The United States in World War II

1. The United States in World War II Bellwork D-Day Battle of the Bulge V-E Day kamikaze

2. Most Americans responded with rage and wanted to do anything that they could to help the U.S. seek its revenge on Japan 5 million men volunteered for the military and another 10 million were selected by a draft run by the Selective Service System Government Issue – label put on all of troops supplies and used to describe troops as well 2. All available factories were converted to war production plants. Shipyards built ships at a record pace and U.S. industry was more productive than ever before. More workers were employed during this time than ever before and women and minorities acquired many jobs that were once held by white men currently fighting overseas.

3. 3. FDR created the Office of Science Research and Development. They improved radar and sonar technology, pesticides, medicine, and started to work on an atomic bomb People had excess money for the first time in over a decade and millions of Americans went to the movies to watch patriotic war movies as well as musicals and other entertaining films 4. People discriminated against all people of Asian decent and treated them with a great deal of hostility. 110,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up and put into internment camps for the duration of the war regardless of their loyalties.

4. 5. Congress froze the price of most goods to prevent inflation, raised income taxes, the WPB converted many companies into war production and collected recyclable materials to assist the war effort, created a rationing system to conserve food and fuel for the troops, many American civilians made countless sacrifices to assist the war effort. 6. They decided that defeat of Germany was their top priority because it was in the best interest of all of the Allied nations. They decided to accept an unconditional surrender to defend the democratic values that the U.S. and Great Britain were based upon.

5. 7. The Germans attacked the Soviet city of Stalingrad will all of its might and a six month battle ensued. The Germans had all but captured the city when the Soviets launched a counterattack that combined with the Russian winter was too much for the Germans to handle and they were forced to retreat. Germany – 239,000; Soviet Union – 1,250,000 8. The Allies launched a massive invasion of close to 3 million troops to liberate France and the rest of Western Europe from the Nazis. The invasion was the largest land-sea-air military operation in history. It was a great success despite many Allied casualties and France was liberated on August 25th, 1944.

6. 9. He blamed the Jews for starting the war and his generals for losing the war. He and his new wife both committed suicide and had their bodies burned. On May 8th, 1945 the Germans unconditionally surrendered and the war in Europe officially ended on what came to be known as V-E Day. 10. Japan’s Pacific empire included Hong Kong, French Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, Formosa, the Dutch East Indies, Guam, Wake, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines, and half of China. MacArthur was outnumbered by more than 2 to 1 and was forced to abandon the Philippines but before he left the islands he pledged to his captured soldiers, “I shall return”

7. 11. Island hopping was a strategy in which the U.S. avoided the islands in which were heavily fortified and instead attacked and conquered smaller less important islands. This allowed the U.S. to build new airfields on the newly acquired islands and eventually cut off the supply lines of the larger more heavily fortified islands which led to ultimate success. 12. The Manhattan Project was a secret American project headed by the best scientists in the world in the attempt to create an atomic bomb that could be used to end the war. One option was a land invasion of Japan and the other was to drop the new atomic bomb on a Japanese city to force Japan to surrender.

8. 13. On August 6th the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb named Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, three days later another atomic bomb named Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. These bombs led to the deaths of about 200,000 Japanese citizens The Japanese were forced to surrender and the papers to end the war were signed on September 2nd, 1945 (V-J Day) 14. FDR (U.S.), Winston Churchill (G.B.), and Joseph Stalin (U.S.S.R.) met in Yalta. They agreed to create a new international peacekeeping body called the United Nations and Stalin promised free elections in Soviet-occupied nations in Eastern Europe

9. 15. Truman (U.S.), Churchill and Stalin met at the Potsdam Conference They divided Germany into four sectors, the U.S, G.B., France, and the U.S.S.R. each controlled a zone. It also led to the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials which led to the death and imprisonment of many former Nazi leaders 16. The U.S. put over 1,100 Japanese soldiers on trial, many were put in prison and 7, including former prime minister Hideki Tojo were executed. General MacArthur worked to implement free market practices into the Japanese economy and led to the writing of a Japanese Constitution that protected many individual freedoms for Japanese citizens.