during WWII

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American
Homefront
during WWII
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Americans joined the War Effort
After Pearl Harbor five (5) million men
volunteered for military service AND
eventually the Selective Service System provided
another ten (10) million soldiers
A blue star in a homes window meant someone
from that family was in the war A gold star
meant someone in the family had died in the war
effort

• Women in the Armed Forces
• Womens Auxiliary Corps (WACS)
• female army volunteers served in noncombat
  positions
• nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators,
  electricians, and pilots
• Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service
  (WAVES)
• female noncombat volunteers made up 2 ½ percent
  of the Navy

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Minorities in the Military

• AFRICAN AMERICANS
• Why die for democracy in some foreign country
  when we dont even have it here?
• Here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow
  man for the protection of a white man.
• one million African Americans served in
  segregated units
• Tuskegee Airmen

• ASIAN AMERICANS
• thousands of Chinese and Japanese Americans
  joined armed forces
• Japanese Americans served as spies and
  interpreters
• 442nd regiment was known as go for broke
  regiment

• NATIVE AMERICANS
• thousands of native Americans enlisted,
  including women
• Navajo code talkers were essential for wartime
  communications

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How did Americans get their news on the WAR?
click projector to see a clip from an actual WWII
news reel
News reels
telegrams

• NEWSPAPERS
• Ernie Pyle

click radio to hear an actual WWII radio broadcast

• Radio broadcasts
• Edward R. Murrow

• Propaganda
• using media to promote a point of view

letters
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Production and Rationing

• War Production Board
• decided which companies would convert to wartime
  production
• rationed fuel and materials vital to the war
  effort, such as gas, metals, rubber, plastic
• collected and recycled important materials
• people used ration books and stamps to purchase
  rationed items
• victory gardens
• car sharing clubs

• New Work Opportunities for Some Groups
• women
• Rosie the Riveter
• minorities
• population shift to
• northern cities

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Shhhhh be quiet. Americans were also expected
to keep quiet about war related work and
information
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Even Dr. Seuss was involved in the war effort
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Paying for the War
Americans helped offset the cost of the war
by purchasing War Bonds
8 out of every 13 Americans purchased bonds,
raising over 185 billion dollars for the war
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Japanese Internment Camps

• Japanese Internment
• FDR signs order in 1942 requiring removal of
  Japanese Americans
• California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona,
  Hawaii
• recommended by military
• 110,000 Japanese Americans relocated to 10
  relocation centers
• 2/3 of these were Nisei or American-born
  Japanese
• Camp Manzanar
• Korematsu v. United States
• restitutions eventually paid in 1990

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FDR guides nation through Great Depression and
WWII
FDR was elected President a record four
times! 1932 1936 1940 1944

• FDR died shortly before V-E Day in April 1945
• he changed the role of federal government,
  led country through WWII, appointed 1st female
• cabinet member, contributed to advances for
  minorities, and helped plan the United Nations
• Vice President Harry S Truman sworn in as 33rd
  president of the United States