Exam 3

Question 1

Political and social radicalism after World War I

Answer 1

Immediately after the war, there were strikes, some terrorists acts, racial violence and the Red Scare. Much of the politics of the 20’s was a reaction to this radicalism, especially Harding’s slogan of returning to normalcy.

Question 2

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

Answer 2

Sacco and Vanzetti were two working class Italian immigrants who were were convicted for stealing $16,000 from a shoe factory and killing the paymaster and the guard. Though the money was never found, they were convicted and ordered executed. There is doubt of their guilt, and it is said they were wrongly convicted and sentenced due to their political ideas and ethnic origin. This was a huge public spectacle and the most celebrated criminal cases of the 1920’s.

There was strong evidence against the pair, but it was also thought that they did not get a fair trial. It was a polarizing event.

Question 3

The 1924 immigration law

Answer 3

the 1924 law shut off the flood of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and maintained the ban on Asian Immigrants. It allowed the US to pick and choose who got to come here.

Question 4

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 4

Two key things to remember about this clan - its focus was wider than just anit-black - it targeted Catholics and Jews as well, and it was not an exclusively southern organization - it was nationwide.

Question 5

The Scopes trial

Answer 5

The trial was a test case to see if the State of Tennessee could ban the teaching of evoloution. It became a media event covered by radio when two big names, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan became involved. The purpose of the trial became secondary to the duel between Darrow and Bryan over the issue of a literal interpretation of the Bible. Scopes and Darrow lost the case but Scopes only got a slap on the wrist. Bryan died a few days later making it even more dramatic.

Question 6

The prohibition amendment

Answer 6

The temperence movement was a model of the single issue pressure group. They brilliantly led a grass roots movement that defeated opponents of their view on alcohol. During World War I, when we were fighting Germans, prohibition was given a push because the names of leading beer breweries were Schlitz, Pabst, Budweiser and Miller, all German names. The prohibition amendment was an effort to re-establish the moral authority of small town America. Most of its supporters did not expect that it would ban beer and wine and were unpleasantly surprised when the Volstead Act did just that.

Question 7

Al Capone

Answer 7

The most celebrated Prohibition-era gangster was “Scarface” Al Capone. In NYC, he thuggishly (lol) seized control of the huge illegal liquor business (bootlegging) in the city. In his 1927 Chicago-based bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling empire brought him an income of $60 million, which he flaunted with expensive suits and silk pajamas, a custom-upholstered bulletproof Cadillac, a platoon of bodyguards, and lavish support for city charities.

I would point out that while Capone was born and grew up in New York City, his criminal activities were in Chicago.

Question 8

Flappers

Answer 8

Flappers were more than just about fashion. They were “liberated” women, smoking, drinking, swearing and going where women had not gone before. They were a break from the Victorian idea of what a woman should be.

Question 9

The Great Migration

Answer 9

The most significant development in African American life during the early 20th century was the Great Migration northward from the South. The movement of blacks to the North began in 1915-1916, when rapidly, expanding war industries and restrictions on immigration together created a labor shortage. African Americans were freer to speak and act in a northern setting; they also gained political leverage by settling in large cities with many electoral votes.

I would add that this migration triggered white reaction through several race riots in places like Chicago, E. Stl Louis, and of course, Tulsa Oklahoma.

Question 10

The Harlem Renaissance

Answer 10

Along with political activity came a bristling spirit called the Harlem Renaissance, the nation’s 1st self-conscious black literacy and artistic movement. The Harlem Renaissance grew out of the fastest-growing African-American community in NYC. In 1890, 1 in 70 people in Manhattan was African American; by 1930 it was 1 in 9. Contained more blacks per square mile than any other community in the nation. The Harlem Renaissance was the self-conscious effort in the NY black community to cultivate racial equality by promoting African American cultural achievements.

Question 11

Marcus Garvey

Answer 11

Garveyism. The spirit of jazz and the “New Negro” also found expression in what came to be called Negro nationalism, which exalted blackness, black cultural expression, and black separatism. The leading spokesman for such view was the flamboyant Marcus Garvey.

I would only add that one of Garvey’s principals was that blacks living in America should emigrate to Africa where he proposed to establish a new country.

Question 12

Jazz music

Answer 12

The birth of Jazz. The new jazz music had first emerged in New Orleans as an ingenious synthesis of black rural folk traditions and urban dance entertainment. During the 1920s it spread Kansas City, Memphis, Harlem, and Chicago’s South Side. Trumpeter Louis Armstrong was the Pied Piper of jazz. Through the vehicle of jazz, African American performers not only shaped American culture but European taste as well. Matisse and Picasso were infatuated wit jazz music.

Question 13

Emphasis of the NAACP

Answer 13

A more lasting force for racial equality was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1910 by black activists and white progressives. Black participants in the NAACP came mainly from the Niagara Movement, a group associated with W. E. B. Du Bois. Within a few years, the NAACP had become a broad-based national organization. The NAACP embraced the progressive idea that the solution to social problems begins with education, by informing the people of social ills. Du Bois became the director of publicity and research editor of its journal, Crisis, from 1910 to 1934. The NAACP’s main strategy focused on legal action to bring the 14th and 15th Amendments back to life.

The NAACP’s efforts to oppose segregation would culminate in the Brown V Board of Education in the 1954.

Question 14

Albert Einstein

Answer 14

A young German physicist with an irreverent attitude toward established truths, announced his theory of relativity, which maintained that space, time, and mass were not absolutes but instead were relative to the location and motion of the observer. Mass and energy are not separate phenomena but are interchangeable. By 1921, when Einstein was rewarded the Nobel Prize, his abstract concept of relativity had become internationally recognized.

Question 15

The culture of modernism

Answer 15

The modernist revolt. The dramatics changes in society and the economy during the 1920s were accompanied by continuing transformations in science and the arts that spurred the onset of a “modernist” sensibility. Modernists came to believe that the 20th century marked a period marking a turning point in a course of action in human development. Notions of reality and human nature were called into question by sophisticated scientific discoveries and radical new forms of artistic expression.

Question 16

Warren G. Harding and the 1920 campaign for president

Answer 16

After WWI and President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Republican party leaders turned to Ohio senator Warren G. Harding who conservatively told a Boston audience that it was time to end Wilsonian progressivism.”America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate,” In contrast to Wilson’s grandiose internationalism, Harding promised to “safeguard America first…to exalt America first, to live for and revere America first.” The “return to normalcy” reflected the voters’ desire for stability and order. Voters saw him as handsome, charming, lovable. Unbeknownst to the general public, Harding drank bootleg liquor during Prohibition, smoked and chewed tobacco, relished weekly poker games, had numerous affairs and several children with women outside of the marriage. Harding won the campaign for President versus former newspaper publisher and former governor of Ohio, James Cox. Republican Franklin Delano Roosevelt won vice president. The Republican domination in both houses of Congress increased.

Yes, harding’s election was a rejection of Wilson’s internationalism, and the desire to return to the “good old days”.

Question 17

The Ohio Gang

Answer 17

Harding appointed many of his cronies to various jobs, including his key political advisor, Harry Daughtery as Attorney Geneneral.

Question 18

Andrew Mellon

Answer 18

To sum up, Mellon wanted to reduce government spending, reduce the national debt and cut taxes. His program was popular in the 1920’s, but opinion turned against him during the Great Depression.

Question 19

Warren G. Harding and progressivism

Answer 19

In one area Warren G. Harding proved to be more progressive than Woodrow Wilson. He reversed the Wilson admnistration’s segregationist policy of excluding African Americans from federal government jobs. He also spoke out against the vigilante racism that had flared up across the country during and after the war. In his first speech to a joint session of Congress in 1921, Harding insisted that the nation must deal with the festering “race question.” The new president, unlike his Democratic predecessor, attacked the Ku Klux Klan for fomenting “hatred and prejudice and violence,” and he urged Congress “to wipe the stain of barbaric lynching from the banners of a free and orderly, representative democracy.” The Senate failed to pass the bill Harding promoted.

Question 20

The Kellogg-Briand Treaty

Answer 20

the Kellogg-Briand Pact was a nice sounding, empty shell of an agreement. No enforcement, no penalties, it was just an agreement by 62 countries to play nice. In 12 year, most of the key signatories were at war.

Question 21

The Teapot Dome Scandal

Answer 21

the Teapot Dome Scandal involved the leasing of government owned oil fields to private companies, which was okay, but the official doing it took large bribes from the companies.

Question 22

Teapot Dome Scandal (2nd question)

Answer 22

Harding died just after the Teapot Dome scandal became public. His administration has since been identified as corrupt for the Teapot Dome Scandal, plus several others in the Veterans Bureau and the Justice Dept.

Question 23

The stock market crash

Answer 23

there were many areas of the economy that were declining before the stock market crash. Farmers were already in a depression, housing construction had slowed, as well as the demand for automobiles, but these economic warning signs were hidden by the continued surge of the stock market. The market crash beginning on Black Tuesday, October 29th caused a psychological shock to investors, destroying confidence in the economy, but it also had a real impact as billions of dollars in assets were wiped out, causing a contraction in the money supply, and leaving investors and banks underwater on loans with worthless stocks as collateral. The stock market crash help make what could have been a recession into the Great Depression.

Question 24

Unemployment in early 1933

Answer 24

As time passes, and the people who experienced the Depression first hand die, we tend to lose sight of the terrible suffering during the Depression. Record keeping was not the best at that time, but it is estimated that 1 in 4 workers were unemployed at the Depression’s depths in late 1932 and early 1933. That is 25% or between 13 and 14 million people. In some cities where there were a lot of factories, unemployment was over 50%. Unemployment among minority groups was the highest. There were soup kitchens and bread lines to help feed the hungry. People rummaged through trash to find food. They lived in shanty towns called Hoovervilles. Many became hoboes, sneaking rides in boxcars in hopes of going somewhere to find a job. People lost thier homes, farmers lost thier farms. Banks were failing, wiping out what meager savings people might have had. The mood of the country was one of dispair.

Question 25

Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

Answer 25

He did do more to fight the Depression than any other president before him, mainly through increased public works, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the first government bailout of business, and through his farm loan program, but it was way too little to have much impact on the Depression. On the negative side, he raised taxes, signed a disastrous tariff bill and refused to run a deficit. He believed that direct relief to the unemployed and to farmers should come from state and local sources and charities. He resisted any efforts to provide direct relief payments to individuals as he felt it would destroy their self reliance. As a result, he was portrayed as hard hearted and blamed for conditions. Shanty towns were called Hoovervilles, when homeless used newspapers to cover up with, they were called Hoover Blankets.

Question 26

Herbert Hoover response to the Bonus Army marchers

Answer 26

After Hoover offered tickets for the Veterans to go home, many remained in Washington and continued to demonstrate. Hoover gradually became concerned that radicals (communists) were taking over the movement, and he ordered the police in Washington to evict those marchers living in vacant buidlings in the capital. In the eviction process, a fight broke out and police killed two of the Veterans. Hoover ordered the army to remove the vets from both downtown Washington and from their camp on the outskirts of town. Hoover specifically ordered that this be done in a humane manner, but General Douglas McArthur sent 700 troops with bayonets, tanks and tear gas. He forcefully evicted the Bonus Marchers from downtown and then proceeded to burn down thier camp. Hoover was shocked but did not disavow McArthurs actions. This was done in the summer before the 1932 presidential election and this was pretty much the last nail in the coffin of Hoover’s reelection campaign, as he was blamed for running poor veterans out of Washington at gun point.

Question 27

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Answer 27

The RFC was the first attempt by the government to bail out businesses. It marked a big departure for Hoover in terms of his economic ideology, but in terms of the scale of the Depression, it was too little to have much impact.

Question 28

The Bonus Expeditionary Force

Answer 28

In the 1920’s, in recognition of the financial sacrifice that soldiers made in World War I, Congress passed a bonus bill in 1925. Soliders had made less than $30 per month in the army and men who stayed at home and worked in defense industry made several times that a month. The bonus amounted to $500 maximum, and would be paid in 20 years (1945). With the advent of the Depression vets lobbied for immediate payment of the bonus due to hard times. In the summer of 1932, thousands of unemployed vets along with thier families converged on Washington to pressure Congress. They called themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force or BEF. The occupied vacant buildings in Washington and made camp on the outskirts of Washington. They marched and held demonstrations outside the Capitol Building. The House passed a bonus bill but the Senate defeated it. At that point some of the demonstrators went home, but many stayed as they had no where else to go.

Question 29

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s disability

Answer 29

In 1920, largely on the strength of his name, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became James Cox’s running mate on the Democratic ticket. The following year, at age 39, his career was cut short by the onset of polio– Poliomyelitis– an infectious viral disease that affects the central nervous system and can cause temporary or permanent paralysis– that left him permanently disabled, unable to stand or walk without braces. But the battle for recovery transformed the young aristocrat. He became less arrogant, less superficial, more focused, and more interesting. This led him to identify with the poor and the suffering.

Roosevelt before polio was a somewhat arrogant, superficial individual. Being crippled by polio was a transformative event. He was a child of privilegde and had never had to face adversity. Now he could not walk.

Question 30

“Happy Days Are Here Again”

Answer 30

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s upbeat personality communicated joy, energy, and hope. His campaign song was “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Yes, in contrast to the dour and downcast Hoover, Roosevelt conveyed confidence and optomism which did a lot to lift the spirits of the country.

Question 31

Percentage of Americans unemployed in 1932

Answer 31

25%, 1 in every 4 Americans was unemployed in 1932.
This was on the average. For minorities and women, much higher. In manufacturing cities, sometimes 50% of workers were unemployed.

Question 32

Franklin D. Roosevelt and banking

Answer 32

some of the New Deal actions produced mixed results, but FDR’s action on the banking crisis, followed by subsequent legislation creating federal insurance of deposits was a complete success in terms of stopping bank panics in the United States.

Question 33

The “fireside chats”

Answer 33

Roosevelt’s first fireside chat on March 12 was about the banking crisis and helped convince Americans to put their money back in the bank. Roosevelt was the first media president, using radio to communicate directly with the American public. They were elaborately prepared, but the president appeared to be casually speaking to each American, using a conversational style. He gave some 30 fireside chats over his 12 years in office. The chats were given on Sunday evenings. He discovered that he had a gap in his teeth that when speaking into a microphone produced a whistle, so he had a false tooth made that filled the gap and ended the whistle. His distinctive voice and accent made him the first great American voice, and for many Americans thier first memory of politics was that of sitting by the radio listening to a fireside chat.

Question 34

Civilian Conservation Corps

Answer 34

The CCC camps were run by the US Army. The young men employed were paid $30 per month and they had to agree to send $25 back home to thier families. The 3 million number is the number of young men employed over the 9 year life of the program.

Question 35

Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933

Answer 35

Farm prices had declined to the point that farmers could not recover thier costs by selling their products. The AAA was designed to reduce the supply of agricultural products in order to drive up prices. Crops were plowed under, farm animals were slaughtered and farmers were paid to take land out of production. This was done in a country where people were going hungry. At any rate, in part due to AAA efforts and in part due to a devestating drought, supplies declined and prices went up, helping farmers gain some ground in terms of income. The AAA was delcared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because of the way it was financed. It was replaced by a similar law with the financing method changed.
I would add that as often happened the AAA had unintended results. To take advantage of payments for takiing land out of production, many tenent farmers were kicked off the land they were farming, the law thereby hurting some of the poorest farmers in the agricultural system.

Question 36

The Grapes of Wrath

Answer 36

During World War I, wheat prices skyrocketed to $2 per bushel. It costs $.49 to grow a bushel, so thousands of people became farmers on the Great Plains. They plowed up all the native grass and planted wheat. In the 1920’s the price of wheat declined as European agriculture recovered from the war. The farmer’s anwswer to declining prices was to grow more wheat. In the early 1930’s the Plains suffered a devestating drought. The wheat wouldn’t grow, the grass was gone, so when the wind started to blow, it carried the topsoil into air as dust storms. Many people in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Kansas either lost their farms or abandoned them and headed west to California to work as migrant workers, picking fruit and vegetables. They were known as Okies, and were the subject of John Steinbeck’s novel the Grapes of Wrath. It was also a hit movie.

Question 37

The National Recovery Administration

Answer 37

The NRA was a big change of government policy - previously, it had prosecuted companies for trying to limit competiton and fix prices. Now the NRA encouraged just that, as well a fixing wages and working hours. It soon lost favor with businesses as too much government interference, and the Supreme Court ultimately struck it down, saying Congress had delegated too much power to the executive branch. But for a while, the blue eagle flew high over many businesses.

Question 38

Tennessee Valley Authority

Answer 38

The Tennessee Valley Authority was one of the most innovative New Deal programs. It brought electrical power, flood control, and jobs to one of the poorest regions in the nation. It served seven states including: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee. This program also brought the opening of dams and the creation of huge powergenerating lakes. The downside to this was the destruction of homes, farms, and communities. It transported farm families from the age of kersoene to the age of electricity.

Question 39

The dust bowl

Answer 39

During World War I, farmers were encouraged by high prices to expand wheat production. They plowed up tens of thousands of acres of grassland on the Great Plains. During the 20’s prices declined dramatically, but farmers reacted by planting more wheat. In the process, they destroyed the native grass that for thousands of years had held in place the sandy soil of the Great Plains. In the early 30’s, it quit raining. The severe drought killed the wheat crop, and there was no vegetation left to hold the topsoil. When the spring winds started to blow, they created great dust storms that blanketed many areas. As if it were not bad enough to have a depression, people felt like God had turned against them as well. Many gave up and fled the plains, abandoning thier farms to move somewhere else.

Question 40

“Okies” and “Arkies”

Answer 40

Human misery paralleled the environmental devastation. Parched farmers could not pay mortgages, and banks foreclosed on their property. Suicides soared. With each year, millions of people abandoned their farms. Uprooted farmers and their families formed a migratory stream of hardship flowing westward from the South and the Midwest toward California, buoyed by currents of hope and desperation. The West Coast was rumored to have plenty of jobs. So off they went on a cross-country trek in pursuit of new opportunities. Frequently lumped together as “Okies” or “Arkies,” most of the dust bowl refugees were from cotton belt communities in Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri, as well as Oklahoma. During the 1930s and 1940s, some 800,000 people left those four states and headed to the Far West. Not all were farmers; many were white-collar workers and retailers whose jobs had been tied to the health of the agriculture sector. Most of the dust bowl migrants were white. Some traveled on trains or buses; others hopped a freight train or hitched a ride; most rode in their own cars, the trip taking four to five days on average. Most people uprooted by the dust bowl gravitated to California’s urban areas– Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fransisco. Others moved into the San Joaquin Valley, the agricultural heartland of California. There they discovered that rural California was no paradise. Only a few of the Midwestern migrants, mostly whites, could afford to buy land. Most found themselves competing with local Hispanics and Asians for seasonal work as pickers in the cotton fields or orchards of large corporate farms. Living in tents or crude cabins and frequently on the move, they suffered from exposure and poor sanitation.

Question 41

Eleanor Roosevelt

Answer 41

Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential and revered leaders of her time. She was a life long crusader on behalf of women, blacks, and youth. She was an outspoken activist, the first woman to address a national convention, write a syndicated newspaper column, and hold a press conference. While traveling across the country in support of the New Deal plan she defied local segregation ordinances. She implored people eto live up to their egalitarian and humanitarian ideas.

I would add that Mrs. Roosevelt redefined the role of first lady. She was the first activist first lady, doing all the things you mention in your answer, plus acting as FDR’s eyes and ears as she traveled across the country.

Question 42

Huey Long’s program to end the Depression

Answer 42

Long was known as the Kingfish, and he said his program would make “ Every man a king”. He was assassinated in the state capital building in Baton Rouge in 1935. FDR had called him one of the two most dangerous men in the country. The other was General Douglas MacArthur.

Question 43

Francis Townsend

Answer 43

Another popular social scheme critical of Roosevelt was hatched by a tall, gray-haired, mild-mannered California doctor, Francis E. Townsend. Outraged by the sight of 3 elderly women raking through garbage cans for scraps of food, Townsend called for government pensions for the aged. In 1934 he began promoting the Townsend Recovery Plan, which would pay $200/mo to every citizen over 60 who retired from employment and promised to spend the money within each month. The plan had the lure of providing financial security for the aged and stimulating economic growth by freeing up jobs for younger people. Critics noted that the cost of his program, which would serve 9% of the population, would be more than half the national income. Townsend, like Long, was indifferent to the details and balanced budgets.

Question 44

The Social Security Act

Answer 44

The Social Security Act, along with later add ons line medicare and medicade forms the basis of the modern social safety net or welfare state. It has had a dramatic effect of transferring money from young people to old people, myself now included. Thank you.

Question 45

FDR and expansion of the Supreme Court

Answer 45

FDR had won a record setting landslide in the 1936 election, winning 46 of 48 states. He felt strong enough then to go after the Supreme Court which had invalidated two of the key New Deal acts, the NRA and the AAA. The Social Security act and the National Labor Relations act were also on the court’s docket. FDR proposed to add a new justice for each justice over 70 years of age. He said he wanted to help with the work load, but most people saw it as an attempt to “pack” the court with his supporters. FDR squandered the political capital gained in 1936 in a losing fight. Many in his own party, including his vice president fought against the plan as an attempt to destroy the contitutional separation of powers and checks and balances. In 1938, Republicans gained a large number of seats in both the House and Senate. They allied themselves with conservative southern Democrats to block further New Deal legislation for the balance of FDR’s term and until the 1970’s. (after the defeat on “packing”the court, some of the older justices started to die or retire, and FDR was able to appoint 5 new justices to the court over the next few years, so that the rest of the New Deal was not struck down)

Question 46

Battle of Midway

Answer 46

The United States had been able to break the main Japanese code system. US Navy analysts could ususally decode enough info to determine Japanese intent. They were able to read enough of the Japanese coded messages to determine that Midway was to be invaded in early June. This gave the outnumbered US Navy the opportunity to move its remaining carrier forces into position to ambush the Japanese as they invaded Midway. When the smoke clearned, the US had sunk 4 Japanese carriers at a cost of one American carrier. In addition to the ships, the Japanese lost experienced pilots and air crews that she could not replace. The much smaller Japanese economy would not be able to replace the lost carriers, while the United States was in the process of building two dozen new ones. MIdway ended the six month Japanese string of successes that started at Pearl Harbor, and turned the tide so that the US would start to push Japan back, starting with Guadalcanal two months after Midway.

Question 47

African American soldiers during World War II

Answer 47

Although Americans found themselves fighting against the explicit racial and ethnic bigotry promoted by fascism and Nazism, racism in th U. S. did not end during the war. The most volatile social issue ignited by the war was African American participation in the military. In 1941, the armed forces were the most racially polarized institution in the nation. But African Americans rushed to enlist after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. About a million African Americans– men and women– served in the armed forces during the war, but in racially segregated units. Black soldiers and sailors were initially excluded from combat units and relegated to menial tasks. Black officers also could not command white soldiers or sailors. Every army camp and navy base had segregated facilities– and frequent and sometimes bloody racial incidents. Among the most famous African American servicemen were some six hundred pilots trained in Tuskegee, Alabama. The so-called Tuskegee Airmen ended up flying more than 15,000 missions during the war. Their unquestionable excellence spurred military and civilian leaders to integrate the armed forces after the war.

Question 48

The British and Americans strategy during World War II

Answer 48

British and American strategy was to defeat Germany first, as Germany was considered the most dangerous of the three main Axis powers. To do this, the Soviets would have to be supported to keep them in the war. Stalin demanded that Britain and America establish a second front to divert German troops away from fighting the Soviets. The US and Britain agreed to establish a second front by invading accross the English Channel into France, but the problem was they were not prepared to do this for two more years. Instead they invaded North Africa and then Italy, and opened up an around the clock bombing offensive over Germany. Stalin viewed these actions as side shows with limited value, although they did divert hundreds of thousands of Germans from the Eastern Front. It was not until June of 1944 that the Western Allies could invade France and open what Stalin agreed was a second front against Germany.

Question 49

Japanese internment during WWII

Answer 49

Discrimination against Japanese Americans. The attack on Pearl Harbor ignited vengeful anger toward people of Japanese descent living in the U. S. known as Nisei. As Idaho’s governor declared, “A good solution to the Jap problem would be to send them all back to Japan, then sink the island.” Such extreme hostility helps explain why the U. S. government sponsored the worst violation of civil liberties during the 20th century when more than 112,000 Nisei were forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast and transported to “war relocation camps” in the interior. President Roosevelt initiated the removal of Japanese Americans (he called them “Japs”) when he issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. More than 60% of the internees were U. S. citizens; 1/3 were under 19yrs old. Forced to sell their farms and businesses at great losses, the internees lost not only their property but also their liberty. Few if any were disloyal. Not until 1983 did the government acknowledge the injustice of the internment policy. 5yrs later it granted those Nisei still living $20,000 each in compensation, a tiny amount relative to what they had lost during 4yrs of confinement.

The story of the treatment of American citizens of Japanese descent, as well as Japanese immigrants was a black eye for the United States. The Nisei had to sell at a loss or abandon property that the white residents were anxious to acquire. The amazing thing is that when given the opportunity, young Japanese American men volunteered to fight in the US army. They served in Europe and one of their units was the most decorated combat unit in Europe.

Question 50

War relocation camps

Answer 50

As a result of the WWII attack on Pearl Harbor, more than 112,000 Nisei were forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast and transported to “war relocation camps” in the interior.

There were 10 relocation camps. Usually located on indian reservations, the facilites included unpartioned toilets, cots for beds and food that met the minimum given to soldiers. In addition to the relocation camps, there were harsher, detention camps for inmates who were considered to be a problem. Almost all of the confined Japanese were in relo camps, with only a few thousand in detention camps. The detention camps also housed Italian and German pow’s.

Question 51

The Casablanca Conference

Answer 51

Summary of key points of the Casablance conference

1. The Axis would have to agree to “unconditional surrender”, basically, putting themselves at the mercy of the Allies
2. The US and Britain would invade Sicily next, and then Italy
3. They US and Britain would conduct a combined bomber offensive against targets in Germany, bombing Germany around the clock.
4. Increased military aid would be given to the Soviets

Question 52

“D-day”

Answer 52

D-Day - June 6, 1944, the Western Allies invaded France via the Normany Peninsula. Over 170,000 men went ashore the first day. This established the second front Stalin had demanded. By September, France would be liberated.

Question 53

The Yalta Conference of 1945

Answer 53

summary of information about Yalta

1. The war in Europe was on the verge of being over. The Allies started making arrangements as to what areas each would control as occupation forces. In addition, they started to redraw the map of eastern Europe to satisfy the Soviet Union and address issues that led to the war’s beginning
2. The US felt it was vital to confirm that the Soviet’s would help in defeating Japan after Germany surrendered. This is one of the reasons the US was willing to concede to Soviet demands for territory in Europe
3. The Western Allies wanted to insure that the Soviets would participate in the United Nations organization. Again, another reason to compromise with Stalin.
4. The Western Allies did pressure Stalin to allow free elections in the areas occupied by the Red Army. He agreed in principal, but went back on his word.

Question 54

The Axis defeat and Germany’s surrender

Answer 54

In March, 1945, the Soviets began to move into eastern Germany, and the Western allies were crossing the Rhine River into the heart of Germany. FDR died in early April, 1945 giving Hitler false hopes that were soon dashed when the Soviets and American forces linked up in central Germany later in the month. Hitler committed suicide during the Soviet attack on Berlin, and Germany officially surrendered unconditionally on May 8, which is known as V-E day (Victory - Europe).

Question 55

Germany and the Holocaust

Answer 55

Allied victory in Europe generated massive celebrations on V-E day, May 8, 1945. The Allied armies were unprepared for the challenges of reconstructing defeated Germany. Most shocking was the extent of the Holocaust, scarcely believable until the Allied armies liberated the Nazi death camps in eastern Europe where the Germans had enacted their “final solution” to what Hitler called the “Jewish problem”: the wholesale extermination of some 6 million Jews along with more than 1 million captured peoples. Bodies were piled as high as buildings; survivors were virtually skeletons. General Eisenhower reported from one of the camps that the evidence of “starvation, cruelty, and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick.” At Dachau, the 1st Nazi concentration camp in Germany, the American troops were so enraged by the sight of murdered civilians that they and some inmates, executed the 550 Nazi guards who had surrendered. American officials and some Jewish leaders had dragged their feet in acknowledging the Holocaust for fear that relief efforts for Jewish refugees might stir up latent anti-Semitism (hostility to or prejudice against Jews) at home. Under pressure, President Roosevelt had set up a War Refugee Board early in 1944 rescuing about 200,000 European Jews and some 20,000 others. Few refugees were accepted by the U. S. The Allied handling of the Holocaust was unskillful and disgraceful.

In terms of how the Allies handled the Holocaust, certainly much, much more could have been done, but we have to be careful of judging people armed with hindsight. For many people, it was impossible to believe that a civilized nation would commit such brutal crimes. We should also note that in addtion to killing 6 million Jews, the Nazi’s targeted what was then known as Gypsies for extermination, along with homosexuals and people with mental and physical disabilites. Remember, their goal was a pure and strong gene pool. The death toll of the Holocaust also does not include the millions of captured people worked to death in slave labor in factories, including millions of Soviet prisoners of war. It is estimated 1 out of 100 captured Soviet soldiers survived Nazi imprisonment. One of the sayings about history is something to the effect that ignorance of history can cause us to re-experience the mistakes of the past. Nothing underscores the need to be aware of what has happened in the past more than the Holocaust.

Question 56

The American assault on Okinawa

Answer 56

Okinawa was the island from which the US would launch its invasion of Japan. The Japanese fought deperately, and used Kamakazi attacks, suidide attacks by Japanese pilots flying thier airplanes into American warships. It took 300,000 US troops almost 3 months to capture the island. The desperate defense of Okinawa by the Japanese convinced Americans that and invasion of the Japanese homeland would be an extremely costly effort.

Question 57

The Potsdam Declaration

Answer 57

In mid-July the Allied leaders met in Postdam, Germany, near Berlin, to discuss the fate of defeated Germany and the ongoing war against Japan. While there, they issued the Postdamn Declaration, demanding that Japan surrender or face “prompt and utter destruction.”

Question 58

The Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Answer 58

In mid-July the Allied leaders met in Postdam, Germany, near Berlin, to discuss the fate of defeated Germany and the ongoing war against Japan. While there, they issued the Postdamn Declaration, demanding that Japan surrender or face “prompt and utter destruction.” The deadline passed, and Aug 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay took off at 2am from the island of Tinian and headed for Hiroshima. Enola Gay released a bomb named Little Boy, killing 140,000 people. Truman, frustrated by refusal of Japanese leaders to surrender and fearful that the Soviet Union’s entry into the war would complicate negotiations, ordered a 2nd atomic bomb named Fat Man Aug 9 in the city of Nagasaki. That night the Japanese emperor urged his cabinet to surrender. Frantic exchanges between leaders in Washington, D. C. and Tokyo ended with Japanese acceptance of the terms Aug 14, 1945.

Question 59

Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II

Answer 59

Truman, frustrated by refusal of Japanese leaders to surrender and fearful that the Soviet Union’s entry into the war would complicate negotiations, ordered a 2nd atomic bomb named Fat Man Aug 9 in the city of Nagasaki. That night the Japanese emperor urged his cabinet to surrender. Frantic exchanges between leaders in Washington, D. C. and Tokyo ended with Japanese acceptance of the terms Aug 14, 1945.
With V-J day, the war was over and the celebration in the Allied countries was widespread.

Question 60

World War II and the Great Depression

Answer 60

WWII transformed American life. The war finally brought an end to the Great Depression and laid the foundation for an era of unprecedented prosperity. Big businesses were transformed into gigantic corporations as a result of huge government contracts for military production, and the size of the federal government bureaucracy mushroomed. The number of government employees increased four-fold during the war. New technologies and products developed for military purposes– radar, computers, electronics, plastics, synthetics, jet engines, rockets, atomic energy– began to transform the private sector as well. New opportunities for women as well as for African Americans, Mexican Americans, and other minorities set in motion major social changes that would culminate in the civil rights movement on the 1970s.