World War II at Home

							World War II at Home
The Shift to Wartime Production
               Overview
Selling weapons to the Allies and buying
  weapons for ourselves will bring our
  economy out of the Depression. Ultimately,
  success depends upon our ability to produce
Mobilizing the Economy for War
• Government Action
  – Office of Price Administration (OPA)
     • Kept prices from going up
     • Oversaw Rationing
  – War Production Board
     • Oversaw conversion of peacetime industries to
       wartime industry.
• Industrial Conversion
  – Shirt Factories--mosquito netting.
  – Typewriter plants--machine guns
  – Auto factories--bombers (cars were rationed)
  – Ford built the Willow run Plant--produced 340
    planes / month on a mile long assembly line.
  – Henry J. Kaiser
      • Revolutionized ship building by building sections of
        the ship in different parts of the shipyard.
      • Liberty Ships in 1941 took 150 days to build.
        Kaiser built them in 4.
• Coca Cola
  – Promised “We will see that every man in
    uniform gets a bottle of Coca Cola for 5¢
  – Sold over 5 million
• The “Great Arsenal of Democracy”
  – By mid 1945 the US had made:
     •   300k planes
     •   80K landing craft
     •   100K Tanks and Armored Cars
     •   5,600 Merchant ships
     •   6 million rifles, carbines and machine guns.
     •   41 billion rounds of ammunition
Douglas Aircraft B-18
Willow Run Plant (2.5 M sq ft.)
Tank Production
Liberty Ship
Henry J. Kaiser
SS Robert E. Peary
     Completed in 4 days
  Financing the War 1939-1945
• 1939 Spending was $9.4 billion; 1945 $95.2
  billion
• GNP more than doubled
• 41% of the war has financed by higher taxes
• The remainder was borrowed from banks,
  private investors and the public.
• Deficit spending boosted the economy, but
  the accumulated debt caused problems later
  on.
Daily Life on the Home Front
                Pop Culture
• Books and Movies
  – The paperback book market skyrocketed
  – 60% of Americans went to the movies every
    week.
• Baseball
  – 4K of the 5,700 players were in the war.
  – Women’ professional ball
     • Organized by Phillip Wrigley
     • All American Girls Softball League / Baseball
• Popular Music
  – “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
  – “White Christmas” Bing Crosby
      Shortages and Controls
• Unavailable Goods
  – Metal for zippers made guns
  – Rubber for girdles made tires
  – Nylon was used for parachutes not stockings
• Rationed Goods
  – Sugar was scarce b/c of the fall of the
    Philippines
  – Rationing of food and clothes was based on a
    point system issued in ration books. Once
    points were used, could not buy more
  – Gas was rationed
      Enlisting Public Support
• Office of War Mobilization
  – Purpose--get the public to support the war in
    every way
  – Examples
     • Victory Gardens
        – by 1943 produced 1/3 of fresh vegetables in the US
     • Air Raid blackouts on the coasts
     • VA--volunteers raised sunken ships in the James
       River for parts and scrap.
• Metal Drives
• Rubber drives
• Saved kitchen grease to collect glycerin to make
  powder for bullets
• Slogans
   – “Play your Part”
   – “Conserve and Collect”
   – “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Women and the War
 “Rosie the Riveter”
        Changes for Women
• The government actively recruited women
  for the workforce.
• Married women entered the work force and
  for the 1st time outnumbered single women.
• At one point women made up 35% of the
  workforce.
        Benefits for Women
• More money to pay off debts incurred
  during the depression.
• Had challenging and interesting work
  opportunities.
• Percentage of African American women
  working went from 6.8% to 18 %.
                Problems
• Hostile reactions from other workers.
• Less pay than men for the same job.
• Worried about leaving children at home.
            After the War
• Industry and government encouraged
  women to leave their public jobs.
• Were encouraged to focus on homemaking.
The Struggle for Justice at Home
 Discrimination against African
          Americans
• Economic Discrimination
  – 1941-- 1/5 were unemployed
  – Limited housing available
  – Limited opportunities to advance in the
    workplace
  – The Jim Crow System remained strong in the
    South.
• Military
  – Whites and African Americans were strictly
    segregated.
• African Americans pushed the “Double V”
  campaign
        A. Phillip Randolph
• Pushed for Black rights in the labor
  movement
• Helped the “Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
  Porters” railway union gain successes.
                Mexicans
• Bracero Program
  – Agreement b/w the US and Mexico
  – >200K workers allowed to enter the US and
    work on farms
        Japanese Americans
• 1941--127K in the US, mostly on the west
  coast.
• 2/3 were Nisei
• Relocation
  – Feb. 19, 1942 FDR issued Executive Order
    9066
  – The War Relocation Authority removed all
    persons of Japanese ancestry inland to
    internment camps.
– Most could not secure their property before
  leaving for the camps
– Many lost businesses, farms, homes and other
  property.
– Court Challenges
   • 4 cases went to the US Supreme Court and in each
     the Constitutionality of internment camps were
     upheld.
   • 1988 Congress awarded each surviving Japanese
     American who’d been interned $10K tax free
   • The government also officially apologized.