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WWII at Home
I. Mobilizing for War• Pearl Harbor, December 1941
= 1.6 million in Army, 15% of industrial output for war
• War Power Act grants FDR authority over war mobilization
• 15 million men, 350,000 women served in military
• Economy, government, military coordinated
• War Production Board = distributed defense contracts
• War Manpower Commission = supervised mobilization of soldiers
• Office of Price Administration = rationed food
• February 1942 = the last civilian car came off the assembly line
• End of 1942 = 1/3 of economy now for war production
• 300,000 aircraft, 2.6 million machine guns, 6 million tons of bombs, 86,000 warships
Defense Spending Ends Great Depression
• US spent $320 billion total, $250 million per day to defeat the Axis
• Created 17 million new jobs
• Brought prosperity to most American workers
Where was the Defense Industry?
• $40 billion went to the West
• 1945 = Nearly half of CA’s income came from Defense contracts
• Sunbelt = Southeast to the Southwest
Rationing
• OPA rationed gas, coffee, sugar, butter, cheese, meat
• 20 million Victory Gardens planted
• “Uncle Sam’s Scrappers” & “Tin Can Colonels” collected scrap metal and trash
War Bonds• Gave civilians a sense
of involvement
The “Wizard War”
• Importance of scientific and technological developments
• Office of Scientific Development spent $1 billion creating bombs, instant food, antibiotics, insecticide
II. Propaganda & Politics
• Office of Censorship = Suppresses war footage & casualty numbers
• Office of War Information = Hired 4,000 advertisers, writers, artists to create unity through propaganda
III. Rosie the Riveter• Federal government urged
women to work in 1942
• Over 6 million women worked in war production
• 1945 = 1/3 of workforce are women
• 75% married, 60% over 35, 33% had kids under 14
Hostility Towards Rosie• Women earned 35% less pay
than men
• Government portrayed their work as temporary
• “A woman is a substitute like plastic instead of metal”
• 1945 poll = Only 18% approved of married women working