World War II

Question 1

Lend Lease Act

Answer 1

• Approved by Congress in 1941
• Allowed FDR to direct material (i.e. weapons) to Allied Powers without violating terms of neutrality
• Transfers companies from consumer goods to wartime production goods

Question 2

War Production Board (WPB)

Answer 2

-Stops making “non-essential items” and shifts to war production after the Lend-Lease act is approved

Question 3

Rationing System

Answer 3

• The Office of Price Administration (OPA) issued ration books with “points”
• The points had to be turned in along with money to purchase goods made with restricted / “essential” items

Question 4

War Labor Board (WLB)

Answer 4

• Imposes ceilings on wage increases

- Causes unions call for strikes

Question 5

Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act (1943)

Answer 5

• Allowed government to take over striking industries
• Hands on approach
• Pro labor unions

Question 6

Fair Employment Practices Commision (FEPC)

Answer 6

• Created by FDR
• Purpose = to monitor compliance with his executive order that forbade discrimination in defense industries
• Increased African American employment in war industries

Question 7

“Victory Tax” of 1942

Answer 7

• Sharply raised income tax rates
• Allowed taxes to be withheld directly from paychecks
• The wealthy don’t like it

Question 8

Liberty Bonds

Answer 8

• Sold to finance the war from personal savings
• Tapping into patriotic fervor
• Nearly 186 million dollars worth of war bonds were purchased during the U.S.’s time during the war

Question 9

The Double-V Campaign

Answer 9

• A victory in the war abroad and over racism at home
• Originated from a Pittsburgh newspaper article (largest black newspaper in the U.S. at the time)
• Tried to show that the war effort wouldn’t have been as big without African American help
• Sets up the nation for the upcoming Civil Rights Movement

Question 10

Johnson-Reed Act

Answer 10

• Severely limited the number of immigrants coming to America from ‘less socially desirable areas’
• Targeted Chinese, Japanese and immigrants from Southern & Eastern Europe (Jewish)

Question 11

M.S.S. St. Louis

Answer 11

• Ship carrying > 900 passengers
• Mostly immigrants from Germany
• Refused by Cuban, American, and Canadian authorities
• More than 300 of them would be killed in the Final Solution

Question 12

Henry Ford and Antisemitism

Answer 12

• One of the most outspoken supporters for Hitler & anti-semitic views in the 1920s and 1930s
• Wrote and received letters from Hitler reinforcing his anti-semitic opinions

Question 13

Father Coughlin

Answer 13

• From Detroit, Michigan (a cesspool of anti-semitic beliefs)
• Hosted a radio shows where he blamed Jewish Americans as a large factor in the Great Depression
• Praised Hitler’s efforts
• Encouraged American support and partnership with Nazi Germany

Question 14

Page Act of 1875

Answer 14

• Sponsored by Ulysses S. Grant
• Prevented the immigration of Chinese Women to the U.S.
• Similar treatment to Chinese Immigrants during WWII

Question 15

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Answer 15

• Purpose = to exclude Chinese immigrants for a period of 10 years (lasts for 60)
• Similar to treatment of Chinese Americans during WWII

Question 16

Rocks Spring Massacre 1885

Answer 16

• Thousands of Chinese Immigrants out of work because of the failure of railroad companies; move to Wyoming to look for work
• Wyoming citizens were upset because they felt Chinese took their jobs
• Over 25-30 people murdered and hung throughout the town
• When survivors come back with the army to protect them, wild dogs and hogs were feeding on the dead bodies
• Everyone who was arrested was acquitted

Question 17

The Gentleman’s Agreement

Answer 17

• Restricted Japanese immigration

- Japan agreed with the U.S. that any immigrants would be Japanese high-ranking business officials

Question 18

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Answer 18

• Some Japanese Americans were working as spies in the late 1930s
• Destroy American ships and planes at the Pearl Harbor naval base on December 7th, 1941
• Causes massive movement on the assumption Japanese Americans can’t be trusted

Question 19

Walter Littman

Answer 19

• One of the first true great American Journalists after 1942
• Invents terms stereotype and Cold War
• Wrote a horrific account of Japanese Americans saying that the only solution was to throw them in concentration camps because they could not be trusted in his eyes

Question 20

Japanese Internment

Answer 20

• Atrocities like Bataan Death March fuel Anti- Japanese sentiment
• Set forth by Executive Order 9066
• 10,000 Japanese Americans on the Pacific Coast are forced into camps

Question 21

Korematsu v. United States

Answer 21

• 1944
• Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the internment camps
• Like Schenck v. United States, the Federal Government has the power to restrict people’s rights during wartime

Question 22

Manhattan Project

Answer 22

• Project to develop the atomic bomb

- Bombs used previously had not faltered Japan’s will to win the war

Question 23

V-J Day

Answer 23

• August 15, 1945
• After the U.S. drops the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Japan surrenders unconditionally