nps/nhl/themes/homefrontstudy.pdf

1. http://www.nps.gov/nhl/themes/homefrontstudy.pdf

2. American industry provided about 2/3 of all military equipment for the allied powers: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks, 41 billion rounds ammo, 6 million tons of bombs, and almost 2 million army trucks In 4 years America’s industrial production (already the biggest in the world) doubled!

3. Weapons became the “arsenal of democracy” • Low cost loans, subsidies, tax write-offs were given to businesses that created war materials • Producers of breakfast cereal started to create K-rations • Producers of bumpers started to create armor plates • By 1942 war materials were being cranked out at record speed • Industrial employment went up by 75% in the south alone • This led to increases in science and technology – there was a need for more rubber, since much of America’s rubber came from Southeast Asia – so a synthetic rubber was produced which met 90% of America’s needs. • More jobs, more money and a better standards of living • Plus, people had savings for the first time in a while, since there was not much to buy! The Economy

4. Businesses realized that 8 of 10 men’s jobs could be preformed by women • Some 2.5 million more women worked in blue-collar jobs in 1944 than in 1940, and they were assigned a much greater range of jobs than ever before. Over 200,000 women worked in the shipyards and women constituted as much as half the workforce at West Coast aircraft plants like North American and Boeing. Half of the 13,500 people working at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts were women. One-third of a million women served in the armed forces. • Slowly the marriage ban was taken away from many industries (the marriage ban literally banned married women from working) • New fashion: no pleats, shorter skirts & 2 piece bathing suits to save fabric! • There was still not equal pay, though. Women “defense work was the beginning of my emancipation as a woman. For the first time in my life I found that I could do something with my hands besides bake a pie.” “found a freedom and an independence I had never known. . . . The war changed my life completely.”

5. With men off to war, there were over 5 million “war widows”, who had to work so their children were left at home alone. During the course of the war, after school care programs were created for “latch key” kids (kids who came home and had to open the doors themselves) • During the course of the war men and women rushed to marry, presumably before men went away to war. • More people started to move to the towns and cities where defense industries were located, this led to a huge shortage in housing around those towns and cities. • Attracted by waiting jobs, the number of high school dropouts increased significantly, resulting in the teenage work force swelling from one million to three million youngsters FAMILIEs/POPULation patterns

6. "No Help Wanted“ signs turned into "Help Wanted” signs as more employers opened up their doors to African Americans • More movement North to work in war industries • One million African Americans served in the World War II military • In the armed forces African Americans received education, training, and experience that they could apply after the war. • African Americans received a wider range of duties, including combat, and some served in integrated units by 1944 and 1945 • By and large African Americans were given lower paying jobs & the worst duties in the military. • 1948 segregated units officially ended • A movement began called , Double V – Victory against Axis and victory against discrimination at home • Fair Employment Practices Committee was created in 1941, which tried to stop discrimination in the workplace African Americans In the 1940s, Tuskegee, Alabama became home to a "military experiment" to train America's first African American military pilots. Intensive training at Tuskegee produced over 1,000 pilots into one of the most highly respected U.S. fighter groups of World War II.

7. From Hell to Eternity - a movie about the heroism of a Hispanic soldier • 1943 “Zoot Suit Riots” • On June 3, 1943, a group of sailors claimed to have been beaten and robbed by Mexican pachucos* The next night a mob of approx. 200 sailors went to East Los Angeles to beat up and strip the clothing off any young Latino male they could find. The fighting continued until June 7th when military commanders declared Los Angeles off limits to all military personnel. Many innocent Latinos were injured in the riots. • The violence was blamed on Hispanics! • Eleanor Roosevelt disagreed. Hispanic americans *a zoot-suited (see pic to the right), well-dressed, street-connected flamboyant playboy of Hispanic/Latino heritage

8. A no-strike/no lockout agreement was made between labor unions and business. Therefore unions agreed not to strike. The National War Labor Board (NWLB) was re-established . The NWLB worked as a mediator between businesses and unions. Unions were given concessions such as: • “Maintenance of membership” – which meant that once a business was unionized all new members automatically became members of the union • Union membership grow by close to two-thirds from 1939 to 1945, from about 9 million to 15 million workers. By the end of the war, nearly • One-third of the workforce belonged to labor unions Union Workers

9. Farmers started making more money since there was a labor shortage (young men picking up and leaving farming communities to fight and young men being drafted) and soon a food shortage. Crop prices increased. • By spring 1942, the U.S. Employment Service could not find enough workers for farm labor. Government officials recommended the employment of nonfarm women and men and boys and girls, and it urged businesses to close during peak agricultural seasons, such as harvest time, to enable employees to help local farmers • This shortage led to improved technology , such as better fertilizers and machinery which could produce more in less time • Many farmers were able to fight off foreclosure and pay off all of their outstanding debts. Farming One Oklahoma editor contended, "The war has made the farmer almost the most important person in the county, and farming has become as essential a war-time business as the manufacturer of planes, tanks, guns and ammunition."

10. 4F or 4C (unsuitable bc of race or ancestry) – initially Germans, Italians and Japanese were restricted against being in the military. Only the Japanese were prohibited after 1942. Exceptions were made for bilingual Japanese. • Japanese most discriminated against • Germans assimilated, looked “American” • Italians were less assimilated than the Germans. Many were supporters of Mussolini since they were much more recent immigrants. • Jobs were harder to come by for all descendents of axis powers • The government allowed wiretapping in 1940 of any “persons suspected of subversive activities” • Later that year, the Smith Act & Alien Registration Act made it an offense to advocate the violent overthrow of the government and required the registration of unnaturalized immigrants. The Justice Department began to identify aliens who were suspected of disloyalty. Defense plants sometimes refused to hire anyone who seemed “foreign,”. Foreigners of axis powers descent

11. Japanese Internment

12. Over 90% of Japanese immigrants to the USA settled in California, where labor and farm competition fed into general anti-Japanese sentiment

14. Registration (over 14) & Restriction of movement (5 days to notify if move) • Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded. All people of Japanese ancestry excluded from the entire pacific coast 77,000 American citizens and 43,000 legal and illegal resident aliens

15. 48 hours to relocate. His father was forced to sell their house in Sacramento for $50 and simply abandon his small produce business… Robert Mastui – Representative from CA in late 80s, early 90s

17. Temporary assembly centers were the first stop for most internees. Internees remained here until the War Relocation Authority camps were ready. • first sent to one of 17 temporary "Civilian Assembly Centers."

18. Locations of Internment Camps 10 large relocation camps

19. “Panorama of Amache, Colorado” • “From 1942 to 1946, home for most Japanese Americans was one of 10 WRA camps, all patterned on military facilities. Hastily built, with tarpaper walls and no amenities, the barracks were hot in summer and cold in winter. Most did not meet minimal standards for military housing. A visiting judge noted that prisoners in federal penitentiaries were better housed.”

20. “During the winter, our wet hair became frozen, and our fingers would stick to the metal door knob because we had to walk outdoors back to our barracks [after a shower].” • - Shigeru Yabu, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation

21. Barbed-wire-surrounded enclave with un-partitioned toilets, cots for beds, and a budget of 45 cents daily per capita for food rationsarmed guards

22. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt each questioned Japanese American loyalty. DeWitt, who administered the internment program, repeatedly told newspapers that "A Jap's a Jap”

23. I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. They are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map” • General John DeWitt before Congress

24. “Homes of Japanese Americans” "San Francisco, California. Homes of Japanese ancestry on Bush Street. Occupants were evacuated and will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration."

25. Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), and Korematsu v. United States (1944) • On January 2, 1945, the exclusion order was rescinded entirely. The internees then began to leave the camps to rebuild their lives at home, although the relocation camps remained open for residents who were not ready to make the move back. The freed internees were given $25 and a train ticket to their former homes