The Pacific WWII The Pacific and the Home Front Japan because Japan is constantly attempting to capture parts of China in 1940 the US freezes all Japanese assets and institute a trade embargo against Japan The US was Japan s number one supplier of oil and steel and they view the embargo as an act of war o Midway Japan had planned to trap our fleet on the island Midway where we were docking our ships The US discovered their plans and attacked them before they could attack us On June 4 1942 the US attacks Japan at Midway sinking four of their carrier ships and killing so many pilots that it would be impossible for them to retrain enough men in a year s time o Iwo Jima lasting from February 19 through March 26 1945 this was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific front We lost about 7 000 Americans but killed 22 000 Japanese o The Manhattan Project this was FDR s secret project working to create a nuclear bomb Scientists successfully tested the atomic bomb in New Mexico in July 1945 o Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 1945 the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city Hiroshima The bomb immediately killed 70 000 Japanese and another 70 000 died within a year from radiation and other injuries On August 9 the US dropped another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki killing another 70 000 Most of those who died were civilians o VJ Day on September 2 1945 the Japanese officially surrendered Home Front Economy the war finally brings America out of the depression o War Production Board controls production at home during the war to make sure we don t overproduce again o Office of Price Administration seeking to prevent a dip in the economy after the war they set prices on certain goods mostly agricultural products control wages place caps on rent and institute a ration system All of these things help slow down inflation and keep control on overproducing Women women supporting the war would help boost the morale of those at home and at war o WAC Women s Army Corps WAVES Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service and WASP Women Air Service Pilots o War Industries many white middle class older women took over the men s jobs in factories Most African American women continued to be domestic workers However the war was not a turning point for women in the work force Many women left their jobs when the war ended and the men came back They had seen it as a temporary job and felt it their duty to give up their jobs Only a few women refused to give up their high paying jobs o Rosie the Riveter this drawing by Norman Rockwell illustrated a masculine woman with muscles Rosie tried to be masculine in work but also wanted to maintain femininity She became a symbol to all women in the US as an ideal image of what you should aspire to be African Americans o Military over one million African Americans served in WWII in segregated units The most famous group was the Tuskegee Airmen trained at Tuskegee Institute They were a highly specialized group of only 1 000 airmen who had a very high rate of protecting bombers in combat and very few of them died in combat African American soldiers returned home after again witnessing integrated troops and freedoms for blacks in Europe and they wanted those same freedoms Combined with the resurgence of the KKK there was a lot of racial violence o War Industries over two million African Americans worked in the war plants during the war Between 1941 and 1945 membership in the NAACP rose by 20 000 James Farmer founded Congress on Racial Equality CORE In 1941 A Phillip Randolph organized a March on Washington to demand anti segregation an end to discrimination in the war industries and anti lynching laws In order to prevent the march FDR issued and executive order which created the Fair Employment Practices Commission FEPC and eliminates all discrimination in the defense industries o Double V in 1942 the Pittsburgh Courier promoted the idea of Double V victory over Germany and victory over racism Mexican Americans over 500 000 Mexican Americans served in the war in integrated units Still when they returned home they saw racial violence o Bracero Program during the war the US offered thousands of Mexicans government contracts to work in agricultural jobs in the US Those working in the program were often overworked worked in poor safety conditions and were threatened with deportation o Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles a group of Mexican American sailors were teased by white men because they were wearing zoot suits The Mexican Americans got angry and it turned into a riot Japanese Americans o War Relocation Authority during the war we turned our oppression away from China and towards Japan After Pearl Harbor our hatred for Japanese Americans only heightened At this time most Americans believed the Japanese were simply violent and aggressive people We didn t blame the war on their leaders but on who we thought they were as people Most Japanese Americans living in the US during the war were second generation meaning though their parents were born in Japan they were born in America Still the US didn t care and rounded up all Japanese and put them in internment camps similar to the Jews in Germany