1. Chapter 17 Section 4
The Home Front

2. Brainstorm:
What impact would the war have on American minorities and women?

3. Objective:
Describe the economic & social changes that reshaped American life during World War II
Summarize both the opportunities and discrimination African Americans and other minorities experienced during the war

4. How did the war and its immediate aftermath affect the following?

5. 1. Labor Defense Industries boom Unemployment at 1.2%
Able to save $ because their pay went up 10% even with price fixing & inflation
Some complaints about long hours, not enough pay & night shifts
People buy war bonds
35% or 6M women in work force

6. 2. Agriculture 1940s provides good growing weather
Improvements in machinery & fertilizers
Crop prices increase / farm income triples
Crop production increases by 50%
Some farmers pay off mortgage

7. 3. Population Centers
One of greatest mass migration in history, look at page 591
1941 to M newcomers to CA
Towns with defense industries triple in size
African Am look for jobs in the North
Soldiers training in different parts of US

8. 4. Family Life Soldiers at war / moms home alone
Children taken care of by relatives or first day care centers
Teenagers run into trouble
Marriage increases & Baby Boom
Tension with returning soldiers

9. 5. Returning GIs
Serviceman’s Readjustment Act or GI Bill of Rights helps with education or training for veterans
50% take advantage / get education or training
Lower interest rates or loans to help buy homes, farms or businesses

10. How did these groups react to discrimination and racism during and after the war?

11. 6. African Americans
Majority of Southern Af. Am move to Midwest for better jobs
1940 to 1944, Af Am increase from 16% to 30% in work force
Farmer & CORE in 1942 (Congress of Racial Equality / interracial) founded to confront urban segregation in the North / sit-ins
Race riot in Chicago: all is not well

12. 7. Mexican Americans 1943 Zoot Suit riots in LA Refer to page 593
11 sailors claimed they had been attacked by Mexicans / 1 week
Mexicans believe their sacrifices would lead to a better future

13. 8. Japanese Americans
Fear of J-A sabotaging or mining coastal harbors & poisoning food supply
War Dept orders General Delos Emmons, the military governor of Hawaii to evacuate J-A from Hawaii
Emmons declines because 37% of population is J-A. / Economy & war effort / 1% internment camps

14. 8. Japanese Americans
110K J-A from CA, WA, OR, & AZ sent to internment camps in CA, ID, WY, UT, CO, AZ, & AK
Supreme Ct ruled this was justified
Korematsu v. United States
1965 Japanese American Citizens League gets Congress to allocate survivors $38M
Ronald Reagan & Congress allocate $20K to each survivor