THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR II

1. THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR II After World War II, Americans adjust to new economic opportunities and harsh social tensions.

2. Learning Objectives:Section 4 - The Home Front • 1. Describe the economic and social changes that reshaped American life during World War II. • 2. Summarize both the opportunities and the discrimination African Americans and other minorities experienced during the war.

3. SECTION 4 The Home Front Opportunity and Adjustment • Economic Gains • Defense industries boom, unemployment falls to 1.2% in 1944 • - average pay rises 10% during war • Farmers prosper from rising crop prices, increase in production • - many pay off mortgages • Percentage of women in work force rises to 35% Continued . . . NEXT

4. SECTION 4: THE HOME FRONT • The war provided a lift to the U.S. economy • Jobs were abundant and despite rationing and shortages, people had money to spend • By the end of the war, America was the world’s dominant economic and military power

5. ECONOMIC GAINS • Unemployment fell to only 1.2% by 1944 and wages rose 35% • Farmers too benefited as production doubled and income tripled

6. A – How did World War II cause the U.S. population to shift? • In towns and cities with defense plants, population increased. • African American left the South for factory jobs in the North and West.

7. GR:The Impact of the War

8. B – How did the war affect families and personal lives? • During the war, mothers became single parents and women took jobs outside the home. • The war helped create new families.

9. The Impact of the War

10. SECTION 4 continuedOpportunity and Adjustment • Population Shifts • War triggers mass migrations to towns with defense industries • Social Adjustments • Families adjust to fathers in military; mothers rear children alone • Families must get to know each other again after fathers return • Many couples rush to marry before husband goes overseas • 1944 GI Bill of Rights or Servicemen’s Readjustment Act: • - pays education; loan guarantees for homes, new businesses NEXT

11. POPULATION SHIFTS • The war triggered the greatest mass migration in American history • More than a million newcomers poured into California between 1941-1944 • African Americans again shifted from south to north

12. The Impact of the War

13. WOMEN MAKE GAINS • Women enjoyed economic gains during the war, although many lost their jobs after the war • Over 6 million women entered the work force for the first time • Over 1/3 were in the defense industry

14. The Impact of the War

15. GI BILL HELPS RETURNING VETS • To help returning servicemen ease back into civilian life, Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill of Rights) • The act provided education for 7.8 million vets

16. The Impact of the War

17. SECTION 4 Discrimination and Reaction Civil Rights Protests • Racial tensions rise in overcrowded Northern cities James Farmer founds Congress of Racial Equality(CORE) - works on racial segregation in North • 1943 racial violence sweeps across country; Detroit riots worst case • Tension in Los Angeles • Anti-Mexican zoot suit riots involve thousands servicemen, civilians NEXT

18. The Impact of the War

20. ZOOT SUIT • A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit) is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing became popular within the African American, Chicano and Italian American communities during the 1940s.[1][2] In Britain the bright-coloured suits with velvet lapels worn by Teddy Boys bore a slight resemblance to zoot suits in the length of the jacket.

21. The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, between Anglo Americansailors and Marines stationed in the city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. Mexican Americans and military servicemen were the main parties in the riots, and some African American and Filipino/Filipino American youths were involved as well.[1] The Zoot Suit Riots were in part the effect of the infamous Sleepy Lagoon murder trial which followed the death of a young Latino man in a barrio near Los Angeles. The incident triggered similar attacks against Latinos in Beaumont, Texas; Chicago; San Diego; Oakland, California; Detroit; Evansville, Indiana; Philadelphia; and New York.[2]

25. Amelia Venegas Pachuca • arrested for carrying brass knuckles during the Zoot Suit riot summer of 1943 in Los Angeles • 22 year old Venegas, a wife of a sailor (fighting overseas), • was going to the store with a baby in her arms to get some milk

28. C – What caused the race riots in the 1940’s? • Discrimination, racism, concentration of minorities in cities.

29. The Impact of the War

30. SECTION 4 Internment of Japanese Americans • Japanese Americans Placed in Internment • Camps • Hawaii governor forced to order internment(confinement) of Japanese • 1942 FDR signs removal of Japanese Americans in four states • U.S. Army forces 110,000 Japanese Americans into prison camps • 1944 Korematsu v. United States—Court rules in favor of internment • After war, Japanese American Citizens League pushes for compensation • 1988, Congress grants $20,000 to everyone sent to relocation camp NEXT

31. INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS • When the war began, 120,000 Japanese Americans lived in the U.S. – mostly on the West Coast • After Pearl Harbor, many people were suspicious of possible spy activity by Japanese Americans • In 1942, FDR ordered Japanese Americans into 10 relocation centers Japanese Americans felt the sting of discrimination during WWII

32. Location of the 10 Internment camps

33. Jerome camp in Arkansas

34. U.S. PAYS REPARATIONS TO JAPANESE • In the late 1980s, President Reagan signed into law a bill that provided $20,000 to every Japanese American sent to a relocation camp • The checks were sent out in 1990 along with a note from President Bush saying, “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past . . . we now recognize that serious wrongs were done to Japanese Americans during WWII.” Today the U.S. is home to more than 1,000,000 Japanese-Americans

35. Nearly 59 years after the end of World War II, the National World War II Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, May 29, 2004 to honor the 408,680 Americans who died in the conflict

36. D – Why did President Roosevelt order the internment of Japanese-Americans? • Because some people perceived them as a threat to national security.

37. The Impact of the War