Selective Service Training and Service Act
1940 law requiring all males aged 21 to 36 to register for military service
GI
Term used for American soldiers in WWII, derived from the term "Government Issue.
Office of War Mobilization
Federal agency formed to coordinate issues related to war production during World War II
Liberty ship
A type of large, sturdy merchant ship built in World War II
victory garden
A home vegetable garden created to boost food production during World War II.
Atlantic Charter
Agreement , Agreement signed by President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941 outlining the two nations' war aims
carpet bombing
Method of aerial bombing in which large numbers of bombs are dropped over a wide area
D-Day
Code name for the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944.
Battle of the Bulge
World War II battle in which German forces launched a final counterattack in the west
anti-Semitism
Hostility or discrimination toward Jews
Holocaust
Nazi Germany's systematic attempt to murder all European Jews
concentration camp
A place where political prisoners are confined, usually under harsh conditions
Kristallnacht
The name given to the night of violence on November 9, 1938, when Nazi storm troopers looted and destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues and arrested thousands of Jews in Germany and Austria
Warsaw ghetto
An area of Warsaw sealed off by the Nazis to confine the Jewish population, forcing them into poor, unsanitary conditions.
Wannsee Conference
1942 conference in Germany concerning the plan to murder European Jews
genocide
Organized killing of an entire people.
death camp
In WW2, a German camp created solely for the purpose of mass murder.
War Refugee Board (WRB)
Federal agency created in 1944 to try to help people threatened with murder by the Nazis
Nuremberg Trials
Series of trials in 1945 conducted by an International Military Tribunal in which former Nazi leaders were charged with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Bataan Death March
Brutal march of American and Filipino prisoners by Japanese soldiers in 1942
Geneva Convention
A set of international standards of conduct for treating prisoners of war, established in 1929
Battle of the Coral Sea
1942 World War II battle between American and Japanese aircraft
Battle of Midway
1942 World War II battle between the United States and Japan, a turning point in the war in the Pacific
Battle of Guadalcanal
1942-1943 World War II battle between the United States and Japan
island-hopping
A military strategy used during World War II that involved selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others
Battle of Leyte Gulf
1944 World War II naval battle between the United States and Japan. Largest naval engagement in history. Japanese navy was defeated.
kamikaze
In WWII, a Japanese suicide plane.
Battle of Iwo Jima
1945 World War II battle between the United States and Japan
Battle of Okinawa
1945 World War II battle between the United States and Japan
Manhattan Project
Secret American program during WWII to develop an atomic bomb
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Organization founded by pacifists in 1942 to promote racial equality through peaceful means.
bracero
A term used in 1942 to describe a Mexican farm laborer brought to the United States
barrio
A Spanish-speaking neighborhood
interned
Confined
Nisei
A Japanese American whose parents were born in Japan