Essential Question:

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• Essential Question
• How did the U.S. mobilize civilians at home to
  help win World War 2 what impact did this have
  on American society?
• Warm-Up Question
• What other major American war is most similar in
  its resemblance to the U.S. entrance into WW2?

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Mobilizing an Arsenal of Democracy
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The Home Front

• WW2 impacted all aspects of American life
• FDR hoped the U.S. would be the great arsenal of
  democracy
• The boost of wartime industry ended the Great
  Depression
• The war altered the lives of women,
  African-Americans, Japanese-Americans,
  Mexican-Americans

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Mobilization
The Office of War Information directed press,
print, radio, film propaganda
The power to create new govt agencies
to censor the press
The Office of War Mobilization coordinated the
draft, consumer prices, the labor force
to limit civil liberties seize personal property

• To win wars in Asia Europe meet civilian
  demands, the U.S. govt grew to its largest size
  ever
• The War Powers Act gave the president
  unprecedented power
• New bureaucracies were formed to direct the
  economy, create propaganda, sell war bonds,
  prevent enemy subversion

The Office of Strategic Services gathered enemy
intelligence conducted espionage
The U.S. govt spent 250 million per day from
1941 to 1945
This is 2x as much as all previous govt
spending combined
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Mobilization The Demand for War Equipment
Soldiers
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Buy, Buy, Buy, Buy a BondIt Will Lead to
VICTORY!
War bonds helped raise 187 billion to support
the war effort
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War Rations
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Victory Gardens Grow Your Own
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Propaganda Fighting the Enemy on the Battlefield
on the Home Front
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Fear Propaganda
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Hollywood Pitches In
Jimmy Stewart goes off to war
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The Wartime Economy
U.S. made 2x more goods than Germany 5x more
than Japan

• The most decisive factor for Allied victory was
  Americas 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

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Fords Willow Run Factory
Ford made one B-24 bomber every hour
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Henry Kaisers West Coast Shipyards
The Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, in
part, because the USA produced ships faster than
German u-boats could sink them
Kaiser standardized battleship building reduced
the time it took to make a battleship from 355
days to 14 days
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• Essential Question
• How did the U.S. mobilize civilians at home to
  help win World War 2 what impact did this have
  on American society?

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WW2 Changed American Society
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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 based were built in
  the South
• Southern textile factories industrial jobs
  helped end sharecropping tenant farming

9 million defense workers moved to new factories
shipyards in South West
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Women

• The war presented new economic opportunities for
  women
• Dramatic rise in employment (14 million
  to 19 million by 1945)
• Most new female workers were married, many
  middle-aged
• Entered exclusively male fields
• Temporarily redefined womans sphere from just
  at home

To hell with the life I have had. This war is
too serious, and it is too important to win
it.
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Rosie, the Riveter
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S..t..r..e..t..c..h That Food!
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Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service
(WAVES)
Womens Army Air Corps Pilots
Join the Womens Army Corps (WACs)
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Families
and high divorce rates

• The uncertainties of war economic affluence of
  the 1940s led to a dramatic rise in marriage
• The influx of women into the workforce led to a
  new demand for daycare centers to an increase
  in child delinquency
• Public health improved as more families had
  access to doctors, dentists, prescription drugs

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African-Americans
Banned discrimination in defense industries
govt

• 1 million blacks served in U.S. military but few
  saw combat
• Discrimination in the workforce led A. Philip
  Randolph to pressure FDR to create a Fair
  Employment Practices Committee
• Continued black migration into the North West
  made race relations a national issue

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Segregated unitsagain
Tuskegee Airmen
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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
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(No Transcript)
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Mexican-Americans

• Mexican-Americans
• Served in quasi-segregated military units, often
  in the most hazardous branches
• Mexican-American workers found jobs in SW
  agriculture west coast industry
• Faced discrimination, especially during the Zoot
  Suit Riots

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Zoot Suit Riot in Los Angeles
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Japanese-Americans

• 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 had their assets frozen
• Used racial stereotypes (Japs)
• In 1942, FDR ordered 112,000 Japanese-Americans
  moved to internment camps

Japanese who were not American citizens living in
the U.S.
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Japanese- American Internment Camps
Families were given one week to close their
businesses homes
The all Japanese-American 442nd Division fought
in Europe received over 1,000 citations for
bravery
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Win-the-War Politics

• In 1944, FDR used the war to strengthen his
  leadership
• Mr. New Deal had shifted to Mr. Win the
  War
• Opponent Thomas Dewey made communism FDRs
  health the focus of the election
• FDR switched VPs from liberal Henry Wallace to
  moderate Harry Truman to gain appeal