WORLD WAR II AND

THE HOMEFRONT

TOTAL WAR• Total war involved an interrelationship

between:

• 1) nation’s economy

• 2) technology

• 3) mobilization of civilian population

• Degrees of commitment & output = a nation’s chance for victory

• Aggressors have early edge b/c of prep time

Joseph Goebbels

GERMANY• Hitler had industry concentrate on

consumer goods to keep morale up• Goebbels mobilized press, radio & film to

gain support for war• Early successes brought civilian

confidence up • Doubt & fear return b/c:• 1) failure to knock Britain out of war• 2) invasion of USSR & setback at Moscow• 3) more wounded soldiers on streets at

home

Fritz Todt Albert Speer

GERMANY• 4) Stalingrad defeat

• 5) Allied bombing raids

• War economy leaders:

• 1) Fritz Todt – 1940-42

• 2) Albert Speer – 1942-45

• 1943 – German economy on full wartime level; too late?

• Food shortages solved by exploiting countries under their control

GERMANY• Shortage of men = labor problems; solved

by:

• 1) foreign slave (use of fear)

• 2) women

• Hitler belief for women: “children, church & kitchen,” but by 1943, women 17-45 register for compulsory labor

BRITAIN• Pre-1940:• 1) wanted war w/ limited liability – naval

blockade, French Army & Maginot Line• 2) economy dominated by consumer

goods• 3) no stockpile of food & raw materials

(phony war?)• Brit gov’t focused on:• 1) air defenses• 2) evacuations

BRITAIN• Post-1940 changes:

• 1) formation of war cabinet

• 2) increase of aircraft production

• 3) all economy comes under gov’t control

• 4) men 18-50 to armed forces or industrial service

• 5) Women 19-45 for war work

• 500K women in auxiliary military roles

BRITAIN• Reasons for “happy” workplace:

• 1) end of unemployment

• 2) overtime pay

• 3) price controls

• 4) better standard of living

• 5) patriotism

• Reciprocal Aid Agreement – “reverse lend-lease”; aid to US forces in Brit. = $6B

BRITAIN• Wartime in Brit. = shortages, rationing,

long lines for few goods, air raid shelters

• US troops in Brit. – “Americans are overpaid, oversexed, and over here”; 70K Brit. women become US war brides

• US reply: “the British are underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower”

• All political parties involved in war effort & directing country = non-partisan support

USSR• Major (Stalin responsible) problems:

• 1) disregard for human life

• 2) refusal to heed war warnings

• 3) keeping troops close to border (POWs)

• 4) no evacuation or surrenders allowed

• 5) no movement of industry to interior until later; much fell to early Germ. advances

• 6) lack of coordination b/t Stalin & war cabinet

USSR• Labor shortage reasons:• 1) many skilled workers to army• 2) military losses required replacements• 3) factory workers trapped in enemy-

occupied areas• 4) unskilled replacement workers = less

quality & efficiency• 5) teenage boys, 50+ men, & women fill in• By 1944 – women = 75% of farm workers

& 60% of industry

USSR• 1M women in military – both combat & non-

combat positions• Political and criminal prisoners worked as

slave laborers• Food shortage – scorched earth policy &

best land overtaken early by Germany• Food restricted (by rationing) to people

involved in war effort• Stalin appeals to patriotism - Great Patriotic

War – “save Holy Mother Russia”

USSR• Crusade vs. Germ. – fate awaiting

Russians if Germany wins the war united the civilian population

• Churches allowed to reopen – rallied citizens to war effort & rekindled religious revival

• Stalin blames gov’t for early losses & takes credit for final victories

• POWs (captured by Germ.) treated as traitors after returning home

JAPAN• Propaganda glorifies early victories and

censorship ignores or distorts defeats• Japan at a disadvantage:• 1) population ½ of US• 2) industrial potential of 1/7th of US• 3) US had 78 X as many raw materials• 4) Japan still had small plot agriculture• Death blows to economy – fire bombing &

US sub strangulation of supply line to SE Asia

JAPAN• Army & Navy feud led to total lack of

coordination

• 1) individual industrial needs filled w/o consideration of war effort

• 2) bickering over design & production of planes led to a 1943 amt. 1/5th of potential

• 3) army controls 85% of oil supply; navy has critical shortage, while army has surplus

JAPAN• Labor shortage filled by students, Korean &

Chinese slaves, POWs • Women (only job was “producing & caring

for children”) finally go to work in 1943• Food production decline:• 1) women, old men, boys & girls replace

draftees• 2) imports decline b/c sub attacks

(especially rice)• 3) fish scarce with fishermen in service &

US sub threat

Henry Kaiser

“Sir Launchalot”

John W. Brown – WW2 Liberty Ship

Henry Ford’s Willow Run B-24 Bomber Plant, Michigan

USA• Auto plants converted to make trucks,

jeeps, tanks, aircraft• Shipyards turn out large numbers of

warships & merchant ships• Henry Kaiser – “Sir Launchalot” – used

assembly line techniques to speed up production of Liberty ships

• 1942 – US production = Axis production, 1943 = 1.5 X Axis, 1944 = 2 X Axis

• Food production increases take care of US and Allied needs

USA• Labor shortage solutions:• 1) Great Migration (the 2nd) – blacks from

South to North & West• The threat of a March on Washington

addresses discrimination in defense industries

• 2) 2M women in defense industries• 3) US kept skilled workers in ship

production jobs• Paying for the war ($300B):• 1)increase income & war profits taxes

Esther Williams’ square at Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater

USA• 2) placed excise taxes on luxuries

• 3) war bond drives cover 60% of costs

• Minorities in the service:

• 1) 2 Black infantry divisions served in Pacific & Italy

• 2) Tuskegee Airmen in Italy

• 3) Navajo Indians (code talkers) in Pacific

• 4) Japanese Nisei in Italy

• 5) women in WAC, WAVES, WAAF

Tuskegee Airmen

NAMES OF AIRPLANES

PLANES WO-TAH-DE-NE-IH AIR FORCE

DIVE BOMBER GINI CHICKEN HAWK

TORPEDO PLANE TAS-CHIZZIE SWALLOW

OBS. PLANE NE-AS-JAH OWL

FIGHTER DA-HE-TIH-HI HUMMING BIRD

BOMBER JAY-SHO BUZZARD

PATROL PLANE GA-GIH CROW

TRANSPORT ATSAH EAGLE

NAMES OF SHIPSSHIPS TOH-DINEH-IH SEA FORCE

BATTLESHIP LO-TSO WHALE

CARRIER TSIDI-MOFFA-YE-HI BIRD CARRIER

SUBMARINE BESH-LO IRON FISH

MINE SWEEPER CHA BEAVER

DESTROYER CA-LO SHARK

TRANSPORT DINEH-NAY-YE-HI MAN CARRIER

CRUISER LO-TSO-YAZZIE SMALL WHALE

PT BOAT TSE-E MOSQUITO

442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy

USA

• War-related government agencies:

• War Production Board – allocated resources & regulated production; involved in rationing

• Office of Economic Stabilization – controlled wages, rents, prices, profits

• Office of War Mobilization – power over entire home front

USA

• National War Labor Board – solved labor-management problems

• OSRD – Office of Scientific Research and Development – scientists in the war effort

• upgrades in radar, sonar, DDT, penicillin, & atomic bomb

INTERNMENT CAMPS• Executive Order 9066 – created exclusion

zones on West coast• 120K moved to relocation camps• Korematsu v. US – protection against

espionage more important than civil rights• Jan. 2, 1945 - Exclusion order rescinded;

internees given $25 and train ticket home • JACL – gets: $25K, apology from US,

funds for education foundation for J-A children

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Posted_Japanese_American_Exclusion_Order.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Map_of_World_War_II_Japanese_American_internment_camps.jpg

MANHATTAN PROJECT

• J. Robert Oppenheimer – head of the scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico

• Leslie Groves – military leader in charge

• 7/16/1945 - Trinity Test – Alamogordo, N.M.; 20 KT TNT explosion w/ plutonium

• 2 bombs developed – 1) Uranium-235 (Hiroshima)

2) plutonium (Nagasaki)

J. Robert Oppenheimer Leslie Groves

100 ft. tower built to hold the test bomb

“The Gadget”

In position at top of the tower

The last color photograph of the

explosion in New Mexico

Ground zero after explosion

Oppenheimer and Groves inspecting the explosion site

Hiroshima bomb

Nagasaki bomb