US Home-Front during WWII

Government expansion, and civil liberties

Industrial Production

US government organizes agencies to mobilize economic and military resources 1942- War Productions Board (WPB)-

Manage industries Office of War management (OWM)-

production priorities, and control of war materials

Office of Price Administration (OPA)- freeze prices, wages, rent, set up rationing (meat, sugar, gasoline, auto tires)

Economy is stimulated by the demand for government contracts- unemployment will practically be gone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eoE12ywDzA

Industrial Production

War production by 1944 will be 2x of all the AXIS powers combined.

Unions- will not strike due to the Smith-Connelly Act; allows the army to take over workers threatening to strike

Financing the war- (100 billion spent in 1945)▪ Increase income tax- in

1944 it will be withheld from individual pay checks

▪ Sell War Bonds Shortage of consumer

goods make it easy for Americans to save

War’s Impact on Society African Americans

1.5 million will leave the south for jobs in the North and West

Serve in the Armed forces (Tuskegee Airmen)

Face discrimination and segregation

Race riots in NYC and Detroit (Summer of 1943)

Double V slogan- Victory over Fascism in Europe and Victory for Equality at home

A. Phillip Randolph- March on Washington- end discrimination in hiring for defense industries- FDR issues executive order 8802 (Fair Employment Act)

Membership of the NAACP will increase during war

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) 1942- pacifists following Thoreau, and Gandhi

Tuskegee Airmen

War’s Impact on Society

Mexican Americans Worked in defense industries over

300,000 Braceros- Mexican Farm Workers allowed

into the US w/o formal immigration procedures

Influx of Mexican-Americans leads to white resentment- Zoot Suit Riots (summer 1943)- battle on the street

War’s Impact on Society

Native Americans 25,000 will serve in the military Work in defense industries More then ½ will not return to

reservations

(Code Talkers)

War’s Impact on Society

Japanese-Americans Associated with wartime enemy 20,000 native born Japanese will serve in the

military (442nd ) Treated as potential spies and saboteurs- US

thought invasion was imminent 1942- US government will order 100,000

Japanese-Americans to leave homes on the west coast and move to internment camps (9066)

Korematsu vs. the US- Supreme Court justified executive order 9066 because we were at war- In 1988 the federal government will award financial compensation to those affected by executive order 9066

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq6UTgH2DI8

War’s Impact on Society

Women 200,000 will serve in the military-

noncombatant roles “Rosie the Riveter”; symbolize the

typical women war production worker Like WWI will take jobs formally done by

men▪ 5 million will enter the workforce (shipyards,

defense plants) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUg3bWC1VxA&feature=PlayList&p=1956F7A192F76F7B&playnext=1&index=5

▪ Paid below male workers

War’s Impact on Society

Propaganda Posters, songs, news bulletins- maintain

public moral Encourage sacrifice, and conservation to

increase war production. Office of War Information- control news about

troop movements and battles Movies, radio, pop music- support cheerful,

patriotic view of war http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i6ozLpNr3Q (Education for Death via Disney)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W_j3UjPT10 (Spirit of ‘43)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el5hxlEk-KI (Out of the frying pan and into the firing line)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhw8k5Mzoxo (Private Pluto)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgpvKXLTwr8 (new hair)