Part 2 Key Questions
1. What were the major effects of WWII
on American society including
minorities and women?
IV. The U.S. Home Front
• Selective Service Act
– Men ages 18-65 have to register after PH
• War Productions Board
– ½ production goes to the war effort
• Funding the War
– Increased taxes
– War bonds
• Video: Propaganda income taxes
Women during the War
• Women in the military
– WACs (Women’s Army Corps)
– WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary
Emergency Service)
• Female Mobility
– Some women moved to new
communities to work in aircraft, munitions,
automobile industries
Of all the images of working
women during World War II,
the image of women in
factories predominates.
Rosie the Riveter--the
strong, competent woman
dressed in overalls and
bandanna--was introduced
as a symbol of patriotic
womanhood. The
accoutrements of war
work--uniforms, tools, and
lunch pails--were
incorporated into the
revised image of the
feminine ideal
Video: Rosie the Riveter on the assembly line
WWII and African Americans
• Nearly 1 million African Americans
served in segregated units
– Tuskegee airmen – First African American
aviators in the U.S. Army
• Double V Campaign
– Victory at home and Victory abroad
• Video: FDR’s EO 8802 affect on
minorities
WWII and Native Americans
• Navajo volunteers used as “code
talkers”
• Japan unable to crack their code
used for military communication
WWII and Mexican Americans
• Bracero Program
– 1942 need for farm labor leads US govt to issue
short-term work permits to Mexican workers
– About 150,000 Braceros worked in agriculture
and the railroads
• Zoot Suit Riots, 1943 (L.A.)
– Young Mexican Americans become object of
frequent violent attacks by white sailors and
marines
– In June, riots break out in East L.A.
– 150 were injured, 500 Mexican Americans
arrested
The Home Front and Japanese
Americans
• Executive Order 9006
– Passed by FDR, required relocation of Japanese
Americans living on West Coast to internment
camps
• Korematsu vs. US (1944)
– Japanese American sued the US govt for EO 9006
– Went to the Supreme Court which upheld the
internment camps
• Significance?
– Civil liberties decrease during war-time
• Video: Japanese Internment The Roosevelts
• Video: Superman 1:25 – 2:10
HOMEWORK
Reading Material
The Unfinished Nation
Chapter 28 America in a World War
(pp. 720-741) CHAPTER SCANNED ON
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