Exploring American History Unit VIII Boom Times and Challenges

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Exploring American HistoryUnit VIII- Boom Times
and Challenges

• Chapter 26 Section 2
• The Homefront

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The Home Front

• The Big Idea
• American involvement in World War II helped the
  U.S. economy and changed the lives of many
  Americans.
• Main Ideas
• Businesses, soldiers, and citizens worked to
  prepare the United States for war.
• The war brought new opportunities for many women
  and minorities.
• Japanese Americans faced internment during the
  war.

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Main Idea 1Businesses, soldiers, and citizens
worked to prepare for war.

• Factories.
• Agricultural production.
• end to the Great Depression

Businesses

• Selective Training and Service Act of 1940

Soldiers

• War Production Board
• Increased taxes
• Sold war bonds

Government

• Collected scrap metal
• Learned to use less

Civilians
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New Roles for Federal Government

• The Office of Price Administration.
• The War Production Board.
• Government spending during the war
• increased income tax rates

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Office of Price Administration

• The functions of the OPA- (established to prevent
  wartime inflation)
• stabilize prices (price controls) and rents after
  the outbreak of World War II.
• place ceilings on all prices except agricultural
  commodities
• ration scarce supplies of other items, including
  tires, automobiles, shoes, nylon, sugar,
  gasoline, fuel oil, coffee, meats and processed
  foods. At the peak, almost 90 of retail food
  prices were frozen.
• It could also authorize subsidies for production
  of some of those commodities.

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War Production Board

• resources
• companies would convert.
• Organized nationwide drives to collect scrap

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Sacrifice and Struggle for Americans at Home

• victory gardens.
• rationing food items
• scarce goods.
• scrap drives

Conserving Food and other Goods

• millions of dollars worth of war bonds.

Investing in Victory

• flag with a blue star.
• (Ernie Pyle newspaper journalist).

Paying the Personal Price
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Victory Gardens

• vegetable, fruit and herb gardens
• a civil "morale booster"

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Scrap Drives

• morale boosters.
• tin foil
• Scrap paper.
• Grease
• Salvaged kitchen fat
• rubber recycling - synthetic rubber and
  conservation.
• Gas rationing
• Recycling of steel and iron

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War Bonds

• Series E bonds as "war bonds", "war loans",
  "victory bonds", and by other names meant to
  appeal to a sense of patriotism.
• 185 billion worth

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Taxes

• 1940, virtually all Americans - withholding.
• All told, taxes provided about 136.8 billion of
  the war's total cost of 304 billion

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Service Star Banner

• Service Star Banner
• Each blue star on the flag represents a service
  member in active duty.
• A gold star is displayed if a service member is
  killed in action or dies in service.
• If several stars are displayed in one family the
  gold star takes the honor of being placed at the
  top.

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Preparing for War

• Recall- What law required men to register for
  the draft?
• Predict How might limiting the use of rubber
  help in the war effort?

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Main Idea 2The war brought new opportunities
for many women and minorities.
Women in Workforce

• Women in Military
• .

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African Americans in World War II
Civilians

• A. Philip Randolph
• Roosevelt issued an order prohibiting racial
  discrimination in the government and companies
  producing war goods.

Military

• About 1 million African Americans served in World
  War II,
• The Tuskegee Airmen

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Mexican Americans in World War II

• About 300,000 served in the military
• Many found wartime jobs on West Coast and in
  Midwest.
• braceros..
• Mexican American youth culture grew.
• Many faced discrimination.

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Zoot Suit Riots - 1943

• A zoot suit was a popular outfit with young
  African American and Mexican American men in the
  1940s. Most zoot suits sported extra-wide
  shoulders, knee-length coats, and cuffed baggy
  pants, sometimes topped with a porkpie hat.
• After a fight broke out in central Los Angeles
  between a group of zoot-suited teenagers and
  sailors on leave, some sailors began roaming the
  streets seeking revenge. What started out as a
  brawl quickly turned into an invasion, as gangs
  of servicemen took over sections of the city,
  beating any Mexican American men and boys they
  could find.
• The mobs stopped traffic, searched streetcars,
  and even pulled their victims out of movie
  theaters. After five days of bloodshed

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Wartime Opportunities

• Recall- Why did factories need more workers?
• Contrast What is the difference between the
  opportunities created for women and minorities in
  the two world wars?

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Wartime Opportunities

• Recall- What unfair treatment did Randolph
  protest?
• Rate Do you think Roosevelts order went far
  enough in prohibiting racial discrimination?

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Wartime Opportunities

• Explain- What were the advantages promise
  workers in the bracero program?
• Draw Conclusions In what ways did people of
  Mexican heritage contribute to the war effort?

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Main Idea 3Japanese Americans faced internment
during the war.

• After Pearl Harbor, some Americans began to look
  at Japanese Americans with fear and suspicion.
• Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066.
• internment, or forced relocation and
  imprisonment, of Japanese Americans
• 115,000 Japanese Americans.
• Government initially banned Japanese Americans
  from serving in military.
• Policy reversed in 1943.
• 33,000 U.S.-born citizens of Japanese descent, or
  Nisei, served in World War II.

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Japanese American Internment

• Executive Order 9066
• .

• Japanese American Loyalty
• Some mounted legal challenges such as Korematsu
  v. United States.

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Japanese American Internment

• Recall- What did Japanese Americans lose when
  they were interned?
• Explain Why was losing everything and starting
  over especially difficult in the early 1940s?
• Evaluate What do you think about the service of
  the all-Nisei combat team?