Works Cited

"Dorothea Lange." Women Come to the Front. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.
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"In a Virtual Internment Camp: Muslim Americans Since 9/11." Soundvision.com.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. internment.asp>.

"Internment History." PBS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. childofcamp/history/index.html>.

"Jacqueline 'Jackie' Cochran." US Centennial of Flight Commission. N.p., n.d.
Web. 25 Apr. 2010. Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/cochran/EX25.htm>.

"Jesse Owens." Summer Olympics 2008. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.
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NAWBL. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. .

The Sad Story of Private Eddie Slovik. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.
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"WASP-Women Pilots of World War II." About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.
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"Women's Baseball during World War II." IPO. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.
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"World War II Navy Art: A Vision of History." Naval History and Heritage. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. history1.htm>.

3.2.1 Summary

Three Things That I learned
1. I never knew before the immense role American women had in the war cause. From baseball to the Air Force to working in factories, the women truly supported the cause and did all they could.
2. Only one man from the US, Eddie Slovik, was executed for desertion in WWII. Even then, he was given multiple chances to rejoin the army and save his own life, yet he refused.
3. I never knew that Jesse Owens broke three records and won four gold medals. It is quite impressive.

Two Things I Found Interesting
1. The man in charge of the Chicago Cubs and saving baseball during the war was also an owner of a chewing gum factory. During the war he sent free gum to the soldiers.
2. It was not until almost fifty years after Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps that the government passes the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which recognized the injustices of the camps and paid each person held in the camps $20,000.

One Question I Still Have
1. Previous to WWII when Hitler was in charge of Germany, why did the world let him host the 1936 Olympic Games and how was it that during the depression he had enough money to rebuild Germany's military?

Spotlight On the WASP

During WWII, in the United States, in order to alleviate men from non-combat missions, women were trained to fly airplanes. WWII did not mark the beginning of the career for female pilots, but they were used to significantly help the war cause. Women pilots such as Jackie Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love urged the military to use women pilots and form a division for them in the Air Force. Love in fact formed what was called the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron(WAFS) and Jackie Cochran began the Women's Flying Training Detachment. On August 5, 1943, these two organizations came together to form the WASP, the Women's Air force Service Pilots. Cochran was made the leader. Thousands of women applied and the organization grew rapidly. Unfortunately, the organization did not last long, dew to controversial views and the lack of jobs for men in the forces. The WASP ended on December 20, 1944, having traveled about 60 million miles in different operations.

US Events During WWII

During WWII, all men were needed to fight for the Allied cause, including Major League Baseball players. With the baseball risking survival in the US, women stepped in to save the sport while the men fought in the war. Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs and a chewing gum factory worried greatly about what would happen to baseball when all the players would be needed to fight in the war. Inspired by the fact that women started taking men's places in the work force, Wrigley believed that the women of the country could play baseball as well. Wrigley, along with others invented a type of baseball-a mixture between hard ball and soft ball-for the women to play. The idea was a success. Women played exhibition games for soldiers at their training camps, visited hospitals, taught children how to play ball and sold war bonds. Not only that, but the women were paid well. To find players, Wrigley sent out recruiters to high schools in the US and Canada, churches, and industrial leagues. Baseball even became a huge war effort because it gave civilians something to enjoy, a means to escape worries. Although the women's leagues did not last after the war was over, they played an important role while it was waging.

Similar to back then, women's baseball leagues are popping up all over the country. One example is that of the Northern American Women's Baseball League. This league gives women the opportunity to play real baseball, a sport often reserved for males. There are many leagues across the nation and it is one of the NAWBL's goals to one day join all those leagues into one with teams throughout the country. It seems that the leagues during WWII were a mere spark that ignited the future of women's professional baseball.


A very horrible and significant event of US history during WWII, was the placing of Japanese Americans into internment camps. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, for national safety, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued what is called the Executive Order 9066. This order began the movement of 120,000 people of Japanese descents in America into camps. They were forced to leave their homes and jobs for these internment camps and were given only forty eight hours to pack and prepare themselves. But injustices did not end there. The camps themselves were horrible places to live and over half of the people forced into them were innocent children. Some Japanese Americans died because of emotional stress and not proper medical care. Some were even killed by guards, who reported that the citizens had not obeyed orders. Out of all the people imprisoned in these camps, not one of them committed any act of treason against the US. It has been stated that these camps "were motivated by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership"(www.pbs.org).

Today, physical internment camps do not exist in the US, but the terrorist attack on 9-11 has caused a similar spread of racism and prejudices that the attack on Pearl Harbor did years ago. Just like the Japanese Americans, many Muslim Americans are being persecuted. A lot are judged unfairly based on their appearances and religion. Thankfully Muslims in America have not been rounded up and put into camps, but the way they are often treated as enemies is very similar to the way Japanese Americans were treated during WWII. Muslims may not be physically separated from society, but too many times there is a barrier of racism and fear put between them and our communities. In this way, the events can be connected across time.

People in the News

During World War II, many people and faces were reported in the news. Below are just a few of those who made an appearance.

Just previously to WWII, African American Jesse Owens broke records in the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. The games were held in Berlin, Germany. Hitler believed that by hosting the games, he would be able to show off Aryan pride and superiority. Needless to say, Hitler's dreams thankfully did not come true. Owens, clearly not Aryan but of African descents, broke three world records and came home with four gold medals in track and field events. The first gold was in the 100 meter race. The second was in the long jump, and the third was in the 200 meter dash. In this event he broke the record with a time of 20.7 seconds. His last medal was won in a relay race. The US team also broke records with this run. In both Germany and America, Owens became a hero to many aspiring athletes.


Though perhaps not well known, Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran and the Women's Air Force Service Pilots(WASP), led a significant part in the war cause during WWII. A very strong and determined woman, Cochran was the founder and leader of the WASP. Cochran, an already trained and a high quality pilot, got the idea of a fleet of women aviators who could ferry military planes, train pilots and perform other basic jobs. By giving these jobs to the women, the men aviators who were fighting would not have to perform the tasks and would be able to focus more on the war. Cochran encouraged the US to create such a program, and in 1942, she was put in charge of just that. She successfully trained women pilots and the organization, the WASP, which was very successful and useful. Sadly, the organization was stopped by Congress because of complaints from male pilots who did not have work to do. Although the WASP did not last long, they flew over 60 million miles and delivered about 12,650 planes. A strong leader, Cochran was awarded with the US Distinguished Service Medal. She was the first woman to receive this honor.


Throughout the history of Americans in combat in WWII, only one man was executed for desertion, Private Eddie Slovik. Though sad, this one man's story is very interesting. He had a rough childhood and adolescent years. He was arrested and jailed twice for theft before he settled down and married in 1942. He was drafted and sent to war in January 1944, and became a part of the Company G, 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. When going to the war front, Slovik and one of his friends got separated from their division. They soon found another Allied camp and joined them until they once again found their rightful division. On that same day he was reunited with his division, he deserted the camp. The very next day he surrendered to a fellow officer with a written confession of his desertion. The officer told him to just come back to camp and destroy the document, Slovik refused and the officer was forced to arrest him. When taken before the division judge, Slovik was given the chance to rejoin his unit and have all charges dropped, once again he refused. In November 11, 1944, he was sent to trial and found guilty of desertion. On January 31, 1945, Slovik was executed by a firing squad, becoming the only US soldier to be executed for desertion in WWII.

Artwork Created During WWII

During WWII, a lot of artwork was created at home and at the war front. Below are some examples of pieces created during that time period.


This painting is entitled Leaving Home, created by Richard M. Gibney. Gibney was a United States Marine Corps artist. He was drafted into the Marines when the US entered WWII. He was a part of the Marine Art Program, traveled with the men, and saw and recorded through his paintings many scenes of combat. Leaving Home depicts his feelings and those of other young men when they were first sent to war. It portrays the tragic feelings of leaving home and going to an unknown place to fight. He shows what it was like at the beginning of the war for Americans who had to fight.


Created on the WWII war front, this painting was made by Private Ed Reep, a US Army Artist. It is entitled The Morning After and shows the horrors of death and war. On a personal level for Reep, it depicts a morning after a lot of his friends were killed by a German bomb. In sadness he stated about his work, "I painted these men with dazed looks, and clouds up above that seemed to reach like a dragon, like in the Goya's Disasters of War. Everything seemed to be tragic, terrible and meaningless(www.pbs.org). In all, this painting and all of Reep's paintings represent the truly ugly face of war and the conditions on the fronts.


Dorothea Lange was a famous photographer during the Great Depression in the United States. During WWII, she was commissioned to photograph Japanese internment camps, the neighborhoods and other aspects of their journey and lives in the camps. She was hired by the War Relocation Authority, and was extremely shocked by the racism and the conditions of the camps that she witnessed. As a result, her photographs show the harsh realities for Japanese Americans during that time. The photo above, entitled An Early Comer, is one of these photographs from that time. Not surprisingly, when they first came out, the photographs were censored because of the harsh realities they pictured, but today they honestly depict the conditions and injustices of the camps. It has been stated that Lange's photographs are "documents of such a high order that they convey the feelings of the victims as well as the facts of the crime"(www.loc.gov).


Like the other artists and works described so far, this painting was created by a serviceman during WWII. It is entitled Garden at Hiroshima, Autumn and was painted by Commander Standish Backus, Jr. Backus reported for active duty in 1941 and in May 1945 was ordered to document naval operations in the Pacific as a military artist. He was a part of the Fourth Marine Regiment and was present for the entry into Tokyo Bay and Japan's surrender ceremonies. Backus' work portrays images from that time in the War in the Pacific. Specifically, Garden at Hiroshima, Autumn, depicts the state Hiroshima was in a month after the dropping of the atomic bomb.

Introduction

Following World War I, a period of uncertainty took hold of the world. The tragedy of war held on to the minds of all and because of this, societies drastically changed. The Great Depression hit in the thirties and new governments across the world were formed, allowing powerful dictators to take control of major countries in Europe. One leader, full of anger, resentment towards the Allies of WWI, and a drive for vengeance against the dealings in WWI, took power in Germany. He proclaimed that he would be the savior of the country, rapidly gaining public support in 1932.This man was Adolf Hitler. Bent on joining all German speaking people, regaining lost land, destroying the Jewish population, promoting the Aryan race and ultimately taking control of Europe and possibly the world, Hitler began a second massive world war only a mere twenty-one years after the end of WWI. This blog is based off of Chapter 16 from Modern World History and intends to describe what it was like during the years of World War II. Its goal is to bring to surface some of the lesser known but equally important people in the news, events and art of WWII, and how some of these parts of history can still be connected to today.