In the future days which we seek to

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which…means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which…means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point …that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world. ” - FDR, State of the Union address (“Four Freedoms” speech), Jan. 1941

EQ: To what extent was the U. S. fighting for the “freedom” of ALL Americans during WWII?

Women’s contributions • Jobs – Heavy industry – Women’s Land Army • Military – Cooks, nurses, physicians (1943) – WAC, WAVES, WASP

“Rosie the Riveter” • J. Howard Miller • Norman Rockwell

Difficulties women faced • Lower wages • Sexual harassment

African Americans Military involvement: • 885, 945 went into the Army (10. 9%) • 153, 224 into the Navy (10%) • 16, 005 into the Marine Corps (8. 5%) • 1, 667 into the Coast Guard (10. 9%) Tuskegee Airmen

African Americans • Discrimination in military – Segregated units – Often menial jobs (cooks, laborers) • Discrimination at home – Segregation – Violence • Double V campaign • 1941 March on Washington planned creation of FEPC

Native Americans • ~25, 000 Native Americans served • Navajo communication codes

Navajo code examples: • Some terms resembled things – Navajo word for tortoise "chay-da-gahi" meant tank – “dah-he-tih-hi” (hummingbird) = fighter plane • Literal translations – "besh-lo" (iron fish) = submarine • Metaphorical – "ne-he-mah" (our mother) = America

Native Americans • Many moved off reservations into urban areas for work – median income $1, 198 a year vs. $3, 780 for white males • Veterans denied GI benefits if returned to reservations

Mexican-Americans • ~300, 000 Mexicans/M-A served – Non-segregated and segregated units • Bracero program – temp. contract laborers Private Joe P. Martinez, Medal of Honor recipient 1 st Lt. Oscar Francis Perdomo

From a Letter by the Youth Committee for the Defense of Mexican American Youth to Vice President Henry A. Wallace “…There is still a lot of discrimination in theaters and swimming pools and the Police are always arresting us and searching us by the hundreds when all we want to do is go into a dance or go swimming or just stand around and not bother anybody. They treat us like we are criminals just by being Mexicans or of Mexican descent. The newspapers have made us look like criminals too. They make fun of zoot suits and use the word ‘Mexicans’ like it was a dirty word…”

Zoot suit riots – LA 1943

Chinese-Americans Captain Francis B. Wai, awarded Medal of Honor The All-Chinese American 555 th Air Service Squadron members pose next to one of the P-40 s belonging to the Chinese American Composite Wing of the 14 th Air Force under Gen. Claire Chennault. • 13, 311 Chinese/C-A served (22% of Chinese men in U. S. ) Dorothy Siu of the American Women Volunteer Service

Chinese-Americans • Attacks “I am Chinese” buttons • Chinese Exclusion Act not repealed until 1943 – Replaced with Magnuson Act • (only 105 Chinese immigrants allowed/yr) Life magazine (December, 1941)

Italian-Americans and German. Americans • Some discrimination – But no anti-German hysteria (like WWI) • Some evacuated to camps

Japanese-Americans • 20, 080 Japanese/J-A served • Volunteer units – 442 nd Infantry Combat Team • Jan. 1944 govt began drafted men from internment camps! A member of the 442 nd Regimental Combat Team squad leader looks for German movements in a French valley (Nov. 1944)

Anti-Japanese govt propaganda

Discrimination against Japanese Americans

Japanese-American internment • Feb. 1942 – Executive Order 9066 • ~110, 000 evacuated • Forced to leave homes, farms, businesses • Hawaii – large pop. but few evacuated – Why?

• "There was no mass relocation and internment in Hawaii, where the population was one-third Japanese American. It would have been impossible to transport that many people to the mainland, and the Hawaiian economy would have collapsed without Japanese American workers. ” - Japanese American Internment Camps by Gail Sakurai, 2002 • "Ironically, the territory with the largest Japanese population saw the least discrimination. More than one third of all residents of Hawaii had some Japanese ancestry. Japanese labor was considered vital to the civilian and military economics of the Hawaiian Islands. Besides, the views of Delos Emmons, military commander of Hawaii, were the opposite of those of General De. Witt. ” - Japanese-American Internment in American History, 1996.

Account of conditions within internment camp “We drove past a barbed wire fence, through a gate and into an open space where trunks and sacks and packages had been dumped from the baggage trucks that drive ahead of us. I could see a few tents set up, the first row of black barracks, and beyond them, blurred by sand, rows of barracks that seemed to spread for miles…

. . . As the months at Manzanar turned to years, it became a world unto itself with its own logic and familiar ways. In time, staying there seemed far simpler than moving once again to another unknown place. It was as if the war were forgotten, our reason for being there forgotten…The fact that America had accused us, or excluded us, or imprisoned us, or whatever it might be called, did not change the kind of world we wanted. Most of us were born in this country; we had no other models. ” - From Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

George Takei

Discussion questions: • Was it justified to consider Japanese. Americans a security threat? • How should a country deal with an alleged security threat? Today?

EQ: To what extent was the U. S. fighting for the “freedom” of ALL Americans during WWII? “The world’s greatest democracy fought the world’s greatest racist with a segregated army. ” (Stephen Ambrose, Citizen Soldier)