BY ROBERT COLLINS

For every Canadian in uniform, there were

ten serving on the home front, working

for victory in every way they could

A Being part of the war effort was a patrioticduty for these women, parading in Toronto in1941 to promote buying war bonds.

< Dramatic poster art such as this by Philip-Surrey was published to inspire the public.Most gave their best efforts without urging.

was never just a military war. All over

the land;, millions of Canadians who

didn't get into die armed forces foughttheir own war in a thousand earnest

ways. Bought bonds, gave blood, collected scrap.

Sent milk to Britain, took Bridsh child refugees intotheir homes. Planted Victory gardens, worked in war

plants, laboured on farms. Ran

canteens and dances for troops

in Canada and sent torrents of

cigarettes, chewing gum andhand-knitted scarves to those

overseas. Worried and prayedfor their own sonsj daughtersand husbands in the warzones.

And wished that they coulddo more.

Their patriotism, and therhetoric of their times, mayseem quaint or naive today.

But everyone who lived through those timesremembers the grim reality of an enemy thatthreatened the entire western world, and the totalcommitment and camaraderie of a Canada that neverwanted war but, facing it, was determined to win.

For most people on the home front, the war turnedreal in the summer of 1940 with national registration"to mobilize all our human and materia] resources

43

loi uic uciciicc *ji. v^iiiiaua.

Children were encouraged to do what they could to support Canadian troops. Here,members of the "Little Happy Gang" children's knitting club in Moose Jaw, Sask.contribute their needlework, making socks to be distributed by the Red Cross.

Children eagerly caught the spiritof the times, vying for savings

stamps and collecting mounds of junk

stockings. A Toronto race track

occasionally paid off winners withcertificates. A Nova Scotia woman

collected pennies for two years tobuy a $100 bond. An Edmonton-area trapper turned five fox skinsinto a bond. A 13-year-old

Vancouver lad — what a treasure

he was for the bond boosters! —worked Saturdays in a factory andran a weekday paper route to boy-

war savings. The Toronto Globe andMail — which for a while featuredthe ubiquitous "V for Victory"Morse code symbol (...-) on its

masthead — once devoted an entire

front page to a Victory Bondsposter.

Most companies laced theirnewspaper and magazine advertisingwith none-too-subde patriotism.

"Take up your pen for Victory,"cried one, showing its Parker penfilling out a victory bondapplication. "I'm patriotic!" trilled a

magazine-ad maiden, rolling herpincurls in Kleenex tissue instead ofcurlers, thus saving metal andrubber for guns and tires. "I'm

doing a man's job but I'm still awoman on the surface," cooed the

war worker, scrubbing withPalmolive soap.

Bell said its telephones were

Everyone carried an identificationcard to be produced on an instant'snotice if demanded by police ormilitary authorities. That autumn30,000 male conscripts tookshort-term training for service only

in Canada. But indite 1944^ with- -reinforcements urgently needed atthe front, several thousand

conscripts were

orderedoverseas.

For most

Canadians,

resisting the wareffort wasunthinkable.Their soleconcern: How

can I help? Oneway was to buyVictory Bonds,

War Savings Certificates and stamps(16 25-cent stamps made a $4certificate which in 7 years wasworth $5). From January 1940 untilwar's end, Canadians poured an

incredible $8.8 billion into theeffort. They tucked bonds orcemficstes mto Chnstmss

July. 1940, the arrival in Montreal of awell-scrubbed group of British childrenevacuated to Canada for the duration.

44

A sophisticated promotion campaignprompted Canadians to contribute anastounding $8.8 billion to war bonds.

working for victory; RCA said itsradios were. Kodak was snappingsoldiers' pictures; Coke was keepingthem refreshed. Westclox issued an

ominous warning: "Guard yo'ur Big

Ben" (because war production ruledout new alarm clocks for the

duration, you see).

Waste — be it of electricity,toothpaste or garbage — was akin to

sabotage. Champion spark plugsinstructed motorists to "Save

gasoline for the armed forces" (bykeeping those Champion plugsclean). The Department of NationalWar Services prodded housewives tosave fat and bones to make glycerineand glue for weapons and planes.Glass, rubber, old saucepans and

toothpaste tubes (aluminum) — allwere enthusiastically recycled.

The costly, time-consuming

colour-printing of comic books wasstopped and U.S. imports werebanned to save dollars. So, Canadiankids subsisted on "white" comics

featuring such homegrown heroes as

Johnny, Canuck, "Canada's

answer to Nazi

oppression," who

sometimes battledHitler himself.Children eagerly

caught the spirit of thetimes. They vied for

sayings stamps in schoolcontests. They memorized

aircraft silhouettes, on theoff-chance that a Japanese Zero

or German Messerschmitt mightstray over Kamloops or Kenora.

They were inveterate collectors.

Consider the case of Mac Smart, asouthern Saskatchewan teenager, in

the summer of '42. As head of theBateman/Shamrock chapter of theVictory Boosters Tobacco League,he cycled miles around hisneighbourhood coaxing brokenharrows, discarded ploughsharesand defunct cultivators from localfarmers for $7.50 a ton. Then, with

a teenage friend and a farm truck,

A Rationing of the basics like meat, sugarand gasoline inconvenienced Canadians,but were never as onerous as in Britain,

Smart gut-wrenched four tons of

scrap to a government depot for $15a ton, spent the $30 profit onnicotine for the troops and won thehonourary title of Victory Crusader.

How much of the accumulatedjunk found its way into the tools of

Gentle pinches: Rationing of coffee, sugar,butter and meat were accompanied

by exhortations to "do more"

A Aid for Britain consisted of more than soldiers, bombs and bullets. The home frontcontributed foodstuffs and clothing, too, for the relief of those bombed out. Here,Scouts in Toronto soft and slack donated tins of food from a successful campaign.

income taxes; by 1943 it was $815^million; a man earning $2500 ayear was taxed $651.) The militantWartime Prices and Trade Boardscared housewives silly with "Yonneed aot-hoard — you must not % i

¦ hoard — YOU MUST OBBY 7THE LAW."

Cloth for domestic clothing wasscarce: No more cuffs on men's 8

trousers, no more women's |

voluminous bloomers. Housing gwas tight in the cities. Houseconstruction came a distant second s

luto barracks and war plants. |Essential war workers could find "lodging in congested areas with bpermits from the National wSelective Service Agency. Others, wincluding war brides, had toscrounge and improvise. Somehow sithey managed and even laughed babout it. One Ottawa newspaper a.

ad pleaded, "Have you ever lived Swith your mother-in-law for six o

months? Army officer and wife vseek rescue in form of small Ccentral apartment."

When rationing came in 194? usugar, coffee, tea, butter, meat —v S w

it was more inconvenience than e

privation. But more than 11 hmillion ration-book holders took itseriously, happy to make their hsmall sacrifices. Restaurants had pmeatless Tuesdays and Fridays or curged customers to "Use less sugar s

and stir like hell. We don't mind hthe noise." Liquor was scarce; s

Gooderham & Worts reminded athirsty consumers that its alcohol cwas "fighting the icy hand of sdeath" as de-icing fluid on military raircraft. (

Gasoline was also rationed ("A (.gallon a day keeps Hitler away"). rBy 1943 non-essential motorists hwere limited to 120 gallons peryear, enough for about 2,000 miles, tWith tires and spare parts also fscarce or non-existent, many put

their vehicles on blocks for theduration and turned to car pooh j aand public transit. When the latter t

Canadians, and particularly Canadian children, were encouraged to take pride inthe accomplishments of the war workers, such as the men and women who flocked tothe new aircraft plants, learned unfamiliar trades and turned out bombers.

war is unknown, but it made thehome folks feel involved. And soonthey felt gentle pinches in theirpersonal lives. Nothing like thehardships of Britain and Europe, butsome righteous authority wasforever nagging them to "do theirpart." The Department ofMunitions and Supply exhortedwomen war workers to support their

warriors ("Brave Men Shall Not DieBecause I Faltered" cried pluckyfemales in Maclean's magazine

advertisements).National Revenue assured its

captive audience that "income tax is

fair to all" and that its enormouswartime bite was helping preserve"your very existence." (In 1938Ottawa had collected $42 million in

TO PROTECT

OUR FREEDOM

Id findi with1 -•

Others,to

lomehow

aghedspaper:r livedor sixW'f"

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I 1942 —neat —

; than

IIrs took itheirts haddays oress sugar

t mindrce;

indeddcoholofmilitary

ed ("Away"),

orists

; per

00 miles.

¦ the

poolsne latter

operators and radio assemblers.

Rosie the Riveter (every womanworker was a Rosie, whether she. riveted oxjiot) was the nation's

darling. Every city had its MissWar Worker contests withcontestants packed intosnug-fitting coveralls. Movie

houses ran morning films forwomen coming from or going to

work. There was an Anti-Noise

Week. Window posters cautioned"Please — A WAR WORKER IS

SLEEPING." A hit song of the daywent "Milkman, Keep ThoseBottles Quiet."

In 1939^569,000 womerrworked-mJQamdian.industry, mostly at^.

clerical jobs. Five years later960,000 were in war and civilianfactory jobs plus another 800,000 onfarms. Fully half of them were doingwhat once was deemed men's work,

and doing it well — filling fuses,assembling radio tubes, operatingsmall machines, paint spraying, spot

Notice (left) was put in windows, to give war workers on shifts the quiet they need¬ed. A popular hit song of the time was Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet. Below,another war poster intended to show partnership between home and war fronts.

became overburdened, offices andwar plants began staggering theirworking hours.

With the growing manpowershortage in 1942, officialdombelatedly realized there wasanother perfectly capable sex.Suddenly, in a rush, camecompulsory registration of allwomen ages 20-24, an Order-in-

Council that led to theestablishment of day nurseries andthe Women's Voluntary Service

which organized housewives foreverything from donating blood tohoeing Victory Gardens.

Those volunteers were unsung

heroes. Winnipeg's were a case in

point: 10,000 women drove sickchildren to hospitals, found livingspace for European evacuees,

helped entertain servicemen's kids,

sent home-canned fruit to troops

abroad, shipped tons of clothing tocivilians overseas. Their massive

salvage effort netted tons of tinfoil,newspapers, hot water bottles

(rubber), old World War I helmets(for England's air-raid workers),rags, used furniture for militaryleave centres.

Meanwhile, by the end of 1942,the emergency war trainingprogram had graduated some20,000 women aircraft uverhaulers,

metalworkers, woodworkers,

acetylene welders, instrument

makers, draftsmen, power-machine

49

women

f

way for

up wartime jobstly, hut they bad bla

lay's working women

51

2"

Robert Collins was a Saskatchewanteenager on the "home front" in

the early years of World War II.A journalist and author since 1950,his latest book is Who He?:Reflections on a Writing Life.

-4 This photo has become famous as a symbol of the tug many troops felt leaving theirfamilies: Private Jack Bernard of the B.C. Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own Rifjes)says goodbye to his 5-year-old son Warren in New Westminster, B.C., 1940.

least 900 ethnic Germans and 632Italians. Few Canadians were aware

of these blatant abuses ofhumanrights yet;-even had they known,pfdtesf might have been mutedr'Fear of spies and fifth columnistsand the horrifying prospect ofinvasion had instilled a faith that,while we might not know thereasons, whatever the government

did was for the best.

welding, punch-press work and, ofcourse, riveting. Women also ran

streetcars, operated gas pumps,

trimmed meat in packing plants,bottled beer in breweries and movedlog booms at pulp mills.

Hamilton's Steel Company ofCanada put them to work cleaningup plant railway tracks and loadingfreight cars. CNR in Toronto hadthem oiling engines and firing upboilers. Thousands went into plantsin central Canada making Bren,Sten and Browning guns, aircraft,rifles ammunition, anti-aircraft gunsand radar equipment.

Eighty per cent of them werebetween ages 18 and 40 but schoolgirls pitched hay on summerholidays and a 72-year-old was aninspector in a Toronto arsenal. Mrs.

Jean Young of Flin Flon, Man.(mother of Canadian novelist ScottYoung) became a timekeeper for theHudson Bay Mining and Smeltingcompany at age 47 — "green to the

ways of the industrial world, shy andafraid." She boosted her moraleeach morning with a dab of cologne,inevitably drawing a "you smell likea bloody drugstore" grumble from amale co-worker. But on her last day

they stood her on a big machine,gave her a watch engraved "To Jeanfrom the Boys" and threw a party."As far as I could see were the dear

dirty faces," she mused years after."It was a part of my life I shall never

forget."

When the war ended many gaveup their jobs, often regretfully, toreturning servicemen. But attitudes

had changed irrevocably. TheRosies" of World War II blazed

A Women were involved in vital war work,like winding motors at the CanadianGeneral Electric plant in Peterborough.

Finally it was over. Families triedto pick up the threads of lives, and acountry, that had radically changed.And the home front warriors wouldremember the war as a time of tears

and wry humour, self-discovery and

rare achievement. A time when,

ironically, Canadians were united asnever before or since.

The way for working women oftoday.

There were darker aspects tothose years. War profiteers andration book cheaters. Constant

reminders of enemy spies (mail fromoverseas was censored; posters

showed scary scenarios of Allied

trains and troopships sabotagedbecause of "Careless Talk").

The war which gave us a commoncause also meant common anxiety

which, if fed by ignorance andrumour, engendered some

startlingly undemocratic publicpolicies. Some 21,000 Japanese,nationals and Canadian citizens,were plucked from their homes andshipped to internment camps, a fateshared, at one time or another, by at

"An Arsenal for Democracy"-Robert Collins

1. List five ways that Canadian civilians contributed to the war effort.

2. What group was drafted for the 1st time during World War II? What are youthoughts on this was it morally right or wrong?

3. Create a poem or song verse that describes the working conditions for womenworkers during World War II.

4. If you were a government official during WWII what new and untried strategieswould you adopt to promote conservation and recycling?

5. When was rationing officially implemented in Canada and on what products?

6. What were some of the company slogans with "non-too-subtle patriotism"? Wouldtheses advertising campaigns have been as successful if the patriotism had been moresubtle?

7. How did children help contribute to the war effort?

8. What were some of the items that citizens were being asked to save and recycle?

9. Who were some of the people who did not take up the "all for it" attitude during thewar?

10. Although the change of women's roles in the war was only temporary why is itconsidered to be significant?

11. Why would Canadians have been likely to keep silent on undemocratic policiesimplemented like the internment of Japanese Canadians?