Transcript Mobilizing for Defense - Clayton Valley Charter High School

Mobilizing for Defense
Chapter 17, Section 1
Pages 562-568
Objectives
Explain how the United States
expanded its armed forces in WW II.
 Describe the wartime mobilization of
industry, labor, scientists, and the
media.
 Trace the efforts of the US
government to control the economy
and deal with alleged subversion.
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Main Idea
 Following
the attack on Pearl
Harbor, the United States
mobilized for war.
Why It Matters Now
 Military
industries in the United
States today are a major part of
the American economy.
Selective Service
5
million volunteer
 Two ocean war in Europe and the
Pacific
 10 million drafted
 Selective Service System
Expanding the Military
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
(WAAC)
 350,000 serve
 Nurses, ambulance drivers, radio
operators, electricians, and pilots.
 Women in Uniform
 Genders are integrated in 1978
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Problems for Working Women
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Hostile reaction from other men
Restricted fraternization
No child care
Wage discrepancies for equal work

Willow Run in 1945
Women = $2,928 per year
 Men = $3,363 per year
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The Postwar Push to “Demobilize”
Women
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Women wanted to stay working
Pressure from returning servicemen was
intense
Industry and government made
campaigns encouraging women to
return to the home
Women work part-time to supplement
incomes
Dramatic Contributions
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African Americans in WW II
1 million serve
Lived and worked in segregated units
Limited combat roles
Double “V” Campaign
Dramatic Contributions
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A. Phillip Randolph
FDR signs
Fair Employment
Practices Exec Order
Start of Modern
Civil Rights Movement
War Veteran
Jackie Robinson &
MLB
Dramatic Contributions
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300,000 Mexican Americans
13,000 Chinese Americans
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1 out of every 5 adult males
Chinese exclusion laws still banned
immigration and naturalization process
33,000 Japanese Americans
25,000 Native Americans
The Industrial Response
 Arsenal
of Democracy
 Conversion of peacetime
industries
 Henry Kaiser’s Liberty Ships built
in 4 days using prefabrication
methods
Labor’s Contributions
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18 million workers
6 million of these
were women
2 million minority
workers
The war ends the
Great Depression
The 1943 Post Cover by Norman Rockwell. Copyright by the
Curtis Publishing Company and reproduced here with their
kind permission. 1943 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN
Hollywood Helps Mobilize
Early on movies energized Americans to join the war
effort.
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Across the Pacific (1942)
Action in the North Atlantic
(1943)
Air Force (1943)
All Through the Night
(1935)
Back to Bataan (1945)
Bataan (1943)
Black Dragons (1942)
Blood on the Sun (1945)
•Bombs Over Burma(1943)
•Destination Tokyo (1943)
•Dive Bomber (1941)
•The Fighting Seabees
(1944)
•Flying Tigers (1942)
•Gung Ho! (1943)
•They Were Expendable
(1945)
•Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
(1944)
American Propaganda
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Domestic propaganda
As the war dragged on, people grew
weary of the war’s grim reality.
Hollywood responded with musicals and
romances that allowed viewers to escape.
Scientists
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Office of Scientific Research and
Development (OSRD)
Radar, sonar
Pesticides
Penicillin
Atomic bomb
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The Manhattan Project Begins
Economic Controls
 Fighting
 Office
Inflation
of Price Administration
(OPA) froze prices on most goods.
 Raised and extended income taxes
to limit consumer spending.
 Sale of war bonds.
Economic Controls
 Reserving
 War
Resources
Production Board (WPB)
allocated raw materials to industry.
 Started recycling drives.
Economic Controls
Rationing
Established
fixed
allotments of goods
deemed essential for
the war effort.
Ration books