Chapter Introduction
Section 1: Mobilizing for War
Section 2: The Early Battles
Section 3: Life on the Home
Front
Section 4: Pushing Back the
Axis
Section 5: The War Ends
Visual Summary
Big Ideas
Trade, War, and Migration During World War II,
Americans faced demands and new challenges at
home.
Content Vocabulary
• Sunbelt
• rationing
• zoot suit
• victory garden
• victory suit
Academic Vocabulary
• coordinate
• justify
People and Events to Identify
• A. Philip Randolph
• Bracero Program
• Great Migration
• Office of Price Administration
A Nation on the Move
Million of Americans relocated during
the war to take factory jobs or to settle
in less prejudiced areas.
A Nation on the Move (cont.)
• To find jobs, nearly 15 million Americans
moved during the war.
– Most Americans headed west and south.
– The growth of Southern California and the
expansion of cities in the Deep South
created the Sunbelt.
A Nation on the Move
A Nation on the Move (cont.)
• In many ways, the most difficult task facing
cities with war industries was where to put
the thousands of workers arriving in their
communities.
– Congress passed the Lanham Act in 1940.
– In 1942 FDR created the National Housing
Agency (NHA) to coordinate all
government housing programs.
A Nation on the Move
A Nation on the Move (cont.)
• The “Great Migration” of African Americans
to the North and West resumed during the
1940s.
– However, they were often met with
suspicion and intolerance, which
sometimes led to violence.
A Nation on the Move
A Nation on the Move (cont.)
• The zoot suit became a symbol of
unpatriotic, waste of materials, while the
victory suit was worn by the patriotic.
– Many Mexican American teenagers
adopted the zoot suit.
– After hearing rumors that zoot-suiters had
attacked several sailors, some 2,500
sailors and soldiers attacked teenagers in
Mexican American neighborhoods for
several days.
A Nation on the Move (cont.)
– However, racial hostility against Mexican
Americans did not deter them from joining
the war effort.
• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President
Roosevelt signed an order allowing the War
Department to declare any part of the United
States a military zone and to remove people
from that zone.
A Nation on the Move (cont.)
– Secretary of War Henry Stimson declared
most of the West Coast a military zone
and ordered all people of Japanese
ancestry to evacuate to one of 10
internment camps further inland.
– Fred Korematsu took his case to the
Supreme Court, which they ruled that the
relocation was constitutional.
A Nation on the Move (cont.)
– Shortly afterward, the Court ruled in Ex
parte Endo that loyal citizens could not be
held against their will.
– In early 1945, the government began to
release the Japanese Americans from
the camps.
– No Japanese American was ever tried for
espionage or sabotage.
What regions led the way in
manufacturing and urbanization
during World War II?
A. The North and East
B. The South and West
A. A
B. B
0%
B
A
0%
Sunbelt
a new industrial region in southern
California and the Deep South,
developing during World War II
zoot suit
men’s clothing of extreme cut typically
consisting of a thigh-length jacket with
wide padded shoulders and peg
pants with narrow cuffs
victory suit
a men’s suit with no vest, no cuffs, a
short jacket, and narrow lapels, worn
during World War II in order to save
fabric for the war effort
victory garden
gardens planted by American citizens
during wartime to raise vegetables for
home use, leaving more for the troops
coordinate
to harmonize or bring into common
action, movement, or condition