Transcript Women And Minorities in WWII

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USA
Women
Homefront
After
War?
JapaneseAmerican
Latinos
AfricanAmerican
Navajo (Native
Americans)
U.S. Home front
Rationing of war
supplies
Buying Liberty bonds to
help finance the war
Women and Minorities in WWII
 Following the United States' entry into World War
II, women filled male jobs left vacant by those who
had gone off to fight.
 Helped in the production of military hardware.
 women who wore hard-hats and overalls and
operated heavy machinery represented a radical
departure from the traditional American feminine
ideal of housewife and mother.
"Do the Job He Left Behind" was a
campaign slogan that emphasized
women’s patriotism for the war
effort.
Norman Rockwell portrayed Rosie
as a monumental figure clad in
overalls and a work-shirt with the
sleeves rolled up to reveal her
powerful, muscular arms
The entire country pulled together to
support the war effort and build the
"Arsenal of Democracy."
Rose Will Monroe, riveter at the Ford Willow Run
airplane factory, became a "Rosie the Riveter" icon
by starring in a film campaign to increase the sale of
war bonds.
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
WWII Women
•(+) 250,000 women joined the military/ Wacs &
Waves
•(+) 6 million women joined the workforce “Rosie the
Riveter”
•(+) 3 million women joined labor unions
•(-) Government Girls
•(-) Work still categorized by gender and race
•(-) Women pilots not considered as vets
•(-) Lack of day care facilities led to Latch-Key
Children
•(-) Increased divorce rate
Did women stay in the workforce??
 Soldiers began returning home and they wanted their
jobs back.
 By late 1944, magazines were advertising "aftervictory" homes, hoping to promote women’s return to
their previous role as homemaker.
 Some women, who needed to work in order to survive,
were forced back into lower-paying jobs consisting
mostly of the stereotypical female occupations.
 The labor division between men and women was never
totally eliminated, and attitudes returned to their
original position that women’s first priority should be as
homemakers.
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
 Imagine you are living in the United States during World
War II. The United States government feels that your ethnic
group is a threat to national security. The president issues an
order that states, “If you are of Japanese ancestry, you must
report to a ‘relocation camp’ with only the belongings you
can carry.” You can no longer report to your job, attend
school, or worship at your usual place of worship. You are
given a place to sleep in a barracks with hundreds of others
now interned with you. You must eat and sleep at scheduled
times, and you are restricted to the perimeter of the camp,
which is guarded by armed military personnel.

 This scenario was reality for Japanese-Americans during
World War II as a result of Roosevelt issuing Executive
Order 9066.
The Plight of Japanese Americans
• After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941,
fear of a Japanese invasion and of subversive acts by
Japanese Americans prompted the government to
move more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry
to 10 relocation camps.
More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese Ancestry
were incarcerated in 10 camps scattered throughout
Western states during World War II
 Japanese Americans, half of whom were
children, were incarcerated for up to 4 years,
without due process of law or any factual basis,
in bleak, remote camps surrounded by barbed
wire and armed guards.
 They were forced to evacuate their homes and
leave their jobs; in some cases family members
were separated and put into different camps.
President Roosevelt himself called the 10
facilities "concentration camps."
 Some Japanese Americans died in the camps
due to inadequate medical care and the
emotional stresses they encountered. Several
were killed by military guards posted for
allegedly resisting orders.
Korematsu v. United States
Fred Korematsu was arrested and convicted for
not reporting to an assembly center in May 1942
The court ruled during WWII, that the
internment of Japanese Americans such as
Fred Korematsu was legal because the posed a
potential threat to the United States. This
illustrates the idea that freedoms of liberty and
speech can and have been restricted during the
extreme cases, such as wartime.
What about Native Americans;
How were they affected by
WWII?
Navajo Code Talkers
The Code used by the Navajo Code Talkers created
messages by first translating Navajo words into
English, then using the first letter of each English
word to decipher the meaning. Because different
Navajo words might be translated into different
English words for the same letter, the code was
especially difficult to decipher
Navajo Code Talkers were used in Guadalcanal, Tarawa,
Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa and were a major reason
for the success of the U.S. Marines. According to Major
Connor, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would
never have taken Iwo Jima."
World War II African American
 African Americans (+/-)
 (+) 700,000 African Americans
served in the war
 (+) Creation of the Office of FEPC /
investigate discrimination in the War
Industries
 (+) Racial discrimination was
prohibited in the War industries
 (+) 1944 -CORE’s victory /
elimination of segregation in DC
restaurants
World War II African Americans
 (+) Partial integration of the Army &




Navy
(+) push towards post war Civil Rights
movement
(+) Improved economic condition
(-) Not allowed to serve in the Marines
(-) Not allowed to join the Air Force at
first
World War II Latinos
 Hispanic Americans (+/-)
 (+) 300,000 Hispanic Americans
served in the war
 (+) Economic conditions
improved (farm to war industries)
 (+) Braceros Programs / war time
labor shortages