World War II
on the Home Front
U.S. “Isolation” and the “Surprise Attack” on Pearl
Harbor
II.
The Wartime [Socialist] Economy
III. Role of Minorities in WWII
I. African-Americans
II. Mexican-Americans
III. Native Americans
IV. Role of Women in WWII
V. Japanese [American] Internment
VI. U.S. Propaganda in Machine WWII
VII. The Bombs
I.
The first casualty of war is the truth.
U.S.
“Isolationism”
…Incremental steps towards intervention
U.S. “Isolationism”
• Nye Committee - 12 April 1934
(1) The anti-business climate caused Senator Gerald P. Nye (ND)
to investigate armament sales and manufacture during WWI,
revealing that huge profits had been made by American financiers
and munitions manufacturers
(2) Confirmed views of some that wars were fought to profit a small
minority
(3) Set the stage for the rise of isolationist sentiment in the US
• Johnson Debt Default Act - 13 April 1934 - Banned loans to
foreign governments in default to the US on their WWI debts
(Finland was the only nation not in default).
• Ludlow Amendment - high point of isolationist sentiment
(1) Amendment offered by Rep. Louis Ludlow (IN) was narrowly
defeated by a vote of 202-200 in the 75th Congress.
(2) If passed, the US Congress could not have declared war without
a nationwide public referendum, unless the US or one of its
possessions were directly attacked.
(3) Showed depth of isolationist sentiment among Americans
U.S. “Isolationism”
• FDR’s Chicago Quarantine Speech - 5 Oct 1937 FDR's trial of collective security
(1) "When an epidemic of physical disease starts to
spread, the community approves and joins in a
quarantine of the patients in order to protect the
health of the community against the spread of the
disease."
(2) FDR had moved ahead of public opinion polls
that revealed a growing fear that the US might be
moving toward entanglement in another European
war.
(3) 21 Mar 1938 - Hoover took issue with FDR,
speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations,
arguing against US involvement in collective
security arrangements.
U.S. “Isolationism”
• USS Panay Incident - 12 Dec 1937
(1) Japan, at war with China, attacked a river gunboat, the USS
Panay on the Yangtze River, killing two US citizens.
(2) Although the US government immediately protested
Japanese actions, instead of demanding action against Japan,
US public opinion demanded to know what the Panay was
doing, escorting Esso oil tankers to China in a war zone.
(3) 14 Dec - Japan officially apologized for the attack, agreed to
pay damages and promised to avoid such attacks in the future.
(4) US public reluctant to risk any actions which might involve
the US in another war.
• FDR began private correspondence with Churchill, promising
to aid Britain in whatever capacity he legally could.
• 1938 State of the Union Address - FDR noted a need for
adequate strength in self defense.
U.S. “Isolationism”
…in response to German invasion of Poland (Sept 1939)
• 3 Sept - During his "fireside chat," FDR stated that the US would
remain neutral, and he partially limited travel to Europe.
• 5 Sept - FDR ordered the reconditioning of 40 destroyers, beginning
a neutrality patrol around the Western Hemisphere.
• 8 Sept - A limited national emergency was declared.
• 27 Sept - A special session of Congress considered repealing the
arms embargo of the third Neutrality Act
• By May 1940 Germany had captured Norway, Denmark,
Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
• By June 1940, Vichy gov in France
• Sept 1940 - Tripartite Pact - Germany, Italy and Japan
U.S. “Isolationism”
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First Neutrality Act - 31 Aug 1935 - Feb 1936
(a) Created a federal agency to consider arms sales. Still an arms embargo
(b) US citizens could travel on belligerent vessels or into war zones at their own
risk.
(c) First used in Oct 1935 when Italy attacked Ethiopia.
Second Neutrality Act - Feb 1936 - 1 May 1937 - extended the first act
(a) It added a prohibition against extending loans or credit to belligerents
(b) US stated that it would not interfere in Spain's civil war. US recognized the
new government of Spain.
Third Neutrality Act - 1 May 1937 - revised the provisions of 1st 2 acts.
(a) Est. cash-and-carry system, effectively limiting US ships from carrying
goods into war zones.
(b) The US shipped much aid to China
(c) Est. embargo on armaments, and not to raw materials which could produce
munitions, allowing Japan to continue to purchase from US sources such items
as scrap iron, copper, and oil.
Fourth Neutrality Act - 4 Nov 1939
(a) After Germany invaded Poland, Congress repealed the arms embargo
(b) It allowed belligerent nations to purchase munitions on the same cash-and
carry basis, which obviously favored the sea power, Britain.
U.S. “Isolationism”
•
FDR added two interventionists to his cabinet.
a. Henry L. Stimson Secretary of War.
b. Frank Knox Secretary of the Navy.
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Alien Registration Act - 28 June - required registration and finger printing of aliens
•
Declaration of Havana - 30 July - To ensure that European colonies in the Western
Hemisphere would not be taken over by Germany, if the mother country fell to
Germany, affected colonies would be administered by other Western hemisphere
nations.
•
First Peace Time Draft - 16 Sept 1940
a. Burke-Wadsworth (Selective Training and Service ) Act -- registering all men
aged 18-35, and authorized training of 1,200,000 over a 1-year period with 800,000
reserve forces.
b. 16 Oct - The first registration began - 16,400,000 registered.
c. 29 Oct - The first draft numbers were selected
Destroyers for Bases Deal - 3 Sept - The US transferred 50 destroyers to the
British, in exchange for 99-year leases on naval and air bases in British possessions
in the Western Hemisphere: Newfoundland, West Indies, Bermuda, the Bahamas,
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antiqua and British Guiana.
Pittman Resolution permitted the US arms sales to Latin America.
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U.S. “Isolationism”
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Committee To Defend America By Aiding the Allies - Chaired by William Allen White ,
favored aid to the Allies short of American combat forces.
Friends of Democracy, stressed that fascism was a greater threat than communism.
Non-Interventionists: America First Committee
– Formed by Sears executive Gen. Robert Wood, peaked at 800,000 members including
Henry Ford, Alice Roosevelt Longsworth and Charles Lindbergh .
– Lindbergh made several speeches for the committee which stressed:
(1) Impossibility of a German attack across the Atlantic;
(2) Wealth of nations like Britain was acquired at the expense of poorer European nations
like Germany;
(3) German-dominated post-war Europe was not detrimental to our hemisphere
(4) Lindbergh used Nazi themes, like the Jewish press conspiracy, and the public linked the
organization to Nazism and it lost popularity.
Election of 1940
– Dems in Chicago nominated FDR for an unprecedented third term. Henry A. Wallace VP
– Republicans nominated Wendell L. Willkie (IN), corporate lawyer, who had never held
public office and Sen Charles McNary VP
– Both Willkie and FDR supported building up America's defenses and aiding the Allies, short
of combat troops, thus providing no referendum on this issue.
– Republicans attacked the New Deal, but favored most of its reforms, while the Democrats
stood on FDR's record.
– FDR won 449 electoral (27,244,160 popular) votes to Willkie's 82 electoral (10 states)
(22,305,198 popular) votes.
U.S. “Isolationism”
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Lend-Lease HR 1776 - "An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the US“
– 17 Dec 1940 - In a fireside chat, FDR proposed what became known as
"Lend-Lease" illustrated by his garden hose analogy—"Suppose my
neighbor's house catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four
or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it
up to his hydrant, I may help him to put out the fire. Now what do I do? I
don't say to him before that operation, 'Neighbor, my garden hose cost
me $15. You have to pay me $15 for it.' What is the transaction that
goes on? I don't want $15 - I want my garden hose back after the fire is
over.“
– 11 Mar - Congress approved Lend-Lease, appropriation of $7 billion
– Lend-Lease terminated in Sept 1946 after expending $50.6 billion.
29 Dec - A poll revealed that 39% believed that the US had made a mistake
participating in WWI, down from 64% in 1937.
6 Jan 1941 - State of the Union Address: enunciated his Four Freedoms
Speech - Freedom of speech and expression, of worship, from want, from
fear
U.S. “Isolationism”
• U.S. Occupation of Countries – 1941
– 9 April - The US occupied Greenland as a result of a joint agreement
between the US and the Danish government
– 7 July - US Marines occupied Iceland to keep the Germans from using it
as a strike base
• 18 Aug - The Selective Service Bill was extended for 18 months by a
vote of 203-202
• Atlantic Charter 14 Aug 1941. Provided a purpose for fighting the
war including
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a renunciation of all aggression
self-determination of peoples
equal access to raw materials
guarantees for freedom from want and fear
freedom of the seas
disarmament of aggressor nations.
became a blueprint for the UN
U.S. “Isolationism”
• Battle of Britain - 10 July - 31 Oct 1940
• German Violation of Non-Aggression
Pact with USSR 22 June 1941
• Immediate aid to the USSR 24 June 1941
• 25 Nov - the Germans inside USSR were
almost entirely surrounded and the
turning point of the European war, the
Battle of Stalingrad, began.
“Surprise” Attack on Pearl Harbor
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FDR's Quarantine Speech, Oct. 1937, called for Japan to be “treated like a
disease”
Economic sanctions designed to stop Japanese war machine
– Trade treaty with Japan not renewed in January, 1940
– Aviation fuel, scrap iron, and steel embargoed, September, 1940
– Japanese assets in American banks frozen, July, 1941
– Aid to China
• $125 million lent to China in 1940
• U.S. fleet to Pearl Harbor in 1940
• Lend--Lease" extended to China , April, 1941
• The "Flying Tigers" arrived in China, April, 1941 (Claire Chennault)
With Japan's occupation of Indochina in the summer of 1941, FDR froze all
Japanese credits in the US, nationalized forces in the Philippines under Gen
Douglas MacArthur's command and warned Japan against further
aggressive actions in the East.
By Oct 1941 signs appeared that Japan might attack an US Pacific
possession
3 Nov - US Ambassador to Japan, Joseph Grew, warned of a possible
attack on US positions, but the general consensus suggested the
Philippines, not Hawaii.
Entry into the War
• The Attack
– Sunday 7 Dec 1941 at 7:55 A.M. Honolulu time
– 19 ships were sunk or disabled, 170 planes lost and 2,403
civilian and military personnel killed and 1,178 wounded.
– Simultaneous attacks on Philippines, Wake Island, Guam,
Midway Islands and on British forces at Hong Kong.
– That evening Japan officially declared war on the US
• 8 Dec - FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan
– Senate - 82-0.
– House - 388-1, lone dissenter vote, Jeannette Rankin (R-MT),
who had voted no to war in WW I, making her the only person to
vote against both
• 11 Dec - Under the terms of the Tripartite Pact, Germany and Italy
declared war on the US. Reciprocated w/o debate in Congress.
• 19 Dec - Military conscription was extended to all men aged 20-44.
The
[Socialist]
Wartime
Economy
The [Socialist] Wartime Economy
• War Resources Board (1939):
– To allocate resources for production
– Inefficient and slow
• Office of Production Management: William Knudsen of
GM and Sidney Hillman of CIO.
• War Production Board (1942)
– Regulated the use of raw materials
– Inefficiency and big profits hurt US production
– 1/2 of factory production went into war materials.
– Produced twice as many goods as all the enemy
countries combined.
The [Socialist] Wartime Economy
• Office of Price Administration (1941).
Designed to control inflation by:
– fixing prices
– high taxes—Corporate taxes set at 40%.
• Taxes raised 46% of the cost of the war
• 1939 -- 4 million filed tax returns
– in 1945 --50 million!
– selling war bonds
– encouraging Victory Gardens
The [Socialist] Wartime Economy
• Office of Economic Stabilization of the Office of Price
Administration (OPA)
– Replaced all other agencies
– Complete control of the economy
– Solved America's production problems
– Froze prices and rents at March 1942 levels
– Rationing
• Certificate Plan: buy cars, tires, typewriters, etc.:
• Coupon Plan: more widely used. Family issued book of
coupons for the purchase of meat, coffee, sugar, gas, etc.
– Anti-inflation measures successful
• WWI cost of living up 170%
• WWII was less than 29%
• Beginning of National Debt
– 1941 = $49 billion; 1945 = $259 billion
– 2/5 was pay as we go; 3/5 was borrowed
– New Deal + WWII = "warfare welfare" state.
War Production Board
Executive Order 9024
OPA Executive Order 8734
War Bond Propaganda
Rationing in Propaganda
Rationing in Propaganda
The Role of Minorities
During World War II
African-Americans
Mexican-Americans
Native Americans
Minorities in the Armed Services
• African Americans- 1,000,000+. Segregated units and
did not see much front-line action.
• Mexican Americans- 500,000 Saw a lot of front-line
action. 1/10 of the population of Los Angeles, yet
accounted for 1/5 of the casualties.
• Native Americans- 25,000 By enlisting, they were able
to leave reservations. Code talkers.
• Asian Americans - 46,000 Many Asians became spies
and translators
Minorities in the Armed Services
Why did they fight?
• Most minorities determined their lives would be
worse if under Axis Powers’ control. Germany,
Italy, and Japan were more racist than the
United States.
• U.S. increasingly tolerant of racial differences.
• Many minorities saw their commitment to the US
war effort as a means to the end of equality.
• Propaganda works
African-Americans: Tuskegee Airmen
"A couple of our fighters rescued a
crippled bomber and brought them back to
base. The bomber's flight crew came over
to look us up and when the pilot
discovered there was nothing but black
faces, he turned around and walked
away."
"We shared the sky with white pilots, but
that's all we shared. We never had contact
with each other. German prisoners lived
better than black servicemen...and the
Germans treated us better than the
Americans did. Our service is something
that just never got into history books. It
was just ignored."
--Joseph Gomer
African-Americans & Civil Rights
• During WWII, massive migration of Blacks to
industrial centers.
• Competition for scarce resources (e.g. housing) &
tension in the workplace.
• Blacks struggled against racism
• Many whites rallied to the defense of the minorities
• Mass Violence plagued 47+ cities
• Detroit Race Riot June, 1943
– Detroit's population had grown by 350,000 since
1941
– 6,000 federal troops needed to restore order
– $2 million in property damage
– 25 blacks dead, 9 whites; 433 wounded
African-Americans & Civil Rights
• A. Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters
– African-Americans excluded from well-paying
jobs in war-related industries.
– Randolph made three demands of the president
• Equal access to defense jobs
• Desegregation of the armed forces
• End to segregation in federal agencies
• March on Washington Movement -- Randolph
proposed a black March on Washington in 1941
if his conditions were not met.
African-Americans: A. Philip Randolph
• FDR issued Executive Order
8802 in June, 1941 stablishing
the Fair Employment
Practices Committee (FEPC)
to investigate violations in
defense industries.
• FDR did not agree to other two
demands
• Randolph canceled the March
• Result: Gov’t agencies, job
training programs, and defense
contractors ended segregation
• Randolph dubbed “Father of the
Civil Rights movement"
African-Americans & Civil Rights
• Congress of Racial Equality (1942): est.
1942 by Chicagoan James Farmernonviolent action to promote better race
relations and end discrimination.
• Most minorities came home to pre-war
racial segregation.
• NAACP grows from 50,000 before the war,
to 500,000 by war’s end
Black Nurses preparing to land in Greenock,
Scotland. August 15, 1944
Black men constructing an aircraft
Negro League All Star Team
During WWII
Mexican-Americans
Zoot Suit Riots L.A (1943)
• Young Mexican-Americans became object of
frequent violent attacks in LA.
• Sailors on leave roamed streets beating
"zooters," tearing their clothes, cutting their hair.
• War Frauds Division got an injunction forbidding
one shop to sell any of the 800 zoot suits in
stock. Claiming that the shopkeeper had
contributed to "hoodlumism
• Radio reports blamed zooters but a city
committee under Earl Warren revealed the truth
and need for improved housing.
Mexican Americans
The Bracero Program – 1942
During the war, the need for increased farm production led to a U.S.
government policy for short-term work permits to
be issued to Mexican workers
It was a dirty, miserable job that gave real meaning
to the term "backbreaking" labor. The work was
done with two "instruments of horror" designed by
the devil, according to one worker. One was the
infamous "short shoe," which had a handle twelve
to eighteen inches long. A regular long-handled
hoe could have been used, but it was considered
harmful to the plants. With the short hoe, there was
less margin for error. However, the modified hoe
required the user to work in a bent over position
and crawl along the dusty rows of beets for ten or
twelve hours a day. At the end of the shift, it was
nearly impossible to stand up straight. For young
bodies, it eventually meant assuming a partially
stooped position and suffering painful backaches
for life. The other tool, more rightly called a
weapon, resembled a razor-sharp machete with a
mean, semi-curved, three or four-inch hook riveted
on the end. Working at breakneck speed to pick up
the beet with the hook and slice off the top in one
swing was dangerous work. It was rare to meet a
betabelero (beet worker) who had not lost a finger
or did not bear the scars of his trade.
DECADE OF BETRAYAL, Francisco E. Balderrama and
Raymond Rodríguez, University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
Native Americans
-The Navajo code talkers
took part in every assault
the U.S. Marines
conducted in the Pacific
between 1942-1945.
-Navajo language’s
extreme complexity made
it perfect for “code talk.”
-As of 1945 about540
Navajos, out of about
50,000 tribe members,
Japanese [American] Internment
•
Background: 1942 was a critical year for Allied
powers.
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Japan controlled SE Asia and most of China
Germany controlled W. Europe, N. Africa, and were
deep inside USSR.
23 Feb - Oil refinery near Santa Barbara, CA
was shelled by Japanese sub.
June 1942- Japan occupied Aleutian Islands,
Attu and Kiska
Japanese troops on US soil had great
psychological effects for Japan and US
Japanese [American] Internment
• 29 Feb 1942 - To counter fears of a Japanese
invasion, FDR authorized EO 9066 removing
Japanese-Americans from the Pacific coast
states.
– FDR authorized the War Dept. to declare the
West Coast a "war theater".
– 110,000 forcibly interned.
• 1/3 were Issei -- foreign born
• 2/3 were Nisei -- American born usually too
young to vote
– Given 48 hours to dispose of their belongings.
Most families left most stuff behind.
Japanese [American] Internment
• Camps in desolate areas
• Conditions harsh, yet many remained loyal
to US
– 17,600 Nisei fought in US Army.
• Relocation became "necessary" when
other states would not accept Japanese
residents from CA
• Although gov’t considered relocation of
Germans and Italians, the Japanese were
the only ethnic group singled out by the
gov’t for action.
Japanese [American] Internment
8 March 42 - War Relocation Authority created. General John DeWitt
organized removal of people of Japanese ancestry to 10 locations in 7
states
Japanese [American] Internment
Japanese [American] Internment
Japanese [American] Internment
• Supreme Court upheld internment
• Hirabayashi v. US - 21 June 1943 - unanimously upheld
internment citing the authority to wage war successfully.
– Could not second-guess military decisions
– Court also ruled that persons couldn’t be held once
loyalty was established.
• Korematsu v. US - 18 Dec 1944 - 6 to 3 upheld the
exclusion of the Japanese from the West Coast (a
military decision).
• FYI: The rulings of the US Supreme Court in the
Korematsu and Hirabayashi cases, specifically in its
expansive interpretation of government powers in
wartime, have yet to be overturned.
Japanese [American] Internment
• $105 mil of farmland lost
• $500 mil in yearly income; unknown personal
savings.
• No act of sabotage was ever proven against any
Japanese-American
• Camps closed in March, 1946
• 1988, President Reagan officially apologized for
its actions and approved in principle the
payment of reparations to camp survivors
totaling $1.25 billion.
• In 1990 Congress appropriated funds to pay
$20,000 to each internee.
Women in WWII
Women in WWII
• More than 5 million women joined the
labor force during the war, often moving to
new communities to find jobs in the
aircraft, munitions, and automobile
industries.
• Propaganda campaigns worked
– Films characterized "Rosie the Riveter"
as an American heroine
– Women’s magazines and newspapers
discussed the suitability of women’s
smaller hands for "delicate" tasks.
Women in WWII
• Women’s increased wages from jobs in
industry helped to swell family incomes
and pave the way for postwar consumer
demand.
• Despite these gains, in 1945 an average
woman’s pay was still less than 2/3 that of
a male worker
• At war’s end, pressures increased on
women to return to homemaking rather
than to stay in the work force.
Women Airforce Service Pilots
WASP
• To free male pilots for combat roles by employing
qualified female pilots on missions such as ferrying
aircraft from factories to military bases, and towing
drones and aerial targets
• 25,000+ women applied for WASP service, less than
1,900 accepted.
• After completing four months of military flight training,
1,078 of them earned their wings and became the first
women in history to fly American military aircraft.
• No gunnery training and very little formation flying and
acrobatics
• 38 WASP fliers died—11 in training and 27 on active
duty
Women Airforce Service Pilots
WASP
Women in Propaganda
Women in Propaganda
Our women and children
MUST be protected!
Other focuses of U.S.
Propaganda During WWII
Patriotic Propaganda:
The Four Freedoms, Norman Rockwell
Patriotic Propaganda:
The Four Freedoms, Norman Rockwell
Security Concerns in
Propaganda
Anti-Axis Propaganda
Anti-Axis Propaganda
Anti-Axis Propaganda
Pro-Allied Propaganda
Look familiar?
The End?
The Atomic Bombs
Developing the Bombs
• Office of Scientific Research and Development
was established by executive order with J.
Robert Oppenheimer as chief scientist
• Primary purpose to coordinate the American
effort to develop radar, proximity fuses, sonar
against submarines…and an atomic bomb.
• 1 May 43 - Development of the atomic bomb
was transferred to the US Army and placed in
the care of a unit known as the "Manhattan
Project" for security reasons.
• 16 July 45 - First atomic bomb, code named
Trinity, was exploded in Alamogordo, NM
Dropping the Bombs
• At the Potsdam conference, Allies demanded
the unconditional surrender of Japan
• 26 July - The Allies warned Japan that they
must surrender or face sudden destruction
from a newly developed weapon.
• 29 July - Japan formally rejected the Allied
demand
• When realizing a land assault on mainland
Japan would likely result in untold 1000s of
Allied casualties, Truman's decided:
– Revenge for Pearl Harbor “sneak attack”
– To speed up the end of the war without
thousands of Allied casualties
– To serve as a warning to the Soviet Union
of US power
Dropping the Bombs
• 6 Aug - An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima
resulting in over 70,000 dead and 110,000 wounded
or missing
• 8 Aug - USSR declared war on Japan, 90 days after
VE Day
• 9 Aug - A second bomb dropped on Nagasaki 80,000 casualties.
• 1/7 of victims were Korean conscript workers
• 10 Aug - Japan surrendered asking to let emperor
Hirohito keep his throne.
• 14 Aug - Japan accepted the Allied terms of
surrender and its troops in Korea surrendered to the
Soviets above the 38th parallel and to Allied forces
below it.
• 15 Aug - VJ Day was declared.