Mobilizing an “Arsenal of Democracy”

The Home Front■ WW2 impacted all aspects of US life:

–FDR hoped US would be the great “arsenal of democracy”

–Boost of wartime industry ended the Great Depression

–War altered lives of women, Af-Ams, Jap-Ams, & Mex-Ams

Mobilization■ US gov grew to largest size ever

–To win 2 wars –To meet civilian demands

The power to create new gov’t agencies

to censor the press

to limit civil liberties & seize personal property

2x as much as all previous gov spending combined

US gov spent $250 million/day 1941 - 1945

Mobilization■ War Powers Act gave POTUS

unprecedented power■ Bureaucracies formed to:

–Direct the economy–Create propaganda–Sell war bonds–Prevent enemy subversion

Office of War Mobilization

coordinated the draft, consumer prices, & the

labor force

Office of War Information

directed press, print, radio, & film

propaganda

Office of Strategic Services gathered enemy intelligence & conducted espionage

Mobilization: The Demand for War Equipment & Soldiers

War bonds helped raise

$187B to support the war effort

War Rations

Gas ration coupons

Victory Gardens: Grow Your Own

Propaganda: Fighting the Enemy on the Battlefield & on the Home Front

Fear Propaganda

Hollywood Pitches In

Jimmy Stewart goes off to war

The Wartime Economy■ Most decisive factor for Allied victory:

US industrial production

■ Heavy industry converted to war & directed by War Production Board

–15m US soldiers fought but 60m workers & farmers supplied them

U.S. made 2x more goods than Germany & 5x more than Japan

Ford’s Willow Run Factory Ford made one B-24 bomber every hour

Henry Kaiser’s West Coast ShipyardsThe Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, in part, because US produced ships faster than

German U-boats could sink them

Kaiser standardized battleship building & reduced the time it took to make a battleship

from 355 days to 14 days

Regional Changes■ War transformed Western US:

–CA became major industrial center to support war effort in the Pacific

■ And Southern US:–60 of 100 new military bases were

built in the South –Textile factories & industrial jobs

helped end sharecropping & tenant farming

9m workers moved to new factories & shipyards in South & West

Women■ War presented new economic

opportunities for women:–Dramatic rise in employment –Most new female workers were

married, many middle-aged–Previously exclusively male fields–Temporarily redefined “woman’s

sphere” from “just at home”

“To hell with the life I have had. This war is too [serious], and it

is too [important] to win it.”

Rosie the RiveterRosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter

Women’s Army Air Corps Pilots

Women’s Army Air Corps Pilots

Join the Women’s Army Corps

(WACs)

Join the Women’s Army Corps

(WACs)

Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)

Families■ Uncertainties of war & economic

affluence of 40s led to a dramatic rise in marriage

■ Influx of women into workforce led to demand for daycare centers & to increase in child delinquency

■ Public health improved – more families had access to doctors, dentists, & prescription drugs

…and high divorce rates

African-Americans■ 1m Af-Ams served in military but few

saw combat■ Workplace discrimination led A. Philip

Randolph to pressure FDR to create Fair Employment Practices Comm

■ Great Migration continued to the North & West – made race relations a national issue

Banned discrimination in defense industries & gov

Segregated units…againSegregated units…again

Tuskegee Airmen

Double V: Victory at Home & Abroad

A. Philip Randolph threatened a “March on Washington” to

protest war time discrimination

Other groups, like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), staged sit-ins in restaurants

in major cities to protest discrimination

Mexican-Americans ■ Served in quasi-segregated military

units, often in the most hazardous branches

■ Mexican-American workers found jobs in SW agriculture & west coast industry

■ Faced discrimination, especially during the Zoot Suit Riots

Zoot Suit Riots – LA

■ Fashion popular with 1940s LA Mex-Ams

■ Used lots of fabric– Strictly rationed

Zoot Suit Riots – LA

■ Zoot Suits effectively illegal – Underground

tailors violating war effort

■ Seen as unpatriotic

Zoot Suit Riots – LA

■ GIs stationed in LA beat up men wearing zoot suits

■ Police arrested “zoot suiters” after being beaten

Japanese-Americans■ After Pearl Harbor, many in US feared

J-Ams were helping prepare for Japanese invasion in the West

■ Civil liberties restricted:–Issei had assets frozen–Used racial stereotypes (“Japs”)–1942: FDR ordered 112,000 J-Ams

moved to internment camps

Japanese- American Internment

Camps

Families were given one week to close their businesses & homes

The all Japanese-American 442nd Division fought in Europe & received over 1,000

citations for bravery

Win-the-War Politics■ 1944: FDR used war to strengthen

leadership:–“Mr. New Deal” became “Mr. Win

the War”–Opponent Thomas Dewey made

communism & FDR’s health focus of the election

–FDR switched VPs from liberal Henry Wallace to moderate Harry Truman to gain appeal