Chapter 26: America during the Second World War

Chapter 26: America during the Second World War

1. How did events in Asia and in Europe affect the domestic debate over isolationism versus intervention in the war?

Amidst Hitler’s fascist regime and scheme of world domination, and the Japanese invasions in China, America stood in a state of neutrality declaring acts in 1935 and 1936 restricting trade, loans and travel with belligerent nations in order to prevent US intervention. However these events brought the debate toward lifting the ban to help France and Britain. The cash-and-carry provision allowed the arrangement of loans, exports, and shipping under the condition that they were transported by their own ships and purchased by cash. This especially benefitted the British as their naval forces dominated the Atlantic sea lines. In addition the Wagner-Rogers bill was lifted further restricting Jewish immigration. FDR also claimed providing arsenal through loans would further keep the country out of war, declaring the lend-lease act allowing arms to be loaned, as the British ran out of money. However the surprise of Pearl Harbor pushed the US into an informal declaration of war. Despite the Isolationists consistent demand for separation and opposition for the destroyers for bases trade in Britain.

2. What central strategies arose in fighting the war in both Europe and Asia?

Fighting the war in both Europe and Asia required a change in strategy. The casualties already flustered isolationists so a form of deciphering German codes prior to deliverance was developed to be a step ahead of the third Reich. A field command was established with the British. They decided to prevent the elimination of the Soviet Union as to deter Hitler's attention from Britain. They decided to invade French North Africa. Overload was the central strategy, they assembled the largest invasion force in England, used diversionary tactics to stage an attack on the narrowest part of the English channel, then dropped behind enemy lines. In the Pacific, the indecisive Joint chiefs of staff authorized both strategies: an Offensive launched from the Australian HQ through New Guinea and the Philippines then onto Japan, and an advance across the smaller islands of the central Pacific, bypassing the Philippines.

3. How did the mobilization for war produce economic and social changes in American life?

The conflicts called for total war, requiring the rapid mobilization and investment of the country to produce, munitions, arms, supplies, and troops to fight the war. As a result of the Selective service act, many left their jobs to join the efforts. Therefore Women and Minorities became more attractive as this draft depleted the skilled white workers. Roosevelt order the Fair Economic Practices Commission to eliminate discrimination and the discrepancy of wages between white men and the minorities, and women. In 1942 Roosevelt established the Office of War Information to spread propaganda, the Media, and Hollywood producers heard his call producing many war schemed advertisements and films. Unfortunately, many gender and racial issues remained. Women were not compensated as equally as men in wages especially in "female" jobs. Minorities also faced conflicts in equal wages; blacks had their blood plasma segregated from whites, riots spurred out against Mexicans and Africans wearing Zoots suits.

4. What major institutions and policies shaped the reconstruction of the postwar world?

After the war ended much of the economy and society was left in a mess, in order to maintain peace the Security Council was implemented. Essentially in the Atlantic charter of 1941 at a conference in Moscow the Allied Powers pledged to replace the League of Nations. At the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 the International Monetary fund was assembled by the nations to maintain a fixed international exchange rate. Later the World Banks was also created to provide loans for war battered countries, and to promote world trade. In 1948 the GATT was established the institutional groundwork for breaking up closed trading bloc sand implementing free and fair trade agreements. In addition, many negotiations were made between the nations. Germany was divided into four zones of occupation in a conference in Yalta and allowed the freedom to vote in Poland, Korea was divided, the US supported Britain and France in reassembling their Southeast Asian colonies, Philippines was granted independence, the Good Neighbor Policy was implemented to suppress any military conflict produced during the war and the OIAA was created to further expand their cultural and economic ties, and Jews moved to Palestine.

5. What factors did President Truman consider with respect to dropping the atomic bomb on Japan?

Truman came into presidency in a fragile situation. Nations were amidst a world war and the US had just been attacked by the US. They had to retaliate; the Manhattan project was implemented to develop research on the fission of atomic particles. A Jewish scientist, Albert Einstein declared that the atomic bomb be dropped on Japan, fearful that the Germans were getting ahead in their research. Truman had also just discovered the occurrences of Los Alamos.

Terms:

Neutrality Act of 1937:

Legislation established during the World War in order to sustain neutrality in the US. It restricted the loans, trade, and travel with the belligerent nations. However this act was revised to require that the belligerents take the cargo themselves and pay cash in order to minimize the risk to American exports, loans and shipping. To further ease and support the British, their naval superiority and control of the Atlantic seas benefitted them when in 194q the Lend Lease act allowed munitions to be loaned to the Allied powers.

Panay Incident:

Amidst the War, Japan had assembled in China capturing Shanghai, Nanjing, Shandong, and Beijing. Japan demanded that China become subservient to Japan, that under their leadership an East Asian Co-Prosperity sphere would create a self-sufficient economic zone and liberate them from the West Colonialism.

Blitzkrieg:

A massive coordinate military strike by German military and air forces. In April 1940, a blitzkrieg began to overrun Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Such swift speed surprised Allied leaders in Paris and London. Britain barely evacuated its troops leaving its equipment. Hitler then installed a pro-Nazi government in Vichy in Southern France. Within 6 weeks Hitler had seized control of Europe's Atlantic coastline.

Selective Training and Service Act of 1940:

The first peacetime draft in US history. This act conscripted men to the draft leaving many of the industries and companies without workers. This later led to the encouragement of minorities and women to work and take their place.

'Destroyers-for-bases':

The US helped Britain from the beginning of the war with the cash and carry provision and lend/lease act. They then traded 50 naval destroyers for the right to build eight naval bases on British territory. However, many isolationists extremely disliked this, as it was further building ties with foreign nations and pushing the US out of neutrality and into the war.

Lend-lease Act:

1941, Roosevelt enabled the loan of munitions to the Allies in hopes of avoiding war while becoming an arsenal for the allied cause. This stirred opposition in Stalin, and was then extended to the communist regime.

Atlantic Charter:

 1941 at a conference in Moscow the Allied Powers pledged to replace the League of Nations. At the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 the International Monetary fund was assembled by the nations to maintain a fixed international exchange rate. Later the World Banks was also created to provide loans for war battered countries, and to promote world trade.

Reuben James:

East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere:

A proposition made by Japan amidst their attack on china to liberate themselves from western colonialism to sustain a self-sufficient economy.

ENIGMA:

German scientist had integrated an ultra secret code-encrypting device that ciphered millions of keys daily enabling millions of different methods to encrypting the code leaving it immune to code breaking. However several polish men escaped from Germany and discovered a way to break the code forming an operation in England to decrypt German communications.

Operation Overload:

The largest invasion force history that assembled in England on D-day, directed by Eisenhower to fool German troops. They misinformed and diverted the Germans making them think they would land at the narrowest part of the English Channel rather than the Normandy region. Then 4,000 allied sips landed troops in Normandy and took the Germans by surprise.

Midway Island:

Following the first strike of America at the Battle of Coral Sea, Japan sought to destroy what remained of the US navy and amassed 600 planes and 200 ships to take Midway Island. However US naval intelligence warned Chester Nimitz of the plan.

Chester Nimitz:

Admiral who was warned by US Naval intelligence of an impending attack on their naval fleet and Japans motive to take midway island. Surprised Japanese Armada by sinking four Japanese carriers and destroying 322 planes.

Okinawa:

American had begun advancing closer and closer to Japan as they took over Saipan in 1944 and Okinawa. However this represented the mass brutality as 48,000 American soldiers died, and 120,000 Japanese soldiers died. This enticed the use of air warfare.

Firebombing:

The official name for the incendiary raids on Japan. They constituted precision as opposed to area bombing and was measured in the amount of square are that was set to ashes. Lemay summarized the strategy as, "bomb and burn them until they quit".

'Unconditional Surrender':

In order to attain surrender from Japan, the US began an incendiary raid of firebombing and closed Japanese Seaports to prevent the import of munitions, supplies, and evacuation. This further escalated when Jewish scientist Albert Einstein pushed the idea of sub atomic fission in the use of a bomb to tactfully attack Japan. The Atomic bomb was then dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the Manhattan project rushed to develop a bomb prior to German development.

Manhattan Project:

Under Harry Truman's presidency, the World war was in a fragile situation and America sought for an unconditional surrender. Roosevelt developed the top-secret research site to subsequently enlist the top scientist to develop the latest in atomic and sub atomic fission to develop an atomic bomb.

'Fat Man and Little boy':

The names of the two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

WASPs:

Women’s Air Force Service Pilots were proposed but never accepted during the First World War, enlisted some 350,000 women. It essentially represented the dawn of a new era; women were being employed in jobs that would have been obscene for women. However these jobs were often portrayed as temporary by the media " a woman can do anything as long as she looks beautiful.

Ex. Order 9066:

As the war heightened Americans began to discriminate against native Japanese-Americans. They began internment camps grabbing the Japanese, Germans, and other American citizens involved in the war into internment camps. However it was noted in the Supreme Court in a trial that this order was unconstitutional and ended the camps.

Zoot Suit Riots:

Flamboyant outfits that were composed of oversized trousers worn by young Mexicans and Africans to symbolize their ethnicity. 1943 a riot spurred when soldiers and sailors from nearby military bases attack these men, military order restraining soldiers quelled the dilemma.

Tehran:

Stalin pledged to send troops to Asia as soon as Germany surrendered in 1943. The Soviet Union and the US then divided Korea, which had zones that would later emerge into antagonistic states.

Yalta:

Several significant conference took place in Yalta, Ukraine: the allied powers divided Germany into four zones of occupancy, Soviets agreed to permit the freedom to vote in post war Poland, Korea was also divided into three zones.

IMF:

At the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 in New Hampshire, assembled nations created the International Monetary fund to maintain a stable exchange rate by ensuring the each nation currency could be converted into any international currency at a fixed rate.

GATT:

In 1948 the GATT was established the institutional groundwork for breaking up closed trading blocs and implementing free and fair trade agreements.