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The Home Front. American Society during WWII. The Armed Forces. Young men were eager to volunteer. 5 million men volunteered Draft: mandatory recruitment for military service. 10 million men drafted. The Armed Forces cont’d.
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The Home Front American Society during WWII
The Armed Forces • Young men were eager to volunteer. 5 million men volunteered • Draft: mandatory recruitment for military service. 10 million men drafted
The Armed Forces cont’d • The Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is established in May 1945 [just WAC in July 1943] • 350,000 women served in the auxiliaries “There are innumerable duties now being performed by soldiers that can be done better by women” -General George Marshall Nurses, drivers, electricians, pilots…; non-combat
The Armed Forces cont’d • “Just carve on my tombstone, ‘Here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow man for the protection of a white man.’” –African-American draftee • “Why die for democracy in another country when we don’t even have it here?” –African-American newspaper editorial • Minorities treated unequally in the United States at this point: segregation, racism, discrimination • Japanese-American were put in concentration camps during WWII
The Armed Forces cont’d Navajo Code Talkers Tuskegee Airmen American Latinos Japanese-Americans
Production and rationing World War II ended the Great Depression American factories were converted to produce the tools and supplies for war ~instead of making consumer goods, factories were making supplies for the armed forces rationing
Rationing 1930s 1940s
Zoot Suit Riots "Marching through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, a mob of several thousand soldiers, sailors, and civilians, proceeded to beat up every zootsuiter they could find […] Mexicans, and some Filipinos and Negroes, were jerked from their seats, pushed into the streets and beaten with a sadistic frenzy.“ -C. McWilliams Los Angeles, 1943: For 5 days, Sailors and Marines attacked young men who wore the zoot suit -more than 150 injured -500 arrested for “rioting” or “vagrancy”
Zoot Suit Riots cont’d • "The question goes deeper than just suits. It is a racial protest. I have been worried for a long time about the Mexican racial situation. It is a problem with roots going a long way back, and we do not always face these problems as we should." – First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt • The L.A. Times responded by accusing Mrs. Roosevelt of having communist leanings and stirring "race discord".