Home Front

1. Home Front “The War Effort” -- How the nation geared for war and sustained maximum support for the troops.

2. The Initial Shock Even before the U.S. declared war on December 8, 1941, the American government had made serious plans for keeping home front American involved in the war on a “day to day” basis. Roosevelt made the personal decision to allow Hollywood to continue to turn out feature films – it would help American morale and allow Washington to “make suggestions” on war-related topics.

3. Organizer of Victory The basic strategy for winning the war was devised by George Marshall, Army chief of staff. He recommended that the bulk of American military effort be placed against Germany, with a plan to land a large American-British army in France in 1943. But as Japan gained victory after victory in the Pacific, political concerns (the 1942 elections) induced FDR to alter the strategy.

4. Securing lines to Australia Because Japan was threatening an invasion of Australia (and because the naval balance changed at Midway), Roosevelt authorized a major attack at Guadalcanal – US Marines and many North Dakota guardsmen fought for control of the island from August to December 1942.

5. Japanese Americans Roosevelt also authorized the internment of Japanese Americans, partly to allay American fears of espionage and sabotage, partly to prevent anti-Japanese riots in California, where Japanese immigrant farmers (above) had stimulated local envy.

6. Internment Camps Several hundred thousand Japanese immigrants and their children were interned in make-shift camps in the American west. At Manzanar (left) conditions were dry, hot and unpleasant. The U.S. Supreme Court later suggested that the internments were unconstitutional. Some Japanese-Americans renounced their citizenship as a result of this treatment. A group of these, mostly young, men, were then sent to Fort Lincoln, southwest of Bismarck, and held there through the war.

7. Hollywood Goes to War From the beginning, Hollywood (with government assistance) portrayed the Pacific as a total war of no mercy. In “Guadalcanal Diary” William Bendix tells a young Richard Jaekel to kill without hesitation – “they ain’t human.”

8. “Good” Germans “Sahara” (also 1943) portrayed the Italian soldiers as unwitting dupes of the Germans, and suggested many Germans were likewise dupes of the Nazis. It would be possible, films and literature suggested, to “reform” the European aggressors.

9. A Government Office for War Information – What to tell America? Archibald MacLeish, well-known poet and Librarian of Congress, managed a brief pre-war “Office of Facts and Figures” through which he suggested various methods of “advertising the war” in ways that would appeal to Americans. The plans included books, pamphlets, films, speakers’ tours and use of celebrities, all “coordinated” by a government bureau.

10. Office of War Information (OWI) Created in June 1942, the Office of war Information was supervised by Elmer Davis, a respected newspaperman and CBS radio reporter. Davis pursued a “strategy of truth” in explaining the war to Americans.

11. Harsh Realities In keeping with Davis’s view, Life published in 1943 these shocking (for the time) photos of dead US Marines at Tarawa. Expecting much larger numbers of casualties in 1944, the press reasoned that the American public should become used to the reality of war.

12. War Aims FDR wanted the OWI to use the Atlantic Charter as a basis for war goals – a documents signed by FDR and Churchill in August 1941, the charter called for an ideal world free of tyranny and material want, with aggressors punished by a coalition of strong democratically-oriented nations. Roosevelt hoped that the U.S. and Britain, joined by a “reformed” USSR and China would become the “world’s policemen.” Churchill was less certain the plan could work.

13. Unconditional Surrender Roosevelt further expanded American control of the war aims by announcing in 1943 that “the Allies” would insist on the “unconditional” surrender of Germany, Italy and Japan. Churchill had agreed to this reluctantly and Stalin had not really been consulted. FDR clearly intended the US to play a major postwar role in Europe and Asia.

14. American Century Henry Luce, the influential publisher of Life, Time, Fortune, and other magazines, offered his view of America in the postwar era in a 1943 essay, “The American Century.” In this, he argued that the U.S. should embrace a mission to remake the world along American lines – with the U.S. clearly in the forefront, making decisions that would affect every corner of the planet. Luce’s critics charged that he wanted a “Pax Americana” (American dominion).

15. The Common Man Vice President Henry Wallace countered Luce’s vision with his “Century of the Common Man” concept – calling for a postwar international organization that would supervising the sharing of resources and decision-making. Wallace’s critics (including FDR) felt this idea was impractical – and perhaps tainted with communist influences.

16. The Russian Enigma Much war policy balanced on the great unknown – what did Stalin want, what would he settle for? FDR was confident he could bargain with Stalin; Churchill was skeptical that Stalin could be charmed or reassured with Anglo-America’s good intentions.

17. Getting the Job Done At home, the major theme that pervaded the war was to make winning a “job.” News writers and editorialists, in a nation that had had 15 million unemployed in the 1930s, had used the “job” image well before 1942. American soldiers themselves spoke of military service and combat as a job. So the OWI churned out millions of posters, film clips, and sound clips urging Americans to “get the job done.” Few speculated on postwar goals.

18. Posters The OWI employed the job theme in photographs (like this scrap rubber picture), pamphlets, radio spots, and numerous posters – all calling on all Americans to “do their part” in the job of winning the war.

19. Everyone’s War Usually “protected” form the ugliness of life, children were urged to be an active part in the war. A resident of the Warroad area of Minnesota remembered his high school physical education teacher urging them to “forget fair play – the Nazis won’t play fair when you confront them next year. Get ready to kill them, any way you can!”

20. Stay Healthy War factories were running 24 hours a day, every day and with doctors away in the army, families were urged to stay healthy – “each sick day can mean one plane, a hundred rifles, ten thousand bullets,” ran an OWI ad. People were made to feel that by being away from the job it could be their fault if a battle were lost.

21. Pitch In Women went to work in heavy industries in record numbers (and made record amounts of pay). With men complaining that exposure to the work world would “de-feminize” their sweethearts, OWI and Hollywood decided to do a series of movie-news features on how “Rosie the Riveter” could still have attractive hair and fresh makeup while still operating a fork lift.

22. Conserve In reality, the fats collected for explosives, scrap metal for weapons, scrap rubber for tires, had minimal impact on the output of weapons and vehicles. The main reason for the scrap campaigns was to get everyone involved, do his or his part, and make certain that the war was a total one involving the entire society.

23. Changing the Job By the end of 1943, the U.S. was out-producing every other country in the manufacture of aircraft, ships, munitions, food, medicines, and most all other goods for war. But a major shift in manpower had occurred. Originally the US army planned for 200 divisions of troops, but the industrial effort had become so vast, consuming so many potential soldiers, that the army ended up with only 89 divisions, which vastly changed the fate of the individual soldier.

24. Keeping in Touch “Your Mom and I were very glad to have a letter from you after so long waiting. We have read it several times, of course, and twice aloud to each other. Mom has put it in the folder I fixed for her to keep your letters about your great and strange adventures. We are glad that you studied botany in school for it made you able to tell us so many interesting things about the trees and plants there. I sent to the Library and got a book about that part of the world and found your island written up in it, and some pictures, so we can just see you there. By the way, I took your letter over to your botany teacher so she could read it. . . . She says it will be nearly all girls [in class], for practically all the boys are, or will be, in service . . .” A Dad's Reply To His Son Away At War, published in the Ulen Union, September 23, 1943.

25. Debating the Postwar World “The next few decades are our golden opportunity. The world wants to pay, and indeed must pay, considerable attention to our desires. Even Russia, better situated than any other power so far as security goes, would like billions of dollars worth of machine tools from us in the next decade or two, to say nothing of our support in maintaining peace in the world. That our relative power and influence can remain at this peak for many decades is extremely doubtful. . . . Our greatest opportunity to shape the kind of world which will give us the best chance to preserve the values we cherish most will come in the next twenty or thirty years.” US Senator (from Minnesota) Joseph H. Ball, "America and the New World," 1945.

26. Faith in the Pioneer Spirit I believe in America! . . . America, where a lanky, homely lad, born in a log cabin, could become the Leader of a free people; America, where a man can stretch himself and grow; America, where life is an adventure and the sky is the limit; . . . America, where new horizons of opportunity beckon men who possess the pioneering spirit; America, where men may dream great dreams and make those dreams come true; America, where the upward march of men has but begun! "I Believe (And Why) In America,” -- Minnesota Legionnaire, June 7, 1939.

27. Maintaining Morale “Stop trying to rationalize it [the war] or you'll go crazy as some women are already going crazy over an attempt to reason about the most completely unreasonable thing that ever happens to humankind. . . . For one thing, do something that hastens the dawn of a peaceful, strong, intelligent world for tomorrow. . . . do something or face lifelong shame and regret." Syndicated Columnist Kathleen Norris, to “The women who can’t stop crying,” published in the Moorhead Daily News, August 12, 1944

28. The Great Fear “. . . make up your minds, you mothers and sisters and wives everywhere -- the boys are coming home cross, vague, restless, critical, dissatisfied. [He will] show the effects of the long strain. Body, mind, and soul will let go all at once. He'll not be interested in Mom's hospital work or the surprising success of Sis in the chem lab. He'll want to loaf about the house, reading comics, loaf downtown to a movie. He'll start up, to answer your questions, from some dark dream. "What? What'd you say, Mom? Yep, we had pretty good chow at Guadalcanal. Nope, it was kind of rotten -- oh, I guess it was pretty good." His voice will be uninterested . . . He's got long memories to live down. Give him plenty of time. He'll come back. It isn't his fault the world was plunged into the war that scarred him so deeply. It was ours. Pay for it by helping him back to sanity and peace.” Norris, “The Boys in Service Come Back Changed” – published in the Moorhead Daily News, July 29, 1944.

29. At the Movies Intended as the American version of “Mrs. Miniver,” the film “Since You Went Away” was the quintessential war home front-soap opera film. Star Claudette Colbert portrays the wife of a GI who is overseas, valiantly holding the family together and solving all the problems she confronts (and that he would have dealt with in other times).

30. Lighter Touches Warner Brothers drew upon its stock of excellent character actors to turn out “The More the Merrier,” a light romantic comedy that used the wartime housing shortage to put Jean Arthur (left), Joel McCrea, and veteran scene stealer Charles Coburn into a small cramped apartment. Coburn won an academy award, but the film said little about the real home front.

31. Controversy “Tender Comrade” was only a moderately successful film, in which Ginger Rogers shares an apartment with two other women while working at a defense plant. The film is famous because it was attacked in the 1950s as a form of “communist propaganda,” because the script writer Edward Dmytryk was by then one of the “Hollywood Ten,” and because Rogers herself denounced it.