WWII: Home-Front (1941-45)

I. IntroII. Government Grows

– Finances– Government Control

III. Society/EconomyA. PatriotismB. Economy/JobsC. Women & FamilyD. Race Relations

V. Conc.

Key Terms• Revenue Act• War Productions Board• Office of Price

Administration• Braceros• Executive Order 9066

Finances

• Cost of WWII- $250 million per day

• Solutions: Money was borrowed – 1941 debt: $48 Billion– 1945 debt: $247 Billion

Thomas Hart Benton, “Back Him Up”

• Solutions: Revenue Act of 1942

Revenue Act(1942)

1. Instituted “withholding taxes.”2. Tax rates for all were increased.

• Shows growth of Government’s power.

Government Grows

• Government Agencies:– WPB– OPA

War Productions Board

• Oversaw conversion of economy from civilian to military supplies.

– Ex: Auto Industry• By 1945 US produced

more than Germany, Italy & Japan combined.

Don Nelson, WPB Chair & Former head of Sears & Roebuck

Auto Industry Mobilizes

• Chrysler-tanks• Ford-Jeeps & Planes (Willow Run assembly line

was one mile long & ¼ mile wide).

Government Grows:Office Of Price Administration

• Rationed goods & established price controls

• Examples: steel, sugar, coffee, rubber, gasoline, etc.

• Slogan: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

• National Speed Limit:

35 mph

Patriotism & Baseball

• $55,000/year• $21.00/month• Hank Greenberg• National Anthem

Patriotism & Enlistments

• 1941-1.6 million in US armed forces

• 1945-15 million men & 350,000 women in US armed forces

Recruiting Poster US Navy Recruiting Booklet

Patriotism & War Bonds

• Many showed their support by purchasing war bonds

Thomas Hart Benton, “Back Him Up”

Boom Economic

Average Salaries (US)*• 1939-$1,500/year• 1945-$3,000/year

Unemployment (MI)*• 1933-46%• 1944- 0.6%

*Figures are approximate

Women In The Workforce

• 1941-1945 6.5 million women enter workforce.

• No equal pay for equal work.

• Women were still responsible for “traditional chores.”

War & American Family

• Marriages & birthrates increased; so did divorces

• High school enrollments dropped

• Rates of juvenile delinquency increased

Hurley Family Photo

WWII & Hispanic Laborers

• US negotiated Bracero program due to labor shortage (1942-64).

• Mexican citizens worked in US—about 4 million.

• US farmers became dependent upon Bracero laborers. Bracero workers on a

California farm (1944)

Home Front Economic Boom & Demographic Patterns

Black Population• Seattle: 4,000-40,000• Detroit: increased by

nearly 50,000

Black Americans Leave South

• Over 700,000 African Americans left South

• Racial tension developed

Racial Tension(Housing)

• A group gathers near the Sojourner Truth Housing Project (1942)

Black Americans Leave South

• Detroit Race Riots (1943).

• 25 blacks and 9 whites were killed.

Japanese Americans

Executive Order 9066• 110,000 on West Coast

forced into “Internment Camps”

• 2/3 were US citizens• Reparations were

granted in 1988

Holocaust(Hitler’s “Final Solution”)

• 6 million Jews (out of a worldwide Jewish population of about 15 million)

• 3.7 million Soviets• 12,000/day at

Auschwitz

30 Jewish women starved to death on 300 mile march

WWII: Home-Front (1941-45)

I. IntroII. Government Grows

– Finances– Government Control

III. Society/EconomyA. PatriotismB. Economy/JobsC. Women & FamilyD. Race Relations

V. Conc.

Key Terms• Revenue Act• War Productions Board• Office of Price

Administration• Braceros• Executive Order 9066