The Home FrontMobilizing the Home Front

Sacrifice and Struggle for Americans at Home

• Americans bought millions of dollars worth of war bonds.

• Over half of the population did their civic duty and bought war bonds.

ConservingFood

and otherGoods

• Americans planted victory gardens.

• The United States began rationing food items such as coffee, butter, sugar, and meat.

• Metal, glass, rubber, and gasoline were scarce goods.

• Americans held scrap drives to collect waste materials that might be used in the war effort.

Investing in

Victory• Families dealt with the absence of loved ones by

displaying a flag with a blue star.

• Americans read news accounts of the war with great interest (Ernie Pyle – newspaper journalist).

Paying thePersonal

Price

A. Building National Morale1. Calling All Volunteers• The Office of Civilian

Defense (OCD) was founded to raise and maintain civilian morale

• Volunteers planted “victory gardens” (40%), served as air raid wardens, etc.

• Volunteers recycled much of the steel and 50% of the paper and tin used to fight the war

• “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

A. Building National Morale

2. The Media Goes to War• The govt. founded the

Office of War Information to coordinate war news and keep the public informed

• Hollywood rushed war films into production; cast American cinema heroes and stereotyped Germans, Italians and Japanese

• Comics, patriotic songs and magazine ads promoted the OCD, American involvement

• WPB ordered industry to convert to making things for the war (shirts, toys and cars to uniforms, bombs, tanks and planes)

• WPB paid industries well for opening new factories, lifted antitrust laws in war industry

• War production doubled; warships taking 105 days to build at the beginning of the war were finished in just 14 days by war’s end

Staging a Production Miracle

• Gross National Product (GNP): The total value of goods and services produced annually

• GNP rose from $91 billion (1939) to $212 billion (1945)• Crop prices doubled, 17 million jobs were created and

standard of living rose over 15%

Directing a Wartime Economy

Directing a Wartime Economy

2. Reducing Demand Through Rationing

OPA kept prices down through rationing

Consumers were issued ration coupons for milk, meat, gas, etc. based on family needs

Rationing was controversial; Americans were earning more but were restricted in purchasing

3. Paying For A Costly War The govt. spent $321 billion on WWII (10 times WWI, 2 times the

past 150 years) The govt. paid 40% of the cost with taxes, borrowed the rest The Revenue Act of 1942 increased corporate taxes, expanded

income tax to most people. NATIONAL DEBT SKYROCKETTED

Directing a Wartime Economy

New Roles for Federal Government

• The Office of Price Administration placed limits on the prices businesses could charge for products and materials.

• The War Production Board made sure the military got the products and resources it needed. – The WPB placed limits on clothing manufacturers.

– The WPB placed restrictions on clothing. For examples, jackets were only allowed to be a certain length.

• Government spending during the war rose sharply. Most of the money went to the armed forces.

• The government increased income tax rates to help pay for the war. Millions paid income taxes for the very first time.

Directing aWartime Economy

3. Paying For A Costly War The govt. sold war bonds,

promising to repay the amount plus interest to finance the war

War bonds controlled inflation by reducing the money Americans could spend elsewhere

Americans saved $129 billion on war bonds for post-war purchases

Upholding a No-Strike Pledge

• Unions promised not to strike during the war, but were not legally bound (3 million struck anyhow, 1943)

• NWLB enforced labor standards for unions

• Steel, railroads and especially coal struck during the war but the majority of labor unions kept their promise

E. Recruiting New Workers

• Workers were needed to replace GIs and fill new war factories

• Depression unemployed was wiped out by wartime labor demands

• 1940-45: 6 million women joined the workforce (27%-37%)

RecruitingNew Workers

• “Rosie the Riveter” changed the American workforce, but women in war industries were paid 60% less than men and had little job security

• 4 million women lost their jobs or left them after the war; this, the war and other factors strained society and American families

The Home FrontThe War and Social Change

Americans on the MoveRUST BELT TO SUN BELT

• 1941-45: 20% of Americans moved between; 700,000 African Americans moved from the South to find better work, escape segregation

• Migration: The movement of people from one country or region to another

• People joined the military, moved for wartime jobs; largest short-term migration in U.S. history

Americans on the Move

• Americans moved from: Rural to Urban, East to West and North to South

• CA, WA, OR, TX, MD, FL and VA saw large increases in population

• Farm workers decreased 17%, production increased 25% (technological progress)

• California becomes huge weapons producing state-Population booms!

Boom Towns Emerge

• Small towns and industrial centers Like Mobile, AL became overcrowded by migrants

• Housing was often scarce, schools and hospitals were dirty and overcrowded

• 9 million migrant workers and families were housed by the National Housing Agency, in barracks, trailers or tents

• e.g., Pascagoula, MS quadrupled in size; serious social and ecological stresses ensued

Social Stresses Multiply

• LA, San Diego and Detroit were scenes of sever social stresses• Local residents resented, often hated newcomers, especially

African Americans

Social Stresses Multiply

1. Racial Tensions Explode• 500,000 migrants call Detroit home by 1943; African Americans

wedged into small section• A fight between black teens and a sailor broke out; sailors from a

nearby base joined in• Rumors spread quickly and black crowds rioted, attacked groups

of whites

Social Stresses Multiply

1. Racial Tensions Explode The next day (Bloody Monday)

large white mobs prowled the streets, beating and killing blacks

6,000 soldiers called in to restore peace; $2 million in damage, 25 blacks and 9 whites killed

Summer, ‘43: Riots in Harlem and on 9 army training camps across the country marked a tense summer

Social StressesMultiply

2. The Zoot Suit Riots Chicanos (Americans of

Mexican descent) moved from agricultural work in Southern CA to industrial and manufacturing jobs; faced great discrimination

Agricultural opportunities brought many illegal aliens from Mexico; tensions increased

Social Stresses Multiply

2. The Zoot Suit Riots Zoot-suiters were underemployed teens (often Hispanic), seeking

independence and an escape from slum life Summer, ‘43: Sailors and LA zoot-suiters clashed; sailors roamed

streets, beating indiscriminately but zoot-suiters were often blamed

WartimeFamily Stresses

• Single parent home became more common, parents working overtime or in the military

• “Latch-key kids” and “eight-hour orphans” common in boom towns; teens looked after siblings

• Teen working tripled to 2.9 million; juvenile delinquency increased, curfews were often enforced

The New Deal Comes to an End

• 12/43: FDR switched from New Deal spending to WAR spending

• Social Security, the TVA and unemployment benefits, however, became permanent programs

• Programs that might interfere with the war effort were stopped or scaled back (e.g., REA)

• The CCC, WPA and NYA were phased out with the return of jobs

The New Deal Comes to an End

• Wartime economic growth convinced many that govt. spending could bring prosperity

• The govt. would soon resort to deficit spending to fight economic downturns

• War brought both economic growth and social stresses (overcrowding, juvenile delinquency)

• Minorities struggled with discrimination, but small gains cracked the door for the civil rights movement

The Home FrontThe War and Civil Rights

Civil Rights Movement Grows

• African Americans fought in both World Wars, but faced job discrimination at home

• Many compared American racism to German Nazism; was segregation no longer justified?

• African Americans became more vocal for equality (“Double-V” victory at home and abroad)

A March on Washington

• Legal and de facto segregation kept races separate

• A. Philip Randolph was a “father of the (modern) civil rights movement;” helped unionize blacks

• 1941: Randolph formed the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) to end military discrimination

• NAACP sought equality legally, politically; Randolph wanted direct action and excluded whites

A March on Washington

1. Roosevelt and Randolph Compromise

FDR did not want a march; Randolph wanted fair defense contracting, no segregation in the govt. and armed forces

6/25/41: Executive Order 8802 ended discrimination in defense contracting

FDR did not want the military desegregated; the march was called off

A March on Washington

2. Other Victories 1942: Congress of

Racial Equality (CORE) boycotted, sat-in to end segregation in Northern cities

NAACP grew to 450,000; fought and won many legal battles for equality

D. Internment of Japanese Americans

• WWII brought about few restrictions of civil liberties (unlike WWI), but Japanese Americans were targets for discrimination

• 2/19/42: Issei (foreign born Japanese Americans) and Nisei (native born Japanese Americans) on the West Coast were interned in camps when FDR signed E.O. 9066

• Japanese Americans were forced sell belongings, homes, farms, etc.

Internment of Japanese Americans

• Internment camps were barren and dirty; often ranging from blistering heat to freezing cold

• The Supreme Courts later upheld the relocation and Japanese curfews in Korematsu v. U.S. (1943) and Hirabayashi v. U.S., (1944)

• WWII saw great gains and setbacks in a number of areas in civil rights

JAPANESE INTERNMENT

IN 1942, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT DECIDED THAT ALL JAPANESE AMERICANS, CITIZENS AS WELL AS ALIENS WOULD BE RELOCATED TO INTERNMENT CAMPS IN ARKANSAS AND WESTERN STATES.

WHY?

U.S. GOVERNMENT THOUGHT THEY WERE A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY(JAPANESE AMERICANS COULD COMMIT SABOTAGE TO AID JAPAN IN AN ATTACK ON THE WEST COAST_)

1. EVEN THOUGH THEY SHOWED NO EVIDENCE OF DISLOYALTY

2. COULD ONLY TAKE A FEW BELONGINGS WITH THEM

3. FORCED TO SELL ALL OTHER POSSESSIONS IN JUST DAYS. MOST GOT ONLY 5 CENTS FOR EVERY DOLLAR’S WORTH OF THEIR POSSESSIONS.

IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THE INTERNED LOST $500 MILIION

1942 - U.S. SUPREME COURT RULED THAT THE INTERNMENT DID NOT VIOLATE THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS -THE JUDICIARY COULD NOT SECOND GUESS THE MILITARY

1944 - THE SUPREME COURT RULED THAT THEY COULD NOT BE KEPT IN INTERNMENT CAMPS IF THEIR LOYALTY WAS PROVEN.

BY THEN THE CAMPS WERE ALREADY BEING CLOSED

1988 - PRESIDENT REAGAN SIGNED A LAW THAT *MADE APOLOGIES TO THOSE INTERNED*PROVIDED RESTITUTION - $20,000 IN

TAX FREE PAYMENTS OVER TEN YEARS