Transcript Daily Life on the Home Front

Mobilizing for Defense
25.1
Selective Service Act
Selective Service and the GI
• There was a surge in volunteers post Pearl
Harbor – approximately 5 million
• US military was still not strong enough to fight
a war on 2 fronts
• Selective Service expanded the draft and
provided another 10 million soldiers
– 8 weeks basic training
– Did their best to turn young recruits into
disciplined, battle-ready GIs
G.I.
“Government
Issued”
TYPICAL EQUIPMENT for rifle infantry included
items such as:
- packs (several types: M1928 haversack,
"jungle pack" for marines, "musette bags" for
officers, paratroopers, and anyone who could
beg/borrow/steal them)
- canteen w/ carrier and cup
- mess kit w/ folding utensils
- portable stove
- steel helmet & fiber liner
- gas mask and carrying pouch
- flash light
- first aid kit
- combat suspenders
- identification discs ("dog tags," each man
carried 2 on a chain around his neck)
- tent half w/ pegs, rope, and pole (mated with
a buddy's half to form a full "pup" tent)
- various manuals (usually guide- or
phrasebooks for the country served in)
- cigarettes
- rations kits
Diversity in the War
African Americans in the War
• Approximately 1 million African Americans served in World
War II
• African Americans served in segregated units and initially
were not put in combat positions
• African American soldiers encountered discrimination on and
off the base
• Towns adjacent to army posts were sometimes open to white
soldiers but off-limits to African Americans
• Military courts were quick to judge and harshly punish African
American GIs
• The war experience helped to invigorate postwar efforts to
achieve equal rights
African Americans
• Jim Crow system which legally separated the races was still
strong in the South
• Second Great Migration: More than 2 million African
Americans migrated from the south find jobs in northern
factories
• African Americans in the North still faced discrimination in
employment, education, and housing
• Many were banished to the cities due to racist housing laws in
the suburbs
• In 1941, 50% of all African American homes were substandard
• Race riots erupted throughout the country as many whites
feared the integration of their towns
• FDR was not willing to disrupt the war effort to promote social
equality
Fighting for Equality
• “Double V” campaign – first V for victory against the Axis
Powers, the second V for winning equality at home
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) – believed in using
nonviolent techniques to end racism
• Began to use sit-ins as a form of protest
• A. Philip Randolph – made a place for African Americans
in the labor movement: Executive Order 8802 opened jobs
and job training programs in defense plants to all
Americans; created the Fair Employment Practices
Committee to hear complaints about job discrimination in
defense industries and government; directed a march on
Washington in 1963
Women in the War
• Before the war, most women who worked were
single and young; this changed during the war
• Like World War I, World War II brought women
into different parts of the work force
• As men were drafted into the armed forces,
factory jobs became vacant
• Women worked in airplane plants and shipyards
as riveters, steelworkers, and welders
Rosie the Riveter
• The Office of War Information launched a
campaign to recruit women
• Rosie the Riveter was a fictional young woman
who worked in a defense plant while her
boyfriend, Charlie, served in the Marines
• The government used images of Rosie the
Riveter in posters and recruitment films to
attract women to the workforce
Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
• Army Chief of Staff
General George Marshall
pushed for the formation
of female volunteers that
would serve in
noncombat positions
• In 1943, after thousands
of women enlisted, WACs
were granted full US Army
benefits
Native Americans
• 25,000 joined the armed forces – “Code Talkers”
in Pacific (spoke in language Japanese couldn’t
interpret)
• Many migrated to urban centers to work in
defense plants (50,000)
• Adapted quickly to white culture
• Many did not return to reservation life after the
war
Mexican Americans
• The wartime economy brought Mexican Americans
new job opportunities in the defense industries
• About 17,000 had jobs in LA shipyards
• The bracero program began due to a shortage of farm
laborers; US provided transportation, food, shelter, and
medical care for thousands of braceros or workers
• 1942-1947 more than 200,000 braceros worked on
American farms
• Many lived in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods called
barrios
Zoot Suit Riots
• Young Mexican Americans in Los Angeles wore zoot
suits (long draped jacket and baggy pants with tight
cuffs)
• This looked offended many American sailors who went
out looking for zoot suitors
• In 1943, the street fighting turned into riots
• Newspapers blamed Mexican Americans for the
violence
• Police arrested the victims, rather than the sailors for
starting the violence
• Restricted soldiers’ off duty access to L.A.
Japanese Americans
• 442nd Regimental Combat Team was made up entirely of Japanese
Americans and won some of the most prestigious medals of honor
• Japanese Americans suffered the worst discrimination during the war
• 1941 numbered only 127,000 (about 0.1 percent of the population)
• Most lived on the West Coast
• 2/3rds were Nisei or people born of immigrant parents
• Hostility grew to hatred after Pearl Harbor
• Many Americans believed Japanese spies were everywhere
• Government decided to remove all Japanese immigrants from the West
Coast
• Japanese Internment Camps - Executive Order 9066 authorized the
establishment of military zones on the West Coast and the relocation of
anyone of Japanese descent (both citizens and non citizens) to internment
camps
Internment Camps
• Japanese had little time to secure their property
• Many lost businesses, farms, homes, and other
property
• Had no idea where they were going
• All internment camps were in desolate areas –
families had a room equipped with only cots,
blankets, and a light bulb; barbed wire and armed
guards surrounded the camps
• Supreme Court ruled that wartime relocation was
constitutional
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
• Japanese man said his civil rights had been
violated due to relocation based on his ancestry
• US government argued that Executive Order 9066
was not based on race
• In 1945, Japanese were allowed to leave the
camps – some returned home to normal lives,
but others said they had lost everything
• 1988 Congress passed a law awarding each
surviving Japanese American internee a tax-free
payment of $20,000; US government also
apologized
The Battle of the Atlantic
 Effort to keep German submarines from
isolating Great Britain
 Convoys formed to deliver food and supplies to
Britain
 Germans countered with groups of 30 submarines
called wolf packs that carried out attacks on the
convoys
The North Africa Campaign
 British army fighting Italian and German troops
 Germans began to retreat West
 British and American troops led by Eisenhower landed in
Morocco and Algeria and quickly pushed eastward
 240,000 Italians and Germans surrendered
 As a result of Allied victory, FDR and Churchill
agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender
of Italy, Germany, and Japan
The Invasion of Italy
 Under General Patton, US troops attacked
Sicily
 Sicily fell in 38 days and Mussolini is
overthrown; Italy’s new government
surrenders
 Allies eventually capture Rome
 Germany lost 500,000 soldiers
The Battle of Stalingrad
 The Russian army decided to take a stand against
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the Germans at Stalingrad
Germans bombed for 2 months, but this did not stop the
Russians
Red Army counterattacked and surrounded German army
Germany lost about 330,000 troops and more than
90,000 surrendered
This was the turning point of the war in the East
D-Day
“Operation Overlord”
When – June 6, 1944
Where – Normandy, France
Why – to liberate France from German control;
Allies could not focus on War in Pacific against
Japan, until they defeated the Germans in
Europe
 Who – General Eisenhower was in charge of
Allied troops
 Significance – largest landing by sea in history;
more than 2,000 killed at Omaha Beach alone
(we’ll see this in the movie)
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General George C. Marshall – Army Chief of Staff