Ethnic Minorities and WW2

Question 1

Role of US in WW2

Answer 1

Provided more ships, planes, tanks and guns than any other Allied country, and US armed forces were central to victory.

Question 2

How many Black Americans were serving in US military and as officers when US entered WW2 December 1941?

Answer 2

• less than 4000 in the military

- 12 were officers

Question 3

How many BA served in the forces by the end of WW2?

Answer 3

• 1.2 million served on the Home Front, in Europe and Pacific (including BA women in auxiliary armed forces)
• but few of these in combat roles

Question 4

Issues BA faced in armed forces

Answer 4

• Armed forces segregated until 1948- after the war ended
• Faced racial discrimination as all-white draft boards selected who would serve in what branches and if they qualified for the military= majority BA served in non-combat roles, racist beliefs they would perform poorly in combat

Question 5

Tuskegee Airmen Achievements

Answer 5

• All-black combat unit in the Air Force (992 pilots)
• Performed bomber escort duties, flying over 15,000 sorties
• In 2 years: never lost a single bomber they were escorting to enemy fighters

Question 6

Tuskegee Airmen Opposition

Answer 6

• Faced lots of criticism from white Southern Congressmen, disliked BA gaining combat experience
• Disliked that many Tuskegee pilots were becoming officers
• However Eleanor Roosevelt championed their cause

Question 7

Proportion of Native Americans who volunteered to fight in WW2 by 1942?

Answer 7

42% of NA volunteered by 1942, more per capita join the US Army than any other minority.

Question 8

Navajo Code Talkers

Answer 8

Navajos were employed as communications soldiers, their language was so complex that the Japanese could not crack communications made= saved thousands of lives

Question 9

How many Navajo Code Talkers by end of WW2?

Answer 9

By 1945: 420 Navajo men were code-talkers out of a population of 50,000 Navajos and over 330,000 NA= very small minority

Question 10

Success of Navajo Code Talkers at Battle of Iwo Jima

Answer 10

6 Navajo Code Talkers successfully transmitted over 800 messages without error = essential for Iwo Jima victory

Question 11

What happened to Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbour Attack in December 1941? What Executive order was this?

Answer 11

• They were suspected of disloyalty to the US, forced to leave their homes, relocated to internment camps in desert areas in West, faced loss of their civil liberties. Assets of all citizens born in Japan were frozen.
• Executive Order 9066

Question 12

How many JA put into internment camps? How many of these were US citizens?

Answer 12

• 120,000

- 2/3 were US citizens

Question 13

Opposition to the Internment camps

Answer 13

Several lawsuits challenged US gov’s use of internment camps but the Supreme Court upheld their to intern the entire Japanese-American population

Question 14

What were conditions in the camps like?

Answer 14

• Overcrowded, unsanitary, many fell ill but were unable to receive medical care
• Under constant surveillance: barbed wire, guard towers= treated like criminals

Question 15

How many JA served for the US in the war? Why were they important?

Answer 15

• 33,000
• Many became highly decorated & were valued, essential as they could translate messages, question Japanese soldiers, create Japanese propaganda

Question 16

Public opinion of internment camps?

Answer 16

Only 35% of Americans thought JA should be allowed to return. US propaganda fuelled racist anti-Japanese sentiment

Question 17

When and why were camps removed?

Answer 17

1944- finally deemed unconstitutional, allowed to return home

Question 18

Issues JA faced when they returned home?

Answer 18

• Homes were looted, lost their property and possessions
• Discrimination in employment
• Many homeless and unemployed
• No gov assistance until Evacuation Claims Act in 1948: allowed them to submit claims for property lost as a result of relocation

Question 19

Where did 1943 Race Riots occur?

Answer 19

• Most serious riots in Detroit (Black Americans) and LA (Hispanic Americans)

Question 20

Why were tensions high in Detroit?

Answer 20

• 20,000 white workers in the defence industry walked out when some BA workers got a promotion in 1943

Question 21

Events of Detroit Riot?

Answer 21

• white sailors joined in a fight between white and black teenagers
• escalated to over 5,000 whites due to rumour that a black man raped a woman
• 6000 troops sent in to occupy Detroit and restore order, took 6 months to do this

Question 22

How many died in Detroit Riots?

Answer 22

• 25 black people (17 by police) and 9 whites

Question 23

What were the zoot suit riots?

Answer 23

• white sailors claimed to be attacked by a Mexican American wearing a zoot suit (EM seen as thugs)
• 50 sailors march through LA carrying clubs/ crude weapons, stripping and attacking anyone wearing zoot suits
• Police did not intervene, actually arrested the victims
• Media frames attacks as vigilante response to immigrant wave

Question 24

Double V Campaign 1942-43

Answer 24

• Pittsburgh Courier, biggest-selling BA Newspaper, over 200,000 sales nationwide
• Victory over Nazis/ Fascism overseas
• Victory over racism/ racial inequality at home
• Encouraged BA to join armed forces and support war effort
• Called for racial equality, an end to segregation
• Supported by Hollywood celebs e.g. Lana Turner

Question 25

How many black women join the workforce during the war?

Answer 25

600,000, called the “Black Rosies”

Question 26

Planned march on Washington and its effect

Answer 26

• Planned march on Washington to demand end to racial segregation, 5 million BA encouraged to participate
• FDR issues Executive Order 8802: outlaws racial discrimination in defence industries in return for cancellation of march

Question 27

Executive Order 8802

Answer 27

Fair Employment Practices Committee set up:

• better rights to BA workers
• desegregated defence industry
• more BA employed in defence (3% –>8%)
• FDR strengthens power of FEPC in 1943, increases budget by $500,000