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Explore how American women played crucial roles during World War II, from serving in the military to joining the workforce and the African American contribution. Learn about wartime propaganda, industrial production, financing the war, and the atomic bomb project.
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World War Two Ways America Prepared for War
Selective Service Act • Summer of 1940 • First peacetime draft • Men between 21 -- 35 • Registered 16.5 million men • 5 million volunteered
Women in the Armed Services • 250,000 women enlisted • First time women were permitted to volunteer for armed forces • Non-combat roles (accountants, bookkeepers, drivers, radio operators) • Served in all branches • WACS (women’s armed corp services) • WAVES (women in the navy) • WAFS (women in the air force)
Women in WW2 • Very strict guidelines for women to serve in the military • Age 20-49 • No children under age 14 • Minimum of two years of high school
Women in the work force • Five million women entered the workforce • Many worked in industrial jobs in shipyards, defense plants, etc. • Received 60% less pay than men
African Americans in WW2 • 1.5 million AA left the south for jobs in the north and west • 1 million left home to serve in the armed forces (segregated units) • Both civilians and soldiers continued to face discrimination and segregation • Civil Rights leaders under the NAACP encouraged AA to adopt the “Double V” slogan
“Double V” Campaign • V= victory over fascism abroad • V = victory for equality at home • New Civil Rights organization created in 1942 to work more “militantly” for AA rights. Named CORE = Congress of Racial Equality
Industrial Production • 1942: War Production Board (WPB) established to convert companies from peacetime to wartime production. • U.S. industries booming. • By 1944 unemployment practically gone • Kaiser shipyard in California could make a new ship in 14 days
Office of Price Administration • OPA regulated almost every aspect of civilian life. Controlled Inflation. Froze prices, wages, rent, etc. • Set up a rationing system. Used coupon booklets. Meat, sugar, coffee, gasoline, rubber
Financing the War • WW2 cost the U.S. $320 Billion (10x’s more than WW1) • Raised the money through income taxes (first time automatically deducted from paychecks) • Selling war bonds (raised $135 Billion) • 1945 National Debt $250 Billion
Organizing Science • 1939 Albert Einstein wrote FDR a personal letter. • 1941 Office of Scientific Research established to research and develop the atomic bomb • Team of American, British, European scientists headed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer • Three plants set up to produce uranium and plutonium
Changes in Entertainment • Hollywood began making war-time propaganda films. • 60 million to 100 million moviegoers a week • “Prelude To War” one of the greatest propaganda films ever made. Frank Capra series “Why We Fight” • Musicals, romances, comedies
Walt Disney’s contributions • Transformed his cartoon studio into a moviemaking factory for Uncle Sam. • Made educational, training, fund-raising, and morale-building films. • Used the Seven Dwarfs to sell war bonds • Donald Duck to inspire Americans to pay their taxes on time
Japanese American Internment Camps • What does internment mean? • What is an Executive Order? (9066) • What motivated FDR to issue the order? • National security • Military necessity • Wartime hysteria
Internment Camps • 110,000-120,000 interned • 10 camps • California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona • Issei: Japanese born (first generation) • Nisei: Children of Issei (second generation) • http://www.asianamericanmedia.org/jainternment/camps/questions.html
European Front • Dwight Eisenhower • Supreme Allied Commander in Europe • Defeat Germany 1st • Operation Torch (invasion of North Africa) • Italian campaign
D-Day (June 6, 1944) • Objective: Free France from Germany • 2 years planning • U.S., British, Canadian troops landed along 60 mile stretch of beach (Normandy) • Largest amphibious attack (3 million troops) • Five landings: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword beaches
D-Day • D-Day deception at Calais • Phantom landing force • Inflatable tanks, dummy landing crafts • Fooled Germans temporarily to allow landing at Normandy
American Experience website • Origins of “D-Day” • Paratroopers • Letters sent home describing the landing • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/
Germany Defeated • Last German offensive to stop Allies from entering Germany: Battle of Bulge • One month. Germans lost 120,000 troops • April, 1945 Allies seize Berlin • April 29,1945 Hitler marries Eva Braun • April 30: Hitler shot himself and Braun swallowed poison. Bodies burned. • May 8, 1945: V-E Day
Yalta Conference • Feb. 1945: FDR, Churchill, Stalin met in Yalta, on the Black Sea. • Decisions made: • Create a world peace-keeping organization at the end of WW2 (United Nations) • Soviets promised to enter the war against Japan, 3 months after war ends in Europe • “Free elections” in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe
Pacific Campaign • Douglas MacArthur: Supreme Allied Commander of the Pacific • Island hopping (strategy in Pacific)
The Manhattan Project • April 12, 1945: FDR’s dies • Harry S. Truman becomes President • A few days later, learns about the Manhattan Project • July 16, 1945: A-Bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico
Little Boy • Aug. 6, 1945 • Target: Hiroshima • Carried by B-29 bomber: Enola Gay • Uranium 235 • Killed 75,000 • Injured 68,000
Fat Man • Aug. 9, 1945 • Target: Nagasaki • plutonium implosion-type bomb. • Over 200,000 died resulting from injuries and radiation poison • Sept. 2, 1945 official surrender
Truman’s Justifications • Japan unwilling to surrender; fight to their death (Kamakazi attitude) • Huge land invasion of Japan necessary • War could last additional 5 years; 1 million more lives lost • Eliminate Soviet input in post war negotiations
Nuremberg Trials • 1945-1949 Nuremberg, Germany • 22 Nazi leaders tried for war crimes (crimes against humanity) • 12 sentenced to death. Rest to prison • 200 lesser leaders found guilty • First time a nation’s leaders held legally responsible for their actions during wartime