APUSH Chapter 25 Flashcards
World War II 1941-1945
Neutrality Act (1935)
Prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, & implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war & requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license.
Lend-Lease Act (1941)
Allowed the President to sell, exchange, or lease arms to any country whose defense he judged vital to the U.S. security
- Great Britain was the first beneficiary of massive aid
Atlantic Charter
A lofty proclamation calling for all peoples to live in freedom from fear, want, & tyranny.
War Powers Act
Improve the nation’s efficiency in fighting World War II. It empowered President Franklin D. Roosevelt to reorganize the executive branch, federal agencies, and government corporations.
President could:
- Reorganize the federal government & create new agencies
- Sensor all news & information, & a bridge civil liberties
- Seize for own property
- Even award government contracts without competitive bidding
Supply priorities & Allocation Board (SPAB)
Oversaw the use of scarce materials & resources vital to the war
The Office of Price Administration (OPA)
Used price controls to check inflammation
The National War Labor Board (NWLB)
Peacefully settle labor disputes in order to prevent strikes or lock-outs in war industries.
The War Manpower Commission (WMC)
Directed the mobilization of military & civilian services
The Office of War Mobilization (OWM)
Coordinated operations among all these agencies.
Office of War Information (OWI)
Engaged the press, radio, & film industry in selling the war the American people, publish leaflets for armed services, & to flood enemy ranks with subversive propaganda
Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
To assess enemy military strength, gather intelligence, & conduct foreign espionage & engage leading social scientists to plot psychological warfare.
The Office of Scientific Research & Development (OSRD) (1942)
Brought together government, businesses, & scientific leaders to coordinate military research.
Developed better radar & early-warning sign systems, more effective medicines & pesticides, & improved weapons.
War Manpower Commission
Recruited labor for war & essential civilian industries, trained labor for jobs essential to the war effort, analyzed manpower utilization practices to increase labor efficiency, and accumulated national labor market information.
The US Office of Education and the Children’s Bureau
Sponsored back to school campaign and appeal to employers to hire only older workers to try to combat juvenile issues (?)
Executive Order 9066
Led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
War Relocation Authority
Japanese business owners we’re getting one week notice that had to pack up anything they could carry & were put in 10 internment camps managed
The Japanese American Citizens League
Made efforts to ensure some measure of protection and comfort for Japanese Americans resettling outside government concentration camps.
- Loans
- Esatblished offices in Chicago to assist families resettling in the Midwest
Despite protests & Supreme Court cases Korematsu v. US (1944) upheld the constitutionality of the relocation on grounds of natural security.
“Double V”
Sought to address the systemic racism and segregation faced by African Americans, while also supporting the war effort against Axis powers.
Executive Order 8802
Banning discrimination in defense industries & government.
After our later appointed a Fair Employment Practice Committee to hear complaints & redress grievances
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Interracial American organization established by James Farmer in 1942 to improve race relations and end discriminatory policies through direct-action projects.
Smith v. Albright (1944)
Overturning the legality of “white primaries” used in southern states to exclude black voters was a major victory in paving the way for future civil rights struggles.
Zoot Suit Riots
June 4th, 1943
A series of violent attacks against Mexican American youth in downtown Los Angeles. They were caused by heightened anti-Mexican sentiments. The young Mexican Americans were accused of committing gang-related crimes and unpatriotic behavior.
The War Production Board
Ensured that each factory received materials it needed to operate, in order to produce the most war goods in the shortest time.
Executive Order M-217
Restricted the colors of shoes manufactured during the war to “black, white, navy blue, & three shades of brown.”
To help ration for things needed in the military
The Office of War Information
Screened all popular music, movies, radio programs, & advertisements to ensure that everyone got the message: only the collective effort of all Americans could preserve democracy at home & save the world from fascism.
National Registration Day
October 16, 1940
All men between 21 & 36 had to register for military service
After US entry to the war the age was lowered to 18
- Local boards were instructed to choose the youngest first
Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
The women’s branch of the United States Army, created during World War II. One hundred and fifty thousand women served in the WAC during the war.
761st Tank Battalion
The first African American armored unit, so 183 days in action without relief
Nisei
Soldiers who knew Japanese served Stateside as interpreters & translators
The Nisei 442nd
Fought heroically Italy and France and became the most decorated regiment in the war
Army Medical Corps doctors
Medics were the huge “true” heroes of the battle field, helped save many, many lives.
Battle of Stalingrad (1942)
Soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the Germans arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November 1942.
Soviets won, German troops had to surrender.
Kursk (1943)
June 1943: German tank had the greatest tank battle in history and probably more than two million troops and 6,000 tanks
Operation Torch (1942)
To open a second front on the Axis powers, the Allies chose an invasion on French North Africa.
D-Day (1944)
The start of the Allied invasion on June 6, 1944
On Normandy beaches the Germans fought american, British Canadian, & free French troops
Battle lasted until mid July when the Army finally broke out of Normandy & drove into the French interior
Battle of the Bulge (1944-1945)
German forces launched a surprise attack on Allied forces in the forested Ardennes region in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
German troops were forced to surrender.
Naval battle: Coral Sea (May 7-8, 1942)
Carrier-based American aircraft blocked a Japanese thrust at Australia
Battle of Midway (1942)
Stopped the growth of Japan in the Pacific and put the United States in a position to begin shrinking the Japanese empire.
- US warplanes sunk 4 Japanese carrier & destroyed hundreds of planes, ending Japan’s offensive threat to Hawaii & the West Coast
Island-hop
From one strategic outpost to another, closing in on the home islands.
- American strategy against the Japanese plan
Battle of Leyte (1944)
- The largest naval battle in history
- The US gained control of the Pacific
- 27,000 death toll for Americans
Battle for Okinawa (1945)
A victory for the US but resulted in massive casualties on both sides.
The objective was to secure the island, thus removing the last barrier standing between U.S. forces and Imperial Japan.
- Happened on Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands.
Holocaust
Systematic, state-sponsored persecution & murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators.
American Jewish Community
Leaders petitioned the U.S. government since the mid-1930s to suspend immigration quotes that barred significant numbers of German Jews, from taking refugee in the US.
War Refugee board (1944)
Was an executive order.
Rescuing & providing relief for Jews & other groups facing Nazi persecution and murder in Europe.
August 6, 1945
B-29 bomber nicknamed Enola Gay: dropped the bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima
- Instantly some 40,000 died
- In the following weeks, 100,000 more perished from radiation poisoning or burns
August 9, 1945
Several days after a second nuclear bomb destroyed Nagasaki.
September 2, 1945
Japan officially signed its surrender.
Adolf Hitler
National Socialist (Nazi) Movement
January 1933: Hitler become chancellor
Benito Mussolini (1920s)
Italy, fascist tyrannical leader
Winston Churchill
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Harry S. Truman
33rd U.S. President
April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953
Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd U.S. President
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945
The Allied Powers
Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union
The Axis powers
Germany, Italy, Japan
Joseph Stalin
Former Prime Minister of the Soviet Union
“Night of Broken Glass”
On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi Party officials set off a series of violent pogroms against Jews in Germany and Austria.
Shattered glass from store windows
- Jews start to lose civil rights, also in Hitler’s allies Hungary & Italy
September 1, 1939
WW2 began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3.
December 7, 1941
Japan struck Pearl Harbor
- Destroyed many planes and damage the fleet, more than 2,400 Americans were killed and nearly 1,200 wounded
- Japan saw this as a major asset to the United States and attacking it would cripple their military. (And wanted to get South Asia oil?)
December 8, 1941
The day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered this “Day of Infamy Speech.”
Immediately afterward, Congress declared war, and the United States entered World War II.
December 11, 1941
3 days after declaring war on Japan, the House approved declarations of war on Germany and Italy
Earlier that day Germany and Italy had declared war on the United States.
