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-       Double V was the African American slogan during WW2 promoting equality

-       The main point was to promote the fight for democracy for African American

-       Democracy could not be reached with how bad the segregation was getting

-       The V in the slogan is important because it stands for “victory” especially victory over aggression, slaver, and tyranny. The second v represent the victory specifically to African Americans representing the victory of getting freedom

-       It originally appeared in the African American newspaper Pittsburgh Courier saying that segregation and discrimination reached a point where it was no longer tolerable

-        it became became well known with the response letter “should I sacrifice to live “half American?” written by James G Thompson

-       It highlighted the risks African Americans need to take in order to live while in the military to campaign against axis powers

-       Even though African Americans I gain the ability to fight in war, they still had minimal jobs such as being a cook

-       They fought for equal job opportunities

-       Axis powers were powers that denied their rights as citizens

-       This campaign served as a reminder of why African American men and women fought

https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/4682

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1921: Emergency Quota Act and Failed Refugee Provision

After World War I, America became an isolationist nation. In December 1920, in the context of this isolationism, the international influenza pandemic, and a postwar economic recession, the US House of Representatives voted to end all immigration to the United States for one year. The vote was bipartisan and was not close (293-41). The Senate did not believe the emergency warranted this dramatic step but was willing to significantly restrict the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States.

Congress began negotiating a new immigration bill, which would set quotas for the first time on the number of immigrants from each country who could enter the United States. At the last minute, the Senate rejected the House's proposed amendment, which would have made a distinction between immigrants and refugees by exempting immigrants who could prove they were escaping political or racial persecution. Had this amendment been enacted, American response to the refugee crisis in the 1930s may have been quite different.

On May 19, 1921, President Warren Harding signed the Quota Act of 1921 (also known as the "Emergency Quota Act"). The 1921 quotas were enforced on Ellis Island, not at US consulates abroad. State Department officials could advise a potential immigrant on the probability that he/she would be allowed to enter due to health or economic status, but entry decisions were made upon disembarking in the United States. This led to so-called "midnight races," where passenger ships raced to reach the United States as soon as possible at the beginning of each month, when new portions of the quota were opened. Ships that arrived at 11 p.m. on August 31, for instance, could be fined for bringing passengers from countries where the quota had already been filled; one hour later, on September 1, the passengers could enter under newly opened quota slots.

1924: Johnson-Reed Act

On May 24, 1924, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act or the National Origins Act. The act was meant to solve the "midnight races" problem and establish a more permanent immigration law. It created new quotas, which heavily favored England and northern Europe and set much lower quotas for immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, who had made up the majority of more recent immigration. The new law reflected anti-Catholic, antisemitic sentiment in the country. The 1924 law capped quota immigration at 164,667 people per year. Immigrants from the Western Hemisphere, needed for US labor, were "non-quota" arrivals, exempted from the quota system.

The Johnson-Reed Act also mandated that potential immigrants present their paperwork and receive US immigration visas at consulates abroad, prior to leaving for the United States. The State Department, therefore, became responsible for enforcing the quota law, and "midnight races" ended.

In 1929, immigration was further limited to a total of 153,879 and the new quotas were re-calculated using complicated math based on the existing "national origins" of the population as reflected in the 1920 census and the new immigration cap. As a result, the quota for the British Isles rose from 34,007 to 65,721, while the quota for Germany fell significantly, from 51,227 to 25,957. Other countries fared worse: Poland, with a prewar Jewish population of 3.5 million, had a quota of 6,524, and Romania, with a Jewish population of nearly a million, had a quota of 377.

1930s: Attempts to Change Immigration Law

In the late 1930s, Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe were consistently referred to as "refugees." However, this term had no legal meaning under US law, save for theoretically exempting these immigrants from having to pass a literacy test.

Throughout the 1930s, most Americans opposed changing or adjusting the Johnson-Reed Act, fearing that immigrants, including those fleeing persecution, would compete for scarce jobs and burden public services in the midst of the Great Depression. (Later on, they would see them as a potential national security risk.) Consistent with overall anti-immigrant sentiments in the country, the State Department viewed the quotas as limits, rather than goals, and did not seek to fill the quotas. Between 1933 and 1941, for example, roughly 118,000 German quota slots that could have been used went unfilled.

After Germany's annexation of Austria and with the advice of the State Department, a group of Jewish congressmen met and decided not to introduce any new legislation to expand immigration to aid Jewish refugees. Public anti-immigration sentiment remained strong-in May 1938, only 23% of Americans were in favor of the immigration of German refugees-and these congressmen believed that legislation reducing immigration would prevail if the subject came up for debate. Several bills were introduced to aid refugees; many more were introduced to curb or end immigration. None passed.

The only significant attempt to pass a law to aid refugees came in 1939, when Democratic Senator Robert Wagner of New York and Republican Congresswoman Edith Rogers of Massachusetts introduced legislation in both houses of Congress that would allow 20,000 German refugee children under the age of 14 into the country over two years outside of the immigration quotas. The legislation never made it out of committee for a vote.

1939-1941: Non-Legislative State Department Restrictions

After World War II began in 1939, the State Department cautioned consular officials to exercise particular care in screening applicants: "In view of the international situation, it is essential that all aliens seeking admission into the United States, including both immigrants and nonimmigrants be examined with the greatest care." Visa applicants were required to submit moral a ffidavits, attesting to their identities and good conduct, from several responsible disinterested persons, in addition to financial affidavits.

Fears of infiltration and espionage led to additional restrictions on visa applicants. On June 5, 1941, diplomats abroad were cautioned that visas would soon be denied to applicants with close relatives remaining in German-occupied countries. American officials were concerned that unfriendly governments would use family members as hostages or bargaining chips to coerce immigrants to commit acts of sabotage or espionage.

On July 1, 1941, the same day that the new "relatives rule" went into effect, the State Department centralized all alien visa control in Washington. Visa applications were placed before an interdepartmental review committee consisting of representatives of the Visa Division, Immigration and Naturalization Service, FBI, Military Intelligence Division of the War Department, and the Navy Department's Office of Naval Intelligence. At this time, documentary requirements were also increased: applicants now needed two financial affidavits instead of one.

US consulates in Nazi-occupied territory shut down in July 1941. (This happened just as the systematic, mass murder of the Jews began with the German invasion of the Soviet Union.) For most Jewish refugees, the new paperwork combined with the lack of access to American diplomats ended their hope of immigration to the United States.

1945: Truman Directive

Allied victory brought an end to Nazi terror in Europe in May 1945, and to the war in the Pacific in August. Six million European Jews had been murdered. Hundreds of thousands of liberated Jews, suffering from starvation and disease, emerged from concentration camps, hiding places, and places of temporary refuge to discover a world which still seemed to have no place for them. Visual evidence of the Holocaust, shown in popular magazines, newspapers and movie theater newsreels, did not change Americans' minds towards immigration or refugees. In a December 1945 Gallup poll, only 5% of Americans were willing to accept more European immigrants than the nation had prior to the war.

President Harry S. Truman favored a liberal immigration policy toward displaced persons (DPs). Faced with Congressional inaction, he issued a statement, known as the "Truman Directive," on December 22, 1945, announcing that DPs would be granted priority for US visas within the existing quota system. While overall immigration into the United States did not increase, between 35,000-40,000 DPs, most of whom were Jewish, entered the United States between December 22, 1945, and July 1, 1948, under provisions of the Truman Directive.

1946-1952: The International Refugee Organization (IRO)

The International Refugee Organization (IRO), a temporary specialized agency of the newly established United Nations, was created in December 1946 to replace the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGC), which had originally been created during the Evian Conference in 1938.

The IRO constitution stated that " refugees and displaced persons constitute an urgent problem which is international in scope and character" and while displaced persons should be returned home, refugees should be assisted by international action. Germany and Japan were to pay for the resettlement of displaced persons from the countries they formerly occupied. The IRO also operated the International Tracing Service whose purpose was to help survivors find their families and learn the fate of loved ones.

Although the IRO constitution was drawn up in December 1946, the organization did not begin work until 1948, when the nations paying the majority of the IRO's expenses had ratified the constitution. The United States, a signatory along with 54 other nations, supplied 40% of the IRO's administrative expenses and 46% of its operational expenses, and the IRO's Director-General was always an American citizen.

The IRO ceased operations on January 31, 1952, as most of its work had been taken over by other organizations, most significantly the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, an office created in 1951.

1948: Displaced Persons Act

Three years after the end of the war, there were still a substantial number of displaced persons in Europe. They included Jews who had survived the Holocaust and many others who were fleeing the Soviet control. By June 1948 Truman had pushed for some sort of legislation on behalf of displaced persons for at least eighteen months. In his 1947 State of the Union, Truman stated, "We are dealing with a human problem, a world tragedy." In his 1948 State of the Union, he argued for "suitable legislation at once so that this nation may do its share in caring for homeless and suffering refugees of all faiths. I believe the admission of these persons will add to the strength and energy of the nation." Still, Congress delayed action.

Congress finally passed a Displaced Persons Act only reluctantly, and without public hearings. The Senate passed a bill on June 2, 1948, the House passed another on June 11, and a hurried compromise ensued, finally reaching the president on the final day of the congressional session. Truman, disappointed by the limited reach of the act, said that he would have vetoed it had Congress been in session, but signed the act so there would be some legislation to aid displaced persons, rather than none.

The Act, which authorized 200,000 displaced persons to enter the United States, "mortgaged" the still-extant 1924 immigration quotas, allowing up to 50% of future quota spaces to be used on behalf of displaced persons, with few exceptions. Truman particularly criticized the fact that the bill restricted eligibility to people who had entered Germany, Austria, or Italy prior to December 22, 1945, effectively discriminating against Jewish displaced persons, many of whom had been in the Soviet zone of occupation and only traveled to western Europe later.

"The bill," Truman stated, "reflects a singular lack of confidence by the Congress in the capacity and willingness of the people of the United States to extend a welcoming hand to the prospective immigrants."

Public opinion was more in line with Congress than Truman: an April 1948 poll showed that 53% of Americans disapproved of the plan to allow 200,000 displaced persons to enter, compared with 40% who approved. Polling also showed that more Americans supported immigration limits on Jewish DPs than on Germans who had left their homes fleeing Soviet occupation.

In 1950, Congress amended the Displaced Persons Act, an amendment Truman signed "with very great pleasure." The Act authorized a total of 400,744 visas for displaced persons (of which 172,230 had been issued in the previous two years) and removed the geographical and chronological limits which had discriminated against Jewish DPs. Approximately 80,000 Jewish DPs entered the United States between 1948 and 1952 under the Displaced Persons Act.

1951: United Nations Refugee Convention

In 1951, the United Nations adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which has been signed by 145 nations. The United States did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention. This was the first time refugees gained distinct legal status under international law. Under this international treaty, a refugee was defined as "a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

The 1951 Convention defines the obligations of signatory nations to refugees, and vice versa. Refugees are granted the right to work, to housing, to education, to public assistance, to freedom of movement within the territory, and cannot be punished for illegal entry. Under Article 33, known as the "non-refoulement" provision, refugees cannot be returned against their will to a place in which they would be endangered. In exchange, refugees must abide by the laws and regulations of the country of asylum. Those who have committed crimes against peace, war crimes, or non-political crimes outside of their country of refuge, are not eligible for refugee status.

The Convention does not specify how signatories determine or assign refugee status. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees assists member nations in establishing and carrying out procedures to process claims and review decisions.

The 1951 Convention only applied to persons who became refugees "as a result of events occurring [in Europe] before 1 January 1951." These limits in time and geography were in place until 1967, when the Refugee Protocol expanded refugee protection to people fleeing persecution worldwide on a more permanent basis.

1952-1980: A Series of Efforts

The United States did not sign the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, instead passing its own set of laws which also aided specific groups of refugees for limited periods of time.

The 1953 Refugee Relief Act defined "refugee" (someone in a non-Communist country fleeing persecution), "escapee" (someone fleeing communism), and "expellee" (an ethnic German forced out of Eastern Europe). The act allowed approximately 190,000 refugees, escapees, and expellees to arrive in the United States before the legislation expired in 1956.

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (known as the Hart-Celler Act), which eliminated the "national origins" quotas that for 40 years had seriously limited the ability of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, to obtain US immigration visas. The new immigration law reserved 6% of each year's visas for people who were fleeing persecution in communist areas or the Middle East, or had escaped after a natural disaster. In this way, refugees and immigrants were still tied together in US immigration law.

A combination of presidential directives and congressional legislation aided other specific groups of refugees. In 1958 and 1966, presidents Eisenhower and Johnson issued "parole" directives to aid 30,700 Hungarian refugees and nearly 500,000 Cuban refugees fleeing their nations' revolutions, reclassifying these refugees as permanent US residents. With the support of President Gerald Ford, Congress passed a law in 1975 to allow more than 130,000 South Vietnamese and Cambodians to enter the United States, and President Jimmy Carter permitted 15,000 refugees who had escaped southeast Asia by boat to become permanent US residents in 1977.

1967: United Nations Refugee Protocol

The 1967 United Nations Refugee Protocol expanded the 1951 Refugee Convention, which had originally limited the definition of "refugee" to people who had been displaced in Europe prior to 1951. The new Protocol expanded the responsibilities to all refugees from any part of the world and at any time, but still allowed nations to define for themselves how they would assess refugee status.

The United States signed the United Nations Refugee Protocol on November 6, 1968.

1980: Refugee Act

In March 1980, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, expressing that it "is the historic policy of the United States to respond to the urgent needs of persons subject to persecution in their homelands." The Act laid out the procedures for the admission of refugees into the United States and how the US would fulfill its obligations as a signatory of the United Nations Refugee Protocol.

The Refugee Act of 1980 remains in effect. Between 1980 and 2018, more than 3,000,000 refugees have been resettled in the United States.

Conclusion

After World War II and the Holocaust, the United States and the international community recognized that refugees and displaced persons merited special consideration and should be dealt with separately from immigrants, who are moving to a new country to seek a better life. The United States did not immediately adopt a consistent refugee policy in the wake of World War II, instead patching together various immigration, refugee, and displaced persons legislation for temporary fixes to address specific crises.

The United Nations Refugee Protocol of 1967 established the current international norms for defining and dealing with refugees, and 146 countries, including the United States, have signed this protocol. Since 1980, the United States has had a defined procedure for carrying out the country's agreed-upon duties under the protocol.

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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United States Immigration and Refugee Law, 1921-1980

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After World War I, America became an isolationist nation. In December 1920, in the context of this isolationism, the international influenza pandemic, and a postwar economic recession, the US House of Representatives voted to end all immigration to the United States for one year. The vote was bipartisan and was not close (293-41).

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How did the federal government minimize disputes between workers and employers?  Why was this important?

Labor union membership increased by 1.5mil workers from 1939-1941

The government was setting wage caps and there were many strikes without union approval

There were a lot of issues in the mining industry (almost 2,000 workers died in the span of 3 years). Mine workers went on strike, which led to the Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act

The Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act gave the government the power to operate industries where workers were on strike

The precautions that the federal government took to minimize disputes were important because since so many workers were going on strike, a lot of companies were heavily suffering.

In 1939 the Supreme Court said that sit-down strikes were illegal

Since there was a rise in wages and prices, wage control programs were started to combat that. The minimum wage of 30 cents was raised to 40 cents. There were less wage disputes because of that

Along with the minimum wage raise, overtime payment issues were addressed. Employers had to pay their workers at least 1.5 times their normal pay rate (if the worker worked for over 40hrs that week)

In 1943 Roosevelt signed an order that set a minimum workweek of 48-hours. By doing this, workers were making more money

Workers had a lot more job security and unions became less militant

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&u=alli1510&u=alli1510&jsid=cb6d531fd254529130158efd0b8aedd2&p=UHIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX3424800081&zid=a1b44ac6ad82744c2d70d916c122c4c9

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/history_of_labor_unions.html

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How did the war impact marriage and birth rates in America?

WWII had a great effect on marriages.  At the start, there was a significant increase in the rate of marriages, due to many people wanting to receive money from the government, and married men with dependents were deferred from the draft. Also, many foreign women married men who went and fought in the war, known as "war brides", and were promised entry into the US. It is recorded that over 300,000 war brides moved into the US. With all these quick marriages, there were many divorces that followed, with 1 in 4 marriages ending in divorce in 1946. There were many possible reasons for the increase of divorces, the most obvious being a lack of foundation. The end of the war also had a substantial effect on the birth rate in America, bringing a "baby boom" to the country. Couples who could not afford families during the great depression now could after the war. This resulted in over 32 million babies being born in the 1940's, compared to 24 million in the 1930's.

https://familiesatwar2014.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/world-war-ii-marriage-and-divorce/

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What was US policy toward Jewish immigrants escaping the Nazis?

- Out of fear that Nazis would smuggle pies into the US, immigration officials tightened visa policies for immigrants and non-immigrants.
- In January of 1944 president Roosevelt took action to rescue many European Jews.
- Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing the War refugee board to facilitate the rescue of imperiled refugees.
- As a result tens of thousand of Jews in Europe were able to be protected.
- Fort Ontario, in New York, was made into an emergency refugee shelter
- President Roosevelt said that the refugees would be returned to their homelands when the war was over
- In post war Europe, about 150,000 Jews were left displaced and no longer wanted to live in antisemitic communities.
- Most displaced Jews moved either Israel or the US.
- December 22, 1945, announcing that visas would be granted to displaced Jews within the existing immigration quotas.
- Between 1945 and 1952, 137,450 Jewish refugees (including close to 100,000 Jewish DPs) settled in the United States.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007094

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What was the US response to the Holocaust? Why didn’t the government do more to stop Hitler’s annihilation of the Jews?

The state department originally dismissed the Nazi plan to annihilate Jews as a rumor and did not report it

Like many countries at the time, the US was not welcoming refugees into the country

83% of Americans were against the idea of admitting refugees

Father Charles Coughlin ("the radio priest") preached antisemitism and accused the Jews of manipulating financial institutions and conspiring to rule the world

Henry Ford also helped to spread antisemitism

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt supported loosening immigration laws to allow more immigrants to come into the US

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about the refugee crisis in her weekly news column

The government didn't do more to stop Hitler's annihilation of the Jews because the country didn't want to get involved in a foreign war that had no effect on the US directly

The US was also in the midst of the Great Depression and many feared that allowing refugees into the country would only increase the economic burden and make the situation worse.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007880
https://www.facinghistory.org/defying-nazis/america-and-holocaust

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What was the bracero program? Explain.

The bracero program was a program created by executive order in 1942 to fill low-paying agricultural jobs, due to the fact that many growers thought that World War II would bring labor shortages. This was in part to the that many soldiers would be leaving these low-paying jobs to fight in the war, which would leave openings in these kind of jobs. They concluded a temporary intergovernmental agreement for Mexican people to be able to work on United States farms. This led to an influx of legal temporary Mexican workers. The program, however, lasted longer than the government thought it would at that time. American people were worried that these Mexican workers would compete for these jobs and lower wages. the Bracero Program had safeguards for the Mexican workers for example, guaranteed payment of at least the prevailing area wage received by native workers; employment for three-fourths of the contract period; and adequate, sanitary, and free housing; decent meals at reasonable prices. Employers were supposed to hire braceros only in areas of certified domestic labor shortage. They, however, ignored many of these rules and Mexican workers suffered while growers benefited from plentiful, cheap, labor.

http://braceroarchive.org/about

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How did President Harry Truman justify his decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945

Truman made his decision from a purely military point of view. He argued that a Normandy type invasion would have cost around a million lives. He also argued that prolonged war would have cost more Japanese lives as well, so ending the war quickly would actually save lives. Truman also refused to demonstrate the bomb to the Japanese government because he believed that there was no guarantee that the Japanese would surrender even if the test succeeded, and that the consequences would be worse than if there was no demonstration at all.

http://historynewsnetwork.org/sites/default/files/159960-trmbma.jpg
http://www.ushistory.org/us/51g.asp

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What did Executive Order No. 8802 mandate?  What was its wartime purpose?

Executive Order No. 8802 was created to prevent discrimination (racial) in the government and defense industries during WWII. This was passed by FDR in 1941. Since it was a war-time situation, all industries had to follow this rule if they were involved with anything war-related. It also established the Fair Employment Practices Commission to enforce the new policy. It as well was a big step in ending overall federal government employment discrimination. Randolph, a civil rights leader, threatened FDR that african-americans would protest outside the white house after the initial rebuttal of the act. FDR didn't want press attention to focus on this rather than the war, so he quickly created the order and passed it. Therefore, its main wartime purpose was to keep the press focused on the war and not distract anyone from the war.

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=72

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Executive-Order-8802

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How did WWII affect food supplies on the home front?

Labor shortages were felt in agriculture because so many went to war or moved to city for factory jobs.

Foods were rationed.

Families were asked to plant their own gardens called "victory gardens".

Food supplies were short so Mexico made an agreement and sent 290000 people to work in the fields and also the U.S. used German and Italian prisoners of war in the fields.

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How did WWII affect American industry?

American industry provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks.

In four years, American industrial production, already the world's largest, doubled in size.

FDR wanted to be the most superior army by having the most equipment, especially following Pearl Harbor.

Due to the Great Depression America's army size ranked 39th in the world.

FDR created the War Production Board in 1942 and also the Office of War Mobilization in 1943.

Government sold war bonds to people to help generate costs.

During this time eight million women joined the workforce.

Companies such as Chrysler and Ford switched from manufacturing cars to planes and other military equipment.

Cities such as Mobile had a booming economy and many people were moving into the bigger cities in search of many new jobs.

Scovill Manufacturing produced so many different military items, the Waterbury Republican reported, that “there wasn’t an American or British fighting man … who wasn’t dependent on [the company] for some part of the food, clothing, shelter and equipment that sustained [him] through the … struggle.”

“Things started getting better and better and better for the people who had to stay behind,” Sacramento’s William Perkins said. “People were doing real good economically. And it was a big boost from the end of the Depression up until the war ended and it just rolled on.”

Source: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_war_production.htm

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How did America’s Lend-Lease Program impact the war?
Lend Lease Program

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/lend-lease-act

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/lend-lease

·      FDR proposed the Lend-Lease Bill in 1940 but it was not passed until March of 1941

·      Had the goal of delivering US military assistance to foreign countries for WWII

·      Gave the president power to provide US troops to any country that he deemed important, basically any country that has defense that connects directly with the safety and protection of America

·      “The act permitted the United States to support its war interests without being overextended in battle.”

·      Passing this bill brought the US even closer to entering into WWII

·      US enters war in 1941, but we were providing troops and supplies aid to our allies in 1940 to help them

·      Most of the troops and supplies were shipped to the UK as well as some other nations fighting against Germany and Japan

·      FDR wanted to help the countries that didn’t have enough power, money, or supplies to put up a fair fight against the Germans

o   By helping these less powerful countries counter attack the Germans, FDR was trying to prevent the Germans from expanding further across Europe. Although providing aid didn’t directly help the US, it would in the long run if that meant preventing Germany from world domination

·      This program was not entirely supported or very popular among the Americans

o   They didn’t like the idea of shipping our supplies and losing lives of our troops for a war that we hadn’t even entered yet.

·      In 1940 the US made a deal with the British where we gave them weapons and supplies in return for land leases and claims to land in the Newfoundland and Caribbean

·      Countries, especially the British, were not able to pay the US back immediately because their economies were suffering from war time

o   So a deal was proposed that we would “lend” them the supplies they needed and in return they would eventually pay us back

o   However, the returned payments were not focused on money, but instead supplies and lands

·      This program idea began with the UK but we would eventually give the same deal to many other countries in need of assistance fighting in the war

o   This also strengthened our allies

·      The Lend-Lease program provided extreme resistance against the Germans

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Explain the Manhattan Project. Why was the project begun?
The Manhattan Project was a research & development program that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the UK and Canada. The idea for this project began when Albert Einstein wrote to FDR describing the possibility of the creation of an extremely powerful weapon (the atomic bomb) using uranium and to warn him of the likelihood that Germany was pursuing this same line of research. Roosevelt took his warning seriously and in 1942 the program to design & build an atomic bomb was given "The Manhattan Project" as a code name. This code name was necessary to keep everything a secret from the Germans, the Japanese, and the rest of the world. It was the largest secret program ever undertaken by the US government. By the summer of 1945, the first bomb was ready to be tested and was successful. The first test was at the Alamogordo air base. The explosion came as an intense light flash, a sudden wave of heat, and a mushroom cloud extending to 40,000 ft.
sources: http://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/einstein/peace-and-war/the-manhattan-project/
https://www.britannica.com/event/Manhattan-Project

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What were the Japanese internment camps? How did the US justify them?
-The Japanese internment camps were camps in which Japanese Americans were forced to relocate to. Around 110,000-120,000 people were confined/imprisoned, 62% of them being legal United States citizens.
-The U.S. justified these camps by claiming that some among the Japanese people could prove to be domestic threats, so to be safe, the U.S. decided to imprison all people of Japanese descent to prevent any possibilities of sabotage. Many Japanese, particularly in San Pedro, CA, were living near naval air bases, shipyards, and oil wells, which concerned the U.S. as well--this was the reasoning for the relocation of Japanese to less "critical areas." The U.S. also saw the opportunity for "massive espionage" among Japanese. Roosevelt was the one who signed the executive order to relocate the Japanese into concentration camps. The camps themselves were overpopulated with poor living conditions. There were no plumbing or cooking facilities. Food was rationed. The only time internees were allowed to leave the camps were if they enlisted into the Army, which many did not do (only about 1,000 chose to). The famous case that occurred as a result of these camps was Korematsu vs. United States, which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the United States. The Internment lasted around 2 and a half years. The last camp was closed by the end of 1945. These camps were an extreme reaction to the Japanese bombing as well as a result of anti semitism/racism towards Japanese because of the war.
Sources:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5153
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html

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Explain the Supreme Court case Korematsu v. U.S. (1944).  Explain the rationale of the Supreme Court decision.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor Americans began fearing that Japanese American citizens might choose to help aid the Japanese during this time of war. FDR signed an executive order that forced Americans of Japanese descent to be sent to interment camps (camps made to incarcerate). This was fueled mostly by fear of Japanese causing subterfuge or spying on Americans and racial prejudice for Japanese since they were the country that boomed pearl Harbor. Fred Korematsu who hid as Mexican America to avoid the camps was found out then challenged the executive order in court. He claimed that the federal government couldn't relocate him based on discrimination of a racial prejudice.

The court ultimately ruled that the executive order would be upheld. The rationale behind the court was that it was in the interest and protection of the American people and country to withhold this decision. For the interest of the country the individual rights of Japanese and Japaneses didn't surpass it. This created the precedent that if ones right may infringe or danger another person those rights may be restricted int he benefit of the greater whole.

Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation
http://landmarkcases.org/en/landmark/cases/korematsu_v_united_states

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1. How did American women contribute to the U.S. war effort?  Please explain.

Many women served in the army whether it be at home or in uniform. America looked to utilize all that had in their efforts in the war so they needed as much participation as they could get. Women that were on the home front grew involved in defense plants and war-related organizations. If they were not on the home front, they were running their households, cooking, cleaning, paying bills and writing positive letters to their husbands. Some women on the home front actually served in uniform in the various women's groups that were formed. By the end of the war, many women wanted to continue their jobs but they were forced

out by the men who were returning.

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/at-a-glance/women-in-ww2.html