The Home front the End of WWII APUSH

The Home front & the End of WWII APUSH ch 25 part 2

Home front • How did WWII affect the home front? – Large migrations – many people moved for jobs • Rural to urban, and westward – Esp. blacks out of South – New roles/opportunities for women • Jobs in factories (Rosie the Riveter) • Jobs in military – WACS, WAVES, WASPS • New autonomy for women – problems? – Lack of fed. Provided child care – Education understaffed – female teachers left for higher paying jobs (school dropouts also increased) – Marriage rates climb, as do divorce and childbirth rates

Home front • How did the war affect racial issues? – New econ. Opportunities for blacks • Industrial jobs • Military – segregated units, no combat units until very end of war – A. Phillip Randolph pushes FDR to allow blacks into military – Tuskegee Airmen – all-black fighter pilot squadron – Other groups contributed: Navajos used language as code in Pacific, Japanese. Americans served in segregated units » 442 nd Regimental Combat team – Nisei Regiment – most decorated of war in Europe – New push for civil rights • Double V strategy – win war against fascism and discrimination in US • CORE founded in 1942 (James Farmer) • NAACP membership rises – Also heightened tensions • Discrimination still existed in defense industries • Zoot suit riots in LA – anti-Latino sentiment

Home front • What was the experience of Japanese-Americans during the War? – Served in segregated military units – Those on west coast put into internment camps – Why? • Fear of loyalty to Japan & racism • Economic opportunity • Korematsu v. U. S. – Supreme CT upholds decision – Not overturned until 1990 s • Living camps (not concentration camps) – unpleasant, unjust

End of War – Europe • How did war in Europe end? – Eastern front – Soviet manpower and industrial output turns tide after 1943 • Key German losses at Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk – Germans lost over 1, 000 troops in Russian sieges and gained nothing • Soviet army pushes toward Berlin, occupying Eastern Europe in process – Puppet regimes after war – D-Day – Allied invasion of France (Normandy) aka Operation Overlord • • Amphibious and airborne invasion Breakout – liberate France Massive bombing of Germany by air (Dresden) Slow steady push toward Germany after – Western front – after battle of the Bulge, German army crippled • Allies push to cross Rhine before Germans destroy every bridge • Allied armor crosses at Remagen, pushes toward capital – Yalta conference – 1945 – • USSR pledges to help vs. Japan sometime after Germany defeated • US promises to give USSR concessions in Manchuria, Pacific (sorry, China) • USSR promises some free elections in East Europe – FDR dies in April 1945, Truman becomes Pres. – Hitler commits suicide in late April • • German high command surrenders on May 7, 1945 VE day = May 8, 1945 Details of Holocaust slowly emerge Potsdam Conference after war in Europe

D-Day

End of War – Pacific • How does Pacific Theater come to an end? – US island hopping strategy works • • Islands used as bases for air raids Midway – naval victory Guadalcanal – major victory for US Philippines liberated – Fighting gets more intense • Japanese – NO SURRENDER!!! • Fighting on Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa shows Japan will LITERALLY fight to the last man (or woman, or child) • US blockades Japan in 1945, continues air attacks • Contemplates invasion

Fall of Japan • What are US options vs. Japan? – Continue blockade and air attacks (for how long)? – Proceed w/ invasion (some experts estimate over 1, 000 casualties) – Drop atomic bombs • Decision – Truman asks Japan for unconditional surrender in late July – Japan refuses – 1 st bomb – Hiroshima – Aug. 6, 1945 – Enola Gay • Approx. 100, 000 killed • Japan does not surrender – 2 nd bomb – Nagasaki – Aug. 9, 1945 • Approx. 80, 000 killed • Japan surrenders Aug. 14 • VJ Day – war is over

Atomic Bomb Controversy • What were the controversial questions? – Wouldn’t Japan have been forced to surrender after a longer blockade? – Should we have asked for unconditional surrender? – Should we have demonstrated power of bomb? – Did we do it to intimidate USSR? – Was it morally justified (civilian targets)? – Did racism play a factor? – Was a second bomb necessary?

Effects of War • • 60 million people dead – Over half civilians – 10 million in Holocaust (6 million Jews, ¾ of all Jews in Europe) US becomes world’s top military & econ. Superpower USSR other military superpower Germany & Japan both occupied, rebuilt UN created Soviet control of Eastern Europe (spheres of influence) US becomes middle-class society (more money to people) New opportunities for women & minorities – • • • Stirrings of civil rights movement US industry booms US “baby boom” Greater mobility in US New business/advertising/industrial/entertainment models – mass production, mass marketing, mass consumption Nuremburg Trials & Geneva Conventions – re-write rules of war Creation of Israel – sows seeds on unrest in Mid-East Expanded role of fed. Gov’t and Pres. In US Ends Depression in US Permanent military-industrial complex in US