Chapter 17 Section 4
The Home Front
Brainstorm:
What
impact would the
war have on American
minorities and women?
Objective:
Describe the economic & social changes
that reshaped American life during World
War II
 Summarize both the opportunities and
discrimination African Americans and
other minorities experienced during the
war

How
did the war and its
immediate aftermath
affect the following?
1. Labor
Defense Industries boom
 Unemployment at 1.2%
 Able to save $ because their pay went up
10% even with price fixing & inflation
 Some complaints about long hours, not
enough pay & night shifts
 People buy war bonds
 35% or 6M women in work force

2. Agriculture
1940s provides good growing weather
 Improvements in machinery & fertilizers
 Crop prices increase / farm income triples
 Crop production increases by 50%
 Some farmers pay off mortgage

3. Population Centers
One of greatest mass migration in history,
look at page 591
 1941 to 1944 1M newcomers to CA
 Towns with defense industries triple in size
 African Am look for jobs in the North
 Soldiers training in different parts of US

4. Family Life
Soldiers at war / moms home alone
 Children taken care of by relatives or first
day care centers
 Teenagers run into trouble
 Marriage increases & Baby Boom
 Tension with returning soldiers

5. Returning GIs
Serviceman’s Readjustment Act or GI Bill
of Rights helps with education or training
for veterans
 50% take advantage / get education or
training
 Lower interest rates or loans to help buy
homes, farms or businesses

How
did these groups
react to discrimination and
racism during and after the
war?
6. African Americans
Majority of Southern Af. Am move to
Midwest for better jobs
 1940 to 1944, Af Am increase from 16%
to 30% in work force
 Farmer & CORE in 1942 (Congress of
Racial Equality / interracial) founded to
confront urban segregation in the North /
sit-ins
 Race riot in Chicago: all is not well

7. Mexican Americans
1943 Zoot Suit riots in LA
 Refer to page 593
 11 sailors claimed they had been attacked
by Mexicans / 1 week
 Mexicans believe their sacrifices would
lead to a better future

8. Japanese Americans
Fear of J-A sabotaging or mining coastal
harbors & poisoning food supply
 War Dept orders General Delos Emmons, the
military governor of Hawaii to evacuate J-A
from Hawaii
 Emmons declines because 37% of population
is J-A. / Economy & war effort / 1%
internment camps

8. Japanese Americans
110K J-A from CA, WA, OR, & AZ sent to
internment camps in CA, ID, WY, UT, CO,
AZ, & AK
 Supreme Ct ruled this was justified
 Korematsu v. United States
 1965 Japanese American Citizens League
gets Congress to allocate survivors $38M
 Ronald Reagan & Congress allocate $20K
to each survivor
