APUSH Ch. 26 America In A World At War

After the Japanese landed in the Philippines in May 1942, nearly 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners were forced to endure a 60-mile forced march; during the ordeal, 10,000 prisoners died or were killed.

Americans discovered that the Japanese were planning to attack Midway, a strategic island which lies northwest of Hawaii. Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander of American naval forces in the Pacific, moved to defend the island. On Junes 3, 1942, his scout planes found the Japanese fleet. The Americans sent torpedo planes and dive bombers to the attack. The Japanese were caught with their planes still on the decks of their carriers. The results were devastating. by the end of the Battle of Midway, the Japanese had lost four aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes. In the words of a Japanese official, at Midway the Americans had "avenged Pearl Harbor."

In August 1942, American forces gained a foothold on Guadalcanal Island, the Solomon Islands, in an attempt to protect the lifeline from America to Australia through the Southwest Pacific. After several desperate sea battles for naval control, the Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal in February 1943.

Fought during the winter of 1942, it was the first major Soviet victory of World War II and a turning point for the Allies. It claimed more lives than any other singles conflict in the War but prevented the Nazis from capturing Russia and was a crucial factor in their eventual defeat.

Proposed Anglo-American invasion of France to relieve the Soviets, who were fighting a German invasion of the USSR; originally scheduled for 1942, it was not delivered until D-Day in June 1944. This was a divisive issue in Soviet relations with the United States and Britain during the war and after.

1939-German passsneger liner full of Jewish refugees that were refused entry in Cuba, the United States, and Canada, and were forced to return to Europe where many of them perished under Hitler's rule.

Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the Holocaust. Close to a million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and others were killed there, 1940-1945, designed by Heinrich Himmler for the "Final Solution of the Jews."

A methodical plan orchestrated by Hitler to ensure German supremacy. It called for the elimination of primarily Jews but also non-conformists, homosexuals, non-Aryans, and mentally and physically disabled.

Instituted in 1942, this agency was in charge of stabilizing prices and rents and preventing speculation, profiteering, hoarding and price administration. The OPA froze wages and prices and initiated a rationing program for items such as gas, oil, butter, meat, sugar, coffee and shoes in order to support the war effort and prevent inflation.

During WWII, FDR established it to allocated scarce materials, limited or stopped the production of civilian goods, and distributed contracts among competing manufacturers in order to maximize the war efforts.

Set up in June 1940 by FDR to coordinate military research, including a top-secret effort to develop an atomic bomb. It was headed by MIT scientist Vannevar Bush, who had been a pioneer in the early development of the computer. By the end of the war, this new agency had spent more than $100 million on research, more than four times the amount spent by the government on military research and development in the previous forty years.

A top-secret British project used to gather intelligence, giving the Allies an advantage. Examples of their successes were capturing Japanese and German intelligence devices, of puzzling out the enemy's systems and advances in computer technology.

America's leading black labor leader who called for a march on Washington D.C. to protest factories' refusals to hire African Americans, which eventually led to President Roosevelt issuing an order to end all discrimination in the defense industries.

An important breakthrough in intelligence, and counter part to the British Ultra, it resulted in American access to intercepted info, that if properly interpreted, could have alerted them to the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Federal agency that required companies with government contracts not discriminate on the basis of race or religion. This was established to guarantee opportunities for African American employment in World War II industries.

First civil rights organization to use non-violent tactics to promote racial equality and desegregation.

Native Americans who served in the United States Marine corps whose primary job was the transmission of secret tactical messages in their native Navajo language.

Approve by Congress in March 1941; The act allowed America to sell, lend or lease arms or other supplies to nations considered "vital to the defense of the United States."

The joint declaration, in August 1941, by Roosevelt and Churchill, stating common principles for the free world: self-determination, free choice of government, equal opportunities for all nations for trade, permanent system of general security and disarmament.

Occurs after a gang of Mexican youth had alegedly assaulted an American sailor in LA. These sailors and other members of US military in response go on a 4 day rampage through Mexican American neighborhoods in LA beating anyone they saw in a Zoot Suit. The only people they arrest during the riot is Mexicans. After the riot ends the LA govt passes a law making the Zoot Suits illegal.

A propaganda character designed to increase production of female workers in the factories. It became a rallying symbol for women to do their part.

"Latchkey Children"-children who go home to empty houses after school and who are left alone until parents arrive home from work.

A private, nonprofit organization that provides morale and recreational services to members of the U.S. military. To maintain moral during WWII, thousands of young women were recruited by the USO to serve as hostesses in their clubs--women were expected to dress nicely, dance well, and chat hapilly with loney men to encourage "healthy heteosexuality."

The forcible relocation and internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans to housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps", in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor

Law that raised taxes to help finance the WWII effort by raising rates for the wealthiest Americans; It included new middle- and lower-income tax brackets, vastly increasing the number of Americans responsible for paying taxes

Act of 1943 that authorized the government to seize plants useful to the war. It was created after coal miners went on strike in 1943 led by John l. Lewis.

1944 Supreme Court case where the Supreme Court upheld the order providing for the relocation of Japanese Americans. It was not until 1988 that Congress formally apologized and agreed to pay $20,000 to each survivor.

Metting held at Yalta in the Soviet Union between President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in February 1945; at this meeting critical decisions on the future of postwar Europe were made. At Yalta it was agreed that Germany would be divided into four zones, that free elections would take place after the war in Eastern Europe, and that the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.

WWII strategy of conquering only certain Pacific islands that were important to the Allied advance toward Japan. The capture of each successive island from the Japanese brought the American navy closer to an invasion of Japan.

Japanese pilots who undertook suicide missions, crashing their explosive-laden airplanes into American warships.

Code name given to the development of the US atomic bomb during World War II. Work on the bomb was carried out in great secrecy by a team including US physicists Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer. The first test took place on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, and the next month the US Air Force dropped bombs on Japan.

Also called Liberty Bonds, these were sold by the United States government in both WWI and WWI and used by the government to finance the war effort. A person purchasing a war bond can make money if he or she cashed it in after 5 or 10 years; in the meantime, the government can use the money to help pay its bills. In both wars, movie stars and other celbrities encouraged Americans to purchase war bonds.

Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey, a young, liberal governor of New York, and paired him with isolationist John W. Bricker of Ohio. FDR was the Democratic lock, but because of his age, the vice presidential candidate was carefully chosen to be Harry S. Truman. FDR had already been in office longer than any other president but remained popular. He won by a landslide and would serve his fourth term as president.,

June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which "we will accept nothing less than full victory." More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. This was a turning point on the war.

A month-long battle of World War II, in which the Allies succeeded in turning back the last major German offensive of the war.

The U.S. Army in the Pacific had been pursuing an "island-hopping" campaign, moving north from Australia towards Japan. On April 1, 1945, they invaded Okinawa, only 300 miles south of the Japanese home islands. By the time the fighting ended on June 2, 1945, the U.S. had lost 50,000 men and the Japanese 100,000. This battle revealed to the US that the Japanese were prepared and willing to fight til the death.

This French general fled from France to London after Germany took over France. In London, he set up a government-in-exile committed to re-conquering France. He went on to organize the Free French military forces that battled the Nazis until France was liberated in 1944.

"Lightning War;" a sudden massive atack with combined air and ground forces, intended to achieve a quick victory--used by German forces.