Origins of the Pacific War

Introduction

• The 1930s and 1940s had a global economic crisis that led to World War II
• World War II is the deadliest and most destructive war, killing approximately eighty million people
• World War II brought about industrialized genocide and the use of advanced technology in warfare
• At the end of the war, the United States was left as a superpower with a strong economy
• After the war, many new social questions and forces emerged, impacting generations of Americans

Origins of the Pacific War

• Before Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japan had already started its war a decade earlier
• On September 18, 1931, Japanese soldiers bombed the South Manchuria Railway, owned by the Japanese
• It was a ruse to justify a full-scale invasion of Manchuria to protect Japanese citizens and investments
• By February 1932, the Japanese military was in control of Manchuria and established Manchukuo
• The Chinese referred to this as the September 18 Incident, while the Japanese regarded it as the Manchurian Incident
• Sparked a 13-year war with over 35 million deaths
• After Manchuria, Japan delayed invading China for three years due to internal political factionalism and economic stagnation
• Faced with the choice between unilateral expansion or international cooperation, Japan ultimately chose military expansion
• Chinese leaders sought help from the League of Nations
• The United States supported China's protest through the Stimson Doctrine, refusing to acknowledge states formed by aggression since January 1932
• The League of Nations discovered Japan was at fault for the September 18 Incident
• Japan isolated itself and its military took over its policies
• Japan started a full-scale invasion of China by assaulting the Marco Polo Bridge in 1937
• The Chinese army surrendered Beiping (Beijing) on August 8, Shanghai on November 26, and Nanjing on December 13
• During Japan's siege and capture of Nanjing, 250,000-300,000 people were killed and thousands of women were raped
• The Western press recognized this as the Rape of Nanjing
• Chiang Kai-shek used a scorched-earth policy and moved the Nationalist government to Chongqing
• The scorched-earth policy negatively impacted Japanese military operations, but it also displaced Chinese civilians which helped grow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
• The United States opted for isolationism and lacked the military power to fight Japan's advanced military
• Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong May-ling/Madame Chiang, lobbied the United States for aid
• Mao Zedong built a force from 7,000 survivors to 1.2 million members
• The war reached a stalemate

Origins of the European War

• Major European powers fought economic crisis after World War I
• Germany's Weimar Republic fell, giving rise to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party
• Hitler became German chancellor in 1933 and purged democratic traditions and leftist groups
• Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles, rebuilt the German military, and remilitarized the Rhineland
• Hitler and Benito Mussolini assisted Spanish fascists, toppling the Spanish Republican Party
• Hitler advocated for unifying Europe's German peoples under one nation and expanding into Eastern Europe (Lebensraum) in Mein Kampf
• The "lesser humans" (Untermenschen) were to be eliminated to provide prosperity for Germans
• Hitler's twin goals were expansion and unification
• In 1938, Germany annexed Austria and looked to the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia
• Britain and France appeased Hitler with an agreement to annex the Sudetenland if he stopped there
• In March 1939, Hitler annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia and demanded Poland
• Britain and France promised war, and war came
• Hitler made a secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union to coordinate the splitting of Poland and ensure nonaggression
• September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, starting the European war where France and Britain then declared war two days later
• The German army used "Blitzkrieg" strategy, utilizing speed, tanks, planes, and motorized infantry

United States and the European War

• After Poland's fall, France and Britain prepared for a German attack
• Germany attacked Western Europe in May 1940, mirroring the Schlieffen Plan of 1914, and invaded through Netherlands and Belgium
• France fell in weeks; Germany occupied northern France and set up a puppet government in Vichy south
• Hitler planned to invade Britain via Operation Sea Lion but first need air superiority
• The German Luftwaffe fought Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) from June to October
• The British won the Battle of Britain, preventing immediate invasion
• Stymied in the Battle of Britain, Hitler ordered the Blitz, an air campaign against British cities and civilians
• In June 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa to seize agricultural lands, oil fields, and break Stalin's military power
• Hitler broke the two powers’ 1939 nonaggression pact with the largest land invasion in history, but the Blitzkrieg failed because of the the Soviets willingness to sacrifice millions
• Stalin moved factories east from the Luftwaffe's range and ordered a scorched earth policy to hinder the Germans, which led to the German army getting exhausted and overextended
• The Soviet Union broke Hitler's army after twenty-five million Soviet deaths
• Approximately 80% of German casualties for the war occurred on the Eastern Front
• The German army suffered approximately 850,000 casualties at the Battle of Stalingrad
• The United States dissolved trade treaties with Japan in 1939, and then in 1940, cut off war material supplies
• Japan began invading the Pacific for resources
• Japan declared its empire the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
• Diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States declined
• Japan considered the United States' oil embargo a de facto war declaration
• Japan planned a coordinated Pacific offensive to neutralize the United States and other European powers
• On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and killed 2,400 Americans
• The United States declared war on the Axis powers, turning previously two separate conflicts into World War II
• Britain initially withstood Germany with American support
• Hitler ordered U-boats into the Atlantic to sink ships helping Britain which led to the Battle of the Atlantic
• British code breakers broke Germany's radio codes, dubbed Ultra, along with massive naval convoys help the allies win
• In North Africa, British victory at El Alamein pushed Germany back and in November 1942, the first American combat troops entered the war in French Morocco
• By 1943, the Allies pushed Axis forces out of Africa
• Churchill got Roosevelt to invade Italy or the "soft underbelly" of Europe who then said the Allies would only accept unconditional surrender
• The Army Air Force (AAF) sent bombers to England for a strategic bombing campaign against Germany
• U.S. planes hit German ball-bearing factories, rail yards, oil fields, and manufacturing centers during the day as the British RAF bombed German cities at night
• The advent and implementation of long-range fighter escorts increased bombing accuracy
• The Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) met in Tehran and decided to invade France
• The invasion was tentatively scheduled for 1944; Stalin was for it, but Churchill was hesitant
• American troops landed at Anzio but suffered heavy casualties; the Allies pushed up the peninsula
• The Italian government revolted, and the new government quickly made peace
• On D-Day, American, British, and Canadian forces launched Operation Overlord in France which was the largest amphibious assault in history
• The Allies proceeded slower than hoped for to get toward France, but Paris was later liberated just two months after
• The Allies bombed German cities and industrial capacity
• The Nazis crumbled and failed to make headway into the English Channel; invasion of Germany was delayed
• The Soviet Union pushed westward and ravaged German populations
• Germany's counterattacks failed to defeat Soviet troops and Germany entered its last chance
• The Big Three met at Yalta to plan their post-war Europe plan
• January 1945, the Soviet Union reached Germany and Americans crossed the Rhine in March
• Days after Hitler committed suicide, the Soviets reached Berlin who then later conquered Germany
• Allied leaders decided to divide Germany and Berlin between Allied powers in Potsdam, Germany
• Stalin agreed to join the fight against Japan

United States and the Japanese War

• The Americans celebrated V-E (Victory in Europe) Day and then gave attention to the war in the pacific
• In the American-controlled Philippine, Japan seized control and marched soldiers without food, water, or rest (Bataan Death March)
• In the summer of 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the aircraft carrier duel at the Battle of Midway crippled Japan's naval operations
• The U.S. military began island hopping while bypassing stronger islands that could hold airfields to push Japan out of the region
• On Guadalcanal American soldiers saw Japanese soldiers launch suicidal attacks rather than surrender
• Tactics and American racial prejudice made the Pacific Theater brutal
• At Iwo Jima, seventeen thousand Japanese soldiers held the island against seventy thousand Marines for over a month, leading to heavy casualties
• American bombers hit Japan's industrial facilities causing heavy casualties
• Over sixty Japanese cities were fire-bombed and 100,000 civilians died
• Americans captured Okinawa in June 1945 after 80 days of fighting
• Some officials estimated that an invasion of the Japanese mainland could cost half a million American casualties and millions of Japanese civilians
• The U.S. government launched the Manhattan Project due to fears of Germans making an atomic bomb first
• The Americans exploded the world's first nuclear device, Trinity, in New Mexico in July 1945
• Hiroshima was bombed killed 100,000 civilians and Nagasaki followed after on August 9th killing 80,000 civilians
• Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on August 15 after the event
• Delegates from the Japanese government formally signed their surrender on September 2 aboard the USS Missouri

Soldiers' Experiences

• Approximately eighteen million men served in World War II
• Volunteers enlisted after Pearl Harbor, but over ten million were drafted
• Soldiers underwent basic training by developing physically and instructed by the use of military equipment.
• Soldiers were indoctrinated into the chain of command and introduced to military life
• They marched carrying packs weighing twenty to fifty pounds
• Sailors spent months at sea operating their assigned vessels, living and working in cramped conditions, with dozens of sailors in each housing.
• Approximately sixty thousand American sailors died in the war
• The Air Force was still a branch of the U.S. Army and contributed air and ground crew
• Bombers like the B-17 Flying Fortress needed pilots, navigators, bombardiers, radio operators, and four machine gunners
• Airmen spent hours flying on bombing raids over England, Italy, or Pacific islands who used without pressurized cabins and wore oxygen tanks
• Airmen confronted enemy fighters with anti-aircraft fire
• The Air Corps suffered heavy casualties and thousands of airmen tragically died
• Soldiers in Europe faced cold winters, French hedgerows, Italian mountain ranges, and dense forests
• Soldiers in the Pacific fought heat, humidity, monsoons, jungles, and tropical diseases, and confronted an unfamiliar foe, the willing to die type
• Cultural differences existed between Americans and their enemies, ex Japanese saw surrender as cowardice
• Anti-Asian prejudices influenced American leaders and soldiers
• In the Pacific, atrocities went unmatched in Europe

The Wartime Economy

• Economies win wars no less than militaries
• The conversion of American factories to wartime production strengthened America's economy, armed Allied forces, eliminated the Great Depression, and ushered in economic prosperity
• The "sleeping giant" used the economy to wage war
• Entities such as the War Production Board and the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion managed economic production
• The economy which was unable to use 25% of the workforce earlier now struggled to fill vacant positions
• Government spending doubled all federal spending up to that point
• The federal government's intervention eliminated mass uninsurance
• Military production over civilian consumer needs
• Every American used rationing cards to legally purchase goods such as gasoline, coffee, meat, cheese, butter, processed food, firewood, and sugar
• The housing industry halted, and cities become overcrowded
• The federal government used raised income taxes and rates up to 94% to prevent inflation and sold war bonds
• With the economy booming and millions in military service, unemployment disappeared leading to a growth in production
• African Americans moved the to North and women joined the workforce en masse
• American producers looked to Mexico to fill its labor force
• The United States and Mexico used an agreement to bring legally contracted workers to California where discriminatory policies led to bracero contracts in Texas
• The bracero Program had the workers suffering from exploitative labor conditions but overall was viewed as a mixed blessing
• The exodus of Mexican migrants was reversed, and a lasting Mexican presence was established

Women and World War II

• President Roosevelt encouraged all able-bodied American women to help the war effort which led to women assumed various functions to free men for active military service
• Women worked or donned a military uniform or volunteered with charitable organizations
• WWII brought unprecedented labor opportunities for American women
• Industrial labor, previously dominated by men, shifted to women
• Most iconic was Rosie the Riveter who stood for female factory workers
• More than a million administrative jobs were transferred from men to women
• Women volunteered by the millions through the American Red Cross by packaging medical supplies, and preparing items for American prisoners of war
• Female volunteers got certified as nurse's aides and for other volunteer programs
• Military service became another option for women, where over 350,000 served in all-female units of the military branches including The Army and Navy Nurse Corps Reserves
• The Nurse Corps Reserves provided 105,000 army and navy nurses across hospitals
• Jim Crow segregation was present in both sectors which led to supervisors assigning women to menial tasks and segregated Black units on active duty
• Black women's role was limited
• After the war was over the workforce was released back to being male dominated causing former military women to faced obtacles

Race and World War II

• World War II impacted America's racial relationships as nearly every part of life was affected
• African Americans, Mexicans and Mexican Americans, Jews, and Japanese Americans were all majorly impacted
• Before Pearl Harbor, A. Philip Randolph threatened President Roosevelt with a march on Washington which showed refusal from defense contractors to hire Black workers and the armed forces remained segregated
• In exchange for Randolph calling off the march, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 and the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) was established to monitor defense industry hiring practices
• Government support showed a stand against discrimination as The Black workforce rose
• Over one million African Americans served in the war
• The all-Black pilot squadrons/Tuskegee Airmen performed greatly in Germany and led to the army and navy starting to integrate some of their units and facilities
• Black Americans served in segregated armed forces and at home became riveters, welders, rationed food/gasoline, and bought bonds
• They saw the war as a chance to improve the country via the "Double V" campaign by leading Black newspapers
• During the war, membership in the NAACP grew majorly
• CORE was founded in 1942 to combat desegregation
• 1.5 million Black southerners showed their opposition to racism by moving from the Jim Crow South to the North
• Tension rose in 1943 between cities causing riots including a Detroit one that had deaths
• Americans were prejudice and America's entry into the war left foreign nationals in danger under the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who interned those who had suspicions of relations
• Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 to remove Japanese from "exclusion zones" to war camps
• Thousands of Japanese Americans fought for the US as wartime sentiment lead to the detainment of those immigrants as American citizens
• This policy affected over 110,000 Japanese people (70,000 were American citizens)
• The congressionally appointed Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians wrote in their 1982 report, Personal Justice Denied, that this came from "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”
• In 1988, President Reagan formally apologized for the internment and gave reparations
• During the Allied push they uncovered the full extent of Hitler’s atrocities/ Holocaust which saw the murder of eleven million civilians including six million Jews

Toward a Postwar World

• The United States wanted to create global peace and domestic prosperity
• Americans wanted a means to ensure postwar stability and security for veterans after WWII
• The inability of the League of Nations to stop aggressors led to questions about global organizations ability to ensure peace as people remembered it being declined previously due to the American people and the Senate
• The UN's ideas were announced in the Four Freedoms-freedom of speech/worship from fear/want
• The UN also had the Atlantic Charter which reinforced those ideas and added self-determination and economic/political cooperation
• The basic structure was agreed at Dumbarton Oaks, in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C including a Security Council + France
• The plan had the police idea with mixed result with concern on how the Security Council would work so the team met from April to June 1945 for more to agree and sign the UN charter
• Leaders would give returning veterans to the postwar global order via programs like the G.I. Bill.
• It offered inducements to slow their influx into the civilian workforce as well as reward their service with public benefits.
• This includes offering a year's worth of unemployment benefits for veterans unable to secure work as The Veterans Administration (VA) paid for educational expenses
• The G.I was not all around as it was unequal due to racism that still was in communities
• There were gender gaps and unequal distributions

Conclusion

• America, after the war, exited its economic depression and entered an unparalleled economic boom.
• Although their was a lot of prosperity there were threats that loomed with issues like nuclear weapons between Stalin's Soviet Union