Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

US History > **WWII** > Flashcards

**WWII** Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
AP® U.S. History flashcards U.S. Geography flashcards European History 101 flashcards AP® European History flashcards AP® World History flashcards World History 102 flashcards U.S. History 102 flashcards World History 101 flashcards U.S. History 101 flashcards
1
Q

Axis Powers

A
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Japan
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Allied Powers

A
  • Britain
  • France
  • United States
  • Soviet Union
  • China
  • Russia
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Appeasement

A
  • Giving in to various demands, threats, or violations of laws in order to avoid a greater conflict
  • An attempt to do whatever was necessary to pacify Hitler
  • Churchill saw it as an abandonment of moral principles that would lead to a war and national disaster
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Adolf Hitler

A
  • Dreamed of uniting all German-speaking people in a great German empire
  • Wanted to enforce racial “purification” at home
  • Nazism – national expansion
  • Great Depression – people became desperate, turned to Hitler for hope
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Benito Mussolini

A
  • Rises to power in 1922 and attempts to restore Italy to its former position as a world power
  • Fascist party (leader wields absolute power)
    • Fascism = to value the nation or the race above the individual
  • Il Duce (the leader)
  • Goal was to promote Italian power by suspending elections, centralizing the economy under state control, and modernizing the armed forces
  • Tried to create modern-day Roman Empire
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Hideki Tojo

A
  • Prime Minister of Japan
  • Chief of staff of Japan’s Kwantung Army
  • Planned Pearl Harbor attack
  • Launched the invasion into China
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Winston Churchill

A
  • Great Britain / England’s prime minister during most of WW2
  • Did not agree with the policy of appeasement
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Emperor Hirohito

A
  • Forced to give up status at end of WW2
  • Figurehead, not much power
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Joseph Stalin

A
  • Leader of Soviet Union
  • Replaced private farms with collectives
  • Created second largest industrial power, famines killed millions
  • Purged anyone who threatened his power, many killed
  • Totalitarian government
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Harry S. Truman

A

-Vice president who became president when FDR died -Gave the order to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Manhatten Project

A
  • Led by General Leslie Groves with research directed by American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the development of the atomic bomb
  • Enrico Fermi
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

D-Day (why important/historic?)

A
  • Under Eisenhower’s direction in England, the Allies gathered a force of nearly 3 million British, American, and Canadian troops, together
  • Planned to attack Normandy in northern France
  • Operation Overlord
  • June 6, 1944
  • Ultimately an Allied victory and marked the start of Operation Overlord, which drove the Nazis from northwest Europe in June 1944
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Pearl Harbor

A
  • “A date which will live in infamy” – FDR
  • U.S. declares war on Japan
  • Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

December 7, 1941

A
  • Pearl Harbor
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Island Hopping

A
  • Military strategy of capturing various small islands in the Pacific, moving closer to Japan’s main island
  • By capturing a few crucial islands, you cut off the bypassed islands from supplies and reinforcements and make those islands useless to Japanese
  • Allowed US to move more quickly towards Japan
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Kamikaze

A
  • Suicide-plane, attack in which Japanese pilots crashed their bomb-laden planes into Allied ships
  • Battle of Leyte Gulf was a disaster for Japan
  • “Win at all costs” feared by Americans
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

War Bonds

A
  • Loans to government to raise money for the war effort and to fight inflation
  • Instantly gives government money, the rest came over time
18
Q

August 6, 1945

A
  • Hiroshima
19
Q

August 9, 1945

A
  • Nagasaki
20
Q

Executive Order 9066

(Why not for Germans or Italians? Did government support?)

A
  • Forced Japanese to leave within a certain time frame
    • No compensation for property lost or left behind
    • No time to sell homes/businesses
    • Often not told where they were being sent
    • Uprooted from their communities
  • Curfew for all [Japanese, Italian, German-Americans] ← secure national defense and security
  • Freeze of movement only for Japanese Americans
  • Internment
  • EO is like a law
    • It is written by the president
    • Not approved by Congress
    • It is temporary
  • Government passed – Japanese Americans while fighting war with Japan, don’t want to protect rights
21
Q

Rationing

A
  • Only buying a limited amount of everyday items so the rest could be used to help the soldiers
  • Personal contribution to the war effort
22
Q

Rosie the Riveter

A
  • Encouraged US women to work in factories to support the war effort
  • Women replace men as welders, taxi drivers, factory workers, etc
  • Women also seen on the front lines as pilots, GIs, nurses, etc.
  • Most war workers well-paid
  • Problems: long hours, tough to work, care for homes and take care of children
23
Q

Double v campaign

A
  • Sought victory abroad and victory in the struggle for equality at home
  • Campaign slogan for African Americans in the US
  • Would show white America that AA were equal in skill and patriotism
  • Victory in war, racial discrimination ends
24
Q

Hiroshima

A

August 6, 1945

25
Q

Nagasaki date

A

August 9, 1945

26
Q

Korematsu v. US

A
  • The majority of the Justices found that the Order did not show racial prejudice but rather was a logical response to the attack on Pearl Harbor and an attempt to keep the West Coast safe from invasion
    *
27
Q

V-E Day

A

-Victory in Europe Day

28
Q

V-J Day

A
  • In face of these atomic disasters and the Soviet declaration of war, Japan on August 14, 1945
  • September, 2 1945— Japan officially surrendered to General MacArthur on the USS Missouri
29
Q

What was the policy of appeasement and why did it fail?

A
  • Led to WW2
  • We kept giving in, allowed Hitler and Mussolini to get stronger
30
Q

Why did the US not want to get into WWII and what were examples of how it remained neutral?

A
  • We were dealing with the Depression and wanted to focus on fixing our economy
  • We did not want to involve ourselves, and our soldiers lives, in the problems of other countries
  • We had many English, French, German, and Italian citizens and didn’t want to pick a side
  • 1935 congress passed Neutrality Acts
    • Outlawed arms sales or loans to nations at war
    • Extended the ban on arms sales and loans to nations engaged in civil wars
31
Q

What was the Allied plan to defeat the Germans in WWII?

A
  • Split Germany into 4 zones, each under the control of one of the major Allies. Plan similar division of Berlin (would lie deep in Soviet zone)
  • Stalin promise to allow elections in nations of Eastern Europe that his army had liberated from Germans
  • Stalin also promised to enter the war against Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender
32
Q

What policy did the US military adopt in order to defeat Japan in WWII?

A
  • Island hopping
  • Didn’t attack last island, would have ended in many dead
33
Q

What were two reasons for using atomic bombs against Japan?

What are two arguments why this was the wrong decision?

A
  • For:
    • Only way to avoid invasion of japan
    • Japan was not going to surrender otherwise
  • Against:
    • ​Japan was already defeated
    • Immoral / war crime
34
Q

How did women play a major role in helping the US win the war?

A
  • Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)
  • Women volunteers served in noncombat positions (nurse, ambulance driver, radio operator, electrician, pilot, etc.)
35
Q

How did we pay for WWII?

A
  • War bonds
  • Raise taxes (sort of)
  • Deficit spending
36
Q

What was Japanese internment? Was this legal in the eyes of the Supreme Court? Why or why not?

A
  • Pearl Harbor attack had stunned the nation
  • Frightened people believed false rumors that Japanese Americans were committing sabotage
  • Confinement of Japanese Americans
  • Prison camps
    *
37
Q

How did fighting the war affect our economy and our country’s world status? Provide some evidence for both questions.

A

Economy:

  • American factories were retooled to produce goods to support the war effort and almost overnight the unemployment rate dropped to around 10%, paychecks rose

World Status:

  • World’s dominant economic and military power
38
Q

How did the US government use propaganda to help “sell the war”?

A

-

39
Q

What agreement was made between Hitler and Stalin? Why did it benefit Hitler so much?

A
  • Nonagression pact
  • Committed to never attack each other
  • Second, secret pact: divide Poland between them
  • Hitler violated pact
40
Q

During WWI Japan was out ally. What happened to our relationship with Japan and why? How and when did Japan drag us into the war?

A
  • Japan got nothing in Treaty of Versailles
  • Japan was committing atrocities against China
  • Japan needed oil, and the United States had placed an embargo on it to protest Japanese aggression in Indochina (didn’t want to start a war)
  • US breaks Japanese codes, learns Japan planning to attack US
  • Peace talks with Japan for 1 month
  • Japanese instructed to reject all US proposals
  • Pearl Harbor
41
Q

How were the Allied offensive victories in Russia, North Africa, Italy and Normady important to winning the war (even though they didn’t happen at the same time)?

A
  • Before D-Day
  • Russians finally win, pushes Germany back
  • Allies lay out 3 year long plan to defeat Germany
    • Come down into North Africa, drive Italian soldiers out
    • Win in Itality
    • Push to Germany
    • To Russia
  • D-Day (in France)
  • Found a way to surround Germany
42
Q

How did the war affect life for women?

A
  • More women went to college
  • More women worked
  • Women’s baseball

US History (12 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions