American Homefront WWII

War Posters, Minorities, and Japanese Internment

Homefront Themes• “Arsenal of Democracy”

• Need to out produce enemies

• Need for Speed

Recruitment

• First Peacetime Draft

US Home FrontUS Home Front

“How Can You Do Your Part?”

WPB

War Production Board

Conservation of Materials

Office of Price Administration

Women in Govt. jobs and Armed Forces

“Rosie the Riveter”

“Rosie the Riveter”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2tt1h53jM

Victory Bonds

Income Taxes taken from paychecks

How to pay for War?

Labor

• African Americans in War Industries

• Fair Employment Practices Committee

• (FEPC)

- War Labor Board

- Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act

A. Philip Randolph

Smith-Connally (War Labor disputes Act)

• 1943--The Act allowed the federal government to seize and operate industries threatened by or under strikes that would interfere with war production, and prohibited unions from making contributions in federal elections.

Fair Employment Practices Committee

• Executive Order 8802 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1941, to prohibit racial discrimination in the national defense industry. It was the first federal action, though not a law, to promote equal opportunity and prohibit employment discrimination in the United States. The President's statement that accompanied the Order cited the war effort, saying that "the democratic way of life within the nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups," and cited reports of discrimination:

• “There is evidence available that needed workers have been barred from industries engaged in defense production solely because of considerations of race, creed, color or national origin, to the detriment of workers' morale and of national unity”

A. Philip RandolphAction: Randolph threatens to march on Washington in June, 1941.

Result: FDR issued Executive Order 8802 (Fair Employment Act), barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus. _______________________________________

Action: After WWII, Randolph led a campaign in favor of racial equality in the military.

Result: Truman issued executive order 9981 in July, 1948, banning segregation in the armed forces.

Minorities in Armed Service

-Navajo Codetalkers

Tuskegee Airmen

Dorie Miller

Nisei Soldiers

Silence…

“loose lips sink ships”

Effects of the War on the Home front

• End of the Great Depression

• Increase in wages=> Post-war prosperity

• Conservation=> Post-war consumption

• Govt. influence on eco. and debt

• Civil Rights movement/ Opportunities (Women and minorities)

• CIA = search for Communists

Assessing Japanese Internment

• Exec. Order 9066

• Court Cases

• Korematsu v. US

• Endo Case

• 1988 Settlement

Justification

• Was justified by the Government in two ways:– 1. The Government claimed that American

citizens of Japanese ancestry were more loyal to Japan than to their own country.

– 2. The Government claimed that because Japan had attacked the U.S. territory of Hawaii, those Americans of Japanese ancestry might have helped Japan.

Non-citizen Italians and Germans (shown on this map) were also

relocated

• The population of German citizens in the United States – not to mention American citizens of German birth – was far too large for a general policy of internment comparable to that used in the case of the Japanese in America.

• Instead, German citizens were detained and evicted from coastal areas on an individual basis. The War Department considered mass expulsions from coastal areas for reasons of military security, but never executed such plans.

Camp Conditions

• These camps were over crowded and provided poor living conditions.– The buildings were small framed buildings with no

plumbing or cooking areas.• Coal was hard to find to keep them warm so they slept under

many blankets.• entire families lived in one room cell• had to use communal areas for washing, laundry and eating • Food was very expensive (48 cents per internee).• Leadership positions were only offered to the Nisei

(American-born Japanese) and not the older generations (Called the lssei), who were forced to watch their children be promoted while they themselves were demoted.

Fred Korematsu

• Fred Korematsu was born and raised in Alameda County, California.

• He was of Japanese ancestry but knew nothing when it came to the country of Japan.

• In June 1941 he tried to enlist in the Navy but denied due to his poor health

• Fred ended up working in a shipyard as a welder

Korematsu Case

• May 9, 1942: all the Japanese people are ordered to leave the Pacific Coastal region.– Korematsu disobeyed because he believed that as a U.S citizen

the evacuation order should not apply to him.– He was then arrested and charged with violating the order of

commander of Military Area No. 1.– His claim was that military commanders had denied Japanese

Americans their constitutional rights • After losing in the Court of Appeals, he appealed to the United

States Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the deportation center.

– Court upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the Pacific coastal region.

– They said that the needs of national security justified the orders.

• The ruling has never been revoked by law but in 1988 congress offered payments of $20,000 as compensation

Korematsu

• Korematsu v. United States, (1944), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of citizenship.

Endo Case

• Ex parte Endo, or Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, (1944) was a United States Supreme Court decision, handed down on December 18, 1944, the same day as their decision in Korematsu v. United States. In their decision, the Supreme Court ruled that, regardless of whether the United States Government had a right to exclude people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast during World War II, they could not continue to detain a citizen that the government itself conceded was loyal to the United States. This decision helped lead to the re-opening of the West Coast for resettlement by Japanese-American citizens following their internment in camps across the United States during World War II.

• In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation said that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned and their heirs.

The Ugly Side of the Homefront

Life Magazine December 1941• http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/foster/lifemag.htm

Chinese Japanese

Origins of Japanese Internment

George Takei

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yogXJl9H9z0

Zoot Suit Riots

Jewish Refugees

- St. Louis- Reports of

Discrimination