The Home Front

World War II (1939-1945)

Chapter 27, Section 4

Essential Questions:

• Is majority rule the means in which to govern?

The War Production Board (WPB)

• Board Created by the U.S. to Make All War Materials Necessary for World War II!

• Organized the Building of Planes, Tanks, Weapons, Parachutes, Guns, Etc…

• The WPB Created 60% of All Allied Weapons!

• Built Over 300,000 Planes & Over 75,000 Ships

Production Propaganda

WWII Ended the Great Depression!

• With All of the Factories in Need of Workers, Jobs Were Easy to Find!

• Unemployment Rate Dropped!

• The United States’ GNP (Gross National Product) Increased From $90.5 Billion to $212 Billion

• GNP is the TOTAL Amount of All Goods & Services Produced by a Country in 1 Year!

Rationing• During WWII, Most

Items in the U.S. Became Scarce! (Materials Were Needed for the War!)

• Factories that Made Consumer Goods Now Made War Goods!

• To Make Sure Americans Had Supplies Too, The Government Came Up with a Rationing System!

Rationing Propaganda

Rationed Items:• Items That Were

Hard to Come by During World War II:– Gasoline– Tires– Shoes– Meat– Sugar– Cars

How Did U.S. Pay For WWII?

• The U.S. Government Raised Taxes ($$$) on Citizens (What Amendment Allows the Government to Tax the People?)

• Sold War Bonds!

• Loans by the Citizens to the Government!

Women in the Work Force

• Men from 18-38 Were Drafted

• Women Were Needed to Work in the Factories

• 1940 – 14 Million Women Worked (25% of the Work Force)

• 1945 – 19 Million Women Worked (30% of the Work Force)

Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter

Job Opportunities ForAfrican Americans

• Over 1 Million African Americans Got Jobs During WWII in Defense Industries

• Very Similar to the “Great Migration” During WWI (More than 1 Million African Americans Moved North & to the West Coast to Work in Factories)

• Racial Tensions Increased (Competition Over Jobs & Housing!)

A. Philip Randolph• African American

Labor(Union) Leader

• Most Factory Owners in Defense Industries Would Not Hire African Americans

• Threatened a Labor Strike During WWII

• Why Can’t You Have a Strike During a War?

Executive Order 8802• In Order to Avoid a

Strike, FDR Issued Executive Order 8802

• The Order Outlawed Job Discrimination in Defense Industries Working for the Federal Government

• Why Didn’t FDR Ask Congress to Just Outlaw Job Discrimination?

• How Was FDR Able to Outlaw Discrimination in the ARMED FORCES?

Mexican Immigration During WWII

• During WWII, the U.S. Government Encouraged Mexican Immigration!

• During WWII, Shortage of Farm Workers (The Draft)

• U.S. Created the Bracero Program

• Over 120,000 Mexicans Were Part of the Bracero Program

Prejudice Bracero’s Faced

Racism Towards Asians Prior to World War II

• Chinese Exclusion Act! 1882

• Fear of Asians Taking American Jobs!

• Housing Competition!

• Congress Limited Most Asians from Immigrating to the U.S. in 1924

Japanese-American Internment

• After the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, Many Americans Became Hostile Towards Japanese & Japanese Americans

• Many Americans Feared Japanese & Japanese Americans as Spies! Sabotage!

• FDR Ordered ALL Japanese & Japanese Americans on the West Coast Into Internment Camps

Japanese Internment Camps

• They Were NOT Concentration Camps! (No Violence Took Place There!)

• Over 110,000 Japanese Americans Were Forced to Sell Their Businesses & Leave Their Jobs

• Had to Leave Their Homes & Move into the Camps!

Nisei• Nisei: Japanese

Americans

• Most Japanese Americans were Loyal, EVEN when Placed in the Internment Camps!

• 442nd & 100th Infantry Units were Nisei Units that Won Many Medals!

Debate Question:

• Was the United States Government “justified,” (right or wrong) under the “Clear and Present Danger,” clause, (Schenck vs. the United States) to place Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans into Internment camps during World War II?

Essential Questions:

• Is majority rule the means in which to govern?