too did many
ethnic groups, including African
Americans - previously
Republicans. Before continuing the New Deal
in his second term, Roosevelt
sought to eliminate opposition
from the Supreme Court.
Court Packing Scheme
During 1935 and 1936, the Supreme
Court had struck down a series of
New Deal measures as
unconstitutional. Roosevelt believed that the
judges were interfering with his
attempts at recovery.
Roosevelt proposed legislation to
add six more judges to the Court—
judges who favored his policies. Many Americans were alarmed by
the threat Roosevelt’s measure
posed to the system of checks and
balances. Even Democrats joined
Republicans in defeating the
measure.
Impact of the New Deal
The arts and literature of the 1930s also
reflected the hardships of the Great Depression
with a focus on themes about poverty and
human suffering.
Perhaps the two most powerful pieces of
literature was John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of
Wrath, the story of a family forced to leave their
Oklahoma farm in the dust bowl; and Margaret
Mitchell’s Civil War romance Gone With the
Wind, set during Reconstruction in the South.
Many people also sought escape from the
Depression by attending movies and
Americans’ love affair with the automobile
continued throughout the 1930s as more cars
and more miles of highways allowed more
people to travel for work or pleasure. The WPA also helped to promote the arts by
hiring unemployed actors, artists, writers, and
musicians.
Impact of the New Deal
In the end, the New Deal dramatically
altered the government’s role in society. The federal government helped farmers,
strengthened labor unions, and
established Social Security and welfare
programs. In doing so, the New Deal turned a
government that had responded more to
business groups into a government that
also acted on behalf of laborers,
farmers, women, children, minorities,
and other interests.
The New Deal did not, as some critics
feared, adopt national planning of the
economy. Rather than overturn
capitalism, New Dealers believed they
had helped to save it.
World War II
Objective:
The learner will discuss the course of the war in Europe and
in Asia and role of the United States both before and after
1941.
Warm-up:
Imagine that you were living in the United States during the
late 1930s. Would you be on the side of the people who believed in
isolation or the people who believed that the United States’
security depended on the situation overseas? Why?
Kellogg-Briand Pact
On August 27, 1928, U.S. Secretary of State
Frank M. Kellogg, French Foreign Minister Aristide
Briand, and representatives of twelve other
nations met in Paris to sign a treaty outlawing war.
Known as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, it was the
result of a determined effort to abandon war as an
instrument of national policy.
Eventually 64 nations came to ratify the treaty.
A serious weakness of the pact was that it had no
means of enforcement and no provisions were set
down in the event there were acts of aggression
among the signer nations.
Many today have viewed the pact as a retreat
from responsibility on behalf of the U.S.. Rather
than asserting the role of leadership the U.S.’s
resources and power commanded, America went
its own way, even in the face of threats from
Europe and Asia.
New Deal Foreign Policy
During his first two terms, Franklin
Roosevelt focused on domestic problems
at home, rather than on the problems
brewing in Europe and Asia.
In 1933, Roosevelt promised that the
United States would protect the right of
people to govern themselves and applied
this “Good Neighbor” policy to Latin
America. It was also stated that no nation
had the right to intervene in the internal
affairs of another nation.
During the early years of Roosevelt’s
administration, the United States did not
involve itself in the economic situation of
the world. As the nation battled the
Depression, Roosevelt wanted to focus on
getting the country on the road to
recovery.
New Deal Foreign Policy
Another change in U.S. foreign
policy took place when the United
States recognized the communist
government of the Soviet Union,
which it had refused to do since
the government came to power in
1917. The United States hoped that the
Soviet Union would slow Japanese
expansion, an increasing threat to
the world, and one which had
already invaded China in 1931. Roosevelt also believed that the
Soviets’ need for food and
industrial equipment could provide
a market for American farmers and
manufacturers.
Aggression and Appeasement
In the years following World War I, the U.S. and Japan
were on a collision course in the Pacific.
When Japan’s population doubled between 1872 and
1925, it caused severe economic problems for the
small island nation. To ease its economic problems and overcrowding,
Japan began an imperialist policy of expansion into the
Pacific. This imperialist policy provided more raw
materials for its factories as well as new markets for its
growing industry. Japan’s leaders looked to military solutions for its
problems.
Aggression and Appeasement
In September 1931, Japanese
forces violated the Kellogg-Briand
Pact by invading Manchuria, the
northeastern region of China, in a
brutal act of aggression.
The U.S., paralyzed by the
depression, responded feebly.
The League of Nations ordered
Japan to return the province to
China, but Japan ignored it and
incorporated the former Chinese
province into its rapidly expanding
empire. The League and the U.S. were
powerless to intervene further.
Aggression and Appeasement
In Germany, the German Parliament gave
Adolf Hitler, the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi)
leader, the power he needed to begin a
program of conquering nations in eastern
and central Europe. A charismatic leader, Hitler capitalized
on the German discontent and
bitterness over World War I.
Blaming the Jews for all of Germany’s
problems and asserting the supremacy of
the “Aryan” race of blond, blue-eyed
Germans, he quickly imposed a totalitarian
dictatorship in which the Nazi party ruled
and the Führer was supreme.
Hitler took Germany out of the League of
Nations, reoccupied the Rhineland, and
formally denounced the Treaty of Versailles.
Hitler wanted to unite all Germans into a
Third Reich that would last a thousand
years.
Aggression and Appeasement
Benito Mussolini, Italy’s dictator, had
similar plans. Mussolini came to power in 1922 and,
emboldened by Hitler’s success,
embarked on an aggressive foreign policy
to recapture the glory of the old Roman
Empire.
The two leaders followed a political
doctrine known as fascism, a radical
authoritarian form of government in which
a dictator and supporters cooperate to
seek more power for their nation, usually at
the expense of individual rights. Both rulers instituted totalitarian states—
nations that totally control the lives of its
people. They stirred up support with
rallies, parades, and appeals to national
pride and racial hatred. Both leaders also
used force to silence opposition.
Aggression and Appeasement
In 1935, Mussolini attacked and took
control of Ethiopia in Africa. In 1936,
General Francisco Franco led a fascist
rebellion in Spain. In 1937, Japan
invaded China. In 1938, Hitler marched
into Austria. The resurgence of militarism in Germany,
Italy, and Japan undermined the
Versailles settlement and threatened to
destroy the existing balance of power.
In 1937, the three totalitarian nations
agreed to an alliance and became
known as the Axis Powers.
Still weakened from WWI, Britain and
France were powerless to stop the
aggression. Only a determined American
response could unite the other nations
against the Axis threat.
Aggression and Appeasement
The growing danger of war abroad led to
a rising American desire for peace and
noninvolvement.
In 1935, Congress passed the neutrality
acts, which banned loans and the sale of
weapons to nations at war, including
Britain and France.
It was intended to avoid the mistakes
of WWI and not lure the U.S. into
another war.
Although Roosevelt did not believe that
these laws would keep the United States
out of war, he signed the neutrality acts
anyway.
The neutrality legislation played directly
into Hitler’s hands. Bent on the conquest
of Europe, he could now proceed without
American interference.
Aggression and Appeasement
In March 1938, Hitler seized Austria in a
bloodless coup.
A sudden seizure of power from a
government.
Six months later, he was demanding the
Sudetenland, a province of Czechoslovakia
with a large German population.
The response of Great Britain and France
was appeasement, a policy of giving
aggressor nations what they wanted in
order to avoid war. They wanted to avoid
another world war.
Appeasement reached its peak at the
Munich Conference of September 1938,
when British and French leaders allowed
Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in return
for a promise to make no further territorial
demands.
Six months after the Munich
Conference, Hitler broke his promises
by seizing all of Czechoslovakia.
Europe at War Again
As war in Europe became more likely,
Americans did not agree on the role the
United States should play in the conflict. Isolationists were against any
involvement. Internationalists believed
that the country’s own security was
connected to Europe’s success in
defeating Hitler.
The Munich Conference did not succeed
in appeasing Hitler. After taking over the
rest of Czechoslovakia, Hitler then
demanded Poland. Britain and France promised to defend
Poland from Hitler and wanted the
Soviet Union to help them. The Soviet Union, however, signed a
nonaggression pact with Germany. Not
having to fight a war on two fronts again
cleared the way for Hitler to invade
Poland.
Europe at War Again
On September 1, 1939, Germany
invaded Poland in a fast and brutal
attack known as a blitzkrieg, or
“lightning war.” Two days later, France
and Britain responded by declaring war
on Germany - World War II had begun.
President Roosevelt announced that
the United States would remain
neutral. But he asked Congress to lift
the Neutrality Acts’ arms embargo. Congress agreed to sell arms to the
Allies if they paid cash and carried the
goods in their own ships - a policy
known as lend-lease.
For two years, the U.S. tried to remain
at peace while war raged in Europe and
Asia.
Europe at War Again
In the spring of 1940 the Germans
struck with lightning speed and
seized Denmark and Norway. In May of 1940 they then unleashed a
blitzkrieg on the western front,
invading the Netherlands and
Belgium. Using tanks, armored
columns, and dive-bombers in close
coordination, the German army
(Wehrmacht) cut deep into Allied
lines, dividing the British and French
forces.
Within three weeks, the British were
driven off the continent. In another
three weeks, France surrendered to
Hitler’s victorious armies and Britain
was left to face the threat alone.
America Abandons Neutrality
Americans were stunned that Hitler had only
taken six weeks to achieve what Germany had
failed to do in four years of fighting in WWI.
Suddenly Americans began to realize they did
have a stake in the outcome; if Britain fell, Hitler
might then focus his attention on North and South
America.
To help Great Britain, Roosevelt persuaded
Congress to pass his lend-lease proposal to lend
goods to Britain. Although a breach in neutrality, Roosevelt
stressed the importance by referring to
Germany and Italy as “the gods of force and
hate” in the world.
To make sure that lend-lease supplies reached
their destination, the United States had to deal
with the German submarines that prowled the
Atlantic Ocean. Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy
to protect merchant shipping.
America Abandons Neutrality
During the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air
forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked
in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. Known as the Battle of Britain, Britain endured months of
constant bombing by hundreds of German planes
(Luftwaffe) targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and,
ultimately, its civilian population. As a result, Hitler was
forced to abandon his plans to invade the island. It was also in the fall of 1940 that Roosevelt decided to
break tradition and run for a third presidential term. With the world in crisis, most Americans did not want to
gamble on a change in leadership.
America Abandons Neutrality
In June 1941, Hitler suddenly
attacked the Soviet Union, breaking
his nonaggression pact with Stalin.
Known as Operation Barbarossa. His goal was to seize the vast Soviet
wheat and oil fields. As German
armies advanced into the USSR,
Stalin signed an alliance with Great
Britain, and the United States offered
lend-lease aid. By late 1941, very few Americans
were preaching isolation. Most
agreed with Roosevelt that the
United States must support the Allies
and be an “arsenal of democracy.”
Aggression in the Pacific
Japan had taken advantage of the war in Europe to
expand farther in Asia.
In 1937, Japan successfully conquered the populous
coastal areas of China.
After the defeat of France and the Netherlands in 1940,
the colonial possessions of Indochina and the East
Indies were vulnerable and defenseless. President Roosevelt responded to Japan’s aggression
with economic sanctions, measures taken by countries
to restrict trade with another guilty country.
Aggression in the Pacific
Unimpressed, Japan continued its
aggressive expansion. By 1941, the
U.S. abandoned all trade with Japan
and Roosevelt ordered American
forces in the Pacific to prepare for
war. In October 1941, a new prime minister,
General Hideki Tojo, came to power in
Japan. He was even more militaristic
than his predecessors and favored war
to eliminate American and British
influence in Asia. In November of 1941, U.S. and
Japanese officials met in Washington,
D.C. to discuss ways to ease tensions
between the two nations. The talks
were really to mask Japan’s war
preparations.
Aggression in the Pacific
At 7:55 in the morning, just before 1P.M. in
Washington, on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces
launched a surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii. In little more than an hour, they crippled the American
Pacific fleet and its major base. Eight battleships were destroyed, and more than
2,400 American sailors were killed.
The destruction of Pearl Harbor removed Japan’s
only obstacle in the Pacific.
Aggression in the Pacific
Speaking before Congress the next
day, President Roosevelt termed
December 7th “a date which will live in
infamy” and asked for a declaration of
war on Japan.
Infamy - being well known for
having done something bad or evil.
The attack on Pearl Harbor brought
the U.S. into World War II on the side
of the Allies and Germany and Italy
followed by declaring war on the U.S.
The whole country united behind
Roosevelt’s leadership to seek
revenge for Pearl Harbor and to defeat
the Axis threat to American security.
The World at War
Despite the entry of the United States,
the war went badly for the Allies at first. In Europe, Hitler’s armies controlled
virtually the entire continent, from
Norway to Greece. German forces also pushed deep into
the Soviet Union. By spring 1942 they
were threatening to sweep into Asia. In North Africa, German Field Marshall
Erwin Rommel led an Italian-German
force that treated the Suez Canal.
Meanwhile, Japanese forces continued
to seize territory in Asia and the Pacific.
Within three months they had conquered
Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and were
pushing the British back in Burma and
New Guinea.
The World at War
In 1942, American forces led by Gen. Douglas
MacArthur in the Philippines failed at blocking a
Japanese conquest of the islands.
Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American
troops on Bataan were then forced to make an
exhausting 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the journey in intense heat
and were subjected to harsh treatment by
Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known
as the Bataan Death March. Although the exact figures are unknown, it is
believed that thousands of troops died because of
the brutality of their captors, who starved and
beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak
to walk. Thousands more died from disease,
mistreatment, and starvation in prison camps.
With the American navy still recovering from the
devastation of Pearl Harbor, Japan controlled the
western half of the Pacific.
The World at War
The greatest single advantage that the United
States and its allies possessed was their
willingness to form a genuine coalition to bring
about the defeat of Axis powers.
The relationship, however, was not without
its strains. Beginning in 1942, the Allies turned the tide in
their favor. In September 1942, the Soviets pushed back
the Germans at the Battle of Stalingrad.
Soon afterward, the battered German army
retreated to their home soil. In the war against Germany, the Soviet Union
bore the brunt against the German onslaught. This imbalance created a rift that never fully
healed and ensured future tensions between
the Soviet Union and Western nations.
Victory in Europe
From the outset, the Allies agreed
that Nazi Germany was the greatest
threat and had to be eliminated first.
In November of 1942, American and
British forces, working from
opposing sides of the continent in
North Africa, pushed Rommel into
Tunisia. By May 1943, the Axis had
surrendered in North Africa.
In the summer of 1943, the Allies
began their invasion of Italy.
Suffering heavy casualties while
slowly marching up the Italian
peninsula, Allied forces captured
Rome nearly a year later.
Victory in Europe
On June 6, 1944, the greatest amphibious force in
history - 176,000 troops in 5,000 vessels - crossed the
English Channel and invaded France at Normandy. The
invasion, planned as Operation Overlord became known
as “D-Day.” At dawn, American, British, and Canadian troops fought
their way ashore, encountering stiff German resistance.
By the end of the day, the Allies had won the
beachhead; a week later, more than 300,000 troops
were slowly pushing the Germans back.
Under the command of American generals Dwight D.
Eisenhower and George S. Patton, a million Allied
forces were in France within a month after D-Day.
Victory in Europe
Throughout the summer, the Allies
moved through France. By August
they had freed Paris, and by
September they had crossed the
Rhine River into Germany. By late 1944 Hitler, underestimating
Allied strength on the Western Front,
ordered a last, desperate assault. Know as the Battle of the Bulge, the
Germans failed to break the Allied
lines and by March 1945 Allied troops
marched into the heart of Germany.
At the same time, the Soviets closed
in on Germany from the East. By the
end of 1944, most of Eastern Europe
was in Soviet hands.
Victory in Europe
In April of 1945, the Soviets conquered Berlin. Adolf Hitler, along with other top-Nazi officials
committed suicide in his underground bunker
on April 30th, 1945. A week later, on May 7th, General Eisenhower
accepted the unconditional surrender of all
German forces.
As Allied forces entered Germany, they discovered
evidence of one of the most terrible acts of the war
—the Nazi Holocaust, or deliberate extermination
of millions of European Jews and other civilians. The Nazis had done this in an attempt to rid the
world of what they considered to be inferior races. Although Roosevelt had received reports of Nazi
actions as early as 1942, it wasn’t until 1945 when
Allied troops reached the death camps of
Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald that the full
scale of atrocities was fully realized.
All told, the Nazis exterminated 12 million people,
of whom 6 million were Jews. Other groups
included Poles, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma
Gypises, Homosexuals, and the disabled.
War in the Pacific
Both the decision to defeat Germany first and the
vast expanses of the Pacific dictated the nature of
the war against Japan.
Rather than attempting to re-conquer all
Japanese-held territories, the U.S. conducted a
strategy of “island hopping,” or choosing key
islands to take back from the Japanese. Two separate operations were led by General
Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz.
The original plan called for the two offensives to
come together for a final invasion of the Japanese
home islands.
Unfortunately, President Roosevelt would not live
to see the end of the war.
On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died of a stroke
while trying to recuperate in Warm Springs,
Georgia.
Vice President Harry Truman was suddenly thrust
into the seat of power.
War in the Pacific
Success in the Pacific depended on
control of the sea and the devastation of
Pearl Harbor gave Japan the initial edge. The turning point, however, came in
June 1942 when U.S. forces defeated
the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. Japan wanted to destroy what
remained of the American Pacific
fleet. The loss Japan’s first major
defeat and ended Japanese
superiority in the Pacific. Encouraged by the victory, in August of
1942, U.S. marines landed on the key
island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon
Islands off New Guinea.
Not until six months later, in February
1943, after an intensely bloody
struggle were the Japanese driven
from the island.
War in the Pacific
In attacking the U.S., Japan had failed
to realize America’s industrial power and
its ability to mobilize that power rapidly.
Of the 19 ships destroyed at Pearl
Harbor, 17 were returned to duty by
December 1942 and new ships were
constantly being added.
In 1943 and 1944, key battles occurred
in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands as
well as in the Mariana and Palau
Islands as the U.S. “island hopped”
toward the Philippines and Japan.
By October 1944 General MacArthur
initiated his long-heralded return to the
Philippines and Manila fell in early
February 1945.
War in the Pacific
By 1945 the last of Japan’s island outposts fell with
the taking of Iwo Jima in March and Okinawa in
June.
Although small in size, American marines suffered
more than 20,000 casualties in capturing Iwo
Jima.
Okinawa had the highest number of casualties in
the Pacific Theater of WWII. Estimates state the
numbers at 12,000 Americans killed or missing
and 38,000 Americans wounded. More than 107,000 Japanese soldiers were killed, By this time in the war Japan also began
using kamikazes, or suicide pilots, who flew
bomb-laded planes into American ships.
Since June 1944 the U.S. also began fire-bombing
Japanese using incendiary bombs.
Despite the heavy casualties to Japanese citizens,
Japan’s military leaders rejected calls for
unconditional surrender.
War in the Pacific
The defeat of Japan after Iwo Jima and Okinawa
was only a matter of time.
The U.S. had three possible ways to proceed: A full-scale invasion; where casualties were
expected to run in the hundreds of thousands. A negotiated peace with Japan.
Or an option involving the highly secretive
Manhattan Project.
Since 1939, the U.S. had spent $2 billion to
develop an atomic bomb based on the fission of
radioactive uranium and plutonium.
Scientists, many of them from refugees from
Europe, worked to perfect this deadly new
weapon.
In the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, they
successfully tested the first atomic bomb, creating
a fireball brighter than several suns and a
mushroom cloud that rose some 40,000 feet into
the air.
THE TRINITY TEST
War in the Pacific
U.S. officials were reluctant to invade Japan, fearing
the loss of many American lives. U.S. officials also had no qualms about using the
bomb, viewing it as a legitimate wartime measure,
one designed to save the lives of hundreds of
thousands of Americans - and Japanese - that would
be lost in a full-scale invasion.
After the Japanese rejected President Truman’s
ultimatum to surrender or risk “utter destruction,” the
United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city
of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
The explosion incinerated 4 sq. mi. of the city
and instantly killed more than 60,000. When Japan still refused to surrender, a second
bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on
August 9, causing as much destruction as the first. The two bombs took more than 150,000 lives
and caused widespread destruction. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945,
on the decks of the battleship Missouri, finally
bringing an end to World War II.
Wartime Diplomacy
Throughout the war, Allied leaders met to discuss strategies for winning the war and building a
postwar peace. In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met for the last time in Yalta in
the Soviet Union. The three men agreed that the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union together
should occupy Germany after the war. They also agreed to encourage some form of
representative government for the other peoples of Europe and to meet in April 1945 to establish
a world peace organization. Two weeks after Roosevelt’s death, representatives from 50 nations met to establish the world
peace organization discussed at Yalta. It became known as the United Nations. The United
States became the first nation to join.
War on the Home Front
Even though more than 15 million Americans
served in World War II, it was the nearly 60 million
who worked on farms and factories who ensured
the defeat of Germany and Japan.
Within two weeks of Pearl Harbor, production of
bicycles, beer cans, refrigerators, tooth paste
tubes, and more than 300 other items were cut
back or banned.
Auto manufacturers were ordered to convert
production from cars to tanks and airplanes.
America built ships faster than the German Uboats could sink them.
By 1944 nearly 50% of American production went
towards the war effort and America’s industrial
output alone matched the entire output of the
Axis powers.
Scientific research also made advances as
scientists invented products such as DDT, radar,
and the bazooka.
War on the Home Front
To raise funds for the war effort, the
federal government increased taxes and
sold war bonds.
As more and more men joined the armed
forces, more women than ever entered
the workforce as a patriotic duty. Soon,
“Rosie the Riveter” became a national
symbol of the vital contributions of
women.
World War II was also a time of racial
discrimination. As African Americans
moved from the rural south to the
industrial north for jobs in defense plants
they were met with hostility.
Some of the most significant racial
discrimination of the war involved the
removal of Japanese Americans from the
West Coast to be placed in internment
camps for the duration of the war.
The Transforming Power
of War
The second great war of the twentieth
century had a lasting impact on
American life.
For the first time, the nation’s military
potential had been reached.
In 1945, the U.S. was unquestionably
the strongest country on earth.
For better or worse, the nation would
be involved in all parts of the world;
from western Europe, to remote
jungles in Asia, from the nearby
Caribbean, to the distant Persian
Gulf.
The Transforming Power
of War
The legacy of war was
equally strong at home.
Four years of fighting
brought about the end of the
Great Depression and
unparalleled prosperity.
The war led to far-reaching
changes in American society
that would become apparent
decades later.