The American Home Front

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The American Home Front

• December 7, 1941 - 1945

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The American Home Front

• Objectives
• Review events of December 7th 1941
• Discuss American Governments reaction to
  attacks.
• View events and actions taken by the American
  people.
• Explain causes and events of the entrance of the
  United States into the war.
• Words to know Ration, G.I., Industry, front,
  neutrality, the Womens movement, two front war.

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What do we know about our country?

• What makes it up? How many states?
• What are the regions?
• What do we produce?
• Do we have many natural resources?
• Can we survive on our own now?
• Were we able to survive on our own in 1941?
• What did Germany and Japan think of this country?
• A Sleeping Giant was awakened on December 7th.

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The American Home Front

• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President
  Roosevelt read his famous speech to Congress and
  the United States Declared War on Japan.
• This led Germany and Italy to declare war on the
  U.S.
• World War II was now at Americas shores. (so
  much for neutrality).

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The American Home Front
The Axis Japan Germany Italy
Allies Britain United States Soviet Union
Other countries around the world join the war on
the two sides. They help with soldiers, food,
weapons, bases etc.
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The American Home Front

• The American People were asked by the government
  to ration everything.
• The government also sold bonds or borrowed money
  from its own people to help with the war.
• They needed the money because they needed to help
  the Allies as well as themselves. The U.S. was
  also not a very rich country and desperately
  needed money.
• The Goal was to help allies while the U.S.
  prepared.

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The American Home Front

• In the U.S., Americans were scared and were
  afraid that Japan was targeting California (LA,
  San Francisco,), Washington and Oregon.
• In preparation they passed Executive Order 9066
• Tanks and soldiers were also sent to watch and
  protect the coasts.
• Artillery was prepared and smaller ships were
  patrolling. In reality, the U.S. could do little
  to defend itself at this time.

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The American Home Front

• Off the coast of Florida, New York (the East
  coast), Germany was sinking our merchant ships
  with its submarines. Germany believed that the
  U.S. was assisting G. Britain and France.
• In the west, the U.S. was losing battles in Asia.
  We had lost the Phillipines as well as several
  of our smaller island territories. Australia and
  India were under attack and it looked like China
  would fall soon to Japan. It did not look good
  for America or the Allies.

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The American Home Front

• The American military was not prepared for an all
  out war.
• Remember it only had 300,000 men. About the same
  size as Denmarks.
• The U.S. calls on American men to enlist. The
  American people respond.
• In fact the Government is overwhelmed by the
  number that decide to join.
• Patriotism sweeps the country.

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The American Home Front

• American Industry had to go from peace time
  production to war time production(which takes a
  lot of time).
• GM, Ford, and Chrysler went from creating cars to
  tanks.
• Boeing from regular airplanes to bombers and
  fighter jets.
• Gun makers like Colt, from hunting rifles to
  machine guns, flamethrowers, war rifles.

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The American Home Front

• With the country in full war mode, the U.S. was
  producing weapons faster than anybody around
  thought that it would or could.
• In one month, the U.S. was able to produce up to
  4,000 tanks and 4,500 planes.
• Ship production also increased dramatically to
  help protect our coasts.

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The American Home Front

• Farms were producing as much food as possible.
  Meats and cereals were rationed and prepped for
  the war effort. Much of the food went to Britain
  and Russia. Both countries had already lost
  millions of soldiers and citizens because of the
  war and as a result of starvation.
• Families turned in all the scrap metal they could
  as well as oil and gasoline to help.
• The U.S. accepted help even from children.

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The American Home Front

• The war had an unintended effect.
• Women joined the workforce. Before the war, only
  about 3 million worked in the U.S. Most were
  housewives and raised families.
• Since so many men went to war, the U.S. was
  desperate for workers to produce weapons. So
  they replaced the men with women.

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The American Home Front

• The American Govt continued work on secret
  weapons for WWII. Some were not yet ready.
• The Manhattan Project was part of this secret
  program. It was begun in 1941, the day before
  Dec. 7th attack.
• The project would ultimately end WWII.

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