WWII at Home. I. Mobilizing for War Pearl Harbor, December 1941 = 1.6 million in Army, 15% of industrial output for war War Power Act grants FDR authority.

WWII at Home

I. Mobilizing for War• Pearl Harbor, December 1941

= 1.6 million in Army, 15% of industrial output for war

• War Power Act grants FDR authority over war mobilization

• 15 million men, 350,000 women served in military

• Economy, government, military coordinated

• War Production Board = distributed defense contracts

• War Manpower Commission = supervised mobilization of soldiers

• Office of Price Administration = rationed food

• February 1942 = the last civilian car came off the assembly line

• End of 1942 = 1/3 of economy now for war production

• 300,000 aircraft, 2.6 million machine guns, 6 million tons of bombs, 86,000 warships

Defense Spending Ends Great Depression

• US spent $320 billion total, $250 million per day to defeat the Axis

• Created 17 million new jobs

• Brought prosperity to most American workers

Where was the Defense Industry?

• $40 billion went to the West

• 1945 = Nearly half of CA’s income came from Defense contracts

• Sunbelt = Southeast to the Southwest

Rationing

• OPA rationed gas, coffee, sugar, butter, cheese, meat

• 20 million Victory Gardens planted

• “Uncle Sam’s Scrappers” & “Tin Can Colonels” collected scrap metal and trash

War Bonds• Gave civilians a sense

of involvement

The “Wizard War”

• Importance of scientific and technological developments

• Office of Scientific Development spent $1 billion creating bombs, instant food, antibiotics, insecticide

II. Propaganda & Politics

• Office of Censorship = Suppresses war footage & casualty numbers

• Office of War Information = Hired 4,000 advertisers, writers, artists to create unity through propaganda

III. Rosie the Riveter• Federal government urged

women to work in 1942

• Over 6 million women worked in war production

• 1945 = 1/3 of workforce are women

• 75% married, 60% over 35, 33% had kids under 14

Hostility Towards Rosie• Women earned 35% less pay

than men

• Government portrayed their work as temporary

• “A woman is a substitute like plastic instead of metal”

• 1945 poll = Only 18% approved of married women working