1. World War II in America US History – Unit #8
The Homefront
World War II in America
US History – Unit #8

2. SSUSH19 Examine the origins, major developments, and the domestic impact of World War II, including the growth of the federal government.
d. Investigate the domestic impact of the war including war mobilization, as indicated by rationing, wartime conversion, and the role of women and African Americans or Blacks.
e. Examine Roosevelt’s use of executive powers including the integration of defense industries and the internment of Japanese-Americans.
GSE – The Standards

3. What was the domestic impact of WWII?
The Essential Question:
What was the domestic impact of WWII?

4. Mobilization Mobilization means to get the nation ready for war.
U.S. did this by:
Factories began to produce war goods
Build tanks instead of cars
A peace time draft
to begin training an army.
Asking people to support the war effort at all costs
Americans placed the war effort above their own interests!

5. Conserving & Rationing
Americans began to help the war effort by conserving & rationing goods that the soldiers needed to fight the war.
(T) Rationing - limiting the availability of products needed for war
Coupons controlled certain items
Meat, sugar, coffee, nylon
Gasoline rationed, rubber, driving restricted, speed limit 35
(V) Rationing was used to decrease the use of scarce and essential wartime goods.

6. Victory gardens - planted to produce food for the war effort.
Scrap drives - collecting rubber, tin, aluminum, steel, oil
Taxes raised - Americans pay higher taxes to fund war
War bonds - sold by gov’t to raise the rest of war cost
V for Victory - Patriotism at all-time high. Americans felt this a “just” war.
Rationing [ limiting the availability of products to make them available for the war effort.
Coupons - every month each household could pick up a book of rationing coupons; blue coupons called blue points controlled certain items and Red coupon or red points controlled meats, fish, etc. Other coupons controlled items such as sugar and coffee. When you bought food you had to five up coupon points to cover those items.
Victory Gardens - Planted in backyards, school yards, city parks, roofs of high rise apartment buildings and empty lots. Gov’t praised people in newsreels, pamphlets, newspapers and official government statements.
Scrap Drives - Certain raw materials were so vital to the war effort that scrap drives were organized. Americans collected spare rubber, tin, aluminum and steel. They donated pots, tires, tin cans, car bumpers, broken radiators. Oils and fats so important to war effort in producing explosives that fat-collecting stations were set up to collect bacon grease and meat drippings.
Taxes raised - FDR asked Congress for a tax increase. Congress gave him only enough to cover 45 % of war effort. The war will cost #300 billion - this was more than was spent on running this government since Washington took office after the Constitutional Convention - to FDR’s administration.
War bonds - Americans bought gov’t bonds - in effect loaning the gov’t money. The gov’t promised to pay back the original amount + interest at a later date. Americans bought nearly $50 billion in war bonds. Banks, insurance companies and financial institutions bought the rest - over $100 billion dollars worth of bonds!
V for Victory - Patriotism high throughout this nation. Americans united about this war. They supported this war and felt that it had to be fought.

7. on the home front
Doing without, rationing and conserving of items for the war effort was not hard for Americans because they had just come through 10 years of doing without due to the Great Depression.
Boogie Woogie Bugle boy PPT

8. Economics (SSUSH19.d)
Producing for the war brought the nation’s industry back to life bringing an end to the Great Depression.
The government grew to make sure that there were no labor strikes to stop productions of tanks, planes, ships, guns bullets, boots, etc.
Office of Price Administration
Regulated prices to inhibit inflation
War Labor Board
To prevent strikes
War Mobilization strained our society in several ways. Prices went up; materials were in short supply and the quiestion ofhow to pay for it all was a question that everyone wondered about.
Both wages and prices began to rise quickly during the war b/c of demand for workers and raw materials.
The President was worried about inflation and created the Office of Price Administration to regulate prices and control inflation.
The War Labor Board - organized to prevent strikes that might inhibit the war effort. Many Americans signed a “no strike” pledge and asked the War Labor Board to mediate labor disputes.
Everyone placed the war effort above their own interests.

9. Women for the War
As men went to war, women went to work in industry producing the tanks, planes & ships needed to fight.
5 million women went to work in industry
Changed American attitudes about women in the workplace.
“If you can follow a recipe and bake a cake, you can learn to load shells!”
During the Depression, many people believed married women should not work outside the home, especially if it meant taking jobs away from men trying to support their families. The wartime labor shortage forced factories to recruit and hire married women to do industrial jobs that traditionally had been reserved for men.
“Rosie the Riveter” was a character from a popular song. Lyrics told of Rosie working in a factory while boyfriend is at war; he is a marine.
This image begins to appear on posters, magazines and newspapers. Became a major public relations add.
Although most women returned to the workplace when the men came home from war, there was definitely a change in the American society about women working.

10. ‘Rosie The Riveter’ (SSUSH19.d)
Symbol of the campaign to hire women to support the war effort by filling factory and industrial jobs vacated by men serving in the military.

11. While still maintaining the policy of Neutrality Congress introduced the Selective Service and Training Act – the first peacetime draft in American history.
All men had to register for the draft; later
15 million men served
Women – used for the 1st time to fill noncombat positions.
Peace Time Draft

12. You’re in the Army Now!

13. Presidential use of Executive Powers
Roosevelt’s use of executive powers included the integration of defense industries and the internment of Japanese-Americans.
FDR signs Executive Order #9066

14. Internment (SSUSH19.e)
After Pearl Harbor, FDR ordered the forced internment of all Japanese-Americans from the West Coast as a measure of national security.
The purpose of the internment camps was to keep a close eye on citizens who might be a threat to the US war effort.
German & Italian-Americans faced possible internment too.
Japanese Internment Camp

15. Integration of Defense Industry
A. Philip Randolph planned a march on Washington to protest the lack of defense/military jobs available to African-Americans.
FDR issued an executive order ending discrimination in defense /gov’t jobs.
The gov’t established the Fair Employment Practices Commission to enforce the order
1st Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction.
Asa Philip Randolph head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters – a major union for African American railroad workers – felt that African-Americans were not getting the same opportunities for war-time jobs as were women. He decided to take action and informed FDR he was organizing “from thousand to march on Washington in the interest of finding jobs in national defense and he wanted integration in military and naval forces. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802…the FEPC first civil rights agency established since Reconstruction. The order declares that there will be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color or national origins.” To enforce the order, the president created the Fair Employment Practices Commission – the first civil rights agency established by the federal government since the Reconstruction Era.
A. Philip Randolph

16. The domestic impact of WWII
Make a graphic organizer similar to the one above. Identify the various ways that Americans were impacted by WWII on the homefront….the domestic impact of this war.
The domestic impact of WWII