Modern US History Chapter 26 , Section 2 “America Moves Toward War”

1. Modern US HistoryChapter 26, Section 2“America Moves Toward War”

2. Presidential Election of 1940 • As world events seemed to draw the US closer to war, FDR felt that it was not a good time for a change in leadership • FDR then ran for an unprecedented 3rd term as president • Roosevelt had been a popular president • His Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie, supported FDR’s support of Britain • Thus, there was no major difference between the two candidates in relation to foreign affairs, which was the dominant issue of that year

3. Roosevelt Moves Away from Neutrality (#7) • FDR urged Congress to pass a “cash and carry” amendment to the Neutrality acts in 1939 • This allowed warring nation to buy US arms as long as they paid up front and transported them on their own ships • At this point, Poland had just been invaded, and France and Britain were still strong • FDR hoped by helping the Allies they could defeat Hitler without our help • One year later it looked like our help was too little, too late

4. Tripartite Pact • By the end of the summer of 1940 France has fallen and Britain was under attack • At that moment it was announced that Japan would join Italy and Germany in a mutual defense treaty (the Tripartite Pact) • Together they were known as the Axis Powers • The treaty was meant to keep the US out of the war • If the US declared war on any one of them, then the US would have to fight all of them • The prospect of a 2 ocean war was a US military nightmare

5. Lend Lease Act • After the election FDR announced that the US would have to be “the great arsenal for democracy” • By the beginning of 1940, there were fewer Allies to support and Britain was out of cash to purchase armaments • Should the US maintain an isolationist stance or protect democracies around the world? • Lend Lease Act (1941) – allowed the US to provide weapons to the Allies and they could pay us back later • Germany tried to prevent shipments of Lend Lease supplies by using “wolf packs” of submarines • FDR granted US ships the ability to defend themselves against German attack (creating undeclared war)

6. Undeclared Naval War with Germany • Hitler orders his U-boats to sink any U.S. ships supplying the Allies • An undeclared naval war goes on for months before the U.S. enters the war • USS Reuben James is the first U.S. naval vessel sunk in the war (in October 1941)

7. The U.S. Aids Its Allies • Roosevelt and Churchill meet before U.S. enters the war (August, 1941), and issue a statement of principles • Atlantic Charter— • supports free trade, right to form own government, and serves as the Allies peace plan for after the war • What does this sound similar to?

8. Japan and the U.S. • US was sending aid for the Chinese resistance against Japan • Japan develops a plan for attacks on European colonies in Southeast Asia (to gain resources) • US worried about the Philippines (which it controls) • In 1941 Pres. Roosevelt cut off oil shipments to Japan when it invaded French Indochina in July 1941 • Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto plans attack on U.S. fleet in Hawaii

9. Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor • Japan attacks Pearl Harbor—U.S. Naval base in Hawaii—on December 7, 1941 • 2,400 Americans killed, 1,200 wounded • U.S. declares war on Japan December 8, 1941 • Germany declares war on the U.S. in response

10. Route of Japanese Fleet Attacking Pearl Harbor

11. Waves of the Attack • First wave, 182 planes • Second wave, 171 planes

12. Battleship USS Arizona • U.S. Pacific fleet nearly destroyed • Japan now able to conquer more lands without fear of U.S. resistance

13. Silver Lining? • What kind of ship, which would prove to be the most important in the war, was not at Pearl Harbor? • Aircraft carriers

14. Economy Recovers During the War • The economy improved during the war • More jobs were created • People began saving more money • Unemployment rate dropped to a low of 1.2% in 1944 • Average weekly pay rose 10% during the war • Farmers, who had struggled in previous decades, prospered during the war due to higher prices, more demand, and better weather • Women and minorities were able to gain access to jobs they were denied prior to the war

15. War Production • In full war mode, the U.S. was producing weapons faster than anybody around thought that it would or could • In one month, the U.S. was able to produce up to 4,000 tanks and 4,500 planes • Ship production also increased dramatically to help protect our coasts • US doubled the war production of all of the Axis Powers combined and fed Allied soldiers around the world

16. GERMANY 46,857 tanks 107,245 planes USA 88,410 tanks 283,230 planes

17. Wartime Agencies • War Production Board • Rationed fuel and materials vital to the war such as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, and plastics • Office of Price Administration • fought inflation by freezing wages, prices and rents, and also rationed foods such as meat, butter, cheese, vegetables, sugar, and coffee • National War Labor Board • limited wage increases, allowed negotiated benefits like vacations, pensions, and health insurance, and kept unions stable by forbidding workers to change unions

18. US Prepares for War • Selective Training and Service Act – passed in 1940 following Nazi victories in Europe, it set up the first peacetime draft in US history • Men between the ages of 21 and 35 had to register for the draft • It was designed to draft 1 million men for one year of military service only in the Western Hemisphere • By the end of the war the selective Service had drafted 16 million men

19. Financing the War • Department of the Treasury • Issued war bonds to raise money for the war effort and to fight inflation • Revenue Act of 1942 • Raised the top personal income tax rate to 88% and added lower and middle income Americans to the income tax rolls

20. Scrap Metal Drives

21. Rationing • Americans at home supported the war by conserving and rationing resources (food, gas, and clothing) needed in the war effort

24. Industry Adapts to War Effort • American industry had to go from peace time production to war time production (which takes a lot of time) • GM, Ford, and Chrysler went from creating cars to tanks • Boeing from regular airplanes to bombers and fighter jets • Gun makers like Colt, from hunting rifles to machine guns, flamethrowers, war rifles • Soft drink companies made explosive shells

25. Labor Needed for Industry • By 1944 nearly 18 million worked in wartime industries, three times that in 1941 • 6 million of the new workers were women (they proved capable of handling the welding and riveting equipment and could be paid only 60% as much as men) • 2 million more workers were minorities (most of which could not get jobs in these companies before the war)

26. Women in the Military • Women’s Army Corps (WAC) – took women volunteers to work as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots (nearly everything except combat positions) • Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVE) – women volunteers for the Navy who did mostly clerical work, but also in nursing, communications, intelligence, and supplies • Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) – women volunteers in the Air Force who flew planes in non-combat missions

27. Social Adjustments • With fathers away fighting in the war, women had to raise children on their own while many worked in wartime industries • Children had to get used to being left with neighbors, family members, or with daycare centers • Teenagers often were left on their own, and many got into trouble • Many couples got married quickly before the war • Many couples struggled to adjust when soldiers returned from the fighting often after years of being away

28. Population Shifts • The war caused many to move from where they had always lived to places that needed workers in their factories to support the war • Many moved to northern cities, but also to West Coast cities • Of those moving, the largest group was African Americans • Cities with defense industries doubled and tripled in size • The percentage of African Americans working in skilled and semi-skilled positions doubled during the war

29. Minorities During the War • Minority groups faced segregated neighborhoods, discrimination, and some were denied citizenship • This second class status caused many to question why they should support the war cause for the nation that treated them this way • Despite this, minority populations contributed heavily to the war effort: • 1,000,000 African Americans • 300,000 Mexican-Americans • 33,000 Japanese Americans • 25,000 Native Americans • 13,000 Chinese Americans Tuskegee Airmen Navajo Code Talkers

30. African Americans During the War • African Americans contributed heavily to the war, but they still faced discrimination at home and in the military • A. Philip Randolph – president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (a union for African American railroad workers) • Randolph called for all African Americans to stop work and march on Washington to protest this discrimination • President Roosevelt met with Randolph and agreed to issue an executive order prohibiting companies with gov’t contracts to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin

31. Racial Discrimination and Violence • Where ever African Americans moved to during the war, they still faced discrimination • The interracial organization called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was founded in 1942 to confront urban segregation in the North • It conducted its first sit-in at a segregated Chicago restaurant in 1942 • Sometimes the tensions between whites and the newly arrived black populations turned to violence • One race riot that started at a beach in Detroit lasted 3 days and had to be put down by federal troops

32. Hispanics in the 1940s • 300,000 Mexican Americans served in the military and others found work in wartime industries • Bracero program – WWII program that hired hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants to come to the US and work in agriculture due to the shortage of workers during the war (expected to leave after war) • Longoria incident – Mexican Americans were angered when Felix Longoria, a Mexican American war hero, was not allowed a funeral service in his home town • Unity League– founded in California to register Mexican American voters and to promote candidates who would represent their interests

33. Zoot Suit Riots • Zoot suits were popular with young Mexican Americans in southern California during the war • In the summer of 1943 an incident involving sailors and some young men wearing zoot suits led to riots • Thousands of servicemen and civilians poured in Mexican neighborhoods and grabbed anyone with a zoot suit, stripped them of their clothes, and beat them up • It lasted a week and hundreds of Mexican American young people were attacked

34. Japanese American Internment • The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor stunned the nation • Executive Order 9066 – Of the 120,000 Japanese Americans living in the country, 110,000 of them were rounded up and sent to internment camps • Reasons for internment: • So they couldn’t be spies against the U.S. (fear they might sabotage US defenses and the war effort) • Racism against Asians • Anger over the Pearl Harbor attack

35. Legality of Internment • Korematsu v. United States (1944) – A Supreme Court case in which it was ruled that the internment of Japanese Americans during the war was legal • The justification for the decision was that the internment took place out of “military necessity” • Japanese American Citizens League took of the cause of pushing the US gov’t to compensate those sent to camps for their lost property

36. Delayed Justice for Japanese Americans • In 1965 Congress authorized the spending of $38 million for compensating those sent to the internment camps for their lost property • This was less than a tenth of what they lost • In 1988 Congress passed a bill that promised $20,000 to every Japanese American sent to the relocation camps, and the payments were finally made in 1990 Korematsu

37. Japanese-Americans Contribute to War Effort • Nisei– American born citizens (born here to Japanese immigrant parents) who lost jobs, homes, and belongings when sent to internment camps • After Pearl Harbor the gov’t banned Japanese Americans from serving in the military, but this policy was reversed in 1943 • 33,000 Nisei served in WWII (only allowed to serve in Europe), including many who were held in internment camps, and some received medals for bravery