Transcript Home Front - Minnesota State University Moorhead

Home Front
“The War Effort” -- How the nation
geared for war and sustained
maximum support for the troops.
Additional Terms
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Cash and Carry
Lend-lease
Atlantic Charter
Office of Price Administration
Manhattan Project
War, September 1939
German invasion of Poland
ignites war in Europe as Britain
and France honor treaty with
Poland.
Frames from film showing
German army advancing into
Poland. Nazi tanks (panzers)
and aircraft are superior to those
of the Allies
Isolationism
•Neutrality Laws in
1935-1936, written by
Gerald Nye of North
Dakota (below), restrict
American business with
nations at war and
prevent American
citizens from being
endangered.
•As U.S. journalists begin covering the war in Europe their stories
have an impact on how Americans regard the war and its likely
influence on American policies.
Those Who called for aid to the Allies
“As far as I can see, I was really put out
of Germany for the crime of blasphemy.
My offense was to think that Hitler was
just an ordinary man, after all. That is a
crime in the reigning cult in Germany,
which says Mr. Hitler is a Messiah sent
by God to save the German people—
an old Jewish idea. To question this
mystic mission is so heinous that, if
you are a German, you can be sent to
jail. I, fortunately, am an American, so I
was merely sent to Paris. Worse things
can happen.”
American journalist Dorothy Thompson
(1934)
Steps Short of War
“This nation will remain a neutral
nation, but I cannot ask that every
American remain neutral in thought
as well. Even a neutral has a right
to take account of facts. Even a
neutral cannot be asked to close
his mind or close his conscience.”
Roosevelt, radio address to nation,
September 3, 1939
Within weeks, FDR asked Congress
to amend its neutrality laws to allow
“cash and carry” sales to
belligerents.
Cash and Carry in Practice
Joe Wilson, farmer near Emerson Manitoba, hauls a Lockheed
Hudson bomber across the border at Pembina, ca. February
1940
America First
Many Americans feared that
aiding Britain would lead
inevitably to the U.S.
entering the war. Several
prominent U.S. senators
and representatives helped
form a movement called
“America First,” which
urged the nation to maintain
its neutrality.
Those who had favored
helping Britain accused
America First advocates of
being naïve; some said they
were pro-Nazi.
Lend-lease
“Suppose my neighbor's home
catches fire, and I have a length
of garden hose 400 or 500 feet
away. If he can take my garden
hose and connect it up with his
hydrant, I may help him to put out
his fire. . . . Now, if I get a nice
garden hose back, I am in pretty
good shape.”
FDR proposes a method to ‘lend’
Britain and China the tools for
fighting their wars, radio address,
December 17, 1940.
War Plans
The ultimate cause of war for America was Japan’s need for oil. The
U.S. had stopped selling oil to Japan in 1940. In order to expand
into oil-producing areas in southeast Asia, the Japanese army and
navy decided that the threat of an American battle fleet in Pearl
Harbor had to be removed.
The Initial Shock
Even before the U.S. declared
war on December 8, 1941,
the American government
had made serious plans for
keeping home front American
involved in the war on a “day
to day” basis.
Roosevelt made the personal
decision to allow Hollywood
to continue to turn out
feature films – it would help
American morale and allow
Washington to “make
suggestions” on war-related
topics.
Organizer of Victory
The basic strategy for
winning the war was
devised by George Marshall,
Army chief of staff. He
recommended that the bulk
of American military effort
be made against Germany,
with a plan to land a large
American-British army in
France in 1943.
But as Japan gained victory
after victory in the Pacific,
political concerns (the 1942
elections) induced FDR to
alter the strategy.
A Fatal Decision
Concerned that the United States
would need to ‘race’ against Germany
(or anyone else) for expertise in
nuclear technology, Roosevelt in 1939
had authorized the beginning of
“uranium research.” The first major
experiments would be conducted at
the University of Chicago, after which
an experimental nuclear reactor
facility (right) was built in Oak Ridge
Tennessee. This was a secret
undertaking, called the Manhattan
Project.
Ironically, many of the top physicists
who would build the atomic bomb
were refugees of Nazi persecution.
Securing lines to Australia
Because Japan was threatening an invasion of Australia
(and because the naval balance changed at Midway),
Roosevelt authorized a major attack at Guadalcanal – US
Marines and many North Dakota guardsmen fought for
control of the island from August to December 1942.
Japanese Americans
Roosevelt also authorized the internment of Japanese
Americans, partly to allay American fears of espionage
and sabotage, partly to prevent anti-Japanese riots in
California, where Japanese immigrant farmers (above)
had stimulated local envy.
Internment Camps
Several hundred thousand
Japanese immigrants and
their children were
interned in make-shift
camps in the American
west. At Manzanar (left)
conditions were dry, hot
and unpleasant.
The U.S. Supreme Court
later suggested that the
internments were
unconstitutional.
Some Japanese-Americans renounced their citizenship as
a result of this treatment. A group of these, mostly
young, men, were then sent to Fort Lincoln, southwest of
Bismarck, and held there through the war.
Hollywood Goes to War
From the beginning, Hollywood (with government
assistance) portrayed the Pacific as a total war of no
mercy. In “Guadalcanal Diary” William Bendix tells a
young Richard Jaekel to kill without hesitation – “they
ain’t human.”
“Good” Germans
“Sahara” (also 1943)
portrayed the Italian
soldiers as unwitting dupes
of the Germans, and
suggested many Germans
were likewise dupes of the
Nazis. It would be
possible, films and
literature suggested, to
“reform” the European
aggressors.
A Government Office for War
Information – What to tell America?
Archibald MacLeish, wellknown poet and Librarian of
Congress, managed a brief
pre-war “Office of Facts and
Figures” through which he
suggested various methods of
“advertising the war” in ways
that would appeal to
Americans. The plans included
books, pamphlets, films,
speakers’ tours and use of
celebrities, all “coordinated”
by a government bureau.
Office of War Information (OWI)
Created in June 1942, the Office of war Information was
supervised by Elmer Davis, a respected newspaperman
and CBS radio reporter. Davis pursued a “strategy of
truth” in explaining the war to Americans.
Harsh Realities
In keeping with Davis’s
view, Life published in
1943 these shocking (for
the time) photos of dead
US Marines at Tarawa.
Expecting much larger
numbers of casualties in
1944, the press reasoned
that the American public
should become used to the
reality of war.
War Aims
FDR wanted the OWI to use the
Atlantic Charter as a basis for
war goals – a documents signed
by FDR and Churchill in August
1941, the charter called for an
ideal world free of tyranny and
material want, with aggressors
punished by a coalition of strong
democratically-oriented nations.
Roosevelt hoped that the U.S.
and Britain, joined by a
“reformed” USSR and China
would become the “world’s
policemen.” Churchill was less
certain the plan could work.
Unconditional Surrender
Roosevelt further expanded
American control of the war
aims by announcing in 1943
that “the Allies” would insist
on the “unconditional”
surrender of Germany, Italy
and Japan. Churchill had
agreed to this reluctantly and
Stalin had not really been
consulted.
FDR clearly intended the US
to play a major postwar role
in Europe and Asia.
American Century
Henry Luce, the influential
publisher of Life, Time, Fortune, and
other magazines, offered his view
of America in the postwar era in a
1943 essay, “The American
Century.” In this, he argued that
the U.S. should embrace a mission
to remake the world along
American lines – with the U.S.
clearly in the forefront, making
decisions that would affect every
corner of the planet. Luce’s critics
charged that he wanted a “Pax
Americana” (American dominion).
The Common Man
Vice President Henry
Wallace countered Luce’s
vision with his “Century
of the Common Man”
concept – calling for a
postwar international
organization that would
supervising the sharing of
resources and decisionmaking. Wallace’s critics
(including FDR) felt this
idea was impractical –
and perhaps tainted with
communist influences.
The Russian Enigma
Much war policy balanced on the great unknown –
what did Stalin want, what would he settle for?
FDR was confident he could bargain with Stalin;
Churchill was skeptical that Stalin could be charmed
or reassured with Anglo-America’s good intentions.
Getting the Job Done
At home, the major theme that
pervaded the war was to make
winning a “job.” News writers
and editorialists, in a nation
that had had 15 million
unemployed in the 1930s, had
used the “job” image well
before 1942. American soldiers
themselves spoke of military
service and combat as a job. So
the OWI churned out millions of
posters, film clips, and sound
clips urging Americans to “get
the job done.” Few speculated
on postwar goals.
Paying for the War
In order to finance the war,
the Congress authorized
several measures, including
higher taxes and an Office of
Price Administration (OPA).
The OPA had wide-ranging
powers, including the ability
to order rationing of certain
commodities (sugar, coffee,
etc) and the power to
establish set prices on
practically any goods.
Americans generally disliked
the OPA but accepted it as a
wartime necessity.
Posters
The OWI employed the job theme in
photographs (like this scrap rubber picture),
pamphlets, radio spots, and numerous posters –
all calling on all Americans to “do their part” in
the job of winning the war.
Everyone’s War
Usually “protected” form the
ugliness of life, children
were urged to be an active
part in the war.
A resident of the Warroad
area of Minnesota
remembered his high school
physical education teacher
urging them to “forget fair
play – the Nazis won’t play
fair when you confront them
next year. Get ready to kill
them, any way you can!”
Stay Healthy
War factories were running
24 hours a day, every day
and with doctors away in the
army, families were urged to
stay healthy – “each sick day
can mean one plane, a
hundred rifles, ten thousand
bullets,” ran an OWI ad.
People were made to feel
that by being away from the
job it could be their fault if a
battle were lost.
Pitch In
Women went to work in heavy
industries in record numbers
(and made record amounts of
pay). With men complaining that
exposure to the work world
would “de-feminize” their
sweethearts, OWI and Hollywood
decided to do a series of movienews features on how “Rosie the
Riveter” could still have
attractive hair and fresh makeup
while still operating a fork lift.
Conserve
In reality, the fats collected
for explosives, scrap metal
for weapons, scrap rubber
for tires, had minimal impact
on the output of weapons
and vehicles.
The main reason for the
scrap campaigns was to get
everyone involved, do his or
his part, and make certain
that the war was a total one
involving the entire society.
Changing the Job
By the end of 1943, the U.S. was
out-producing every other
country in the manufacture of
aircraft, ships, munitions, food,
medicines, and most all other
goods for war.
But a major shift in manpower
had occurred. Originally the US
army planned for 200 divisions
of troops, but the industrial
effort had become so vast,
consuming so many potential
soldiers, that the army ended up
with only 89 divisions, which
vastly changed the fate of the
individual soldier.
Keeping in Touch
“Your Mom and I were very glad to have a letter from you
after so long waiting. We have read it several times, of
course, and twice aloud to each other. Mom has put it in
the folder I fixed for her to keep your letters about your
great and strange adventures. We are glad that you
studied botany in school for it made you able to tell us so
many interesting things about the trees and plants there.
I sent to the Library and got a book about that part of the
world and found your island written up in it, and some
pictures, so we can just see you there.
By the way, I took your letter over to your botany teacher
so she could read it. . . . She says it will be nearly all girls
[in class], for practically all the boys are, or will be, in
service . . .”
A Dad's Reply To His Son Away At War, published in
the Ulen Union, September 23, 1943.
Debating the Postwar World
“The next few decades are our golden opportunity. The
world wants to pay, and indeed must pay, considerable
attention to our desires. Even Russia, better situated
than any other power so far as security goes, would like
billions of dollars worth of machine tools from us in the
next decade or two, to say nothing of our support in
maintaining peace in the world. That our relative power
and influence can remain at this peak for many decades is
extremely doubtful. . . . Our greatest opportunity to shape
the kind of world which will give us the best chance to
preserve the values we cherish most will come in the next
twenty or thirty years.”
US Senator (from Minnesota) Joseph H. Ball,
"America and the New World," 1945.
The Great Fear
“. . . make up your minds, you mothers and sisters and wives
everywhere -- the boys are coming home cross, vague, restless,
critical, dissatisfied. [He will] show the effects of the long
strain. Body, mind, and soul will let go all at once. He'll not be
interested in Mom's hospital work or the surprising success of
Sis in the chem lab. He'll want to loaf about the house, reading
comics, loaf downtown to a movie. He'll start up, to answer your
questions, from some dark dream. "What? What'd you say,
Mom? Yep, we had pretty good chow at Guadalcanal. Nope, it
was kind of rotten -- oh, I guess it was pretty good." His voice
will be uninterested . . . He's got long memories to live down.
Give him plenty of time. He'll come back. It isn't his fault the
world was plunged into the war that scarred him so deeply. It
was ours. Pay for it by helping him back to sanity and peace.”
Norris, “The Boys in Service Come Back Changed” – published in
the Moorhead Daily News, July 29, 1944.