December 7, 1941: “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy!”11/27/41With tensions rising

between the Japanese and American government, the War Department issued warnings to U.S. bases in Hawaii to be on guard, but said to not expect a attack because the Japanese did not have the resources to launch such a long-range attack.

At 7:49 AM…12/7/41…183 Japanese planes, including 40 torpedo bombers and 49 high altitude bombers hit Pearl Harbor. They attacked battleship row and the air fields.

President Roosevelt addressed Congress the next day and Congress gave their approval to go to war with Japan and any nation that

supported Japan!

President Roosevelt addressed Congress the next day and Congress gave their approval to go to war with Japan and

any nation that supported Japan!

Getting Ready For War

Pearl Harbor shocked the nation but the nation was actually ready for war…..HOW?

-For months Roosevelt had been setting aside money to loan to companies to cover the cost of converting to war production.

-After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor almost all major American industries and 200,000 companies had converted to war production.

-Automobile factories produced trucks, jeeps, tanks, rifles, mines, helmets, pontoon bridges, cooking pots, etc. Even Henry Ford created an assembly line to build B-24 bombers!

Building the United States Army-As in WWI, the Selective

Service draft was used to recruit an overwhelming number of of G.I.s. The majority were young recruits who had little training

-At the Beginning of the war the army was completely segregated, but that would

quickly change

The Problem????

African Americans were still greatly

Disfranchised….meaning they were denied the right to vote.

Roosevelt won his last election with support of the Black vote….so

he launched the:

“Double V Campaign”-campaign that encouraged African

Americans to joint the military because a victory would be a

victory over racism at home and overseas. It would hopefully be a step in gaining minorities respect

throughout the U.S.

The Impact of the War at HomeU.S. Society 1942-43BELIEVE IT!!THE WAR HAD A POSITIVE EFFECT ON AMERICAN SOCIETY!!!!!!!

-The war led to 19 million new

jobs and double the income of American families-Labor

shortages caused by the war forced factories to hire women in positions traditionally held by men

The government created a female character to use in

its war propaganda to convince married women to work in the factories while

their husbands were off fighting the war in Europe and Asia…that characters

name???

**ROSIE THE RIVETER

2.5 million women entered into the manufacturing

workforce

The Impact of the War at HomeU.S. Society 1942-43America was also on the move!-Almost 15 million

Americans moved from the MidWest (Rust Belt) West and South during the war to be closer to where new jobs were available. *The growth and expansion of cities in the Deep South created a new

Industrial Region called the…SUN BELT

-African Americans continued the Great Migration they started in the 1920s…moving to the North to take factory jobs vacated by

men who were fighting in the war.

The Impact of the War at HomeU.S. Society 1942-43

There was a very ugly reality at home!-The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor scared many Americans living on the West Coast. Due to migration throughout the late 1800s, California, Washington, and Oregon had a large population of Japanese-American citizens whose ancestors had come the the country during the Great Western Expansion. Many Americans feared that these citizens would be loyal to their ancestry and help aide the Japanese Army in launching an invasion on the American Pacific Coast.

The Japanese Internment CampsRoosevelt’s Response to the West Coast

Hysteria-Roosevelt declared the entire Western portion of the United States a “War Zone”. The U.S.

army was given police jurisdiction over the West

Coast. -Roosevelt then signed

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066this gave the U.S. army permission

to remove anyone from any region declared a military or

war zone.

-Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, then ordered any person of “Japanese Ancestry” to be evacuated from the region and detained in one of 10

internment camps being constructed throughout the Midwestern region of the country. People were taken from their homes, separated from their

families, they property and possessions sold, and they were held in camps behind barbed wire for the duration of the war. The kicker is that most of the

detainees were American citizens…born in the good old U.S.A.!

The Legal Fallout of the Japanese Internment Camps

One of these Japanese-American detainees argued that his rights

had been violated and took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court in December 1944.

*Korematsu v. the United States (1944)

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the relocation WAS

CONSTITUTIONAL because it was not based on race, but on

“military urgency”.

-No Japanese-American citizen was ever tried for espionage or sabotage. Many Japanese-Americans served the U.S. during the war,

especially as code-breakers and translators. In 1988 the U.S government accepted fault for this act, apologizing to the families

that were detained and awarding $20,000 to each surviving Japanese American that had been interned during the war!

V-E Day….VICTORY IN EUROPE!!!!-American Forces continued to push

German forces back across the German

border. As Allied forces began to enter into

Germany unopposed Hitler realized it was just a matter of time before the Americans were knocking

on the door of Berlin!-On April 30, 1945 Hitler buried himself in a bunker with his mistress and closest advisors and committed suicide. His successor began to arrange the surrender of the German army as the Allies began heavily bombing Berlin.

On May 7, 1945 Germany

unconditionally surrendered to the

Allied Army. The next day was proclaimed

“V-E Day” for “Victory in Europe!

Ending the War in JapanJapan refused to surrender unconditionally because they

wanted their emperor to remain in power.

-For 10 Years the U.S. had been working

on……

**THE PROJECT TO BUILD A ATOMIC BOMB WAS CODE

NAMED THE “MANHATTAN PROJECT”.

**The world’s most famous scientist,

Albert Einstein was the first to come up with the idea and

suggest it to President Roosevelt.

-The first atomic bomb was detonated near Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16,

1945. When Truman learned of the

successful test he realized the war would

soon be over!

August 6, 1945the first Atomic Bomb in history was used on

another country. **The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Over

10,000 people died instantly….vaporized! Thousands died later

from burns and radiation sickness.

-That same day a second Atomic Bomb was dropped

on Nagasaki, killing between 35,000 and

75,000 people.

ON AUGUST 15, 1945 THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT SURRENDERED IN FEAR OF THE UNITED STATES UNLEASHING ANYMORE HORRIFIC DAMAGE ON THE NATION’S PEOPLE!

Building a New WorldTaking a page out of the book of Machiavelli, President Harry Truman was determined to make sure the U.S.

played an active role in rebuilding Europe after this war!

-*United Nationsorganization created after WWII that

consisted of 39 countries that would work together to maintain world peace

-The UN has a General Assembly (like our Congress) with each member nation getting one vote. HOWEVER, the U.S., USSR, France, China, Great Britain have veto power

-The UN created International Military Tribunals to punish

Japanese and German leaders with a various number of WAR

CRIMES…including GENOCIDEmass

extermination of citizens based on their race, creed,

color, or religious affiliation. **During the

“Nuremberg Trials” many leaders of the Nazi party were convicted of crimes

against humanity and hung!

**Nobody in the U.S. government or military was tried for the mass killing of

Japanese or German citizens!