

Essential Question:
•How did the U.S. mobilize
civilians at home to help win
World War 2 & what impact did
this have on American society?
Warm-Up Question:
•What other major American
war is most similar in its
resemblance to the U.S.
entrance into WW2?
Mobilizing an
“Arsenal of
Democracy”
The Home Front

WW2 impacted all aspects of
American life:
• FDR hoped the U.S. would be the great
“arsenal of democracy”
• The boost of wartime industry ended the
Great Depression
• The war altered the lives of women,
African-Americans, Japanese-Americans,
& Mexican-Americans
The
TheOffice
poweroftoWar
create
to censor the press
The Office of War
Mobilization
Information
new
gov’t agencies
to limit civilcoordinated
liberties &
Mobilization
directed press,
personal
theseize
draft,
consumer
prices,
 Toradio,
win wars
in Asia
& Europe
&property
meet
print,
& film
& U.S.
the labor
force
propaganda
civilian demands, the
gov’t
grew
to its largest size ever:
The Office of Strategic Services gathered
• Theintelligence
War Powers&
Act
gave the espionage
president
enemy
conducted
unprecedented power
• New bureaucracies were formed to direct
U.S. gov’t
spent
$250 million
theThe
economy,
create
propaganda,
sell
per day& from
1941
to 1945
war bonds,
prevent
enemy
subversion
This is 2x as much as all previous
gov’t spending combined
Mobilization: The Demand for War
Equipment & Soldiers
Buy, Buy, Buy, Buy a Bond:
It Will Lead to VICTORY!
War bonds
helped
raise $187
billion to
support the
war effort
War Rations
Victory Gardens: Grow Your Own
Propaganda: Fighting the Enemy on
the Battlefield & on the Home Front
Fear Propaganda
Hollywood Pitches In
Jimmy Stewart goes
off to war
The Wartime Economy
U.S. made 2x more goods than
Germany & 5x more than Japan

The most decisive factor for Allied
victory was America’s ability to
outproduce both Germany & Japan
• Heavy industry was converted to war &
was directed by the War Production
Board (WPB)
• 15 million U.S. soldiers fought but 60
million workers & farmers supplied them
with supplies
Ford
madeWillow
one B-24Run
bomber
every hour
Ford’s
Factory
Henry Kaiser’s West Coast Shipyards
The Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, in
part, because the USA produced ships faster
than German u-boats could sink them
Kaiser standardized battleship building &
reduced the time it took to make a battleship
from 355 days to 14 days

Essential Question:
•How did the U.S. mobilize
civilians at home to help win
World War 2 & what impact did
this have on American society?
WW2 Changed
American Society
Regional Changes

The war effort transformed the
Western & Southern U.S.:
million defense
moved
new
•9
California
became workers
the major
centertofor
factoriesto&support
shipyards
South
industry
the in
war
effort&inWest
the
Pacific
• 60 of the 100 new military based were
built in the South
• Southern textile factories & industrial
jobs helped end sharecropping & tenant
farming
Women

The war presented new economic
opportunities for women:
• Dramatic rise in employment
(14
“To
with the
I have had.
million
to hell
19 million
bylife
1945)
This
war
is
too
[serious],
and
it
• Most new female workers were married,
is
too
[important]
to
win
it.”
many middle-aged
• Entered “exclusively male” fields
• Temporarily redefined “woman’s sphere”
from “just at home”
“Rosie, the Riveter”
S..t..r..e..t..c..h That Food!
Women
AcceptedWomen’s
for Volunteer
Army Air
Join the
Women’s
Emergency
Service Corps
(WAVES)
Pilots
Army Corps
(WACs)
Families
…and high divorce rates
The uncertainties of war & economic
affluence of the 1940s led to a
dramatic rise in marriage
 The influx of women into the
workforce led to a new demand for
daycare centers & to an increase in
child delinquency
 Public health improved as more
families had access to doctors,
dentists, & prescription drugs

African-Americans
Banned discrimination in
 1 milliondefense
blacks industries
served in&U.S.
gov’t
military but few saw combat
 Discrimination in the workforce led A.
Philip Randolph to pressure FDR to
create a Fair Employment Practices
Committee
 Continued black migration into the
North & West made race relations a
national issue
Segregated units…again
Tuskegee
Airmen
Double V: Victory at Home & Abroad
A. Philip Randolph threatened a
“March on Washington” to
protest war time discrimination
Other groups, like the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE), staged sit-ins in restaurants
in major cities to protest discrimination
Mexican-Americans

Mexican-Americans:
• Served in quasi-segregated military
units, often in the most hazardous
branches
• Mexican-American workers found jobs in
SW agriculture & west coast industry
• Faced discrimination, especially during
the Zoot Suit Riots
“Zoot Suit” Riot in Los Angeles
Japanese-Americans
Due to Pearl Harbor, many in the U.S.
feared Japanese-Americans were
helping prepare for a Japanese
Japanese
were not American
invasion
in the who
West
citizens
living
in
the
U.S.
 Civil liberties were restricted:

• Issei had their assets frozen
• Used racial stereotypes (“Japs”)
• In 1942, FDR ordered 112,000
Japanese-Americans moved to
internment camps
Families
were given one week
The
all Japanese-American
442ndtoDivision
close their
businesses
& homes
fought
in Europe
& received
over 1,000
citations for bravery
Japanese
American
Internme
nt Camps
Win-the-War Politics

In 1944, FDR used the war to
strengthen his leadership:
• “Mr. New Deal” had shifted to
“Mr.
Win the War”
• Opponent Thomas Dewey made
communism & FDR’s health the focus of
the election
• FDR switched VPs from liberal Henry
Wallace to moderate Harry Truman to
gain appeal