America’s
Home Front
During World
War II
I.
America Mobilizes for
War
A. War Powers Act
•
Gave FDR
unprecedented
power
•
15,000,000 men &
350,000 women
served
B. Key Organizations
•
War Production Board
•
Office of War Mobilization
•
Office of Censorship
•
WAC & WAVES (women’s corps)
I. America Mobilizes for War
C. War Production
• 97% rubber lost so $700 million spent on synthetic
rubber plants=by 1944, 80% synthetic rubber
• Rationing Program
• U.S. produced more than Axis combined by 1945
D. Expansion of Federal Government
• 1940: 9%
1945: 46%
($9 billion to $98 billion)
• Federal employees: 1.1 million to 3.8 million
• 67% federal money went to top 100 largest firms
• Federal spending:
1788-1941 $170 billion
1942-1945 $320 billion
I. American Mobilizes for War
E. Union Issues
• Membership rose 50%
• “no-strike” pledge generally followed
• Few exceptions known as “Wildcat” strikes
F. Manhattan Project
• 120,000 secretly employed, led by J. Robert
Oppenheimer (“Now I am become death, the
destroyer of worlds.”)
• $2,000,000,000 spent on project
• Final test completed at Alamogordo, NM
• Felt as far as 100 miles away
I. America Mobilizes for War
G. Propaganda & Politics
• Hollywood focus
(attendance increased 67%)
• Office of Censorship (14,000
employed)
• Didn’t release Pearl
Harbor casualty records
until 1943
• Released few pictures of
dead soldiers (first in
1943)
II. Change in American
Society
A. GI Bill of Rights
•Allowed approx. 2
million returning GI’s to
receive higher
education
•Also paid living
allowances & helped to
purchase homes
•Helped change U.S.
from blue collar society
to white collar
II. Change in American
Society
B. Social Mobility
•Pacific Coast
Growth
•50% of all
plane & ship
production
occurred in
California
•2 million
relocated to
California
•6 million moved
to cities
Another Great Migration to Detroit
and No. & So. California
II. Change in
American Society
C. Women &
the Family
•350,000 women
served in the
armed forces
•6 million women
went to work in
war industries (75%
were married)
•Only received
65% of male
wages
•Rosie the Riveter
became symbol
of the woman
worker
II. Change in
American Society
D. African
Americans
•Randolph’s March on
Washington
•FDR issued
Executive Order
8802
•Double V Campaign
•NAACP membership
rises (1000%)
•CORE established to
challenge Jim Crow
The “Fight of the
Century”
Joe Louis vs. Max
Schmeling
•1936
•1938 rematch
1936 Berling Olympics
•Jesse Owens
II. Change in American Society
•One million blacks served in WWII
•761st Tank Battalion & 99th Pursuit Squadron
•Integrated military training began in 1944
•B.B. King “I used to sing gospel songs until I joined the
army, then I sang the blues.”
•Detroit race riot in 1943 saw 25 blacks, 9 whites killed
and $2 million damage
Detroit Race
Riot, 1943
34 dead, 1800 arrested
Two rumors circulated which exacerbated the
conflict. At a nightclub in Paradise Valley which
catered to the black population, a man who
identified himself as a police sergeant alerted the
patrons that "whites" had thrown a black woman
and her baby over the Belle Isle bridge. The enraged
patrons fled the club to retaliate. They looted and
destroyed white-owned stores and indiscriminately
attacked anyone with white skin. Similarly, white
mobs had been stirred up by a rumor that a black
man had raped and murdered a white woman on
the bridge. The white mob centered around the
downtown Roxy Theater which harbored a number
of black movie-goers. As the patrons exited the
theater, they found themselves surrounded by
gangs who attacked and beat them.
Detroit became known as “America’s Arsenal of
Democracy because of its war production.
Because of FDR’s executive order requiring
equal rights in hiring, Detroit became a center
for African American migration. Despite
200,000 African Americans living in Detroit, the
KKK as well as local white leadership contained
their living area into a place known as “Paradise
Valley.” Racial tensions boiled over, as they had
in numerous other cities such as Los Angeles,
Mobile, Alabama and Beaumont, Texas.
Arrests during 1943 Harlem riot
The shifting social
scene in the U.S.
was not without
conflict
II. Change in American
Society
E. Native Americans
•25,000 served in military
•Most famous were the
Navajo “Code-Talkers”
•75,000 worked in war industries
II. Change in American Society
F. Mexican Americans
•Bracero Program
•200,000 temporary workers
came from Mexico (100,000 in
CA)
•Large numbers returned illegally,
while many never returned to
Mexico
II. Change in American Society
•Zoot Suit Riots
“pachucos” vs. sailors
LA passed law making zoot suits illegal
•350,000 served in military
Mexican Americans stripped of zoot suits during the riots, Life, 1943
Sailor arrested during the riots, Los Angeles Daily News, 1943
Executive Order 9066
Japanese American store
owner posted this sign on
December 8, 1941
II. Change in American Society
G. Japanese-Americans
•Executive Order 9066
•War Relocation Authority
•112,000 held (67% were U.S. citizens)
Japanese
Americans
interned: 120,000
Japanese
Americans that
fought for Japan in
WWII: 2,000 -7,000
442nd Combat
Regiment was the
most decorated
unit of WWII. It
consisted mostly of
Japanese
Americans.
Loyalty Oath’s
requirement to
renounce
allegiance to the
emporor
Map of Japanese-American Internment Camps
Manzanar, CA
Relocation Camp
Heart Mountain, WY
Minidoka, ID
Topaz, UT
Rohwer, AR
Jerome, AR
Relocation Camp
Pop.
Manzanar, CA
Tule Lake, CA
Poston, AZ
Gila River, AZ
Granada, CO
Max.
10,046
18,789
17,814
13,348
7,318
Max. Pop.
10,767
9,397
8,130
8,475
8,497
United
States
Army
manual:
How to
tell the
Chinese
from the
Japanese
Korematsu v. the United States (1944)
“When viewed in its
historical context,
the Government’s
position is part of a
pattern whereby
the executive
branch curtails civil
liberties much more
than necessary
during wartime and
seeks to insulate its
actions from any
judicial scrutiny…
Only later errors are
acknowledged and
apologies made.”
-Fred Korematsu
Reagan signs the Civil
Liberties Act of 1988
In 1988, the 62,000 surviving internees
received a $20,000 stipend and an
apology from the United States
government.