Transcript 10.03—WWII and American Life

WWII and American Life
Mobilizing for War, Home Front,
and Propaganda
Objective 10.03
Mobilizing for War
• Industry
– Became greatest in the world
– Started before Pearl Harbor
– Cost-Plus helped production—paid
companies the cost of producing goods
plus percentage
– Industries switched—automobile plants
produced tanks, etc.
•Building Forces
–Selective Service and Training Act
•Passed in Sept. 1940
•First peace time conscription
–G.I.s
•Aptitude tests and physical exams
•Low supplies for training
–Segregated military
•Many didn’t want to fight
•Often given service jobs
–Women
•Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
–Est. 1942
–Over 150,000 served
•68,000 nurses served
The Home Front
•Women
–4 million clerical jobs
–2.5 million factory jobs
–“Rosie the Riveter” posters called
for hiring women
•Minorities
–Great Migration resumes
–African Americans demand work
•Exec. Order 8802, 1941—no
discrimination
–200,000 Mexicans migrated to
help farmers in the SW
•Daily Life
–Rationing
•Food
•Gas and rubber
•Coupon Books
–Victory Gardens
•Pushed by propaganda
•Made anywhere possible
• Scrap Drives
– Collection of spare rubber and metal
– Donations of pots, tires, bumpers,
broken radiators, rusted bikes, etc.
– Set up fat collecting stations
• Paying for War
– Spent $300 billion
– Raised taxes
– War Bonds
Propaganda
•War Posters
•Newsreels
•Pamphlets dropped on enemies to
effect their moral