1. Government War Organizations
2. Volunteer Efforts
3. Women
4. Japanese Internment
5. Second Great Migration
6. African Americans
7. Bracero Program
8. Hispanic Americans
9. Manhattan Project
10. Paying for the War
11. Conclusion
 War
Production Board
• Factories converted into making weapons
 Car companies made airplane/tank engines
 Soda companies made artillery shells
 Demand for supplies lifted US out of G.D.
• Businesses hired tons of workers
• Crop prices rose
 Office
of Price Administration
• Controlled prices (stop inflation)
 1940-45, prices only increased 35%
• Controlled rationing
 Monthly coupons limited purchases
 Food, sugar, coffee, gasoline, etc.
 Big
concern about strikes as unions grew
• National War Labor Board (1941)
 Help labor disputes
 Smith-Connally Act (1943)
 Govt. could takeover factories
 Office
of War Information
• Propaganda agency
• Coordinate war news
 Newspapers, radio, movies
• Help public understand war’s progress
 LOTS
of food going to military
• Victory Gardens encouraged
 ~20 million gardens in 1943
 Supplied 1/3 annual vegetables
• Eventually = 40% of vegetables consumed
 Massive
recycling collections
• Helped collect ½ tin and paper needed
 Women
once again filled labor need
• 6 million joined workforce
 2.5 million joined war factories
 Represented by Rosie the Riveter
 Video
clip
 Racism
 Idea
against Japanese has long history
of Japanese-Americans helping Japan
spread fear and hate
 FDR
issued Executive Order 9066
• Military zone declared along West Coast
• Attempt to clear area from enemy aliens
• Japanese ordered to leave homes (1942)
 2/3 were American-born citizens
 Majority legal aliens
• Not accepted by most states
“The Japs live like rats, breed like rats and
act like rats. We don’t want them.”
- Arizona Gov.
“Virtually all Japanese are short. Japanese are
likely to be stockier and broader-hipped than
short Chinese. Japanese are seldom fat; they often
dry up and grow lean as they age. Although both
have the typical epicanthic fold of the upper
eyelid, Japanese eyes are usually set closer
together. The Chinese expression is likely to be
more placid, kindly, open; the Japanese more
positive, dogmatic, arrogant. Japanese are hesitant,
nervous in conversation, laugh loudly at the wrong
time. Japanese walk stiffly erect, hard heeled.
Chinese, more relaxed, have an easy gait,
sometimes shuffle.”
 Video
“The continued pressure of a large,
unassimilated, tightly knit racial group,
bound to an enemy nation by strong ties
of race, culture, custom and religion
along a frontier vulnerable to attack,
constituted a menace which had to be
dealt with.”
- General John DeWitt
 Govt. decided
to relocate Japanese to camps
• 10 camps in remote areas
• Tarpapered wooden barracks
 Some
challenged constitutionality in S.C.
• Fred Korematsu (Korematsu v. the US)
• Upheld President’s wartime powers

“Residents having ethnic affiliations with an invading
enemy may be a greater source of danger than those of
different ancestry.”
Dissenting opinion
• “legalization of racism” - Justice Murphy
 Some
Japanese-Americans relinquished their
citizenship as a symbolic act
 US
started segregating loyalty by 1943*
 Men
had to promise to serve in military
• 17,000+ fought
• 442nd Regiment most decorated unit ever
 Women
also volunteered for army service
• 142 in “WAC”
NOT 1 SINGLE PIECE OF EVIDENCE WAS
EVER PRODUCED SUPPORTING THE
GOVERNMENT’S CLAIMS THAT
JAPANESE-AMERICANS WOULD
SABOTAGE THE UNITED STATES
 Biggest
migration in US history (1941 – 45)
• “Boom Towns” & Sunbelt region
 Ex. San Diego, CA
 +700,000 African-Americans left South
• Race riots occurred in Detroit, 1943
 +1.2
million served in military by ‘45 (4,000 in 1941)
• Discrimination and segregation
 New
jobs in factories previously unavailable
• Continued discrimination
 Double V
Campaign
• Fighting racism on two fronts
 A. Philip
 FDR
Randolph called for march on DC
issued new executive order 8802
• Outlawed discrimination in workplace
 Fair
Employment Practices Commission
• FIRST 20th century federal civil rights agency
We know that our fate is tied up with the fate of the
democratic way of life. And so, out of the depths of our hearts,
a cry goes out for the triumph of the United Nations.
But...unless this war sounds the death knell to the old AngloAmerican empire systems, the hapless story of which is one of
exploitation for the profit and power of a monopoly capitalist
economy, it will have been fought in vain. Our aim then must
not only be to defeat nazism, fascism, and militarism on the
battlefield, but to win the peace, for democracy, for freedom
and the Brotherhood of Man without regard to his
pigmentation, land of his birth or the God of his fathers....
White citizens...should [not] be taken into the March on
Washington Movement as members. The essential value of an
all-Negro movement as the March on Washington is that it
helps to create faith by Negroes in Negroes. It develops a
sense of self-reliance with Negroes depending on Negroes in
vital matters. It helps to break down the slave psychology and
inferiority-complex in Negroes which comes and is nourished
with Negroes relying on white people for direction and
support.
- A. Philip Randolph, 1942, proposing a march on
Washington
 Army
Air Force started new unit in 1941
• Tuskegee Airmen
 Sent
to help in Northern Africa and Italy
• Protected American bombers, ~200 missions
 Didn’t lose any bombers!
 Shot down ~400 German attackers
 Farming
labor shortages
 Bracero
Program (1942-1964)
• Brought in ~200,000 Mexican workers during WW2
 Employed
4.5 million by 1964
• Big effect on farming business in US
 ~500,000
served in WWII
• Fully integrated into WWII units
• 13 Medals of Honor (highest percentage)
 Returning
veterans challenged the
widespread discrimination in society
 Zoot
Suit = popular baggy outfit
 Zoot
Suit Riots = racist tensions erupted in 1943
• Rumors of attack on sailors resulted in GIs
attacking Mexican-American teenagers
 Police did not intervene
 Zoot Suits became illegal in LA
 Top
secret mission to build atomic bomb
• Race against Germans
• Lead scientist = J. Robert Oppenheimer
 WWII
= 10x cost of WWI
• ~45% covered by taxes
 More Americans saw income tax
 How can they come up with the rest?
• Borrow!
 War
bonds provided ~$129 billion
 Government
used advertisers & stars
 WWII
 New

greatly affected Americans
job opportunities from labor shortage
WW2 encouraged the push for Civil Rights