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Shavigh Barseghian Sharis Ghazeri Tiffany Lee Arlette Movsesyan Irene Saroyan Chapter 37 38 ID Questions Ch. 37 1.

. Prior to American involvement in both the First and Second World Wars, the United States adopted an official policy of neutrality. Compare the policy and its modification during the period 1914-1917 to the policy and its modification during the period 1939-1941. (Tiffany Lee, Question #4) The WWI and WWII modifications to policies were similar and were mainly done to support the U.S. economies dependence upon Britain. Prior to WWI, President Wilson called for the American people to remain neutral and impartial, but this was a slim possibility. The Americans admired England and supported the nation greatly. The U.S also could not stay neutral because of the close economic ties with Britain and were forced to support Britain, for the sake of their economy. Prior to WWII, America adopted the Neutrality Acts that declared America neutral and were made to prevent the actions that occurred during WWI. Beginning 1939, the U.S adopted the cash and carry system and the lend-lease system. The cash and carry system was a way for the U.S to sell goods and appear neutral because they would not deliver goods. But by the middle of the war, the lend-lease system was made to satisfy the British need for weapons as their economy began to fail. Ch. 37 2. Was American government policy toward the refugees (from the Holocaust), and toward the Holocaust generally, an adequate response to the crisis? Explain. (Irene Saroyan, Question #3)

American government policy toward the refugees and the Holocaust was not an adequate response to the crisis. The U.S. failed to provide adequate safe harbor to Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution of Nazi Germany.
The established and wealthy German-Jewish community, organized in the American Jewish Committee, had worked hard to prove their fellow Americans of their loyalty, and many now were afraid that support for refugees from Hitlers Germany would bring about an outpouring of anti-Semitism in America. The more numerous but less prosperous and influential East European Jews, organized in the American Jewish Congress, were determined on insisting the Roosevelt administration to rescue Europes Jews. This internal argument compromised the political effectiveness of the American Jewish community in the face of the refugee dilemma.

Other factors also helped to keep Americas door shut against Jews seeking refuge in the United States. The restrictive American immigration law of 1924 set rigid national quotas and made no provisions for seekers of asylum from racial, religious or political persecution. The Great Depression made it impossible to provide employment for workers in the job line for newcomers. And opening Americas gates to Germanys half-million Jews raised the daunting prospect that such action would unleash a deluge of millions more Jews from countries like Poland and Romania, which were advertising their eagerness to be rid of their Jewish populations. No one, of course, yet knew just how fiendish a destiny Hitler was preparing for Europes Jews. Many Jews and Gentiles alike, including Congressman Emmanuel Celler and Senator Robert Wagner, both of New York, nevertheless lobbied Roosevelts government to extend a welcoming hand to Jews seeking asylum to no avail. In 1941 Congress rejected a Wagner bill to bring 20,000 German-Jewish children to the United States outside the quota restrictions. An even more desperate plan to settle refugees in Alaska also failed. Once the United States entered the war, the State Department went so far as to suppress early reports of Hitlers plan to exterminate all European Jewry. After the Fhrers sordid final solution became known in America, the War Department rejected pleas to bomb the rail lines leading to the gas chambers. Military officials maintained that a raid on the death camps like Auschwitz would divert essential military resources and needlessly extend the war. Thus only a lucky few escaped the Nazi terror, while 6 million died in one of historys most ghastly testimonials to the human capacity for evil. Ch. 38 1. How did Americas domestic response (the home-front) to World War II differ from what happened during World War I? (Shavigh Der Barseghian, Question #4) During the beginning of World War I, in 1914, America had a modern navy, except it practically had no army outside of a small professional force. However, America was the largest producer of industrial and agricultural products in the world. This meant that in any war of abrasion, America would play an important role, even as an impartial country. The Royal Navy's command of the seas gave the Allies access to American production. This was extremely frustrating to the Germans, but what the Germans did not correctly evaluate was that American as a belligerent would be a much great advantage to the Allies. An American in the War would help the Allies finance war purchases and field a massive army. War purchases created a booming economy, but the Allies were limited by their ability to pay for purchases. Once America entered the War, loans allowed the Allies to buy vast amounts of war supplies and most of these loans were never paid back. America's vast productive resources meant that a strict rationing system was not required. America mobilized for war through a patriotic outburst and Government requests for voluntary compliance on the part of farmers, industry, and consumers. Several new Federal agencies were created to manage a wartime economy. The Food Administration was placed under Herbert Hoover and would not only oversee domestic markets but

provide food assistance that would save millions of Europeans, especially children. Hoover became known as the Great Engineer. Hoover never instituted food rationing, but did introduce a range of voluntary efforts that proved highly affected. Hoover as Food Administrator encouraged American mothers as a patriotic act to hold to "meatless Mondays" and "wheat less Wednesdays" to conserve food supplies. World War II significantly impacted the United States. The war affected all stages of American life, although battles hadnt arose on the mainland. It required extraordinary efforts to coordinate strategy and tactics with other members of the Grand Alliance and then to dive into battle against Germany, Italy, and Japan. At the same time, it demanded a vast production effort to provide the materials necessary to fight. As the United States produced the weapons of war and became, in President Franklin D. Roosevelts phrase, the arsenal of democracy, the country experienced a fundamental reorientation of economic and social patterns at home that provided the template for the postwar years. In the economic arena, the war ended the Great Depression. Military spending that began in 1940 to bolster the defense effort gave the nations economy the boost it needed, and millions of unemployed Americans returned to work to make the weapons of war needed to protect the United States. The renewed prosperity justified the theory of John Maynard Keynes, an English economist, who had earlier argued that sizable government spending could end a depression if the private sector was unable or unwilling to engage in such spending itself. World War II did not affect American children like children in Europe and Asia. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans acted as an affected barrier to the Germans and Japanese. Many American children lost their fathers, but unlike European children, they were not orphaned or displaced. However, American children did participate in a variety of wartime activities to support the war effort. Children studied current events. Air raid drills and alerts were common. Both children and their families were involved with conservation and recycling of goods. The Scouts and other youth groups were actively involved in home-front activities. Children often worked in sponsored rallies, parades and cultural events, such as dances, to raise money to buy war stamps and bonds to finance the war. Some children were more poorly affected by the war. Although not separated from their patents, Japanese Americans in Pacific coast states were imprisoned in concentration camps. Italian and German families were also detained, but only those whose parents were believed to have been involved in seditious activities. Ch. 38 2. Analyze the home-front experience of the following groups during the Second World War: African Americans, Japanese Americans, Jewish Americans, Mexican Americans (Arlette Movsesyan, Question #4) Jim Crow segregation continued taking its toll on the African Americans. After the Great Migration, they remained in urban ghettos because of white resentment and housing shortages and overcrowding. A million African American men joined the armed forces, making up the majority of the troops. They were

treated fairer than in WWI. African Americans were allowed in air corps and marines. They had more responsibility in the navy and army. The Navy constricted Black and Hispanic sailors to degrading noncombat assignments. Before the U.S. entered the war, A. Philip Randolph threatened a march to put up a fight against unequal employment opportunities as well as unjust housing. In 1941, the Executive Order 8802 prohibited discrimination in defense industries and government. It was defective but led to some difference in hiring practices. The Fair Employment Practices Committee was created as a result of the need to enforce. The NAACP was becoming more aggressive as it protested discrimination in the military. As a result, membership skyrocketed from 50,000 in 1940 to 450,000 in 1946. Led by James Farmer, in 1942 the Congress of Racial Quality was established by pacifists. It included organized conferences to challenge segregation in Chicago, Detroit, and Denver. In 1944, in the case of Smith v. Allwright, it was deemed unconstitutional to restrict African Americans from the right to take part in white primaries in Texas. There was also Jackie Robinsons court martial, which included termination of charges, showing the expanding importance of African Americans persisting contributions to the war effort. The event concerning Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 greatly impacted attitudes felt toward Japanese Americans. 15,000 Japanese Americans were arrested as a call of being security hazards before the Executive Order 9066. Japanese Americans were portrayed as un-Americans in pop culture such as Disney shorts and cartoons. In California, propaganda by the press made a great impact as it fueled preceding hate towards the Japanese Americans. Internment camps began making their mark as the Executive Order 9066 authorized the Secretary of War and U.S. armed forces commanders to declare areas of the U.S. as military areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded," although it did not name any nationality or ethnic group. It was eventually applied to one-third of the land area of the U.S. The Japanese Americans were considered security threats so there was insistence that military necessity required Japanese American internment. Even people with as little as 1/16 Japanese blood had a chance of being relocated. In 1983, War Department official Eugene Rostow informed a congressional committee that the Japanese Americans were not a military threat from the beginning. In 1988, Congress finally apologized and compensated $20,000. In the case of Hirabayashi v. United States, the U.S. Supreme court unanimously supported arrest and proclaimed guilty of Gordon Hirabayashi, a young student, for not agreeing with the internment order. In the case of Korematsu v. United States, the courts decision was five to four that Korematsus conviction for going against the evacuation order was in fact legal due to the wartime emergency. Therefore, completely proving internments constitutionality without completely taking the legality of internment into account. Although a very small percent of the population, anti-Semitism continued taking its toll towards the Jewish Americans. At the very start of the war, they were prohibited from attending many colleges, working in factors, or living in many neighborhoods. Concerning quotas in the 1930s, the U.S. denied more than 900 Jewish refugees on the SS St. Louis although the majority of Americans wanted to keep them. 100,000 Jewish Americans immigrated into the U.S. between 1932 and 1944. The branches of the U.S. Armed Forces were comprised of 500,000 Jewish,

although many countered prejudice and discrimination. Policy makers of the 1930s and Franklin Roosevelt displayed care for welfare of Jews in Europe and Germany, although the liberation of Jews in camps was not a top priority for the U.S. In 1944, the U.S. government formed many relief agencies, which contained the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe. The War Refugee Board was created in 1944 as a result from the stress from Jewish Americans. Their goal was to help rescue 200,000 Jewish Americans in Europe and provided refuge to 100,000 who survived escaping death camps. The Mexican Americans countered prejudice, discrimination, and racism. In 1942, Mexican farm workers called braceros, were allowed to enter the U.S. during the harvest season. Formal immigration was not needed. Mexican Americans volunteered and were drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces. The Congressional Medal of Honor winners were comprised mostly of Mexican Americans. Although, they worked in the most dangerous branches as marines. They sought better education and jobs as well as an end to racism. During the summer of 1943, Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles took place. They set off with attacks from sailors on Mexican American teens wearing zoot suits. The core of it was white hatred toward the flood of Mexican Americans into L.A. Attacks were uncontrolled and as a result the L.A. City Council banned wearing zoot suits in public. The Fair Employment Practices Committee helped settle civil rights issues. Much work in defense industries resulted in a greater standard of living. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was established and attempted to follow the NAACPs footsteps.

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