American Journey - Chapter 13

Table of Contents

13. World War II

Beginning the Journey
Sources for the era of the Second World War are scattered throughout the American Journey Online database.

Users will find relevant information in: "The African-American Experience," "The Asian-American Experience," "The Immigrant Experience," "Women in America," "Civil Rights," "The Great Depression and the New Deal," and "The Cold War."

The same search strategies recommended for earlier units hold true here as well. Scanning the "Key Topics" and moving down the "Years" for each module are good initial strategies for locating documents and assessing how each of the topical modules fits into the chronological period of World War II (1939-1945). Locating relevant information can also be accomplished by looking for "World War II" in the each module's "Index" or searching there for specifics.

Activity 1
After war began in Europe in 1939, the Roosevelt administration sought to keep the American people apprised of how the situation abroad affected them.

In keeping with the way he dealt with domestic policy, the president delivered a series of fireside chats on foreign policy subjects. Through these radio addresses, FDR informed the public of foreign developments, let them know how his administration was responding to those developments, and advised them on how best to meet the challenges these developments created.

Several of Roosevelt's fireside chats on foreign policy matters are included in the American Journey Online. Studying them collectively provides insights into Roosevelt's thinking on foreign policy matters, especially as the crisis in Europe worsened, as well as how he sought to move public opinion in the United States toward the idea of eventual U.S. entry into the war.

Within "The Great Depression and the New Deal," go to "Fireside Chat on War in Europe," "Fireside Chat on National Defense," and "Fireside Chat Announcing a National Emergency." (All three of these documents may be located by going to "Contents," then "Documents," then "F," then scroll down to and click on each individual title.)

Use these documents to answer the following questions.

  1. What is the purpose of each of these three speeches? How does each reveal FDR's speaking and propaganda skills? How effective do you find these speeches? Be specific.
  2. How does the role that FDR outlines for the United States in the European crisis change over the course of the three speeches? Why does it change? Does FDR believe that the nation can just sit back and stay out of European events? Why or why not?
  3. What advice or cautions does FDR deliver to the American people in these speeches? Why is he concerned about these sorts of things? How are these speeches different from Woodrow Wilson's call for neutrality in World War I? Explain.
  4. Why is FDR so emphatic in detailing the military preparations the United States has made in the area of construction and production? Why would the American public be interested in such things?
  5. How do these speeches make clear the connections between foreign and domestic policy? What is FDR trying to lead the American people to? What would be the logical conclusion of the policy outlined in these speeches?

Activity 2
The tortured course of American neutrality in World War II came to an end with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The war preparations FDR had outlined in the fireside chats discussed in Activity 1 would now give way to all out war.

Two days after Pearl Harbor, FDR delivered a fireside chat explaining the decision to declare war on Japan. This speech explained why war was necessary and how it would affect the American people.

Within "The Great Depression and the New Deal," locate this speech by going to "Fireside Chat on the Declaration of War with Japan." (This speech may be located by going to "Contents," then "Regions," then "West," then scroll down to and click on the title. Be sure to play the audio that accompanies the printed version of FDR's speech.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

  1. What is the tone of FDR's speech? What personal emotions does it reveal? What specific words does Roosevelt employ to reveal his sentiments? Use examples from the speech to answer these questions.
  2. How did FDR pave the way for U.S. entry into the war in the speeches discussed in Activity 1 above? Did war come, though, in the way he had expected? How does FDR try to place the attack on Pearl Harbor in the context of the European conflict? How does he relate U.S. war preparations to the situation facing the nation now?
  3. What promises does FDR make to the American people as the nation enters the war? What does he ask of them in return? Make specific reference to the document when answering these questions.
  4. How does FDR frame the conditions that the American people will face now that the nation is at war? Why does he refuse to say that the nation must "sacrifice"? What is he trying to accomplish by avoiding that word? How is he appealing to Americans' patriotism in doing so?
  5. How does listening to FDR's speech compare with simply reading it? What can you determine about his state of mind and the gravity of the situation from hearing the speech as it was broadcast to the American people? How do you think people at the time responded to it?

Activity 3
Almost immediately after Pearl Harbor some in the United States began calling for retaliation on Japanese-Americans. Many Americans feared that Americans of Japanese ancestry living in the United States, even those who had been born here and were American citizens, were disloyal to the United States and might even be spies or saboteurs working for the Japanese. (The Japanese experience during the war may be followed in detail in the Key Topic "Enemy Aliens: Japanese Americans in World War II" in the module "The Asian-American Experience.")

Despite the lack of evidence to support such claims, anti-Japanese hysteria gripped the nation in the weeks and months after Pearl Harbor as calls solidified for detaining all persons of Japanese descent in federally run facilities for the duration of the war. Accordingly, more than one hundred thousand Issei (Japanese who had immigrated to the United States) and Nisei (their children who were born in the United States and who were therefore U.S. citizens) on the West Coast were forced to sell their belongings and move to government run camps.

The government at the time defended the policy of internment as necessary for national security, and the Supreme Court upheld its legality in several different cases. Over the course of the postwar period, criticism of the relocation policy became more vocal, and not only among Japanese-Americans who had been harmed. In 1982 Congress issued an apology for the internment; in 1988 it authorized compensation to the surviving victims.

Exploring the Japanese internment is best done through two databases within the American Journey Online.

Within "Civil Rights," go to "Executive Order 9066" and "Internment of Japanese-Americans." (Both of these sources may be located by going to "Index," then "J," then "Japanese Americans," then click on the titles. Be sure to play the video component of the second source.)

Within "The Asian-American Experience," go to "Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry," "Closing Out Sale," "Losing Livelihoods," "Evacuees Ready to Leave," and "Many Thanks." (You may locate all of these sources by going to "Contents," then "Regions," then "California," then scroll down to and click on each individual title.)

Use the sources to answer the following questions.

  1. What do the tone and language of Executive Order 9066 tell you about the way that FDR approached the relocation order? About the way that he and others viewed the threat to national security posed by people of Japanese ancestry?
  2. How do the video clip and the sources from "The Asian-American Experience" convey the human cost of the Japanese internment? What do you find most striking about the video clip? About the photographs?

Many Japanese who were sent to the internment camps wrote about their experiences after the war. Others wrote fictionalized accounts set in the camps. Exploring these written sources on the internment and comparing them to the photographs explored above can help to provide a fuller understanding of how relocation affected Japanese.

Within "The Asian-American Experience," go to "Kubota," "Then Came the War," and "Excerpt of No-No Boy." (One way to locate these sources is to go to "Index," then "I," then "Internment camps," then click on each individual title.)

Use the sources to answer the following questions.

  1. What similarities and differences do you note in the first two sources? How might historians account for these similarities and differences? Are there pitfalls with using memoirs such as these in historical work? Explain.
  2. How does the third source, the excerpt from No-No Boy, complement the other sources? Does the fact that it is fiction make it less useful to historians or other scholars? Must special care be exercised when using it? Why or why not?
  3. Taking all of these sources together, what do they reveal about the costs of the Japanese internment? Think about all of the possible costs here, not just those involving money or property.

Activity 4
American women played an important role in the nation's involvement in World War II. In addition to working in all sorts of new areas (as discussed in Activity 5 below), women wrote and spoke about why America was fighting and what the nation hoped to secure as a result of the war.

Studying some of what women had to say on these topics explains the impact of traditional gender roles on women's war participation, but it also reveals that some women were thinking beyond those roles. (An extended discussion of the role of American women during the war is contained in the Key Topic "Women During World War II" in the module "Women in America.)

Within that module, go to "War and the Family" by Margaret Culkin Banning and "What Kind of World Do We Want?" by Margaret Mead. (One way to locate these sources is to go to the Key Topic above then scroll down and click on the links "mothers and homemakers" and "Margaret Mead.")

Use the documents to answer the following questions.

  1. What similarities and differences do you note in the views of these documents? How might you account for those similarities and differences? Make specific reference to the documents in answering these questions.
  2. How do these two documents urge that Americans--especially women--view the war and their roles in it? What do they say about the importance of thinking beyond simply the personal?
  3. What sorts of postwar changes and developments do these documents call for? Why? Who would bear the largest responsibility for implementing them?
  4. How do these two documents portray American society? What contrasts do they make between American society and that of other nations? How important are these differences?
  5. Trace the sources of the thinking behind these documents. What ideas lay at their heart? What roles and responsibilities do they place on women? On others in society?

Activity 5
The World War II period saw an unprecedented influx of women into the workforce, largely to replace men who left civilian life for the military. Millions of Americans, many of them married with young children, assumed positions in industry, construction, and other trades.

The "Women in America" module within the American Journey Online contains many photographs of women war workers. Within that module, go to:

  • "Putting the Finishing Touches on the Shells"
  • "Woman Worker Riveting on a B-17F Bomber during WWII"
  • "Woman Worker at Boeing Aircraft Company during WWII"
  • "Hauling Vital Parts to Aircraft Production Line"
  • "Italian-American Woman Sewing Bandages during WWII"
  • "African-American Nurse in a Chicago Hospital"
  • "First Women Marines Reporting for Duty (1943)"
  • "Nurse at a Field Hospital in Normandy, France."

All of these messages may be located by going to "Contents," then "Images," then the initial letter of each title, then click on the individual titles.

Use the images to answer the following questions.

  1. What do these images tell you about the ages and races of women involved in war work? About the range of activities they were engaged in?
  2. How do the images reflect both continuity/tradition and change/innovation in women's lives? How significant are the departures from traditional roles? Make specific reference to the images here.
  3. What differences in job responsibilities are evident in these images? How dangerous were the jobs women were engaged in?
  4. What do you find most striking or thought provoking in these images and the activities they portray?
  5. How do these images taken together reveal the variety of contributions American women made to the war effort? About their possible motivations? About the different vehicles they had for contributing (that is, civilian work, volunteer activities, military service)?

Activity 6
Although women secured significant employment gains during World War II, it was generally and widely accepted that those gains would end once the war was won. Women at that time would give up their jobs to returning servicemen and go back to being housewives and mothers.

Some women accepted the assumption that they would return to their former positions in the family and in society as a whole without question. Others were less certain that women's wartime gains should be surrendered so easily.

To explore the thoughts of novelist Fannie Hurst on the subject of whether women should fight to retain their wartime positions go to "A Crisis in The History of Women. Let Us Have Action Instead of Lip-Service" within "Women in America." (One way to locate this document is to go to "Contents," then "Authors," then "H," then "Hurst, Fannie," then click on the title.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

  1. What gains does Hurst see American women as having made since World War I? Why does she believe that those gains in the end are insignificant--in her words, that "the commotion is still out of all proportion to the promotion"?
  2. In what areas of American society does Hurst believe women are underrepresented? How can the situation be remedied? How difficult will it be to remedy things? Who must take the lead?
  3. What does Hurst believe American women hope to accomplish as a result of the war? (Think about both their personal goals and their hopes for the nation and the world.)
  4. Compare Hurst's views on women's postwar positions with the thoughts of Margaret Mead as expressed in the second source discussed in Activity 4 above. Note both similarities and differences. Which position seems more likely to have had popular support at the time? Why?
  5. Do the ideas expressed in this document seem ahead of their time? If so, why?

Activity 7
As the war in Europe dragged on through 1939 and 1940, thousands of people were uprooted from their homes. Many sought refuge in foreign lands, such as England and Holland. Others sought to emigrate to the United States.

Those Europeans who hoped to begin new lives in America, though, found their way barred by restrictive legislation (the Immigration Act of 1924 was still in force), prejudice, and fear that too many immigrants would tax limited national resources. Accordingly, American foreign policymakers placed additional restrictions on refugees during the European war. As critics have noted, then and since, these restrictions effectively prevented the United States from aiding European Jews seeking to avoid the Holocaust.

Within "The Immigrant Experience," explore some of the issues involved in U.S. immigration and refugee policy during the European war by going to "Wagner/Nourse Rogers Bill," "Maintaining Strict Limits on Immigration," and "Report from the State on Immigration Restriction." (The first document may be located by going to "Contents," then "Documents," then "W," then scroll down and click on the title. The other two documents may be selected from the list of related items that appears at the top of the first.)

Use the documents to answer the following questions.

  1. What group(s) of potential immigrants was the bill outlined in the first document designed to assist? How was this bill an outgrowth of the European situation? How was it guided by humanitarian principles?
  2. What conclusions can you draw about the nature of public support for this bill from the list of clergy who supported it? Why was that support not sufficient to win the bill's passage? In your opinion, could such a bill have been passed in 1939? Why or why not?
  3. What specific problem is the second document an attempt to address? What does the document suggest by restricting foreigners eligible to enter the United States to those with "a legitimate purpose or a reasonable need"? How could those terms be open to debate?
  4. How are the immigration restrictions eductions outlined in the second and third documents justified? What is more important than filling the nation's immigration quotas, according to these documents?
  5. How does the experience with refugees during the European war illustrate the danger of a restrictive immigration policy? How is the question of immigration policy still being debated today?

Activity 8
African-American leaders used the occasion of the Second World War as a catalyst for a renewed drive for civil rights. Convinced that the war should be a "Civil War II" to end racism and discrimination in American society, they called for marches, public demonstrations, and government action on behalf of the domestic side of what they called the "Double V," victory against fascism abroad and discrimination at home.

One of the biggest complaints of African Americans during the war was their exclusion from many of the highest paying defense-related jobs. They were also unhappy with continued segregation in the U.S. military.

Studying these issues requires work in two databases within the American Journey Online.

Within "The African-American Experience," go to: "Call to the March," "Executive Order 8802," and "Carry a Sign in Front of a Milk Company." (To locate the first two sources, go to the Key Topic "African-American Labor History," scroll down to "Black Labor in the Nation's Defense Industries," and click on the links "protests" and "executive order." The third source may be selected from the list of related items that appears at the top of "Executive Order 8802.")

Within "The Immigrant Experience," go to "Excerpt of Taps for a Jim Crow Army." (You may locate this document by searching for the term "Jim Crow Army." The document is the first of the two items the search returns.)

Use the sources to answer the following questions.

  1. What conditions does A. Philip Randolph rail against in the first document? How does he believe these conditions can be improved?
  2. How is the second document a response to the first? What sorts of concerns does it reveal within the Roosevelt administration? How effective would Roosevelt's proposal be in eliminating the conditions Randolph decries in the first document?
  3. What does the image add to the story of Randolph's proposed march and FDR's executive order? How is this image likely typical for the time?
  4. How does the last source (the two letters) reveal the tensions among African-American military men over their situation? How might these tensions boil over into civilian life once the war is over? How do they reveal a certain hypocrisy in American society?

In addition to complaining privately, picketing individually, and threatening to march en masse on Washington, civil rights advocates also formed a new organization during the war, the interracial Congress of Racial Equality. CORE, as the new organization was called, pioneered the nonviolent protest methods that would be made famous by Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1950s and 1960s.

Go now to "Statement of Purposes and Methods" within "The African-American Experience." (This document may be located by going to "Index," then "C," then "Congress of Racial Equality," then click on the title.)

Use the source, along with those above, to answer the following question.

  1. How does the Congress of Racial Equality plan to remedy the inequities described in the sources above? Are its methods appropriate for the fight? Why or why not?

Activity 9
As a member of the Grand Alliance with the Soviet Union and Great Britain during the war, the United States sought to maintain good relations with its allies. FDR favored a policy of postponing discussion of the postwar world for as long as possible in order to avoid conflicts, but some discussion of postwar conditions was necessary.

Many of the issues that divided the Allies during the war--especially issues between the Soviet Union and the United States--became key points of contention during the early years of the Cold War. Exploring some of those wartime issues helps to place postwar developments in a longer chronological context. It also illustrates that the Cold War was a long time in coming, not something that just sprung up overnight.

Within the "Cold War" module, go to:

  • "Excerpt from Roosevelt-Stalin Meeting, November 29, 1943, at Roosevelt's Quarters, Soviet Embassy"
  • "Protocol of the Proceedings of the Crimea Conference"
  • "Letter to Joseph Stalin on Poland, April 1, 1945"
  • "Briefing of President Truman by W. Averell Harriman on Soviet Actions in Eastern Europe, April 20, 1945"
  • "Letter Defending Actions in Poland, April 24, 1945."

All of these documents may be located by going to "Contents," then "Regions," then "Soviet Union," then scroll down to each individual title.

Use the sources to answer the following questions.

  1. How do these documents reveal a wartime preoccupation with the postwar world? What problems do they reveal as being the most intractable? Why do you think these issues were the most difficult to resolve?
  2. Assess the language of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, section 2 of the second document. Does this seem like a clear-cut statement to you? Is it straightforward and unambiguous, or could it be interpreted in different ways? How might the nature of this document result in conflicts during the postwar period?
  3. The last three sources deal with one of the major points of contention between the Soviet Union and the United States during the last weeks of the war and the early part of the postwar period: the question of Poland. How do these documents lay out each side's position? Does there seem any room for compromise or negotiation? Why do you think each side took such a firm stand on this question? Be sure to frame your answer with specifics from the documents.
  4. What do the third and fourth documents suggest about the similarities and differences between the opinions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry S. Truman? Historians have spent a good deal of time examining the foreign policy transition from the former to the latter. Does the Polish question suggest continuity or change?
  5. Taking these sources together, what do they suggest about the tenuous nature of the Grand Alliance assembled to fight the Axis? Why was it important during the war that issues such as these not become too contentious? What would happen to the war effort if the Allies squabbled among themselves?

Activity 0
Among the most enduring images of World War II are photographs of the atomic explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945. Coming three months after the surrender of Germany in Europe, the atomic bombings brought the Japanese to their knees and compelled them to surrender.

The story of the American atomic program--the so-called Manhattan Project--was a success story on a giant scale, an inspiring tale of bureaucratic cooperation and national determination. (It was also an example of governmental secrecy, as news of the project was kept from all but a select few who absolutely had to know about it.)

Historians have studied the atomic bombings of Japan like few other issues in U.S. history. Endless--and perhaps unresolvable--debates have ensued over the wisdom and morality of the atomic bombings. If resolving these kinds of questions may never be truly possible, students and scholars can at least study documents and images about the atomic bombing to get a sense of what they meant for people at the time.

To that end, go to the following sources within "The Cold War":

  • "Atomic Damage, Hiroshima" (be sure to play audio portion)
  • "Mushroom Cloud"
  • "Little Boy"
  • "Fat Man"
  • "Enola Gay."

These sources may be located by going to "Index," then "A," then "Atomic bomb," then click on each individual title.

Use the sources to answer the following questions.

  1. How does the newsreel footage in the first source describe the damage from the atomic bomb? What images does the audio conjure up in your mind? How do you think Americans at the time would have reacted to it?
  2. How do the four photographs and their accompanying commentaries add to your knowledge of how Americans in 1945 would have understood the bomb? What do you expect was the most important thing about the bombs for them at the time? What about the bombs might have been the hardest for people to understand?
  3. Although the bombs and planes themselves were just inanimate objects, they could at the time and can today inspire powerful emotional reactions. (Proof of this came in the mid-1990s when the Smithsonian's plans to display the Enola Gay aroused an intense public debate.) Why do you suppose these "things" can become so invested with meaning, even after all this time? What does their continued power say about the importance of the atomic bombings for American society?

Historians who have studied the atomic bomb have devoted a fair amount of attention to the question of whether the bomb might have been used as a diplomatic weapon to win concessions from the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. Recently declassified Soviet documents suggest that far from being surprised about the bomb, Soviet leaders knew all about and were already hard at work on an atomic bomb of their own.

Within "The Cold War," go to "Stalin's Secret Order: Build the Bomb 'on a Russian Scale.'" (This document may be located by the same procedure used to locate the sources above.)

Use this document, along with the sources above, to answer the following questions.

  1. What do these documents reveal about the way Soviet officials viewed atomic weapons? About their determination not to be left out if the United States had them?
  2. How does the second part of this document confirm the idea that if one side in the emerging Cold War had nuclear weapons, the other side would want them too? In other words, can you see the genesis of the arms race here? Why was it so dangerous for the two superpowers in the postwar period and into the Cold War era to try to constantly outdo each other in the field of atomic bombs?