The Home front during WWII

The Home Front During the War

• Wartime mobilization of the economy• Urban migration and demographic changes• Women, work, and family during the war• Civil liberties and civil rights during wartime• War and regional development• Expansion of government power

Opportunity & Power• World War II was a time of

opportunity for millions of Americas– Jobs were plentiful– Even with rationing and

shortages people had money to spend

• At the end of the war, America emerged as the world’s dominant economic and military power

Economic gains

• Defense industries boomed-unemployment fell to 1.2%

• Average weekly pay rose 10%- People were able to invest and save for the future

• Farmers benefited from good weather, improved machinery and fertilizers.– *Crop production rose by 50% and farm income

tripled.– FARMERS COULD PAY OFF THEIR DEBT

Women and the economy• Over 6 million women

entered the workforce for the first time

• Total women in the workforce was 35%- 1/3 of those jobs were in defense which were better paying

• *The was gave women a chance to do things only men had done before (journalism & other professions)

• “ROSIE THE RIVETER”

Population shifts• The Second Great

Migration, between 1940 and 1970, brought 5 million black Southerners North and West. By 1970, 47 percent of the nation's African Americans lived outside the South, and more than 80 percent were urban

• Towns with defense industry saw their populations double or triple.

283,600- West coast523,200- Midwest386,800- Mid- Atlantic24,900 New England

Social Adjustments-Families had to adjust to the

changes the war brought-Millions of fathers in the armed

forces and women in the workforce, children were left with neighbors, family or child care centers

-Many teenagers (without supervision) drifted to a life of juvenile delinquency

-After the war, hard time of readjustment as men reentered family life and women left the workforce

Social disruptions caused by the war

• World War II swept aside many traditional beliefs, and accelerated social trends that had begun in the first part of the 20th century. Values were changed by the disruptions caused by the war.

• Because World War II was a war of unprecedented brutality, old concepts of proper military conduct were eroded.

• The willingness to accept the horrors of war had limits, however. The most profound example of this was the world's shock at the discovery of the Holocaust—the attempt by the Nazis to kill all of Europe's Jews and other persons they considered undesirable. Many participants in the Holocaust were brought to trial after the war, charged with "crimes against humanity.”

GI Bill of Rights• Created to help ease the transition

of returning servicemen to civilian life

• AKA- Servicemen’s Readjustment Act

• Provided education and training for veterans (paid for by fed. Gov’t)

• Also provided federal loan guarantees to vets buying homes, farms or businesses

• ** 7.8 million took advantage of this!

• http://www.history.com/topics/gi-bill/videos#june-22-1944-fdr-signs-gi-bill

New families?

• Strangers and long time sweethearts rushed to get married

• Marriage licenses went up by as much as 300% (Seattle)

Discrimination and Civil Rights Protest

• Despite new opportunities old prejudices and policies still persisted• James Farmer founded Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

– Goal- confront urban segregation

• As African America migrated to the cities tension rose– 1943 tidal wave of racial violence

• Detroit riot of 6/1943- raged on fort 3 days. FDR sent in troops. 9 whites and 25 blacks were dead or in critical condition

• By 1945 more than 400 committees had been created to help improve race relations

Tension on the West Coast• Summer of 1943 Los Angeles

exploded in Anti-Mexican “zoot-suit” riots

• Riots began with sailors stating they had been attacked by zoot-suit Mexican youth

• Zoot-Suit- style of dress adopted to show rebellion against tradition

• Trigged violence involving thousands of servicemen and civilians

• Riots lasted a week and resulted in the beating of hundreds of Mexican-American youth and other minorities

Japanese Internment

• Before the war began 120,000 Japanese Americans lived in the U.S.

• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Many Americans became paranoid and questioned the loyalty of Japanese Americans

• Early 1942 the War Department ordered mass evacuation of Hawaiian Japanese.

• Ordered to internment camps (confinement)– 1,444 Japanese Americans (Hawaii)

Spreading fear• Newspapers spread anti-Japanese

sentiment • 2/19/1942- FDR signed an order

requiring the removal of Japanese ancestry from CA, WA, OR, and AZ.

• Originated from the military, FDR justified this as needed for “national security”

• 110,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up and sent to “relocation centers”

• 2/3 were Nisei (Japanese people born in America)

Reaction• No specific charges ever

filed • Forced to sell their homes

and businesses at half the value

• Korematsu V. United States-gov’t actions were justified for “military necessity”

• Japanese American Citizen League (JACL) wanted compensation- Congress approved $38 million– *1/10 of Japanese American

actual losses

• 1978- Reagan passed a bill awarding all Japanese Americans who were relocated $20,000.

• “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during World War II”– -Pres. George Bush