The Home Front
Essential Question:
How did Americans on the home front help win World War II?
 Draft
o 1940-1946
o Over 10 million men
 Economy
o War Production Board (WPB)
 Converted peacetime industries to meet war needs
 Established rationing
 Scrap drives
o Labor shortage
 Women
 Worked in manufacturing plants
o Represented by “Rosie the Riveter”
 Allowed to join the military for the first time
o Non-combat volunteers
 Minorities given more opportunities
 African Americans moved to the North and the West
for jobs
 Bracero Program
o Temporary workers from Mexico
o War bonds
 How the U.S. government paid for the war
 Purchased by citizens
 Earned interest over time
 African Americans
o Double V Campaign
 Victory over fascism and victory over discrimination
 92nd Infantry (Buffalo Soldiers)
 Tuskegee Airmen
 Japanese Americans
o Executive Order 9066
 Issued by President Roosevelt in 1942
 Forced Japanese Americans on the West Coast to relocate to
internment camps during the war
 2 of the 10 camps were in Arizona
 62% were U.S. citizens
 Korematsu v. United States (1944)
 Supreme Court ruled against Korematsu
o Japanese Americans fought in the war
 Segregated units
 European Theater only
 Propaganda
o Organized spreading of ideas to influence public opinion
o Used by both sides
o Purposes:
 Boost patriotism
 Demonize the enemy