Transcript Effect of World War II on Canadian Home Front

Effect of World War II on
Canadian Home Front
Impacts of War on Canada
• World War II affected Canada in three
areas:
• Political
• Economic
• Social
Political Impact of War
• Federal government’s role expanded
• Government set up Crown corporations
that were involved in all aspects of
wartime production
• Federal government
introduced rationing –
e.g., gas, coffee, tea,
butter, milk, sugar,
and meat
• Government used War Supply Board to organize
industry toward war effort
• Government paid for war through taxes, war
bonds, and gold payments from Britain
• King introduced an unemployment insurance
program in 1940
• In 1945, King expanded Canada’s social
assistance programs by bringing in the Family
Allowance program to help families raise their
children.
Canada in the World
• Canada gained an international reputation
• It established itself as a middle power and
took on a more active role globally
• Played key role in establishing United
Nations
• Canada recognized
for military
contributions –
Dieppe, Hong Kong,
Normandy, and
liberation of Holland
• By end of war, Canada had the fourth
largest air force and the third largest navy
in the world
• Over one million Canadian men and
women served in the armed forces
Economic Impacts of War
• World War II ended Great Depression
• Canada became known as “Arsenal of
Democracy” due to the large numbers of
airplanes, tanks, trucks, munitions, and
amount of food produced and sent
overseas
• Canadian industries
were part of the “total
war effort”
• Industrial and manufacturing production
replaced agriculture as the most important
sector in the Canadian economy
• Canadian scientists took part in the development
of the atomic bomb (Manhattan Project) and
Canadian uranium was used in the Hiroshima
bomb
• Canadian economy was booming by 1945
• GDP went from $5.6 billion in 1939 to $11.8
billion in 1945
Social Effects of the War
• Expanded roles for
women
• Women gained greater
recognition for their
contributions to the war
effort – both overseas
and at home
• Significant increase in
number of women in work
force – over 1 million
women in work force by
1944
• Women still earned less money than men
even when they performed the same work
• Government provided daycare and tax
breaks to encourage women to join the
work force, but then took them away after
war was over
• At end of war, women lost their jobs or
were expected to give them up to returning
soldiers
Conscription
• In 1939, William Lyon Mackenzie King made an
election promise not to introduce conscription
• King passed National Resource Mobilization Act
in 1940 – all men required to help with war
effort, but not required to serve overseas
• 1942 – King asked public to release him from his
promise not to introduce conscription
• While majority of Canadians supported
conscription, majority of French Canadians
did not
• Towards the end of the war, conscription
sent 13, 000 Canadians overseas
• Of these, only 2000 ever reached the front
lines
• During WW II, King avoided causing the
same tensions in the country that
conscription had caused in the First World
War.
• French-English relations were strained,
but not broken.
Enemy Aliens
• Canadians whose ancestry was of one of
the enemy countries were required to
register as enemy aliens
• Believed that they might be spies or
saboteurs
• Over 100, 000 Canadians were forced to
register – about 650 were interned in
camps
Intolerance in Canada
• Government banned pro-Nazi political
parties and the Communist Party of
Canada
• Pacifist religious groups – Jehovah
Witnesses, Quakers, Hutterites,
Mennonites, and Doukhobors – faced
hostility
• Blatant discrimination against Black
Canadians who wanted to serve in military
• Prejudice and discrimination against
refugees from Europe
• Anti-Semitic views held by government
officials
• Discrimination against Jewish people in
careers and access to clubs and resorts
• Canada had a restrictive immigration
policy – favoured British and American
immigrants
Japanese Internment
• Anti-Japanese attitudes existed prior to
World War II – e.g., anti-Asian riots of
1907
• White Canadians believed that Japanese
people were competing with them for jobs
and were willing to work for lower wages
• 1928 – Mackenzie King limited Japanese
immigration – only 150 Japanese people
are allowed to enter Canada each year
• Before WW II, Japanese and Chinese
Canadians were denied the right to vote
and to join armed forces
• Attack on Pearl Harbour – some feared
that Japanese Canadians might become
spies or even help Japan invade Canada
• 1942 – Japanese
Canadians began to
be interned
• Japanese Canadians were stripped of all
their rights – fingerprinted, photographed,
and given identification numbers
• Had to carry ID cards with them at all
times
• Forced to choose between deportation to
Japan or relocation away from the west
coast
• Majority chose to relocate
• 22, 000 Japanese Canadians – 14, 000 of
whom were Canadian born – were sent to
internment camps
• 1943 – Custodian of Aliens Act passed by
federal government
• Allowed for property of Japanese
Canadians to be sold for low prices at
public auction without their consent
• Money from auctions went to realtors,
auctioneers, and to pay for storage and
handling charges
• In 1944, a law was passed that said that
Japanese people could be deported to
Japan if they did not leave British
Columbia – this applied even to those who
were born in Canada
• By 1946, when the war was over,
Japanese Canadians were released from
internment camps