Minorities during World War II

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Minorities during World War II
Women
African Americans
Native Americans
Mexican Americans
Japanese Americans
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Minorities During World War II
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Minorities at War
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Betty Grable Allied Pinup Girl
She Reminded Men What They Were Fighting For
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Womens Army Corps

• The Womens Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) bill
  passed Congress on March 15, 1942.
• With the exception of nurses, never had women
  served within ranks of the United States Army.
• Over 140,000 women served in the WAAC during
  World War II.
• The WAAC volunteers were not treated fairly
• They experienced unequal pay
• They lacked military rank

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Join the Womens Army Corps
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Womens Army Corps

• This changed after the passing of the Womens
  Army Corps Bill.
• It was put into law on July 1, 1943.
• Under this the WAAC became the WAC (Womens Army
  Corps) and the women received full military
  status.

This is a WAC Service Medal ?
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The Army Nurses Corps

• More than 59,000 American nurses served during
  WWII.
• Nurses had many jobs. Such as
• Serving under fire in field hospitals and
  evacuation hospitals
• Serving on hospital trains and hospital ships
• Serving flight nurses on medical transport planes
• Fewer than 4 of American soldiers who got
  medical care in the field or underwent evacuation
  died from wounds or disease.

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The Army Nurses Corps

• The Army Nurses Corps had only 1,000 nurses
  listed on December 7 1941.
• On the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 82
  nurses were stationed in Hawaii.
• After Pearl Harbor there were 12,000 listed
  nurses. Most of these nurses had no previous
  training or experience.
• In July 1943, Lieutenant General Brehon B.
  Somervell authorized a formal four week training
  course for all the newly commissioned Army Nurses.

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The Army Nurses Corps

• From July 1943 through September 1945
  approximately 27,330 newly inducted nurses
  graduated from 15 Army training centers.

• She was a First Lieutenant in Army Nurses Coprs.
• She was the first woman to receive The Purple
  Heart Medal because of combat.

Annie G. Fox
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Women Air force Service Pilots

• Many women pilots all over the United States quit
  their jobs, and left the safety of their homes
  and families to go to Texas.
• In 1942 there was a shortage of pilots.
• Jackie Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love were the
  two women who were the driving forces behind the
  forming of the WASP.
• The women pilots would take the place of the men
  the Army were sending overseas.
• Once the women heard about this about 25,000
  women volunteered.

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Womens Army Air Corps Pilots
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Women Air force Service Pilots

• Only 1,830 of those women were accepted for
  training because the pilot requirements for women
  were more difficult than for men.
• There was only one base in the entire country for
  training women Air force pilots.
• Only 1,037 women graduated the training out of of
  the 1,830 who were accepted.
• On December 20, 1944 the WASP were disbanded.

? WASP Wings
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• Despite discrimination many minorities joined the
  armed forces
• -300,000 Mexican Americans
• -1 million African American (served in
• segregated units and were limited to
• mostly non combat roles until the last
  year of the war)
• -Asian Americans, 13,000 Chinese, 33,000
  Japanese (spies and interpreters)
• -25,000 Native Americans (800 women)

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• Just carve on my tombstone, Here lies a black
  man killed fighting a yellow man for the
  protection of a white man.
• Why die for democracy for some country when we
  dont even have it here?
• African Americans called for Double V- a
  victory against fascism overseas and at home

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Blacks in the War
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Tuskegee Airmen
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Tuskegee Airmen

• All-Black 99th Pursuit Squadron
• Trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
• Received 1st victory in Sicily
• Shot down 111 enemy aircraft and destroyed 150 on
  ground
• Lost only 66
• Won 2 Distinguished Unit Citations
• Highest military commendation
• Benjamin O. Davis Jr.- Leader

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Buffaloes

• Nicknamed by Native Americans
• 92nd Infantry Division
• 6 months of fighting won?
• 7 Legion Merit awards
• 65 Silver Stars
• 162 Bronze Stars for courage under fire

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Dorie Miller
Received a Medal of Honor due to his actions
during the bombing of Pearl Harbor aboard the USS
West Virginia.
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442nd Regimental
Combat Team
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(No Transcript)
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Japanese in Military

• Jan 1944- reinstated draft for Japanese
• 315 Nisei refused to report? 267 convicted of
  draft resistance
• Volunteers (prove loyalty)
• Translated documents, interrogated Japanese
  POWs, and convinced enemy soldiers to surrender
• End of war? 18,000 joined army
• 442nd Infantry- awarded 3,000 Purple Hearts, 810
  Bronze Stars, 342 Silver Stars, 47 Distinguished
  Service Crosses
• Lost 3x its original strength

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CODE TALKERS
Navajo Code Talkers used their native language of
Navajo to code communication against the
Japanese.
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Code Talkers

• Talk and transmit information on tactics, troop
  movements, orders and other vital battlefield
  information in their native dialect
• Secure communications
• Native Americans served in all six Marine
  divisions, Marine Raider Battalion, and Marine
  parachute units

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Code Talkers
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Code Talkers
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Native American Code TalkerAccomplishments

• May 1942 first twenty-nine Navajo Recruits
  attended boot camp and established the code
• Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a
  three line English message in twenty seconds
  compared to machines that took half an hour
• April 2000, legislation passed that awarded
  original twenty- nine Navajo Code Talkers the
  Congressional Gold Medal, and a silver medal to
  each man qualified as Navajo Code Talker

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Minorities at Home
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Women at Home
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All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

• From softball to baseball
• Philip Wrigley (1943-1954)
• Kept the sport going during the war as a sense of
  moral support
• Shows women doing anything possible to help

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South Bend Blue Sox (1943)
They won the League Playoff Championship in 1951
and 1952. One of the only teams that participated
in every season of All-American Girls
Professional Baseball League from 1943 to 1954.
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African-Americans at Home
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African-Americans in the Workforce

• At the beginning of World War II about 5 million
  African-Americans moved from rural areas to urban
  areas in the north and west to find work.
• Many found work in industrial factories and
  defense plants.
• Did not make the best wages or have the right to
  unionize, still great advance since Depression.

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Phillip A. Randolph

• Born in Crescent City, Florida April 15, 1889
• Moved to New York City in 1911 to study at the
  City College of New York
• Supporter of African-American integration into
  the union movement. Organized the Brothers of
  Sleeping Car Porters
• 1st African-American union
• Planned a mass protest on Washington for
  African-Americans in the workforce.

Phillip A. Randolph
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March on Washington

• Wanted Roosevelt to pass executive order to give
  more African-American freedoms in the workforce.
• Roosevelt convinced Randolph to call off the
  protest by passing Executive Order 8802-
• Prohibited the discrimination of race in defense
  plants
• Established First Fair Employment Practice
  Committee

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The Detroit Race Riots

• Tensions between races rose in June 1943.
• June 20, 1943- The riots began in an amusement
• park named Belle Island. There had been many
• fights between teenagers of different races, the
  white teenagers were aided by sailors who were
  located nearby
• Fights began between 200 African-Americans and
  white sailors
• Rumors Spread-
• African-Americans claimed the riots began because
  a group of white men threw an African-American
  woman and her baby over the bridge connecting
  Belle Island to the city
• Whites that a black man raped and killed a white
  woman on the Belle Island Bridge.

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Detroit Race Riots (cont..)

• June 21, 1943- an angry group of whites attacked
  African-Americans as they got off streetcars at
  around 4am
• 6 policemen were shot, 75 injured
• Whites overturned cars belonging to African
  Americans and looted stores
• Riots overwhelmed the 2000 police officers
• In the end, 34 people died, 25 of them were
  African Americans
• 1800 people were arrested for looting and
  disturbing the peace
• 13 murders remain unsolved
• 2 million- property damage

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Streetcar that was set afire during early hours
of the 1943 Detroit Riots.
White mobs overturning an African-Americans car
during the Detroit Race Riots.
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A white mob attacks an African-American boy
during the race riots.
Detroit Tribune headline about the race riots and
racial tensions throughout the city
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Mexican-Americans at Home
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Mexican Americans

• Wartime needs? demand for employees
• Reversed Depression policy forcing Mexicans
  south
• Thousands flock north for work, Los Angeles
• Menial jobs, yet plenty of work available
• Rising living standards for Mexicans
• Greater ratio than national average in armed
  forces

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The Zoot Suit

• Zoot suits were part of the jazz culture
• Defied segregation
• Minorities were expected to go unnoticed and
  blend in as much as possible
• Zoot suits were bold and noticeable.
• Young people who wore zoot suits were usually
  confident
• Many of these young men were Mexican Americans.
• They were singled out as criminals and considered
  gangsters.

A young man sporting the popular zoot suit in the
1940s.
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Zoot-Suit Riots

• A pair of Zoot-Suiters can be seen in this
  picture.

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The Zoot Suit Riots

• June 1943- The tensions between servicemen and
  Mexican Americans escalated into a week of
  fighting.
• May 30, 1943 a group of servicemen taunted a
  group and Mexican American young men dressed in
  zoot suits. This turned into a brawl after a
  servicemen was hit. He was badly hurt.

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The Zoot Suit Riots

• On June 3, 1943 servicemen went into the city
  with makeshift weapons hoping to avenge the
  previous fight. They first went to Carmen Theater
  where they looked through the aisles for people
  wearing zoot suits, many of those attacked were
  12 and 13 year olds. They tore the suits off,
  beat the young men and burned the zoot suits.

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Zoot Suit Riots (cont..)

• The next night young Mexican Americans drove
  around the Armory where the servicemen were
  located, looking for trouble. The sailors then
  came out and took the fight to the Mexican
  American neighborhoods of East Los Angeles and
  Boyle Heights
• The LA police did not try to step in and protect
  the civilians. The riots continued for a week.
  The worse night being June 7, 1943.

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Zoot Suit Riots (cont..)

• A Los Angeles newspaper printed a guide to
  de-zooting a zoot suiter. That night the mobs
  included not only the original servicemen from
  the armory, but sailors, military, and marines
  from all over joined.
• The violence soon ended. Los Angeles was off
  limits to servicemen on leave and the wearing of
  zoot suits was banned on LA streets.

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Two young men after being attacked in the LA Zoot
Suit Riots of 1943.
Servicemen walking through Los Angeles before
attacks carrying their makeshift weapons.