U5L10 The Home Front

Question 1

In 1941, the military’s first task was to train forces for combat. Army, navy, and air bases were built all over the country. How did these American recruits train for the upcoming war?
(WW2)

Answer 1

Recruits were trained to fight in the jungles of the Pacific, the deserts of North Africa, and the towns and farmlands of Europe.

Question 2

How did woman partake in the training for soldiers? How did they participate in the war?
(WW2)

Answer 2

Women joined all the armed services. Women pilots logged 60 million air miles ferrying bombers from base to base, towing targets, and teaching men to fly. Although women were not allowed in combat, many served close to the front lines.

Question 3

What was the war production board?

Answer 3

The War Production Board helped factories shift from making consumer goods to making guns, ships, aircraft, and other war materials. Automobile makers, for example, switched to producing tanks and trucks.

Question 4

True or false.

Even more than in World War I, the government controlled the economy during World War II.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

In 1942, how many planes and ships did American worker produce for war?
(WW2)

Answer 5

In 1942 alone, American workers produced more than 48,000 planes and shipped more than 8 million tons of goods.

Question 6

Why was rationing set in place?

WW2

Answer 6

To control shortages and ensure that enough raw materials would be available for war production, the government imposed rationing

Question 7

What was rationing?

Answer 7

limits on certain goods that people could buy

Question 8

How did rationing look like in America?

Answer 8

When people ran out of coupons, they could not buy the items until new coupons were issued.

Question 9

Why were victory garden set in place?

Answer 9

Consumer goods became scarce.

Question 10

What role did victory gardens play?

Answer 10

To combat food shortages, many Americans planted victory gardens. At the height of the war, more than 20 million victory gardens produced 40 percent of all vegetables grown in the country.

Question 11

What did the government do to pay for the war?

Answer 11

Raised taxes and war bond

Question 12

What role did war bonds play in the war?

Answer 12

Americans could buy a bond for a certain price with the expectation that they could redeem the bond from the government after ten years for a profit. In the meantime, the government would then use the money from bond sales to pay for the war. Movie stars took part in drives to sell bonds and boost patriotic spirit.

Question 13

How did the war affect the Great Depression?

WW2

Answer 13

The war quickly ended the Great Depression. Unemployment fell as millions of jobs opened up in factories. Minority workers found jobs where they had been rejected in the past.

Question 14

Women responded to the urgent demand for their labor. What jobs did they take?

Answer 14

Almost five million women entered the work force. They replaced the men who joined the armed services. Many women worked in offices. Millions more kept the nation’s factories operating around the clock. Some welded, ran huge cranes, and tended blast furnaces. Others became bus drivers, police officers, and gas station attendants.

Question 15

What is Rosie the Riveter?

Answer 15

The image of Rosie the Riveter, a fictional factory worker, became a symbol of American women’s contribution to the war effort.

Question 16

Because women were badly needed in industry, What happened to the inequality?

Answer 16

Because women were badly needed in industry, they were able to win better pay and working conditions. The government agreed that women and men should get the same pay for the same job. Many employers, however, found ways to avoid equal pay.

Question 17

How did the war change fashions for woman?

Answer 17

Instead of wearing skirts on the job, many women dressed in trousers. They wore overalls and tied scarves around their hair.

Question 18

African Americans decided to pursue a “Double V” campaign. What was the Double V campaign?

Answer 18

Victory over the enemy abroad and victory over discrimination at home.

Question 19

How was discrimination evident in workplaces looking for employees during the preparations for WW2?

Answer 19

As industry geared up for war, factories replaced “No Help Wanted” signs with “Help Wanted, White” signs. Such discrimination angered African Americans.

Question 20

What did A. Philip Randolph do due to the discrimination?

1941

Answer 20

In 1941, A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, called for a protest march on Washington. The government, he said, “will never give the Negro justice until they see masses—ten, twenty, fifty thousand Negroes on the White House lawn.”

Question 21

Why were government officials worried about the March Philip Randolph organized?

Answer 21

Government officials worried that such a march would feed Hitler’s propaganda machine.

Question 22

After the government met with Randolph, what decision did they reach?

Answer 22

After meeting with Randolph, FDR ordered employers that did business with the government to end discrimination in hiring. As a result, the employment of skilled black workers doubled during the war.

Question 23

As black employment rose, what rose with it?

Answer 23

Radical tension
…
Thousands of Americans—black and white—moved to cities to work in industry. Competition for scarce housing led to angry incidents. In 1943, race riots broke out in Detroit, New York, and other cities.

Question 24

Since FDR acted agasint discrimination in hiring, did he also disband segregation of the races in the military?

Answer 24

No, he refused to end segregation of the races in the military. Nearly a million African Americans enlisted or were drafted. They had to serve in all-black units commanded by white officers.

Question 25

Who was Doris Miller? What significance did he have on the war?

Answer 25

Dorie Miller, an African American sailor serving on the battleship West Virginia. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Miller dragged his wounded captain to safety. Then, though he had no training as a gunner, Miller manned a machine gun to defend his ship against enemy planes. For heroism in action, Miller was awarded the Navy Cross.

Question 26

What did African American soldiers do in the war?

WW2

Answer 26

In the army, African American soldiers formed artillery and tank units. African Americans in the navy served as gunners’ mates and helped build bases in the Pacific. African American marines helped defend American posts against Japanese attacks.

Question 27

What was the Tuskegee Airmen? What significance did they have in the war?
(WW2)

Answer 27

The Tuskegee Airmen were African American fighter pilots who trained at Tuskegee, Alabama. By the end of the war, the Tuskegee airmen had destroyed or damaged about 400 enemy aircraft.

Question 28

How did the government control the economy in World War II?

Answer 28

Government set prices of goods, negotiated with labor unions, and decided what to produce.

Question 29

What fictional character represented women’s contributions to the war effort?

Answer 29

Rosie the Riveter

Question 30

What did the Tuskegee Airmen do to support the war effort?

Answer 30

destroyed or damaged about 400 enemy aircrafts

Question 31

How did the attack on Pearl Harbor affect the Japanese people living in America?

Answer 31

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans questioned the loyalty of Japanese Americans. Some thought they might act as spies and help Japan invade the United States.

Question 32

After the Pearl Harbor attack, what did Roosevelt do to Japanese people?

Answer 32

President Roosevelt signed an order allowing the army to move Japanese Americans from their homes to “relocation camps.” Many were American citizens by birth. Later, a court case challenged the order, but the Supreme Court decided in Korematsu v. United States that such an order was constitutional in times of war.

Question 33

Despite the unfair tramtment, many Japanese American men I listed for the army. Describe.

Answer 33

Despite unfair treatment, thousands of Japanese American men served in the armed forces. Most were put in segregated units and sent to fight in Europe. There, they won many honors for bravery. The 442nd Nisei Regimental Combat Team became the most highly decorated military unit in United States history.

Question 34

Later the Congress apologized for the harsh treatment against Japanese. What did congress do?

Answer 34

Years later, in 1988, Congress apologized to Japanese Americans who had suffered from internment, or temporary imprisonment, during World War II. Congress also approved compensation, or repayment for losses, in the amount of $20,000 to every survivor of the camps.

Question 35

During WW2, how were German and Italians treated in America?

Answer 35

About 11,000 German Americans and several hundred Italian Americans were also held in government camps as “enemy aliens.” Other German Americans and Italian Americans faced curfews or travel restrictions.

Question 36

What did the Bracero Program state?

Answer 36

Because of the need for workers, the United States signed a treaty with Mexico in 1942. It allowed the recruitment of Mexican laborers to work in the United States. Under this Bracero Program, many Mexicans moved north to work on farms and railroads.

Question 37

In June 1943, a group of sailors on leave attacked some young Mexican Americans, beating them on the streets. What did this cause? What did people see as what caused this?

Answer 37

The incident led to several days of rioting in Los Angeles. Newspapers blamed the violence on the Mexican Americans. But in her newspaper column, Eleanor Roosevelt argued that the riots were the result of “longstanding discrimination against the Mexicans in the Southwest.”

Question 38

Compared to other racial groups, who many Mexicans inlisted in the military during WW2?

Answer 38

Still, like other groups, Mexican Americans served bravely in the military during World War II. Despite lingering problems at home, Americans were united in their resolve to push on to victory in Europe and the Pacific.

Question 39

What were the conditions of life in Japanese internment camps?

Answer 39

The camps were crowded and surrounded by barbed wire.

Question 40

Why did the United States sign the Bracero Program treaty with Mexico in 1942?

Answer 40

There was a need for workers in the United States.

Question 41

What happened in June 1943 in Los Angeles?

Answer 41

A riot broke out between sailors and Mexican Americans.

Question 42

What was the main question in the Korematsu v. United Stares case?

Answer 42

Can the government limit a group’s liberties during wartime?

Question 43

What is the executive order 9066?

Answer 43

The order allows the military to remove any person from war zones. Japanese Americans on the West Coast are forcibly relocated to internment camps.

Question 44

What amendment did Korematsu say was being broken by sending Japanese Americans to camps?

Answer 44

The defense claimed that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment by denying Korematsu his liberty without due process of law. They argued that the military had no authority to regulate civilian conduct in the absence of martial law, and said the order of exclusion violated the Constitution by creating a classification based on race.

Question 45

What was the government’s justification of sending Japanese Americans to camps?

Answer 45

The United States asserted that the denial of liberty to citizens was proper under wartime circumstances. The government argued that because war had been declared, the president had the authority as commander-in-chief to issue such orders to the military. Finally, since Japan had attacked America, it was logical that Japanese Americans were suspect, and the decision to intern them was based on security concerns and not on racial prejudice.

Question 46

Why did Fred Korematsu receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Answer 46

President Clinton says: “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy. Brown. Parks. To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”

Question 47

Why was Fred Korematsu arrested?

Answer 47

He defied a military order calling for Japanese Americans to be relocated to internment camps.

Question 48

What was the argument of the U.S?

Answer 48

Denial of liberty to citizens was legal under wartime conditions.

Question 49

What was the reasoning for the ruling in Korematsu v. United States?

Answer 49

National emergencies, such as war, might sometimes justify limiting the civil rights of a single racial group.