During World War 2, the United States fought wars on two major fronts. In the Pacific, the US sought to contain Japanese victories by engaging in key naval battles like Coral Sea and Midway and fighting on Guadalcanal. In Europe and Africa, the US and Britain launched a campaign against Axis forces, invading North Africa and later Italy. Meanwhile, the US mobilized its economy and citizens for the war effort through organizations that stabilized prices and production while expanding labor unions and employing more women in the workforce. After major offensives in Europe and the Pacific, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of World War 2.

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26: America in a World at War
Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation, 8th Edition

2. ©McGraw-Hill Education.
War on Two Fronts
• Containing the Japanese
– Japanese victories
– American strategy in the Pacific
– Battle of the Coral Sea
– Battle of Midway
– Guadalcanal

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War on Two Fronts (Continued)
• Holding Off the Germans
– Dwight Eisenhower
– Campaign in Northern Africa
– Battle of Stalingrad
– Italy invaded

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World War II in North Africa and Italy:
The Allied Counteroffensive, 1942–1943
The United States and Great Britain understood from the beginning that an invasion of France
across the English Channel would eventually be necessary for a victory in the European war. In
the meantime, however, they began a campaign against Axis forces in North Africa, and in the
spring of 1943 they began an invasion across the Mediterranean into Italy.

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War on Two Fronts (Continued, 2)
• America and the Holocaust
– U.S. inaction

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The American Economy in Wartime
• Prosperity and the Rights of Labor
– Massive government spending
– Rising demand for labor
– Union membership boosted

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The American Economy in Wartime
(Continued)
• Stabilizing the Boom and Mobilizing Production
– Office of Price Administration
– War Production Board
– Office of War Mobilization

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The American Economy in Wartime
(Continued, 2)
• Wartime Science and Technology
– Government financing of research
– Long-range bombing
– Code breaking
– The Colossus II

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Race and Ethnicity in
Wartime America
• African Americans and the War
– A. Philip Randolph
– Wartime race riots
– CORE

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Race and Ethnicity in
Wartime America (Continued)
• Native Americans and the War
– Navajo “code-talkers”
• Mexican American War Workers
– Braceros program
– Zoot suits

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Race and Ethnicity in
Wartime America (Continued, 2)
• The Internment of Japanese Americans
– “Relocation centers”
– Korematsu v. U.S.
• Chinese Americans and the War
– Declining prejudice

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Anxiety and Affluence in
Wartime Culture
– Consumerism reborn
• Home-Front Life and Culture
– Swing music
– The Office of War Information
– The celluloid war

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Anxiety and Affluence in
Wartime Culture (Continued)
• Love, Family and Sexuality in Wartime
– Importance of USOs
– “Rosie the Riveter”
– WAACs and WAVEs

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Women at War
Many American women enlisted in the army and navy women's corps during World War II, but
an equally important contribution to the war effort was their work in factories and offices—
often in jobs that would have been considered inappropriate for them in peacetime but that
they were now encouraged to assume because of the absence of so many men.
The Library of Congress

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Anxiety and Affluence in
Wartime Culture (Continued, 2)
• The Growth of Wartime Conservatism
– Conservative assault on the New Deal
– Democrats drop Wallace
– Roosevelt reelected

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The Defeat of the Axis
• The European Offensive
– D-Day
– Battle of the Bulge
– Germany invaded

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World War II in Europe:
The Allied Counteroffensive, 1943–1945
This map illustrates the final, climactic movements in the war in Europe—the two
great offensives against Germany that began in 1943 and culminated in 1945.

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The Normandy Invasion
This photograph, taken from a landing craft, shows American troops wading ashore and onto
the Normandy beaches, where one of the decisive battles of World War II was taking shape.
The invasion was launched despite threatening weather and rough seas.
© Popperfoto/Getty Images

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The Defeat of the Axis (Continued)
• The Pacific Offensive
– Battles of Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima
– Okinawa
– Tokyo firebombed

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The Defeat of the Axis (Continued, 2)
• The Manhattan Project and Atomic Warfare
– J. Robert Oppenheimer
– Atomic test in New Mexico
– Controversy
– Hiroshima destroyed
– Second bomb and surrender

21. ©McGraw-Hill Education.
World War II in the Pacific
This map illustrates the changing fortunes of the two combatants in the Pacific phase of World War II. The
long red line stretching from Burma around to Manchuria represents the eastern boundary of the vast areas
of the Pacific that had fallen under Japanese control by the summer of 1942. The blue lines illustrate the
advance of American forces back into the Pacific beginning in May 1942 and accelerating in 1943 and after,
which drove back the Japanese forces.

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Consider the Source
• The Face of the Enemy

23. ©McGraw-Hill Education.
Consider the Source (Continued)
The Library of Congress; and © Private Collection/Peter Newark Military Pictures/Bridgeman Images/Reproduced with the cooperation of The Arthur Szyk Society, Burlingame, CA; www.syzk.org

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Debating the Past
• The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb

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The Unfinished Nation, 8th Edition
Next: Chapter 27
The Cold War