War on the Home Front

War on the Home Front By: Sarah Geary

African Americans Join the Forces • A total of 1,056,841 African Americans ages 18-37 enlisted into the armed forces in 1944. • They went into the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. • African Americans fought in separate units. One group called the Tuskegee Airmen, became the first African American flying unit in the U.S. military. • In 1945 the enlistment of African Americans had lowered because of the severe restrictions placed against their enlistment.

Zoot Suit Riots • The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, Cali. • They were between sailors and soldiers stationed in the city and Mexican American kids. • They started when the Mexican kids that were wearing Zoot Suits assaulted a group of servicemen so they started attacking all the men and kids that were wearing Zoot Suits. • Several hundred Mexicans and 9 sailors were arrested after several days of fighting.

Internment Camps • There were 10 main Japanese internment camps or “relocation centers”, around the U.S. • They were located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. • The Japanese Americans were sent to these camps because there was a danger of those of Japanese descent spying for them.

Cont’. • About 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to the camps during WWII. • The conditions were hard. They were housed in barracks and had to use communal areas for washing, laundry, and eating. • They were very overcrowded and many died of diseases that spread throughout the camps. • Two and a half years after the camps opened President Roosevelt closed the camps. The last camp was finally closed in 1945.

Victory Gardens • The victory garden was to help with the rationing that was going on throughout the United States. • A victory garden was a home vegetable garden planted to add to the home food supply and replace farm produce sent to feed the soldiers. • By 1943 victory gardens produced about one third of the country’s fresh vegetables.

Cont’. • About 20 million Americans planted victory gardens in their backyards, empty lots, and even on some city rooftops. • In 1943 families bought about 315,000 pressure cookers which were used in the canning process. • It was estimated that about 9-10 millions tons of fruits and vegetables were harvested, an amount equal to all commercial production of fresh vegetables.

Rationing • In Jan. 1940 some foods had to be rationed like canned meat, vegetables, and condensed milk. • The foods had to be rationed because Germans had bombed our food ships and stores. • The only food that was available for the people was on ration. • There was a coupon or points system that everybody had to use and they were given 16 pts. to each person per month. It was later raised to 20 points.

Cont’. • Pregnant, nursing women, and babies got special supplies of milk, cod liver oil, and orange juice. • In July 1940 there was a complete ban on the making or selling of iced cakes. • Clothes rationing began in June 1941 and a new kind of clothing, utility clothing, was introduced, using cheap materials and the minimum amount of cloth. • The points system ended in 1950. Rationing continued in the U.S for 14 years until 1954, when meat was finally de-rationed.

Women During War • Women played a very important role during WWII. • Some worked as nurses, in the navy, pilots, and in the marines. • Nurses received 1,619 medals during the war. 16 medals were awarded to nurses who died as a result of enemy fire. 16 women also even received the Purple Heart.

Questions • How did the kids help out during the war? - The kids would go to dump grounds and get metal scraps for money or they would recycle metal pop cans or anything that they used with metal. • What were some jobs that the women had? -They mainly worked as nurses in the war, journalists, factory workers, photographers, and cooks. *If you had a choice of joining the war back then would you of??

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War on the Home Front