Download America Mobilizes for War

America Mobilizes
for War
Remember Pearl Harbor!
• After Dec. 7,
1941 five million
Americans
enlisted
• Selective Service
Act expanded
draft to add
another 10 million
soldiers
American Military Expands
U.S. Military
16,000,000
14,000,000
12,000,000
10,000,000
8,000,000
6,000,000
4,000,000
2,000,000
0
Pre-Attack
After
But still more were needed…
• The Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
was formed, allowing women to serve in
non-combat positions
• WAACs were paid a salary, but initially
received no benefits
• In 1943 “Auxiliary” was dropped from their
name & enlisted women were granted full
benefits, just as male counterparts
Women served as nurses, ambulance
drivers, radio operators, electricians
The Home Front
• WW2 impacted all aspects of American
life:
– FDR called upon the U.S. to be the great
“arsenal of democracy”
– The boost of wartime industry ended the
Great Depression
– The war altered the lives of women, AfricanAmericans, Japanese-Americans, & MexicanAmericans
• To win wars on two fronts & meet civilian
demands, the U.S. government grew to its
largest size ever:
– The U.S. government spent $250 million each
day between 1941 and 1945
– This is twice as much as all previous
government spending combined!
A. The War Powers Act gave the president
unprecedented power, including:
–
–
–
–
To create new government agencies
To censor the press
To limit civil liberties
To seize personal property
Pair-share:
1. Together, make a list of at least 3 kinds of new
government agencies the U.S. might need to
create as it goes to war.
2. Number them in order from most to least
important.
B. New bureaucracies were formed to
(1) direct the economy – the Office of War
Mobilization coordinated the draft,
consumer prices, and the labor force
Mobilization The Demand for War
Mobilization:
Equipment & Soldiers
• The most decisive factor for Allied victory
was America’s ability to outproduce both
Germany & Japan
– Heavy industry was converted to war & was
directed by the War Production Board (WPB)
– 15 million U.S. soldiers fought but 60 million
workers & farmers supplied them with
supplies
Working on the assembly line
Ford
everyhour
hour
Fordmade
madeone
one B-24
B-24 bomber
bomber every
Henry Kaiser’s West Coast Shipyards
Kaiser standardized battleship building & reduced the
time it took to make a battleship from 355 days to 14 days
The Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, in part, because
the USA produced ships faster than German u-boats could
sink them
(2) create propaganda – the Office of War
Information directed press, print, radio and
film propaganda
The OWI was responsible for releasing war news
to the public, creating posters and radio
broadcasts, promoting patriotism, and warning
about foreign spies.
Some propaganda
was designed to
convince Americans
that working in a warrelated industry was
just as important as
being on the front
lines…
Some propaganda attempted to instill fear.
Other efforts
were designed
to boost
patriotism and
remind
Americans what
they were
fighting for.
Of course, there were
other ways of
reminding soldiers of
that…
Betty Grable:
Allied Pinup Girl
(3) sell war bonds
Americans were urged to loan the government
money by purchasing war bonds - the sure path to
victory
War bonds
helped raise
$187 billion to
support the war
effort
Well, sort of…
• (4) prevent enemy subversion – the Office
of Strategic Services (OSS) gathered
enemy intelligence & conducted
espionage
The home front effort was not strictly a
government affair, however.
• People
pitched in by
growing
“victory
gardens…”
and by accepting
the need to
ration goods,
not that it was
always done
cheerfully!
Pair-share:
• Take a moment to think about today. The U.S.
is currently engaged in two wars. Do you see
any evidence of home front support for our
troops fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq?
– If so, how do they compare with what took place
during World War II?
– If not, how can you explain that?
Hollywood did its part to
keep the home fires burning
Actor Jimmy Stewart off to war
As did other entertainers, such as
Frank Sinatra
Sarah Vaughan
and The Andrews Sisters…
The Andrew Sisters Singing
“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”
Regional Changes
• The war effort transformed the Western &
Southern U.S.:
– California became the major center for
industry to support the war effort in the Pacific
– 60 of the 100 new military bases were built in
the South
– Southern textile factories & industrial jobs
helped end sharecropping & tenant farming
In addition, Americans would face new
challenges and find their lives
transformed.
Women & Families
• The war presented new economic
opportunities for women:
– Dramatic rise in employment (from14 million
to 19 million working by 1945)
– Most new female workers were married, many
middle-aged
– Entered “exclusively male” fields
– Temporarily redefined “woman’s work”
“Rosie the Riveter”
Their lives changed in other ways, as well.
Even women’s silk stockings
“mobilized” for the war!
And when women’s lives changed, their
families’ lives changes, as well.
• The uncertainties of war & the economic
affluence of the 1940s led to a dramatic rise in
the marriage rate…which in turn led to a rise in
the divorce rate!
• Plus, the influx of women into the workforce led
to a new demand for daycare centers & to an
increase in child delinquency
• In addition, public health improved as more
families had access to doctors, dentists, &
prescription drugs
African-American lives transformed
• 1 million blacks served in U.S. military though most did
not see combat; those who did served in segregated
units
• Outside the military, discrimination in the workforce led
to the creation of the Fair Employment Practices
Committee – it banned discrimination in defense
industries and in government
Continued
black
migration into
the North &
West made
race relations
a national
issue
Whole families moved North and West, looking for
new economic opportunities.
Double V: Victory at Home & Abroad
A. Philip Randolph threatened a
“March on Washington” to
protest war time discrimination
Other groups, like the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE), staged sit-ins in restaurants
in major cities to protest discrimination
Too often, race riots ensued.
Mexican-American lives transformed
– Served in quasi-segregated military units,
often in the most hazardous branches
Like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans often faced
discrimination, especially during the Zoot Suit Riots
which broke out in Los Angeles between white sailors
and young Hispanic males.
Japanese-American lives transformed
• Due to Pearl Harbor, many in the U.S. feared
Japanese-Americans were helping prepare for a
Japanese invasion in the West
• Civil liberties were restricted:
– Issei (Japanese who were not American citizens
living in the U.S.) had their assets frozen
– Racial slurs (“Japs”) became common
– In 1942, FDR ordered 112,000 JapaneseAmericans moved to internment camps
Families were given one week to close their
businesses & homes
Manzanar, near Lone Pine, California -
- the site of one of the
internment camps
where over 110,000
Japanese-Americans
were imprisoned during
World War II
And still, the all Japanese-American 442nd Division fought
in Europe & received over 1,000 citations for bravery.
And politics went on…
• In 1944, FDR used the war to strengthen his
leadership & win an unprecedented 3rd term:
– “Mr. New Deal” had shifted to “Mr. Win the War”
– Opponent Thomas Dewey made communism &
FDR’s health the focus of the election
– FDR switched VPs from liberal Henry Wallace to
moderate Harry Truman to gain appeal