The Home Front  More than 16 million Americans served in the military during WWII  Large numbers of minority groups served, including one million African Americans and 350,000 women

The Home Front  January, 1942, the government set up the War Production Board (WPB) to convert peacetime industry to war industry  Massive defense spending ended the Great Depression- unemployment dropped to 2%  By 1944, American production was double that of all the Axis powers combined

The Home Front  Increased production demanded an increase in workers  Executive Order 8802 assured fair hiring practices in any job funded by the government  More and more people moved from rural areas to cities to find work, leading to racial conflicts between whites and minority workers

The Home Front  Japanese Americans faced extreme prejudice in the US during the War  Executive Order 9066 allowed the internment, or temporary imprisonment of Japanese Americans  Supreme Court even upheld the internment of over 100,000 citizens for “security reasons”

The Home Front  Eventually, WWII cost the United States $330 billion- DOUBLE federal spending of our entire history!  National debt went from $42 billion to $269 billion Paid by war bonds Paid by taxes taken from paychecks

The Home Front  Office of War Information was created to encourage support of the war effort  Government distributed coupon books that allowed a certain number of purchases of vital war time product  Simply put- American life during WWII was WWII

Effects of WWII  Before the war ended, the Big Three met several times to pre-determine post- war Europe Yalta Conference (Feb, 1945)- free elections for much of Eastern Europe (last for Churchill and FDR) Potsdam Conference (July, 1945)- Germany would be divided into 4 zones (British, French, US, USSR), borders and elections for Poland, and USSR would declare war on Japan

Effects of WWII  After the war, clashes took place between communists and non- communists in Eastern Europe and China  Japan went under American military occupation  Set the stage for independence of European/Japanese colonial possessions

Effects of WWII  The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the worlds superpowers US: largely untouched by war, booming industry, powerful military with atomic bomb USSR: suffered terribly during war, but Red Army was largest in the world, controlled most of Eastern Europe

Effects of WWII  US led the way for sharping the postwar economy, including the World Bank  United Nations was formed (UN), based on the cooperation of world powers US, China, Britain, France, and USSR most powerful

Effects of WWII  During the war, the Axis powers violated the Geneva Convention over and over again  More than 1,000 Japanese were tried, with hundreds executed for war crimes  In Europe, the Nuremberg Trials condemned Nazi leaders for their crimes during the war

Effects of WWII  At home, American life would never be the same after the war: Americans felt that they represented democracy, tolerance, and peace America’s national security was tied to world security African Americans were reenergized in the fight for civil rights Decades of economic growth, South and West gained more population and wealth, expanded the role of the government in the American economy