Transcript Homefront

Mobilizing for War
One similarity between WWI and WWII
on the home front was that
A. Japanese Americans were forcibly
interned
 B. young men protested by burning their
draft cards
 C. women filled many jobs traditionally
held by men
 D. African Americans left the North to
migrate to the South

Starter

Japanese suicide pilots were know as
_________ pilots.
 A. Shinto
 B. Samurai
 C. Kamikaze
 D. Amphtrac
Starter

One complaint of African Americans at
the beginning of WWII was that they
were
 A. integrated
 B. employed
 C. empowered
 D. disenfranchised
Converting the Economy

During the war American workers were
 twice as productive as Germans
 five times more productive than the
Japanese
 “American production, without which this war
would have been lost”
- -Joseph Stalin
Pre-War Preparations

When Germany entered France, FDR
declared a national emergency
Built 50,000 warplanes a year
 Asked for $4 billion to build a “TwoOcean” Navy
 Defense budget was at $17 billion by
October 1940
 Created a National Defense Advisory
Committee

Cost-Plus Contracts

Government agreed to pay a company
whatever it cost to make a product,
PLUS a guaranteed percentage of the
costs as profit

Reconstruction Finance Corporation
(RFC)
 made loans to companies wanting to convert
factories to war production
Tanks for Cars

Automobile industry was uniquely suited
to mass production of military equipment

Built vehicles, artillery, rifles, mines,
helmet, pontoon bridges

The auto industry produced nearly 1/3 of
all military equipment
Liberty Ships
Henry Kaiser went from construction to
ship building (built 30% of all ships)
 Prefabricated parts and brought them to
shipyards


Liberty Ship
 basic cargo ship
 Went from 244 days to build to 41 days by
the end of the war
 3,000 built
War Production Board (WPB)

Set priorities and production goals,
distributed raw materials and supplies

Clashed with the military
 Military continued to sign contracts without
consulting the WPB
Office of War Mobilization
(OWM)

Settled arguments between different
agencies
Building an Army

Selective Service and Training Act
(1940)
 first peacetime draft in American history
 approved by Congress in September
 More than 60,000 enlisted after Pearl Harbor
 At first the army did not have the facilities or
equipment to train that many
A Segregated Army
At the beginning of the war the military
was segregated
 African Americans served in separate
units commanded by white officers
 Most even wanted to keep them out of
combat

“Double V” Campaign

1941 the National Urban League
encouraged members to join the war
effort

Support the war to get victory over
Hitler’s racism abroad and racism at
home
African Americans in Combat

FDR ordered all branches to recruit
African Americans and put them into
combat

1941 the Air Force created its first
African American unit-- 99th Pursuit
Squadron
 Became known as the “Tuskegee Airmen”

Military bases were integrated in 1943

President Truman would fully integrate
the military in 1948
Other Minorities in the
Military

Japanese American were not allowed to
serve in the military at first

Second-generation Japanese Americans
served in the 100th Infantry Battalion
and the 442nd Regimental Combat
Team
 1/2 had been in internment camps
 became the most decorated units in the
history of the U.S. military

Mexican Americans joined the National
Guard during the 1930s and served on
the front lines

Most minorities served in non-combat
positions
 Native Americans were the exception
 1/3 between 18-50 served
Women in the Armed Forces
Women served in WWI
 Most worked in administrative and
clerical positions


Women’s Auxiliary Corps (WAAC)
 May 1942
 First allowed women in the military
 Headed by Oveta Culp Hobby

Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
 replaced WAAC
 Hobby appointed Colonel

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs)
 training began in 1942
 delivered planes
○ 300 pilots made over 12,000 deliveries of 77
kinds of planes

The Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines
also set up women’s units

68,000 women served as nurses in the
army and navy
Starter: African Americans pushed for a
______ victory in the war effort.

A. Tuskegee

B. Triple C

C. Double V

D. Carver
Life on the Home Front
End of the Great Depression
Created 19 million jobs
 Doubled the income of the average
family


Problems
 Had to move where jobs were
 Increased taxes, race riots, poor housing,
increased juvenile delinquency, rationing
“Rosie the Riveter”
Women
•
Worked in airplane plants and shipyards as
riveters, steelworkers, and welders
• numbers increased from 12.9 to 18.8 million
•
Challenges
• men in the workforce, childcare, and unequal
pay
•
When the war was over many were
expected to return home
African Americans

FDR issued Executive Order 8802 on
June 25, 1941
 “There shall be no discrimination in the
employment of workers in defense industries
or government because of race, creed,
color, or national origin”
 Fair Labor Practices Commission
○ enforced the order
○ first civil rights agency since Reconstruction
Mexican Farmworkers

Bracero Program (1942-1964)
 program organized by the government
 more than 200,000 Mexicans came to the
Southwest to work
Moving

15 million moved during the war
 most moved west and south
 Sunbelt: southern California and into the
Deep South

Housing Crisis
 Lanham Act (1940): provided $150 million
for housing
 National Housing Agency (NHA):
coordinated government housing
The Zoot Suit Riots


Worn by Mexican
American teenagers
in California
June 1943
 rumors that zoot-
suiters attacked
sailors caused 2,500
soldiers and sailors to
attack Mexican
American
neighborhoods in LA
War Bonds

Federal spending increased from $8.9
billion in 1939 to $95.2 billion in 1945
 Costs from 1941 to 1945 totaled $321 billion
Higher taxes paid for much of the war
 Began selling bonds in 1941
 Total sales reached $186 billion

Pop Culture
•
•
Income levels rise because of jobs
created in wartime industry
“Baby Boom”
Books and movies (Casablanca)
•
Baseball
•
– 4,000 of 5,700 major and minor league
players were in the service
– 1943 Philip Wrigley founded the AAGSL that
became the AAGBL in 1945
Shortages and Controls
•
More war production=less consumer
goods
•
Office of Price Administration (OPA)
began rationing tires and other goods to
fairly distribute scarce items
• Ration books of coupons for certain goods
including gasoline
•
Victory Gardens
How did the federal government
control the economy during the war?

The government controlled the economy
through wage and price controls,
rationing, and the selling of bonds to pay
for the war.
Starter

The Office of Price Administration began
rationing, or limiting the availability of,
many consumer products to make sure
enough were available for
 A. military use
 B. the elderly
 C. children
 D. schools
Japanese Internment

In 1941 there were only about 127,000 in the U.S.,
most lived on the west coast

Nisei- born in the U.S. From parents who
emigrated from Japan

Feb. 19, 1942 FDR signed an order that
allowed the Secretary of War to establish
military zones on the west coast and
remove anyone from those zones
Internment
•
War Relocation Authority - set up to
move everyone of Japanese descent to
internment camps (110,000)
•
Many lost their homes and businesses
•
Camps were in isolated areas
•
Wooden barracks with barbed wire and
guards around the outside
Italian and German American
Relocation
•
FDR declared any unnaturalized
residents of German or Italian descent
14 or over were designated enemy
aliens
• travel restrictions, ID cards
• 5,000 were interned in Montana and North
Dakota
•
In early 1945 they were allowed to leave
•
In 1988 Congress passed a law awarding
each surviving internee $20,000
•
20,000 served in the military
• 442nd Regimental Combat Team fought in
France and Germany and won more
medals than any other unit
In the case Korematsu v. the United
States, the Supreme Court ruled that
relocation of Japanese Americans was
A. constitutional because it was based on
military urgency
 B. unconstitutional, and they had to be
released at once
 C. constitutional, but the government had
to pay them property losses
 D. unconstitutional because it was based
on race

United Nations

FDR believed a new organization could
be created to prevent another war

39 delegates met in 1944 in D.C.

Created the United Nations

General Assembly
 each member had 1 vote
 vote on resolutions, choose non-permanent
members of the security council, vote on
budget

Security Council
 responsible for international peace and
security
 11 members
 5 permanent members with veto power
○ Britain, France, China, Soviet Union, United
States

Charter officially signed on April 25,
1945

Commission on Human Rights issued
the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights on 1948
 lists 30 rights for all human beings in all
societies
Starter

In what way did the Treaty of Versailles
lead to world conflict?
 A. it created the League of Nations
 B. it partitioned Russia
 C. it forced England and France to disarm
 D. it led to the economic and political
instability of Germany