The Home Front and Aftermath Chapter 11 Section 4

Objectives: By the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1) Describe how different countries mobilized their forces for war 2) Describe the impact of the bombing of civilians in World War II 3) Explain the factors which caused emergence of the Cold War

A. The Mobilization of Peoples: Four Examples More than WWI, WWII was a total war The bombing of civilians made the home front far more dangerous The home front was also affected by economic mobilization, the act of assembling and preparing for war The number of civilians killed-almost 20 million-was higher

B. The Soviet Union Leningrad was under siege for almost 3 years and inhabitants resorted to eating dogs, cats, and mice Their economy changed to producing almost entirely war goods This lead to food and housing shortages Women also played an important role 60% of the women worked in factories, some even fought in the military as snipers

C. The United States The U.S. became the arsenal for the allied powers Often called the Arsenal of Democracy U.S. and Britain relied on propaganda to encourage every citizen to do their part Women encouraged to work in factories People encouraged to grow victory gardens Citizens encouraged to buy war bonds Schools held scrap metal drives Citizens encouraged to conserve food Citizens encouraged to car pool to save gas Watch what you say, beware of spies

The mobilization of the American economy caused problems Widespread migration due to people looking for jobs African Americas migrated into the North during this time looking for jobs This led to many race riots African Americans served in the military, but in segregated units Japanese Americans faced probably the worse discrimination Many were rounded up into internment camps such as Manzanar

D. Germany Hitler’s policies may have cost him the war At the beginning of the war, he hadn’t totally mobilized his economy In 1942, he named Albert Speer his minister for armaments and munitions Germany wasn’t fully mobilized until 1944 (too late) Nazi attitudes towards women changed too In the beginning, they wanted women to stay home and take care of children Towards the end of the war, they realized that women needed to work in the factories Once again, too late

E. Japan Wartime Japan was extremely mobilized Military men were required to sacrifice their lives for the war Many of them signed up as kamikaze pilots (suicide bombers) Japan was reluctant to mobilize women General Hideki Tojo opposed female employment Instead, the Japanese brought in Chinese and Korean labor

F. Frontline Civilians: The Bombing of Cities Bombing was used in WWII against a variety of targets Germans believed that bombing cities would force governments to make peace In Britain, London was bombed nightly Even though, enormous damage was done, the morale of London remained high The theory that bombing would force a peace was proven wrong

In Japan, the bombing of civilians reached a new level with the first atomic bomb Attacks on Japanese cities by the new B-29 bombers had already devastated most of Japan This forced Japan to mobilize all citizens ages 13 to 60 Japan prepared for invasion, but Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945

G. Peace and a New War The victory of the allies was not followed by peace, but by political tensions, known as the Cold War This was primarily an ideological conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union In the Tehran Conference, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met and decided that the Soviet Union would be the ones to invade Germany At the Yalta Conference, the allies agreed to divide Germany into four zones These would be governed by France, G.B., the U.S., and the Soviet Union Poland would be under control of the Soviet Union, but they would be allowed free elections

The Yalta Conference also agreed to the creation of the United Nations, which met in San Francisco in 1945 Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, and Harry S. Truman took over He demanded that eastern Europe, now under the control of the Soviets, be allowed free elections Stalin said that he would not allow that Tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union led to the Cold War In Nuremburg, Hitler’s closest generals were put on trial and hanged