Mobilizing for Defense

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GI: Government Issue stamped on everything
5M Eager recruits wanted to be heroes
Draft provides 10M more
8 weeks basic training
Bulk of armed forces were white males who were drafted/volunteered

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Marshall (Army Chief of Staff General) pushed for WAAC/ WAC or Women’s
Auxiliary Army Corp because of personnel shortages
Official status & salary
Nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, pilots
No direct combat

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(WAVES): Women Accepted for Volunteer
Emergency Service in the Navy
(WASPS): Women Air Force Service Pilots

Recruiting & Discrimination
Minorities
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Why die for democracy abroad when we don’t have it here

Mexican Americans
Minorities
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300,000 join armed forces
Suffered 1/5 of LA’s city’s wartime casualties
Fought in many crucial battles
Most enlisted in Army
Many participated in D-day
Multilingual/good interpreters

African Americans
Minorities
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1 million served in military
Segregated units & limited to non-combat roles
Saw combat in April 1943
92 Infantry Division or Buffalo Soldiers in bloody Italian campaign of 1943-1944
Tuskegee Airmen
Not allowed to join air force or marines

African Americans
Minorities
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Red Cross separated blood
Men shortages toward end of war integrated Af. Am soldiers

Asian Americans
Minorities
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13000 Chinese joined armed forces
33000 Japanese joined armed forces
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Spies & interpreters in the Pacific
442 nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy &
France became most decorated unit in the war
Internment camps in the United States

Native Americans
Minorities
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25000 enlisted including 800 women
Navaho Code Talkers
Denied right to vote in 3 states

Industrial Response
Manufacturing
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Auto plants convert to tanks, planes, boats and command cars
Mechanical Pencil Plant makes bomb parts
Bedspread co. made mosquito netting
Kaiser and Liberty Ship (4 to 14 days )
Coca-Cola 5 cents available to every soldier

Labor’s Contribution
Manufacturing
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18M workers working in defense plants
6M were women
Women did great job & earn 60% of men
2M minority workers
FDR passed nondiscrimination law in defense plants to keep Randolph & Af Am from marching on Washington

Hollywood
Entertainment Industry
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War-oriented propaganda films
U.S. movies make Soviets heroes
Later produces escape films like musicals and romances

Scientists
Office of Scientific Research & Dev
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FDR in 1941 created OSRD or Office of
Scientific Research & Development spurred improvements in radar, sonar, pesticides, penicillin
Advisory Committee & Einstein give way to
Manhattan Project & development of atom bomb

Federal Government Control
Office of Price Administration
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Little production of consumer products which meant big demand and possible price increases
OPA or Office of Price Adm.: fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods
Fed gov. raises taxes / less to spend
Americans buy war bonds

Federal Government Control
War Production Board
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WPB or War Production Board: who will make what, how many, by when & will get x amounts of material
Nationwide drives to recycle
Rationing or fixed allotment of goods
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Coupon books for meat, sugar, coffee & gas
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People do as asked for war effort

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Secretary of State Stimson & cost plus system: Government paid all development & production costs on anything a company made for the war
One-dollar a year men to decide on war contracts
Deficit spending

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Run by OPA
Fixed allotment of goods
Coupon Books for meat, shoes, sugar, coffee & gas
Meets with large amount of acceptance but the black market did exist