The second supporting question, “how did the war impact Americans abroad?” helps students use sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt immediately asked Congress for a declaration of war. Everyone knew that war with Japan also meant war on a second European front because of Japan’s treaties with Germany. North Dakota’s Senator Gerald P. Nye, an isolationist, had opposed efforts by the President to prepare for war or support war-torn Britain or France before the attack at Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, Nye and the entire North Dakota delegation to Congress voted in favor of the declaration of war. North Dakota’s young men enlisted or signed up for Selective Service. By the end of December 1941, more than 4,000 men had joined the military. By the end of the war, more than 46,000 North Dakotans were in uniform. Enlistments included young women who could join the newly formed military organizations for women such as the Women’s Army Corps. Back in North Dakota, the war coincided with improved climatic conditions bringing renewed prosperity to the state. Demand for wheat and cattle pushed commodity prices up and personal income nearly tripled during the war years.
The war changed in many ways the lives of the young men and women who entered military service and survived to return to North Dakota. Their experiences were challenging and the memories they carried with them as they returned to civilian life were a complex mix of pride, fear, duty, and bitterness. In the years following the war, they became parents, agricultural producers, business leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses and filled a multitude of other occupations. Complete the following task using the sources provided to build a context of the time period and topic being examined.
Formative Performance Task 2
Write a summary of what life was like for soldiers and other American citizens living abroad. Read featured sources A-C closely for evidence of what life was like for the soldiers and civilians living and working around the world during the war years. Write a summary that answers the following questions: What type of source are these (letters, photos, maps, diaries, etc.)? What kind of information do they contain? Who created these sources? Who was the intended audience for each source? Why were these sources created? When were the sources created? How do we know? What else can you find? What was the impact on women, Jewish people, African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino people, and other groups?
Featured Sources 2
The sources featured below, A-D, are a combination of primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are the raw materials of history—original documents, personal records, photographs, maps, and other materials. Primary sources the first evidence of what happened, what was thought, and what was said by people living through a moment in time. These sources are the evidence by which historians and other researchers build and defend their historical arguments, or thesis statements. When using primary sources in your lessons, invite students to use all their senses to observe, describe, and analyze the materials. What can they see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste? Draw on students’ knowledge to classify the sources into groups, to make connections between what they observe and what they already know, and to help them make logical claims about the materials that can be supported by evidence. Further research of materials and sources can either prove or disprove the students’ argument.
Soldiers of World War II
| Source A |
William Fairbrother William (Bill) Fairbrother was interviewed by his daughter Laurel Fairbrother Kaye about his experiences as a combat Marine who saw action in the Pacific. Bill rose to the rank of sergeant in the 2nd Marine Division and participated in battles of Tarawa, and Saipan and served in occupied Japan until January 1946. Fairbrother was born in McHenry County on January 1, 1923. He enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17 before he finished high school. After the war he earned a Graduate Equivalency Diploma (GED) and took a few college courses before buying a farm. Fairbrother was wounded in combat but bandaged his wound himself and never received a Purple Heart. He was among the first Americans to see the damage wreaked by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in August 1945. As you watch and listen to Bill Fairbrother, you will hear him speak with pride of his service, some bitterness of government decisions about wars, and warmth of his army buddies. He glosses over some of the more painful memories, but tells a story of determination, duty, and honor. Bill Fairbrother died 9 April 2004. SHSND Veterans History Project 10873 – 0071 |
| Source B |
Andrew Leier Andrew Leier was killed in aerial combat over Germany on October 7, 1944. After his body was recovered and returned to the United States, he was buried at his home church, St. Boniface in Logan County. This video of his funeral is a loving tribute of Andy Leier’s family. Andrew Leier was born on September 25, 1922 to Carl and Mary Leier. He was one of eight children who grew up on the Leier farm. He graduated from Napoleon High School in 1940. In 1942, he studied aviation in Wichita, Kansas and then went to San Francisco where he worked for Consolidated Aircraft. In the Fall of 1943, Andy enlisted in the Army Air Corps (the Air Force had not been established yet) and trained until July 1944 when he was given a furlough to visit his parents before being assigned to overseas duty. In August 1944, he entered the European theatre as a ball turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. He flew nine daylight missions and received an award for meritorious achievement in aerial combat. On October 7, 1944, just two months after arriving at his station in England, his plane crashed in Germany. Leier’s parents were notified that he was Missing in Action, until Germany notified the International Red Cross of the deaths of the crew of his plane and word was forwarded to the Leier family. This film does not include much about Leier’s service, but it will explain much about the honor he brought to his family and community. Note the size of the crowd at the service, the twenty-one-gun salute, and that the soldiers who formed the honor guard showed their esteem for Leier by shoveling the dirt into his grave. SHSND Veteran’s History Project 10873-1558 |
| Source C |
Woodrow Wilson Keeble Woodrow Keeble was North Dakota’s most highly decorated veteran. He served in World War II with the 164th at Guadalcanal. He later served in Korea where he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, and several campaign medals. Though he was nominated in 1951 for the Congressional Medal of Honor, the paperwork for that award was lost–twice–and he did not receive that award until 2004, more than twenty years after his death in 1982. The Medal of Honor is the highest award given to a combat soldier for valor. It is awarded by the President of the United States on behalf of Congress. Woodrow Keeble, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota, was born at Pickerel Lake, South Dakota in 1917. He attended the Wahpeton Indian School where he distinguished himself as a pitcher on a winning [baseball] team – a skill that might have been useful when he threw grenades into sniper bunkers in 1951. His wounds left him disabled and he left military service after the Korean War. |
French Gratitude Train
| Source D |
The Gratitude Train arrived in New York Harbor aboard the Magellan, a French merchant ship, in February 1949. The Gratitude Train, a gift from France, contained 49 boxcars. Each car was filled with gifts to the people of the United States from the people of France. In 1947 an American Friendship Train carried $40 million in relief supplies to France and Italy. Initiated by Drew Pearson, an American newspaper columnist, it included over 700 carloads of food, fuel, and clothing, donated by the citizens of the United States, and helped bring some relief to war-torn Europe. A French rail worker and war veteran, Andre Picard, initiated the project of a French Thank You Train. The train had such appeal that the project, which began with one boxcar, ended with a train of 49 boxcars; one for each of the 48 states. The 49th was to be shared by the District of Columbia and the Territory of Hawaii. |