AP UNITED STATES HISTORY

AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II FOCUS QUESTIONS 1. Grand Strategy In the so-called ______________ agreement with Britain, America had agreed to a grand strategy of “getting Germany first.” The authors are effusive in their praise for the wisdom of this strategy, even though it incurred “much ignorant criticism.” Ifr you had been an “ignorant” proponent of a “get Japan first” strategy, what might have been your argument? 2. Japanese Internment a. In a section called “The Shock of War,” the authors cite the relative lack of ethnic “witch hunting” in this war. They then devote one paragraph only to the one “painful exception,” the internment of _______________ (a number) Japanese and Japanese-Americans in various isolated camps for the duration of the war. What is your reaction to such a drastic deprivation of civil rights to one ethnic group in time of war? b. Look over the box section on “The Japanese.” Note not only the aspects of racial prejudice against the Japanese, but also that much Japanese emigration at the turn of the century was actively promoted by the Meiji government which “saw overseas Japanese as representatives of their homeland.” If you had been an average American of general goodwill on the West Coast in January of 1942, how might you have justified to yourself the sight of Japanese being rounded up and sent to internment camps? 3. The War Economy a. With unprecedented national unity about the need to fight this war to the hilt, there was little objection to the heavy hand of government agencies rapidly redirecting the economy away from consumer goods and toward production of war material. The War ___________ Board orchestrated this transformation; rationing of nonessential items controlled consumption; and both prices and wages were controlled by the government agencies. Some ______ million men (and a significant number of women) were enlisted into the armed forces, while some ______ million women )dubbed “__________ the Riveters”) replaced men on the factory floor. How doe the authors summarize the short and long term impact of the war on the role and status of women? b. Today, the population of the northern cities are heavily African American despite the original concentration of blacks in the rural South. How did World War II and agricultural mechanization after the War contribute to this shift? 4. Financing the War The authors stress again that it was the war, not the New Deal, that blasted the country out of the Depression. Production and profits doubled during the war and pent-up demand for consumer goods caused by rationing and other wartime restrictions exploded after the war. The war, they say, even more than the New Deal, launched the era of big government we are familiar with today. The chart on page 831 is interesting because it shows the magnitude of the national debt incurred to pay for the war as opposed to the debt people had previously worried about to pay for New Deal programs. This debt amounted to some $______ billion in 1946, which was more than _____ times the level ten years previously in 1936. Total World War II spending amounted to some $______ billion (which the authors say was _____ times as much as all previous federal spending in the history of the republic). Even though taxes were raised significantly, a full _____ percent of the war costs was paid with borrowed money. Who do you think lent all this money to the government? 5. Pacific Theater of War This short section really can’t do justice to the ferocity of the fighting in the Pacific. After Pearl Harbor and simultaneous Japanese attacks on out South Asia locations, the Japanese tide advanced rapidly, eventually forcing American commander General Douglas _____________ to evacuate the __________ (a country) in April of 1942. Japanese advances were finally stopped with two huge naval engagements, the Battle of the ________ Sea and the Battle for ______________ Island, not too far from Hawaii. Look at the Pacific map on page 834 and review the strategic options open to American war planners. The grand strategy chosen was that of “island _______” from the South Pacific island to the next, getting closer and closer to the Japanese home islands. The first victory in this strategy occurred at ___________ ___________ in the Solomon Islands, which the Japanese evacuated in February 1943. From there, the names and arrows on the map show how U.S. forces used each new island won (after often horrendous fighting) as a base to launch air attacks further north. Finally, the capture of _______________ and ______________ islands in the Marianas and the recapture of the Philippines, it was possible to start long-range bombing of the Japanese mainland. This strategy, though ultimately successful, was extremely bloody and involved ferocious fighting over desolate islands that could be used only as air bases. Assume you had been a war planner at the time. Pick one of the alternative strategies listed in the caption on page 834 (or invent one of your own) and make an argument for that alternative strategy. 6. European Theater of War a. The authors begin by discussing the difficulty of keeping supply lines open to Britain against German U-boats, a campaign aided by he British breaking of the German “______________” codes. They also discuss the success of German Marshal Erwin ____________ in nearly capturing the Suez Canal and the massive German attack on the Soviets, which was finally stopped at ______________ in the fall of 1942. Remember the temptation of some Western leaders to see the almost equally disliked Russian Communists and German Nazis kill each other off on the Eastern Front? Soviet leader Joseph __________ was fully aware of this temptation and constantly pressured his allies, Britain and the United States, to open a “____________ front” by invading France to help divert German forces from their invasion of Russia. Indeed, the biggest loss of life by far in the war occurred in _______________ (about 20 million people!!). Britain and the United States finally opened their second front not in France, as desired by the Soviets, but in __________ Africa in November of 1942 - a campaign headed by U.S. General Dwight D. __________. Six months later, this campaign was complete. Roosevelt and _______________ then met at ________. In re-occupied French Morocco and they agreed on the war goals of “________________ surrender.” What are your thoughts on ONE of the two key strategic questions raised here? First, should the Allies have opened a second front by directly attacking through France in 1942 of 1943, as desired by the Russians? Second, were Allied options unnecessarily limited by the call for “unconditional surrender” made at Casablanca? b. At Casablanca, Roosevelt and Churchill determined to pursue the enemy up the Italian peninsula rather than to immediately launch the invasion of France, desired by Russia. The “soft underbelly” proved to be not so soft and the Italian campaign was slow, tough, and bloody. But the Italian capital city of _______ was finally taken on June 4, 1944, just two days before the invasion of France. To plan for the French invasion and Soviet advances from the east, the “Big Three” of Churchill, Roosevelt, and __________ met together for the first time in the Iranian capital of _____________ in November 1943. After a huge military buildup in Britain, the invasion was finally launched on June 6, 1944 (called “___-Day”), on the French coast at _________________. This invasion was led by American General ______________. After heavy losses, the French capital of ____________ was finally liberated three months later, and Allied forces moved north toward Germany while Russian troops were advancing from the east. 7. Roosevelt’s and Hitler’s Demise Despite failing health, Roosevelt won a fourth term in November 1944 against the youthful Republican governor of _______ _________, Thomas E. _______. Roosevelt’s compromise and little-considered vice-presidential running mate was little known Senator Harry S _________ of ____________. In late 1944, Hitler determined to make one final effort to reverse German fortunes by launching an offensive aimed at capturing the Belgian port of ______________ that came to be known as the Battle of the _________. American defense of the “bastion of ____________” was key in defeating this thrust. British, American and Russian forces finally met outside the German capital of ________ in April 1945, liberating the horrendous Jewish concentration camps along the way. In timing reminiscent of Lincoln’s death at the end of the Civil War, Roosevelt died in early April 1945 and Hitler committed suicide later that month. The Germans finally surrendered on May 7, 1945 (called “_____-Day”) 8. The Atomic Bomb and the Defeat of Japan The war in the Pacific continued for four months longer, and was projected to last into 1946 if a full invasion of the Japanese main islands had been necessary. The authors first recount the massive U.S. firebombing of the Japanese capital city of ___________ in March 1945, which killed ______ people, perhaps to give you a reference point for the death and destruction caused later by the atomic bombs. U.S. General Douglas ____________ re-entered the _____________ (country) in October 1944 and the U.S. Navy ended Japan’s capabilities at sea in the giant clash at ____________ Gulf off the Philippine coast. Two key Japanese-held island, Iwo ______ and _____________ were taken by mid-1945, at a large cost in casualties, in preparation for what was expected to be a final assault on the Japanese mainland. The authors then discuss the amazingly complex and secretive American development of an atomic bomb, ostensibly in Mexico, in June 1945, the same month that President _______________ met Stalin at __________________, Germany, where they issued a demand to the Japanese for _________________ surrender. Despite overtures through the Russians that the Japanese might be willing to accept a conditional surrender (the main condition being that they be allowed to retain their emperor as head of state), the atomic bomb was first used against the city of _______________ on August 6, 1945, and then against the city of ______________ three days later, resulting in a total of over _________________ casualties. ______________ entered the war on August 8 and , on August 10, Japan finally surrendered (called “_____-Day”). Look over the last three paragraphs of the “Varying Viewpoints” section on page 848 and write a short paragraph about your reaction to the use of the atomic bomb to end World War II. 9. Overview The concluding section places the ___________ U.S. casualties in the perspective of the larger losses of other countries and points out that the United States was the only combatant to emerge from the war with its domestic economy not only intact but actually strengthened. The authors give good marks to U.S. political and military leaders for their conduct of the war but reserve special praise for what they consider to have been the decisive factor - the “American way of war....more men, more weapons, more machines, more technology, and more money than any enemy could hope to match.” Can you think of a post-World War II conflict, against a much lesser opponent, in which all of these monetary and industrial advantages failed to achieve an American victory?