2-WWII+USA+HF


 * USA Homefront - Paul Sim**


 * How may the Home Front’s awareness of the war’s objectives and nature be characterized? How did**
 * propaganda affect the mindset at home?**

Prior to Pearl Harbor, most Americans did not support America going to war due to the heavy losses in World War 1 and coming out of an economic crisis. Many Americans believed that more time should be spent on improving domestic problems as opposed to international. However, this wasn’t the case with Pearl Harbor. The Home Front knew that the U.S. would attack and join the war. Through propaganda, it was essential to further convince the public that was inevitable and to begin stepping up production and conservation of materials for the war effort.

This posters attempts to convince viewers at the home front that the Nazi threat is closer than they think and this is displayed as something that is urgent through imagery with the dark Nazi swastika looms over a group of small innocent and patriotic children. Through the propagandist poster, the viewer is led to believe that they can save the fat of these children by purchasing war bonds and contributing to the war efforts. This was necessary because the U.S. had just been escaping an economic crisis and the U.S. government did not have the amounts of funds needed to wage war on multiple fronts.

This poster displays the concept of enemy spies being located everywhere. The poster and others like it brought reality of war to many at the home front. When viewers realized about the dangers of spies around them and that people, like the man in the poster, were dying, viewers began to realize actual warfare was going on globally and America was at threat.

Propaganda was also used to increased production. The government realized that the best hope of winning would be through increased production and labor. Posters like this were common and motivated citizens to join the workforce as the American military was very weak because America was just coming out of the depression.



Propaganda was used to convince citizens to conserve resources. During the war, materials and supplies were scarce therefore conservation was highly encouraged through propaganda, especially gasoline as it was used to fuel tanks and aircraft.


 * What were the direct contributions of the Home Front to the war effort? This needs to go beyond a cursory statement of, “They supplied soldiers, grew food, made armaments, etc.” You should consider support not only in patriotic or industrial terms, but also political, social, economic, cultural/intellectual, moral/religious, emotional, etc., terms. **

With the start of the war, it was evident that enormous amounts of airplanes, tanks, weapons, and other armaments were necessary for the U.S. soldiers fighting abroad. Workers in the U.S. were able to increase production of these products and supply the soldiers. American industries produced more than half of all the Allied military equipment including 297,000 aircrafts, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,00 tanks, 2 million tanks, 41 billion rounds of ammunition, and 6 million tons of bombs. In addition to the equipment, the U.S. home front increased the output of farm supplies for the U.S. military and its allies and Victory Gardens also increased food supplies for the soldiers. The home front was able to provide trained men overseas to the battles through the many military bases. Some prominent ones were located on the West Coast which had major camps (ex: Fort Lewis) as well as Chicago with the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. On top of military bases, the home front was able to establish around 500 camps for the 425,000 war prisoners held in the U.S. Also, the Office of Civilian Defense made contributions to the war efforts. Despite the fact that the office was unsuccessful prior to Pearl Harbor, by 1942, more than 5.5 million people and 7,000 local councils took part in air-raid defense and coastal surveillance for Axis ships and implemented curfews and blackouts.


 * What were the costs & benefits of the war to the Home Front, to include but not limited to** ** goods/services/resources? Use a case study to illustrate. **

World War 2 was instrumental in getting the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The war provided a unique demand for new industries and this was essential for the American economy. The large amount of these industries were responsible for manufacturing weapons needed for war, as well as some other important technologies which would include airplanes. With the start of the war, approximately, jobs dramatically rose by 52% due to the high levels of industrial output resulting in 17 million new jobs that were created. Thus unemployment was greatly reduced and by 1942, the U.S. had greater outputs than Japan, Germany, Italy combined. In addition to the economy, federal power increased during the war giving less power to state laws. This shift from state laws to federal was essential in the upcoming years, particularly in the Civil Rights Era and Vietnam War. However, the war did negatively impact the home front. The U.S. government suspended the majority of the economic and social reforms in favor of increasing defense expenditures. In order to increase production, work days at factories were longer ignoring labor laws. With a large amount of men leaving for war, businesses throughout the U.S. suffered from labor shortages. Women and children, who replaced the men who served in the military, joined the labor force. However, child labor laws were ignored in order to increase production and the number of teens in the workforce dramatically increased and approximately a third of these teens were high school drop outs. Increasing the amount of money allocated towards war equipment, the U.S. federal government spending dramatically rose from 9 to 98.5 billion dollars and this increased the U.S. federal deficit. In addition, despite the fact employment opportunities increased dramatically in the U.S. during the war, wages were extremely low and approximately 20 million Americans were living at a subsistence level. Around 25% of those in the labor force earned less than 64 cents an hour. The home front also experienced many ethnic problems and discrimination issues as the war aggravated systemic racism. In particular, the West Coast experienced madness when war broke out. Thousands of Japanese Americans were relocated and interned in camps. African Americans were discriminated as well as they were usually the last to be hired and first to be fired.


 * How can life for women & youth on the Home Front be characterized? Use case studies to illustrate. **

During World War 2, women were more active in society. Women took on active roles in the economy as they took on paid jobs in new and old factories. As a large amount of men went to war, women worked at jobs previously occupied by men, such as a shoe salesperson. In addition to the economy, women took on political roles as approximately one million women took on jobs in the federal government. Women also participated in a large amount (millions) of community services, including the Red Cross and United Service Organizations. In particular, the role of women in Minnesota was greatly affected due to the war. Women made up 60% of the workers in the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant. In addition, the women in Minnesota worked in the shipyard in Duluth and Lake Superior as well as streetcar conductors for the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company. Mentioned earlier, women had to replace their husbands’ jobs and in Minnesota, women did so by working in the farms. Despite the fact that only a third of the women in Minnesota were employed during the war, the other two-thirds assisted the war effort through volunteer activities. The war had a great impact on the youth in the U.S. and was the defining experiences of their lives. The war showed the youth the meaning of patriotism as well as the significance of being in a collective society. The war had great influence on the movies the youth watched, the games they played, and etc. For many, the war was a time of anxiety. With fathers leaving to war, many children experienced family separation. In particular, Deborah Gorham experienced her father’s departure to war in January 1942 when she was only 4 years old. For Gorham, her father’s departure marked a major divide in her childhood. Gorham, “loved him deeply, missed him, and worried about his safety.” A little over a year later in the summer of 1943, Gorham was sent to a summer camp in Berkshires due to her mother working constantly. Despite the fact that Gorham knew her mother’s and father’s departure were necessary during the time period (learned patriotism during the time period), she felt lonely and frightened. Not only was she in an uncomfortable environment, she was separated from both parents.

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"Women and the Home Front During World War II Tags: Women, World War Two ." //Overview//. Springshare, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .