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? 

Victory Gardens

Victory Gardens in America

Watch this victory garden video

Check out this information page and answer the following questions here on the blog. 

Kelly: During World War II, why were Victory Gardens were planted by families in the United States?

Kara: Why were trains and trucks that normally brought food from fields to supermarkets not operating?

Brek: How many Victory Gardens were planted across the US?

Martin: How did Victory Gardens help people stretch their ration coupons?

Evan: Why were canned vegetables rationed do you think?

Jacob: How did schools use the produce they grew in their onsite Victory Garden?

Emma: What did city dwellers who lived in tall apartment buildings do in order to build their garden?

Lauren: How many tons of vegetables were grown in Victory Gardens during the war?

Sally: How did the Government and Agricultural companies help folks maintain and grow their gardens? 

Mary Grace:If you were to plant a Victory Garden, what food would you personally grow?

Tanah: Do you think it was smart for the government to include families in the war effort this way? Why or why not? 

Luke: What is the definition of rationing? 

Johnathan: What main products were rationed? 

Rationing 

Watch this explanation of rationing

Check out this video 

Last video is a crazy video of American agriculture

Pacific Theater

Pacific Theater

There were two major places where World War II took place. These places are sometimes called "theaters" of war.

One theater of World War II was in Europe....remember Germany forcibly took over Poland and France and then attacked England? Well, war also raged in the Pacific Ocean. 

This Pacific "theater" included Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, and many more islands and countries in Southeast Asia.

Most of us know our geography when we look at Hawaii on a map and look West (towards North America) but we don't really know the islands and countries to the East. So, today you will familiarize yourself with the areas of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Japan.


On December 7, 1941 Japan did not just attack Pearl Harbor but also other island countries in the Pacific.  

The following sites look like a lot ... however they will take you a total of fifteen minutes or less so please do them all. 

Look the following  website. Make sure you click on the white arrow at the bottom of the page so screens change and show you how the battles went down.  These are short animations that won't take long to watch so make sure you also read the little bit of text on each page. 

Do this interactive Battle of Pearl Harbor. 

Check out this map showing how Japan's plan to control the islands in the South Pacific included the Hawaiian Islands. 

Watch this video about the Japanese Attack of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This one shows you what a total surprise this attack was to the soldiers stationed at the Harbor. 

Watch this short video on the Battle of Iwo Jima. 

Comment on the Blog: 

There are over 13 island countries in the South Pacific. Can each of you name Island without repeating what someone else has said?  

Also, what was the Japanese objective in controlling these territories? 

Pearl Harbor

It was a Sunday morning. Many sailors were still sleeping in their quarters, aboard their ships. Some were sleeping on land.

At 7:02 a.m. at the Opana Radar Station on Oahu, privates Joseph Lockhard & George Elliott saw something on their screen. It looked like a lot of planes flying toward them. Opana's was the only radar turned on just then, and it was on only for training. The other radar stations had been turned off. It was standard procedure.

Following standard procedure, Lockhard and Elliott reported what they saw. The commanding officer on duty knew that a squadron of American planes was due in from California about the same time. Reasoning that what Lockhard and Elliott saw was that squadron of American planes, the commanding officer told the two privates not to worry.

What they didn't know and what nobody in America knew was that Japanese planes had taken off at 6 a.m. from aircraft carriers 230 miles away. What nobody in America thought was possible was happening: The Japanese were attacking Pearl harbor.

At 7:55, the Japanese attacked with deadly force. The first wave of 183 planes dropped bombs and fired bullets at the almost defenseless American ships in Pearl Harbor and planes at three nearby airfields. A second wave of 167 planes followed about an hour later. American sailors fought back, struggling to get their planes off the ground and fire their guns at targets they couldn't quite see.

A fleet of midget submarines was also part of the Japanese attack. These subs dropped deadly torpedoes, which had been modified with wooden fins to run their course in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor.

In a little more than two hours, the Japanese had sunk 21 ships and killed more than 2,000 Americans. It was a devastating blow.

However, the American aircraft carriers were not in port. They were out to sea. As later results would prove, the aircraft carrier was the dominant ship in the navy. By not sinking the American carriers, the Japanese left the American left fleet largely intact. Of the 21 ships that were sunk on December 7, 1941, all but three were eventually refitted and sailed again under the American flag during the war.

When U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan the day after the attack, the answer was a resounding yes. An American that had been deeply divided over how much aid to give the Allies was not united in a common purpose: make the Japanese pay for their attack and rid the world of Nazism and Fascism.

Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, who had planned the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, had studied at Harvard University and knew well the temperament and capabilities of the American people. He had warned others in the Japanese government that for the Pearl Harbor attack to succeed, it must be a crushing blow.

The attack was devastating, yes, but it wasn't a crushing blow. Moreover, it gave the American soldiers and their families a rallying cry that carried them through to the end of the war: "Remember Pearl Harbor."

Watch this video about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

This clip is from the fictionalized Pearl Harbor movie but it illustrates well how unprepared we were for an attack. 

Here is FDR's speech stating that America was entering the war. 

Comment on the blog: What new thing did you learn about the attack on Pearl Harbor? 

American Homefront

After the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on the American naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the U.S. was thrust into World War II (1939-45), and everyday life across the country was dramatically altered. 

To help build the armaments necessary to win the war, women found employment as electricians, welders and riveters in defense plants. 

From the outset of the war, it was clear that enormous quantities of airplanes, tanks, warships, rifles and other armaments would be essential to beating America’s aggressors. U.S. workers played a vital role in the production of such war-related materials. Many of these workers were women. Indeed, with tens of thousands of American men joining the armed forces and heading into training and into battle, women began securing jobs as welders, electricians and riveters in defense plants. Until that time, such positions had been strictly for men only.

In the earliest days of America’s participation in the war, panic gripped the country. If the Japanese military could successfully attack Hawaii and inflict damage on the naval fleet and casualties among innocent civilians, many people wondered what was to prevent a similar assault on the U.S. mainland, particularly along the Pacific coast.


This fear of attack translated into a ready acceptance by a majority of Americans of the need to sacrifice in order to achieve victory. During the spring of 1942, a rationing program was established that set limits on the amount of gas, food and clothing consumers could purchase. Families were issued ration stamps that were used to buy their allotment of everything from meat, sugar, fat, butter, vegetables and fruit to gas, tires, clothing and fuel oil. 

The United States Office of War Information released posters in which Americans were urged to “Do with less–so they’ll have enough” (“they” referred to U.S. troops). Meanwhile, individuals and communities conducted drives for the collection of scrap metal, aluminum cans and rubber, all of which were recycled and used to produce armaments. Individuals purchased U.S. war bonds to help pay for the high cost of armed conflict.

As an alternative to rationing, many Americans planted “victory gardens,” in which they grew their own food. By 1945, some 20 million such gardens were in use and accounted for about 40 percent of all vegetables consumed in the U.S.

Watch, "America enters the War." (4.23)

Listen to an actual ad to encourage Americans to plant their own Victory Garden. 

This TV advertisement is teaching citizens how and why to use the ration coupons.

Watch, "Rosie the Riveter." 

The Television commercial that aimed to encourage citizens to ration goods gave multiple things to purchase sparingly and gave reasons why. 

Comment on the blog: Name one thing that was rationed and WHY it was rationed? Try not to repeat the same thing.