WWII: Home-Front (1941-45)
I. IntroII. Government Grows
– Finances– Government Control
III. Society/EconomyA. PatriotismB. Economy/JobsC. Women & FamilyD. Race Relations
V. Conc.
Key Terms• Revenue Act• War Productions Board• Office of Price
Administration• Braceros• Executive Order 9066
Finances
• Cost of WWII- $250 million per day
• Solutions: Money was borrowed – 1941 debt: $48 Billion– 1945 debt: $247 Billion
Thomas Hart Benton, “Back Him Up”
• Solutions: Revenue Act of 1942
Revenue Act(1942)
1. Instituted “withholding taxes.”2. Tax rates for all were increased.
• Shows growth of Government’s power.
Government Grows
• Government Agencies:– WPB– OPA
War Productions Board
• Oversaw conversion of economy from civilian to military supplies.
– Ex: Auto Industry• By 1945 US produced
more than Germany, Italy & Japan combined.
Don Nelson, WPB Chair & Former head of Sears & Roebuck
Auto Industry Mobilizes
• Chrysler-tanks• Ford-Jeeps & Planes (Willow Run assembly line
was one mile long & ¼ mile wide).
Government Grows:Office Of Price Administration
• Rationed goods & established price controls
• Examples: steel, sugar, coffee, rubber, gasoline, etc.
• Slogan: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”
• National Speed Limit:
35 mph
Patriotism & Baseball
• $55,000/year• $21.00/month• Hank Greenberg• National Anthem
Patriotism & Enlistments
• 1941-1.6 million in US armed forces
• 1945-15 million men & 350,000 women in US armed forces
Recruiting Poster US Navy Recruiting Booklet
Patriotism & War Bonds
• Many showed their support by purchasing war bonds
Thomas Hart Benton, “Back Him Up”
Boom Economic
Average Salaries (US)*• 1939-$1,500/year• 1945-$3,000/year
Unemployment (MI)*• 1933-46%• 1944- 0.6%
*Figures are approximate
Women In The Workforce
• 1941-1945 6.5 million women enter workforce.
• No equal pay for equal work.
• Women were still responsible for “traditional chores.”
War & American Family
• Marriages & birthrates increased; so did divorces
• High school enrollments dropped
• Rates of juvenile delinquency increased
Hurley Family Photo
WWII & Hispanic Laborers
• US negotiated Bracero program due to labor shortage (1942-64).
• Mexican citizens worked in US—about 4 million.
• US farmers became dependent upon Bracero laborers. Bracero workers on a
California farm (1944)
Home Front Economic Boom & Demographic Patterns
Black Population• Seattle: 4,000-40,000• Detroit: increased by
nearly 50,000
Black Americans Leave South
• Over 700,000 African Americans left South
• Racial tension developed
Racial Tension(Housing)
• A group gathers near the Sojourner Truth Housing Project (1942)
Black Americans Leave South
• Detroit Race Riots (1943).
• 25 blacks and 9 whites were killed.
Japanese Americans
Executive Order 9066• 110,000 on West Coast
forced into “Internment Camps”
• 2/3 were US citizens• Reparations were
granted in 1988
Holocaust(Hitler’s “Final Solution”)
• 6 million Jews (out of a worldwide Jewish population of about 15 million)
• 3.7 million Soviets• 12,000/day at
Auschwitz
30 Jewish women starved to death on 300 mile march
WWII: Home-Front (1941-45)
I. IntroII. Government Grows
– Finances– Government Control
III. Society/EconomyA. PatriotismB. Economy/JobsC. Women & FamilyD. Race Relations
V. Conc.
Key Terms• Revenue Act• War Productions Board• Office of Price
Administration• Braceros• Executive Order 9066