1. Lesson 4 – The War Effort on the Home Front
Module 11
Lesson 4 – The War Effort on the Home Front

2. C. Key Terms & People

3. a. George Marshall
General George Marshall was the Army Chief of Staff who led the armed forces mobilization effort ensuring that all soldiers were well equipped & properly trained
Marshall also helped develop our military strategy for the war

5. b. Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp
General Marshall formed the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) where women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions where they received official military status & salaries but with fewer benefits than their male counterparts (full benefits were finally added in 1943)
1000s of women joined serving as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, & electricians (performing nearly every duty not involving direct combat)
They even served as pilots in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) flying noncombat missions transporting supplies, moving aircraft between bases, & testing new planes

7. c. Office of Price Administration
Fearing rising inflation during the war, FDR created the Office of Price Administration (OPA) which fought inflation by freezing prices on most consumer goods
In addition, Congress raised income tax rates and extended this tax to millions who had never payed it before in an attempt to lower demand on consumer goods thus fighting the natural tendency for inflation to set in.

8. d. War Production Board
In charge of making sure that the armed forces & the war industries received the resources they needed
It decided which companies would change from peacetime to wartime production
It allocated raw materials to key industries
Rationed fuel (gasoline/heating oil), rubber, & plastics vital to the war effort
Organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, & cooking fat to recycle into war goods

9. e. Rationing
Due to nationwide shortages of almost every resource/product, the Office of Price Administration (OPA) established fixed allotments of goods deemed essential for the military
Households received ration books w/coupons to be used for buying such scarce goods (meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, gasoline)
Most Americans willingly accepted this rationing but some cheated the system by ‘hording’ these things or buying them off of the ‘black market’.
Scientists developed ‘synthetic materials’ for things that even rationing couldn’t preserve (synthetic rubber, synthetic fabric nylon)

10. f. Manhattan Project
The Office of Scientific Research & Development (OSRD) brought scientists from around the world to help with the war effort
Led to the development of radar, sonar, improved weapons technology (new bombs, guided missiles, combat jet aircraft), blood/plasma transfusion, penicillin, & pesticides like DDT to fight insects
Its greatest (or worst) achievement was the development of the atomic bomb
After German scientists successfully split uranium atoms in 1939, Albert Einstein escaped to the US & wrote a letter to FDR warning that this may lead to a new weapon of mass destruction releasing an enormous amount of energy
We had to beat Hitler to creating the atomic bomb & that program became known as the Manhattan Project because it was conceived in a restaurant in NYC & early research was done at Columbia University in NYC
Secret labs/testing facilities were built across the country to develop this atomic weapon (New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Tennessee)

12. g. A. Philip Randolph
One of the nation’s leading labor union organizers, A. Philip Randolph planned a march on Washington to protest the unfair treatment of African Americans on the home front & in the military
Fearing a backlash from the white community, FDR promised to create the Fair Employment Practices Committee if Randolph called off the strike
He did, and this committee was created to ‘call on employers & labor unions to provide for the full & equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, w/out discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin’

14. h. James Farmer
Civil rights leader who founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942 to battle discrimination against African Americans during WWII

15. i. Congress of Racial Equality
Founded by James Farmer in 1942 to confront urban segregation in the North
CORE staged its first sit-in at a segregated Chicago restaurant
Tensions still rose between whites & blacks in the North

17. j. internment
120,000 Japanese Americans lived in the US (mostly on the West Coast) at the start of the war & the attack on Pearl Harbor stunned Americans as a new fear of a Japanese attack on the mainland swept the nation & caused a rise in prejudice against Japanese Americans
False rumors that Japanese Americans were committing sabotage by mining coastal harbors & poisoning vegetables spread like wild fire
In early 1942, FDR signed Executive Order 9066 requiring the removal of 110,000 Japanese Americans from California, Washington, Oregon, & Arizona from their homes and placed in 10 internment camps located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, & Arkansas
No direct evidence or charges were ever filed against a single interned Japanese American

20. k. Japanese American Citizens League
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) pushed the gov’t. to compensate those sent to the camps for their lost property
In 1965, Congress authorized the spending of $38 million for that purpose (representing less than 1/10 of the total losses suffered by Japanese Americans)
Fred Korematsu (a Japanese American who was convicted of defying a military order to leave his home) even sued the US gov’t. & his case went before the Supreme Court in (Korematsu v. U.S.) where the Court upheld his conviction arguing the military necessity made internment of Japanese Americans constitutional

21. D. Study Questions

22. a. What was the Double V Campaign?
A campaign started by African Americans who joined together to support the war effort hoping that they could win 2 victories (one over U.S. enemies & one over the poor treatment of African Americans at home)

23. b. What role role did the media play in helping the country mobilize?
The film industry became a major producer of wartime propaganda churning out patriotic films featuring soldiers & workers on the home front & when we grew tired of the propaganda & war themes, Hollywood responded with musicals, romances, & other escapist fare designed to take viewers away from the grim realities of war

24. c. Why did the outbreak of World War II create the need for new military bases across the country?
After Pearl Harbor, 5 million patriotic young Americans volunteered for military service along with 10 million drafted through the Selective Service System
100s of new military bases & training centers would need to be built mostly in rural, warm areas (California had more bases than any other state)

25. d. What were the causes & consequences of racial tension in the 1940s?
Racial tensions between blacks/whites erupted in Detroit in 1943 & other areas across the country leading to the formation of 400 committees to improve race relations
Tensions between white sailors & Mexican Americans erupted in L.A. in in the Zoot Suit Riots. Many young, male Mexican Americans in their teens & early 20s wore these Zoot Suits in rebellion against tradition & white prejudice. It consisted of a long jacket, pleated pants, & a broad- brimmed hat. They would go out drinking and dancing at clubs to the consternation of many white community members. The tension culminated with a group of white sailors on leave in L.A. attacking these Zoot Suit Mexican Americans. Only the Zoot Suit rioters were arrested & charged with any crimes
Even though Native Americans volunteered in large #’s for the war effort, they were still discriminated against in terms of voting & much of their reservation land was reclaimed by the gov’t. to build military bases & mine for valuable resources including oil, gas, lead, & helium ($39 million worth of minerals)

27. e. How did the war affect families?
Most American families willingly put up with the many hardships of war & managed w/out many comforts during the war
The hardest part was dealing with the absence of loved ones in the armed forces where families displayed a flag with a blue star & when their loved one died, it was replaced with a gold star
More than 400,000 American service members were killed during the war