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The Home Front Mobilizing the Home Front

The Home Front Mobilizing the Home Front. A. Building National Morale. America was shocked by Pearl Harbor; celebrities boosted support for the war at home, abroad

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The Home Front Mobilizing the Home Front

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  1. The Home FrontMobilizing the Home Front

  2. A.Building National Morale • America was shocked by Pearl Harbor; celebrities boosted support for the war at home, abroad • Most opposition to war ended after PH; FDR rallied all behind the Four Freedoms: 1. Freedom of speech and expression 2. Freedom of worship3. Freedom from want 4. Freedom from fear

  3. A.Building National Morale 1.Calling All Volunteers • The Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) was founded to raise and maintain civilian morale • Volunteers planted “victory gardens” (40%), served as air raid wardens, etc. • Volunteers recycled much of the steel and 50% of the paper and tin used to fight the war • “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

  4. A.Building National Morale 2.The Media Goes to War • The govt. founded the Office of War Information to coordinate war news and keep the public informed • Hollywood rushed war films into production; cast American cinema heroes and stereotyped Germans, Italians and Japanese • Comics, patriotic songs and magazine ads promoted the OCD, American involvement

  5. B.Staging a Production Miracle • 1941: Only 15% of industrial production was for the military • FDR created the War Production Board (WPB) to increase war materials

  6. B.Staging a Production Miracle • WPB ordered industry to convert to making things for the war (shirts, toys and cars to uniforms, bombs, tanks and planes) • WPB paid industries well for opening new factories, lifted antitrust laws in war industry • War production doubled; warships taking 105 days to build at the beginning of the war were finished in just 14 days by war’s end

  7. C.Directing a Wartime Economy • Gross National Product (GNP): The total value of goods and services produced annually • GNP rose from $91 billion (1939) to $212 billion (1945) • Crop prices doubled, 17 million jobs were created and standard of living rose over 15%

  8. C.Directing a Wartime Economy 1.Controlling Wages and Prices • National War Labor Board (NWLB) monitored inflation and adjusted wages accordingly, but inflation continued • 1942: The NWLB froze hourly wages and the Office of Price Administration (OPA) set price ceilings to protects consumers

  9. C.Directing a Wartime Economy 2.Reducing Demand Through Rationing • OPA kept prices down through rationing • Consumers were issued ration coupons for milk, meat, gas, etc. based on family needs • Rationing was controversial; Americans were earning more but were restricted in purchasing

  10. C.Directing a Wartime Economy 3.Paying For A Costly War • The govt. spent $321 billion on WWII (10 times WWI, 2 times the past 150 years) • The govt. paid 40% of the cost with taxes, borrowed the rest • The Revenue Act of 1942 increased corporate taxes, expanded income tax to most people

  11. C.Directing aWartime Economy 3.Paying For A Costly War • The govt. sold war bonds, promising to repay the amount plus interest to finance the war • War bonds controlled inflation by reducing the money Americans could spend elsewhere • Americans saved $129 billion on war bonds for post-war purchases

  12. D.Upholding a No-Strike Pledge • Unions promised not to strike during the war, but were not legally bound (3 million struck, 1943) • NWLB enforced labor standards for unions • Steel, railroads and especially coal struck during the war but the majority of labor unions kept their promise

  13. E.Recruiting New Workers • Workers were needed to replace GIs and fill new war factories • Depression unemployed was wiped out by wartime labor demands • 1940-45: 6 million women joined the workforce (27%-37%)

  14. E.RecruitingNew Workers • “Rosie the Riveter” changed the American workforce, but women in war industries were paid 60% less than men and had little job security • 4 million women lost their jobs or left them after the war; this, the war and other factors strained society and American families

  15. The Home FrontThe War and Social Change

  16. A.Americans on the Move • 1941-45: 20% of Americans moved between; 700,000 African Americans moved from the South to find better work, escape segregation • Migration: The movement of people from one country or region to another • People joined the military, moved for wartime jobs; largest short-term migration in U.S. history

  17. A.Americans on the Move • Americans moved from: Rural to Urban, East to West and North to South • CA, WA, OR, TX, MD, FL and VA saw large increases in population • Farm workers decreased 17%, production increased 25% • Better fertilizer and machinery on large, consolidated farms marked a change in agriculture

  18. B.Boom Towns Emerge • Small towns and industrial centers Like Mobile, AL became overcrowded by migrants • Housing was often scarce, schools and hospitals were dirty and overcrowded • 9 million migrant workers and families were housed by the National Housing Agency, in barracks, trailers or tents • e.g., Pascagoula, MS quadrupled in size; serious social and ecological stresses ensued

  19. C.Social Stresses Multiply • LA, San Diego and Detroit were scenes of sever social stresses • Local residents resented, often hated newcomers, especially African Americans

  20. C.Social Stresses Multiply 1.Racial Tensions Explode • 500,000 migrants call Detroit home by 1943; African Americans wedged into small section • A fight between black teens and a sailor broke out; sailors from a nearby base joined in • Rumors spread quickly and black crowds rioted, attacked groups of whites

  21. C.Social Stresses Multiply 1.Racial Tensions Explode • The next day (Bloody Monday) large white mobs prowled the streets, beating and killing blacks • 6,000 soldiers called in to restore peace; $2 million in damage, 25 blacks and 9 whites killed • Summer, ‘43: Riots in Harlem and on 9 army training camps across the country marked a tense summer

  22. C.Social StressesMultiply 2.The Zoot Suit Riots • Chicanos (Americans of Mexican descent) moved from agricultural work in Southern CA to industrial and manufacturing jobs; faced great discrimination • Agricultural opportunities brought many illegal aliens from Mexico; tensions increased

  23. C.Social Stresses Multiply 2.The Zoot Suit Riots • Zoot-suiters were underemployed teens (often Hispanic), seeking independence and an escape from slum life • Summer, ‘43: Sailors and LA zoot-suiters clashed; sailors roamed streets, beating indiscriminately but zoot-suiters were often blamed

  24. D.WartimeFamily Stresses • Single parent home became more common, parents working overtime or in the military • “Latch-key kids” and “eight-hour orphans” common in boom towns; teens looked after siblings • Teen working tripled to 2.9 million; juvenile delinquency increased, curfews were often enforced

  25. E.The New Deal Comes to an End • 12/43: FDR declared the war effort took priority over the New Deal • Social Security, the TVA and unemployment benefits, however, became permanent programs • Programs that might interfere with the war effort were stopped or scaled back (e.g., REA) • The CCC, WPA and NYA were phased out with the return of jobs

  26. E.The New Deal Comes to an End • Wartime economic growth convinced many that govt. spending could bring prosperity • The govt. would soon resort to deficit spending to fight economic downturns • War brought both economic growth and social stresses (overcrowding, juvenile delinquency) • Minorities struggled with discrimination, but small gains cracked the door for the civil rights movement

  27. The Home FrontThe War and Civil Rights

  28. A.Civil Rights Movement Grows • African Americans fought in both World Wars, but faced job discrimination at home • Many compared American racism to German Nazism; was segregation no longer justified? • African Americans became more vocal for equality (“Double-V” victory at home and abroad)

  29. B.A March on Washington • Legal and de facto segregation kept races separate • A. Philip Randolph was a “father of the (modern) civil rights movement;” helped unionize blacks • 1941: Randolph formed the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) to end military discrimination • NAACP sought equality legally, politically; Randolph wanted direct action and excluded whites

  30. B.A March on Washington 1.Roosevelt and Randolph Compromise • FDR did not want a march; Randolph wanted fair defense contracting, no segregation in the govt. and armed forces • 6/25/41: Executive Order 8802 ended discrimination in defense contracting • FDR did not want the military desegregated; the march was called off

  31. B.A March on Washington 2.Other Victories • 1942: Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) boycotted, sat-in to end segregation in Northern cities • NAACP grew to 450,000; fought and won many legal battles for equality

  32. D.Internment of Japanese Americans • WWII brought about few restrictions of civil liberties (unlike WWI), but Japanese Americans were targets for discrimination • 2/19/42: Issei (foreign born Japanese Americans) and Nisei (native born Japanese Americans) on the West Coast were interned in camps when FDR signed E.O. 9066 • Japanese Americans were forced sell belongings, homes, farms, etc.

  33. D.Internment of Japanese Americans • Internment camps were barren and dirty; often ranging from blistering heat to freezing cold • The Supreme Courts later upheld the relocation and Japanese curfews in Korematsu v. U.S. (1943) and Hirabayashi v. U.S., (1944) • WWII saw great gains and setbacks in a number of areas in civil rights

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