wwii homefront

The Home Front

Mobilizing the WarWorld War II transformed the role of the

national governmentThe government built housing for war

workers and forced civilian industries to retool for war production

The Home Front

Business and WarFDR offered incentives to business to spur

production○ Low interest loans○ Tax concessions○ Contracts with guaranteed profits

Americans produced an astonishing amount of wartime goods and utilized science and technology

The Home Front

Business and WarThe West Coast emerged as a focus of

military-industrial production○ Nearly 2 million Americans moved to

California for jobs in defense-related industries

The South remained very poor despite the influx of manufacturing

The Home Front

Labor in WartimeOrganized labor entered a three-sided

arrangement with government and business that allowed union membership to soar to unprecedented levels

Unions became firmly established in many sectors of the economy during World War II

The Four Freedoms To FDR, the Four

Freedoms expressed deeply held American values worthy of being spread worldwide

The Four Freedoms

Freedom of SpeechGold standard for the Constitution

(democracy) Freedom of Religion

Gold standard for the critique of the Holocaust

Even though most Americans and politicians at the time considered it a farce and could not believe humans would treat each other so poorly

Freedom of Speech

The Four Freedoms Freedom from Want

The gold standard for economic policies for the rest of the 20th century

Elimination of barriers to international trade○ Protecting the standard of living from falling after the war

Freedom from FearThe gradual disarmament of the entire worldHelp prevent tyranny (Italy, Germany) from happening

again “human security” paradigm the gradual shift from the collective to the individual,

Rockwell’s painting shows this very well

Freedom from Want

Freedom from Fear

The Fifth Freedom

The war witnessed a burst of messages marketing advertisers’ definition of freedomThe emergence of free enterprise

Taxes v. Bonds

Investments in Bonds

Audience Slogans Ideas Energy & Capital

The War Effort and Propaganda

Propaganda

Changes in Wartime Production

Rubber

Gas Rationing

Scrap Metal

Scrap Metal

Sugar

More Sugar Concerns

Christmas 1942

Gum Lingerie Grease Juke Boxes Toasters Blenders Cars Toothpaste

Shoes Coffee Kettles Nylon hose Erasers Glass jars Tin cans Tea

Examples of other random items

A few pessimistic views

Right to work. Right to fair pay. Right to adequate food. Right to security. Right to live in a society of free enterprise. Right to come and go. Right to speak or be silent. Right to equality before the law. Right to rest. Right to an education.

A New Bill of Rights?

Right to work, if you are white. Right to fair pay, if you are male. Right to adequate food, if you register for and comply with food

rationing programs. Right to security, if you were not drafted. Right to live in a society of free enterprise, if one excludes the

government’s price and wage ceilings and orders that halted production on all the common items one needs to live.

Right to come and go, if the person does not need new shoes, more gasoline, decent tires, a new car, or a new bicycle.

Right to speak or be silent, as long as one speaks positively about the war, and is silent about the legitimacy of rationing claims.

Right to equality before the law, if it is “Separate but Equal” before the law.

Right to rest, but only on Christmas Day. And a right to an education, if the cotton is not in bloom and ready

to be picked by child laborers.

Realities

Women at War

Women in 1944 made up over 1/3 of the civilian labor force

New opportunities opened up for married women and mothers

Women’s work during the war was viewed by men and the government as temporary

The advertisers’ “world of tomorrow” rested on a vision of family-centered prosperity

The American Dilemma

Patriotic AssimilationWorld War II created a vast melting pot,

especially for European immigrants and their children○ Roosevelt promoted pluralism as the only

source of harmony in a diverse societyGovernment and private agencies eagerly

promoted group equality as the definition of Americanism and a counterpoint to Nazism

The American Dilemma

Patriotic AssimilationBy the war’s end, racism and nativism had

been stripped of its intellectual respectability○ However, intolerance hardly disappeared from

American life

The American Dilemma

Asian-Americans in WartimeAsian-Americans’ war experience was filled

with paradoxChinese exclusion was abolishedJapanese were viewed by American as a

detested foeThe American government viewed every

person of Japanese ethnicity as a potential spy

The American Dilemma

Japanese-American InternmentThe military persuaded FDR to issue

Executive Order 9066Internment revealed how easily war can

undermine basic freedoms○ Hardly anyone spoke out against internment○ The courts refused to intervene

The government marketed war bonds to the internees and drafted them into the army

Blacks and the War The wartime message of freedom ushered a

major transformation in the status of blacks The war spurred a movement of black

population from the rural South to the cities of the North and WestDetroit race riot

During the war, over 1 million blacks served in the armed forces

Black soldiers sometimes had to give up their seats on railroad cars to accommodate Nazi prisoners of war

Birth of the Civil Rights Movement The war years witnessed the birth of the

modern civil rights movement March on Washington

Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph called for the march in July 1941

Executive Order 8802Prohibited government contractors from

engaging in employment discrimination based on race, color, or national origin

Birth of the Civil Rights Movement The Double V

The double-V meant that victory over Germany and Japan must be accompanied by victory over segregation at home

What the Negro WantsDuring the war, a broad political coalition on the left

called for an end to racial inequality in America○ The status of blacks becomes an issue at the forefront of

enlightened liberalismCIO unions made significant efforts to organize black

workers and win access to skilled positions The South reacts by attempting to preserve white

supremacy

The End of the War

The Atomic BombOne of the most momentous decisions ever

confronted by an American president fell to Harry Truman

The bomb was a practical realization of the theory of relativity

The Manhattan Project developed an atomic bomb

The End of the War The Dawn of the Atomic Age

On 6 August 1945, an American bomber dropped an atomic bomb that detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan

Because of the enormous cost in civilian lives, the use of the bomb remains controversial○ Allied military forces reasoned the use of the bomb

saved roughly half a million Allied soldiers’ livesThe dropping of the atomic bombs was the logical

culmination of the war World War II had been fought○ A total threat requires a total response