e. It caused the war henceforth to become more localized in the Pacific and less of a global
conflict.
25. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress passed the _____________, which gave the
president the ability to reorganize the government to make it more effective during war.
a. Lend-Lease Bill
b. War Powers Act
c. Neutrality Act
d. Munich Pact
e. Tripartite Pact
26. Which organization oversaw the conversion of American industries to war production?
a. War Production Board
b. War Powers Commission
c. Interstate Commerce Commission
d. Public Works Administration
e. Works Progress Administration
27. Which of the following did Congress do to help finance the war?
a. It ordered the removal of price ceilings, instead allowing prices to fluctuate.
b. It required that the government stop borrowing money during the war years.
c. It lowered taxes so people would spend more and thus generate more revenue.
d. It raised tax rates through the Revenue Act of 1942.
e. It decreased the number of Americans who were required to pay an income tax.
28. Which of the following statements correctly characterizes the lives of U.S. workers during
World War II?
a. Most workers experienced a better life than during the Great Depression.
b. Unemployment rates soared because of the focus on the military.
c. Workers were hardest hit when the United States ran out of food at the end of the war.
d. The number of federal workers decreased.
e. Few women were allowed to join the work force.
29. The Office of Price Administration attempted to combat inflation during World War II by
a. abolishing price controls.
b. ordering a rapid increase in wages for workers and businesses.
c. stabilizing and freezing prices.
d. limiting the number of job opportunities on the West Coast.
e. shifting away from war production to provide for consumer demand.
30. Which of the following statements accurately describes the experiences of American
women during World War II?
a. Women were allowed to join the military, but very few did because the government
largely discouraged it.
b. Women still were not allowed to join the military but found other ways to contribute,
including as nurses and factory workers.
c. The government launched a promotional campaign to recruit women to the military and
established women’s branches of the army and navy.
d. Women met little opposition by men when they took on traditionally male jobs, such as
in manufacturing.
e. The wartime requirement that women stay home and take care of children marked a
major step backward, delaying the emergence of the feminist movement.
31. During World War II, more than a half million _________ left the South because of better
job opportunities in other parts of the United States, especially the West.
a. Irish Americans
b. Mexican Americans
c. African Americans
d. Japanese Americans
e. Chinese Americans
32. Which of the following is true of discrimination in the U.S. armed services during World
War II?
a. Native Americans were forbidden from serving in regular units with whites.
b. The military segregated African Americans and at first excluded them from combat.
c. Mexican Americans, though serving bravely, were not eligible for the Congressional
Medal of Honor.
d. Having learned from World War I, the Army refused to allow the segregation of black
soldiers.
e. Only whites were permitted to serve as “code talkers,” deciphering and encoding
messages.
33. Which of the following occurred under the bracero program in 1942?
a. Violence and prejudice toward Hispanics in the United States subsided, especially in
southern California.
b. A large number of Mexican Americans were deported because of an overabundance of
farmworkers.
c. Mexico agreed to send seasonal farmworkers to the United States on yearlong contracts.
d. Mexican Americans, along with other minority groups, were forbidden from joining the
U.S. military.
e. The populations of western cities fell dramatically as Mexican Americans moved to
urban areas on the East Coast.
34. What did Executive Order 9066 do?
a. Because of an overabundance of farmworkers in rural areas, it prohibited Mexicans
from traveling to the United States for work.
b. It established a board to direct the conversion of industrial output in America to war
production.
c. It permitted the U.S. military to use atomic weapons on Japan and Germany if they did
not surrender unconditionally.
d. After hysteria in America after the attack on Pearl Harbor, it allowed for the forced
relocation of Japanese Americans on the West Coast to internment camps.
e. It gave the President unprecedented power to arrest and detain any Americans suspected
of communism during the war, ultimately resulting in their deaths.
35. The Allied invasion of Europe by the Allied Expeditionary Force was known as Operation
a. Husky.
b. Nightbreed.
c. Rolling Thunder.
d. Overlord.
e. Gibraltar.
36. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force was
a. Dwight Eisenhower.
b. Bernard Montgomery.
c. George S. Patton.
d. William McKinley.
e. James McPherson.
37. The commander of the German forces at Normandy who was at home during the invasion
was
a. Adolph Hitler.
b. Paul Leudendorf.
c. Albert Schweitzer.
d. Herman Goering.
e. Erwin Rommel.
38. Which of the following was agreed to at the Yalta conference?
a. Hitler would formally surrender, and Germany would be divided in half.
b. Berlin, the German capital, would remain completely under Western European control.
c. The Allied powers would drop atomic bombs on Japan.
d. The Soviets would have a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.
e. The Soviets were to stay out of the Pacific theater of the war.
39. What did American soldiers discover upon reaching the interior of Germany in 1945?
a. The Soviet decision at the end of the war to switch sides and support the Axis Powers
b. Concentration camps where the Nazis systematically murdered millions of Jews and so–
called undesirables
c. Hitler’s escape to the Soviet Union, where he would live out the remaining years of his
life
d. The Nazi victory over the Soviet troops that had infiltrated and attacked Berlin
e. The continuation of the Nazi Reich following Hitler’s suicide
40. At the Battle of __________, the threat of Japan seizing Australia was ended.
a. the Java Sea
b. Midway
c. the Coral Sea
d. Tarawa
e. Pearl Harbor
41. What event helped the United States defeat the Japanese at Midway?
a. The Japanese military code had been deciphered by the Americans.
b. Radar alerted the forces there to the impending invasion.
c. A flight of B-17s discovered the invasion force.
d. Russian intelligence provided key information about the Japanese battle fleet.
e. American submarines had discovered the flotilla and radioed Midway that they were
about to be attacked.
42. The Japanese Army’s first defeat during World War II occurred at the Battle of
a. Midway.
b. Coral Sea.
c. Guadalcanal.
d. New Guinea.
e. Australia.
43. The process employed in the Pacific during World War II in which an island under
occupation by the Japanese was ignored in favor of an island closer to the Japanese
homeland was called
a. leapfrogging.
b. skipping.
c. hopscotch.
d. daisy chain.
e. aggressive diplomacy.
44. Why did the Japanese often experience such high casualty rates during World War II?
a. Americans refused to accept their surrender.
b. They refused to surrender.
c. They were barely trained and often ran into gunfire.
d. They were forced to fight and did not have the heart to do so effectively.
e. They often ran out of fuel.
45. The Japanese word for “divine wind” used to refer to suicide pilots is
a. saki.
b. kamikaze.
c. bonzai.
d. kemptai.
e. bushido.
46. The largest naval engagement in history occurred at the Battle of
a. Midway.
b. Leyte Gulf.
c. Coral Sea.
d. Pearl Harbor.
e. Tarawa.
47. The first atomic bomb was dropped on
a. Hiroshima.
b. Nagasaki.
c. Tokyo.
d. Kyoto.
e. Hanoi.
48. Which of the following statements is true?
a. After the Second World War, the United States returned to isolationism.
b. After World War II, America went into another deep economic depression.
c. After World War II, Stalin lived up to all the agreements he made at Yalta.
d. For every American killed in World War II, the Russians lost fifty-nine.
e. World War II resulted in fewer casualties than World War I.
49. To prevent another world war from erupting after the second one came to an end, the
_____________ was created.
a. League of Nations
b. United Nations
c. Guardians of the Globe
d. World League Organization
e. World Court
50. At this conference, representatives from Russia, England, and the United States proposed
the division of Europe after World War II ended.
a. Tripoli
b. Morocco
c. Yalta
d. Paris
e. Tokyo
ESSAY
1. Describe the major steps in America’s move away from neutrality between 1935 and 1941.
2. What were the effects of the war on American women and minority groups in the United
States? Would you describe the overall effects as positive, negative, or some mixture?
Why?
3. Why did America drop the atomic bomb on Japan? Was the action justified?
4. Detail how the United States financed World War II and what impact the war had on the
U.S. economy.
5. What lessons does the D-day offensive offer about the significance of preparation and
planning for the success of an operation? What other factors beyond preparation and
planning does the D-day invasion suggest one consider when assessing why certain
operations fail or succeed?
6. Detail the Yalta Conference, and explain its importance to the postwar world.
7. What led to the outbreak of the Second World War? Pay particular attention to the actions
of the Germans and the Japanese.
8. Discuss the factors that led to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
9. In what ways did World War II contribute to the growth of the federal government?
10. Why was there tension among the Allies during the war, and what long-term impact did it
have?
MATCHING
Match each person with one of the following descriptions.
a. Was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1944
b. Headed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
c. Headed Operation Overlord
d. Was an American admiral in Pacific
e. Lost the presidential election in 1944
f. Was elected vice president in 1944
g. Alerted Roosevelt to German research on nuclear fission
h. Directed construction of atomic bombs
i. Launched Italy’s reconquest of Ethiopia in 1935
j. Claimed that the Munich treaty provided “[P]eace for our time. Peace with honor.”
k. Became Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1940 and led them through the war
1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower
3. Harry Truman
4. Albert Einstein
5. Chester Nimitz
6. Thomas E. Dewey
7. J. Robert Oppenheimer
8. A. Philip Randolph
9. Benito Mussolini
10. Neville Chamberlain
11. Winston Churchill