See how the record player, which represents the US people, is shouting??? It is saying keep out of Europe, as in stay out of war
You may remember from our study of WWI that after that war the U.S. wanted to go back to a policy of Isolation. That means they wanted to stay to themselves and NOT get involved in any European wars.
No country could get away from the problems. Eventually the U.S. began changing their ideas because they wanted to help countries already fighting they were friends with. One of these ideas was to give money and supplies to friends, it was called Lend-Lease.
TheU.S. was not yet involved in the war, but it was becoming clear to many that they eventually would. They began to feel a need to help out those countries they were friends with by providing them with ships, planes, guns, trucks, ammo, FOOD, etc).
A program was developed to do this called the Lend-Lease program. we gave them almost a TRILLION $ worth of supplies. In return the U.S. got a promise to some day return the equipment.
One of the really strange products sent to the Soviet Union was Spam.
Lend-Lease Spam
Modern-Day Spam
Spam on plate
It is chopped pieces of pork meat in a can. Some say it kept the Soviet army from starving.
We were not yet fighting, but the fact we started sending supplies to friends in Europe, Germany decided to start sinking our ships on the ocean.
We even gave lots of money to countries in Central and South America so they would still be our friends.
Big Change
Direct Involvement In War
U.S. involvement in WW II changed totally on December 7th, 1941. That is when the Japanese carried out a surprise attack on our navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
This shows what it was like when the Japanese attacked
We were not at war with them at the time. Yes, we were talking with them at the time about problems, but they had not told us they intendedto attack.
The next day President Roosevelt appeared before government leaders and gave this speech
December 8th, 1941 Speech
By the time the war was over the U.S. would send 16,000,000 men and women into uniform to fight in one part or another of the United States armed forces. When the war was over 418,500 U.S service people had given their lives (died) fighting for freedom. In comparison, the Soviet Union had 26,954,000 men and women, both civilians and military (army) killed.
The Homefront describes all of the homes, businesses, government groups, newspapers, radio stations, and factories back in the United States. Since it was their sons, husbands, fathers, brothers who were fighting and dying, the people at home wanted to help support their efforts. It was also their daughters who had gone over to help the war effort by doing different things in different ways. People on the Home-front wanted to support their efforts.
Products Made For War That Put People Back To Work.
Bullets of many sizes, cannon shellsof many sizes, guns, tanks, airplanes , jeeps, trucks, parachutes, navy ships, clothing, shoes, rubber for hoses, gasoline, coal, desks, chairs, books, paper, knives, candy, etc. The list could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Then there were all the people who now had jobs moving this stuff. Truck drivers, train workers, airplane pilots.
Then there were the 16,000,000 people who had jobs in the Army, Army-Air Corps, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard using all of this stuff. THEY were getting paid to do a job. (When the war started we only had 1,686,000 in the army. Two years before that (1939) in had only been 374,000.).
B-24 bombers, eventually employed over 42,000 people and by 1944, the plant was producing one plane every hour.
This same kind of thing was repeated all over the country in many different factories, making many different products.
For More Detail on wartime employment and the Homefront click on this link (Spanish) or THIS one (English).
Protecting The Production
In California (on the Pacific Coast) there was some fear that the Japanese would be able to attack there. Many companies making war goods were located in California, one of them being the Lockheed Company that made aircraft. One of the VERY useful planes they made was called the P-38 Lightening
P-38 Lightening
In order to protect the factory making the planes they designed and made a very fancy way to camouflage(hide) it. This was done in case there was an attack it would not look like a factory, but like a regular neighborhood.
Here is the factory before they put on camouflage.
Here it is what the same area looks like afterwards.
Here is what it looks like underneath part of the camouflage.
Women Take Jobs In Defense Plants
A Defense Plant is a factory making products for the war effort. Up to this time most, but not all, workers in factories were men. Now many of the men were off in the Army, Navy, and Marines fighting the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy).
Factories needed to find workers from some place, and women were a large and available source of workers.
They made Machine Gun Ammo.
They operated heavy tools to make pieces for BIG things like tanks.
They worked making ships for the Navy.
They worked on farms.
They worked putting the pieces of an airplane together.
This last example shows women using a machine called a riveting machines that used something like a staple to connect pieces of metal. In the last picture you saw the women using the riveting machines to make a B-17 Heavy Bomber. Hear a bit of the story...
Rosie The Riveter
Women working in factories putting the pieces of airplanes together with riveting machines gave rise to an image that came to stand for all women workers in factories during WW II. She was called “Rosie The Riveter.”
You can then hear a song from the time about Rosie The Riveter
Conserving and Rationing
What they mean and how they can support war effort
Conserving means to use things wisely and not waste them. In other words use as little of something as you can so that it will last longer.
Rationing means that you hold your use of something to a set limit. Often there is somebody telling you that you must do it. This usually is the government.
During WW II at home in the U.S. we needed to do both because so much of what we had was being used to fight the war. Making supplies and weapons for the soldiers. Sending food to the soldiers.
It had a big effect on kids. Toys had been made out of metal (This was before plastic existed a lot.) Toys were also sometimes made out of wood. Children were asked to turn in their metal toys so the metal could be melted down to make equipment for war. A lead toy could be melted down to make bullets.
Conserving.
People at home were even asked to save the fat that came from cooking meat, because that fat could be used to help make explosives.
A song from the time about saving the fat for explosives
People were even urged to conserve (save) food by planting their own gardens to raise food. They called these “Victory Gardens” because you were conserving (by raising your own food) to help win the war.
Conserving Money – Buying War Bonds
These war bonds were just like you remember learning about in the WW I unit. You gave the government money now so they could buy all the supplies and weapons necessary, and they agreed to give you your money back in a set amount of time.
One example is a $25 War Bond.
You pay $18.75 for it and in 10 years the government gives you back $25. You make a profit of $6.25.
They would have movie stars and war heroes who had come home go on tours asking people to buy bonds.
Betty Grable: She was a VERY famous movie star during the time of the war. MANY soldiers kept poster of her. In this picture of a war bond rally she is taking off her stockings to be auctioned (sold to the person paying the highest amount) to raise money for the war effort. People would come just to see her, and maybe buy bonds as well.
They would put up posters to show you why you needed to buy bonds.
This linkwill let you see many more war bond poster
Even kids got involved. They would save their change from buying things, and maybe be able to buy a bond. In that way they were involved in helping win the war.
You can see a lot of good examples of how the HomeFront was involved by going HERE.
Rationing
Rationing is when you are limited in what you are allowed to buy and use. The government had to do this so they had enough supplies and food to send to the soldiers fighting the war.
The way it would work is like this: On a set time you would get a ration book for everyone living in your house.
The book would have coupons.
You could not buy the product unless you had enough points on the coupons.
What kinds of goods were rationed? Almost everything: Meat, sugar, wheat, corn, gasoline, tires, canned food, and canned juice. Many other products as well, but you get the idea.
Mother Nellie Large tells how during the war Uncle Sam told her she could not have much sugar, so she stopped putting sugar in her coffee so she could save it to make a cake. (Ask Mr. Stevens if you want to know more of the story.)
This picture shows how many “ration points” you had to save to buy certain items.
Racial Barriers Broken Down Temporarily in Employment
Some barriers (blocks) to African Americans working in factories around the country were put aside during the war.
It seemed to be more important to defeat Japan and Germany than it was to segregate and discriminate.
The African American community in the United States resolved on a Double V Campaign: Victory over fascism abroad, and victory over discrimination at home.
More work would be needed after the war to attack discrimination.
Nisei:Internment Camps
In 1942 the War Department demanded that all enemy nationals be removed from war zones on the West Coast. The question became how to evacuate the estimated 120,000 Japanese American citizens living in California. Roosevelt looked at the secret evidence available to him that the Japanese in the Philippines had supported the Japanese invasion troops. Most of the adult Japanese in California had been strong supporters of Japan in the war against China.
There was evidence of spying in captured messages to Japan from secret agents in the U.S. and Hawaii before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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