WOH 4244 * STUDY GUIDE

WORLD WAR II (AND THE UNITED STATES)

MWF, 11:00-11:50, SO 170

INTERNET RESOURCES:

INFORMATION ON THE FILMS:

STUDY QUESTIONS FOR JOHN DOWER, WAR WITHOUT MERCY:

1. According to Dower, what were the similarities between Japanese and American propaganda? (as represented in Know Your Enemy, Why We Fight, and Read This and the War is Won).

2. According to Dower, why were the Japanese the subject of so much more American hatred than the Germans? What evidence does he use to support his conclusion?

3. According to Dower, what three lines of argument were used to justify the “extermination” or “thoroughgoing defeat” of the Japanese people?

4. In what ways does Dower suggest the war in the Pacific differed from the war in Europe?

5. According to Dower, what were the dominant stereotypes of the Japanese held by Americans?

6. In what ways was the Pacific War a “race war” according to Dower?

7. What effect did racism have on the Pacific War, according to Dower?

8. What sorts of things did you read in Dower’s book that challenged you to rethink common perceptions about the Pacific War?

TERMS AND STUDY QUESTIONS FROM THE TEXT:

David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, Chapter 13: The Gathering Storm

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) (pictures)

Trench warfare (1) (2)

Adolph Hitler (1) (2) (3)

Isolationism League of Nations

Gerald Nye Committee (Senate’s Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry)

Neutrality Acts (detailed timeline)

Benito Mussolini

Anti-Comintern Pact (2)

Rape of Nanking (1) (2)

Quarantine Speech (text of speech)

Nevil Chamberlain and Appeasement

Kristallnacht (1) (2) (3)

Czechoslovakia and Munich Crisis

1. What were the Neutrality Acts and what was FDR’s attitude toward these laws? Between 1935 and 1939, what changes were made to the acts? Why?

2. How did FDR’s policies and attitudes toward Germany differ from those toward Japan?

David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, Chapter 14: The Agony of Neutrality

Winston Churchill

Battle of Britain (1) (2)

1940 election

“destroyers-for-bases” deal (1) (2)

1. How did FDR deal with the war in Europe? How did he aid Britain, and why did he not do more?

2. On page 445, Kennedy quotes from a long letter from Churchill to FDR. Why did Kennedy describe this letter as “an extraordinary communication from one head of government to another?”

David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, Chapter 15: To the Brink

“arsenal of democracy”

Lend-Lease (1) (2) (3)

Four Freedoms (1) (2)

Atlantic Charter

Operation Barbarossa

The Victory Program

U-Boat

Greer Incident

Triparate Pact

Magic

1. What was FDR’s “short-of-war strategy”? What actions did he take to implement this strategy?

2. Why was the “Victory Program” so controversial?

3. What did the Greer incident suggest about U.S. neutrality in the war?

4. Why did Roosevelt initiate an embargo against Japan? Why did this embargo did not include oil?

David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, Chapter 16: War in the Pacific

Douglas MacArthur

Isoroku Yamamato

Bataan Death March

Orange Plan (a.k.a. War Plan Orange)

Doolittle Raid

Coral Sea

Battle of Midway

Guadalcanal

Pictures and highlights of the Pacific War

1. According to Kennedy, why was Hitler’s declaration of war on the United States a mistake? (see page 524)

2. How did “Magic” affect the Battle of Midway?

David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, Chapter 17: Unready Ally, Uneasy Alliance

Battle of the Atlantic

Operation Torch

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Stalingrad

1. What was the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States over the “second front”?

2. What does Kennedy mean by his chapter title, “Unready Ally, Uneasy Alliance”?

David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, Chapter 18: The War of Machines

1. On page 526, Kennedy writes that “time was Japan’s worst enemy.” On pages 615-6, Kennedy again notes that time was the Axis powers’ most threatening enemy. Why does he say this?