• 5 million volunteers

• Selective Service Act added 5 million more

• G.I. – “Government Issue” - first applied to uniforms, weapons, equipment; to the soldiers

Less pay, rank and benefits than men

Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)

250,000 served

WAVE Radio Operator

John Falter

Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFs)

Los Angeles – 1/10th of city’s population but suffered 1/5th of city’s casualties

Post war, many veterans used the G.I. Bill to earn a college education.

• Segregated units: mostly non-combat roles

• Upon receiving a draft notice ---- “Just carve on my tombstone, ‘Here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow man for the protection of a white man.’”

• More than a million served

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, U.S. Third Army commander, pins the Silver Star on Private Ernest A. Jenkins of New York City for his conspicuous gallantry in the liberation of Chateaudun, France. October 13,

33,000 in uniform 13,000 joined; one of every five living hereServed as interpreters throughout the war.

Radio Intercept Section, 6th AAF Radio Squadron Mobile 10th AAF, CBI Theater, September 1944.L-R: Teiho Chena, Ted Tdukiyama, Tom Goto, and Mark Akisada

Some spies were discovered.

• 25,000 • Opportunity to leave reservation and meet non-Indians“We would

not need the Selective

Service Act if all

volunteered like the

Indians.”

2. Bedspread manufacturer – mosquito nettingand explosives

1.  Mechanical pencils – bomb parts

3. Soft drink manufacturer – filled shells with explosives

4. Liberty ships built in four days by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser5. Henry Ford – jeeps, trucks, tanks (last civilian car -’42 Pontiac)

Womena. 6 out of 18 million workersb. Earned 60% of a man’s salaryc. 2 million minorities

Rosie is provided by Curtis Publishing. Permission Requested.

- mostly menial jobsRoosevelt’s executive order – “To provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers without racial discrimination.”

African-Americans

a.     Pesticides (DDT) – insects and liceAs a pesticide, DDT was first used during WWII. It was so effective as an insect killer that some called it the "atomic bomb" of pesticides.

After WWII, the U.S. realized that DDT could also be used on farms to control some common agricultural pests.

b.      Atomic bomb – Manhattan Project

Developed by American scientists, the first atomic bomb was detonated at the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on

July 16, 1945. The test convinced the United States government that such weapons were

viable in warfare.

c.     Penicillin

A magazine ad for penicillin during WWII

The technique to produce large

amounts of penicillin was

perfected by an American drug company. This

technique allowed the Allies to

produce enough penicillin to aide throughout the

war.

d.     Blood bank

In 1938, Dr. Charles Drew, a leading authority on mass transfusion and blood processing methods, set up a blood plasma system.In September 1945, the American Red Cross had collected over 13 million units of blood and converted nearly all of it into plasma.

An American medic administers plasma to a wounded soldier. NARA

a. Propaganda films – Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” series

b. Public tired of propaganda; switched to musicals, romance, comedies for an escape

d. USO shows

Bob Hope and his USO group

in Guadalcanal.

e. Celebrities – 1.      Jimmy Stewart and Stan Musial held up their careers to serve2.      John Wayne booed by Marines on a USO tour for not serving

A. Japanese internment

B.  Office of Price Administration (OPA)1. Froze prices, rents and wages to curb inflation2. Rationing – foods such as meat, sugar (needed for explosives), butter, cheese, coffee, and vegetables

1.      Rationing fuel and materials vital to the war such as nylon, gas, oil, metals, rubber and plastic

C.   War Productions Board (WPB)

2.      Decided what companies would convert and allocated raw materials3.      Organization of scrap drives – iron, tin cans, paper, rags, cooking fata.    School childrenb.    Boy Scouts

F.     National War Labor Board (NWLB)1.      Limited wages2.      Workers could not change unions

D.    Department of the Treasury1. War bonds2. $18.75 at purchase 3. Bonds were worth $25 in ten yearsE.     Limits on the right to strike

G. Office of War Information

    

The armed forces’ demand for textiles led to shortages of wool and

rayon, causing fashion changes at home. The WPB banned ruffles,

pleats, and patch pockets, favoring the single-breasted, vestless

“victory suit” over the baggy “zoot suit” in vogue at the time. To

conserve silk, women painted seams up the backs of their legs to make it

seem as if they were wearing stockings.

When professional

baseball players like Joe

DiMaggio and Ted Williams

traded in their baseball cleats

for combat boots, women’s

teams got a chance to keep

up the country’s morale in the

game.