Chapter 17: The U.S. in WWII Section 4: The Impact of the War on the Homefront

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Chapter 17The U.S. in WWIISection 4The
Impact of the War on the Homefront
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Standards

• 11.7.5
• 11.7 Students analyze America's participation in
  World War II.
• .5 Discuss the constitutional issues and impact
  of events on the U.S. home front, including the
  internment of Japanese Americans (e.g., Fred
  Korematsu v. United States of America)

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Objectives

• Following lecture and reading of this section,
  students will be able to
• Describe the economic and social changes that
  reshaped American life during WWII
• Summarize the opportunities and the
  discrimination American minorities experienced
  during the war.

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Economic Gains

• Defense industries boom
• unemployment falls to 1.2 in 1944
• average pay rises 10 during war
• Farmers prosper from rising crop prices, increase
  in production
• many pay off mortgages
• Percentage of women in work force rises to 35

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Population Shifts

• The growth of the defense industry sparks the
  largest migration in U.S. history.
• Mass migrations to towns with defense industries
• Many are African-Americans moving from the south
  to find better opportunities

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Social Adjustments

• Families adjust
• fathers in military
• mothers raise children alone and work
• Families must get to know each other again after
  fathers return
• Many couples had rushed to get married before
  husband went overseas
• 1944 GI Bill of Rights or Servicemens
  Readjustment Act was implemented
• Paid for an education
• Loan guarantees for homes and new businesses

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Civil Unrest

• Civil Rights Protests
• Racial tensions rise in overcrowded Northern
  cities
• James Farmer founds Congress of Racial Equality
  (CORE)
• works on racial segregation in North
• 1943 racial violence sweeps across country
  Detroit riots worst case
• Tension in Los Angeles
• Anti-Mexican zoot suit riots involve thousands
  servicemen and civilians

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Internment

• Japanese Americans Placed in Internment Camps
  Visual
• Hawaii governor forced to order internment
  (confinement) of Japanese
• 1942 FDR signs removal of Japanese Americans in
  four states
• U.S. Army forces 110,000 Japanese Americans into
  prison camps
• 1944 Korematsu v. United StatesCourt rules in
  favor of internment
• After war, Japanese American Citizens League
  pushes for compensation
• 1988, Congress grants 20,000 to everyone sent
  to relocation camp

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• Americans who lived in places for years moved
  elsewhere for work.
• CA had over 1 million newcomers from 1941-44.
• Burbank grew from 12,000 to 60,000 in the first
  two years of the war.
• The mass migrations and rations left the U.S. in
  a housing shortage and food shortages in
  restaurants.

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• Families struggled with separations and changing
  roles.
• Fathers in the war, women raising children alone,
  and young children got used to being left alone.
• People got married quickly, before soldiers went
  off to war.
• Soldiers received Dear John letters from their
  wives or sweethearts when she found someone new.

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• The GI bill of rights was passed in 1944, to help
  ease the transition of returning serviceman to
  civilian life.
• Discrimination and Reaction
• African Americans and Mexican Americans fight
  segregation and discrimination but persist and
  have decorated units.

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• During the war, about 330,000 blacks left the
  south, many moved to the West Coast.
• They left for jobs and found that between
  1940-1944 their skilled positions doubled from
  16 to 30.

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• Discrimination followed African Americans
  wherever they went, so James Farmer established
  the Congress of Racial Equality to confront urban
  segregation.
• As new black immigrants moved into already
  crowded cities, tensions rose.
• Mexican Americans were faced with the zoot suit
  riots.

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• The zoot suit was a style of dress adopted by
  Mexican American youths as a symbol of their
  rebellion against tradition.
• The zoot suit consisted of a knee-length jacket,
  pleated pants nipped in at the cuff, and a
  broad-brimmed hat.
• In Los Angeles, the riots began when 11 sailors
  claimed they were attacked by Mexican Americans.

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• The charges triggered two nights of violence
  between servicemen and civilians.
• Mobs went into Mexican neighborhoods and grabbed
  any zootsuiters they could ripped off their
  clothes and beat them.
• The city responded by outlawing the wearing of
  zoot suits.

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• The Japanese American Experience
• The Japanese were interned, as we mention before,
  into prison like camps because we worried many
  Japanese were spies.
• Some Japanese got out of the camps by
  volunteering for military service.
• The Japanese that served were highly decorated
  with war medals.

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• Japanese Americans also fought for justice, both
  in the courts and in congress.
• In the 1944 Supreme Court decision Korematsu v.
  U.S. claimed government was justified by
  evacuating Japanese because of military necessity.

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• After the war, the Japanese Americans Citizen
  League (JACL) pushed the government to compensate
  those sent to camps for their lost property.
• In 1965, 20 years after the war, congress
  authorized 38 million in compensation.
• This was okay but nothing compared to the 400
  million that was actually taken.

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• A New Threat Looms
• After the war, America would barely have time to
  deal with the aftermath of the war and to adjust
  to peace, before it found itself mobilizing
  against a new enemy- the threat of Communism.

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Japanese Internment camps
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Rosie the Riveter
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Aircraft Carrier