The Homefront
I. Propaganda Material created to influence the thoughts of others.
II. Economic Effects of WWII War Production Board Agency that changed the American automobile industry to make tanks, trucks, and aircraft. Rationing Regulating consumer use Limited purchase on: sugar, meat, gasoline, etc.
Women in the labor force %age rose from 30% in 1940 to 38% in 1945. Worked in factories welding metal, building equipment, making bullets and bombs. 350,000 women served in military – W.A.C. and W.A.V.E.S.
Women’s Army Corps Real Life Rosie
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services
Paying for the War Taxes paid for 40% of the war War Bonds Income Tax introduced War Bonds Pay ½ face value up front – 10yrs later it is worth face value. Citizens provided scrap metal and rubber for military use
III. Segregation 1941 – Roosevelt issued executive order 8802 that banned discrimination in the defense industry. Unemployment dropped to 1.2% but minorities were often limited in types of jobs available Armed forces were segregated until 1948 by Harry Truman. 700,000 African Americans served in WWII. Tuskegee Airman shot down more than 200 enemy planes (Red Tails)
IV. Manhattan Project Albert Einstein sent President Franklin Roosevelt a letter warning of German attempts to build a nuclear bomb. In early 1940’s the U.S. launches the secret $2 billion project Centered at Los Alamos, New Mexico 37 other locations across nation Major location in Oak Ridge, TN The goal was to develop an atomic bomb
V. Oak Ridge, TN The Manhattan Project built huge facilities at a secret site in Oak Ridge, TN, to test three techniques in developing an atomic bomb Eventually all three techniques developed at Oak Ridge contributed to producing the ingredients for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945
K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Process Building
X-10 Graphite Reactor Building
Y – 12 Electro- Magnetic Separation of Uranium
VI. The Atomic Bombs The end of the War April 30, 1945 Hitler and his wife Eva Braun commit suicide in his Berlin bunker. May 8, 1945 Germany surrenders. Japan is the only one left to defeat. 1st test of an atomic bomb: July 14, 1945 Cracked windows 75 miles away
Early Stage of the “TRINITY” fireball – First nuclear bomb test
VII. Facts about the Bombs Dropped from 30,000 feet Detonated at 1,900 feet above the center of the two Japanese cities. 78,000 people died in less than 1 second. (Hiroshima) Over 150,000 Japanese died in the two explosions. 4 square miles of land disappeared.
AUG. 6, 1945 – The Enola Gay drops “Little Boy” over Hiroshima. AUG. 9, 1945 – The Bockscar drops “Fat Man” over Nagasaki.
Nagasaki before and after bombing
VIII. Surrender At the White House, President Harry Truman announces the Japanese Surrender. August 14, 1945 (the War is over)
IX. Minority Groups Japanese Internment Camps U.S. government questioned the loyalty of Japanese Americans 100,000 were relocated to camps for safety 300,000 served in the military (most were volunteers) Apology In 1988, the U. S. gov. acknowledged that it had acted improperly in the matter of Japanese-American internment and offered each internee compensation of $20,000.
African Americans 1 million served in World War II Assigned to all black units USS navyman Dorie Miller – first African American to win the Navy Cross (Cuba Gooding Jr.)
X. Globalization A movement to industries being interlocking systems of manufacturing and marketing on an international scale. Dwight Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander Military Industrial Complex – the close relationship between the armed forces and the industrial sector of the U.S. economy. Interstate Highway System – construction of 41k miles of highway roads. Every 5 miles, 1 had to be completely straight for national defense.