 Mobilization: draft, raised defense spending by $8 billion  Selective Training and Service Act: 1940, first peacetime draft, ages  Rationing: Each household received a book of coupons to buy scarce items, could only by a set amount  War-time conservation: carpool, ride bikes, held nationwide drives to recycle items used in war production  Role of women: worked in factories, Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, which filled noncombat positions that would have otherwise been filled by men

What does that mean, “When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Hitler!” During WWII, Americans were urged to conserve gasoline (and most other consumer goods) in support of the War Effort. To ride alone was wasteful, and therefore it aided the enemy.

Rosie the Riveter Rationing tickets

 December 7, 1941 – Japanese aircraft attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands  Hoped to destroy the US fleet in the Pacific & cause the US to accept Japanese control of the Pacific  BUT… it unified American opinion about being involved in the war  US joined European nations and China to defeat Japan  Believing American involvement in the Pacific would make them ineffective in the European theater, Hitler declared war on the United States December 11, 1941

 Battle of Midway: (1942) naval battle in which the US won against the Japanese, a turning point in WWII  D-Day: (June 6, 1944) first day of Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, largest seaborne invasion in history, US and Allied troops surprised Germans at Normandy, beginning of victory for Allies in Europe

Storming the beach at Normandy. Map of Europe; Normandy in red

 Battle of Iwo Jima : (November, February, 1945) US fought Japan and won, bloodiest battle of the war  Battle of Okinawa: (April-June, 1945) Japanese vowed to fight to the death, kamikaze attacks, Japanese eventually surrendered, the Allies had a clear path to Japan

 March American troops marched toward Berlin from the west and Soviet forces pushed in from the East  As the Soviet Army surrounded Berlin, Hitler refused to flee the city  April 30, 1945 – Hitler commits suicide in an underground bunker  May 8, 1945 – Germany’s remaining troops surrender  VE Day- Victory in Europe

 Hiroshima: (August 6, 1945) first atomic bomb (“Little Boy”) dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing 160,000 by radiation, sickness, fire, and force of explosion, 90% of buildings damaged or destroyed  Nagasaki: (August 9, 1945) second atomic bomb (“Fat Man”) dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing 70,000  Japanese surrender: (August 15, 1945) V-J Day, Japanese accepted US terms of surrender, official surrender signed Sept. 2 aboard the USS Missouri

 Dropping was decided by President Harry Truman after Germany surrendered  Truman feared that defeating the Japanese might be more difficult  “You should do your weeping at Pearl Harbor.”

“Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima Child orphaned by atomic bomb A- bomb after- math Mushroom cloud