WWII Primary Source Analysis

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/WW2%20kamikaze.pdf

This interview with a Japanese man reveals the thoughts of pilots who participated in Kamikazes before their suicide attempt.  This young man named Okamoto, wanted to fight for his country, and make his family and the emperor proud.  He thought with his attempt, along with many others, the Japanese would end up with a victory.  Okamoto explains that by joining the kamikazes, he felt important and a sense of relief.  He felt he was living for a reason, even though he would prove that reason by dying.  He states he was honored to die for his country, and hopefully that his actions in war, would redeem him for being a bad son.  The article compares these kamikaze pilots to any American soldier, and how they just want to participate in the war and fight for their country. However, Okamoto also had a personal reason for taking part in the Kamikazes.  His older brother had once been a pilot, and did not come home alive.  He felt as though it was his duty to become a pilot when he was given his assignment.  Further in the article, the effects on Okamoto's family is shown.  His mother is proud to have her son survive, but as she recites his going away letter, the reader senses she was greatly impacted by his life threatening decision.  The interview illustrates the hardships of war and the dedication throughout the Japanese society.

Chapter 17 Summary

17.1

            This section evaluates the role of the US in fighting the war. Japan thought after Pearl Harbor the United States would be “shaking in her shoes”. But, Japan was wrong. The United States was anything but scared. They set out for war chanting “Remember Pearl Harbor”. Many young men were eager to fight. About 5 million volunteered, but that wasn’t enough. The United States ended up drafting about 10 million soldiers. Men weren’t the only ones helping out with the war. The WAAC (women’s auxiliary army corps) was born. This was a program in which women would work in the war, but have no direct combat. Women were nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots. Minorities struggled during the war. The minorities didn’t see why they should fight for freedom when they don’t even have it. Despite the segregation in the military, more than 300 000 Mexican Americans joined the arm forces. About 1000000 African Americans volunteered to be in the war as well. Japanese Americans were also in the war, but many served as spies. The war dramatically affected industries. A lot of companies switched from, for example, filling bottles with soda to filling shells with explosives. All these industries changed to further support the war. Since so many men were drafted, women had to take their place in the factories. They did the same jobs but only earned about 60 % of a mans paycheck. More than 2 million workers were minorities but, these workers had very menial jobs. A. Phillip Randolph protested such discrimination with a march in Washington. Roosevelt called Randolph to the white house asking him to back down. Randolph told him he couldn’t. In the end, Roosevelt was the one to back down. Albert Einstein warned Roosevelt about Germany learning to split the uranium atom. This developed the Manhattan Project, one of the best kept secrets in history. They developed one of the deadliest bombs of all time. They developed the atomic bomb. As war production increased, demand of food and other goods increased while supplies decreased, therefore increasing prices. Known as OPA.   Then the government started the war production board. This was used to allocate raw materials to key industries to use for the war. The government’s next tactic was to start rationing. Rationing was, establishing fixed allotments of goods deemed essential for the military.

17.2

            The United States and Britain join forces and make war plans. They decided to take out Hitler before going after Japan or Italy.

 THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: Germany vs America, The Atlantic Ocean, Because Germany wanted to stop supplies from getting to Britain and the Soviet Union. US won.

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD: Soviet Union vs Germany, battling for the land itself, in Stalingrad, Germany held in the freezing cold of Moscow with no form of heat and no supplies or food, Soviets won the battle.

THE NORTH AMERICAN FRONT: Operation torch, an invasion of axis controlled North Africa, Commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Axis vs allies. German surrender, Allies victory.

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN: allies meet and agreed to only accept axis powers unconditional surrender. Attacking Italy first, Benito Mussolini was forced to resign. King victor Emmanuel took his place. Bloody azino: worst battle allies faced. Germany left to collapse.

Many different ethnicities were fighting in the war and served in segregated units. One African American group named the Tuskegee Airmen became very famous. Known for their bravery and there skilled use of the aircrafts, the men were a hit. Mexican Americans also fought in segregated units.

D-DAY: June 6 1944, the first day of the invasion of Normandy. German retaliation was horrible. People were yelling and dying everywhere.

By September 1944 allies freed France Belgium and Luxemburg.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE: tanks drove 60 miles into allied territory creating a bulge in the lines the desperate last ditch offensive. Went for a month Germans were destroyed after this battle and could do little but retreat.

Soviets went to concentration camps and saw the events occurring there. This liberated concentration camps.

V-E DAY: victory in Europe day, when Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the third Reich. May 8 1945

Roosevelt died of stroke before this on April 12 1945. Harry Truman took his place as president.

17.3

            The Japanese were making advances while Hitler was being taken down. They conquered an empire. Took over Hong Kong, French Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, and much of china. Douglas Macarthur was in control of allied forces on the islands at the time of the Japanese invasion. He promised he would return before he left. America went in on Japan and bombed Tokyo. Dampened japans sprits while lifting Americas.

BATTLE OF CORAL SEA: Americans and Australia vs. Japan, war by airplanes, may 1942; Japanese invasion was stopped and turned back.

BATTLE OF MIDWAY: MAJOR TURNING POINT IN THE WAR. America knew Japan was coming and got ready for the attack, Chester Nimitz commanded American naval forces and did it successfully, Japan was devastated, saying Americans avenged Pearl Harbor. Soon allies began island hopping. Allies go on the offensive. Allies invaded Guadalcanal. Japans first defeat on land. Macarthur returned to the Philippians after two years. The Japanese had a new defense called kamikaze, or suicide bombers. Literally it translates to divine wind. This took place in the Philippines. The battle of Leyte Gulf was a disaster for Japan despite the kamikaze.

IWO JIMA: the allies turned to Iwo Jima. It was critical because it was a base which heavily loaded bombers might reach Japan. Most heavily defended spot on earth. Allies won and placed the famous flag in Iwo Jima soil.

OKINAWA: US marines invaded Okinawa. Japanese unleashed 1900 kamikaze pilots here. Sinking ships and killing men. Fiercer than Iwo Jima on land. Over 7600 American soldiers died.

The atomic bombs are what ended the war. The bombs were developed in the Manhattan project. Tested the bomb July 16 1945 in Alamogordo, Mexico. The bomb worked.

HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI: first bomb was dropped in Hiroshima; the allies thought this would lead to surrender from Japan. Impatiently waiting three days, the allies dropped another bomb in Nagasaki. An estimated 200,000 people died from radiation and impact of the explosion. After this the emperor knew he couldn’t put his people through any more pain and surrendered, September 2^nd.  Formal surrender ceremonies took place. At the Yalta conference they decided and kept Germany in occupation zones and put allied powers in control so they would never threaten the Soviet Union. This is also where Soviet Union said they would help with Japan. America knew they weren’t done with Germany yet. Hitler wasn’t the only one in the Holocaust so the allies went back and arrested everyone who helped Hitler in the Nuremburg war trials. For 7 years Douglas Macarthur occupied Japan fixing it and bringing it up to be an acceptable nation. He made a constitution about women suffrage that would provide for women suffrage and basic freedoms. He essentially created the new Japan.

17.4

            World war two helped the economy and made America the dominant economic and military power. Unemployment was very rare, workers worked hard and long hours but were able to save money for the future. Farmers also prospered during the war. Women enjoyed the war because they were able to go out and get jobs. California became a popular spot to move to for work during the war, led to be one of the greatest migrations in American history. Juvenile delinquency grew because moms went to work while the dad was at war often leaving teenagers alone to themselves. When the men came back the GI Bill of Rights was passed to ensure veterans got education and training paid by the government. African Americans moved to the Midwest and jobs were plentiful. IN 1942 James Farmer developed CORE to confront urban segregation in the North. Riots began and violence increased. This reveled how serious racial tension was in the USA. African Americans were determined to get the gains they made. In Los Angeles racial tension was the same with Mexican Americans. The zoot was a popular suit among Mexican Americans to show their rebellion against tradition. 11 sailors said they were attacked by zoot suit wearing Mexicans. This started the violence, the riots lasted almost a week. The Japanese Americans had the worst racial tension. America turned to internment, or confinement of the Japanese because they were scared to be attacked, scared that they were spies. They imprisoned many Japanese and put them to work. Japanese people fought for their rights but were unsuccessful for a long time. The Japanese American citizens league pushed the government to compensate for the time the Japanese spent on the camps once they were released. So anyone who was in the camps got a check for 20000 dollars. 

Klor De Alva, Krieger, Wilson, and Woloch. "Unit 5." The Americans. By Danzer. McDougal Littell. Print.

WWII Expert Interview

Interview with Loretta Wallace, History Degree with honors from Madonna University, inducted into National Professional History Honors fraternity of Phi Alpha Theta, TA for history professors


Me: Was the US considering going to war before the attack on Pearl Harbor?


Loretta: There are theories that President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to enter the war, but the country as a whole was still based on isolationism and did not want to go to war after WWI. President Roosevelt was a people pleaser and really took in to account his countries feelings on the issue. His issue was with Japan as opposed to Germany.


Me: How was it decided that the US form a union Stalin?


Loretta: Well the US was leery at first of course, but they figured, as I'm sure you have learned, that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So when the Germany broke the nonaggression pact, the US saw it as a good time to gain an ally with Stalin. Both the US and the Soviet Union wanted to take back control of Europe so it worked out for the both. There wasn't anything major that really made them become allies. Basically the president just wanted to beef up relations with the Soviets.


Me: What prompted America to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima?


Loretta: This question leads to many debated intentions. They wouldn't surrender their fight in the pacific and the death tolls from both sides were only going to increase. When the US knew war was ending they wanted also to send the message to their Soviet Union "buddies" to show them where the power stood. Pearl Harbor was the excuse for the bomb but it was a strong intimidation tactic to the Soviets. Not that the bomb needed an excuse, but there was definitely more to the bomb drop that winning the war in the Pacific.

WWII Veteran Interview

Interviewing: Barry Meier, son of John Meier, a WWII veteran

Me: Was your father, John, drafted or did he enlist?

Barry:  He enlisted in the war in 1941 right after high school.

Me: Where was he living at the time?

Barry:  He was living in Detroit, Michigan.

Me: Where was he positioned in WWII?

Barry: He was positioned in Italy in combat.

Me:  Where was he captured?

Barry: He was captured in Italy, and was taken to a concentration/work camp in Northern Poland.

Me: When he was captured, what was his experience?

Barry: In the concentration camp, they beat him and starved him. They tortured him while his was doing forced labor. Instead of killing him though they sent him through a death march, where he walked for almost two months until Americans found him. He was one of few to survive. They sent him through a death march because they knew they were going to lose the war and were trying to have prisoners that were alive to make a bargaining chip when the settlement came.

Me: Did he earn any medals or citations?

Barry: He earned the Prisoner of War Medal and a bronze star.

Me: What was it like for him to return home?

Barry: When he came home he was only 80 pounds, and was 5’ 8”. It took a while to adjust to being home and to not be always being undercover.

Me: Did he go to school after the war, or get a job? If a job, what job?

Barry: He got a job, and he worked for his father at his father’s camera shop called Meier Camera.

Me: Overall, how did the war change him as a person and his outlook on life?

Barry: It changed my dad forever. He had a very strong belief that America was a great society and that he was fighting for the rights of all Americans, and everything America did was right. But when I was young, I saw America doing the wrong things, so unfortunately I lost touch with my father for a long time because of our differentiating beliefs. Now looking back and realize how sad that period was because my father was the strongest and most courageous man I will ever know. He was a great guy, passionate and loving. I miss him. He was definitely changed in the war with all the pain and suffering he went through, but he knew that what happened was for his country so he moved on the best he could. My dad was a fighter, and he fought forever, for the country and his family.

WWII timeline

CLICK ON IMAGE.

Klor De Alva, Krieger, Wilson, and Woloch. "Unit 5." The Americans. By Danzer. McDougal Littell. Print.

Chapter 16 Summary

16.1

            In the beginning of this section the leaders of Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union are introduced. The idea of totalitarianism is also introduced. They give brief descriptions/definitions of what these leaders believed in and who they were. It eventually gets into the rise to power for these three men. Halfway around the world, militarists of the imperial government of Japan launched a surprise attack and took control of the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. This led to Japan quitting the League of Nations; Germany saw this and challenged the League of Nations by pulling out and building a treaty-breaking army. Francisco Franco leads a civil war in Spain, which led to Germany and Italy becoming allies (Rome-Berlin Axis). During all this, the United States stuck to their plan of Isolationism. Isolationism was the Untied States way of staying out of the war. This brought on the Neutrality Acts. These acts prohibited the selling of arms and loans to nation’s war/civil war. Despite the effort, staying neutral was impossible. Roosevelt tried speaking out about isolationism and got a mixed response. He backed off the face of criticism but his debate did change a view views.

16.2

            Hitler needed “living space”. But, obtaining this space wasn’t going to be easy. Hitler desperately wanted Austria and Czechoslovakia. Anschluss  was announced, anchluss meaning “a union”, between Austria and Germany. With such a large amount of German speaking people, Hitler needed Czechoslovakia. He got Neville Chamberlin and Edouard Daladier to sign over the Sudetenland without a single gunshot fired. Winston Churchill was not satisfied. He defined this as appeasement. Next, Hitler sought out peace with the Soviet Union. To everyone’s surprise, Soviet Union agreed and signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler. They also agreed on dividing up Poland. Before all this was possible, Germany needed to get control of Poland. Using blitzkrieg (lightning war), he did. France and Britain waited for something to happen with Germany, nothing did. They called this sitzkreig (sitting war). After Germany saw France was waiting for war, they sent tanks to France, avoiding British soldiers.  Germany invaded Paris. France fell to German control. Next, Germany knew they had to get Britain. With a strong naval power, Britain would be hard to beat, so Germany launched an air war as well as a naval war. Britain fought long and hard, and it paid off. Hitler called off the invasion.

16.3

            During this time, the Jewish people have always been a target. It became apparent to everyone in 1938 when the Nuremburg laws were passed to strip Jews of all their rights. November 9-10 become known as Kristallnacht, otherwise known as “The night of broken glass”. Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and churches. Around 100 Jews were killed. The Jews were fed up at this point and decided to flee. The only problem was, no one would take them. Then there was St. Louis, a German ocean liner housing 943 passengers, was forced to turn around and prevented anyone access to America. More than ½ of the passengers were killed later in the holocaust. Hitler started to think of this as a plan to eliminate the Jews, a plan he called “The Final Solution”. This was racial purification and it was in fact genocide. But, Hitler didn’t only attack Jews. He silenced political opponents, gypsies, free masons, Jehovah witnesses, etc. Along with the killings, Jews were forced to move out of their homes into disgusting places called Ghettos. In a ghetto, life was miserable to say the least. People were forced to work and many people died of illnesses and what not. Jews not reached by killing squads were then put into concentration camps. Families were often separated and put to work. They were forced into cruel wooden bunkers that fit 1000 people in at once. People starved or worked themselves to death. Hitler was pleased for a little until he thought it was time for mass extermination. 12000 people could be killed at once. He killed people who weren’t strong enough, physically or mentally, to work. An estimated 6 million people died in the holocaust. The survivors were never the same. After seeing everything they saw, their lives were altered forever.

16.4

            September 1939; cash and carry came into play. Cash and carry was a provision that allowed warring nations to buy US arms as long as they paid cash and picked them up themselves. September 27, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a tripartite pact and became known as the axis powers. The US started selective training and service act, drafting 1 million boys. This same year Roosevelt ran for third term, breaking tradition, but he won. Roosevelt spoke about the lend lease plan, often referring to the garden hose analogy. If your neighbors house was on fire and their hose didn’t reach the only logical thing to do would be to lend them your hose to prevent fire from spreading to your house. So with this, the US helped Britain. As a result, Germany attacked the Soviet Union using lend lease too, and so then the US also helped the Soviet Union. This became the use of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Hitler saw this and wanted to stop it. So he set up U-Boats and attacked all ships delivering goods. Churchill and Roosevelt developed the Atlantic charter. The US wanted to stop Germany before they could strike. Days later, Hitler sunk a US destroyer and killed 100+ sailors. This naval “war” with Germany was still undeclared. It isn’t what brought us into the war. The event bringing us into the war was the attack on Pearl Harbor. The US stopped trade with Japan with the knowledge of the oncoming attack. December 7 1941, a date which will live in infamy, was the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese attacked and killed many Americans and took down many ships and aircrafts. This brutal attack ultimately brought us into the war. 

Klor De Alva, Krieger, Wilson, and Woloch. "Unit 5." The Americans. By Danzer. McDougal Littell. Print.

Chapter 17 Vocabulary

WAAC: women’s auxiliary army corps

George Marshall: Army chief for staff general

A. Philip Randolph: president and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car posters, highly respected leader

Manhattan Project: U.S. program to develop an atomic bomb for use in WWII

OPA: office of Price Administration

WPB: war production board

Rationing: a restriction of people’s rights to by unlimited amounts of particular good and other goods, often implemented during wartime to ensure adequate supplies for the military

Dwight D. Eisenhower: American general, he commanded the invasion on Axis-controlled North America

D-Day: a name given to June 6, 1944; the day on which the Allies launched an invasion of the European mainland in WWII

Omar Bradley: American army general who launched massive air and land attack against enemy at St. Louis

George Paton: American general

Battle of the Bulge: a moth-long battle of WWII, in which the allies succeeded in turning back the last major German offensive of the war

V.E. Day: a name given to May 8, 1945, “Victory in Europe Day” on which General Eisenhower’s acceptance of the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany marked the end of WWII in Europe

Harry S. Truman: Vice President for President Franklin Roosevelt, who then became the 33^rd president when Roosevelt died in office

Tuskegee Airmen: plots of all black 99^th pursuit squadron, fought in Italy

Douglas MacArthur: Ally general who commanded the Philippines islands in Dec. 1941

Chester Nimitz: the commander of the American naval forces in the Pacific

Battle of Midway: battle in which the Japanese were caught off guard and lost 54 aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes. Was the turning point in the Pacific War

Kamikaze: involving or engaging in the deliberate crashing of a bomb-filled airplane into a military target (suicide-plane)

Iwo Jima: most heavily guarded island, Americans won it over to use to serve as a base from which heavily loaded bombers could reach Japan

J. Robert Oppenheimer: led research on the development of the atomic bomb, he was an American scientist

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the two cities on which the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs during WWII

Nuremberg Trials: the court proceeding held in Nuremberg, Germany, after WWII, in which Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes

James Farmer: civil rights leader who founded the “CORE”

CORE: The Congress of Racial Equality, an interracial group founded in 1942 by James Farmer to work against racism in N. cities

GI Bill of Rights: a name given to the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, a 1944 law that provided financial and educational benefits for WWII veterans

Internment: confinement or a restriction in movement, especially under wartime conditions

JACL: The Japanese American Citizens League, an organization that pushed the U.S. government to compensate the Japanese Americans for property they had lost when they were interned during WWII

Klor De Alva, Krieger, Wilson, and Woloch. "Unit 5." The Americans. By Danzer. McDougal Littell. Print.