Post on 03-Jan-2016
Industrial Production“War is no longer
simply a battle between armed forces in the field.”
Another total war The nation must be
mobilized Mobilization is not voluntary
like WWI
The Great Depression is over!
War Production Skyrockets!
U.S. industries exceeded their production and profits of the 1920s! By 1944 unemployment had
practically disappeared
By 1944 our war-related industrial output was twice that of all the Axis powers combined
Henry Kaiser’s giant shipyard could turn out a ship in 14 days!
Office of Price Administration (OPA)
Regulated almost every aspect of civilians’ lives
Froze prices, wages, and rents
The OPA and Rationing
Rationing Book and stamps
Commodities like meat, sugar, gasoline, and
tires were rationed
Labor and the WarLabor unions and
corporations agreed to NO STRIKES!
Workers unhappy when wages were frozen but corporations continued to make large profits John L. Lewis called for a few
strikes of coal unions
Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act of 1943 Passed over FDR’s veto
Financing the WarGovernment paid for
huge increase in spending by: Increasing income tax
1944 – practice of automatically deducting a withholding tax from paychecks begun
Selling war bonds Sold $135 billion
Election of 1940:Roosevelt Breaks the Two-Term Tradition
F.D. Roosevelt (D) vs. Wendell Wilkie (R)
Issues: Global crisis Third-Term
African-Americans and the War
More Job Opportunities 1.5 mil left the South for defense jobs in
the North and West Still faced discrimination
A. Philip Randolph threatens a march on Washington
FDR issued executive order banning discrimination in defense industries Fair Employment Practices Commission
monitored
1 mil joined the armed forces Served in segregated units Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen End of war President Truman
desegregates the army
Faced continued discrimination 1943 - Race riots in New York and Detroit
African Americans and the "Double V"
The Double V Victory over fascism abroad and
victory for equality at home
NAACP membership increased
CORE formed, 1942 Congress on Racial Equality Worked more militantly for
black interests
Smith v. Allwright (1944) Unconstitutional to deny
membership in political parties to blacks as a way of excluding them from voting in primaries
Mexican-Americans and the War
Many worked in defense industries
Over 300,000 served in the military
Bracero Program, 1942 Agreement w/Mexican gov Allowed Mexican farm
workers to enter the U.S. in harvest season w/o going through formal immigration process
Thousands enter as temporary workers but stay
Mexican-Americans Face Discrimination:
Zoot-Suit Riots, 1943
Sudden influx of Mexican immigrants stirred white resentment
Native American Do Their Part
Approximately 25,000 served in the military Some served as Code Talkers
Having left the reservations, more than half never returned
Women and the WarForever changed the lives of
women Caused a significant movement of
married women into the workforce
200,000 served in the military in noncombat roles
Shortage of workers led 5 million to enter the workforce The pay they received was well
below that of male factory workers
“Rosie the Riveter”
Immigrants and the War:Patriotism Speeds
AssimilationCompared to WWI,
displayed little hostility to German Americans
Ethnicity seemed less a source of menacing difference than evidence of healthy diversity Exception: Japanese-
Americans
Office of War InformationGovernment’s wartime
propaganda could found everywhere Posters, songs, news
bulletins, movies, radio, etc.
Purpose: Maintain public morale Encourage people to sacrifice
& conserve resources Increase war production Reflect a cheerful, patriotic
view of the war
After Pearl Harbor Anti-Japanese Feeling Sweeps the
U.S.
Japanese portrayed as devious, malign, and cruel people
More Examples of Anti-Japanese Sentiments
Despite the anti-Japanese hysteria, more than 20,000 Japanese Americans served in WWII 442nd Regiment, composed mostly of Japanese-American
soldiers, was the most decorated of WWII
Executive Order #9066,March, 1942
Only about 127,000 Japanese Americans in the U.S. Most concentrated in Hawaii & CA Two-thirds were Nisei
Naturalized or native born citizens
FDR ordered that all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast be removed to “relocation centers” for the duration of the war
Why? Irrational fears of potential spies and
saboteurs Racism - only Japanese Am. on West
Coast interned not Hawaii
Japanese InternmentWar Relocation
Authority created to oversee project
More than 100,000 people rounded up including Nisei Told to dispose of their
property however they could
Usually meant abandoning it
Japanese Internment:
Life at the CampsThe camps were
essentially prisons
Conditions were not brutal but they were harsh and uncomfortable
Many were located in western mountains and the desert
Japanese Internment:
Life in the CampsInternment never
produced significant popular opposition Once they were in the camps
they were largely forgotten
Beginning in 1943 conditions slowly improved Some left the camps to attend
colleges on the East Coast Some moved to cities to work in
factories Some Nisei joined the army
Manzanar
Korematsu v. United States, 1944
Japanese American Citizens League protested the U.S. governments “relocation” policy
Supreme Court upheld Executive Order #9066 and the internment policy It wasn’t until 1988 that the U.S.
government acknowledged that an injustice had been done Interned Japanese Americans
received reparations for the property they lost
MR. JUSTICE MURPHY, dissenting. Korematsu .v US (1944)
This exclusion of "all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien," from the Pacific Coast area on a plea of military necessity in the absence of martial law ought not to be approved. Such exclusion goes over "the very brink of constitutional power" and falls into the ugly abyss of racism. . .
I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States. All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States. They must accordingly be treated at all times as the heirs of the American experiment and as entitled to all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.