The Early Years of World War II (1939-1942)

Essential Question:

How did Americans on the home front help win World War II?

  • The war begins
  • Non-aggression Pact of 1939
  • Agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union
  • Agreed to:
  • Not go to war with each other
  • Divide up Eastern Europe
  • Germany invaded Poland in 1939
  • Britain and France declared war on Germany 2 days later
  • World War II officially began
  • Hitler unleashes the blitzkrieg (“lightning war”)
  • Battle of France (1940)
  • Germanydefeated France in 6 weeks
  • Battle of Britain (1940)
  • The British Royal Air Force (RAF) defeated the German air force (Luftwaffe)
  • Lend-Lease
  • U.S. program to give money and supplies to Britain and the other Allies
  • Hitler breaks the Non-aggression Pact and invades the Soviet Union (1941)
  • The Soviet Unionjoins theAllies
  • Pacific Theater
  • Pearl Harbor Attack
  • Surprise attack on a U.S. base in Hawai’i
  • December 7, 1941
  • Many ships and planes destroyed
  • 2,400 Americans were killed
  • Why did Japan attack?
  • U.S. had cut off Japan’s oil supply
  • Wanted to invade Southeast Asia
  • Rich source of oil and rubber
  • The U.S. declared war on Japan the next day
  • FDR: “December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy.”
  • Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11

10-2-2 #1

Describe the importance of one of the following:

  • Non-aggression Pact
  • Battle of Britain

  • Japan invaded the Philippines
  • Defeated U.S. and Filipino forces
  • Bataan Death March
  • Battle of Midway (June 1942)
  • The U.S. crippled the Japanese navy
  • The turning point in the Pacific
  • Island hopping
  • Also called “leapfrogging”
  • Allies bypassed heavily fortified islands and concentrated on strategically important islands
  • Navajo Code Talkers
  • The U.S. military used the Navajo language as the basis for its code in the Pacific in 1942
  • The Japanese never broke the code
  • Bushido
  • A Japanese samurai’s code of conduct
  • Kamikaze
  • Translation: “divine wind”
  • Suicide attacks by Japanese pilots
  • Home Front
  • Draft
  • 1940-1946
  • Over 10 million men
  • Economy
  • War Production Board (WPB)
  • Converted peacetime industries to meet war needs
  • Established rationing
  • Scrap drives

10-2-2 #2

Explain one of the following:

  • Why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
  • The Bataan Death March

10-2-2 #3

“Last evening, I received my first and possibly last mail from home. It appeared that they haven’t received my letters yet and are somewhat doubtful as to whether I’m still alive or not. They learned that I was on New Georgia [Island]. They will really worry if the news of the enemy landing on New Georgia is announced in the newspapers. Father repeated in his letter that I must fight to the last as an honorable warrior. I will fight to the last, always for the emperor. I will show them that we will fight to the last.”

-Diary of Japanese soldier Toshihiro Oura

  • What does this diary entry tell you about Japanese soldiers?

  • Labor shortage
  • Women
  • Worked in manufacturing plants
  • Represented by “Rosie the Riveter”
  • Allowed to join the military for the first time
  • Non-combat volunteers
  • Minorities given more opportunities
  • African Americans moved to the North and the West for jobs
  • Bracero Program
  • Temporary workers from Mexico
  • War bonds
  • How the U.S. government paid for the war
  • Purchased by citizens
  • Earned interest over time
  • African Americans
  • Double V Campaign
  • Victory over fascism and victory over discrimination
  • 92nd Infantry (Buffalo Soldiers)
  • Tuskegee Airmen
  • Japanese Americans
  • Executive Order 9066
  • Issued by President Roosevelt in 1942
  • Forced Japanese Americans on the West Coast to relocate to internment camps during the war
  • 2 of the 10 camps were in Arizona
  • 62% were U.S. citizens
  • Korematsu v. United States (1944)
  • Supreme Court ruled against Korematsu

10-2-2 #4

Describe how one of the following benefited both individuals and the nation:

  • Scrap drives
  • Rosie the Riveter
  • Bracero Program
  • War Bonds

10-2-2 #5

“Negroes are doing their bit here, their supreme bit—not for glory, not for honor, but for I think the generation that will come. If the blood that flows here on Italy’s mountain will wash from some folks’ minds the stigma that has been bred there for years, then, I think that the men who have gone so bravely here will not have given their lives in vain. I think I shall see it thru, but I’m proud to be one of these few men who are fighters. The American papers call us ‘Tan Yanks’ and other fancy names, but we find right here the best of all—the Italians call us ‘Americans’—just plain ‘Americans.’ That’s all we want to be—and one day, I hope we will, be just plain Americans.”

-Letter from Joe Willie Johnson of 92nd Infantry to his father-in-law

  • Why do you think it is important to Johnson that the Italians call the men of the 92nd Infantry “just plain ‘Americans’”?

  • Japanese Americans fought in the war
  • Segregated units
  • European Theater only
  • Propaganda
  • Organized spreading of ideas to influence public opinion
  • Used by both sides
  • Purposes:
  • Boost patriotism
  • Demonize the enemy

10-2-2 #6

  • Describe how you would have felt if you had been a Japanese American during World War II.