The Home Front

1. The Home Front Chapter 25 Section 4 Page 796

2. Economic Gains • The war years were good ones for working people. • As defense industries boomed, unemployment fell to a low 1.2% in 1944. • Farmers also prospered. • Benefited from improvements in farm machinery & fertilizers. • Reaped the profits from rising crop prices. • Crop production increased by 50%. • Women also enjoyed employment gains. • Many of them lost their jobs after the war. • 6 million women entered the workplace. • Many women also took advantage of openings in journalism & other professions.

3. Population Shifts • In addition to revamping the economy, the war triggered one of the greatest mass migrations in American history. • People uprooted themselves to seek work elsewhere. • More than a million newcomers poured into CA b/w 1941-1944. • Towns w/ defense industries saw their populations doubled.

4. Social Adjustments • Mothers struggled to rear their children alone. • Young children got used to being left alone w/ neighbors, relatives, or child care centers as mothers went back to work. • Teenagers left at home w/o parents sometimes drifted into juvenile delinquency. • when fathers came home they had to get to know their families again. • Couples rushed to get married before soldiers & sailors went off to war.

5. Social Adjustments • To help ease the transition of returning servicemen to civilian life, Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act also known as the GI Bill of Rights. • Provided education & training for veterans. • Over half of the returning soldiers attended colleges & technical schools under the GI Bill. • Also provided a federal loan program for veterans buying a house or starting a business.

6. Civil Rights Protests • African Americans made some progress on the home front. • Thousands of African Americans left the South to move to the Midwest. • Discrimination presented tough hurdles. • James Farmer founded an interracial organization called Congress of Racial Equality. • Goal of CORE was to confront urban segregation in the North. • Tensions rose as African Americans moved north. • 1943, a tidal wave of racial violence swept across the country. • Worst conflict erupted in Detroit in June. • 34 people lay died after racial riots endured.

7. Tension in Las Angeles • Mexican Americans also experienced racial tensions. • 1943 was a violent summer in LA. • Riots began & lasted for over a week. • Resulted in the beatings of over a hundred people.

8. Internment of Japanese Americans • WWII produced tragic results for Japanese Americans. • 120,000 Japanese Americans lived in the U.S. • Most of them were citizens living on the west coast. • After the attack on Pearl Harbor, citizens feared that the Japanese would attack the U.S. • People believed false rumors that Japanese Americans were committing sabotage. • Fear & uncertainty caused a wave of prejudice against Japanese Americans. • 1942, the War Department called for the mass evacuation of all Japanese Americans from Hawaii.

9. Internment of Japanese Americans • Finish reading page 800 on Japanese American Internemtn.

10. Answer the following questions • How did the war affect American workers? • How did the growth of the defense industry affect American population patterns? • How did wartime activities affect families? • How were African Americans treated at home and in the military? • How did Americans react to progress in acceptance of African Americans? • Why were Japanese Americans placed in internment camps? • How were Japanese Americans compensated for internment?