The United States in World War II

The Home Front

Opportunity and Adjustment• Economic Gains

• Higher wages• Famers prospered-better weather, improvements • Women –defense plants, better pay –challenging work

• Population Shifts• African Americans left South for work in North- Workers move to where work was- -defense plants

• Social Adjustments• Parents often working-at war• Many rushed to marry• Congress passed GI Bill of Rights (Serviceman’s Readjustment

Act)

Discrimination and Reaction

• African Americans find more jobs during war• Discrimination, violence in overcrowded cities

– Detroit Riot 1943/9 whites, 25 blacks died

– Los Angeles• Zoot Suit riots 1943

Internment of Japanese Americans

• 120,000 Japanese American in U.S. during war

• Pearl Harbor Attack causes rumors to spread of Japanese spies in U.S.

• Some Japanese “interned” in Hawaii

• On West Coast of U.S. 110,000 sent to camps– 2/3 Nisei –born in the U.S.– 1/3 Issei – born in Japan– FDR signed Executive Order 9066-appled to West Coast only

Japanese Internment

• No Charges Ever Filed Against Japanese in U.S.• No EVIDENCE of subversion ever found• Families forced to sell homes & possessions

Japanese Internment

Japanese fought Internment in Courts

Korematsu v. United States 1944 Supreme Court said “military necessity” 1988 Pres. Reagan signed a bill to give

$20,000to each individual that “suffered internment”

Japanese Interment Camps

Japanese Internment Camps

Images of the Internment