In Modules 18 and 19, we'll examine the impact of World War II on American international relationships, economics, society, and culture. Part I of this module explores the origins of the war and how the United States got involved in the conflict. In Part II, we'll examine how WWII transformed the United States' economy and government.
Three questions will guide this module blog post:
Why did the US enter World War II and what were soldiers’ experiences in the war?
How did the US represent itself and its enemies during WWII and what impact did those representations have on the American people?
To what extent did WWII generate a change in US race relations?
Let's get started!
Part I: Context of World War II
Origins of the War
Pacific:
By the mid-1930s, it was clear that war was on the horizon in both Asia and Europe. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, a province of northern China, seeking to expand its military and economic power in Asia. In 1937, they launched a full-scale invasion of China. When they attacked the city of Nanjing, they killed between 250,000 and 300,000 people and raped tens of thousands of women. The Western press labeled the attack, “The Rape of Nanjing.”
Europe:
In Europe, Adolf Hitler had consolidated his rule in Germany and embarked on a campaign to control the entire continent.
In 1936, he sent troops to occupy the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone between France and Germany established after WWI. In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria and an ethnically German part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudentenland. Soon after, he annexed Czechoslovakia completely. As the 1930s progressed, Hitler accelerated his campaign against Germany’s Jews. The Nazis stripped Jews of citizenship and property and began to deport them to concentration camps.
Americans read about the brutal fighting in China, but the US lacked both the will and the military power to oppose the Japanese invasion. Soong May-ling (known to the public as Madame Chiang), the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, led the effort by Chinese Nationalists to lobby the US for aid. She had spent much of her childhood in the US and had graduated from Wellesley College. Although the US denounced Japanese aggression, it took no concrete action.
For many Americans, the threat arising from Japan and Germany seemed very distant. Many Americans were convinced that their involvement in World War I had been a mistake. In the 1930s, Congress was dominated by isolationism—a desire to avoid foreign entanglements. In 1935, lawmakers passed a series of Neutrality Acts that banned travel on belligerents’ ships and the sale of arms to countries at war.
Word Cloud #1:
What do you think? In your opinion, why were so many Americans opposed to getting involved in the conflicts in Europe and Asia? Enter your response in the word cloud below, or access it here.
In 1939, the Soviet Union signed a secret nonaggression pact with Hitler, which coordinated the splitting of Poland between the two powers. Once Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war.
The German army utilized tanks, planes, and motorized infantry to embark on a path of blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” Within a year after invading Poland, Germany had overrun Poland and much of Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In June 1940, German troops occupied Paris. In September that same year, Germany, Italy, and Japan created a military alliance known as the Axis.
Toward Intervention
Roosevelt saw Hitler’s victories as a direct threat to the US. But most Americans wanted to remain outside of the conflict. In 1940, Congress eventually allowed the sale of arms to Britain on a “cash and carry” basis—the arms had to be paid for in cash and transported on British ships. But Roosevelt was reluctant to go further since the presidential election was looming. Opponents of the US involvement in Europe formed the “America First Committee,” championing American isolationism.
In 1940, Roosevelt announced that he would run for president for a third term, and he won a decisive victory. He argued that the international situation was too dangerous and the domestic recovery too fragile for him to leave office. In 1941, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the US to provide military aid so long as countries promised to return it after the war. The US funneled billions of dollars worth of arms to Britain, China, and the Soviet Union. FDR also halted trade between US and Japan.
US Enters World War II
The US officially entered WWII in 1941, after Japanese planes bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7. FDR asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan, and the next day, Germany declared war on the US. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was widely viewed as proof of Japanese barbarity, and enabled Americans to enter the war with more unity than had seemed possible in previous years. After Pearl Harbor, the isolationist view largely changed. The attack was viewed as one that left the US no choice but to go to war.
War in the Pacific
The first few months of American involvement in the war in the Pacific saw a string of military disasters for the US. In early 1942, Japan had conquered Myanmar and Thailand, and took control of Indonesia. It occupied Guam, the Philippines, and other Pacific islands.
At Bataan, in the Philippines, the Japanese forced 78,000 American and Filipino troops to surrender—the largest surrender in American military history. Thousands died on the ensuing “death march” to a prisoner of war camp.
However, starting in May 1942, the American navy was able to turn back a Japanese fleet intent on attacking Australia, and inflicted devastating losses against the Japanese at the Battle of Midway Island. Over the next three years, American forces launched campaigns to drive the Japanese from fortified islands in the western Pacific and bring them closer to Japan.
War in Europe
By the spring of 1943, the Allies gained the upper hand in the Atlantic Ocean as well, as British and American destroyers and planes devastated Germany’s submarine fleet. In July 1943, Britain and the US invaded Sicily, beginning the liberation of Italy.
On June 6, 1944—known as D-Day—nearly 200,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers landed in Normandy under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the next few weeks that followed, more than a million troops followed them ashore. After fierce fighting, Germany retreated eastward and Paris had been liberated.
The crucial fighting in Europe took place on the eastern front, the scene of a struggle between Germany and the Soviet Union. German armies invaded western Russia, and in August 1942 launched a siege of Stalingrad, a city located on the Volga River. There, Russian troops, who had been bolstered by supplies from the US, surrounded German forces and forced them to surrender in January 1943. This marked a turning point in the European war. Of the 13.6 million German casualties in WWII, 10 million came on the Russian front.
Almost 18 million men served in World War II. The majority—over 10 million—were drafted. Soldiers and marines bore the brunt of on-the-ground combat. On the ground conditions varied. In Europe, soldiers endured freezing winters, mountain ranges, and dense forests. In the Pacific, they faced heat and humidity, monsoons, jungles, and tropical diseases. Deployed sailors spent months at sea operating their assigned vessels, working in cramped conditions. The Air Force was still a branch of the US Army during World War II. The war saw the institutionalization of massive bombing campaigns against cities and industrial production. (For more stats on US military personnel, see this article from the National World War II Museum.)
Women in the Military
In May 1942, Congress established the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), which did not offer women full military status. In July of that same year, the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) was established. The Coast Guard created the SPARs in November 1942 and the Marine Corps reestablished the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. In 1943, the Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots (WASP) was instituted. Women pilots would ferry military aircraft from factories to military bases and towed targets for anti-aircraft artillery students.
Women served in more than two hundred occupational specialties, including clerical jobs, finance, communications, supply, transportation, intelligence, repairing aircrafts and vehicles, packing parachutes, making maps, translating and breaking codes. In the WAVES, women were air traffic controllers, aviation simulator instructors, radio operators and repairers, gunnery instructors, mechanics, aerial photographers, and more. By the end of the war, approximately 350,000 women—all volunteers—had served in the armed forces. Additionally, the Nurse Corps Reserves commissioned 105,000 Army and Navy nurses recruited by the American Red Cross. [1]
By the spring of 1943, Army officials requested that the women’s corps be granted “regular” instead of “auxiliary” status.
However, a slander campaign against members of the WAAC had erupted, with people accusing them of being prostitutes, of engaging in public sex acts, and claiming that the Army was issuing prophylactics to WAACs, so that they could “keep the troops happy.” It was discovered that the malicious rumors were originating from American servicemen, both officer and enlisted; from soldiers’ wives; civilian women; and others who were opposed to women working outside of the home. [2]
When the WAAC was disestablished and replaced by the regular Women’s Army Corps (WAC), 25% of women serving chose to leave, even though they would now receive increased benefits and equal pay. Most women who declined to reenlist gave the hostility of camp commanders and soldiers who followed their commanders’ lead as their primary reason for leaving.
Poll #1:
In your opinion, was military service during World War II empowering for American women? (In Module 19, we'll explore similar conflicts over women's roles in the workforce and war effort when we look at women's work in defense industries at home.) Answer the poll below or access it here.
Part II: Transformation of the United States
In Module 17, we examined the expansion of the federal welfare state through the New Deal. World War II further transformed the scope, reach, and role of the federal government. As a result of the war, the government was integrated into the economy like never before.
Four Freedoms
In his State of the Union Address in 1941, FDR spoke of a future world founded on the “essential human freedoms”: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These freedoms became the statement of the Allied aims during WWII, and were used to rally Americans to get involved in the war effort. FDR used language like this to paint a picture of American democracy and freedom, which he spoke of as being fundamentally opposite to the enemies the US were fighting in WWII.
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This was powerful imagery for the American people. WWII occurred in the midst of the Great Depression. Americans latched on to the idea of “freedom from want,” as it came to represent protecting the standard of living for the American worker, and as FDR guaranteed that the Depression would not resume after the war. In December 1941, young American men and women had known nothing but depression. Those of draft age, (twenty years old) had been only eight when the market collapsed, had looked for jobs they could not find since 1936 or 1937, or had attended school or college, working at odd jobs while they studied, with little expectation of any other kind of work. Thus, the ideas of “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear” were quite powerful, especially when coupled with FDR’s promise of the depression’s end.
Transformation of Government and Economy
FDR created federal agencies to regulate the allocation of labor, control the shipping industry, establish manufacturing quotas, fix wages, prices, and rents. The number of federal workers rose from 1 million to 4 million, helping to push unemployment down, from 14 percent in 1940, to just 2 percent three years later.
The federal government forced industries to retool in order to help produce supplies and goods for the war effort. For example, auto factories in Michigan started producing trucks, tanks, and jeeps for the army.
The gross national product rose from $91 billion to $214 billion during the war, and the federal government’s expenditures amounted to twice the combined total of the previous 150 years. To help raise money for the war effort the government encouraged citizens to buy billions of dollars worth of war bonds, increased taxes, and began the practice of withholding income tax directly from weekly paychecks.
The war completely reinvigorated the US economy. Americans went to work to produce aircraft, armored vehicles, and trucks; performed government-sponsored scientific research to perfect inventions like radar, jet engines, and computers.
Federal funds established new manufacturing and industrial centers, investing billions of dollars in the shipyards of Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, and in the steel plants and aircraft factories of California. Millions of people moved to work in the new industries. Two million people relocated to California for defense-industry jobs, and California received one-tenth of all federal spending. Union membership also rose to nearly 15 million workers, one-third of the non-farm labor force and the highest proportion ever in American history. (In order to stabilize war production, the government forced employers to recognize unions, and forced unions not to strike.)
Poll #2:
This question asks you to consider both Americans’ sense of patriotic duty and their experiences of the Great Depression. World War II was integrated into the fabric of everyday life, but it was also fought overseas, not in the backyards of ordinary Americans.
In your opinion, which of the following was the biggest motivation for US citizens to go to work in newly formed defense industries? Workers were doing their part to aid the war effort and fight for the four freedoms? or Workers were happy to have jobs and new levels of prosperity coming out of the Great Depression? Answer the question in the poll below, or access the poll here.
War Advertising
Because the war took place outside of the US, sentiments of the American people were different than those in European cities or in the Pacific theater. A sense of common sacrifice and common suffering in the war torn cities of Europe and Asia was missing from the US—after Pearl Harbor, people in the United States did not feel as if they were in immediate danger. In order to get people to participate in the war effort, the federal government utilized techniques developed by media and advertising companies.
Under the War Advertising Council, private companies joined in the campaign to promote wartime patriotism. Advertisements to purchase war bonds and grow “victory gardens” appeared alongside advertisements for other products which utilized the language of patriotism and freedom.
One key method used to stir up support for the war—or, more accurately, disdain and hate for the enemy—was the use of images of Japanese and Germans in war propaganda. While we understand WWII now as a war about social justice and humanitarian issues (fighting the racism of Nazism), in the 1940s, many Americans admitted that they had no clear idea what the war is all about. But, few questioned the need to fight. They saw the enemy as having “embarked on a rampage of destruction” and as an “aggressive force that needed to be stopped.”
Lots of animosity was directed towards the Japanese, who were represented in propaganda as cruel, dangerous, devious, and warlike. Plenty of anti-Asian sentiment had existed in the US prior to WWII, as we have examined in previous modules. The anti-Japanese sentiments built upon this ideology of the “yellow peril.” Japanese were often represented as rats, or subhuman species, reinforced by reports of their cruelty during battles in the Pacific theater.
WWII shifted the image that Americans had of Chinese people in the US. In articles like the one below, we can see the emergence of the idea of a “good Asian” and a “bad Asian.” In 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed. China was given a quota of 105 immigrants per year. This was more symbolic than practical, but it did open up a path for naturalization for Chinese immigrants living in the US.
Word Cloud #2:
What do you notice and what do you wonder about articles like the ones pictured below? Enter a response in the word cloud below, or access it here.
Part III: World War II and Racial Ideology Part I
During World War II, some of the most horrific and racially motivated atrocities of the twentieth century were committed by Germany, Japan, the US, and other nations. However, at the same time, the US also vigorously denounced racism.
In Part III, we’ll begin our exploration of World War II’s impact on race in the United States. We’ll finish up this discussion in Module 19 with our assessment of Japanese internment.
World War II was a “total war.” For the US to succeed, it needed the support of all the people in the US, even those racial minorities who had not been treated as full citizens. However, the US could not win their support without formally renouncing racism. Even as the US interned Japanese Americans, they claimed they did so due to military necessity rather than blatant racism, because they needed to show racialized minorities at home, as well as people around the world that the US did not practice racism. [3]
In the US, this led to a celebration of “multiculturalism,” which recognized, in an official capacity, the contributions of a variety of racial and ethnic groups to the US. What was celebrated in this rhetoric though, was not always true in practice. However, the rhetoric that the US put forward was put to use by racial minorities in the US, in order to assert their right to full citizenship.
A key example was the campaign by African American activists to achieve equality and fair participation in the wartime economy. In defense industries, segregation was still a major issue.
Blacks were often the last hired, and were relegated to service duties and other low paying jobs. Likewise, in the military, Blacks served in segregated units and mainly in a service capacity. The Marine Corps and the Army Air Corps refused African Americans altogether.
In response, African American activists launched the “Double V” campaign, which stood for victory against fascism abroad and victory over racism at home. This ideology joined Black patriotism with their desire to achieve full citizenship and equality at home.
March on Washington Movement
In order to combat segregation and unequal treatment in war industries, A. Philip Randolph called on Black Americans to protest the national government. He suggested that 10,000 Blacks march on Washington DC under the slogan, “We loyal Negro American citizens demand the right to work and fight for our country.”
The March on Washington Movement’s demands included:
Presidential order forbidding companies with government contracts from engaging in racial discrimination
Eliminating race-based exclusion from defense training courses
Ending hiring discrimination
Ending troop segregation and union discrimination
Executive Order 8802
FDR became more and more concerned as this movement gained momentum. Figures circulated around that it would be 50,000, and then 100,000 people marching on DC. FDR was concerned that the image of racism at home would harm the war effort. Thus, by June 1941, the President drafted Executive Order 8802, which stated:
“The policy of the United States [was] that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in the defense industry or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”
In addition, the Fair Employment Practices Committee was formed in order to investigate complaints of discrimination. The FEPC did not have any real enforcement power, but helped to shift the mentality towards recognizing how discrimination was wrong. By the end of the war, blacks comprised 8% of war industry jobs; before the war, they only held 3%.
Randolph called off the march. The March on Washington Movement demonstrated a key tactic that civil rights activists would utilize in the future—playing off the image that the US wanted to portray to the world and exposing the lie.
An "American Dilemma"
In 1944, Swedish social scientist Gunnar Myrdal published An American Dilemma, a study of American race relations. The book exposed how deeply racism was entrenched in American society, economics, and politics.
Myrdal laid out the foundation of what he called the “American Creed”: a belief in equality, justice, freedom, and fair opportunity. He argued that every American was under the influence of the Creed, but black Americans were unable to access the opportunities in the Creed. The book struck a chord with many Americans and politicians, as it identified a serious social problem and pointed out how it clashed with American ideals.
Poll #3:
In your opinion, did World War II represent a positive turning point for American race relations? Yes or no? (Answer the poll below, or access it here.)
Note - after we explore “World War II and Racial Ideology Part II” in Module 19, I will ask this question again!
Conclusion:
The US entered the war after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Eighteen million men served in WWII, and 350,000 women.
The US represented itself as a guardian of the “four freedoms” and its enemies as a threat to those freedoms.
WWII brought about both positive change and setbacks for US race relations. It set the stage for the beginning of an organized civil rights movement based on the desire of African Americans to access the full benefits of the “American Creed.”
Citations:
[1] Jerri Bell and Tracy Crow, eds. It's My Country Too: Women's Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017), 90-97.
[2] Leisa D. Meyer, Creating G.I. Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women's Army Corps During World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 33-50.
[3] Takashi Fujitani, Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans During World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 13.
In your opinion, did World War II represent a positive turning point for American race relations?
Yes, it did. Even though the first motive wasn't the pure struggle for racial equality but more likely to keep a decent look in front of the world and utilize all available resources, it still became a turning point. To succeed in the war, America needed to put all its resources together. The government had to put aside all prejudice and allow people of all races to work together ( at least for a while) for the sake of a victory. Once changes in minds had begun, they could not stop. And in a couple of years, we had significant changes due to the…
Hi all! Just a note to draw out some of the themes I noticed, especially in response to the questions about women's empowerment through military service and race relations in the US. Out of the wartime circumstances (increased need for more people to fight in the war and join in defense industries) does come increased access to opportunities, and maybe even more of a chance for marginalized groups to prove themselves. However, as many of you noted, it isn't so simple as I made it seem with those questions! 😜 The pushback/backlash that occurred (whether it was from the military who didn't want women to gain full recognition or status, or from racial discrimination in military service) played a large…
In your opinion, was military service during World War II empowering for American women?
I said yes since woman actually played a role in the war a lot more than last time.
With women starting to serve in the military it would help establish the groundwork for women's rights in service of the country. Although In some aspects there came a lot of issues and disrespect through slanderous lies. As well as the army not offering servicewomen full military status, it was a mixed form of empowerment for women. Even though early on it wasn't as empowering, overtime women would achieve higher status in the armed forces. Nonetheless, the pavement would be set and further advance women's status and fight for equality in the armed services. Although Earl
In your opinion, was military service during World War II empowering for American women?
Yes, it did. It gives women opportunities to prove themselves. They could work too not just men. They repaired the aircraft and air traffic controllers. Not an easy job they could work hard as the men do. Overall, "350,000 women all volunteers had served in the armed forces".