Newspaper assignment

Newspaper Article assignment:

We are going to make a newspaper as a class. Each of you will write an article as described below.  A few resources have been given for you but feel free to use any other resource to prepare you to write your article.

§  Your article will need a headline, need to be typed in size 12 font, formatted in columns.

§  Please email your finished product to me no later than Saturday!! :)

Jonathan: An interview with a kamikaze pilot

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/kamikazes_and_world_war_two.htm

http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/psychology/the_kamikaze_threat/

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/619508.html

Brek: An article stating the facts about the attack at Pearl Harbor.

http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/world/PearlHarbor.html

http://history1900s.about.com/od/Pearl-Harbor/a/Pearl-Harbor-Facts.htm

Kelly: an interview with a army nurse and her experience on the day of the attack at Pearl Harbor.

http://sheepmom.hubpages.com/hub/The-Role-of-Nursing-During-the-Aftermath-of-theBombing-of-Pearl-Harbor

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2003/Dec/07/army-nurse-recalls-attack-on-pearl-harbor/

Evan An interview with a soldier and his experience on the day of the attack at Pearl Harbor.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/Pearl-Harbor/a/Pearl-Harbor-Facts.htm

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq66-1.htm

MG:  An article stating why the government feels that it is necessary to send Japanese Americans to internment camps.  (Executive Order)

http://www.uen.org/themepark/liberty/japanese.shtml

Jacob An article about FDR speech and the fact that America is now going to join the war. Your article will be the Headline for the Newspaper so make an intense title.

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-infamy.htm

Emma An article about how/why the Draft Begins (Conscription, Selective Service Act)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Service_System

http://www.atg.wa.gov/teenconsumer/rights_and_responsibilities/selective_service.htm

Cassie: An interview with a Japanese father of a family of five living in an internment camp.

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_92d0dfe6-655b-11e1-94cf-001871e3ce6c.html

http://fremonttribune.com/news/local/couple-shares-story-of-living-in-japanese-internment-camps/article_f917df1e-8e20-11e1-bbc4-001a4bcf887a.html

Lauren: An article about D- Day from America’s point of view 

Tanah: An article telling about how America’s largest companies are no longer building their products but war products instead http://www.shmoop.com/wwii-home-front/economy.html

Natalie: An article sharing what it is like to be a family living in London during the Battle of Britain

Martin: An article describing some of the weapons in WWII.

Sally: An article talking about Victory Gardens and rationing

Navajo Code Talkers

The Navajo Code Talkers, as they became known, were the key to America's success in World War II.  They were Navajo Marines who created a secret code that made it possible for the United States to defeat the Japanese in World War II and end the war. 

 Before World War II, every code that the United States had created for warfare had been broken.  Known as experts at code deciphering, the Japanese were never able to decipher the Navajo's secret code. 

        The success of the code was due, in a large part, to the complexity of the Navajo language.  At the outbreak of World War II, there were only thirty non-Navajos who could speak the language, and not all of them could speak it fluently.  Philip Johnston, a missionary who had grown up on the Navajo Reservation,  could speak Navajo very well.  He was a veteran of World War I, and had heard about a battle in that war, in which several Choctaw Indians were talking to each other by radio in their native language.  It completely fooled the Germans, who were listening. The tide of the battle turned around, and the Americans won.  With his knowledge of the Navajo people and their language, Mr. Johnston thought that the Navajos could easily devise a way of talking that no one would be able to understand.

        

With the somewhat skeptical approval by the U.S. Marines of Mr. Johnston's idea, recruitment for Code Talkers began in the spring of 1942.  Two recruiters from the U.S. Marine Corps went to the Navajo Reservation and met with Chee Dodge, Chairman of the Tribal Council.  He liked the idea and sent out word by shortwave radio to the Reservation.  

There was an immediate, excited response.  The candidates had to be fluent in both English and Navajo.  Many of them were just school boys and lied about their age, just to have the opportunity to go and fight for their country and protect it from the Japanese.  Twenty-nine Navajos were inducted into the Marines.They handled all major battlefield communications while the Americans were fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.  Not one of their messages was deciphered.  In the last battle of the war, the fight for Iwo Jima, they sent more than 800 critical messages. 

        It is almost certain that America would not have been able to win the war without the Navajo Code Talkers, and it is hard to estimate the number of American lives that they saved.  It is believed that their code is the only truly unbreakable code in the history of warfare. 

Watch this two minute video about Navajo Code Talkers. 

This is a ten minute video, so get comfortable, about what life was like in the Pacific theater of World War 2. 

Comment on the Blog: 

What is your opinion of the "Japanese spirit?"  100 Million hearts beat as one ... great unity .... loyalty to country and "honor" .... didnt respect a soldier that surrendered ... 

FDR dies

                                                                           Harry Truman

In 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power.

 Truman had rather large shoes to fill. FDR had presided over the Great Depression and most of World War II, leaving an indelible stamp on American politics for several decades. He also left Truman with the difficult decision of whether or not to continue to develop and, ultimately, use the atomic bomb. Shockingly, FDR had kept his vice president in the dark about the bomb’s development and it was not until Roosevelt died that Truman learned of the Manhattan Project.

Watch this  biography on FDR. (4.56)

Comment on the Blog:
Tell us one fact that you learned from the video. Do not repeat what a friend has already shared. 

D-Day

D-Day, or the Invasion of Normandy, occurred on June 6, 1944, Allied troops (including America, Britain, and Canada) invaded Nazi-controlled France by sea. The giant invasion, code named Operation Overlord, included a fleet of about 54,000 warships and about 300,000 soldiers.  Once ashore, the troops fought their way through Normandy, village by village, crushing or driving back the German forces in their path under heavy bombing from the air. It was a brutal three-month battle.

In all, about 100,000 soldiers on both sides, and about 20,000 Normandy citizens, were killed. The invasion broke the German occupation of Europe. It also liberated the horrifying Nazi concentration camps, and ended the conflict that left much of Western Europe in physical and economic ruin.


When nice weather conditions arrived, over 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel in the largest amphibious (from the sea to the land) attack in military history. 

It was code-named Operation Neptune. 

Watch this video on D-Day.

Click "next" to start this animation.

Destination D-Day is an interactive animation where you choose the next step. 

Listen to Dwight D Eisenhower's invasion order.

Comment on the blog: 

Read "40 Amazing D-Day Facts" and tell us the one you thought was interesting. 
Also, what did the first video say earned the victory at the Invasion of Normandy? 

Atomic Bomb

The mushroom cloud above Nagasaki, Japan from the atomic bomb

The Atomic Bomb
At the start of World War II in 1939 the atomic bomb had not yet been invented. However, scientists discovered about that time that a powerful explosion might be possible by splitting an atom. This type of bomb could destroy large cities in a single blast and would change warfare forever.


Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein came up with many of the theories that helped scientists in making the atomic bomb. When he realized that such a bomb could be made, he was frightened about what might happen if Hitler and Germany learned how to make the bomb first. He wrote a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt telling him about the atom bomb. As a result, Roosevelt set up the Manhattan Project.

Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was the name for the research and development program for the atomic bomb. It started small, but as the bomb became more real, the United States added scientists and funding to be sure they were the first to have the bomb. Ironically, many of the scientists involved in making the bomb had defected from Germany. By the end of the project, funding had reached $2 billion and there were around 200,000 people working on the project.

The First Atomic Bomb
On July 16, 1945 the first atomic bomb was exploded in the New Mexico desert. The explosion was massive and the equivalent to 18,000 tons of TNT. Scientists figured that the temperature at the center of the explosion was three times hotter than at the center of the sun.

Although the scientists were happy they had successfully made the bomb, they also were sad and fearful. This bomb would change the world and could cause mass destruction and death. When President Harry Truman heard of the bomb's success he wrote "We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world".

Deciding to Drop the Bomb
By the time the first atomic bomb had been made, Germany had already surrendered and World War II in Europe was over. Japan was defeated as well, but would not surrender. The US was contemplating an invasion of Japan. Army leaders figured that anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million US and Allied soldiers would die in an invasion. President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb instead.


Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb named Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion was huge, the city was destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were killed. The bomb was dropped by a plane named the Enola Gay which was piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbetts. The bomb itself was over 10 feet long and weighed around 10,000 pounds. A small parachute was on the bomb in order to slow its drop and allow the plane time to fly away from the blast zone.

Fat Man

Nagasaki
Despite witnessing the terrible destruction of the bomb on Hiroshima, Emperor Hirohito and Japan still refused to surrender. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Again the devastation was horrible.

Surrender

Six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito and Japan surrendered to US forces. The Emperor announced this on the radio. It was the first time most Japanese had heard his voice.

Interesting Facts
The lead scientist on the Manhattan Project was J. Robert Oppenheimer. He is often called the "father of the atomic bomb".
The first bomb dropped on Hiroshima was made from uranium. Hiroshima was chosen because it was a large port city with an army base. 

The second bomb dropped on Nagasaki was made from plutonium, which was even more powerful than uranium.

It is thought that at least 135,000 people died from the Hiroshima explosion and another 70,000 in Nagasaki. Many of these people were civilians including women and children.

Watch this 4 minute video and hear first-hand accounts from the air and ground, re-telling every memory from the day the world first witnessed the horrors of atomic warfare. 

Watch this video showing the final briefing where American troops are told this will just be another day, another bombing. Soon enough, however, the event causes a media storm. Hear first hand accounts from the crew that flew the atom bomb to Japan.

Pay close attention to this video as we learn how about how Harry Trumen came to the decision to order the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Comment on the blog: 

Discuss one of the three reasons that Truman decided to drop the bomb and tell us if you agree or disagree with his reasoning. 

WWII ends

Most historians believe that the causes of World War II can be traced to World War I (1914-1918). Americans had fought in that earlier war to "make the world safe for democracy." Those were the words and goals of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. But the peace treaties that ended World War I did not make the world safe for democracy. Instead, they caused bitterness and anger that led to World War II.

Germany and its allies had been the losers in World War I. Germany was stripped of one sixth of its territory and forced to pay huge reparations (payments by a defeated country for the destruction it caused in a war). After World War I, Germany suffered from high unemployment and runaway inflation. German money became almost worthless. Many Germans seethed in anger at the peace treaty.

A League of Nations was set up after World War I to keep the peace. But the U.S. did not join, and other countries were too busy with their own problems to worry about Germany and other trouble spots.

Then, in the early 1930s, the world was hit by an economic depression. Workers lost their jobs, trade fell off, and times were hard. People looked for leaders who could bring about change.

Germany, Italy, and Japan all came under the rule of dictators or military leaders. A dictator named Mussolini took power in Italy in 1922. Military leaders took control of Japan in the early 1930s. In Germany, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, gained power in 1933. These leaders promised to restore their countries to greatness. But they set up totalitarian governments. (A totalitarian government is controlled by a single political party that allows no opposition and tightly controls people's lives.)

Hitler began to arm Germany for war. Japan invaded China. Mussolini sent Italian troops to conquer Ethiopia, in Africa. None of the world's democracies did anything to stop them.

Hitler had a plan to conquer Europe. He began by taking Austria, then Czechoslovakia. Again, no one tried to stop him. As Winston Churchill, who became Britain's wartime leader, said, "Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war."

Churchill's words came true. In 1939, German troops invaded Poland. World War II in Europe had begun. The U.S. did not enter the war until December 1941, but once it did, it took a leadership role. U.S. troops fought in North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. At home, Americans rolled up their sleeves to outproduce the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in the weapons of warplanes, battleships, and guns. Everyone did their part.

Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, ending the war in Europe. The war in the Pacific did not end until after the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan — the only time such bombs were ever used in war. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had led the U.S. in wartime, did not live to see peace. But in a speech written but never delivered, he spoke of the need to preserve peace: "Today we are faced with the preeminent [above all other] fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships — the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together in the same world, at peace."

Check out this video on V-E Day when Germany surrenders on May 7, 1945.

Watch this video on V-J Day when Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.

This super short video shows the Top Ten Heroic Battles of WWII.

Last video on the end of the war. 

Comment on the blog:
Tell us three things you learned that you did not know before. 

Japanese Internment camps

Few Japanese lived on the North American continent before the late 1800’s. Then, as Japanese industry grew, it drove farmers from their land. Many of the homeless moved to America looking for new chances to succeed.  American businessmen were looking for cheap labor to build the railroads and work long hours in the fields. The Chinese had been doing this, but in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act stopped them from moving to America. The Japanese quickly took their place. In 1890 the census counted 2,039 Japanese in the U.S. Twenty years later there were more than 72,000, including 40,000 in farming, 10,000 railroad workers, and 4,000 cannery workers.


The first group of Japanese moving to America were young men, ready to work. Most of these men planned to get rich then go back to Japan. But this changed in the early 1900’s, when many settled down and started families. Many Japanese Americans rented or leased property and were incredibly successful at growing large amounts of fruits and vegetables on small pieces of land. They used Japanese businesses that began to bunch up in areas of west coast cities. Japanese Americans rarely had to look outside of their own ethnic group for anything, including marriage.  

At least part of the reason that Japanese kept to themselves was a result of prejudice. As the Empire of Japan gained power in the Pacific, Japanese Americans gained success and power in their new country, and many whites disliked them. The tradition of discriminating against Asians that began with the Chinese continued with the Japanese, as state and national governments passed laws limiting their rights. These laws banned Japanese immigrants, or Issei, from owning or renting land. It was almost impossible for Japanese Americans to get skilled jobs in businesses outside their community. The Issei were forbidden from citizenship themselves, so they focused their hopes on their children. This first generation of Japanese born in America, or Nisei, appreciated both their cultural background and their adopted country. Both generations focused on hard work and education as the keys to success. But often even that wasn’t enough, and many educated Nisei could not find jobs in the areas in which they studied. Still, the Nisei continued to accept many of the American ways while mixing them with their ethnic traditions and identities.

The attack on Pearl Harbor scared many Americans.  They suddenly came to see the Japanese Americans living in their country as a threat to national safety.  A day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The request was approved, with 
only one representative voting against it. On the west coast particularly, many citizens believed the Issei and Nissei were loyal to Japan.  Large numbers of Japanese Americans on the coast combined with traditional prejudices led to cries for action. People worried that a Japanese attack could strike again at any time.  President Roosevelt suddenly had a decision to make about what to do with the thousands of Japanese Americans living in the United States. 

President Roosevelt gave in to political and public pressure and signed a bill. Executive Order 9066 gave the War Department the power to create military exclusion areas, or places where Japanese would not be allowed to live. By 1943, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans had been forced from their homes and moved to camps in far-off inland areas of the United States. 

Today, the decision to intern Japanese Americans is usually seen by historians and legal scholars as a serious mistake.  In fact, no Japanese were convicted of spying or sabotage. In 1988, the US congress passed laws which officially apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation said that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership".  The U.S. government eventually gave more than $1.6 billion to pay back Japanese Americans who had been interned or their surviving family members. 

Watch this video about Japanese Internment  Camps. 

Comment on the blog: What are your thoughts on the Japanese being relocated during this time?