Transcript The American Home Front

The American Home
Front
December 7, 1941 - 1945
The American Home Front
 Objectives:
• Review events of December 7th 1941
• Discuss American Government’s reaction to
attacks.
• View events and actions taken by the American
people.
• Explain causes and events of the entrance of the
United States into the war.
• Words to know: Ration, G.I., Industry, front,
neutrality, the Women’s movement, two front war.
What do we know about our
country?
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What makes it up? How many states?
What are the regions?
What do we produce?
Do we have many natural resources?
Can we survive on our own now?
Were we able to survive on our own in 1941?
What did Germany and Japan think of this
country?
A “Sleeping Giant” was awakened on December
7th.
The American Home Front
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After the attack on Pearl
Harbor, President
Roosevelt read his famous
speech to Congress and
the United States Declared
War on Japan.
This led Germany and Italy
to declare war on the U.S.
World War II was now at
America’s shores. (so
much for neutrality).
The American Home Front
Allies
The Axis
Japan
Britain
Germany
United
States
Soviet
Union
Other countries around the world join the war on
the two sides. They help with soldiers, food,
weapons, bases etc.
Italy
The American Home Front
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The American People were
asked by the government to
ration everything.
The government also sold
bonds or borrowed money from
its own people to help with the
war.
They needed the money
because they needed to help
the Allies as well as
themselves. The U.S. was also
not a very rich country and
desperately needed money.
The Goal was to help allies
while the U.S. prepared.
The American Home Front
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In the U.S., Americans were
scared and were afraid that
Japan was targeting California
(LA, San Francisco,),
Washington and Oregon.
In preparation they passed:
Executive Order 9066
Tanks and soldiers were also
sent to watch and protect the
coasts.
Artillery was prepared and
smaller ships were patrolling.
In reality, the U.S. could do
little to defend itself at this
time.
The American Home Front
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Off the coast of Florida, New
York (the East coast), Germany
was sinking our merchant ships
with its submarines. Germany
believed that the U.S. was
assisting G. Britain and France.
In the west, the U.S. was losing
battles in Asia. We had lost the
Phillipines as well as several of
our smaller island territories.
Australia and India were under
attack and it looked like China
would fall soon to Japan. It did
not look good for America or
the Allies.
The American Home Front
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The American military was not
prepared for an all out war.
Remember it only had 300,000
men. About the same size as
Denmark’s.
The U.S. calls on American
men to enlist. The American
people respond.
In fact the Government is
overwhelmed by the number
that decide to join.
Patriotism sweeps the country.
U.S. Military
16,000,000
14,000,000
12,000,000
10,000,000
8,000,000
6,000,000
4,000,000
2,000,000
0
Pre-Attack
After
The American Home Front
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American Industry had to go
from peace time production
to war time production(which
takes a lot of time).
GM, Ford, and Chrysler went
from creating cars to tanks.
Boeing from regular
airplanes to bombers and
fighter jets.
Gun makers like Colt, from
hunting rifles to machine
guns, flamethrowers, war
rifles.
The American Home Front
Ship and Submarine Production
25
20
15
Ships
and Subs
10
5
0
Before
After
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With the country in full
war mode, the U.S. was
producing weapons faster
than anybody around
thought that it would or
could.
 In one month, the U.S.
was able to produce up to
4,000 tanks and 4,500
planes.
 Ship production also
increased dramatically to
help protect our coasts.
The American Home Front
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Farms were producing as much
food as possible. Meats and
cereals were rationed and
prepped for the war effort.
Much of the food went to
Britain and Russia. Both
countries had already lost
millions of soldiers and citizens
because of the war and as a
result of starvation.
 Families turned in all the scrap
metal they could as well as oil
and gasoline to help.
 The U.S. accepted help even
from children.
The American Home Front
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20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
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Women
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Before
After
The war had an unintended
effect.
Women joined the
workforce. Before the war,
only about 3 million worked
in the U.S. Most were
housewives and raised
families.
Since so many men went to
war, the U.S. was desperate
for workers to produce
weapons. So they replaced
the men with women.
The American Home Front
The American Gov’t
continued work on
secret weapons for
WWII. Some were not
yet ready.
 The Manhattan Project
was part of this secret
program. It was begun
in 1941, the day before
Dec. 7th attack.
 The project would
ultimately end WWII.
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