Lesson 3: The Home Front and Civilians

Lesson Focus

World War II was a total war requiring immense civilian effort. We will explore how nations mobilized their economies and people, and how bombing campaigns brought the conflict directly to the home front.

People to Know

Adolf Hitler, Harry S. Truman

Learning Objectives

• Compare how the Soviet Union, U.S., Germany, and Japan mobilized their economies and people for the war effort.
• Analyze how aerial bombing of cities directly impacted civilian life, morale, and the outcome of the war.

The German-Soviet war led to a widespread military and industrial mobilization.

Soviet workers dismantled and shipped entire factories eastward to continue production, and women were crucial, working in industries and even serving in combat.

As a result, citizens experienced severe shortages, but the effort was vital for producing the equipment needed to defeat Germany.

To supply the Allies, the U.S. became their "arsenal."

The mobilization of the economy created boomtowns and caused massive population shifts, with African Americans moving north for jobs, which led to racial tensions.

This circumstance also led to a grave injustice: 110,000 Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps. War production created both opportunity and significant social conflict.

Hitler initially avoided total mobilization to maintain civilian morale.

Early blitzkrieg victories supplied Germany with resources from conquered lands. Only after defeats in Russia in 1942 did Albert Speer begin increasing armaments production. Although production tripled, this total mobilization was too late.

By July 1944, Germany’s war effort was doomed, proving a delayed home front strategy could not win a prolonged, widespread war.

To control all national resources, Japan’s government instituted a highly mobilized society that demanded extreme sacrifice.

This policy encouraged obedience and culminated in young pilots volunteering for kamikaze suicide missions against U.S. ships. Unlike other nations, Japan resisted mobilizing its women for industrial work, instead using forced laborers.

This strategy ultimately failed to meet the war's labor demands.

Germany believed sustained bombing of civilians would force Britain to surrender.

Beginning in September 1940, the German air force bombed London nightly in what the British called the blitz. Despite thousands killed and enormous damage, Londoners’ morale remained high. The theory that bombing civilians would break a nation's will was proven wrong.

Note that this did not stop the Allies from using a similar strategy later.

Believing it would cripple industrial capacity, the Allies launched widespread bombing raids on Axis cities.

Starting in 1942, bombers attacked German cities like Dresden with firestorms, and in Japan, U.S. B-29s destroyed cities, culminating with the atomic bombs in August 1945.

While bombing Germany destroyed transportation but not morale, the atomic bombs on Japan directly led to their surrender.