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Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition

Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: WORLD WAR II: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA. TOTAL WAR World War II defining event of twentieth century "Total war," waged on military and civilian populations around globe Lasted six years

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Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition

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  1. Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: WORLD WAR II: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA

  2. TOTAL WAR • World War II defining event of twentieth century • "Total war," waged on military and civilian populations around globe • Lasted six years • U.S. contributed 15 million service members

  3. Began summer of 1939 --Adolf Hitler's Germany invaded Poland --Allies France and England declared war on Germany --Hitler, Stalin signed non-aggression pact --Secret plan to divide spoils of war

  4. Germany attacked neutral European nations --By 1940 conquered western Europe --England next target • Officially U.S. neutral --Unofficially, FDR administration favored England --Unofficially, majority of US did too --Congress provided financial aid

  5. Summer 1941 Hitler attacked Soviet Union --Allied U.S., Britain, Russia against Hitler --Fighting concentrated on German/Russian border

  6. THE PACIFIC THEATRE • U.S. focused closest threat, Japan • Japan consolidating colonial empire in Pacific --1932 invaded Manchuia --1937 declared war on China --1940 expanded into French-held Indonesia --Justified as "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"

  7. US response economic --embargoed Japan --Steel, oil • fall 1941 Japan formed new military government --allied with Germany in Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis • US embargo having effect --Critical military shortages --Undermining colonial ambitions

  8. Officials decided to disable US --Japan's senior Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto --Designed surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii --Home of US Pacific Fleet --Late November 1941 moved aircraft carriers into north Pacific

  9. Sunday, December 7, 1941 Japanese aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor --Sunk, disabled majority of US battleships --3 aircraft carriers at sea • Japan moved quickly --Seized Dutch East Indies --British southeast Asia colonies --US colony, Philippines --All US island colonies west of Wake Island

  10. CALIFORNIA IN WORLD WAR II • US aid to Britain, entry into World War II ended depression --Sales of food, ships, war material boosted US economy • Directly improved, reorganized California economy --September 1939 economy = agriculture, mining, fishing, textiles, metal- and wood-working, movies, tourism dominated

  11. --oil, aircraft, shipbuilding, auto, rubber, agriculture quickly converted to war production • diverse landscapes provided battle training grounds • increased importance of naval bases at San Diego, Mare Island • Army expanded existing facilities: Fort Ord, Camp Roberts

  12. Marine Corps built new west coast base at Camp Pendleton • influx of war workers reshaped California society • 1940 implementation of military draft ended unemployment in US, California --By late 1941 labor shortages in Cal

  13. Shipbuilding first industry affected --By 1941 LA, SF shipyards booming --orders for troop carriers increased through end of war --aircraft building increased x 5 --spikes in demand for steel, chemicals, textiles, machine tools, food

  14. IMPACT OF PEARL HARBOR • Californians terrified --radio, newspapers published rumors --officials imposed blackouts, civil defense measures --immediate calls to remove Japanese

  15. "total war" hard to miss in California --Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force bases expanded --Ship- and aircraft manufacturing "" --Fed poured billions into university research and development --"" "" electronics manufacturing • Total fed WWII expenditures in Cal $40 billion --+ 10 percent of total

  16. Military trained on Cal deserts, mountains, beaches --1942 Geo. Patton's North African tank corps trained in Mojave Desert --1942 Fort Ord 50K city --Navy took over SF's Treasure Island, LA's Terminal Island --Air Force bases expanded at March Field, McClellan, Mather, Travis, George --California ports transfer stations for people, materiel bound for Pacific

  17. War work dangerous --July 17, 1944 ordnance ship exploded at Port Chicago --Blast killed 323 people, demolished 350 homes --Dead included 200 black seamen --Port Chicago "Mutiny" called attention to racism in military --Blacks served in segregated units with white officers

  18. --Commonly given most dangerous jobs --Surviving seamen refused to resume loading munitions --50 charged with mutiny, faced court martial proceedings --At trial testified to racism, hazardous working conditions --All 50 found guilty --Sentenced to 15 years in prison --dishonorably discharged

  19. many protested treatment of Port Chicago victims --Thurgood Marshall, Navy Secretary James Forrestal, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt appealed --Penalties reduced --January 1946 sentences set aside --men discharged "under less than honorable conditions" --denied veterans benefits

  20. 1988 California Congressmen Pete Stark, Ron Dellums pressed Navy to reopen cases --1994 Navy upheld original decision --1946 Secretary of Defense James Forrestal ordered complete end to segregation in Navy --July 1948 Pres. Truman ordered all branches desegregated

  21. THE RISE OF THE AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY • California aircraft industry weak, unstable before WWI --Government demand fluctuated --mail contracts main source of demand --US mail basis of commercial air travel • 1912 Glenn Martin started airframe company in southern California --motors built elsewhere --shipped to California assembly plants

  22. 1912 Christofferson, 1916 Loughead aircraft companies founded San Francisco • 1920 Donald Douglas formed aircraft company in southern California --Contracts from Army, Navy • 1924 Douglas's single-engine biplanes made first round-the-world flight --1926 reorganized as Douglas Aircraft Company

  23. 1926 Loughead brothers merged with John K. Northrup --New company Lockheed Aircraft Company --phonetic spelling of Loughead • 1927 Claude Ryan in San Diego built Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis --first airplane to fly nonstop from New York to Paris --worldwide sensation

  24. Douglas, Ryan, and Lockheed designed passenger planes --Mail, military contracts still key to viability • 1935 Douglas unveiled DC-3 passenger plane --By 1939 carried 95 % of all US passenger traffic --Success brought new manufacturers to southern Cal --By 1939 + half all US aircraft workers in southern California

  25. Industry exploded in WWII --Numbers employed grew --1939 20,000 --1944 280,000 --1941 FDR set goal at 50,000 planes / year --Seemed impossibly high --Just 1943 + 100,000 planes manufactured --Key was massive increase in ##s of women workers

  26. SHIPBUILDING • WWII production exploded • Fed pumped $5B into Cal for ships • Numbers employed grew --1941 4,000 --1942 260,000

  27. Private, Navy shipyards opened, expanded in Sausalito, Vallejo, Alameda, Oakland, San Francisco --Produced hundreds of transport, cargo, amphibious, naval craft • Henry J. Kaiser's Richmond plant most impressive --Drew on experiences building Hoover Dam, other fed+private projects

  28. --Introduced assembly-line techniques to ship building --Facility built 1 in 4 of all WWII Liberty ships --1941, 250 days to produce 1 ship --Reduced to 25 days --Robert E. Perry built in 8 days --Key was massive increase in ##s of women workers

  29. Richmond population skyrocketed --from 20,000 to + 100,000 • Kaiser perfected corporate welfare programs --Underwrote construction of worker housing --Introduced prepaid health care --Kaiser Foundation Health Plan covered workers, dependents

  30. 1942 Kaiser built state's first integrated blast furnace, steel-rolling mill --fifty miles east of Los Angeles --Fontana plant increased state steel production by 70 percent --War industries less dependent on eastern steel manufacturers

  31. OTHER WAR INDUSTRIES AND AGRICULTURE • 1941-1945 Oil production increased 50 % • Rubber industry developed synthetic rubber --Japan controlled natural rubber supplies in Southeast Asia --synthetic rubber became permanent industry • Radio manufacturers switched to radar, sonar devices • Auto manufacturers built tanks, troop carriers

  32. Heavy industry tripled state's industrial labor force • Food production increased --Pop growth --Govn contracts for troops, overseas relief --Value of dairy products, fruits, nuts, vegetables, cotton, livestock increased 2x, 3x pre-war value

  33. Overall value of agriculture rose --1939 $623 million --1945 $1.75 billion • Labor shortages threatened food production -- + 700,000 Californians enlisted, drafted --Okies flooded into war jobs --Japanese removed to camps

  34. 1942 Fed responded with bracero program --Mexican nationals imported as temporary agricultural workers --US promised transportation, health care, housing, minimum wage, and unemployment pay --1944 peak, imported 26,000 workers

  35. SCIENCE • California home to top-notch universities, research facilities --California Institute of Technology --Stanford University --University of California, Berkeley --University of California, Los Angeles

  36. R&D contracts produced important discoveries --rocket-assist systems for aircraft --radar-assisted torpedoes • Most important development atomic bomb --1930s University of California, Berkeley professor of physics Ernest O. Lawrence developed cyclotron (atom smasher) --synthesized neptunium, uranium 235, plutonium

  37. --basis for further nuclear research --attracted J. Robert Oppenheimer, others to UCB • 1942 US govn proposed, UCB accepted Manhattan Project --Lawrence oversaw construction of top-secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico --Ultimately produced world's first atomic bomb

  38. August 1945 US used bomb on Japanese cities of Hiroshima, Nagasaki --Ended World War II --Launched atomic age, Cold War

  39. WOMEN IN THE WAR • Shock of Pearl Harbor, national commitment to WWII made fundamental changes in women's roles possible • Armed services opened new positions to women --Army and Navy Nurses Corps (ANC/NNC) --women's branch of army (WACs) --women's branch of navy (WAVES) --"" "" Coast Guard (SPARS)

  40. Intended for non-combat positions --Goal to free up men for combat --Women still faced dangerous conditions • Thousands left low-paid jobs for defense work --Shipyards --Airplane assembly plants --electronics, munitions, other war-related industries

  41. nationally women took over "male" production jobs --before 1941 few women in heavy industry --after 1941 + 2M --½ just in aerospace • influx of women war workers to California --attracted by patriotism, high pay --women + 40 percent of Cal aircraft employees

  42. other opptys opened as well --men unavailable --employers forced to accept women • Cal women found work as chemists, engineers, railroad workers, lawyers, journalists

  43. new opportunities for women of color --San Francisco's Jade Snow Wong found job in office of War Production --Job boring, but $ good, oppty to contribute to war effort --San Francisco's Maya Angelou liked streetcar conductors' uniforms --Determined to break streetcars' color barrier

  44. Employers resisted integration --federal Fair Employment Practices Committee dictated equal hiring --black men and women forced employers to comply --pressed Cal to create state Fair Employment Practices Commission --By 1944 blacks were + 7 percent of war industries work force

  45. women's movement into new work created new problems --war brought severe shortage of housing, food and transportation services --few child care resources for working mothers --100% annual employee turnover rates not uncommon --War's end brought unemployment, low wages, other problems

  46. REMOVAL OF THE JAPANESE AMERICANS • Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt commander, Fourth Army, Western Defense Command --In San Francisco when Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor • Initially resisted removal of Cal Japanese --Army's provost marshal general, Allen W. Gullion favored --chief of Aliens Division, Karl R. Bendetsen favored

  47. February 14, 1942, DeWitt advised FDR --Removal of Japanese, enemy aliens from coast "military necessity" --FDR responded with Executive Order 9066 --authorized secretary of war to identify military exclusion zones --secretary delegated to DeWitt

  48. March 1942 DeWitt ordered evacuation --Affected most West Coast Japanese, Japanese-Americans --June 1942 deadline to report to assembly centers • Issei, Nisei transferred to ten "relocation centers" • Removal changed Japanese neighborhoods --Japanese left San Francisco's Fillmore District --Places taken by African American war workers --Most recent arrivals from South

  49. By 1944, +25% of evacuees "paroled" to Midwest, East Coast • U.S. Supreme Court attacked relocation in Endo case --detention of Japanese American citizens unconstitutional --didn't close camps --August 1945, 1/3 of evacuees (44,000) still in camps --Many afraid to go home --Many had no homes to return to

  50. CONSEQUENCES OF EVACUATION • Removal tested fundamental American values --2/3 of internees U.S. citizens • Only a handful of Japanese resisted relocation • Gordon Hirabayashi one example --Born in Seattle, US citizen --Refused to report for registration, relocation --Turned himself in to FBI --Convicted of violating curfew, relocation orders

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