Transforming America Final Script

TITLE:Lesson 13: Road to War

PREPARED FOR:Dallas Telelearning

WRITER:Stephen Dyer

PRODUCER:Julia Dyer

DRAFT:FINAL

DATE:January 28, 2005

Transforming America • TA 113 – FINAL • Road to War • 1/27/05 • 1

VisualAudio

FADE IN:

Introduction (1:48) / Music Up
  1. Archival motion picture of FDR
/ PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT:I hope the United States will keep out of this war. I believe that it will. And I give you assurance and reassurance that every effort of your government will be directed toward that end.
  1. Archival of FDR’s third presidential campaign
/ NARRATOR: As war broke out in Europe in 1939, President Roosevelt’s private thoughts did not mirror his public pronouncements. Convinced the US would eventually enter another world war, he decided to run for an unprecedented third term as president.
  1. Archival: “Dr. New Deal”
/ His skills forged by the political fires of the Great Depression and The New Deal, Roosevelt believed he could best steer the ship of state in a time of immense crisis.
  1. Archival motion picture footage of FDR; could mix with footage of the Germans conquering Europe
/ PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression, everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.
  1. Archival: Blitzkrieg in Poland, Japanese in Nanking
/ NARRATOR:Roosevelt knew that the Second World War would be a massive, do or die conflict between the forces of totalitarianism and democracy. “Dr. New Deal” would have to become “Dr. Win-the War.”
Segment #1: A Common Purpose (6:25)
Learning Objective: Explain the main features of American foreign policy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor (LO 1)
  1. Cal Christman on Camera; mix with archival motion picture of early Hitler
Super: Calvin Christman, CedarValleyCollege
  1. GRAPHIC: Map sequence of Europe highlighting German annexations: Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia.
/ Music Up
CALVIN CHRISTMAN (09:18:16:00): When Hitler came to power in January of 1933, he blamed all of Germany’s ills on three things. He blamed it on the Versailles Treaty. He blamed it on the communists and he blamed it on the Jews. And he set out to destroy all three. Now, that meant he wanted warbecause only through war could you remake the map of Europe and could you eradicate entire political and religious groups. He built the finest army in the world. He built the finest air force in the world. He reoccupied the Rhineland. He forced the annexation of Austria and brought it into Germany.
  1. Archival: Hitler and Chamberlain at Munich
/ NARRATOR: Then, in 1938 Hitler demanded that Germany be allowed to annex a part of Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, fearing another world war, convinced the Czechs to give in. It was a catastrophic miscalculation.
  1. London Papers: Chamberlain returns from Munich (Does archival footage exist for this?)
/ Actor as NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN: I believe it is peace in our time.
  1. Cal Christman on Camera
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (09:21:32:00): Britain had given in at Munich in order to try and prevent war and they had failed. And so after Munich, and after Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia, Britain came to the conclusion we have done everything we could. Now we are going to have to fight.
  1. Cal Christman on Camera; mix with footage from Poland
  2. GRAPHIC: Map of Europe highlighting the invasion of Poland
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (09:26:22:00): War officially beganFriday, September 1st, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. As a result of the German invasion, Britain and France then declared war on Germany. The US declared itself officially neutral.
  1. Adrian Lewis on Camera; mix with archival of Blitzkrieg warfare
Super: Adrian Lewis, University of NorthTexas / ADRIAN LEWIS (15:05:56:00): The Germans innovated. They developed something called Blitzkrieg operational doctrine. They massed tanks, artillery, infantry in one division. They also added air power to this. They put it in a command structure, gave that guy the initiative and then let it go. It worked brilliantly.
  1. Cal Christman on Camera
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (09:27:11:00): By the summer of 1940,Germany had conquered Poland. It conquered Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France.Britain was the only power standing in the way of total German control of western and central Europe.
  1. Archival motion picture footage if available. Radio should be.
/ WINSTON CHURCHILL: Let us,therefore, brace ourselves to our duty, so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
  1. Archival motion picture footage of FDR
  2. GRAPHIC: Map showing conquered Europe in relation to the United States
/ PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT:We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us, this is an emergency as serious as war itself.
  1. Cal Christman on Camera
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (10:00:53:00): Roosevelt brings the United States to a position of all possible aid to Great Britain short of actually entering the war. November, 1939, Congress passes a cash and carry. Then September, 1940,Roosevelt with an executive agreement with Churchill makes his “destroyers for bases” agreement. Then in March of 1941, Congress passes Lend-Lease and so we incrementally move closer and closer.
  1. Adrian Lewis on Camera
/ ADRIAN LEWIS (15:08:31:00): He understood long before the American people did that the United States had to fight World War II. He would have gotten us there one way or another.
CHARLES LINDBERGH:When England asks us to enter this war, she is considering her own future.
  1. Archival: protesters, isolationists
/ NARRATOR: Not everyone agreed with Roosevelt’s policies. Charles Lindbergh and many others, including members of Congress, were strong proponents of a more isolationist policy.
  1. EXPERT on Camera; Archival: Geisel political cartoon lampooning isolationists: “Then the wolf ate all the children, but they were foreign children, so it didn’t matter.
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (10:03:14:00): There are different groups of isolationists, different combinations that, for whatever reason, wanted to stay out of European affairs and did not see Germany as a direct threat. Because after all, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, they’re the two greatest anti-tank ditches in the world and they felt that we could be protected by those things.
  1. Archival motion pictures: Germans march on Russia
  2. GRAPHIC: Map of Europe highlighting the invasion of USSR
/ NARRATOR: But with Britain on the ropes and Russia fighting for her very life, public sentiment shifted from isolationism toward helping the Allies. To this end, Roosevelt met publicly with Churchill to declare a common purpose.
  1. Cal Christman on Camera; Archival: FDR and Churchill meet in Canada for the Atlantic Charter
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (10:04:59:00): The Atlantic Charter meeting was held off the coast of Canada in August of 1941. And I think there are three reasons, or three factors, behind it. First off, this would be the first time that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill would be able to meet face to face since they became the leaders of their two countries. Second, both men bring their military staffs with them. Some very important military staff conversations took part at this meeting. Third, you have the U.S. and Britain issuing a joint statement of what they hoped the world would be like once the war was over, that it would be a world free from fear, free from want, free from aggression. AndI think what Roosevelt hoped, this would be an emotional tie of the two countries that would bring us closer in step with Great Britain and that would help further to negate isolationist feelings.
  1. Archival: ships in the North Atlantic; convoys
  2. GRAPHIC: Map moves from Atlantic to Pacific, zooms into Pearl Harbor
/ NARRATOR: By November 1941, the United States was on a virtual war footing. But with all eyes focused on Europe, it was an attack half a world away that sparked the flames of war.
Segment #2: This Means War (7:30)
Learning Objective: Analyze the short and long-term effects of the Pearl Harbor attack on the American people and American policy.
  1. Archival footage of Pearl Harbor
/ Music Up
Sounds of bombs falling, explosions.
  1. Archival motion picture or radio address of FDR; the bombs fly at Pearl Harbor
/ PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
  1. Cal Christman on Camera
Super: Calvin Christman, CedarValleyCollege / CALVIN CHRISTMAN (10:07:33:00): Japan went to war against the United States because Japan wanted raw materials.
  1. GRAPHIC: Map of Pacific showing West Coast of US, Hawaii and Japan
Super:Adrian Lewis, University of NorthTexas / ADRIAN LEWIS (15:11:30:00): Japanis an island nation. It is a resource poor nation. Even today Japan depends on shipping. It depends on external resources for its oil and coal and iron ore, etc. – all of those things that make an industrial power run.
  1. Cal Christman on Camera
  2. GRAPHIC: Map highlights areas in Southeast Asia
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (10:07:33:00): But close by in Southeast Asia, you had British Malaya with huge deposits of tin and production of rubber. You have the Dutch East Indies with tremendous oil production. These were materials Japan wanted. Now that Europe was at war, Britain could not properly protect British Malaya. The Dutch could not protect the Dutch East Indies. There was only one policeman in that whole area that could possibly stop Japan from robbing the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya. That was the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.
  1. Akira Iriye on Camera
Super: Akira Iriye, HarvardUniversity / AKIRA IRIYE (11:09:43:00): By October 1941, the Japanese leadership had decided that war was going to come. It was inevitable with the U.S. And therefore, if it was going to come, Japan would have to choose the timing of its coming.
  1. Cal Christman on camera
/ CALVIN CHRISTMAN (10:09:08) Now as far as why we got caught by surprise, I think probably that the key factor was yes, we knew Japan was going to war, there was no doubt about that. But we thought their attack would come in theSoutheast Asiaarea because, after all, that’s where the raw materials were.
  1. Adrian Lewis on Camera
/ ADRIAN LEWIS (15:19:51:00): Tactically, it was a great success. They caught the battleships there and destroyed a number of them. Operationally, it was a failure because the decisive instrument for the conduct of naval warfare was not the battleship. The aircraft carrier is the dominant instrument for the conduct of naval warfare. Strategically, it was a failure also because one of the assumptions that the Japanese held is that Americans were weak, that Americans lacked the moral fiber to fightthe Japanese. That was very wrong. As a matter of fact, nothing did more to unite the United States than the attack at Pearl Harbor.
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: I ask that the Congress declare a state of war between the United States and the Japanese Empire.
  1. Archival, headlines: Declarations of war
/ NARRATOR: In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Germany, Japan’s ally, consequently declared war on the U.S. Almost immediately some American troops were flung into action.
  1. Eddie Fung on camera
    Super: Eddie Fung
  2. Eddie Fung personal pics(?)
/ EDDIE FUNG (07:25:44) We shipped out of Honolulu on the first of December of 1941, and when we got word that Pearl Harbor had been hit the whole convoy was diverted to Brisbane, Australia. So we were the first U.S. troops on foreign soil from the outbreak of the war.
  1. Archival footage/pics of combat in Dutch East Indies
/ The battalionwas sent to Java to fulfill the commitment that FDR had made to help the Dutch defend the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese were invading the 1st of March.Within seven days, the Dutch decided to capitulate and on March 8, capitulation orders came down to surrender to the Japanese. That was when we…the war ended for us.
  1. Archival footage/pics of Allied POWS, Burma railroad construction (BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI?)
/ We went up to Burmato work on a railroad to link Thailand to Burma. They used 61,000 Allied prisoners. I weighed, probably, at least 100 pounds when I left Batavia in September of ’42 and in May of ’43 I weighed 60 pounds. Being a prisoner of war is like being thrown into the biggest human lottery in the world. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the draw and that’s the way I looked at it. You just got lucky in the draw.
Actor reading sign: All persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above area by 12 o’clocknoon, Saturday, May 9, 1942.
  1. Archival or B-roll of the following sign:
/ NARRATOR: While some Americans were held prisoner by Japan, many Japanese-Americans suffered a similar fate at home in the United States.
  1. Alice Yang Murray on Camera
Super: Alice Yang Murray, UC Santa Cruz / ALICE YANG MURRAY (09:10:29): After Pearl Harbor there was obviously a great shock in this country and there was genuine fear on the West Coast that the Japanese might possibly invade. There was hysteriaand panic. And when you combine that with the long history of anti-Japanese sentiment, you ignited this firestorm of hostility towards people of Japanese ancestry.
  1. Archival of Internment Camps
/ Actor as internee BEN YORITA: We could only take what we could carry, and most of us were carrying two suitcases or duffle bags.
  1. Alice Yang Murray on Camera; mix with footage of camps, if available
/ ALICE YANG MURRAY (10:03:00:00): They were tagged with a number, basically treated like luggage, put on a bus or a train and sent to what was called an assembly center. They were almost always at race tracks or old county fairgrounds. So many people remember finding that their new home was, in fact, a hastily converted horse stall.People were then transported to the more permanent war relocation authority centers and there were ten of those and they were almost always in desolate and remote locations.
  1. Archival: Japanese-Americans receive an apology from the US government
/ NARRATOR: Nearly 100,000 Japanese-Americans were confined during World War II in conditions that can at best be termed inadequate and at worst cruel and destructive.
  1. Archival: Japanese-American soldiers receive combat medals
/ Ironically, Japanese-Americans served with great distinction in the armed forces. One combat team became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service. The unit received over 18,000 individual decorations for bravery, 9,500 Purple Hearts, seven Presidential Unit Citations, and twenty Congressional Medals of Honor.
  1. Alice Yang-Murray
/ ALICE YANG MURRAY(10:28:36): But there were a lot of Japanese-Americans who had deep wounds, deep psychological wounds, that had been caused by the camps. The sense of shame, this fear of being associated with the Japanese heritage, and there were a lot of people who thought the safest thing to do was to simply blend in – not have ties with anyone of Japanese ancestry, never speak the Japanese language, never try to teach your children anything about Japan. You have to understand, many of them were adolescents or children and so they could never quite cope with what had happened to them in terms of what it meant to be an American and what it meant to be of Japanese ancestry.
Segment #3: The Great Arsenal of Democracy (8:04)
Learning Objective: Analyze the process of wartime mobilization and its effects on the American people (LO 3).
  1. Archival motion picture footage of FDR
/ SONG (Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy): He was a famous trumpet man from out Chicagoway….
He had a boogie style that no one else could play….
He was the top man at his craft….but then his number came up and he was gone with the draft….
He’s in the army now, a blowin’ reveille….
  1. David Kennedy on Camera; archival of the great beast of American industry--factories, furnaces, etc.
Super: David Kennedy, StanfordUniversity / DAVID KENNEDY (02:05:36:00): Well, the first and most dramatic thing to be said about mobilization is that it ended the Depression. The unemployment rate goes, virtually overnight, from 14-15% in 1941 to about 1%, which effectively is no unemployment at all. It takes the war, not all the policies of the New Deal, finally to overcome this great, deep, protracted economic crisis.
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: We shall send you, in ever increasing numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns. That is our purpose and our pledge.
DAVID KENNEDY: The second thing is that the United States effects what was then called, and has been known in the history books ever since, as this production miracle. It produces war materiel on a scale and of a quantity and a quality, for that matter, such as was virtually unimaginable in warfare – forty billion bullets and thousands upon thousands of long-range bomber aircraft. It completely outfits and deploys 16 million men in the army, millions of tanks. These production numbers are just astronomical. The third characteristic of mobilization is that the United States is the only belligerent in World War II that managed not only to raise and equip a large scale armed force, and in fact in the process heavily equip its allies, but at the same time to raise civilian standards of living at home.
  1. Archival: the gears of industry begin to turn
/ NARRATOR: The availability of good jobs shifted populations from south to north, east to west as people followed jobs to new homes. One unusual aspect of the economic expansion was that it lifted everyone.