United States Mobilization for War

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United States Mobilization for War Homefront
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Newly Created Government Provisions

• Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937
• Isolationistic influence
• Neutrality Act of 1936
• Cash and Carry
• Selective service act of October1940
• Peacetime draft
• Conscientious Objection
• Lend-Lease Act 1941
• Economic declaration of war on Germany

Terms and Forms of Aid to Allied powers
Robyn Weiner
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New Government Agencies

• Office of War Information (OWI) 1942
• organized the distribution of war information to
  the public to help create means of understanding
  the war
• War Production Board (WPB) 1942
• Oversaw industrial transformation
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v3eoE12ywDzAfeature
  related

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More Agencies

• Office of War and Mobilization 1942
• supervised efforts to distribute proper materials
  for converted industries, regulated production of
  civilian goods, established production contracts,
  negotiate organized labor, and controlled
  inflation
• Womans Army Corps (WAC) 1943
• provided secretarial workers, truck drivers,
  instructors, and lab technicians

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War Bonds What are they?

• War Bonds are technically a personal loan to the
  US government
• They are used to remove money from circulation
  and in turn reduce inflation
• Offered in denominations 25 up to 10000, with
  limitations
• Sold at 75 face value

Erik Mahal
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War Bond Specifics

• First called defense bonds until December 7 1941
• Many famous celebrities of the time were
  contracted by the government to sell War Bonds
• The celebrity campaign netted over 838,540,000
  worth of bonds
• Was sold to FDR by Henry Morgenthau

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War Bonds Unite a Nation

• Over 85 million citizens purchased war bonds
• Totaling over 185.7 billion dollars
• Sports teams events held special events
• News Broadcasts (Kate Smith)
• Civilian D-day when planes dropped posters
• Norman Rockwell provided original art as
  advertising

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Propaganda in the U.S.

• Propaganda was believed at first to be useless by
  US government
• Robert E Sherwood and the Foreign Information
  Service determined that America needed to fight
  just as much with words
• Office of War Information than took over the
  Propaganda ideas
• Promoted US involvement, Military Enrollment, and
  War Bonds Sales

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Utilizing the Radio

• John Houseman was the first producer of
  international US propaganda
• Very theatrical and intense until invasion of
  North Africa in 1942
• Tone was than calm news reporting rather than
  over the top
• Took more sobering stand point rather than
  alluding to enemy bestiality
• Germans maintained alluding method and back fired
  when war turned

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Propaganda Posters

• Cheapest and easiest media to produce
• Leaned more towards facts rather than imaginative
  
• Norman Rockwell, Ben Shahn and other famous
  artists of the time were contracted the
  government for their unique art styles
• War Bond Posters were most abundent

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War Bonds
Propaganda
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The Roles of Women in WWII

• Posters glamorized war
• As well as the importance of the non- traditional
  jobs for women
• With 10 million men at war there was no way we
  would be able to win the war with out the help of
  women
• Some posters use economic prosperity to get women
  into the work force

Niger Lively
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More About the Roles of Women

• In 1944 when the war was at its highest over 19
  million women was employed in the united state
  more than ever
• They didnt allow women in combat, so women took
  the jobs that men did that put them on the field
  of combat and some times it came to them
• They used women pilots to support the air fair
  but they didnt get recognized until the 1970s

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The Roles of Women (Continued)

• Women that served in the American military in
  world war 2
• Army - 140,000
• Navy - 100,000
• Marines - 23,000
• Coast Guard - 13,000
• Air Force - 1,000
• Army and Navy Nurse Corps - 74,000

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The Role of African Americans

• About 1 million African Americans served in the
  war
• Half served in Europe
• A large number faced racial discrimination
• Before the war the military maintain a segregated
  force
• They where classified as unfit for combat and
  wasnt allowed on the front line
• In 1941 that all change
• Pressure from African American civil rights
  leaders persuaded the government to set up all
  black combat units
• It was and experiment to see if African Americans
  can perform task on the same level as whites

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More About the Roles of African Americans

• 84 Woodrow Crockett was a part of that
• He was a Tuskegee airman, the first group of
  blacks to be trained by the air force
• He flew 149 missions in 1944-1945
• When they reached 200 missions the never lost a
  bomber to a enemy
• Bill De Shields he is a historian and the
  founder of the black military history institute
  of America
• He say the symbol of black participation was the
  double v. A victory of the enemy and a victory
  at home.
• By the time the Vietnam war came in the 60s and
  70s African Americans did it all

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Hispanic Involvement in WWII

• Two units from New Mexico were activated and
  dispatched to Philippine islands
• After Japan had attacked the pearl harbor and
  forced America into war
• Their forces attacked Americas position in the
  Philippines
• Fight with the Filipinos the made a great stand
  against the Japanese for three month
• It was said that they were the last ones to get
  down

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Problems and Conflicts

•  War contributed to increased prices and
  shortages in food, housing, gas, clothing,
  transportation
• Standard of living decreased as a result
• Increases in salary due to jobs created by the
  war did not improve purchasing power of most
  citizens
• Many Americans were unhappy that they had to
  sacrifice so much
• Wealthy lived luxuriously on products purchased
  on the newly created black market

Jamie Campbell
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Problems Rationing

• Wartime rationing
• Sugar May 1942
• Coffee November 1942
• Canned Goods March 1, 1943 (Meat and butter
  later that month)
• Meat 28oz. per person per week
• Butter 4oz. per person per week
• Gasoline Rationing (May 1941)
• Stickers distributed based on use of the vehicle
  (i.e. for workers commute, on the job use,
  pleasure, and emergency vehicles)
• Labled A through E to indicate usage and
  amount of gasoline allowed for purchase
• Led to suspicion and scandal

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Conflicts Companies reaping benefits of war?

• April 1943 the government declares 27 million
  workers "essential", forbidding them to leave
  their jobs
• Many union members who committed to a no-strike
  pledge held protests
• Protests concerned workers safety and working
  conditions
• Many were walkouts