Transcript Social Impact of World War II

Social Impact
of World War II
Chioma Friday
Alina Okerlund
Period 2
African Americans on the
Home Front
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Blacks on the Home
front
Patriotic, Supportive of
War Effort
Economic Discrimination
Last Hired - First Fired
during Depression Years
FDR signed Executive
Order 8802 - no
discrimination based on
race in hiring (applied to
Defense jobs)
African Americans
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Black Military
Participation
Segregated Armed
Forces
Separate Units and
limited opportunities
Most famous AfricanAmerican military
group of WW 11 =
The Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen
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Group of Black Pilots 99th Pursuit “Fighter”
Squadron
Trained in Tuskegee,
Alabama
Decorated as an
escort squadron fought over Italy.
Col. Paul Adams from
Lincoln served as a
Tuskegee Airman
Native Americans
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25,000 Native
American joined
armed forces
23,000 worked at
Wartime plants and
factories
Notable were the
Navajo codetalkers
(Communicated in the
Navajo language)
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Japanese military never
broke the code
Navajo Code Talkers Of WWII
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May 1942 twenty-nine Navajos
entered boot camp to develop
the actual code
The Navajo language had only
been orally handed down
Each code talker would be
required to memorize the entire
code
 No codebooks or written aids
Eventually over 400 Marine code
talkers would play a vital role in
the war against Japan
Japanese Intelligence was able
to break almost every U.S. Army
and Army Air Corps code
 Not once were they able to
break the Navajo code.
Women
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Before the United States entered World War II, they were
already producing war equipment for the Allies
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Production had to increase dramatically in a short amount of
time once war started
Auto factories were converted to build airplanes, shipyards
were expanded, and new factories were built, and all
these facilities needed workers.
Women were needed because companies were signing
large, important contracts with the government just as all
the men were leaving for the service
Cultural division of labor by sex ideally placed white
middle-class women in the home and men in the
workforce.
Because of high unemployment during the Depression,
most people were against women working because they
saw it as women taking jobs from unemployed men
Rosie the Riveter
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The government decided to
launch a propaganda
campaign to sell the importance
of the war effort and to lure
women into working
They promoted the fictional
character of “Rosie the Riveter”
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Ideal woman worker: loyal,
efficient, patriotic, and pretty.
Rose was an instant media
success
“Rosies” were found and used in
the propaganda effort.
A few months later, the most
famous image of Rosie
appeared in the governmentcommissioned poster “We Can
Do It”
Women during Wartime
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Women responded to the call to
work differently depending on
age, race, class, marital status,
and number of children
They switched from lower-paying
traditionally female jobs to
higher-paying factory jobs
The demands of the labor market
were so severe that even women
with children under 6 years old
took jobs
Economic incentives convinced
them to work
They discovered the nonmaterial
benefits of working like learning
new skills, contributing to the
public good, and proving
themselves in jobs once thought
of as only men’s work.
OPVL
OPVL
Origin: Propaganda Poster during
World War II in the United States
Purpose: Women were needed in the
workforce. They were having severe
shortages and needed women of all
classes to help build and contribute to
the war effort.
Value: It displays a woman working in a
male associated area. It also appeals
to emotions of women telling them that
they can make the war end and make
the United States win. It also shows in
which jobs they were having shortages
in. Which include: farm workers, typists,
salespeople, waitresses, bus drivers, taxi
drivers, timekeepers, elevator
operators, messengers, laundresses,
teachers and conductors
Limitation: It is limited in that it assumes
that women will believe that it is up to
them to win the war. Also it does not
address the other groups of people
that could contribute to the war effort.
Mexican Americans
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Mexican Americans were drafted into or
volunteered for the U.S. armed services
Highest percentage of Congressional
Medal of Honor winners of any minority
in the United States.
Fueled Latino migration to the United
States
Temporary workers from Puerto Rico and
Mexico, or braceros, were through the
Bracero Program, a 1942 labor
agreement between the United States
and Mexico.
Over 100,000 contracts were signed
between 1943 and 1945 to recruit and
transport Mexican workers to the United
States for employment on the railroads
Laborers had little contact with the
general population and limited access
to healthcare, recreation, translators, or
legal aid.
Minorities
 Japanese
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Americans
After Pearl Harbor, President Franklin issued
Executive Order 9066
Japanese citizens and non-citizens who
lived in America were taken to interment
camps in fear that they were working for
the Japanese government
Was fueled by farmers competing with
Japanese labor
Internment Camps
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Camps were run by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service
Different kinds of camps were
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Civilian Assembly Centers
Justice Department Detention Camps
Citizen Isolation Centers
Federal Bureau of Prisons
US Army Facilites
110,000 to 120,000 were relocated to the internment
camps
They were overcrowded and dirty, poor living
conditions
The buildings were not fit for families or groups of
people to live in it all at once
Leadership positions were given to American born
Japanese
Older generations had to follow them, but usually
ignored the appointed leaders
Germans, Italians, and other people of European
descent were put in internment camps
Internment Camps Cont.
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Camps ended on January 2, 1945, the exclusion order was
removed entirely
Residents of the camp were to leave the camps and go back
to their normal lives
 Some returned to what they did before
 Others migrated back to Japan
Released residents were given $25 and a train ticket to their
former homes
Many Japanese lost their items due to little they could take with
them to the internment camps
Ralph Lawrence Carr, Colorado governor was the only official
to apologize for the treatment of the Japanese in America
Government created systems of reparations to pay back what
they did
Conscription
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On September 16, 1940, the US implemented the
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
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First time peacetime conscription in US history
It required that men ages 21 to 45 register for the
draft
Those who were selected in draft lottery had to serve
at least 1 year in the forces
The time spent in forces because of the draft was
extended for the duration of fighting in WWII
By the end of 1945, 50 million men registered for the
draft and 10 million were drafted to the military
National polls showed an increase majority favoring
a draft in case US ever needed to go to war
Conscription
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Uncle Sam was used
persuade people to
join the army
Isolationists were
opposed to the draft
and wanted to stay out
Few years after the
draft was implemented
the US had an army to
declare war after Pearl
Harbor
Work Cited
Some, Lawrence. "Navajo Code Talkers Of WWII." Essortment. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.essortment.com/navajo-code-talkers-wwii-21553.html>.
Sorensen, Aja. "The Image and Reality of Women Who Worked During World War II." Women
Working During World War II. Homefront National Historical Park, Fall 2004. Web. 31
Oct. 2012.<http://www.nps.gov/pwro/collection/website/rosie.htm>.
A History of the Mexican American People,” by Julian Samora and Patricia Vandel Simon,
http://www.jsri.msu.edu/museum/pubs/MexAmHist/chapter16.html; Maria Möller,
‘Philadelphia’s Mexican War Workers,” Pennsylvania Legacies, November 2003, Vol.
3 (2), 16.
Taylor, Alan. "World War II: Internment of Japanese Americans." The Atlantic. 21 Aug. 11.
Web. 04 Nov. 2012. <http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/08/world-war-iiinternment-of-japanese-americans/100132/>.
"Franklin Roosevelt Approves Military Draft." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 16 Sept. 2011.
Web. 04 Nov. 2012. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/franklin-rooseveltapproves-military-draft>.