American Pageant Chapter 34 APUSH Review

[TYPING] [MUSIC] Good morning,

good afternoon, whatever

time of the day it is.

Thank you for checking

out the video today.

We're breaking down World War II.

If you're studying this topic for APUSH or

regular U.S. History,

this video is gonna help you out.

Now remember, on December 7th, 1941,

all of that isolationist sentiment goes

out the window with the

attack on Pearl Harbor.

It effectively ends

the isolationist movement.

December 8th, Congress declares war.

Three days later, Germany and Italy

declare war against the United States.

And what you see is the U.S. had already

begun mobilizing for war

even before this attack on December 7th.

For example, we had the Selective Service

Act, or the first peacetime draft.

We had Lend-Lease supplies

being produced for the Allies.

And as a result of this, many US factories

had already shifted to war production.

Once we enter the war,

we are now a member of the Allies,

the Big Three, England, the Soviet Union,

and the United States, but don't forget,

there are many other countries

fighting along for the Allied cause.

It's important to note that the role of

the federal government is going to expand.

In fact, it expanded greater than it

had during the New Deal or World War I.

This is a mass mobilization

to fight this war.

World War II brought about a huge

mobilization on the home front.

This is a mass mobilization, and really,

it's gonna be industrial production

of the United States that is going

to be a key factor for the Allied victory.

And of course, as a result of this mass

mobilization, the smiley face comes out,

the Great Depression ends.

And you could see the unemployment rate

drop even before Pearl Harbor, but it

only continues to drop throughout the war.

Now, what do we mean mass mobilization?

Well, the federal government

is gonna play a key role.

For example, you have, just like

during World War I, different agencies.

The War Productions Board allocated

resources for the war effort,

making sure that we go from consumer

production to war production.

The Office of Price Administration froze

prices and wages and rationed certain

goods, such as meat, gas, sugar, and so on,

so that there would be enough

material for the war effort.

Citizens received ration books for things

like gasoline and needed stamps in order

to purchase certain scarce items.

A black market did develop for certain

goods, but the OPA tried to do its best.

We've already said this,

but it's important to repeat.

America's industrial output was a huge

factor in the eventual Allied victory.

U.S. Factories are supplying these

weapons for most of the Allies.

Another government agency that's important

to know about is the Office

of Research and Development.

And what this federal agency did is it

contracted with scientists

and universities to help develop

technology for the war effort.

So, developments in sonar, radar, rockets,

and other things, technological advances

are gonna be hugely important,

once again, to the Allied victory.

And of course, the big one is the

Manhattan Project, which begins in 1942.

You can see its locations on that map

they're all across the United States.

This was a joint secret program

between the United States and England.

They kept the Soviets out of it,

even though they knew because

of spying, and it's headed by J.

Robert Oppenheimer.

And at the height

of the Manhattan Project,

the secret program a hundred thousand people worked

for it, and they're going

to spend $2 billion.

And in July of 1945, the first atomic bomb

will be successfully detonated

in the desert of New Mexico.

Another key thing to know about when we

study World War II is

the social impacts of the war.

The war is gonna present numerous

opportunities for women and various

minority groups living

in the United States.

They are gonna be able to improve their

socioeconomic position

as a result of World War II.

Couple of examples for African-Americans,

you're gonna have

a Second Great Migration,

where over a million African-Americans are

gonna leave the South searching

for jobs in war industries.

And we're really gonna see this growth or

this movement of people to northern

cities, but also on the West Coast

in places like California.

Unfortunately, discrimination was

extremely common in defense work.

Very often, African-Americans

had a limit to the number and the size

of the opportunities that were

presented, even by World War II.

In fact, race riots, once again,

just as we saw during World War I,

are gonna break out in 1943.

You have race riots breaking out

in cities like Detroit and New York.

So, racial tension accompanies

these opportunities as well.

A. Philip Randolph is an important

individual you should know.

He actually threatened

the administration of Franklin Roosevelt

to march on Washington,

DC if discrimination in defense work was

not addressed by the

Roosevelt administration.

An important milestone is reached when

Executive Order 8802 is finally issued

by Franklin Roosevelt to avoid this march,

and this is the first federal action

to promote equal opportunity

and to prohibit employment discrimination

in the US ever by the federal government.

Nearly a million African-Americans are

gonna serve in this war against

the fascists and the Nazi parties,

but even though we're fighting for these

ideals like democracy,

it's important to keep in mind,

African-Americans are

serving in segregated units.

But you do have some progress.

You have people like the Tuskegee Airmen,

the first African-American

pilots in the US Army.

With these opportunities comes new

demands from the Civil Rights Movement.

In fact, the Double Victory Campaign was

pursued during the war,

and what it was is calling for not only

a victory against fascism abroad,

but civil rights leaders were calling

for a victory against racism at home.

And what you see during World War II is

the membership in the NAACP dramatically

increases as more and more people are

putting demands on greater justice

in America, and you get new organizations

such as CORE,

the Congress of Racial Equality,

which was formed in 1942

to fight against discrimination.

So, make sure you know that World War II

has consequences on the home front

for various social groups.

Two other groups that you should know

about is the impact of the war

on Mexican Americans and Native Americans.

Don't forget, during the Great Depression,

there was this repatriation where

Mexican Americans and

people of Mexican descent were

forced out of the United States.

But during the war,

there was a demand for workers

in the defense industry and this provided

opportunities to thousands

of Mexican Americans getting

job in these defense plants.

Not only that, a program is introduced

in 1942 called the Bracero Program,

and this allowed Mexican farm workers

to come into the United States to work

without going through the formal

immigration proceedings.

So, during World War II,

you have the federal government

asking for and allowing Mexican immigrants

to come into the United States

to help out with the labor shortage.

Of course, as in all of these scenarios,

usually racial tensions increase during

these times as well, and racial tensions

between white soldiers,

especially naval officials,

and Mexican residents in Los Angeles lead

to the horrible Zoot Suit Riots in 1943,

where hundreds of Mexican American youth

wearing the Zoot Suit are beat up

and arrested by military

officials and the LAPD.

Native Americans have different responses

and opportunities to World War II as well.

They received opportunities just as many

other groups in defense

work and in the military.

In fact, the Navajo Code Talkers

are a key part of this story.

They are Navajo Native American men

who volunteer serving their country,

the United States,

and they use their native Navajo language

to communicate in the war against Japan,

and they used these Navajo words to help

out communication during the war against

Japan and play a very important role

in the fighting.

And one of the things that happens

with Native Americans is after the war is

over, a lot of the native people who left

the reservation to work in war industries

or to fight, about half will not

return to life on the reservation.

And finally,

you also have social and demographic

changes besides ethnic and racial,

and one important one to know about is

the role of women during World War II.

Over 200,000 women served in the military

in non-combat roles, but they're serving

nonetheless in the US Armed Forces.

They were not allowed to serve

in combat during the war.

And the big impact is this,

as the demand for industrial and defense

jobs increased, nearly five million women

entered the workforce during World War II.

Many of these women are working

in the shipyards and the defense plants.

They are women who, in many

cases, never worked before.

Many of them are married and their

husbands are off overseas

fighting, and they play a key role.

And the symbol of this

is Rosie the Riveter.

In spite of these opportunities,

women continued to receive lower the pay

than men and were expected

to leave once the war was over.

They were considered substitutes,

not replacements.

And another key thing regardless of race

or gender is you're gonna have huge

demographic changes occur as many people

head to the Midwest and also

the West Coast looking for defense jobs.

It's not just African American individuals

moving, but large migrations of people.

In fact, following World War II,

you're gonna have a post-war

migration to the Sun Belt.

Southern states are gonna see huge numbers

of people going to them and also

the West Coast to places like California.

The warm weather, the lower labor cost,

and the presence of defense factories are

gonna have this huge

population pull to these regions.

Now it's going to be the Japanese American

community in which World War II is gonna

have the biggest impact, and you're gonna

see the complete denial

of civil liberties.

Now don't forget, there was already a lot

of anti-Asian sentiment

in the United States,

nativism towards groups,

whether they be Japanese or Chinese.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor only

accelerates and increases that.

In fact, following the bombing on December

7th, Executive Order 9006 is passed

by the U.S. Government which requires

that all people of Japanese descent

on the West Coast be

relocated to internment camps.

It did not matter that many of these

individuals were Nisei,

second-generation Japanese Americans.

They are American citizens.

They own businesses.

They went to U.S. Public schools.

It was completely disregarded because

there was this feeling that perhaps these

individuals were going to be potential

spies for the government of Japan.

Now, keep in mind there is no evidence

of any wrongdoing of any of these

individuals, and over 100,000

Japanese Americans and people of Japanese

descent were relocated to one of 10

internment camps throughout the country.

Interesting to note is the large Japanese

population in Hawaii, where Pearl Harbor

actually was and where

the attack took place,

they were not evacuated because it would

have devastated the economy of Hawaii.

Japanese laborers were the key

group in that region.

There is an important lawsuit that you

need to know, Korematsu

versus the United States.

It goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

There is Fred Korematsu right there

and the Supreme Court upheld

the relocation as necessary

for national security.

And by now you should realize that during

times of national security threats or

perceived threats, especially wars,

individual civil liberties

go down and are, oftentimes, violated.

And another thing to keep in mind is

thousands of Japanese Americans,

many with their families in one of these

camps,

fought bravely for the United States.

And there's a great quote

by Harry Truman recognizing that bravery,

"You fought not only the enemy,

you fought prejudice at home and won."

Now, you don't need to know a whole lot

about the fighting of World War II, even

though it's really exciting stuff,

but a couple of key things here

to get you ready for your exam.

The Allies are going to focus first

on the European Theater of the war.

In fact, that was the focus following

Pearl Harbor even though it was Japan

who attacked us and a couple of key

moments that you should know about,

the Soviets finally stopped the German

advance at Stalingrad and start pushing

the Nazi army out of the Soviet Union.

The Allies, England and the U.S., especially,

focus first on North Africa and into Italy

as their strategy, and eventually you're

gonna have the second front which is gonna

take place on June 6th, 1944,

the famous D-Day invasion.

Now, if it was industrial production

of the United States that's going to play

a key role in the Allied victory,

it's also going to be

Allied military and political cooperation

that's gonna be another key factor.

In fact, during the war, the Big Three,

Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin,

are gonna meet numerous times to discuss

military strategy and also

to plan for the post-war world.

Couple of these conferences you should

know about, the first one is in January

of 1943, and this is the first time

that Roosevelt and Churchill

meet once we are in the war.

Remember, they had previously met

at the Atlantic Conference,

now they're meeting during the war,

and they decide on a couple of things.

Stalin's not there.

One, the war is gonna be

only finished with unconditional surrender

of the Axis powers,

and they choose that they're going

to invade Sicily and Italy first,

which makes Stalin not too happy because

he wanted relief for the Soviet,

the Red Army, from the German invasion.

Another conference to keep

in mind is the Tehran Conference.

This is the first time the Big Three meet.

There you see all three of them

there in November of 1943.

They decide a couple of things.

One, they start planning the opening

of the second front that Stalin really

wanted to relieve the Soviet Army once

again, and that's gonna be

eventually the D-Day invasion.

And they also talk about the fate

of Eastern Europe, and this is gonna

be a key thing in the post-war world.

Stalin wants to control Eastern Europe.

He wants to divide up Germany.

Churchill and Roosevelt

want a free Eastern Europe.

Conflict developing.

But they try to avoid it so they

could focus on winning the war.

And the big one happens in 1945,

the Yalta Conference.

Germany, it is decided,

will be divided into four zones, and both

Churchill and Roosevelt feel they got

Stalin to agree that there are going

to be free elections in Eastern Europe.

The third important thing to keep in mind,

and this one's key, is the Soviets promise

they will help out the U.S. against Japan

three months after

the war in Europe is over.

And then finally,

they also agree to create a new

international organization,

the United Nations.

Eventually, both Mussolini and Hitler are

defeated and the United States

then is able to turn its attention

on the war against Japan.

Important to keep in mind,

it was largely the U.S. military

responsible for the fight against Japan

during the early periods of the war.

And if you look at this map,

following Pearl Harbor,

Japan was really kicking some butt.

They occupied all

the territory in the orange.

They invaded the Philippines,

Indonesia, and much of Asia.

The strategy of the United States in this

early period is called island hopping.

Basically, the goal is really simple,

you strategically win control over

territory to get closer to mainland Japan.

And the idea is you skip certain islands

that Japan occupied and, eventually,

the U.S. military would get close enough

where they could start

aerial bombing of Japan.

In July of 1945, at the Potsdam

Conference, you have another meeting.

By this point, the war in Europe is over,

Roosevelt has unfortunately passed away.

And Truman, the new president,

is meeting with Joseph Stalin, and they

agree on one very important thing

that you need to know about.

They said, "Japan, you need to surrender

unconditionally or you will be destroyed."

While at the Potsdam Conference,

Truman is informed

that the Manhattan Project had

successfully detonated the first atomic

bomb, and on August 6th, 1945,

the first atomic bomb dropped

on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

As planned and as promised

at the Yalta Conference, on August 8th,

the Soviet Union enters the war against

Japan, three months after Germany had

surrendered, and the next day,

on August 9th, the second atomic

bomb is dropped on Japan at Nagasaki.

Shortly thereafter, Japan does

surrender, and World War II ends.

The dropping of these two atomic bombs is

not without controversy, and it's important

you understand the different arguments for and against

the dropping of the bombs.

But key idea here, following World War II,

the U.S. will be the dominant political

and military country in the world.

Although we were isolationists when

World War II began,

at the end of World War II,

the United States is gonna play a key

role in the international community.

That's gonna do it for today.

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There I am in Nagasaki taking a look

at a full-size model of the atomic bomb

that was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

And as you can see,

next to my six-foot-five self,

it is quite a large bomb.

Until next time, thank you for watching.

Have a beautiful day.

Peace.