Inquizitive Chapter 22: Fighting for the Four Freedoms: World War II, 1941-1945

What does it reveal about World War II in the Pacific?

- All major battles took place on islands in the Pacific Ocean and Japan. - The Japanese controlled significant parts of the Pacific Ocean, as well as parts of the Asian continent, including Manchuria, Korea, and Burma. - Allied forces attacked the Japanese forces from many directions, including by sea, as well

What historical information could you use to challenge the claim that this painting encapsulated American society and its values during the war?

- Although this image promotes unity and individual rights, American society was deeply segregated throughout the war years and not all people benefited equally from these rights.

Which of the following statements express the ideas of Henry Luce's The American Century?

- America was to be the dominant power on the planet. - Free markets were the pathway to liberty.

What were the outcomes of the 1944 Bretton Woods conference?

- American foreign policy embraced the reduction of internal barriers to free trade. - The United States became the dominant influence in international finance.

Identify the statements below that are accurate with regard to the Manhattan Project.

- As vice president, Harry Truman had no knowledge of its existence. - Its purpose was to discover ways to access the potentially vast amounts of energy contained within the atom.

Read the selection below from Charles H. Wesley, "The Negro Has Always Wanted the Four Freedoms," in What the Negro Wants (1944). (Insert text). Why does Wesley believe that black Americans are denied the Four Freedoms?

- Because of Americans' deeply entrenched hatred of Americans of African ancestry.

Because of the need for high production rates with minimal interruptions, involvement in the Second World War restrained the growth of labor unions in the American economy.

- False

For whites in America during the wartime years, freedom was viewed as a goal to be achieved, whereas for black Americans, freedom was seen as a possession to be defended.

- False

Friedrich Hayek advocated for the concepts of pure laissez-faire policies as the solution to national economic problems.`

- False

Henry Luce's 1941 book The American Century called for America to return to a more home-directed, America-First foreign policy after the bloodshed of World War II.

- False

In his use of the phrase "great arsenal of democracy," Franklin Roosevelt meant that it was important for the United States to produce and store up as many weapons as possible in preparation for an American conflict with the Nazis.

- False

The America First Committee pushed for American involvement in Europe during World War II.

- False

The Second World War was historically unique in that it saw fewer civilian deaths as a result of the war than other similar global conflicts throughout history. Instead, the majority of wartime deaths consisted of military personnel, which makes this conflict unusual in the annals of world history.

- False

Unlike the war against Germany, which was viewed as a race war due to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews, the war against the Japanese was seen by most Americans as an ideological struggle between two competing ways of life.

- False

With the end of the war, American society expected that the employment changes the war had brought for women would continue.

- False

Which nation was excluded from membership in the United Nations Security Council?

- Germany

Identify the ways by which the government paid for the war.

- It began withholding taxes from paychecks. - It raised taxes. - It sold war bonds.

Which of the following statements about the "Fifth Freedom" are correct?

- It equated consumer choice with liberty and democracy. - It embraced the concept of free enterprise as being central to prosperity. - The advancement of this ideal came from the private sector.

Identify the statements below that describe the Office of War Information.

- It sought to avoid the nationalist excesses of the First World War. - Its stated purpose was to mobilize public opinion behind the war effort.

Identify the statements that describe the GI Bill of Rights.

- Its purpose was to avoid the economic instability that followed World War I. - It led to a massive increase in college attendance after the war.

Watch the author video featuring Eric Foner. What was the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II?

- Japanese Americans in the West were interned in camps, which represented the biggest violation of civil liberties in America, second only to slavery. - Japanese Americans in California lost their land to whites when they were forced into internment camps.

Identify the statements below that describe military service during the Second World War.

- Military service proved to have a unifying effect on the American servicemen from all regions of the country. - The military remained segregated for the duration of the conflict.

Which of the following terms were agreed to at the Potsdam conference of 1945?

- Nazi leaders would face war-crime trials. - After the war, Germany was to come under Allied military government.

Which of the following were agreed to at the Yalta conference of 1945?

- Secret plans to divide the political influence in southern and eastern Europe between the British and the Russians. - Russia would enter into the Pacific war.

Identify the domestic accomplishments that occurred during the war.

- Segregation was ended in the U.S. navy. - The National War Labor Board banned race-based wage scales.

What did the Neutrality Acts, which started being passed in 1935, forbid?

- Selling weapons to countries at war

Identify the statements that describe the philosophy behind the black internationalism movement.

- Slavery accounted for the origins of racial thinking. - Colonialism abroad worked against equality in the United States.

Identify the statement that best describes why a member of the America First Committee would most likely disagree with the sentiments of this cartoon.

- The illustration is making the point that the distance provided by the Atlantic Ocean is no longer a guarantee of American security and isolation from European problems.

Identify the statements that describe the bracero program.

- The program was originally viewed as a short-term fix to an economic problem. - It allowed for Mexican nationals to enter into the United States for labor purposes.

Identify the statements that describe African-Americans during World War II, both at home and abroad.

- They were segrated and maltreated while fighting abroad, but the experiences of change and fighting mobilized a whole generation of African Americans to fight for victory at home over segretation and inequality. - The mobilization for war drew millions of African-Americans out of the South and into the North and West, reshaping the racial map of the country.

The government's response to World War II represented the ultimate example of Keynesian economics in practice.

- True

Wartime proclamations such as the Atlantic Charter worked against Nazism and fascism during the war but also served to undermine colonialism and racism.

- True

Identify the Four Freedoms articulated by President Roosevelt as a general Allied war aim.

- freedom of speech - freedom from want - freedom of worship - freedom from fear

Identify how the Good Neighbor Policy of the 1930s sought to improve relations between the United States and Latin America.

- it reduced US military intervention

Identify the goals of the National Resources Planning Board.

- to redistribute income - to expand Social Security - to improve access to health care

Roosevelt viewed Hitler's victories as a direct THREAT to the United States. But, opponents of the American involvement in Europe, like the America First Committee, supported foreign policy views of ISOLATIONISM, meaning that they sought to keep the United States out of the European conflicts of the 1930's and 1940's. In contrast, groups like the Free World Association believed that INTERVENTION was necessary to prevent the spread of fascism.

. . .

The decision to drop the atomic bomb was very controversial at the time. Truman ultimately decided to employ it to end the war. Ultimately the bomb was responsible for a greater number of Japanese casualties than Americans suffered during the whole Pacific theater.

. . .

In his work "The Price of Free World Victory," 1.____rejected the ideas of The American Century as centering too much on 2.___ rather than international cooperation. He felt that wealth should be 3.______ the hands of those who had made it, and not to do so would 4.____ hunger, illiteracy, and poverty.

1. Henry Wallace 2.business dominance 3.redistributed from 4.increase

World War II 1.___ the integration of American society. Unlike World War I's 2.____ policies, pluralism was seen as patriotic during the Second World War. By the war's end, racism and nativism had become 3.___.

1. accelerated 2. forced Americanization 3. intellectually discredited

Friedrich Hayek's work The Road to Serfdom argued that 1. ____ultimately threatened liberty. Conservatives used this book to justify 2.____role for the state in the economy, by equating fascism and socialism with the 3._____.

1. economic planning 2. a decreased 3. New Deal

The Second World War 1.________ American society as virtually no other conflict in the nation's history had. Freedom from 2._____ as a wartime ideal addressed the feeling that the Depression would 3.________ after the war, while freedom from 4._______ embraced the ideal of an American's personal liberty being contrasted with life in a 5_________ state.

1. unified 2. want 3. not return 4. fear 5. fascist

What does this map reveal about World War II in Europe? Identify the extent of power of the following territories.

Soviet Union, Syria, Iraq, and parts of North Africa Correct label: Allied countries Norway, Finland, and eastern Europe Correct label: Axis powers countries in North Africa and parts of France under Axis control Correct label: Vichy France