Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Act of 1939, which ended the arms embargo and authorized “cash-and-carry” exports to belligerent nations, allowing Allied powers to purchase weapons.
Around 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the Pacific Coast were rounded up and sent to internment camps in California, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, and Arkansas.
Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek issued the Potsdam Declaration to Japan: “We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.”
The Alien Registration Act required all adult non-citizens to register with the US government and imposed penalties for anyone who “advocates . . . overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States.”
Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed any country “whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States” to receive arms and equipment from the United States by sale, transfer, or lease.
After an address by President Roosevelt calling the Pearl Harbor attack “unprovoked and dastardly,” Congress made a formal declaration of war against Japan.
Roosevelt and Churchill met in Casablanca, Morocco, and approved the policy of unconditional surrender. The trip made Roosevelt the first sitting president to both travel to Africa and leave the country during war.
Congress passed the Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act, which allowed the government to take over and operate plants in which labor disputes might have interrupted war production.