The home front
World War II transformed American society, ending the Depression and opening new opportunities, while also bringing injustice.
Mobilising the economy
War production ended the Depression. Factories converted to making tanks, planes, and ships; by 1944, the US produced about 40% of the world's armaments. Unemployment fell to about 1-2%. The War Production Board directed industry, and the government rationed goods such as sugar, meat, petrol, and tyres.
Paying for the war
Federal spending soared. The government raised taxes, expanding the income tax to most workers with payroll withholding, and sold war bonds. The national debt rose to over 100% of GDP by the end of the war.
Women in the workforce
With millions of men in uniform, about six million women entered the workforce, many in factories and shipyards, symbolised by 'Rosie the Riveter'. About 350,000 women served in the military in non-combat roles. Many were pushed out of industrial jobs after the war, but the experience changed expectations.
African Americans and the 'Double V'
About one million Black Americans served in the segregated armed forces, including the Tuskegee Airmen. Black newspapers promoted the 'Double V' campaign: victory over fascism abroad and racism at home. A threatened march on Washington led Roosevelt to ban discrimination in defence industries in 1941. Migration to Northern and Western cities continued.
Japanese American incarceration
After Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 (February 1942) led to the forced removal of about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of them US citizens, from the West Coast to incarceration camps. The Supreme Court upheld it in Korematsu v. United States (1944). In 1988, the US government formally apologised and paid reparations to survivors.
Mexican Americans and other groups
The Bracero Program (1942) brought Mexican workers to fill farm labour shortages. Mexican American servicemen served in large numbers, but in the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots, servicemen attacked young Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. Native Americans served at high rates; Navajo code talkers used their language to create an unbroken code.
Science and technology
The war accelerated advances in radar, jet engines, rockets, computing (such as the ENIAC, completed in 1945), and medicine, including mass production of penicillin. The partnership between government, universities, and industry continued after the war.
Worked example
A Japanese American family in California in 1942 had days to sell their farm and possessions, often at huge losses, before being sent to a camp such as Manzanar. Meanwhile, their eldest son might volunteer for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a Japanese American unit that became one of the most decorated in US history. Their experience captures the war's contradictions.
Key takeaways
War production ended the Depression; unemployment fell to about 1-2% and goods were rationed. Taxes, bonds, and borrowing funded the war. About six million women joined the workforce. Black Americans pursued the 'Double V' and won a ban on defence industry discrimination. About 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated under Executive Order 9066, upheld in Korematsu; reparations came in 1988. Mexican and Native Americans contributed and faced discrimination. Science advanced rapidly.
Flashcard
About 40% of world armaments by 1944
Check your understanding
What did Executive Order 9066 lead to in 1942?