Transcript IB II 13-14 Unit VI posted US WW2

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 nations @ war
 1937: passed in response to Spanish Civil
War
 Banned arms sales & loans to nations
undergoing civil wars
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
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”
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
American Preparedness and Aid to the
Allies (1939-1941)
 Embargo on Strategic Materials  Japan
 US - Open Door Policy
 protests against occupation of French
Indochina (1940-1941)
 Embargo: gasoline, scrap iron, etc.; assets
in US “frozen”
Battle of the Atlantic
U-Boats & Wolfpacks
The Bismarck
The Pacific Theater
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)
Invasion of China 1937
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”.
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)
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
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
Pearl Harbor on October 30,
1941
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.
 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