soviet union

• “great patriotic war”

• early military defeats (ie 900 day siege of leningrad) led to drastic emergency protocol, making conditions for civilians bad

• moved factories into the middle of the country to protect from german destruction

• extreme emphasis on industrializing/making weapons led to shortages of food/housing

• women had jobs at home

• only country in ww2 to have female soldiers

usa

• very different than other countries- not fighting on its own territory

• produced almost all of the allied military equipment

• lots of new factories→growing towns without necessary infrastructure

• lots of military families moving around a lot

• african americans came to the north for jobs, causing racial tensions to raise

• 110,000 japanese americans were put in camps and had to make loyalty oaths

germany

• germans didn’t care as much about war, which was a threat to nazi power

• didn’t change food or armament production, but then his army ran out of food and weapons and also people

• total war mobilization in 1944, too late

• pre-war nazis thought women should stay at home. they became necessary throughout the war, but number of women in the workforce only increased a little

japan

• highly mobilized, calls for sacrifice from japanese people

• kamikaze pilots: suicide bombers who crashed their planes into allied forces

• reluctant to mobilize women- female employment only went up in traditionally female industries

• brought in korean and chinese laborers instead

bombing of cities

• the blitz: heavy german bombing of london that only increased morale and got kids into the countryside

• lots of allied bombing of germany, killing lots of people (14 year olds had to fight at the end), but also not breaking morale. production increased but it was hard to get supplies to troops

• usa HEAVILY bombed japan (had no airforce and buildings were flammable), atomic bomb in 1945 killing thousands