Causes and Background
American Neutrality
On the Homefront
American Military Contributions
Significance and Impact
100
Besides the United States, which countries made up the Allied Powers?
What is Britain and France (and eventually the USSR)?
100
Give one emotional reason the United States wanted to remain neutral in World War II.
Americans had sad memories of lives lost during World War I.
100
How did women benefit during World War II?
They were allowed to take up jobs soldiers had left behind.
100
Why could the United States not immediately launch a counter-attack against Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?
The Japanese destroyed the entire U.S. Navy when they bombed Pearl Harbor (but not our Air Force/Army, so we could fight in Europe).
100
What impact did World War II have on the American economy?
The war lifted America out of the Depression and made us into a prominent world power.
200
List three European dictators and the countries they controlled.
Mussolini - Italy; Hitler - Germany; Stalin - USSR; Franco - Spain
200
Give two economic reasons the United States wanted to remain neutral.
3/4 of war debts from WWI remained unpaid; America was in the middle of the Depression and couldn't afford to go to war.
200
True or False: The Tuskegee Airmen were the first integrated (not segregated) military unit in U.S. history.
False; at this point, the military was still segregated.
200
The Allied invasion of Normandy, France, was known as...
What is D-Day?
200
What is the significance of the controversial decision to drop the atomic bomb on the civilian targets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
This signaled the beginning of a new type of warfare: total war.
300
World War II officially began with Hitler's invasion of this country.
What is Poland?
300
Give one psychological reason the U.S. didn't want to be involved in WWII.
Americans thought that arms manufacturers had tricked them into entering WWI.
300
How did the Navajo people contribute to America's victory in World War II?
The Navajo Code Talkers used codes written in their language to pass secret information without it being decrypted.
300
What is V-E Day?
Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945
300
The USSR became a superpower at this point; they were communist, while the U.S. was democratic. This led to what 50 year conflict?
What is the Cold War?
400
Despite multiple attempts to remain isolationist, America finally joined World War II after this event.
What is the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
400
The Neutrality Acts attempted to keep America out of the war by...
prohibiting the sale of weapons to countries at war.
400
When America entered World War II, we promised to fight Hitler's racism. List two examples of America's own racism during WWII.
The military (and everything else) was still segregated; also, Japanese Americans were put in concentration camps until the war was over (Korematsu).
400
After defeating Germany, the U.S. began to fight the Japanese in the Pacific. This was difficult because the Japanese were trained to kill themselves rather than surrender. Japanese suicide pilots were called...
What are kamikaze pilots?
400
How did the atomic bomb contribute to the beginning of the Cold War?
People feared the bomb, and this started an arms race between the U.S. and the USSR.
500
Mussolini and Hitler were considered "fascist" dictators. Fascism is the belief that...
the good of the nation is more important than the rights of the individual.
500
Why did Roosevelt feel that the Lend-Lease Act was necessary?
He believed that if Europe fell, American democracy would be in danger from the Axis dictators, so he wanted to help the Allies without entering the war.
500
How did the United States pay for the war?
Taxes and war bonds
500
The _____________ gave the world its first true superweapon, the atomic bomb.
What is the Manhattan Project?
500
What impact did World War II have on the quest for civil rights for women and minorities?
Women wanted to continue working in addition to caring for their families, and participation by African Americans in wartime industries and the military improved their public image.
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