1. Mobilization for War and the Homefront
Building an American Force at Home and Abroad

2. The Draft 1940: First peace time military draft
15 million men and women served
31 million men from 18 and 44 registered
More than half were found to be unfit physically
Military attempted to prevent homosexuals from enlisting, but that proved difficult

3. Keys to Economic Success
War Production Board:
Supervised production and supply
Need to change consumption for wartime
Rationing: shoes, meat, coffee
Black market develops
Ration books with coupons given to everyone
American production is at its highest point
Block wardens

4. Other Wartime Agencies
War Labor Board
War Manpower Commission
Fair Labor Employment Practices Committee
Office of Price Administration

5. African Americans in WWII
Less discrimination than in WWI
African Americans served in segregated units
Civil rights groups protested the segregation
Often assigned the most menial duties
Trained as officers in the Air Force
Segregated troops
Fought for democracy
Pittsburgh Courier—Double V Campaign
Blood banks had segregated blood

6. African Americans continued
Many moved from South to North
Able to get factory jobs—paid less than their white counterparts
Fair Employment Practices Commission: Prohibit discrimination on the basis of race or national origin
Didn’t end discrimination but led to improvements

7. Latinos Mexican Americans served in combat troops
Bracero Program:
Brought in temporary contract labor from Mexico to fill agriculture jobs during the War
Braceros (from the Spanish word arms) would work for 4 months and then return home--they could contract for longer
Zoot Suit Riots: 1943
Servicemen accused “Zoot suiters” of attacking them
Led to riots in which Mexicans were beaten up by servicemen
Led to the passage of laws prohibiting the wearing of Zoot Suits

10. Conditions of Relocation: Continued
Korematsu v. United States
Internment challenged and upheld in the Supreme Court
Not a unanimous decision
One justice called it, “legalization of racism”
Some Japanese-Americans gave up their citizenship
considered a symbolic act of distaste for the actions of the American government

11. Women on the Home Front Women took the jobs formerly held by men
Jobs offered higher pay
Rosie the Riveter became a popular image
Encouraged women to “do their part”
Women worked at heavy industrial jobs for the first time
At the end of the war women were expected to return home
Made room in the factories for veterans
Returned home and to jobs that didn’t pay as well

12. Women in the Military Women were not drafted but could volunteer
Served as nurses and support staff
WACS—Army
WAVES—Navy
SPARS—Coast Guard
WASPS—Air Force

13. Japanese Internment
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor the US works to tighten national security
FDR issues Executive Order 9066
Excluded people of Japanese heritage from certain “designated military areas”
Only affected Japanese on the West Coast
Cleared “enemy aliens” due to a threat of spying
Japanese forbidden from owning land
Had been the most productive farmers in CA

14. Attitudes toward the Japanese
General De Witt: responsible for authoring the order
“The continued pressure of a large unassimilated, tightly knit racial group, bound to an enemy nation by strong ties of race, culture, custom and religion along a frontier vulnerable to attack, constituted a menace which had to be dealt with.”
Whips up public sentiment
The government maintained that the ethnic ties of the Japanese to their country of origin were stronger

15. Camp Life Camps were located in barren areas Release
no possibility for economic self-sufficiency
animosity toward the Japanese-Americans was intense--government decided that release was not possible
Release
must prove loyalty to the US
must have a job waiting in a welcoming community

16. Camp Life Camp life was without privacy
shared chores
people with specific skills provided them to other internees
Quakers came in a provided education
Anti-war tradition