America on the Homefront

National Unity

• Not a problem due to the Japanese

• German, Italian and Japanese Americans supported the war effort

Japanese Interment Camp

• Executive Order 9066

• 110,000 believed to be a threat to national security

• Located in western states

• Unnecessary and unfair

• 1988 government officially apologized for its actions

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Camp in Colorado

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Building the War Machine

• Massive military order• War Production Board• End production on

nonessential items• Assigned priorities to

raw materials– Items were rationed – Rubber and gasoline

• Henry J. Kaiser “Sir Launchalot” the miracle ship builder one in fourteen days

Womenpower

• Draft drained the nation of workers

• More then 6 million took up jobs

• Rosie the Riveter

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Help from Mexico

• Agreement with Mexico brought thousands of farm workers to US

• Called Braceros• Young teenagers• Lived in temp camps• Led to the the

establishment of Latino communities in much of the South and Northwest

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Internal Migration during War

• • Few events in US history have moved so many people

• West boomed• Boomtowns grew –

LA, Detroit, Seattle, Baton Rough

• Many stayed in their new “homes” after the war

African Americans• 1.6 million left the South

to seek jobs in the factories in the West and North

• Meant that race relations was to be a “national” issue after the war not a “regional” issue

• FDR executive order #8802 – no discrimination in defense industries

• Double “V”

Rationing on the Homefront

• Issued ration stamps/booklets

• Buy from the Office of Price Administration

• Trading took place when one ran out

• Book letter for gas = type of job