the USA 1941-48: a land united?

Question 1

Wartime prosperity

Answer 1

• More than half a million new businesses started up during the war. Many companies became extremely wealthy as a result of war contracts.
• For example, Coca-Cola set up production plants around the world to provide the troops with the drink, which became the most popular in the world.
• The war effort ended unemployment; something that Roosevelt’s New Deal had failed to do
• Even farmers, after almost 20 years of enduring low prices and economic crisis, began to enjoy better times as the USA exported food to its allies.

Question 2

USA propaganda - War effort

Answer 2

• Japan handed the government a powerful propaganda weapon when it attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941
• Throughout the war, US propaganda machine used the treachery of this attack as the basis for a great deal of material convincing the American public to support the war effort.
• USA was also at war with Japan’s ally, Germany; racial polices of Nazi Germany gave the USA plenty of propaganda material to work with
• Entertainment industry: Hollywood produced movies that glorified the USA and its troops whilst presenting the enemy as fiendish and cruel

Question 3

US government measures in WWII

Answer 3

• Roosevelt got Congress to agree to higher taxes. By 1944, almost all working Americans were paying federal taxes compared with just 10% in 1940
• The Office of Price Administration controlled prices and tried to stamp it illegal trading on the black market
• Rationing was introduced on food and fuel. Clothing, cars, and some other items were not rationed.

Question 4

All available women

Answer 4

• Before the war, there were already 12 million working women. During the war, 300,000 women joined the armed forces and another 7 million joined the workforce.
• In the munitions and electronics industries, one in two workers was a woman.
• Woman workers were not always welcomed by their male colleagues or by trade unionists, who felt that they were a threat to jobs and to pay levels
• Woman earned up to 60% less than men for the same work
• Working women had to juggle the demand of work and family

Question 5

Internment of Japanese Americans

Answer 5

That attack on Pearl Harbor created a wave of anti-Japanese feeling across much of the USA.

Around 120,000 Japanese Americans from California, Washington State, Arizona, and Oregon were interned in 1942
- They were transported to bleak internment camps in remote areas of the USA

Question 6

when was the attack on pearl harbour?

Answer 6

1941

Question 7

when was the internment of Japanese Americans?

Answer 7

1942

Question 8

describe the experience of Japanese Americans in the 1940s

Answer 8

• the attack on pearl harbour in 1941 created a wave of anti-Japanese feeling across much of the USA; around 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned in 1942
• they were transported to bleak internment camps and many of them lost their property, or were forced to sell it at very low prices, in other US states, Japanese people were subjected to vandalism, abuse, and even murder
• in January 1943, congress allowed Japanese Americans to serve in the armed forces after they displayed dignity and patriotism in the camps, 33,000 immediately volunteered

Question 9

what were the arguments of those who did not support the internment of Japanese Americans?

Answer 9

• many lawyers argued that it went against the constitution
• in 1944, a Supreme Court judge called the policy ‘government racism’

Question 10

when were the Detroit Race Riots?

Answer 10

1943

Question 11

describe the experience of African Americans in the armed forces during the 1940s

Answer 11

• over 1 million African Americans joined the armed forces but they continued to face racism and discrimination
• black soldiers usually served in African American-only units with white officers, many African women served in the armed force as nurses, but they were only allowed to tend to African soldiers
• it was not until 1944 that the US marines allowed African American soldiers into combat, they had only been transporting supplies, or as cooks and labourers

Question 12

when was Executive Order 9981 passed?

Answer 12

1948

Question 13

when was Order 5120.36 passed?

Answer 13

1963

Question 14

who passed Order 5120.36?

Answer 14

The secretary of defence, Robert McNamara

Question 15

what did Order 5120.36 do?

Answer 15

banned segregation in living accommodation in the military

Question 16

describe the discrimination faced by African Americans in the navy

Answer 16

• by the end of the war, only 58 African American sailors had risen to officer rank
• it was exclusively African American sailors who were assigned to the dangerous job of loading ammunition on to ships bound for the war zones
• in July 1944, an accident killed 323 people, most of them black sailors

Question 17

describe how African Americans benefitted from the war effort

Answer 17

• over 400,000 African Americans migrated from the south to the USA’s industrial centres in the north
• on average, they doubled their wages to about $1,000 per year

Question 18

when was Executive order 8802 signed?

Answer 18

June 1941

Question 19

what did Executive Order 8802 do?

Answer 19

ordered employers who were supplying goods for the war effort to end discrimination

Question 20

describe how the war effort caused racial tension

Answer 20

• African workers generally earned half what white workers earned
• In 1942 at the Packard electronics company 3,000 white sorrels walked out when three African American workers had their jobs upgraded as a result of Executive Order 8802, members of management walked out too
• there were race riots in 47 cities during the war, the worst of which was in Detroit during June and July 1943