From Isolation to World War II

(1930-1945)

Mobilization

Figure 1 World War II: poster. Image. Britannica LaunchPacks, Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Feb. 2020

Army Nurse Corps poster from World War II reading, “More nurses are needed! All women can help—learn how you can aid in army hospitals.

Content Statement #21

United States policy and mobilization of its economic and military resources during World War II affected American society. Despite mistreatment, marginalized groups played essential roles in the war effort while continuing to protest unfair treatment.

Content Elaborations

1. The policy and mobilization of the United States at the outbreak of World War II greatly impacted the lives of Americans. Aspects of wartime policy and mobilization included:

a. the transition from peacetime to wartime economy (e.g., price controls, War Production Board);

b. personal sacrifices for the war effort (e.g., rationing, victory gardens);

c. military mobilization efforts (e.g., the military draft, naval expansion);

d. contributions to the war effort (e.g., war bonds, scrap drives); and

e. propaganda efforts by the government.

2. Job opportunities in the civilian workforce and the military opened for women and minorities.

3. Marginalized groups and their experiences during World War II included:

a. African Americans (e.g., Double V Campaign);

b. Japanese Americans (e.g., internment camps);

c. American Indians (e.g., Navajo Code Talkers); and

d. Mexican Immigrants (e.g., Bracero Program).

Let’s Practice: Key Terms

Section A: Mobilization

In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the subsequent declaration of war, Americans were asked to take on numerous and varied roles to support the war effort at home. The policy and mobilization of the United States at the outbreak of World War II greatly impacted the lives of Americans. Aspects of wartime policy and mobilization included:

Ø War Production Board

o efforts to outproduce its opponents.

o the board was responsible for establishing the needs for the war

o allocating the resources and organizing the production and distribution of supplies

Ø Rationing

o concept of reducing, reuse and recycle

o Gasoline, meat, and sugar were just some of the goods rationed

o “Victory Gardens” à grown by families and communities to not disrupt the flow of vegetables to soldiers abroad

Ø Military Efforts

o A peacetime draft was instituted in 1940 to supplement military enlistments

o Naval expansion into Europe and Asia

Ø Contributions

o Citizens purchased war bonds to help fund the war

o Some labor unions signed no-strike pledges

o Scrap drives were conducted to reallocate materials for war goods

Ø Propaganda

o The government created posters to tout positive patriotic messages

o Below are examples of WWII propaganda posters

Section B: Civilian Workforce

Job opportunities in the civilian workforce and the military opened for women and minorities. 

Ø 300,000 Mexican Americans served in World War II

Ø 25,000 Native American served in World War II

o 400 Navajo radio operators = “code talkers.”

Ø 500,000 African Americans

o Tuskegee Airman

Ø 350,000 American Women volunteered for military service

Let’s Practice: Matching Game

Section C: Marginalized Groups

World War II created new opportunities for women, African Americans, and other minority groups. World War II provided unprecedented job and service opportunities to women and minorities on the U.S. home front, thus laying the groundwork for the civil rights and feminist movements later to come.

Ø African Americans

o Double V Campaign

§ African American initiative, led by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper that aimed to achieve a double victory (“Double V”) during World War II.

§ The two objectives were victory in the war abroad and victory against discrimination on the home front

o Tuskegee Airmen

§ First African American pilots in the U.S. military

§ Proved equality of African American pilots

Ø Japanese Americans

o Internment

§ U.S. government forced some 120,000 Japanese Americans to leave their homes

§ moved to internment centers, or concentration camps

§ Japanese Americans who were detained in the camps lost their freedom, their civil liberties, their jobs, and in most cases their property

Ø Native Americans

o Navajo Code Talkers

§ U.S. Marines who created and used a code to keep military secrets during World War II

§ played a key role in the United States’ victory over Japan

§ 400 Navajo men were trained as code talkers

Ø Mexican Immigrants

o Bracero Program

§ short-term contract laborers from Mexico, known as braceros, to work legally in the United States

§ use to combat a wartime shortage of agricultural laborers due to military service

Let’s Practice: Slideshow

Section D: Overview of World War II

World War II killed more people, involved more nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Altogether, 70 million people served in the armed forces during the war, and 17 million combatants died. Civilian deaths were ever more significant. At least 19 million Soviet civilians, 10 million Chinese, and 6 million European Jews lost their lives during the war.

World War II was right, a global war. Some 70 nations took part in the conflict, and fighting took place on the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as on the high seas. Entire societies participated as soldiers or as war workers, while others were persecuted as victims of occupation and mass murder.

World War II cost the United States a million causalities and nearly 400,000 deaths. In both domestic and foreign affairs, its consequences were far-reaching. It ended the Depression, brought millions of married women into the workforce, initiated sweeping changes in the lives of the nation's minority groups, and dramatically expanded the government's presence in American life.

On September 1, 1939, World War II started when Germany invaded Poland. By November 1942, the Axis powers controlled territory from Norway to North Africa and from France to the Soviet Union. After defeating the Axis in North Africa in May 1941, the United States and its Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943 and forced Italy to surrender in September. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Northern France. In December, a German counteroffensive (the Battle of the Bulge) failed. Germany surrendered in May 1945.

The United States entered the war following a surprise attack by Japan on the U.S. Pacific fleet in Hawaii. The United States and its Allies halted Japanese expansion at the Battle of Midway in June 1942 and other campaigns in the South Pacific. From 1943 to August 1945, the Allies hopped from island to island across the Central Pacific and also battled the Japanese in China, Burma, and India. Japan agreed to surrender on August 14, 1945, after the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.