1. US Response to German Aggression
Neutrality a heated issue in US
Britain & France in desperate need of US airplanes & other material
Neutrality Acts set restrictions
1935 & 1936: outlawed arms sales or loans to war
1937: passed in response to Spanish Civil War
Banned arms sales & loans to nations undergoing civil wars

2. US Response to German Aggression
FDR calls Congress into a special session; wants them to lift the arms embargo
After 6 weeks  Neutrality Act of 1939
Ability for belligerents to purchase war materials; ONLY “cash and carry”
FDR authorized to declare “danger zones”
Hurts China; Helps Britain & France

3. American Preparedness and Aid to the Allies (1939-1941)
Changes in Public Opinion
FDR awakens Americans to national security threat
The Fall of France - Britain alone
Congress  “all measures short of war”

4. American Preparedness and Aid to the Allies (1939-1941)
Military Preparedness Congress (1940) 
(1) two-ocean navy and a huge air force
(2) Selective Service Act
Destroyer-Naval Base Deal of 1940
50 “over age” destroyers –> bases in W. Hemisphere
Lend Lease Act of 1941
UK cash nearly exhausted; FDR new leg. US –> “arsenal of democracy”; Lend-Lease Act (aid to England)
Merchants convoyed part way by US Navy

5. American Preparedness and Aid to the Allies (1939-1941)
Embargo on Strategic Materials  Japan
US - Open Door Policy
protests against occupation of French Indochina ( )
Embargo: gasoline, scrap iron, etc.; assets in US “frozen”

6. Battle of the Atlantic

7. U-Boats & Wolfpacks

8. The Bismarck

10. The Pacific Theater

11. US – Japanese Relations 1937-1941
1937: Japan Invades China (Peking, Shanghai, and other cities seized)
The Rape of Nanking
FDR forgoes the neutrality acts – hopes to aid China (helps Japan more – it had more merchant ships)
Dec. 12, 1937 – Japanese bombers sink the US gunboat Panay (Yangtze River)  2 killed
US takes no action – accepts Japan’s apology and $2 million for damages (Isolationist sentiment very high)

12. Invasion of China 1937

13. An article on the "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword" published in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun. The headline reads, “ ‘Incredible Record' (in the Contest to Cut Down 100 People) — Mukai 106 – 105 Noda—Both 2nd Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings”.

14. US – Japanese Relations 1937-1941 Embargo Against Japan
Spring 1940 – France and the Netherlands fall to Germany (colonies in Asia vulnerable)
US Sec. of State Cordell Hull warns US will not tolerate Japanese military presence in European colonies in Asia
Before the month ended, Vichy France agrees to cede control of French Indochina
US responds w/ an embargo (scrap metal, oil, and aviation fuel)

16. US – Japanese Relations 1937-1941 (cont’d)
Japan dependent on US for:
90% of its scrap metal
60% of its oil
The following day Japan announced it formed a military alliance with Germany and Italy
July 1941, Japan occupied French Indochina
US Response  froze all Japanese accounts in American banks
prevents Japan from buying any goods from the US
Later US-Japanese negotiations fail

17. Pearl Harbor 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941:
Japan attacks while Japanese diplomats were meeting with Hull
US military had been warned of an attack but expected it in SE Asia
Most of the fleet caught at anchor – only the carriers were not docked
A catastrophe for the US
19 ships destroyed (6 battleships)
180 aircraft destroyed
2,300 killed + 2,000 wounded

18. Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941

19. Photograph from a Japanese plane of Battleship Row at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard.

22. President Roosevelt, wearing a black armband, signs the Declaration of War against Japan on December 8, 1941
Three days later, Germany and Italy declare war on the US – US responds in kind