More Than 15 Million Men Served in the U.S. Military

Chapter 24, Section 3

War at Home

Building the Military

•  More than 15 million men served in the U.S. military.

•  Hundreds of thousands of women served as nurses and in noncombat roles.

-  For example, they ferried bombers from base to base, towed targets, and taught men to fly.

The Wartime Economy

•  U.S. factories shifted from producing consumer goods to creating wartime goods.

•  The War Production Board was a government agency that supervised that change and set production goals .

•  U.S. military output nearly doubled.

Supporting the War Effort

•  Americans followed rationing of scarce goods like sugar, shoes, and gasoline. They used ration coupons to buy these goods.

•  They also bought war bonds to show support.

•  Maintaining strong morale at home was also key to fighting the war.

Americans on the Home Front

Women

•  Experience: Millions went to work in industry to fill needed wartime jobs in factories and shipyards.

•  Outcome: They gained:

–  Personal confidence

–  Better working conditions

–  Generally better pay

Japanese Americans

•  Experience: Some 110,000 were interned in prison-type camps for the duration of the war.

•  Outcome: They lost their freedom and possessions, even though there was never evidence of disloyalty or spying against the United States.

African-Americans

•  They still faced discrimination in employment and prejudice where they lived.

•  Outcome: The Fair Employment Practices Committee was set up to investigate job discrimination.

Mexican Americans

•  They experienced prejudice in America. In Los Angeles, they were attacked by U.S. sailors on shore leave.

•  Outcome: After the Zoot Suit riots , Eleanor Roosevelt called attention to the problem of discrimination against them.

Chapter 24, Section 4

Victory in Europe

•  Italy surrenders

–  Invasion in Sicily in July 1943

–  Surrendered on September 8, 1943

•  D-Day

–  Date: June 6, 1944

–  Commanded by General Eisenhower

–  Goal: to invade France and retake western Europe

–  Americans landed on Omaha Beach

–  Number killed: 2,500

–  Success: Allies entered Paris on August 25, 1944

Victory in Europe (cont.)

•  Battle of the Bulge

–  Date: December 16, 1944

–  Outcome: Germany’s defeat showed that the Allies had more supplies and soldiers to keep fighting.

•  Germany Invaded

–  Date: January 1945

–  Allies invaded from the west.

–  Soviet Union invaded from the east.

–  Allies used ground troops and bombs.

•  V-E Day: May 8, 1945

•  Aftermath

–  Nazi death camps discovered

–  Nazi who committed war crimes were tried at Nuremberg, Germany.

– 

•  Which Allied Leader did not live to see the end of World War II, and when did he die? ______

Victory in the Pacific

•  Island Hopping

–  Strategy: Capture some islands and go around others to create a stepping stone to Japan

•  Battles

–  Guadalcanal

–  Luzon and Manila in the Philippines

–  Iwo Jima

–  Okinawa

•  The Atomic Bombs

–  President Truman ordered the bombings.

–  Goal: To avoid estimated half a million American casualties if United States invades Japan

–  First bomb: Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 – killed at least 130,000 people

–  Second bomb: Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killed 30,000 instantly

•  Victory

–  V-J Day: August 14, 1945

–  Who announced surrender: Emperor of Japan

–  Official end of World War II: General MacAuthur accepted surrender on the battleship USS Missouri

•  Aftermath

–  War crimes trials in Tokyo and Manila forced responsibility on the

leaders who created the Japanese war machine.

Section 3 & 4 notes 1