World War IIThe United States Involvement

World War II (1939-1945)

Mobilization: draft, raised defense spending by $8 billion

Selective Training and Service Act: 1940, first peacetime draft, ages 21-36

Rationing: Each household received a book of coupons to buy scarce items, could only by a set amount

War-time conservation: carpool, ride bikes, held nationwide drives to recycle items used in war production

Role of women: worked in factories, Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, which filled noncombat positions that would have otherwise been filled by men

Propaganda

What does that mean, “When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Hitler!”During WWII, Americans were urged to conserve gasoline (and most other consumer goods) in support of the War Effort. To ride alone was wasteful, and therefore it aided the enemy.

Rosie the Riveter

Rationing tickets

Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 – Japanese aircraft attacked the

US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands

Hoped to destroy the US fleet in the Pacific & cause the US to accept Japanese control of the Pacific

BUT… it unified American opinion about being involved in the war

US joined European nations and China to defeat Japan

Believing American involvement in the Pacific would make them ineffective in the European theater, Hitler declared war on the United States December 11, 1941

World War II (1939-1945)

Battle of Midway: (1942) naval battle in which the US won against the Japanese, a turning point in WWII

D-Day: (June 6, 1944) first day of Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, largest seaborne invasion in history, US and Allied troops surprised Germans at Normandy, beginning of victory for Allies in Europe

Storming the beach at Normandy.

Map of Europe; Normandy in red

World War II (1939-1945)

Battle of Iwo Jima: (November, 1944-February, 1945) US fought Japan and won, bloodiest battle of the war

Battle of Okinawa: (April-June, 1945) Japanese vowed to fight to the death, kamikaze attacks, Japanese eventually surrendered, the Allies had a clear path to Japan

Fall of Berlin

March 1945- American troops marched toward Berlin from the west and Soviet forces pushed in from the East

As the Soviet Army surrounded Berlin, Hitler refused to flee the city

April 30, 1945 – Hitler commits suicide in an underground bunker

May 8, 1945 – Germany’s remaining troops surrender

VE Day- Victory in Europe

World War II (1939-1945) Hiroshima: (August 6, 1945) first atomic bomb

(“Little Boy”) dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing 160,000 by radiation, sickness, fire, and force of explosion, 90% of buildings damaged or destroyed

Nagasaki: (August 9, 1945) second atomic bomb (“Fat Man”) dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing 70,000

Japanese surrender: (August 15, 1945) V-J Day, Japanese accepted US terms of surrender, official surrender signed Sept. 2 aboard the USS Missouri

The Atomic Bomb

Dropping was decided by President Harry Truman after Germany surrendered

Truman feared that defeating the Japanese might be more difficult

“You should do your weeping at Pearl Harbor.”

“Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima

Child orphaned by atomic bomb

A-bombafter-math

Mushroom cloud