WW2
1. How did the War in the Pacific progress from 1941–1943? (Include discussion of the Philippines, Coral Sea, Midway Island, and Guadalcanal)
Manila Philippines — after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor they attacked America’s airfields in Manila destroying airpower in the Pacific for the United States.
Guam & Wake Islands & Hong Kong went to the Japanese
Coral Sea — allies had first victory in the battle of coral sea northwest of Australia. May 7–8 1942
Midway Island northwest of Hawaii battle went on June 3–6 1942 American Navy destroyed for Japanese aircraft carriers and America lost one aircraft carrier and America had control of Central Pacific
Guadalcanal — August 1942 Japanese is abandoned the island so United States controlled southern and central Pacific Japanese advance had been halted
2. What decision did Roosevelt have to make (bottom of p.751) and what did he decide upon? How did this US military action play out and did it work?
Roosevelt supported the British plan to first launch a series of Allied defenses around the edges of the Nazi empire and northern Africa and southern Europe before trying to take over France
the US military plan worked and the last Germans left Africa may 1943. The Soviets fought the Germans. British and American forces had a plan to take over Sicily Italy and it worked and Italy’s leader Mussolini ran away the new leader of Italy became an ally Americans and British had to fight Germans also in Rome and they one on June 4, 1944. All this delayed invasion of France by Germany.
3. What did the US know about the Holocaust at the time? What could the US have done differently, what did the US do/not do to end it as soon as possible, and what was the reasoning for doing so?
1942 Washington new with evidence that Hitler was rounding up Jews Polish homosexuals and Communists from Europe transporting them to concentration camps in eastern Germany and in Poland and killing them.
The United States didn’t want to blow up the crematoriums that killed the Jews or blow up the railroad tracks that brought the men the United States also didn’t admit large numbers of the Jewish refugees that wanted to escape Europe.
The US reasoning was that they wanted to put all their efforts into beating Germany
4. What were the effects of WWII on the US economy, the national debt, and tax collection? (p.754 and bottom of 756)
US Economy:
World War II ended the Great Depression
there was a great wave of wartime industrial expansion
government spending after 1939 pumping were money into the economy than all the new deal relief agencies combined had done
1939 federal budget 9 billion 1945 it rose to 100 billion
gross national product went from 91 billion in 1939 to 166 billion in 1945
personal income grew hundred percent or more
National Debt:
1941–1945 federal government spent 321 billion
national debt rose from 49 billion 1941. It rose to 259 billion in 1945
the government borrowed half the revenues it needed by selling 100 billion worth of bonds
Tax Collection:
all the rest of the money it raised by increasing income tax rates to the revenue act of 1942. Congress enacted a withholding system to payroll deductions in 1943
5. Discuss the impact that WWII had on African Americans. How was WWI “used” differently and why was there pressure to change policies of segregation within the military? What are the first steps that were taken to allow black servicemen to serve in a greater capacity?
Blacks believe that serving in the war Woodwind them a better position in society that they were wrong. 1941 Philip Randolph a union with lack membership asked to integrate workforces planned a march on Washington Roosevelt asked her not to do that and started the fair employment practices commission it was a rare victory for African-American demands from the government
blacks moved from rural areas of the South into big cities
at first the military gave blacks only menial assignments the segregated training camps in units
blacks on allowed in the Marine Corps for the Army Air Force
but the military realize they’re wasting manpower by the end of the war 700,000 blacks served on ships and sent into combat
6. What impact did WWII have on Native Americans?
25,000 natives military service World War II
Navajos became code talkers because he any couldn’t understand the language
a lot of Indians left the tribes when they saw it was better on the outside they wanted to get rid of reservations
7. What impact did WWII have on Mexican-Americans in the United States?
In response to labor shortages on the Pacific Coast and the Southwest Mexico and America agreed 1942 where laborers would be admitted to the US to work specific jobs. White people in LA saw young people from Mexico wearing zoot suits and thought they were in a gang. Four-day ride in LA sailors attacked them LA passed a law prohibiting the wearing zoot suits
8. What impact did WWII have on women and children?
Women in the workforce increased by 60%
women took jobs to replace male workers
married women worked in older women worked
female work in millwork separated black women assign the most menial tasks completed at the lowest rate
most women worked in service jobs not in factories and they work for the government. Women worked as you WAACs in the Army and WAVEs in the Navy during clerical work
children were left at home called latchkey kids or eight hour orphans sometimes kept in cars and factory parking lots the third of all teenagers between 1418 worked and in good high school
9. What impact did WWII have on Japanese-Americans?
After the attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese people in the US were hated
hundred and 27,000 Japanese Lipton United States
February 1942 interned Japanese hundred thousand people rounded up told get rid of their property went to relocation center three years in isolation. In Hawaii Japanese were too big of a part of the population so they were not interned
10. (p769) What evidence is given that would prove that the Japanese would still be able to inflict heavy casualties on an invading force? What evidence is given that Japan would have been less likely or unable to resist an invasion?
The Japanese used 3500 suicide bombers against United States and Britain
Japanese troops nighttime attacks on American minds killed 50,000
Many Japanese leaders are looking for a way out of the war thinking had been lost but military leaders thought they could still win
Japanese had almost no ships or planes left
firebombing of Tokyo in May dropped napalm in the city killed 80,000 Japanese