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Chapter 36
America in World War II
1941-1945
Washington, after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, adopted the strategy of "getting Germany first"; if America diverted its main strength to
the Pacific, Hitler might crush both the Soviet Union and Britain. If Germany was knocked out first, then Allied forces could be
concentrated on Japan.
Wartime Migrations
The war churned and shifted the American population. 1.6 million blacks left the South to seek jobs in the war plants of the West and
North. Black leader A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened a massive "Negro March on
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Washington" in 1941 to demand equal opportunities for blacks in war jobs and in the armed forces. As a result, Roosevelt established
the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance with his executive order forbidding discrimination in
defense industries.
During WWII, FDR gave the South a disproportionate share of defense contracts in order to fix the economic crisis of the South.
In 1944, the advent of the mechanical cotton picker made the Cotton South's need for cheap labor disappear. Following the invention,
millions of black tenant farmers and sharecroppers headed north.
Some 25,000 Native Americans served in the armed forces. Comanches in Europe and Navajos in the Pacific made such valuable
contributions as "code talkers."
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On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated. With the Japanese still refusing to surrender, the first of 2 atomic bombs was
dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. On August 8, Stalin invaded the Japanese defenses of Manchuria and Korea. After the
Japanese still refused to surrender, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9.
On August 10, 1945, Tokyo surrendered under the condition that Hirohito be allowed to remain the emperor. The Allies accepted this
condition on August 14, 1945. The formal end to the war came on September 2, 1945.
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