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World War 1 on the US Home Front

Office of War Information (OWI)

  • federal agency that disseminated news and promoted patriotism and encouraged civilian war efforts
  • bolstered war nationalism with propaganda, allowing the US to continue to fight

Executive Order 9066 (1942)

  • authorized the War Department to force the Japanese from their West Coast homes and keep them in relocation camps for the rest of the war
  • let them out for only "military necessity”
  • exemplified US racism during the war and increased morale to fight the Japanese

War Production Board (WPB)

  • shifted businesses to the war effort
  • asked all Americans to do their part with liberty bonds, rationing, victory gardens, etc.

War Labor Board (WLB)

  • put ceilings on wage increases which led to union strikes

Connally Anti-Strike Act of 1943

  • government can control striking industries to prevent more strikes from happening

Bracero Program

  • -increased Mexican immigration for farm employment in the West

Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

  • regulate who got hired, aiming for more black employment
  • not fully passed because Congress disagreed.

Opportunities for Women

  • women filled factory jobs (think Rosie the Riveter)
  • WAC, WAVES, WASPs, Army and Navy Nurses Corps to serve in the war
  • after the war, men forced them back into the home
  • women veterans denied veteran benefits

GI Bill of Rights

  • law Passed in 1944 to help returning veterans buy homes and pay for higher education

War Spending

  • ended the Great Depression
  • more spending than the New Deal when the Supreme Court and conservatives were concerned about New Deal spending
  • Ford, who was against the war, contributed most to the American war effort

Japanese Internment

  • high anti-Japanese sentiment after Pearl Harbor
  • internment camps established by Executive Order 1966
  • US was fighting the Nazis but portrayed the Japanese like how the Nazis portrayed the Jews

Korematsu v. US (1944)

  • upheld the internment of Americans with Japanese descent during WWII as constitutional
  • did not necessarily support the camps

Hirabayashi v. US (1943)

  • allowed curfew against a racial minority when their country was at war with the US
  • Gordon Hirabayashi had resisted this and got sent to the FBI
  • appealed to the Supreme Court

Bataan Death March

  • Japanese forced about 60,000 of Americans and Filipinos to march 100 miles with little food and water, most died or were killed on the way

Double-V Campaign

  • victory in war abroad and over racism at home
  • from Pittsburgh newspaper article
  • represents some hypocrisy because the US was fighting for democracy abroad when it had so much racism at home

Migration during WWII

  • many families moved to live near defense jobs
  • caused racial conflict and vibrant gay and lesbian communities

Racial Conflict during WWII

  • worst conflict between black people and white people in Detroit
  • racism against Mexican pachucos and their zoot suits

Pachucos

  • Mexican American adolescents who belonged in gangs and wore zoot suits to resist against their parents and middle class norms.

Zoot suits

  • broad brimmed felt hats
  • thigh-length jackets with wide lapels and padded shoulders
  • pegged trousers
  • clunky shoes
  • used a lot of wool, which was needed to go to the war effort, causing white Americans to look down on them

Pachucas

  • long coats
  • huarache sandals
  • pompadour hairdos

1943 Zoot Suit Riots

  • pachuco gang rumored to have attacked whites
  • white riots against pachuco gangs
  • only Mexicans were arrested and zoot suits were outlawed

Gay and Lesbian Communities in WWII

  • migration allowed for vibrant lesbian and gay communities
  • most kept their sexuality hidden especially soldiers
  • army saw homosexuality as a psychological disorder that is grounds for dishonorable discharge