CHAPTER 34

VISUAL SUMMARY

CHAPTER 35: The Impact of World War II on

AmericansWhat kinds of opportunities and hardships did the war

create for Americans at home and abroad?

Organizing the American Economy for War• The War Production Board– The goal: make America the “arsenal of democracy”

with conversions of industry• Automakers would now make airplanes and tanks• Other workers would retrain workers for wartime tasks

• G.D.P. (gross domestic product) rises rapidly• The National War Labor Board mediates

disputes between union leaders and business owners

• Government spending rises to new levels– Taxes account for 45% (“withholding” is introduced)– War bonds help in financing the war

• Price controls are needed (Office of Price Administration)– People were back to work earning money– Goods were scarce because of the war effort– Too much money chasing too few goods = inflation

• Rationing was necessary– Gasoline, tires, sugar, food– Americans received coupon books to limit

consumption

University of North Carolina website• War funding comes from taxes and borrowing

(bonds) just like WWI

American G.I.’s (government issue) Go To War• 1,500,000 troops by Pearl Harbor– Eager volunteers joined the draftees to fight– Immigrants wanted to show they were truly Americans

• 8 weeks of intense training then combat– Fear, loneliness, homesickness, boredom once

deployed– Physical, emotional and mental wounds surface during

and after– An appreciation for American ideals after viewing the

abuses of the European dictators, pride and loyalty, too

The Internment of Japanese-Americans• Were they loyal? Sabotage? Did their spies cause Pearl Harbor?• “Enemy Aliens” (Germans, Italians, Japanese immigrants) had to

register with the government and carry identification

• The Japanese-Americans didnot have political power and were potentially more easily recognized

• Executive Order 9066 (February 1942) goes into effect and even native born Japanese-Americans are sent to internment camps inland

• Korematsu v. U.S.– Fred Korematsu as a

native born citizen whodisobeyed the law andappealed it all the way to the Supreme Court

– The Court upheld the decision on the grounds that a group’s civil rights can be set aside in time of war

• 100,000 were forced to relocate into guarded “barracks”

• 442nd Regimental Combat team was an all-Japanese unit

Women and World War II(“Rosie the Riveter”)

• New opportunities because of the demand for workers

• Still faced hostility in male-dominated businesses

• Were expected to completetheir “domestic” duties

• WAC (Women’s Army Corps)• WAVES (Women Accepted

for Volunteer Emergency Service – Navy)

African-Americans and WWII• The Double V Campaign: Victory for

democracy at home and abroad• Black G.I.’s were segregated and were

not permitted in combat (at first)• Tuskegee Airmen

• there were many people who thought that black men lacked intelligence, skill, courage and patriotism.• Bomber escorts and direct combat• The only fighter group to never

lose a bomber to enemy planes

African-Americans and WWII• At the same time Executive Order 9066 inters

Japanese-Americans, Executive Order 8802 outlaws discrimination against African-Americans in the defense industry

• A.Philip Randolph had threatened a march on Washington if black civil rights were not protected

• The Great Migration continued to northern industrial cities– Blacks may have escaped the South but not racism– The National Urban League fought for equal

opportunities in housing and employment– The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) confronted

discrimination with nonviolent resistance

Jewish Americans and WWII• Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany began in 1933

as soon as Hitler rose to power– Kristallnacht (“night of broken glass”) occurred in 1938

when mobs burned Jewish synagogues and businesses• 90 Jews were killed and 30,000 were sent to concentration

camps

• The 1924 National Origins Act restricted immigration into the U.S. (remember the nativism and lack of tolerance during the 1920’s?)

• Anti-Semitism (anti-Jewish sentiment) led to a lack of support for European Jews

• The War Refugee Board was created in 1944 to finally help Jewish refugees

Mexican Americans and WWII• Discrimination had barred many Mexicans from better

jobs in the United States• During the war, laborers were needed– The bracero program allowed short term work contracts to

be filled by Mexicans in the farms and on the railroads• June 1943: Zoot suit riots– Zoot suits were associated with

Mexican teenagers (pachucos) and gangs who roamed barrios (neighborhoods) in Los Angeles

– Mobs of sailors and marines sought out Mexicans and others wearing a zoot suit and beat them

– Another example of racial prejudice and intolerance