World War II Lecture Notes Causes/Course/Results of World War II While the U.S. was totally involved in the Depression and the experimentations of the New Deal, three Fascist nations began to aggress in the face of international law and challenged the world to do anything about it. Fascism is a political philosophy that exalts nationalism and often race above the individual. It is often characterized by State controlled economics Forcible suppression to opposition Dictatorial control Not only was the U.S. absorbed in its own economic woes, isolation became the reaction to every action by the fascist countries of Japan, Italy and Germany. Japan in 1931, Japan violated the Kellogg-Briand Pact, The League of Nation s agreements, and the Washington Naval Conference Treaties by invading China and annexing parts of it. The League of Nations did condemn Japan for its Action Japan responded by quitting the League. Italy was taken over by Fascist leader Mussolini. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia in Africa. The League slapped Italy with such weak sanctions; it was like no sanctions at all. Germany Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933 and promised a renewed goal of empire to the German people. Hitler challenged the world by: Denouncing the Versailles Treaty Blaming reparation payments and the Jews for Germany s economic problems Launching a new military build-up against the Versailles Treaty conditions. Page 1
For the most part, Americans have always opposed involvement in foreign conflict and after World War I; the country went back to traditional isolation, excluding treaty involvements that were intended to maintain world peace. President Franklin Roosevelt strengthened American s non-intervention intentions to return to isolation by proclaiming his Good Neighbor Policy. The Policy of the Good Neighbor became more defined when Mexico nationalized America oil companies operating in Mexico and the U.S. responded with minor boycotts. With world-aggression rising so steadily and with the failure for the Great War to make the world safe for Democracy, many Americans believed that opponents to WWI had been right all along. In 1933, a Congressional committee headed by Gerald Nye concluded that the greed of American munitions makers, bankers, and financiers was responsible for dragging the country into war. The Nye Committee Report convinced the nation not to let the merchants of death lead the country into another war for profits. The Nye Committee s Report and the rapidly deteriorating international situation provoked Congress to take action. Three Neutrality Acts were passed to prevent mistakes made prior to World War I. (1935 1937) 1 st forbade U.S. banks to loan money to nations at war 2 nd President warned U.S. citizens to stay off ships of nations at war 3 rd Prohibited arms sales to nations at war The Fascist nation s took U.S. (and Britain s) lack of interest in their acts of aggression as a cue to continue. Japan invaded China again and killed over 200,000 in the murderous Rape of Nanking. Page 2
Germany and Italy supported the Fascist in Spain s Civil war in 1936. Hitler and Mussolini used Spain s Civil War to demonstrate their advanced war machines to the rest of the world. Picasso s painting Guernica illustrated the oncoming horrors of the new war machines. In 1937, FDR addressed the atrocities of Nanking and Guernica by warning Americans of the growing threat from Fascism. He called on the Democratic nations of the world to quarantine those who were creating a state of international anarchy... The American people and media responded in a storm of protest. To their response Roosevelt said to an advisor, it s a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and there is no one there. His quarantine speech failed to move the American people. Hitler forced Austria into his Third Reich and then took over the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France tried to strike a deal with Hitler in Munich, Germany. The appeasement of Hitler gave him the Sudetenland if he promised he would not have any more territorial claims in Europe. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proudly proclaimed the deal negotiated with Hitler has obtained Peace for our time! Hitler went on to take the rest of Czechoslovakia assuring the stunned British and French that to try to appease him was an illusion. Everyone knew Hitler s next target Poland. Britain and France assured Poland they had its back if Hitler invaded from the East. Also to everyone s surprise, Hitler signed a Non-Aggression Pact with his Soviet Enemy Joseph Stalin. This assured Hitler that if Britain and France would fight with Poland, Germany would only have to fight a one-front war. Page 3
On September 1, 1939 Hitler unleashed his Blitzkrieg (Lightening War) against Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany but let the war come to them, a tactical mistake. The blitzkrieg took out Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and targeted France. The fabled Maginot Line barely detoured Hitler s divisions, as the Nazi tanks went through neutral Belgium to take France. Meanwhile, Roosevelt issued a Proclamation of Neutrality. He further instigated a heated debate in Congress to revise the former Neutrality Acts. The Neutrality Act of 1939 provided that a belligerent nation could buy U.S. arms if it used its own ships, paid cash and hauled the armaments away. This policy, known as Cash and Carry became a major crack in the U.S. policy of isolation. With the possibility of a German invasion across the English Channel into Britain, parliament removed the appeaser from the Prime Minister s office and replaced him with the bulldog Winston Churchill. Churchill defied the intensive German bombing campaigns with his we shall never surrender attitude, but as the German campaigns pounded the British cities night after night, Churchill let Roosevelt know that Britain could not hold out much longer. The famed British Navy was weakened by German submarines and U.S. Cash and Carry policy was becoming ineffective for Britain. Her merchant ships were subject to submarine attacks and she was out of money! To go around the remaining Neutrality conditions Roosevelt put together a scheme to aid Britain. He traded them 50 old Destroyers in exchange for access to British naval bases in the Caribbean Sea. This action would also protect American interests since several British Islands dotted the Caribbean; if Britain Page 4
fell, Germany would take control of the islands and bases thus creating a direct threat to the U.S. The Election of 1940 Republicans Wendell Willkie Democrats Franklin Roosevelt Issues: An unprecedented 3 rd term The war in Europe The New Deal Willkie agreed with Roosevelt on continuing the existing New Deal programs, but accused Roosevelt of being a war monger. His accusations caused Roosevelt to promise voters, Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars. Roosevelt won handily breaking Washington s two-term tradition for the first time. His very next fireside chat to the American people proposed that the U.S. become the great Arsenal of Democracy and send every ounce and every tome of munitions and supplies that we can possibly spare to help the defenders who are in the front lines. From the fireside chat, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act giving direct aid to Britain. Roosevelt justified the Lend-Lease Act by saying its purpose was to defend democracy and human rights throughout the world; specifically the Four Freedoms: Freedom of speech and expression Freedom of worship Freedom from want Freedom from fear Page 5
Lend-Lease armaments and supplies began to cross the Atlantic in the tune of more than all of the total cost of the New Deal Expenditures. American convoys and protecting warships kept German submarines at bay. The immediate impact of Lend-Lease caused Hitler to change his plans. Knowing that he could not invade England, he broke the Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact and attacked the Soviet Union. Roosevelt quickly extended the Lend-Lease conditions to the Soviet Union. After all, Soviet Communism was now at war against the Nazis, who were trying to destroy democracy. In his assessment of the volatile international situation, Roosevelt rapidly adjusted the U.S. to be in its best possible position if dragged into war. He had Congress pass the Selective Service Act to register men of military age for the Draft (conscription). Unlike the Selective Service Act of 1917, the 1940 SSA was initiated before war was declared, thus the nation s first peacetime draft gave the U.S. a sense of preparedness. Even though the U.S. was not at war yet... Roosevelt met with Churchill aboard a ship near Newfoundland to glue the Anglo-American alliance. The two leaders issued the document called the Atlantic Charter. The August 1941 document pledged: Freedom of the seas for all nations Free trade for all nations Self determination for national groups The U.S. and Britain would not gain territory as a result of the The Atlantic Charter was the first of several war conferences. Page 6
Even though Hitler occupied Roosevelt s interest, Germany never attempted to directly provoke the U.S. like it did in WWI with the Zimmermann Note. Japan Did! The Japanese High Command planned to attack the U.S. if necessary to pursue their aspirations to rule Asia including the holding of the white colonial powers (India, Philippines, Island groups, etc.) When the Japanese entered an alliance with Germany and Italy in late 1940, Roosevelt began to counteract Japan s imperialistic plans. In 1941 he announced a trade embargo that denied Japan oil, scrap iron and other goods essential for its war machines. Japan was a resource poor country but very populated and technically advanced. A new military leader in Japan, General Hideki Tojo convinced Emperor Hirohito and other leaders that swift destruction of American Naval bases in the Pacific would leave Japan to follow its destiny. Roosevelt thought that the embargo of strategic material Act would force Japan to back off of its plans... he was wrong. Decoded messages indicated that a Pacific attack was imminent but the military disagreed where. It was likely that the U.S. controlled Philippines was the target. On December 7, 1941, the U.S. Pacific Fleet was devastate in a surprise attack that killed 2,400 Americans, destroyed ships, planes and crippled the U.S. ability to make war in the Pacific. On December 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan. Within the week, Hitler and Mussolini declare war on the U.S. Now, with Isolationism in shambles, the U.S. had itself a two-front war from Asia to Europe. Page 7
The first piece of business toward the U.S. war effort was security. German submarines were quick to raise havoc along the eastern seaboard. Fortifications were built and the government worried about espionage and internal subversion. But most of American s vigilance was directed against other Americans of Japanese descent. The news media and the public echoed the same widespread sentiment A Jap is a Jap... it makes no difference whether he is an American citizen or not. Yielding to political and public pressure, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. The order authorized sending all Americans of Japanese descent to ten makeshift prisons (or internment) camps located in remote isolated areas of the west. Allowed little time to sell their property or businesses, Japanese Americans lived out the war penned in barbed wire encampments watched by armed guards... their only crime was they were of Japanese descent about 110,000 were interned. A blatant violation of Constitutional rights made its way to the Supreme Court in the case Korematsu vs U.S. 1944. Facts: Fred Korematsu was a U.S. born Japanese American man who decided to stay in California and did not report to the point of detention from where he should be delivered to an internment camp. He was arrested and convicted in violation of Executive Order 9066. Constitutional Question: Is Executive Order 9066 unconstitutional and a violation of the 14 th Amendment and Due Process? Court Decision: No Reasoning: The court ruled that in times of war, Congress and the military should Page 8
have the power to take all proper security measures and since there was a fear of an invasion of the west coast by Japan, internment was a military necessity. As a historical footnote to the violation of Constitutional rights of the Japanese- Americans who were interned under Executive Order 9066, the U.S. government officially apologized for the internment in the 1980s, and paid reparations for those interned ($20,000.00). Fred Korematsu was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 by Bill Clinton and died in 2005 at the age of 86. While dealing with the home-front security issues, the Selective service Act supplied the needed manpower to fill the uniforms of battle. The Selective Service Act prohibited discrimination on account of race or color. Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, Chinese-Americans, and African-Americans all served. Only black Americans were trained in segregated camps and assigned to segregated units. Most blacks were assigned to manual labor during the war years, but for those who saw military combat in the later years of the war, their segregated units repeatedly earned praise from their commanders for their performance under fire. The nation had to convert from a peace economy to a war economy. To pay for the war, the income rates were raised, deficit spending ceilings were increased and the government borrowed from the American people in the form of War Savings Bonds that reflected the success of the Liberty and Victory Bonds sold during World War I. Volunteerism was alive and well during the war, as Americans were asked to donate old tires cooking fat, nylons and anything else that could be used to aid Page 9
the war effort. Volunteerism gave way to rationing to assure military needs overseas were met. Even though war industries provided wartime prosperity, rationing affected everyone and was controlled by rationing stamps or tokens. To purchase gas, sugar, meat, coffee or most anything else a government furnished stamp was required to purchase the commodity. To organize and oversee the tidal wave of military production, Roosevelt organized the War Production Board. Maximum output was pushed as industries were converted from producing consumer goods to war material. Booming wartime employment also increased union membership. To speed production, the government asked unions to pledge not to strike. The relentless pace of work was accepted by most unions with the exception of the United Mine Workers led by the CIO s John L. Lewis. In 1943, the United Mine Workers walked out of the nation s coal mines demanding higher wages. Coal production was necessary to industry and the war effort. The federal government immediately took control of the coal mines and many Americans viewed the coal miners as traitors. War mobilization sent employment soaring in all sectors of the economy. The nation, faced with a labor shortage, the nation turned to women to fill the labor void. Women working in war industries as welders, pipe-fitters and shell makers signified a change in the traditional rules of women in the workforce. They proved that they were quite capable of the long hours and strenuous work required to furnish the machines of war. Page 10
Millions of women participated. Their Rosie the Riveter image became the poster image of home front determination. As women rolled up their sleeves, they were appreciative to earn respectable wages as they contributed to the war effort. Not only were women enjoying more economic prosperity as they contributed, African-American organizations demanded that the federal government require companies receiving defense contracts to integrate their workforces. To make the point, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters promised that 100,000 African Americans would descend on Washington if the president did not eliminate discrimination in defense industries. Roosevelt risked offending unions (and the South) by issuing Executive Order 8802 to prevent racial discrimination in employment. A. Philip Randolph triumphantly called off the Washington March. The success of A. Philip Randolph s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was one battle won in what African American organizations called the Double V campaign. The Double V campaign called for Victory at home and on the battlefield abroad. Black migration to defense jobs intensified racial tensions causing hundreds of race riots. The call for the Double V campaign and increased race riots during the war pushed the NAACP to focus on more court challenges to segregation. A new organization founded in 1942 called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized against discrimination by using new tactics such as picketing and sit-ins against Jim Crowism. Radical tension was also the root of the Zoot Suit riots between white and young Mexican American then in Los Angeles. The whites said they were targeting draft dodgers. Page 11
The attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler s rampage through Europe left the U.S. no choice but to fight a two front war two oceans apart. The German onslaught across Europe and well into Russia and Japan s domination of the Western Pacific was a daunting military challenge for the U.S. The Japanese took the Philippines and showed their inhumanity by force marching thousands of captured American soldiers to their deaths. Those who survived the Bataan Death March were just as much at risk in the prison of war camps. Guam, Wake, and hundreds of island groups fell to the Japanese. A surprise bombing attack on Tokyo led by James Doolittle lifted moral and placed Japan on notice. Japanese expansion was checked at the Battle of Coral Sea just north of Australia in the south Pacific. The American navy and air force delivered a devastating blow to the Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway in June of 1942. The success at Midway was the turning point in the Pacific and put the Japanese on the defensive. From Midway, the U.S. military began a two year, two prong, island hopping campaign. Names like Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa became bloody stops along the way. The success of the military was not lost on the American citizens. Their exploits became larger than life as Hollywood cranked out patriotic films that lifted the spirits of the cheering public. Movies such as Bataan, Destination Tokyo, and Guadalcanal Diary, documented the heroic events from the Pacific and European theatres of war. As the tenacious allies swept the pacific, the Japanese Navy and Air Force were systematically demolished under the command of General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz. Page 12
The two year island hopping campaign reached its apex during the midsummer of 1945, as the allied forces prepared for the final assault on imperial Japan. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler s forces marched deep into the Soviet Union eastern European nations having already fallen to the Nazi s so had North Africa. The U.S. and Britain had already concluded that Japan expansion in the Pacific was probably not possible beyond what they already acquired and the European theatre of war must be won first. This only meant that the U.S. would do most of the fighting in the pacific and be an equal partner in Europe with Britain. A joint American-British North African campaign pushed the Germans out of Africa. While the military action was still on in 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill met in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. The most important strategic question confronting the allies was when and where to open a second front against the Nazi s? Stalin did not attend the conference because the Russians were preparing to try to stop the Nazi s on the Eastern Front at Stalingrad but he did insist that the Allies open a Western front. It was decided not to hit the Nazi s directly yet. Britain and the U.S. knew that it would take time to amass a force large enough to be successful to confront the Germans across the English Channel into France. So an attack from Africa into Mussolini s Italy was implemented. The allies referred to the strategy as attacking the soft belly of Europe. At the Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill announced that they would accept nothing less than the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers this fact significantly ruled out peace negotiations of any kind. Page 13
During the next year from the Casablanca Conference, the Allies made significant gains. The Russians turned the tide at the Battle of Stalingrad and the push to retake Eastern Europe was well on the way. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, a massive western front was opened. Operation Overlord, lead by Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower invaded across the English Channel as the largest military force ever amassed in history. France was liberated and the allies began their bloody march toward Germany from the West as the Soviet Union came from the East. Also in June 1944, Congress put the financial resources of the federal government behind the American soldier. They passed the GI Bill. The GI Bill promised veterans government funds for housing and loans to help them start businesses. It also provided funds for veteran s education. Roosevelt offered himself to the American people again in 1944. He was in poor health. He chose Harry Truman from Missouri as his vice-presidential candidate. The Republicans chose New York Governor, Thomas Dewey. The American people, concerned about FDRs poor health, did not want switch leaders amidst the backdrop of the war, reelected Roosevelt demonstrating their confidence in Harry Truman just in case. As the squeeze was put on Hitler, a nightmare of unspeakable proportions became exposed by the allies. Prison and death camps were yielding their skeletal prisoners and corpses, gas chambers, pits filled with human ashes, loot stripped from the dead, including hair, gold teeth, and clothes. The Holocaust fulfilled Hitler s implementation of his final solution to destroy the Jewish race. After the war, these crimes against humanity will demand someone to be held accountable. Page 14
With victory in sight, the Big Three, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met on the Black Sea at Yalta in February 1945. Their plan was to discuss their postwar plans for the world. Points discussed at Yalta: Roosevelt managed to secure a promise from Stalin to permit votes on selfdetermination in the Eastern European Countries occupied by the Red Army The Soviets would enter the war against Japan after final defeat of Germany The Big Three also agreed to the creation of a new international peace keeping organization to replace the flawed League of Nations (the new organization, The United Nations, was ratified by the U.S. Senate 89 2) After Yalta, Roosevelt returned home and after being elected as President in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944, died in April of 1945. Hitler committed suicide April 30 th and Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7. Harry Truman became president and he was left to deal with the unfinished business with Japan. In July of 1945, Truman met in Potsdam Germany with Stalin. Britain sent their new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee for the final war conference. During the Potsdam Conference, Truman received word that America s secret weapon was successfully tested. In 1942, Roosevelt authorized the top secret Manhattan Project. Its purpose was to convert nuclear energy into a super bomb before the Germans did. The project was placed under Robert Oppenheimer and culminated with a successful test at Los Alamos, New Mexico. From Potsdam, the allies issued an ultimatum to Japan: Japan must surrender unconditionally or face utter ruin. Only Truman realized the total literal translation of the choice to not honor the ultimatum. Page 15
The decision to drop the bomb was Truman s alone. He weighed all options but in the end he decided not to forfeit more American lives that would be lost in an invasion of Japan. On August 6, 1945 Colonel Paul Tibbets flew his Enola Gay over Hiroshima and released an Atomic Bomb leveling the city and incinerating 78,000 people. Three days later the same scenario was replayed over Nagasaki killing over 100,000 civilians. Japan succumbed and surrendered August 14, 1945. The war was over. Estimates as high as 70 million people were dead. As an asterisk to the win by the allies, blame was squarely placed on Hitler and he was dead. The allies captured several of Hitler s important Nazi leaders and put them on trial at Nuremberg, Germany. The trial of these war criminals before an international military tribunal placed all countries on notice. The results of the Nuremberg Trials established the precedent that it is possible that world leaders can be held responsible for their actions if they commit crimes against humanity. Legacy of World War II At the cost of over 400 thousand American lives, the U.S. believed that it won a good war against totalitarian evil. In doing so, the domestic and foreign policies of America were dramatically changed. To secure human rights and protect the world against future wars, the Roosevelt administration took the lead in creating the United Nations. Wartime Production lifted the nation out of the Great Depression. Even though the national debt increased four times to over 200 billion dollars, the gross national product (the total value of goods and services produced by all citizens during a given period) also increased four times. Page 16
Wartime mobilization made the American economy the strongest in the world strongly out distancing all other nations The monopoly of the nuclear bomb and U.S. economic power transformed the U.S. into a super power. A lot of women that worked in war industries went back to attend to their households, but several stayed in the workforce African Americans continued the Great Migration to northern jobs African Americans logged outstanding war records during the war years. With the success of fighting for freedom and liberty for nations controlled by totalitarian regimes, they vowed to increase their efforts to achieve freedom and liberty for themselves The passage of the GI Bill and the thriving post war economy lent themselves to the prosperity of the middle class that will transform culture and abundance in America And internationally the Soviet Union, on the winning side, supported by U.S. Lend-Lease, occupying all of Eastern Europe including half of Germany, occupying Northern Korea, and well in position to spread its communist ideology also gained super power status. Now there were two - Page 17