Transcript homefront-presentation with notesx

WWII – The Home Front
The Main Idea:
WWII did not just affect the lives of the
men in the military. It affected the
lives of every man, woman & child
back home in the U.S.A.
Vocabulary List
• Ration: a fixed allowance of provisions or food
• War Bonds: a debt issued by a government for
the purpose of financing military operations
during times of war
• Internment: the imprisonment or confinement
of people, commonly in large groups,
• Morale: emotional or mental condition with
respect to cheerfulness, confidence
•
“Not all of us can have the
privilege of fighting our
enemies in distant parts of
the world . . . But there is one
front and one battle where
everyone in the United States
is in action. That front is right
here at home.
ALL AMERICANS FOUGHT
•
•
•
These “Golden 13” Great Lakes officers
scored the highest marks ever on the
Officers exam in 1944
•
•
Despite discrimination at
home, minority
populations contributed
to the war effort:
1,000,000 African
Americans
300,000 MexicanAmericans
33,000 Japanese
Americans
25,000 Native Americans
13,000 Chinese Americans
Three main ways Americans at
home contributed to the war
effort
1.Labor
2.Conserving food & goods
3.Investing in the government
Labor
• War resulted in increase in American
industrial production
• Economy converted from civilian to
military production
– Automobile companies  Tanks & Airplanes
– Machine shops  Pistols & Ammunition
– Textiles  Uniforms & Parachutes
Increase of Labor Force
Year
Total labor
force
Armed forces
Unemployed
Unemploymen
t rate (%)
1939
55,588,000
370,000
9,480,000
17.2
1940
56,180,000
540,000
8,120,000
14.6
1941
57,530,000
1,620,000
5,560,000
9.9
1942
60,380,000
3,970,000
2,660,000
4.7
1943
64,560,000
9,020,000
1,070,000
1.9
1944
66,040,000
11,410,000
670,000
1.2
1945
65,290,000
11,430,000
1,040,000
1.9
1946
60,970,000
3,450,000
2,270,000
3.9
Women enter the labor force to
replace men
ROSIE THE RIVETER
Cultural icon that
represented the new
female labor force
Women made up
About 30% of the labor
Force during WWII
Conserving Food & Goods
After the U.S. enters war, the government begins
RATIONING
Limiting the amount of
certain products that each individual
could purchase
Examples of Rationed Goods:, sugar, gasoline,
bicycles, footwear, fuel oil, Silk, Nylon,
coffee, stoves, shoes, meat, lard, shortening
and oils, butter, margarine, processed foods,
dried fruits, canned milk, firewood and coal
Each family given a
“Ration Book” . . .
Goods could only be purchased
with stamps
Victory Gardens
Because food was in such short
supply, Americans were encouraged
to plant Victory Gardens.
Spare land was used to plant gardens
to grow extra food – Vegetables,
herbs & fruits.
Gardens were planted on rooftops in
cities, backyards, vacant lots, school
yards, etc.
Significance of
Victory Gardens
• Over 20 million Victory
Gardens planted
producing 8 million
tons of produce
• Reduced pressure on
the food supply
• United communities &
encouraged patriotism
Millions of tons of scrap metal was collected and melted down to help
produce parts Children
of ships, tanks,were
ammunition
ableandtoother weapons for the
war effort
contribute by organizing
to collect scrap metal
Investing in the Government
• The U.S. government needed to raise
money to fund the war
• War Bonds: Loans made by citizens to the
U.S. government to raise capital for
financing military operations during the
war
How it worked
AFTER THE WAR . . .
Citizens cashed in
their Bonds and
received their money
back
ANOTHER WAY AMERICANS
SHOWED PATRIOTISM AND
PERFORMED THEIR CIVIC DUTY
By the end of
the War . . .
85 Million Americans
had purchased War
Bonds
$185 Billion raised to
fund the war effort
The Office of War Information
Agency established by the U.S. Government
responsible to encourage Americans to support the
war through propaganda, information and ideas.
Fear of Minorities
• U.S. government feared disloyalty and
sedition from German, Italian &
Japanese Americans
• Japanese-Americans
faced the worse
prejudice
Tragedy for Japanese
Americans
• After the Japanese
attacked Pearl
Harbor, Americans
questioned the
loyalty of Japanese
Americans
• Japanese were forced
to sell their homes
and businesses and
were sent to
“relocation camps”
• (Internment Camps)
Executive Order 9066
Order signed by Roosevelt making portions of the
United States “military zones” giving the U.S.
military the power to remove JapaneseAmericans from these areas.
• Mostly affected
Japanese living in
California,
Washington,
Oregon & Arizona
• 110,000 JapaneseAmericans
removed from
their homes &
business
Japanese Internment Camps
Japanese forced to leave their homes with only what they
could carry. Thousands of Japanese-Americans forced to
live in Internment Camps
Life in the Camps
• Nisei (Japanese Americans)
forced to sell homes,
businesses, property
• Lost an estimated $2 billion
• Poor conditions:
– Barbed-wire enclosures
– Barracks with cots and no
plumbing
– Meager food budget
– Low temperatures
Women in the War
• Woman had to work in the factories because all the
men had joined the armed forces
• 17 million women worked during war time
• They would work the same type of jobs men would
but didn’t make nearly as much money.
• Black and white women worked together
• Because so many women worked during
the war they wanted to continue working
after the war was over.
• This changed the face of women in America
and in the traditional American family.
Women Produced Wartime goods
Millions of women nationwide joined the work force both as a
matter of patriotic duty and to support their families.
Rosies worked on all phases of manufacturing, from electrical
wiring to putting the finishing touches on a bomber.
The government attempted to alleviate some of this stress between two demands-country and home--by creating federally funded daycare centers. There were
about 130,000 children in over 3,000 daycare centers at the height of the War
Nurses in the army
Rosie the Riveter
All the day long,
Whether rain or shine,
She's a part of the assembly line.
She's making history,
Working for victory,
Rosie the Riveter.
Keeps a sharp lookout for sabotage,
Sitting up there on the fuselage.
That little girl will do more than a male
will do.
Rosie's got a boyfriend, Charlie.
Charlie, he's a Marine.
Rosie is protecting Charlie,
Working overtime on the riveting machine
When they gave her a production "E",
She was as proud as she could be,
There's something true about,
Red, white, and blue about,
Rosie the Riveter.
The reversed strategy was to push the women back into the home with
promise of new and wonderful consumer goods to make their housewife
role easier and to ensure that their real happiness was in caring for their
men and children
Native Americans in WWII
• 1 out of 3 Native Americans served in WWII
• Many of them became part of the group, the
Navajo Code-Talkers
• The Code-Talkers used their own languages to
communicate messages across enemy lines
• Even though these messages were often
intercepted, no one was ever able to interpret
them
War Transforms a Nation
• Rural people flock to cities and many
acquire useful skills for the post war
economy
• Service Personnel eligible for benefits
under Serviceman’s Readjustment Act
(G. I. Bill)—loans to start small
businesses and $s to go to college.
• Origin of Middle Class norm in U. S.
All Blood Runs Red
The Tuskegee Airmen
Presentation by Robert L. Martinez
Primary Content Source: American Greats, edited by R.
Wilson & S. Marcus.
The Germans called them “Schwartze
Vogelmenshen,” Black Birdmen.
http://www.africanamericans.com/images2/TuskegeeAirmen1.jpg
The all-white American bomber crews whom
they escorted with courage and distinction
during WWII referred to them as the Black
Redtail Angels after their P-51s stabilizers,
which were painted bright red.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensaviation/124973655/
www.dailyaviator.com/images/2007-02/p-51-c-tuskegee.jpg
History has come to know these black pilots
as the Tuskegee Airmen, 926 men who
earned their wings at Tuskegee Army
Airfield from March 1942 through June
1946.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donniesdreams/2217158318/
• They flew more than two hundred bomber
escort missions without losing a single
bomber to the enemy.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/USPics34/1944tuskegee-p51.jpg
Sixty-six Tuskegee Airmen were killed in
action, another thirty-two shot down.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
• Theirs is the story of black men fighting for
the right to fly in a segregated military, for
a country still reluctant to grant them
certain freedoms, especially freedom of
opportunity.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
“We were fighting two battles… I flew for
my parents, for my race, for our battle, for
first-class citizenship and for my
country….”
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/USPics34/1944tuskegee-p51.jpg
“We were fighting for the 14 million black
Americans back home. We were there to break
down barriers, open a few doors, and do a job.”
– Maj. Joseph P. Gomer, USAF (ret) and member of the
Tuskegee Airmen
Maj. Joseph Gomer
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
African Americans had shown their ability
to fly before WWII. During WWI, Georgiaborn ace Eugene Jacques Bullard flew for
France. Known as the “Black Swallow of
Death.”
http://forum.valka.cz/galerie/albums/userpics/10490/normal_Eugene_Jacques_Bullard.jpg
• Bullard earned the highest French medals
for valor.
http://www.allenscreations.com/images/dsabrrth.jpg
Following WWI, black citizens had earned
pilots’ licenses, owned planes, and made
record-breaking cross-country flights.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/USPics34/1944tuskegee-p51.jpg
• Yet, in 1939, when President Roosevelt
started the Civilian Pilot Training Program
to train 20,000 college students a year for
private flight-level licenses, not a single
black was allowed to participate.
http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/pubs/pubDetail.cfm?pubID=102
http://www.historicaldocuments.com/FranklinRoosevelt_FiresideChats.gif
It took the efforts of America’s most
prominent African-American leaders and a
little-known senator from Missouri (Harry S.
Truman) to persuade the Congress to accept
and train black pilots.
Senator
Harry S. Truman
of Missouri.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/97-2081.jpg
• The Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a black
vocational college founded by Booker T.
Washington, was selected as one of the
training sites.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
• First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the
institute and flew with Tuskegee’s black
flying instructor Charles “Chief” Anderson.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
• What she saw and that flight convinced her
that the school deserved the governments
full support.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scmammy/3143371572/
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
• President Roosevelt declared Tuskegee an
official training site for African-American
pilots and the 99th Pursuit Squadron was
established.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/USPics34/1944tuskegee-p51.jpg
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
Barracks inspection at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
In March 1942, the Tuskegee Airmen began
flying combat missions.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
• Four hundred and fifty of the 926 pilots
who earned wings at Tuskegee would
participate in the battles to control the sky
during WWII.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/USPics34/1944tuskegee-p51.jpg
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
• On July 26, 1948, Truman, by then
president, desegregated the military. The
Tuskegee Airmen’s performance helped
accelerate the decision.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/tuskegee2.html
“It was a wondrous sight to see those escort
fighter planes coming up to take care of us…They
were flown by men with enormous skill and
coordination and competence.”
– WWII Veteran, Former Senator, and presidential
candidate George McGovern
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/USPics34/1944tuskegee-p51.jpg
The European Theater
• 22 black combat units in Europe:
– 9 field artillery, 1 anti-aircraft, 2
tank, 2 tank destroyer, & 8
engineer combat battalions
– 1st Army integrated some units at
platoon level in 1945 due to
manpower shortages
– 761st Tank Battalion fought in Battle
of Bulge
– 92nd Division earned over 12,000
decorations & citations fighting in
Italy
– Capt. Charles L. Thomas of 614th
Tank Destroyer battalion & 1st Lt.
John L. Fox of 92nd Division among
7 recipients of Medal of Honor in
Jan. 1997
Logo of the
92nd Division
Trouble on the Home Front
• Most camps located in South, so racial
incidents occurred inevitably
– Some camp commanders banned black newspapers
& segregated transportation and entertainment
– War Dept. issued order in July 1944 forbidding
segregation, but met with hostility
– Serious riots at Ft. Bragg, Camp Robinson, Camp
Davis, Camp Lee & Ft. Dix
• Renewed Great Migration led to renewed
racial tension in northern cities
– June 1943 riot in Detroit left 25 blacks and 9
whites dead
Detroit Riot, 1943
Truman and Desegregation
• Freedom to Serve
(1948) outlined steps
• Executive Order 9981
began process
• All jobs opened to
qualified personnel
regardless of race in
1949
• Gen. Matthew
Ridgeway integrated
army in Korea, 1950-51
The End