Transcript Minorities and the home front

War on the Home Front
By: Sarah Geary
African Americans Join the Forces
A total of 1,056,841 African Americans ages 1837 enlisted into the armed forces in 1944.
 They went into the Army, Navy, Marine Corps,
and Coast Guard.
 African Americans fought in separate units. One
group called the Tuskegee Airmen, became the
first African American flying unit in the U.S.
military.
 In 1945 the enlistment of African
Americans had lowered because of the
severe restrictions placed against their
enlistment.

Zoot Suit Riots

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that
erupted in Los Angeles, Cali.

They were between sailors and soldiers stationed
in the city and Mexican American kids.


They started when the Mexican kids that were
wearing Zoot Suits assaulted a group of
servicemen so they started attacking all the men
and kids that were wearing Zoot Suits.
Several hundred Mexicans and 9 sailors were
arrested after several days of fighting.
Internment Camps


There were 10 main Japanese internment camps or
“relocation centers”, around the U.S.
They were located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona,
Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas.
The Japanese Americans were
sent to these camps because there
was a danger of those of
Japanese descent spying for them.

Cont’.




About 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to
the camps during WWII.
The conditions were hard. They were housed in
barracks and had to use communal areas for
washing, laundry, and eating.
They were very overcrowded and many died of
diseases that spread throughout the camps.
Two and a half years after the camps opened
President Roosevelt closed the camps. The last
camp was finally closed in 1945.
Victory Gardens



The victory garden was to help with the
rationing that was going on throughout
the United States.
A victory garden was a home vegetable
garden planted to add to the home food
supply and replace farm produce sent to
feed the soldiers.
By 1943 victory gardens produced
about one third of the country’s fresh
vegetables.
Cont’.



About 20 million Americans planted victory
gardens in their backyards, empty lots, and even
on some city rooftops.
In 1943 families bought about 315,000 pressure
cookers which were used in the canning process.
It was estimated that about 9-10 millions tons of
fruits and vegetables were harvested, an amount
equal to all commercial production of fresh
vegetables.
Rationing

In Jan. 1940 some foods had to be rationed like
canned meat, vegetables, and condensed milk.

The foods had to be rationed because Germans
had bombed our food ships and stores.

The only food that was available for the people
was on ration.

There was a coupon or points system that
everybody had to use and they were given 16 pts.
to each person per month. It was later raised to
20 points.
Cont’.




Pregnant, nursing women, and babies got special
supplies of milk, cod liver oil, and orange juice.
In July 1940 there was a complete ban on the
making or selling of iced cakes.
Clothes rationing began in June 1941 and a new
kind of clothing, utility clothing, was introduced,
using cheap materials and the minimum amount of
cloth.
The points system ended in 1950. Rationing
continued in the U.S for 14 years until 1954,
when meat was finally de-rationed.
Women During War



Women played a very important role
during WWII.
Some worked as nurses, in the navy,
pilots, and in the marines.
Nurses received 1,619 medals during the
war. 16 medals were awarded to nurses
who died as a result of enemy fire. 16
women also even received the Purple
Heart.
Questions


How did the kids help out during the war?
- The kids would go to dump grounds and get metal scraps
for money or they would recycle metal pop cans or
anything that they used with metal.
What were some jobs that the women had?
-They mainly worked as nurses in the war, journalists,
factory workers, photographers, and cooks.
*If you had a choice of joining the war back then would
you of??
THE
END