Transcript American Homefront WWII

American Homefront WWII
War Posters, Minorities, and
Japanese Internment
Homefront Themes
• “Arsenal of Democracy”
• Need to out produce enemies
• Need for Speed
Recruitment
• First Peacetime Draft
US Home Front
“How Can You Do Your Part?”
WPB
War Production Board
Conservation
of Materials
Office of Price
Administration
“Rosie the
Riveter”
Women in
Govt. jobs
and Armed
Forces
“Rosie the Riveter”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2tt1h
53jM
How to pay for War?
Victory Bonds
Income Taxes taken
from paychecks
Labor
A. Philip
Randolph
- War Labor Board
• African
Americans in
War
Industries
• Fair
Employment
Practices
Committee
• (FEPC)
- Smith-Connally
Anti-Strike Act
Smith-Connally (War Labor
disputes Act)
• 1943--The Act allowed the federal
government to seize and operate
industries threatened by or under strikes
that would interfere with war production,
and prohibited unions from making
contributions in federal elections.
Fair Employment Practices
Committee
• Executive Order 8802 was signed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt on June 25, 1941, to prohibit racial discrimination in the
national defense industry. It was the first federal action, though not a
law, to promote equal opportunity and prohibit employment
discrimination in the United States. The President's statement that
accompanied the Order cited the war effort, saying that "the
democratic way of life within the nation can be defended
successfully only with the help and support of all groups," and cited
reports of discrimination:
• “There is evidence available that needed workers have
been barred from industries engaged in defense
production solely because of considerations of race,
creed, color or national origin, to the detriment of
workers' morale and of national unity”
A. Philip Randolph
Action: Randolph threatens to march on
Washington in June, 1941.
Result: FDR issued Executive Order 8802 (Fair
Employment Act), barring discrimination in
defense industries and federal bureaus.
_______________________________________
Action: After WWII, Randolph led a campaign in
favor of racial equality in the military.
Result: Truman issued executive order 9981 in
July, 1948, banning segregation in the armed
forces.
Minorities in
Armed Service
Dorie
Miller
Tuskegee Airmen
Nisei
Soldiers
-Navajo
Codetalkers
Silence…
“loose lips sink ships”
Effects of the War on the
Home front
•
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•
End of the Great Depression
Increase in wages=> Post-war prosperity
Conservation=> Post-war consumption
Govt. influence on eco. and debt
Civil Rights movement/ Opportunities
(Women and minorities)
• CIA = search for Communists
Assessing Japanese Internment
• Exec. Order 9066
• Court Cases
• Korematsu v. US
• Endo Case
• 1988 Settlement
Justification
• Was justified by the Government in two
ways:
– 1. The Government claimed that American
citizens of Japanese ancestry were more loyal
to Japan than to their own country.
– 2. The Government claimed that because
Japan had attacked the U.S. territory of
Hawaii, those Americans of Japanese
ancestry might have helped Japan.
Non-citizen Italians and Germans
(shown on this map) were also
relocated
• The population of German citizens in the United
States – not to mention American citizens of
German birth – was far too large for a general
policy of internment comparable to that used in
the case of the Japanese in America.
• Instead, German citizens were detained and
evicted from coastal areas on an individual
basis. The War Department considered mass
expulsions from coastal areas for reasons of
military security, but never executed such plans.
Camp Conditions
• These camps were over crowded and provided
poor living conditions.
– The buildings were small framed buildings with no
plumbing or cooking areas.
• Coal was hard to find to keep them warm so they slept under
many blankets.
• entire families lived in one room cell
• had to use communal areas for washing, laundry and eating
• Food was very expensive (48 cents per internee).
• Leadership positions were only offered to the Nisei
(American-born Japanese) and not the older generations
(Called the lssei), who were forced to watch their children be
promoted while they themselves were demoted.
Fred Korematsu
• Fred Korematsu was born and raised in
Alameda County, California.
• He was of Japanese ancestry but knew
nothing when it came to the country of
Japan.
• In June 1941 he tried to enlist in the Navy
but denied due to his poor health
• Fred ended up working in a shipyard as a
welder
Korematsu Case
• May 9, 1942: all the Japanese people are ordered to
leave the Pacific Coastal region.
– Korematsu disobeyed because he believed that as a U.S citizen
the evacuation order should not apply to him.
– He was then arrested and charged with violating the order of
commander of Military Area No. 1.
– His claim was that military commanders had denied Japanese
Americans their constitutional rights
• After losing in the Court of Appeals, he appealed to the United
States Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the
deportation center.
– Court upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the Pacific
coastal region.
– They said that the needs of national security justified the orders.
• The ruling has never been revoked by law but in 1988
congress offered payments of $20,000 as compensation
Korematsu
• Korematsu v. United States, (1944), was
a landmark United States Supreme Court
case concerning the constitutionality of
Executive Order 9066, which ordered
Japanese Americans into internment
camps during World War II regardless of
citizenship.
Endo Case
• Ex parte Endo, or Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, (1944) was
a United States Supreme Court decision, handed down
on December 18, 1944, the same day as their decision
in Korematsu v. United States. In their decision, the
Supreme Court ruled that, regardless of whether the
United States Government had a right to exclude people
of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast during World
War II, they could not continue to detain a citizen that the
government itself conceded was loyal to the United
States. This decision helped lead to the re-opening of
the West Coast for resettlement by Japanese-American
citizens following their internment in camps across the
United States during World War II.
• In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald
Reagan signed legislation which apologized for
the internment on behalf of the U.S. government.
The legislation said that government actions
were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria,
and a failure of political leadership". The U.S.
government eventually disbursed more than
$1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese
Americans who had been interned and their
heirs.
The Ugly Side of the
Homefront
Life Magazine December 1941
• http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/foster/lifemag.htm
Chinese
Japanese
Origins of Japanese
Internment
George Takei
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yogXJl9
H9z0
Zoot Suit Riots
Jewish Refugees
- St. Louis
- Reports of
Discrimination