World War IIWorld War II

The Home FrontThe Home FrontLife on the home front began to change almost immediately. Christmas 1941 was a somber holiday. FDR proclaimed New Year’s Day 1942 a National Day of Prayer and Americans greeted the New Year with absolute confidence in victory. Anger at everything Japanese was visible through adults and children. •School children kept war maps, proudly displayed bits of uniforms, wore unit patches on their sleeves, read comic books such as “Spy Smasher,” and “GI Joe,” and used their allowances to buy 10- and 25 cent defense stamps. •Students took part in school air-raid drills, crouching beneath their desks in the approved fashion until the “all-clear” buzzer sounded. Young kids picked streets, back yards, and attics clean of paper, tinfoil, rubber, iron, and tin cans for scrap drives.

•Church attendance grew throughout the war and more and more homes displayed blue-star emblems. blue-star emblems. •As the war went on, gold stars gold stars would replace many of the blue ones, signifying the loss of another loved one. •America began to emerge out of the depression and for the first time in years, Americans had good on their food on their tables and money in their pockets.

•The Office of Civil Defense Office of Civil Defense enlisted more than 20 million volunteers and organized most communities down to the block level, adding such expressions as “block warden,” “blackout,” and “dim-out” to our wartime vocabulary.•Volunteers studied aircraft identification silhouettes and stored sandbags, helmets, flashlights, buckets and hoses for use in the event of an air raid.

The Internment The Internment of Japanese of Japanese AmericansAmericans

•In 1942 war time hysteria and irrational fears prompted the U.S. government to order over 100,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast to leave their homes and live in internment camps. •FDR signed Executive Order 9066.

Internment CampsInternment Camps

The Internment of Japanese The Internment of Japanese AmericansAmericans •In the case of

Korematsu vs. U.S. in 1944 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the governments internment policy as justified in wartime•In 1988 the federal government agreed that an injustice had been done and awarded financial compensation to those alive who had been interned.

The Internment The Internment of German and of German and

Italian Italian AmericansAmericans

From the time the Kennedy Camp received its first internees on April 21, 1942, until it was phased out and converted into a prisoner of war camp on October 1, 1944, more than 3,500 aliens passed in and out its gates. The population of the camp varied between 700 and 1,200 detainees.

Mobilizing the Home FrontMobilizing the Home Front•The Selective Service Act required the registration of all men ages 21-35 for one year military service within the United States. The Army had grown to more than 1.4 million men and 800,000 reservists by July 1941. After PH, men ages 18-45 were subject to the draft. All together more than 15 million men and women would serve.

•In 1942, the War Production Board directed industrial conversion to war production. The efforts of 13 million workers and 185,999 factories contributed nationwide. Lockheed in Marietta, GA built the P 38 lightening fighter plane and was the only plane built for the entire duration of the  war.

The P-38 was responsible for shooting down more Japanese aircraft than any other U.S. Army Air Force

type during the war!

BEFORE: The Lockheed Factory in Marietta, Georgia

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

AFTER: The Lockheed Factory covered

P-38 Bomber Plane made at Lockheed in Marietta, Ga

The federal government established the Office of Price Administration in April 1941 to oversee the marketplace so that goods in short supply could, through rationing, be made available to consumers on an equitable basis and to regulate prices in order to prevent runaway inflation. The OPA began by controlling raw materials used in manufacturing, then expanded to RATION consumer goods. The most unpopular item rationed was gasoline!

RationingRationing

The ration stamps in each book represented “points” that were needed to buy the restricted items. Each person received 64 red stamps for meat, fish, and dairy products and 48 blue stamps for processed foods each month. The number of points needed for a particular product varied with the scarcity of goods. Applesauce, for example, required 10 blue points or stamps in March 1943 and 25 twelve months later.

•By the end of 1942, half of U.S automobiles were issued an 'A' sticker which allowed 4 gallons of fuel per week.  That sticker was issued to owners whose use of their cars was nonessential.  •Hand the pump serviceman your Mileage Ration Book coupons and cash, and she (yes, female service station attendants because the guys were over there) could sell you three or four gallons a week, no more.  •For nearly a year, A-stickered cars were not to be driven for pleasure at all. 

•More WOMEN went to work. With men going to war, demand for labor shook up old prejudices about sex roles in the workplace and military.

•Rosie the Riveter posters reflected this and women went to work “for the duration.” Older, married women went to work for the first time and by 1945 24% of all married women had gone to work.

•Defense jobs however, would be the first to cut workers when the war ended. Six million entered the workforce, an increase of 50% and 110% in manufacturing

Women at WorkWomen at Work

African Americans in WWIIAfrican Americans in WWII•More than 500,000 Blacks served in the armed forces in every branch and in every theater of the war. Blacks were segregated. •In 1940 office candidate schools were desegregated except those for Air Force cadets. •A separate flight school at Tuskeegee, Alabama trained black pilots. •More than 600 served in combat and the Tuskeegee Airmen distinguished themselves proudly.

•In 1941 A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized a march on Washington, DC, demanding an end to discrimination in defense industries. •They agreed to call off the march in exchange for an executive order banning discrimination in defense work and in training programs. •The federal government set up the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). The Congress of Racial Equality(CORE) was founded in 1942.

African Americans on the Home African Americans on the Home FrontFront

Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Aug. 1945Nagasaki Aug. 1945

FDR had a team of scientists working secretly on the FDR had a team of scientists working secretly on the Manhattan Project-development of A-bombManhattan Project-development of A-bomb

FDR dies in April, 1945FDR dies in April, 1945 Harry Truman becomes presidentHarry Truman becomes president Project is so secret that when Truman was V.P. he Project is so secret that when Truman was V.P. he

didn’t even know of the A-bombdidn’t even know of the A-bomb Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer-develop Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer-develop

bombbomb Truman is notified of bomb and decides to use it Truman is notified of bomb and decides to use it

against Japanagainst Japan Aug. 6Aug. 6thth, 1945 First A-bomb is dropped on Hiroshima- , 1945 First A-bomb is dropped on Hiroshima-

destroyed the entire citydestroyed the entire city Aug. 9Aug. 9thth, 1945 A-bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, 1945 A-bomb is dropped on Nagasaki Both bombs kill close to 200,000Both bombs kill close to 200,000 Sig? Caused Japan to surrender ENDS THE WAR!Sig? Caused Japan to surrender ENDS THE WAR!

The Los Alamos The Los Alamos ExperimentsExperiments

On July 16, 1945, an implosion bomb was successfully tested near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The production of this bomb, and its gun-type counterpart, ushered in the atomic age. The development of these weapons represented the culmination of more than three years of intense research and development effort. At Los Alamos, science and technology combined to produce a weapon of incredible power; enough even to end the most destructive war in history.

Albert Einstein and Albert Einstein and Robert OppenheimerRobert Oppenheimer

Throughout the summer of 1943, hundreds of bewildered families moved to Los Alamos to begin an unforgettable adventure. Scientific personnel had only a very general idea about the nature of the work that awaited them. They were instructed to tell their families nothing. Most administrative and technical personnel knew only that they were moving to an unknown place for an unknown length of time.

The Los Alamos ExperimentsThe Los Alamos Experiments

Truman’s Truman’s Decision to Decision to

drop the Atomic drop the Atomic BombBomb

Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan Japan

August 6, August 6, 19451945

Hiroshima: after the bombHiroshima: after the bomb

Hiroshima: after the bombHiroshima: after the bomb

Hiroshima: after the bombHiroshima: after the bomb

Nagasaki: before the bombNagasaki: before the bomb

Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan Japan

August 9, August 9, 19451945

Nagasaki: after the bombNagasaki: after the bomb

1. Most costly war in history in terms of human and material resources expended

2. It has been estimated at more than $1 trillion, more than all other wars combined

3. More than 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust4. 55 million dead—25 million of those military and

30 million civilian5. The world balance of power was affected as

Britain, France, Germany, and Japan ceased to be great powers in the traditional military sense

6. The United States and the USSR became super powers the cold war began

7. Beginning of the atomic age

Cost and Significance of WWIICost and Significance of WWII