In Europe

Willy F. James, Jr., was born in 1920. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and initially served in a service unit. In 1945 he was transferred to the 413th Infantry Regiment and served as scout. He was killed in action on April 7, 1945, near Lippoldsberg, Germany. In September 1945 his widow received the Distinguished Service Cross that the Army posthumously awarded to James. Fifty-two years later, in 1997, James posthumously received the Medal of Honor.

The hostilities of World War II did not end all at once. In the United States, they also took place against the somber backdrop of President Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945. A few short days later, on May 8, President Truman announced the unconditional surrender of Germany. Celebrations of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day spilled into the streets across the country and around the world. But the celebrations were tinged with the awareness that the war in the Pacific continued.

To understand the geography of the American home front in World War II, we need to go back as far as the middle of the 1800s. In 1940, almost 19 million people – 12.2% of the US population -- lived in these US jurisdictions.

Several changes that took place leading up to and because of World War I influenced America in the Second World War. People, products, ideas, and information moved faster and on a more global scale than any time before. And an increasingly small number of individuals controlled increasingly large methods of production – and wealth.

The attacks of December 7, 1941 that began at Pearl Harbor were not the only targets of America's enemies. By the time World War II was over, Japanese forces had attacked the US mainland and almost all American territories in the Pacific. Some of these places of the Greater United States fell under enemy occupation. In the Atlantic, German U-boats targeted cargo ships. Germany, Japan, and Russia all had operatives and spies living and working across the country.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and Medgar Evers both served their country in World War II and went on to shape the course of the nation after the war. Explore their stories here.

In 1963, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of D-Day, General Dwight Eisenhower and his wife Mamie returned to Normandy. Their journey was one of remembrance, not only for themselves, but also for Mrs. Florence Kaufman, who lost her son Herbert on D-Day. Explore this powerful story of "the decent things of life" and how a former 5-star-general took time to remember one family's lost son nearly 20 years after D-Day.

Waverly Bernard Woodson, Jr., was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1922. Woodson studied pre-med at Lincoln University before becoming a medic in the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion. He landed on Omaha Beach in one of the first waves of soldiers on D-Day during World War II. He treated wounded and dying soldiers on the beach for more than 30 hours. He died in 2005 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Gettysburg National Cemetery is the final resting place of over 500 WWII casualties, thirteen of whom, all Pennsylvanians, lost their lives during the Normandy Landings--D-Day, June 6th, 1944.

By October of 1942, Eleanor Roosevelt was on her way to visit a country in the midst of war, where the shrill sounds of air raid sirens and the whistle of German bombs were a part of daily life. Despite the danger, Eleanor Roosevelt was determined to go because she wanted to be doing something useful.