Lesson 4: War on the Home Front

Lesson Focus

To defeat the Axis, the U.S. rapidly mobilized its economy and people. This massive effort not only supplied the war but also ended the Great Depression's unemployment, transforming the nation's industrial and social landscape.

People to Know

A. Philip Randolph, Charles Drew

Learning Objectives

• Discuss how the U.S. mobilized its economy for war, including the roles of federal agencies, new industries, and fundraising efforts.
• Explain the war's social impact, detailing new opportunities for women and African Americans, and the internment of Japanese Americans.

To win the war, the U.S. had to rapidly produce military supplies.
The War Production Board, created in 1942, ordered factories to convert to war production, banning items like refrigerators to make way for tanks. The Office of Scientific Research and Development spurred inventions like radar and the bazooka.
This massive effort ended the Great Depression and by 1944, American factories produced as much war material as all the Axis powers combined.

The huge cost of war production and shortages of goods threatened to cause inflation.
To manage this, the government sold war bonds and expanded the income tax. The Office of Price Administration set price ceilings and rationed key goods like gas and sugar. To keep factories running, the National War Labor Board mediated labor disputes, though some unauthorized wildcat strikes happened.
Pay special attention to how these controls helped fund the war while managing the economy.

With millions of men fighting overseas, industries faced a critical labor shortage.
The government urged women to fill these jobs, and over 5 million joined the workforce, many in roles previously held only by men. The symbol of this movement became "Rosie the Riveter," representing women working in factories and shipyards.
This dramatically changed society's view of women's capabilities, though many were forced to leave their jobs when soldiers returned after the war ended.

The demand for war workers spurred a large migration of African Americans from the South to industrial cities for jobs.
However, they faced intense discrimination. To prevent a protest march led by A. Philip Randolph in 1941, President Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Commission to fight discrimination in defense jobs.
Note that while this opened some doors, the military remained segregated and racial tensions grew, showing that the fight for equality continued during the war.

Following Pearl Harbor, intense fear and prejudice caused officials to doubt the loyalty of Japanese Americans on the West Coast.
Beginning in February 1942, the government forced 110,000 people of Japanese descent, most of them American citizens, into detention camps. They lost their homes and businesses. The Supreme Court upheld this action in the 1944 case of Korematsu v. United States.
This policy is now seen as a major injustice and a blot on the nation's war record.