Enlistment and the Draft
In 1940, Greenville Clark led the Congress to pass the first peace-time draft legislation. In 1941, the draft system was renewed by a one vote difference. The peace-time draft involved questions as to who should control the draft, the size of the army, and the need for deferments. Throughout all of the drafting, there was very little resistance. This was extremely helpful when manpower was scare in 1943. In time, the industry realized that the Army urgently desired production of essential war materials and foodstuffs more than soldiers. As a result, farmers were generally given occupational deferments. But at the same time, many skilled mechanics and engineers became privates. The desire for young draftees was frowned upon and so as much as the drafting of 18-year olds was craved by the military, it was vetoed by public opinion.
Number of people drafted for WWII (1940-1946) including those before Pearl Harbor: 10,110,114
By Year:
1940 - 18,633
1941 - 923,842
1942 - 3,033,361
1943 - 3,323,970
1944 - 1,591,942
1945 - 945,862
1946 - 183,383
A World War II recruiting poster.
War Production
Because of the war, the U.S. was forced to produce more goods and supplies for the military. The Lend-Lease Act was passed in 1941 which authorized the president to lease, sell, transport or lend equipment to U.S. allies. The new need for goods helped to end poverty caused by the Great Depression in the United States. Growing demand of supplies and goods helped decrease unemployment because factories hired more workers in response to the need for supplies. By 1941, the unemployment rate had decreased from 24.9% to 10%. In 1944, the unemployment rate reached 1.2%. The government would annually give an honorary “E” (which stands for “Efficient”) to factories that produced supplies sufficiently. The quicker the supplies reached the soldiers, the greater chance they had at survival. Many factories that produced household items had to adjust to making weapons for war. The government created the WPB (War Production Board) in 1942. The board limited the amount of items that were considered “non-essential” to civilians. The board also decided what factories would receive tin, silk and scarce rubber.
The original "Rosie the Riveter" (left)
Women were encouraged to work in factories. (right)
Training Women for War Production Narrated by Eleanor Roosevelt
Rationing
During the Second World War, many goods were conserved, or rationed, in order to provide American troops with enough food and supplies. Rationing affected Americans from every walk of life. The government issued coupons so that citizens could buy items in short supply in small amounts. Everything from rubber to coffee was conserved. The ration books that families got during the war would tell the families how much of each thing they could get. Sugar, meat, tires, and chicken fencing were some of the things that were rationed during the Second World War.
World War II Ration Book
Coupons found inside were required to buy necessities like food.
Propaganda
Propaganda played an important part in America during World War II. In order to encourage citizens to play a part in the war effort, propagandists created various advertisements through radio, posters, and other media. They often dehumanized Axis nation leaders; portraying them as monsters or animals. The government was hoping that the propaganda would entice Americans to join the services or simply volunteer for the cause. If not, it would educate Americans about the enemy at the very least. This tactic was successful and Americans began to gain a strong hatred of the Germans, Italians and Japanese.
Looney Toons Propaganda Film
Vichy French Anti-American Propaganda Cartoon
This video was created by a French animator, forced to by the Vichy French who supported the Germans and Hitler. Their aim was to stop the French from listening to BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) radio broadcasts which informed people about what was happening in the war.
Anti German and Japanes Propaganda Posters
Opportunities for Women and African Americans
Once women showed that they could do work just as efficiently as men, employers started hiring them for a wide variety of jobs such as taxi drivers, electricians, police officers, railroad workers, welders, and machinists. In 1944, 6 million of the 18 million people laboring in the war industries were women. Though they did the same work, women only received about 60% of the wage of a man. During WWII, the amount of women working outside of the house increased from 25% to 36%. Most women who were in industry liked working, though they were criticized for being “unfeminine.”
At the start of the war, women were also recruited for non-combat jobs in the military. Approximately 200,000 women served in the armed forces doing various assignments such as armed guards, translators, code breakers, radio operators and mechanics. More than 200 women (most working as nurses) died serving in the military during the war.
Women were encouraged to work in industry to fill jobs vacated by men who were serving in the military.
About 900,000 African-Americans served in the military during WWII, even though they still faced racial prejudice in the United States. The military limited African-Americans to unskilled assignments and they were given no weapons training. Early in the war, African-Americans were assigned to non-combat jobs such as truck drivers and chefs. Because of pressure from civil rights organizations, the military was forced to allow African-Americans to serve in every field of combat, like fighter pilots and tank operators. African-Americans stood with whites in the Navy by the end of WWII.
Factories needed more workers to produce supplies for the war, but factory owners would not hire African-Americans. Phillip Randolph led a march in Washington, D.C. to protest the discrimination. About 2 million African-Americans were working in defense plants by 1944.
Tuskegee pilots prepare for a mission.
Japanese Internment
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many United States citizens and politicians were wary of the Japanese, even those who lived in and were very loyal to the United States. On February 19, 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the President of the United States at the time, passed Executive Order 9066, a piece of legislation which banished all Japanese-Americans to one of ten internment camps located in one of seven southwestern states. These camps were very similar to the concentration camps in which Hitler enslaved the Jews during the Holocaust, and very similarly, the majority of internees, two thirds to be exact, were United States citizens.
Similar events were taking place in Canada. North of the United States, 23,000 Nikkei, or Japanese Canadians, were forced to live in camps similar to those in America. While most families were kept together in the United States, in Canada, the Canadian government sent men to road camps to work on projects, while women and children were transported to towns in British Columbia.
Survival was difficult in the internment camps. Japanese internees in America and Canada lived in tarpaper-covered barracks with no heating or plumbing. The camps were grossly overcrowded, and living conditions were dangerously unsanitary. The only heat provided to the Japanese was the heat from as many blankets as they could scrounge. Internees were also fed extremely inadequately. Each internee was given forty-eight cents worth of food, which was served in a congested mess hall. As a result of these conditions, many internees froze or starved to death.
In all internment camps, leadership positions were handed out solely to the Nisei, or American-born Japanese, while their parents and relatives, the Issei, or Japanese-born Japanese, were overlooked.
For the most part, there was no way to escape the internment camps. However, the United States government gave Japanese internees one option: to leave the internment camps, they must join the United States Army. Although it was their only chance to get away from the camps, this idea was not very popular with the Japanese internees. Out of over one hundred twenty thousand internees who were brought to the camps, only one thousand two hundred chose to join the army.
In 1944, President Roosevelt repealed Executive Order 9066. All internees were gradually freed, and all ten camps were closed by the end of 1945. In total, five thousand seven hundred sixty-six Japanese Americans relinquished their United States citizenship after being held captive for so long. Over two decades after the Nisei were set free, the United States government began reparations to Japanese Americans in 1968. Twenty years later, the American government attempted to make things right once and for all by awarding the sixty thousand surviving internees twenty thousand dollars each. In Canada, similar legislation was passed, distributing twenty one thousand Canadian dollars to each surviving internee. As of 2004, no formal apologies have been issued to minorities who were also forced to relocate to the camps, such as Germans, Italians, and others of European ethnicity. Japanese Internment during World War II is a chapter in history that is forgotten by many today, but those who lived through it will never forget.
Letter written by a Japanese-American student about his relocation experience.
Chieko Hirata
Period II, English I
My Last Day At Home
The month of May when I was attending school, all the residents of Hood River county, as well as the people of the whole western coast was surprised to receive such an unexpected order of evacuation.
Promptly after hearing about the order I with my folks went to register and then for a brief physical examination. Then I helped my folks pack and prepared to leave my dear home on May 13, 1942.
On May 8, 1942 I withdrew from Parkdale Grade School, where all my friends and teachers bid me farewell with sorrowful face and tears. Our packing never seem to cease, we kept my most dreaded day which I shall never forget the rest of my life. On the afternoon of the 13th, I board the train headed for Pinedale, California.
On the night of the 15th we arrived. The weather was pretty hot. In Pindale I lived in the D-section which had forty barracks, which had vie apartments to a barrack.
I stayed at the Pinedale Assembly Center about two months. Then around July 15th, 1942 we received out order to evacuate for Tule Lake. Then on July 18th we evacuated for Tule Lake and spent a night on the train. I arrived in Tule Lake. At present I am living in Block 58. The residents of this block is most Tacoma folks which I am not very much acquainted with as yet. Being that my cousin lives in Block 57 I am always visiting them.
I am always hoping that this war will end, so that I will be able to go back to Parkdale, my home town and see all my old friends, and live to my dying days in my old home in Parkdale, Oregon.
Herbert Yoshikawa
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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