THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR II US

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR II US HISTORY

The War Effort at Home Before WWII the United States was trying to come out of the Great Depression. The New Deal had some effect. But not enough. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese the US was fully engaged in WWII. With the help of the US, the Allied countries were able to push the Axis countries back and eventually defeat them. The work done at home is what dramatically changed the course of the war. Arsenal Science of Democracy –Industry & Manufacturing

A PRODUCTION MIRACLE Americans converted their auto industry into a war industry The nation’s automobile plants began to produce tanks, planes, boats, and command cars Many other industries also converted to war-related supplies Called the “arsenal of democracy” What does this mean? Converting The to war time footing depression left many factories and workers under utilized American need. industrialization built the capacity, the war provided the

LABOR’S CONTRIBUTION By 1944, nearly 18 million workers were laboring in war industries (3 x the # in 1941) More than 6 million of these were women and nearly 2 million were minority The contributions of women in the war production efforts were invaluable to the war effort Not Rosie copied in Germany and Japan the Riveter Character production created to encourage women to work in factories to increase

MOBILIZATION OF SCIENTISTS In 1941, FDR created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to bring scientists into the war effort Focus Also was on radar and sonar to locate submarines the scientists worked on penicillin and pesticides like DDT

MANHATTAN PROJECT The most important achievement of the OSRD was the secret development of the atomic bomb Einstein wrote to FDR warning him that the Germans were attempting to develop such a weapon The code used to describe American efforts to build the bomb was the “Manhattan Project”

WAR PRODUCTION BOARD To ensure the troops had ample resources, FDR created the WPB The WPB decided which companies would convert to wartime production and how to best allocate raw materials to these industries Does this idea run counter to American “free market” ideas?

COLLECTION DRIVES The WPB also organized nationwide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags and cooking fat for recycling Additionally, the OPA set up a system of rationing Households had set allocations of scarce goods – gas, meat, shoes, sugar, coffee What do you think would be the impact of this kind of programming today?