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Racial Injustice
Unit IV Part D: The Home Front
o African Americans who moved from the rural south to the cities
up north cause a lot of racial tension.
In Detroit during June of 1943 mobs roamed the streets
attacking African Americans.
That, combined with the million African Americans who joined
the military just to end up in segregated units, led to the civil rights movement later on.
o Japanese Americans faced even more turmoil, due to the attack
on pearl harbor and the war in the Pacific.
In the west, 110,000 Japanese Americans, many of whom
were born in the US, were moved to barbed wire camps.
Many public officials felt it was necessary for security reasons,
as the governor of California, Culbert Olson put it “… it is impossible for me to do with the Orientals [tell how they think] and particularly the Japanese.”
Soviet Union PT1
The United States
Germany
o The home front for the United States was
vastly different than the other powers because they were not fighting on their own territory.
At the height of war production, the US
was making around 6 ships and 260 planes a day.
o The Mobilization resulted in social turmoil
The increase in economy created
boomtowns, with thousands moving to work in the factories, causing shortages of schools and housing.
16 million men and women signed up to
serve and were moved frequently, with another 16, mostly wives and girlfriends, moving around the country looking for work.
o The German Civilians were apprehensive about the war,
worried that the Nazis would fail and it would spell disaster once again.
Hitler, seeing this, refused to cut the production of
consumer goods to support his army.
The Blitzkrieg allowed the Germans to plunder the cities
they capture, however, after losing to the Russians, the economic situation changed.
o In early 1942 Hitler ordered a massive increase in armament
production.
Production tripled between 1942 and 1943 despite
constant allied air raids.
By 1944 schools, theaters, and cafes were closed to help
bolster the work force, it wasn’t enough however to save Germany from defeat.
o To the people of the USSR, the German-
Soviet war was known as the Great Patriotic War.
o Initial defeats led to hardships for the
soviet people.
o The city of Leningrad, now ST.
Petersburg, was put under 900 days of siege.
Inhabitants became so desperate for
food they ate, dogs, cats, and mice.
It is estimated that 1.5 million people
died in the city
Japan
Soviet Union PT2
o Japan was very efficient at mobilizing a wartime
economy
The government planned how to use all
resources efficiently and the traditional habits of obedience encouraged citizens to sacrifice their resources, and sometimes their lives.
Kamikaze or divine wind pilots were young
Japanese who were encouraged to steer their fighters directly into enemy ships.
o The Japanese were reluctant to mobilize their
women however.
Tojo argued: “The weakening of the family
system would weaken the nation…”
Female employment only rose in the areas of
textile and farming.
To make up for this, Japan brought in laborers
from China and Korea.
o As the Germans advanced, Soviets
dismantled their factories and moved them deeper into the country, with machines being placed in the open and factories being built around them.
o Stalin called the military and industrial
mobilization “the battle of the machines,” and the Soviets won.
They produced 58,000 tanks and
98,000 artillery using 55% of the country’s income
This caused shortages of both food and
housing for some citizens.