History – 01) Impact of WW2 on USA

BY HEI MAN KWOK 11N03S 25TH DEC 2012 – HEY ITS XMAS DAY!

Wartime Production • Stalin proposed a toast: “To American production,

without which this war would have been lost”• Amazingly quickly shifted from peacetime to

wartime production• 1944 – USA producing 1/2 of the weapons made

in the world – x2 of Germany and Japan combined • USA also provided food, clothing, vehicles and

countless other items not only for US troops but the Allies too

War Production Board

• In JAN 1942, Roosevelt set up the War Production Board under the industrialist William Knusden to ensure that war production needs were met

• Knusden believed that it would be impossible for USA to get the goods it wanted without the cooperation of factory bosses

War Production Board

• Knusden called in USA’s leading industrialists, asked for their advice on how to meet war production needs rather than setting them targets and let them decided which companies would produce particular goods

• 80% of US contracts went to only 100 firms (though work ended with thousands of smaller firms which were subcontracted)

• Not only to help the war effort but to also make to a profit (a lot of money)

Workers and Population Movements

• Home Front = needed many more workers • 14 million worked in the factories • 4 million workers migrated from the rural

south to the industrial north or along the Pacific coast

• Significant number of Black Americans (0.75 million found work in war industries)

Woman at Work

• Before war, already 12 million working woman During the war: • 300,000 women joined the armed forces • 7 million joined the workforce• 1/3 aircraft workers were women • 1/2 in the munitions and electronic industries

were woman

Woman at Work - Positives

• Often giving difficult welding jobs in awkward parts of aircraft bodies because they were smaller and more agile

• Most fuses were made from woman, because they generally had nimbler fingers

• Gov. Survey: 60% of American plant managers said that woman were their best workers

• Rosie the Riveter – poster campaign and Hollywood movie encouraging woman to work

Woman at Work – Negatives

• Not always welcomed by their male colleagues or trade unionists who felt that woman were a threat to jobs and to pay levels – woman earned up to 60% less than their male counterparts

• Factories made little or no effort to provide child-care facilities

• Congress resisted Roosevelt’s plans to ensure equal pay for men and woman

Woman at Work – After War

• Simply left their wartime jobs as they had to as they had been doing ‘men’s jobs’

• But many didn’t give up paid work completely • They found other work such as secretaries,

clerks and shop assistants • Result of wartime employment was a big shift

in work patterns over the next 20 years

War and Prosperity

• Out of all the countries involved in fighting WW2, only USA emerged economically stronger:

• More than 1/2 million new businesses started up during the war – many became rich due to war contracts

• War effort ended unemployment from the Great Depression – what Roosevelt’s New Deal didn’t manage to do

War and Prosperity

• Even American farmers, after almost 20 years of depressed prices and economic crisis, began to enjoy better times as the USA exported food to help it’s allies.

• Ordinary Americans invested their income in war bonds – which meant that they effectively lent money to the gov. which were paid back to them with interest at the end of the war – Americans contributed 126 billion USD to the war effort by buying bonds

Japanese Americans

• USA had a large Japanese immigrant population – particularly on the Pacific Coast

• The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on the 7th DEC 1914 created a wave of anti-Japanese feeling in much of USA

• However on the West Coast, however, most residents were sympathetic to the Japanese-Americans to begin with – they didn’t blame them for Japanese agression

Internment of Japanese Americans • Official propaganda whipped up hysteria against the

Japanese AmericansUS security forces rounded up 120,000 Japanese Americans in

1942: • Transported to bleak internment camps in remote areas of

USA, kept there until 1945• Most of them lost their property or forced to sell at very low

prices • No account was taken whether the people were Issei (born

in Japan) or Nisei (born in USA)• Japanese people were subjected to vandalism, abuse and

even murder

Internment of Japanese Americans

• Owed more to racism than to security • No German or Italian Americans were interned,

though USA were at war with their countries too

• Chinese Americans were mistakenly attacked simply because they looked Japanese

• Ironically, the state of Hawaii didn’t intern Japanese Americans and it suffered no sabotage

Interned Japanese Americans

• Impressed/ Amazed the guards in the camps with their dignity and patriotism - raised the Stars and Stripes flag each morning

• JAN 1943, when congress allowed Japanese Americans to serve in the armed forces and 33,000 immediately volunteered, including thousands who were in the internment camps

• The all-Neisei infantry units in the US army were among the most highly decorated for bravery in the war

Controversy of the Internment of Japanese Americans

• Not all Americans supported the internment policy

• Many lawyers argued that it was a contravention of the US Constitution

• As early as 1944, a US Supreme Court judge called the policy ‘government racism’

• In 1988 the US Congress voted an apology for the policy and paid $20,000 compensation each to all surviving internees

Black Americans in the Armed Forces

• Over 1 million black Americans joined the armed forces

• Wartime was full on contradictions and highlighted the extent of racism and discrimination:

1. Usually served in black-only units led by white officers

2. Only until 1944 that the US marines allowed black soldiers into combat – up to that point, only used as cooks, labours (referred to as mules)

Black Americans in the Armed Forces

• One incident in American south where a railway company restaurant refused to serve US black soldiers who were guarding German prisoners of war on a train, yet prepared to serve the white German prisoners

• By 1945, there were many integrated units, which the US Supreme Commander General Eisenhower strongly supported

The worst discrimination, in the navy

• By the end of the war, only 58 black sailors had risen to officer rank

• It was exclusively black sailors who were assigned to the dangerous job of loading ammunition on to ships bound for the war zones

• JULY 1944 a horrific accident killed 323 people, most of them black sailors

• The gov. Ordered the navy to end all racial discrimination by FEB 1946

Black Americans in the Workplace

• Over 400,000 blacks migrated from the south to the USA’s industrial centres

• On average, they doubled their wages to about $1000 per year

• Faced prejudice and discrimination – black workers generally earned half what white workers earned

Black Americans in the Workplace

• Black leaders led by Philip Randolph threatened a mass march of 50,000 people to Washington to end discrimination at work

• JUN 1941, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 which ordered employers on defence work to end discrimination

Black Americans in the Workplace

• But it took more than executive orders to change attitudes: 1942 – Packard electronics company, 3000 white workers including the management walked out when 3 black workers had their jobs upgraded as a result of the order

• Poor workers created racial tension and there were race riots which sowed the seeds for the successes of the civil rights movements

US Economy

• Emerged from WW2 as a strong economy, and continued to stay strong – the nation’s wealth grew each year

• Richest country in the world from 1945 – 1980

• Congress vs President – had bold promises but often the Congress wouldn’t let him do as he wishes

What should be done with all the excess money?

• Huge responsibility • President judged by whether he kept the

economy growing – had to keep American businesses happy

• On the other hand , such wealth gave the gov. enough money to do almost anything it wanted to – sending man to the moon, massive military project (Vietnam War) or social projects such as improving health care…

Gov. Help vs Self-help

• There were people who argued that in such a rich country there shouldn’t be any poor people

• Yet others argued that all American citizens should have equal rights and opportunities in terms of laws, voting and jobs

• And still others who argued just as convincingly that it was not the gov’s role to help poor people – it was up to them to work hard ant improve themselves, also argued that radical new laws or rapid social changes could destabilise the country and lead to violence