The Home Front
WORLD WAR II
Total War
 When a nation waged war, it waged total
war.
 1939 Government Report concludes

“War is no longer simply a battle between
armed forces in the field. It is a struggle in
which each side strives to bring the bear against
the enemy coordinated power of every
individual and of very material resource at its
command. The conflict extends from the
soldier in the front line to the citizen in the
remotest hamlet in the rear”
 This experience, however, surpassed that
of World War I in both degree and
duration
Three men burying victims of Leningrad’s
siege in which about 1 million civilians
died.
Mobilizing for War
AFTER THE BOMBING OF PEARL
HARBOR THE UNITED STATES
SWITCHED FROM PEACETIME TO A
WARTIME ECONOMY. GOVERNMENT
AND PRIVATE INDUSTRY COOPERATED
TO INCREASE PRODUCTION, AND
UNION LEADERS AGREED NOT TO
STRIKE DURING THE WAR.
A Production Boom
 Government Arsenals
 Produce ammunition, cannon shells &
rifles
 1940 - 22,ooo workers/1947 – 486,000
workers
 By war’s end, U.S. had…
 Built 300,000 aircraft
 Car production suspended, huge
numbers of planes, tanks, jeeps and guns
 American Shipyards

88,000 landing crafts, 215 submarines, 147
aircraft carriers, 953 other war ships, 5,200
merchant ships
Production
Boom
GM, Ford, and Chrysler
went from creating cars
to tanks
Boeing from regular
airplanes to bombers
and fighter jets
Gun makers like Colt,
from hunting rifles to
machine guns,
flamethrowers, war
rifles
General
Motors
GM converts 100
percent of its
production to the war
effort. During World
War II, the company
produces airplanes and
airplane parts, trucks,
tanks, guns, shells and
other war-related
products. According to
GM, it delivers more
than $12.3 billion worth
of war material to lead
the Allied war effort
A Production Boom
 Enormous factory complexes built in
only a few months

funded by federal government
 Entirely new industry
 synthetic rubber production
 created to make up for the lost access to
natural rubber in the Pacific
 By the beginning of 1944
 American factories producing more than all
of the Axis countries combined
First U.S. Government synthetic
rubber plant to go into production.
Akron, Ohio April 1942.
Synthetic rubber production 1942
A Production Boom
 Farms are marvels of
productivity



Farm production
increases…even though many
ag workers went off to war
Produced enough food to
supply both the American
people and the Allied Powers
overseas
Lend Lease Aid – 10% of food
goes to Great Britain and
Soviet Union
A Production Boom
 Ends the Great Depression

Unemployment drops from 14.6% in 1940 to 1.2% in 1944
 Earnings nearly doubled

From breadlines to fat checks!
Average income: New York 1939 - $2,760, 1942 - $4,044
 Average income: Boston 1939 - $2,455, 1942 - $5,316
 Average income: Washington D.C. 1939 - $2,227, 1942 - $5,316

 Limits to what can be done with money
Rationing material such as gasoline and silk
 Short supply of things such as automobiles, radios, and
appliances
 Wage earners put income in savings, which would later sustain a
post war boom

Demographic Shifts
ABOUT 15 MILLION AMERICANS MOVED
DURING THE WAR, MAINLY FOR JOBS. THIS
WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST MIGRATIONS IN
THE NATION’S HISTORY.
The West
 Largest Boom!
 Almost 8 million relocate to
states west of Mississippi
 Defense industry jobs
 10% of defense contracts in
California




Population increases by 2 million
Cities suffer over crowding and hosing
shortages
Federal Housing Agency
2 million house built…so defense work,
home and road work!
The South
 More complicated than other areas
 Black and rural white southerners left in huge numbers
 1.3 million southerners moved to cities in the North or
Midwest…600,000 move to the West
 Majority of Southern migrants were African Americans
fleeing the South


Richmond, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego California…new
communities carved out.
Makes racial relations a larger spread, national issue
 More than $6 billion in defense contracts
 1 million Northerners migrate South
 South becomes more industrial and urban
The Midwest
 Did not increase greatly, but
did experience upheaval
 Detroit




Largest manufacturing center
Racial discord
200,000 African Americans
change composition of city
Riots in 1942-1943

because black people moving into
historically white neighborhoods
Government Expansion
 Mobilizing for war required a greatly
expanded federal government.

Between 1940 and 1945, number of federal
employees nearly triples
 War Productions Board
 Director was former Sears Roebuck
executive
 “Super Agency” to increase military
production



Control government material purchasing
Supervise allocation of man power and raw
materials
Convert factories from peace time to war time,
build new plants
Government Expansion
 Office of War Mobilization
 Coordinates production and
distribution of consumer
goods
 Examples:


Nylon for parachutes instead of
hosiery
Regulates clothing styles to
save fabric
 No cuffs on men’s trousers
and pleats on women’s
skirts
Organized Labor
 War replaces widespread
unemployment

Increase in production requires more
labor
 Armed forces diverts 15 million
civilian workers from industries at
the same time that demand
increased


Workforce jumps from 46.5 million to
53 million
Unemployable now have jobs…very
young, elderly, women
Organized Labor
 Union membership boost
 1941 - 10.5 million to 1945 – 13 million
 Avoid strikes, stop wage increases
 Government wants to avoid strikes
– slow production

Unions grant “no-strike” pledge
 Slow wage increases – prevent
inflation

Unions grant “Little Steel” -15% limit
wage increase
 “Maintenance-of-Membership”
 automatic union membership

swelling the size of organized labor
Organized Labor
 Not all laborers satisfied by this
trade off


Despite “no strike” pledge - 15,000
work stoppages during the war
Congress passes Smith-Connally Act
(over FDR veto)
 Unions wait 30 days before strike
 President may seize plants in
disputes
 War time disputes result in public
animosity towards labor…post war
labor laws passed that would limit
labor power
Directing the Economy
 Most important was government spending
 more money spent on the war than on all of the New Deal programs
put together
 Federal budget ballooned
 1939 - $9 billion
 1945 - $100 billion
 Gross National Product
 1939 - $91 billion
 1945 - $166 billion
 17 million new jobs
created
Directing the Economy
 Significant Redistribution of
Wealth

Everyone’s wealth rose, incomes of
poorest grow most rapidly




Poorest 20% rose by 70%
Richest 20% rose by only 20%
Farmers income rose by 400%
Industrial workers saw a smaller
gain because of union agreements
to limit wage increases to 15%
Stabilizing the Boom!
THE FEAR OF DEFLATION ON THE 1930S
GAVE WAY TO INSTEAD TO A FEAR OF
INFLATION DURING THE WAR, FUELED BY A
RAPID AND DESTABILIZING 25% PRICE
INCREASE IN TWO YEARS BEFORE PEARL
HARBOR.
Stabilizing the Boom!
 Office of Public of
Administration

Sets maximum process on consumer
goods
 Anti-Inflation Act
 freezes agricultural prices, wages,
salaries, and rents
 OPA becomes
unpopular…rationing & price
controls
Paying for the War
 Government borrows money from the
peeps

War Bonds


$100 million
Raised taxes - Revenue Act of 1942


Top bracket – 94%
Payroll withholding
 1941-1945 Government spends $321
billion



10X cost of WWI
2X as total entire 150 years of U.S. existence
National debt…1941 - $49 billion…1945 $259 billion
Retreat From Reform
 Late 1943 – FDR says “Dr. New Deal” should give way to
“Dr. Win-the-War”

Victory more important than reform
 Reflected political reality
 Liberals unsuccessful in enacting new legislation
 Difficult to protect existing reforms
 New Deal legislation dismantled





Civilian Conservation Corp
National Youth Administration
Works Progress Administration
Farm Security Administration
No additions to Social Security or other social welfare programs
Life During WWII
Raising an Army
 Selective Training & Service Act - 1940
 1st peacetime draft in U.S. history
 Men ages 21 to 35 (later 18 to 45) register
 Local draft boards determined fitness


Deferred men for family, religious or health
reasons
2/3 of the Americans who served were
draftees and volunteers



Including more than 300,000 women
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)
Worked as nurses and drove vehicles in order
to free up men for active duty
Women in the Service
“Days and nights were an
endless nightmare, until it
seemed we couldn’t stand it
anymore. Patients came in
by the hundreds, and the
doctors and the nurses
worked continuously under
the tents amid the flies and
the heat and dust. We had
from eight to nine hundred
victims a day.”
-Eunice Hatchitt, Bataan Nurse
Promoting the War
 Families display window banners
 Blue star – family member serving
 Gold star – death in combat
Promoting the War
 U.S. government tries to keep morale
high – encourages the media to do
their part

Movie stars promote war bonds and travel
overseas




Bob Hope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR9TSx
p_okc
Studios produce war films
Radio stations broadcast war news and
entertainment


Office of War Information controls war news at
home
Radio stations ban spy/sabotage programs and
avoid some sound effects
Leisure Time
 Limitations
 Long work hours, few men
present, rationing of goods.
 Male athletes leave for the
service

Women's Baseball League



Rockford Peaches, Kenosha
Comets, Racine Belles, South
Bend Blue Sox
1948 – 10 teams 1 million in
attendance
A League of Their Own

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWo
D2sQ9LiU
Music
 Jazz pushes racial integration
 Big Swing bands in 40s
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaK5OWztCz8&feature=related
 “Remember Pearl Harbor” “Praise the Lord and Pass the
Ammunition”
 God Bless America – unofficial national anthem


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEJo7x9y3D4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJNqep77vBw
 “White Christmas”…longing for peace
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXcNfA4qebQ
Literature
 Non fiction becomes more
popular than fiction

Berlin Diary


scary look into Nazi Germany
Mission to Moscow

positive portrayal of the Soviet
Union
 Paper back books first
appear in 1939
 Free paperbacks to U.S.
troops

60 million copies
Cut Backs
 Consumption of luxuries and
necessities
 Victory Gardens

“[formed] a neighborhood victory
garden, plowed up the backyards of
three houses, and planted beans, corn,
tomatoes, okra, squash, and all the
things that we could use. When the
crop came in…we used a pressure
cooker and canned all day. I was
canning until midnight and later, night
after night and I frequently said , ‘I
wish I had Hitler in that pressure
cooker.’”
-Martha Wood
Victory Gardens
 Conserve food
 Small investment in soil, seed
and time, families could enjoy
fresh vegetables for months
 By 1945, an estimated 20
million victory gardens
produced approximately 40%
of America's vegetables
Conserving Food
 Training Sessions



Teach women to shop wisely,
conserve food, plan nutritious
meals, how to can food items
Homemaker planned family meals
within the set limits
Government's persuasion of people
to give up large amounts of red
meats and fats resulted in more
healthy eating
Conserving Food
 Government also printed a
monthly meal-planning guide
with recipes and a daily menu


Good Housekeeping magazine printed a
special section for rationed foods in its
1943 cookbook.
Numerous national publications also
featured articles explaining what
rationing meant to America
Drills & Blackouts
 Night Time Blackouts



West coast cities
Brightly lit cities would make easy
targets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B
6Bq-_XAsEc
 Practice Air Raid Drills
Rationing
 Office of Public Administration
Food Rationing Program set in
motion

Spring of 1942
 Deeply affects American way of life
 Government needs to control
supply & demand


Avoid public anger with shortages
Avoid only wealthy to purchase
commodities
Rationing
 Joining together to support and
maintain supply levels for the
troops

scrap drives, taking factory jobs, goods
donations and other similar projects to
assist those on the front
 Government-sponsored ads, radio
shows, posters and pamphlet
campaigns urged people to
comply…without complaint
Rationing
 Tires by 1942
 May 1943

Sugar Buying Cards
 November of 1943




Passenger autos, typewriters,
bicycles, stoves
Gas, fuel oil, firewood and coal
Sugar, coffee, meat, lard, shortening
& oils, cheese, butter, margarine,
processed foods (canned, bottled,
frozen) dried fruits, canned milk,
jams, jellies and fruit butter
Footwear, silk, nylon, shoes,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16zyrNOXM
OQ&feature=related
Ration Booklets
 Registration at local schools
 Send 1 family member to describe
size of family
 Coupon books do not guarantee
product
 Fuel…present gas card, ration
book and cash
 Set time periods, set colors
 No racing, including
Indianapolis
Ration
Booklets
Ration
Booklets
Ration Stamps
Rationing
with many parents
engaged in war work,
children were tacught
the facts of point
rationing for out in
family shopping
Rationing Side Effect
 “Black Market”
 buy rationed items on the sly,
but at higher prices.
 provoked mixed reactions from
those who banded together to
conserve as instructed, as
opposed to those who fed the
black market's subversion and
profiteering
 black marketers dealt in meat,
sugar and gasoline in the U.S.
Recycling
 Recycling was born with the
government’s encouragement



Saving aluminum cans meant more
ammunition for the soldiers.
Americans urged to conserve and
recycle metal, paper and rubber
Communities joined together to
hold scrap-iron drives, and
schoolchildren pasted saving
stamps into bond books.
Mobilization of Scientists
 Office of Scientific Research
and Development (OSRD)


bring scientists into the war effort
Focus was on radar and sonar to
locate submarines
 Also worked on penicillin and
pesticides like DDT
Manhattan Project
 Most important
achievement of the OSRD secret development of the
atomic bomb

code used to describe
American efforts to build the
bomb
 Einstein wrote to FDR
warning him that the
Germans were attempting
to develop such a weapon
Campaign of 1944
 Republicans and Democrats
agreed that conduct of war
and plans for peace would
not be an issue

Focused on domestic economy
and indirectly FDRs health
 FDR displayed great vigor on
the campaign trail
 FDR Wins!
American Women and WWII
 Women are crucial
 Workforce increased by 6 million
 More likely to be married and older


Harder for African American and
women over 40
Many leave traditional work for
heavy industry
Rosie the Riveter
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
9CQ0M0wx00s



Paid less than men
Assumed jobs were temporary
Social Changes
 New opportunities…New problems
 Prosperity and desperation leads to
increase in marriages




Rise in birth rate…first sign of “baby
boom”
Many cannot survive wartime
separation, divorce rate climbs
5 million “war widows”
Often forced to relocate, move took toll
on families
Social Changes
 Combine jobs with children
 No child-care, or community services
 No choice, had to leave young at home
alone or in locked cars

“latch-key kids” or “eight hour orphans”
 Job opportunities leads to teenage
dropout rate swells


Jumps from 1 million to 3 million (1/3
of all teenagers 14-18)…employment
regulations ignored
Juvenile delinquency, STD rates,
teenage pregnancies
Discrimination During the War
African Americans
 African Americans
 Greater opportunities



Better paying industrial
jobs
Key roles in military efforts
 About 1 million African
Americans served
Continued discrimination



Segregated units
Kept out of combat
Low level work
African Americans
 Use conflict to improve
position

Philip Randolph – Black Union
Organizer



Insists the government require
defense contractors to integrate the
workplace
Threatens a 100,000 man march to
protest discrimination
FDR creates the Fair Employment
Practices Committee
 African Americans employed
raises from 3% to 9%
 Wages from $457 to $1976
African Americans
 Continue to battle discrimination
 Violent responses from white workers
 1943 – 250 riots waged in 50 states
 “An American Dilemma” – book about
the difference between the open-minded
American ideology and the true nature
of American race relations
Hispanics
 War brings opportunities and
troubles
 Opportunities

Many move from Southwest to Midwest
& West


Government’s bracero program


Agriculture & Industry
Agreement between U.S. and Mexico
Brings several thousand migrants to work
on California farms and railroads
experiencing labor shortages
Other antidiscrimination programs

17,000 hired in shipyards,& 300,000
serve in the military (known as the “Blue
Devils”)
Hispanics
 Prejudice and discrimination in jobs,
housing, and recreational facilities
caused bitter resentment
 Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles




Fad – Zoot Suits (long, wide shouldered
jackets, trousers pegged at the ankle and
wide brimmed hats)
In June of 1943, sailors roamed the city
attacking such youths
Government finally clamps down, but
many were viciously attacked.
Committee later blamed prejudice and put
some blame on police for arresting
Mexican Americans in such riots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPoczpI
M6yM