Post on 01-Apr-2015
America in World War II
Mobilization & The Home FrontThe North African Campaign
Unemployment in the United
StatesUnemployment at the peak of the Depression? 25%
Unemployment by 1945? 1.9%
Iron & steel workers in the 1940s
Unemployed during the 1930s
The “Sleeping Giant”
Needs to be addressed1. Raise an army & supply it
2. Outthink the enemy3. Make the nation “safe”
The “Sleeping Giant”
Raising an ArmyUS Army before WWII?
180,000
Total size of military by 1945?15 million
Women?150,000 in the Women’s Army Auxiliary
250,000 across all branches
Minorities?1+ million African Americans
Asian citizens and Native Americans served in the Pacific as spies or “windtalkers”
The “Sleeping Giant”
Supplying the MilitaryIn 1944, the United States was on average
producing:One plane every five minutes
One ship everyday
How did the nation afford this?Bonds & Taxes
The “Sleeping Giant”
Outthinking the EnemyRadar & Sonar
M1 GarandBreaking Enigma & Ultra
And many more…
Office of Scientific Research & DevelopmentPlutonium and Uranium Discoveries
Making the Nation “Safe”
Japanese Internment in the United States
George Yamamoto & the Incident at Great Meadows
Japanese Internment
“A Jap is a Jap. It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen or not.”Gen. John L. DeWitt
127,000 Issei & Nisei interned in 1942
1944: Ruled constitutionally permissible due to the war.
George Yamamoto
& Great Meadows,
New Jersey
George Yamamoto
Torazo Matsumoto
Kazumasa “Frank”
Kitagawa
Katsuji “Edward”
Taniguchi
Ted Miyamura
Gila Relocation Center
Phoenix, AZ
to…
Edward Kowalick’s Farm
Great Meadows, NJ
Mr. Kowalick was fond of Mr. Yamamoto as he “saved him time”.
“Mr. Yamamoto went to work cleaning up the cabin, unpacking his bedroll, caulking the windows and mending the latch on the front door… he sat down and wrote his family a letter. He told them he had had wonderful luck, that he had found a
good place and would be sending for them soon.”
Report in LIFE Magazine by Faith Fair
“But the telephones in Great Meadows were already ringing. ‘A Jap is in town. Saw him
with my own eyes. Got slant eyes and looks means.’ There were tales of arson and rape. The farmers had heard that Japanese could
produce celery cheaper than Americans. There was talk of how their children would soon be sitting next to yellow children in
school.”
Sign placed in the front of Mr. Kowalick’s farm
What Happened to Mr. Yamamoto?
The War in Steps