AlvlERICAN COMlvlUNI1~IES

Los Alamos, New Mexico

I n Monday, July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 A.M., Mountain

IWar Time, the first atomic bomb exploded in a bril­

liant flash visible in three states. Within just seven min­

utes, a huge, multicolored, bell-shaped cloud soared 38,000 feet

into the atmosphere and threw back a blanket of smoke and

soot to the earth below. The heat generated by the blast was

four times the temperature at the center of the sun, and the light

produced rivaled that of nearly twenty suns. Even ten miles away

people felt a strong surge of heat . The giant fireball ripped a

crater a half-mile wide in the ground, fusing the desert sand

into glass.The shock wave blew out windows in houses more than

200 miles away. The blast killed every living creature-squirrels,

rabbits , snakes, plants, and insects-within a mile, and the smells

of death lingered for nearly a month.

Very early that morning, Ruby Wilkening had driven to a

nearby mountain ridge, where she joined several other women

waiting for the blast. Wilkening worried about her husband, a

physicist, who was already at the test site. No one knew exactly

what to expect, not even the scientists who developed the bomb.

The Wilkenings were part of a unique community of sci­

entists who had been marshaled for war. President Franklin D.Roosevelt, convinced by Albert Einstein and other physicists

that the Nazis might successfully develop an atomic bomb, had

inaugurated a small nuclear research program in 1939. Soon

after the United States entered World War II, the president

released resources to create the Manhattan Project and placed

it under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers. By

December 1942, a team headed by Italian-born Nobel Prize

winner Enrico Fermi had produced the first chain reaction in

uranium under the University of Chicago's football stadium.

Now the mission was to build a new, formidable weapon of war,

the atomic bomb.

In March 1943, the government moved the key researchers

and their families to Los Alamos, New Mexico, a remote and

sparsely populated region of soaring peaks, ancient Indian ruins,

modern pueblos, and villages occupied by the descendants of the

earliest Spanish settlers. Some families occupied a former boys'

preparatory school until new houses could be built; others dou­

bled up in rugged log cabins or nearby ranches. Construction of

new quarters proceeded slowly, causing nasty disputes between

the "long-hairs" (scientists) and the "plumbers" (army engi­

neers) in charge of the grounds. Despite the chaos, outstanding

American and European scientists eagerly signed up. Most were

young, with an averageage of twenty-seven, and quite a few were

recently married. Many couples began their families at Los

Alamos, producing a total of nearly a thousand babies between

1943 and 1949.The scientists and their families formed an exceptionally

close-knit community, united by the need for secrecy and their

shared antagonism toward their army guardians. The military

atmosphere was oppressive. Homes and laboratories were cor­

doned off by barbed wire and guarded by military police.

Everything, from linens to food packages, was stamped

"Government Issue:' The scientists were followed by security

personnel whenever they left Los Alamos. Several scientists were

reprimanded for discussing their work at home, although many

of their wives worked forty-eight hours a week in the Technical

Area. All outgoing mail was censored. Well-known scientists

commonly worked under aliases-Fermi became "Eugene

Farmer"-and code names were used for terms such as atom,

bomb, and uranium fission. Los Alamos children were registered

without surnames at nearby public schools. Even automobile

accidents, weddings, and deaths went unreported. Only a groUp

thoroughly committed to the war effort could accept such restric­

tions on personal liberty.

American economy quickly and fully recovered from the Great

Depression. Several states in the South and Southwest experi­

enced huge surges in population. California alone grew by

2 million people, a large proportion from Mexico. Many broad

social changes with roots in earlier times-the economic expan­

sion of the West, the erosion of farm tenancy among black peo­

ple in the South and white people in Appalachia. and the

increasing employment of married women-accelerated dur­

ing the war.The events of the war eroded old communities, cre­

ated new ones like Los Alamos, and transformed nearly all

aspects of American society.

The transition to wartime was, however, far from smooth.

Suspecting Japanese Americans of disloyalty, President Roosevelt

ordered the forced relocation of more than 112,000 men,

women, and children to internment camps. Although African

Americans won a promise of job equity in defense and govern­

ment employment, hundreds of race riots broke out in the

nation's cities. In Los Angeles, Mexican American youth, flaunt­

ing a new style of dress, provoked the ire of white sailors who

proceeded to assault them, almost at random. And families of

all kinds found themselves strained by wartime dislocations.

The United States nevertheless emerged from World War II

far stronger than its European allies, who bore the brunt of the

fighting. Indeed, the nation was now strong enough to claim a

new role as the world's leading superpower.

A profound urgency motivated the research team, which

included refugees from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and a

largeproportion of Jews.The director of the project, California

physicistJ. Robert Oppenheimer, promoted a scientific elan that

offset the military style of commanding general Leslie Groves.

Just thirty-eight, slightly built, and deeply emotional, "Oppie"

personified the idealism that helped the community of scientists '

overcome whatever moral reservations they held about placing

sucha potentiallyominous weapon in the hands of the government.

In the Technical Area of Los Alamos, Oppenheimer directed

research. At seven 0'clockeachworkday morning, the siren dubbed

"Oppies Whistle" called the other scientists to their laboratories

to wrestle with the theoretical and practical problems of build­

ing an atomic device. From May to November I 944, after the

bomb had been designed, the key issue was testing it. Many sci­

entists feared a test might fail, scattering the precious plutonium

at the bomb's core and discrediting the entire project. Finally.

with plutonium production increasing, the Los Alamos team

agreed to test "the gadget" at a site 160 miles' away.

The unprecedented scientific mobilization at Los Alamos

mirrored changes occurring throughout American society as the

nation rallied behind the war effort. Sixteen million men and

women left home for military service and nearly as many moved

to take advantage of wartime jobs. In becoming what President

Franklin Roosevelt called "a great arsenal of democracy," the

WORLD WAR II, 1941-1945 CHAPTER 25 889

1 _ KEY TOPICS

The events leading to Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war

The marshaling of national resources for war

American society during wartime

The mobilization of Americans into the armed forces

The war in Europe and Asia

Diplomacy and the atomic bomb

890 CHAPTER 25 WORLD WAR II , 1941-1945

. . . . . . . . . . .WHAT §TEJP'§ did Roosevelt take in the

late 1930s to prepare the United States for war?

• • • • • • • • • • •

Albert Einstein, Letter to PresidentRoosevelt (1939)

THE COMING OF WORLD WAR II

1rhe worldwide Great Depression further undermined a political order thahad been shaky sine' World War 1. Production declined by nearly 40 per~ce n t. international trade dropped by as much as two-thirds, un emploYment

rose, and political unrest spread across Europe and Asia. Demagogues played Onnationalist hatreds, fueled by old resentments and current despair, and offered saln_tions in the form of territorial expansion by military conquest.

Preoccupied with restoring the domestic eco no my, President Franklin DRoosevelt had no specific plan to deal with growing conflict elsewhere in the world:Moreover, the majority of Americans strongly opposed foreign entanglements. Butas debate over diplomatic policy heated up, terrifying events overseas pulled thenation steadily toward war.

Guideline 21.1THE SHADOWS OF WAR

War spread first across Asia. With imperialist ambitions of its own, yet reliant on othernations for natural resources such as oil.japan turned its sights on China and seizedthe province of Man churia in 1931. When reprimanded by the League of Nations,Japan simply withdrew from the organization. Continuing its expansionist drive,Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937. While taking over the capitalcity of Nanking, japan's army murdered as many as 300 ,000 Chinese men , women,and children and destroyed much of the city. Within a year,Japan controlled all butChina's western interior and threatened all of Asia and the Pacific.

Meanwhile, the rise of authoritarian nationalism in Italy and Germany cast a darkshadow over Europe. The economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression­and, in Germany, resentment over the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, whichended World War I-fueled the rise of demagogic mass movements. Glorifying waras a test of national virility, the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini seized powerin 1922 and declared, "We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty." In Germany,the National Socialists (Nazis), led by Adolf Hitler, combined militaristic rh etoricwith a racist doctrine of Aryan (Nordic) supremacy that claimed biological superi­ority for the blond-haired and blue-eyed peoples of northern Europe and classifiednonwhites, including jews, as "degenerate races."

Hitler, who became chancellor of Germany in January 1933 with th e backingof major industrialists and about a third of the electorate, prepared for war. With hisbrown-shirred storm troopers ruling the streets, he quickly destroyed opposition par­ties and effectively made himself dictator of the strongest nation in central Europe.Renouncing the disarmament provisions of the Versailles treaty, he began to rebuildGermany's armed for ces.

The prospect of war grew as both Mussolini and Hitler began to act on theirimperial visions . In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and formally claimed the impover­ish ed African kingdom as a colony. In 1936 , Hitler sent 35,000 troops to occupy theRhineland. a region demilitarized by the Versailles treaty. When the Spanish CivilWar broke out later that year, Italy and Germany both supported the fascist insurrec­tion of General Francisco Franco and then, in November, drew up a formal allianceto become the Rome-Berlin Axis. Hitler was now nearly ready to put into operationhis plan to secure Lebensraum-living space for Germany's growing population­through further territorial expansion.

After annexing his native Austria, Hitler turned his attention to Czechoslovakia,a country both Britain and France were pledged by treaty to assist. War seemedimminent:. But Britain and France surprised Hitler by agreeing, at a conference inMunich the last week ofSeptember 1938, to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland,

WORLD WAR 1[, 1!)41 - 19 'J5 CHAPTER 25 891

Interviewing Date 9/15--20/1938, Survey ~ 1 32 , Quesl ion #4

OCTOBER 2, 1938EUROPEAN WAR

If England and France go to war againstGermany do you think the United States

can stay out?

a part of Czechoslovakia bordering Germany. In return, Hitler pl edgedto stop his terri torial advance. Less th an six m on th s later, in March 1939,Hitler seized th e res t of Czec hoslovakia.

By this tim e , much of th e world was aware of th e horro r of Hi tler'sreg-ime, especially its virule nt racist doct rines. After 1935 , when H itler

P!'blis hed the no torious Nurembe rg Laws denying civil righ ts to J ews,the campaign against them became steadily more vicio us. On the nigh tor November 9,1938, Na zi sto rm troopers ro unded up J ews, bea ting

them m ercil essly an d m u rdering an un to ld num ber. T h ey smashedwindows in J ewish shops, hosp itals , and orphanages and burned syn­agogues to the grou nd . This attack came to be kn own as Kristnllnacht,"the Nigh t of Broke n Glass. " The Nazi government soon expropria tedJewish p roperty and excludedJews from all but the m ost menial form sof emp loyment. Pressu red by Hitler, Hungar y and Italy also enacted

laws against J ews.

YesNo

New EnglandMiddle AtlanticEast CentralWest CentralSout hWest

57%43

By Region

Yes No46% 54%61 3960 4057 4360 4051 49

Interview ing Dale 2/2-7/1940. Survey #183-K. Ouss tion se

7 percent expressed no opinion.

DECEMBER 16, 1940EUROPEAN WAR

39%4219

33%4621

Republicans

By Political AffiliationDemocrats

YesNoNo opinion

Do you think it was a mistake for the United Statesto enter the last World War?

YesNoNo opini on

FEBRUARY 21,1940EUROPEAN WAR

If it appears that Germany is defeating England andFrance, should the United States dec/are war on Germany

and send our army and navy to Europe to fight?

Yes 23%No 77

I SOLATIONISM

World War I h ad left a legacy of st ron g isol ation ist sentimen t in th eUn ited States. Senseless slaughter might be a cen turies-old way oflife inEurope, many Americans reasoned, but not lo r the United States, whic h,

as T homas J eff e rson had advised, should stay clea r of "en tanglingalliances. " College stude nts , seei ng the mselves as future can non fodde r,

began to demonstrate against war. As late as 1937 , n ea rly 70 percent ofAmericans responding to a Gallup poll stated that U.S. invo lveme n t in

World War I had been a mistake (see Figure 25-1) .This sentiment won strong support in Congress. In 1934, a special

com mittee headed by Republican senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakotacharged weapons manufac turers with driving th e Un ited States into\J\lo rld War I in the h opes of windfall profits, which, in fact , many real­

ized . In 1935, Congress passed the first of five Neutrali ty Acts to d eterfuture entanglements, requiring the president to declare an embargo onthe sale an d sh ipment of mun itions to all bell igeren t nations.

Iso la tio n ism spanned th e politi ca l sp ectrum. In 193,s, Social istNorman T homas ga thered lead ing liberals and trade u nionists in to theKC'cp America O ut of War Congress; the Communist-influenced American

Leag ue against War and Fascism claim ed more th an 1 million mem bers.In 1940 , the arch-conservative Co mmittee to Defend Am erica First wasformed to o ppose U.S . in tervention . Some America Firsters champi­

on ed th e Nazis while others si mply advocated American neutrality.Chai red by to p Sears execu tive Ro be r t E. Wood, the America FirstCom mittee quickly gain ed attention because its mem bers included well­

known personalities su ch as m ovie stars Robert Youn g an d Lillian Gish,automobi le ma n ufa c tu re r H e n r y Ford, and Charles A. Lindbergh ,

Interviewing Dale 11/21- 30/1940 , Survey " 244-K, Question #6

FIGURE 25-1

Gallup Polls: European War and World War 1,1938-1940 These three polls conducted by

the American Inst itute of Publ ic Opin ion indicate the persistence of isolation ist sentiment

and popular crit icism of U.S. involvement in World War I. Many respondents believed

the United States, despite its commitments to European all ies, should stay out of war,

After 1940 , in the aftermath of Nazi mil itary victories in Europe, many Americans

reConsidered the ir opposit ion, fearing a threat to democracy in their own nation .

YesNoNo opini on

46%3816

89~ CHAPTER 25 WORLD WAR II. 19 41 -1 9 4 5

Guideline 21.2

fam ous for his 1927 so lo flight across th e Atlantic. With in a yea r, America First hadlaunch ed mo re th an 450 chap ters and claimed more th an 850,000 mernh T S.

Frankl in D. Roosevelt, The FourFreedoms (194 1)

QUICK REVIEW

Undeclared War

March 1941: Lend-lease programapproved by Congress.

FDR ordered navy to offer supportto Britai n .

August 1941: Atlantic Charter lays ou tBritish and American war aims .

• • • • • • a a w • •

Blitzkrieg German war tactic in WorldWar II ("liglllning war") involving the con­centration of ai r and armored firepowerto pu nc h an d ex ploit hole s in opposingdefensive lin es.

Neutrality Act of 1939 Permitted the saleof arms to Brit ain , France , and China.

Axis powers The opponents of the UnitedSta tes and its allies in World War II.

Lend-Lease Act An arrangeme nt for thetran sfer of war supplies, including food,machi nery, and services to nation s whosedefense was co nside red vital to the defen seof th e Uni ted States in World War II .

ROOSEVELT READIES FOR WAR

While American s looked on anxiously, th e twists and turns of world events p rOlllptedPresident Fr anklin D. Roosevelt to read y th e nation for war. In O ctober 1937 h, eca lled for inte rnational cooperation to "quara ntine th e aggressors." But a poll ofCo ngre ss revealed th a t a two-thirds maj ority opposed economic sanctio ns, callinany suc h plan a "bac k door to war." Forced to d raw back, Roosevelt never theless wo~from Congress $1 billio n in appro pria tio ns to en large th e navy.

Everything changed on September 1, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland.Committed by treaty to defend Poland against unprovoked attack, Great Britain andFrance issued a j oint declaration of war against Germany two days later. After thefall ofWarsaw at the en d of the month, the figh ting slowed to a near halt. Even alongtheir border, French and German troops did not exchange fire. From th e east, how­ever, the invasion con tin ue d .Just two weeks before Hitler overran Poland, the SovietUnion had stunned th e world by signing a nonaggression pact with its former enemy.The Red Army now entere d Poland, and th e two great powers proceeded to split thehapless nation be tween th em. Soviet forces then head ed north , invading Finland onNovember 30. T he European war had begun.

Calcu lating that th e United Stat es would stay ou t of the war, Hitler began acr ush ing offens ive agains t western Europe in Ap ril 1940. Using th e technique ofblitzkrieg (ligh tn ing war) - massed, fast-moving co lumns of tanks supported by airpower-that had overwhelmed Poland, Nazi troops moved first against Germany'snorthern neighbors. Afte r taking Denmark and Norway, th e Nazi armored d ivisionsswep t over Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg and sen t more than 338,000 Britishtroops into re trea t across the En glish Cha nnel from Dunkirk. Hitler's army,joinedby the Italians, eas ily co nquered France in June 1940. Hitler now turned towardEn gland. In the Battle of Britain, Nazi bombers pounded population and industrialcen ters whil e If -boats cut off inc oming supplies.

Even with Grea t Britain under attack, opin ion polls indicated American s' de ter­mination to stay ou t of th e war. But most Am eri cans , like Roosevelt himself, believedthat the security of the United States depended on both a strong defense and thedefeat of German y. Invoking the Neutrality Act of 1939, which permitted the sale ofarms to Britain, France, and China, the president cla rified his position: "all aid to theAllies short of war." In May 1940, he began to transfe r surplus U.S. planes and equip­ment to th e Allies . In September the p resid ent sec ured th e first peacetime milit arydraft in American h istory, th e Selective Service Act of 1940, which sen t 1.4 millionmen to army training camps byJuly 1941.

Presid ent Roosevelt could not yet admit the in evitability of U.S. involvemen t­especially during an election year. His popularity had dropped with th e "Rooseveltrecession" tha t began in 1937, raising doubts th at he co uld win what would be anunprecedented th ird term. In his campaign he promi sed voters not to "send you r boysto any foreign wars. " Roosevelt and his vice presidential candidate H enry Wallacewon by a margin of 5 mill ion popular votes over the Republican dark-horse candi­date , Wendell L. WilIkie of Indiana.

Roosevelt now moved more agg ressively to aid the Allies in th eir struggle withthe Axis powers. In his annual message to Congress, he proposed a bill that would allOWthe president to sell, exchange, or lease arms to any coun try whose defense appearedvital to U.S. securi ty. Passed by Congress in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act made GreatBritain the firs t beneficiary of massive aid. After Congress authorized the mercha nt

WORLD WAR II , 1941-1 94.~ CHAPTER 25 893

marine to sail fully armed while conveying lend-lease supplies directly to Britain, aformal declaration of war was only a matter of time.

In August 1941, Roosevelt met secretly at sea off Newfoundland with British PrimeMinister Winston Church ill to map mili tar y strategy and declare common goals for thepostwar world. Known as the Atlantic Charter, their proclamation specified the right ofallpeoples to live in freedom from fear, want, and tyranny.The Atlantic Charter also calledfor free trade am ong all nations, disarmament, and an end to territorial seizures.

By this tim e the European war had moved to a new stage. Having co nqueredthe Balkan s, Hitler set aside th e expedient Nazi-Soviet Pact to resume his quest forthe en tire European continent. InJune 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, promis­ing its rich agricultural land to German farmers. Observing th is dramatic escalation,the United States mov ed closer to intervention.

PEARL HARBOR

Throughout 1940 and much of 1941, the United States focused on even ts in Europe,but the war in Asia went on. Roos evelt, anticipating danger to American interests in the

Japanese attack planes devastated the U.S. f leet

stat ioned on the Hawai' ian island of Oahu.

Before December 7, 1941, few Americans hadheard of Pearl Harbor, but the "sneak" attack

became a symbol of Japanese treachery and

the necessity for U.S. revenge.

National Archives and Records Administratio n.

Atlantic Charter Statement of com mo nprincipl es and war aims developedby President Franklin Roos evelt andBritish Prime Ministe r Wins ton Churchillat a meeting in August 1941.

*Guideline 21.3

894 CHAPTER 25 WORLD WAR II , 1941-1945

On the dayafterthe attack on Pearl Harbor,President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed ajoint session of Congress and asked for animmediatedeclaration of war againstJapan.The resolution passed with one dissentingvote,and the United Statesentered World War II.

AP Wide World Photos.

. . . . . . . . . . .W HAT ROJLEdid the federal

government play in gearing up the economy

for wartime production?

• • • • • • • • • • •

War Powers Act Act that gave the U.S.president the power to reorganize the fed­eral government and create new agencies;to establish programs censoring news,information, and abridging civil liberties;to seize foreign-owned property; and awardgovernment contracts without bidding.

Pacifi , had directed the transfer of the Pacific FI. eetfrom bases in California to Pearl 1laroor, On thisland of Oahu, Hawai 'i , in May 1940. Less tha~flv months later, on September 27,Japan fo rll1al]joined Germany and Italy as the Asian panncr (j~the Axis allian ce.

The United States and japan each playedfor time. Roosevelt wanted to save his resources tofight against Germany and, moreover, wanted toavoid the possibility of fighting a two-fronl war.japan's leaders gambled that America's prcoccll~

pation with Europe might allow them to conquerall of Southeast Asia, including the Frenchcolonies in Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, andLaos) and the British possessions of Burma andIndia. When japan occupied Indochina in JUly1941, however, Roosevelt responded by freezingjapanese assets in the United States and cuttingoff its oil supplies.

Confrontation with japan now looked likely.U.S. intelligence had broken the japanese secretdiplomatic code, and the president knew that

japan was preparing to attack somewhere in the Pacific. By the end of November, hehad placed all American forces on high alert.

Early Sunday morning, December 7, 1941,japanese carriers launched an attackon the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor that caught American forces completely by surprise.Within two hours, japanese pilots had destroyed nearly 200 American planes and badlydamaged the fleet; more than 2,400 Americans were killed and nearly 1,200 wounded.On the same day,japan struck U.S. bases on the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island.

The next day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress: "Yesterday," heannounced, "December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United Statesof America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of theEmpire ofJapan." With only one dissenting vote-by pacifist jeannette Rankin ofMontana, who had voted against U.S. entry into World War I in 1917-Congressapproved the president's request for a declaration of war. Three days later, japan'sEuropean Allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States.

ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY

JRy the time the United States entered World War II, the U.S. economy hadalready been regeared for military purposes. Late in 1940, President Roosevelthad called on all Americans to make the nation a "great arsenal of demoC­

racy." Once the United States entered World War II, the federal government beganto pour an unprecedented amount of energy and money into wartime productionand assigned a huge army of experts to manage it. This vast marshaling of resourceswas neither simple nor speedy, but it ultimately brought a concentration of power inthe federal government that exceeded anything planned by the New Deal. It alsObrought an end to the Great Depression.

MOBILIZING FOR WAR

A few days after the United States declared war on Germany, Congress passed the WarPowers Act, which established a precedent for executive authority that would endure

WORLD WAR II, 1941-1945 CHAPTER 25 895

long after the war 's end. The president gained the power to reorganize the federalgovernment and create new agencies; to establish programs censoring all news andinformation and abridging civil liberties; to seize property owned by foreigners; andeven to award government contracts without competitive bidding.

Roosevelt promptly created special wartime agencies. At the top of his agendawas a massive reorientation and management ofthe economy, and an alphabet soupof new agencies arose to fill any gaps. The Supply Priorities and Allocation Board(SPAB) oversaw the use of scarce materials and resources vital to the war, adjustingdomestic consumption (even ending it for some products such as automobiles) to mil­itary needs. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) checked the threat of infla­tion by imposing price controls. The National War Labor Board (NWLB) mediateddisputes between labor and management. The War Manpower Commission (WMC)directed the mobilization of military and civilian services. And the Office of WarMobilization (OWM) coordinated operations among all these agencies.

Several new agencies focused on domestic propaganda. The attack on PearlHarbor evoked an outpouring of rage againstJapan and effectively quashed muchopposition to U.S. intervention. Nevertheless the government stepped in to fan thefires of patriotism and to shape public opinion. In June 1942, the president createdthe Office ofWar Information (OWl) to engage th e press, radio, and film industryin an informational campaign-in short, to sell the war to the American people.

The OWl gathered data and controlled the release of news, emphasizing theneed to make reports on the war both dramatic and encouraging. Like the Committeeon Public Information during World War I, during the first twenty-one months of thewar the new agency banned the publication of advertisements, photographs, andnewsreels showing American dead, fearing that such images would demoralize thepublic. In 1943, worrying that Americans had become overconfident, officials changedtheir policy. A May issue of Newsweek featured graphic photographs of Americanswounded in battle, explaining that "to harden home-front morale, the military ser­vices have adopted a new policy of letting civilians see photographically what warfaredoes to men who fight. " The OWl also published leaflets and booklets for the armedservices and flooded enemy ra~kswith subversive propaganda.

Propaganda also fueled the selling of war bonds. Secretary of the TreasuryHenry Morgenthau,Jr. not only encouraged Americans to buy government bonds tofinance the war but planned a campaign "to use bonds to sell the war, rather than viceversa." Buying bonds would "mean bullets in the bellies ofHitler's hordes!" Discoveringthrough research that Americans felt more antagonism to Japan than Germany,Morgenthau directed his staff to use more negative stereotypes of the Japanese in theiradvertising copy. Polls showed, however, that most Depression-stung Americansbought war bonds-$185.7 billion by war 's end-mainly to invest safely, to counterinflation, and to save for postwar purchases.

The federal government also sponsored various measures to prevent subver­sion of the war effort. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was kept busy, itsappropriation rising from $6 million to $16 million in just two years. The attorneygeneral authorized wiretapping in cases of espionage or sabotage, but the FBI usedit extensively-and illegally-in domestic surveillance. TheJoint Chiefs of Staff cre­ated the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to assess the enemy's military strength,to gather intelligence information, and to oversee espionage activities. Its head,Colonel William Donovan, envisioned the OSS as an "adjunct to military strategy" andengaged leading social scientists to plot psychological warfare against the enemy.

One important outcome of these activities was to increase the size of the gov­ernment many times over its New Deal level. It cost about $250 million a day to fightthe war, and the federal government spent twice as much during the war as it had

*Guidelines 22.1and 22.6

896 CHAPTER 25 WORLD WAR 11,1941-1945

during its entire prior history. The number of federa l employees nearly fJ l1adru.pled, from slightly more than 1 million in 1940 \0 nearly 4 million hy th e \VaI" s cnd.

The exception to this pattern of expansion was the New Dcal i l.~ clr. AsPresident Roosevelt announced in 1942, "Dr. cw Deal" had be '11 rcplaccd b"Dr. Win the War." No longer carrying the heavy responsibility of brin ging th~nation out of the Great Depression, his administration directed all its resourcestoward securing the planes, ships, guns, and food required for vi tory. Morcov rthe ]94~ elections weakened the New Deal coalitio n by unseating many libel''';Democrats. The Republicans gained forty-six new m embers in the House ofRepresentatives , nine in the Senate. Republicans now had greater opportunity toquash proposals to extend the social programs instituted during the 1930:;. Oneby one, New Deal agencies vanished.

QUICK REVIEW

Government and the Economy

War brought a huge expansionof the federal gover nmen t.

Under government pressure, industr yshifted to defense production.

Federal budget grew 10 ten tim esthe previous level.

• • • • • • • • • • •

ORGANIZING THE ECONOMY

The decisive factor for victory, even more than military prowess and superior strar.egy, would be, many observers agreed, the ability of the United States to outproduceits enemies. The country enjoyed many advantages to meet this challenge: a largeindustrial base, abundant natural resources (largelyfree from interference by the war),and a civilian population large enough to permit it to increase both its labor forceand its armed forces. Defense spending would lift the United States out of the GreatDepression and create the biggest economic boom in the history of any nation. Butfirst the entire civilian economy had to be both expanded and transformed for theproduction of arms and other military supplies.

By the summer of 1911, the federal government was pouring vast amounts intodefense production. Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, allo cations topped$100 billion for equipment and supplies, which exceeded what American firms hadproduced in any previous wars. Facing war orders too large to fill, American indus­tries were now primed for all-out production. Factories operated around-the-clock,seven days a week. In January 1943, Roosevelt formed the War Production Board to"exercise general responsibility" for all this activity.

With better equipment and more motivation, American workers proved twiceas productive as the Germans, five times as productive as the Japanese. No wonderthe actual volume of industrial output expanded at the fastest rate in Americanhistory. Military production alone grew from 2 percent of the 1939 total grossnational product to 40 percent of the 1943 total. "Something is happening,"ann ou nced Time magazin e, "that Adolf Hitler does not understand . . . it is themiracle of production."

Businesses scored huge profits from military contracts. The government pro­vided low-interest loans and even direct subsidies for the expansion of facilities, withgenerous tax write-offs for retooling. The 100 largest corporations, which manufac­tured 30 percent of all goods in 1940, garnered 70 percent of all war and civiliancon tracts and the bulk of th e war profits. On the other hand, many small businessesclosed, a half-million between 1941 and 1943 alone.

Defense production transformed entire regions. The impact was strongest inthe West-the major staging area for th e war in the Pacific-where the federal goV­ernment sp ent nearly $40 billion for military and industrial expansion. Californiasecured 10 percent of all federal funds, and by 1944, Los Angeles had become thenation's second largest manufacturing cen ter, only slightly behind Detroit. TheSouth also benefited from 60 of the army's 100 new cam ps. Its textile factorieshummed: the army alone required nearly 520 million pairs of socks and 230 millionpairs of pants. The economic boom lifted entire populations out of sharecropping

WORLD WAR II, 1941-1945 CHAPTER 25 897

and tenancy into well-paid industrial jobs in the citi es and pumpedunprecedented profits into southern business. Across the country therural population decreased by almost 20 percent.

Despite a "Food for Freedom" program, American farmers couldnot keep up with the rising international demand or even the domes­tic market for milk, potatoes , fruits , and sugar. The Department ofAgriculture reached its goals only in areas such as livestock production,thanks to skyrocketing wholesale prices for meat. The war also speededthe development oflarge-scale, mechanized production of crops, includ­ing the first widespread usc of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By1945, farm income had doubled, but thousands of small farms had dis­appeared, never to return.

NEW WORKERS

The wartime economy brought an unprecedented number of n ewworkers into the labor force. The bracero (from braze, Spanish for"arms") program, negotiated by United States and Mexico in 1942,brought more than 200,000 Mexicans into the United States for short­term employm ent mainly as farm workers. Wartime production alsoopened trades that had been previously closed to Mexican Americans,such as shipbuilding. Sioux and Navajos were hired in large numbers to build ord­nance depots and military training centers. African Americans secured injust fouryears a greater variety ofjobs than in the seven decades since the outbreak of theCivil War. The number of black workers rose from 2,900,000 to 3,800,000.

The war most dramatically altered the wage-earning patterns ofwomen. Thefemale labor force grew by more than 50 percent, reaching 19.5 million in 1945.The rate of growth proved especially high for white women over the age of thirty-five,and for the first time married women became the majority of female wage earners.The employment rate changed comparatively little for African American women;fully 90 percent had been in the labor force in 1940. However, many black womenleft domestic ser vice for higher-paying jobs in industry.

Neither government nor industry rushed to recruit women. Well into the sum­mer of 1942 , the Department of War advised businesses to hold back from hiringWomen "un til all available male labor in the area had first been employed ." Likewise ,neither government nor industry expected women to stay in theirjobs when the warended. "Rosie the Riveter" appeared in posters and advertisements as the modelfemale citizen, but only "for the duration ." In Washington, D.C., women bus driversWere given badges to wear on their uniforms that read: "I am taking the place of aman who went to war."

For the most part, advertisers used conventional gender stereotypes to makeWartime jobs appealing to women. Recruitment posters and informational filmsdepicted women's new industrial jobs as simple variations of domestic tasks. Whereonce housewives sewed curtains for th eir kitchens, they now produced silk para­chutes. Their skill with a vacuum cleaner easily translated into riveting on huge ships."Instead of cutting a cake," one newsreel explained, "this woman [factory worker] cutsthe pattern of aircraft parts. Instead of baking a cake, this woman is cooking gearsto reduce the tension in the gears after use."

Compared to the Great Depression, when married women were barred frommanyjobs, World War II opened up new fields. The number of women automo­bile workers, for example,jumped from 29,000 to 200 ,000, that of women electri­Cal workers from 100,000 to 374,000. Polled n ear the end of the war, th e

Facing a shortage of workers and increased pro­

duction demands, the War Manpower

Commission and the Office of War Informa t ion

conducted a campaig n to recruit womeninto the labor force. Women were encouraged

to "take a job for your husband/son/brother"

and to "keep the world safe for your children."

Higher wages also enticed many women to take

jobs in factories producing aircraft, ships, and

ordnance. This photograph, taken in 1942,shows a woman working in a munitions factory .

The Granger Collection, New York.

QUICK REVIEW

Rosie the Riveter

Dem and for labor drew womeninto the work place.

Companies opened positions for womenin nontraditional jobs.

". Most wom en were for ced to leaveindustrial jobs after the war.

• • • • • • • • • • •

898 CHAPTER 25 WORLD WAR II, 1941-1 94 5

TABLE 25.1 STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS INTHE UNITED STATES, 1940-45

YearNumber of

StrikesNumber of Workers

InvolvedNumber of Man­

Days IdlePercent of Total

Employed -1940 2,508 576,988 6,700 ,872 2.31941 4,288 2,362,620 23 ,047,556 8.41942 2,968 839,961 4,182 ,557 2.81943 3,752 1,981 ,279 13,500,529 6.91944 4,956 2,115,637 8,721 ,079 7.01945 4,750 3,467,000 38,025,000 12.2

Despite "no-strike" pledges, workers staged wildcat strikes in the war years. Union leaders negotiated shorterhours, higher wages , and seniority rules and helped to build union membership to a new height. When the warended, nearly 30 percent of all nonagricultural workers were union members.

"Work Stoppages Caused by Labo r-Management Dispute s in 1945," Monthly LaborReview, May 1946, p. 720; and Martin Glaberman, Will' TimeStrikes (Detroit: Bewick, L980), p. 36.

~rl-J-/-, ---, In this excerpt, Margarita SalazarMcSweyn, an employee in the defenseplants, recalls why she took ajobdrilling the wings of airplanes.

. . . the money was in defense. Everybody

would talk abou t the overtime and how

much more money it was. A nd it was

exciting. Being invo lved in that em you

figured you weredoing something

for your country - and at the sametime making mOlley. . . . It wasn 't

for the glamour. You weren't going

to meet all these guys; you would be

working jnimarily with women. . . .

. . . . . . . . . . .WJHIA'lr M A S0 R changes occu rred in

American society as a co nsequence of

wartime mobilizati on ?

• • • • • • • • • • •

Guideline 22.3

overwhelming majority-75 percent-of women workers expressed a desire tokeep working, preferably a t the same jobs.

Although 17 million new jobs were crea ted during the war, th e economicgains were n ot evenly distributed. Wages increased by as much as 50 percent butnever as fast as profits or prices. This widely reported disparity produced one of themost turbulent periods in American labor history (see Table 25.1). More workerswent on strike in 1941, before the United States entered the war, th an in any pre­vious year excep t 1919. A mil itant union drive at Ford Motor Company's enormousRiver Rouge plant made the United Auto Workers (UAW) one ofthe most power­ful labor organizations in the world. Total union m embership in creased from10.5 million to 14.7 million, with the women 's share alone rising from 11 to 23 percent.Unions also en ro lled 1,250 ,000 African Americans, twice the prewar number.

Once th e United States entered the war, the major unions dutifully agreed tono-strike pledges for its duration. Nevertheless, rank-and-file union members sporad­ically staged illegal "wildcat" strikes during the war. The most dramatic, a walkout ofmore than a half-million coal miners in 1943, led by the rambunctiousJohn L. Lewis,withstood the attacks of the government and the press. Roosevelt repeatedly orderedthe mines seized, only to find , as Lewis retorted, that coal could not be mined withbayonets. The Democratic majority in Con gress pas sed the first federal antistrikebill , giving the president power to penalize strikers, even to draft them. And yet thestrikes grew in size and number, reaching a level greater than in an y other four-yearperiod in American history.

THE HOME FRONT

Most Ameri can s thoroughly apprecia ted the burst of prosperity brought 00

by wartime production , but they al 0 ex perienced food ra tioning, longwo rkdays, aud se paration fro m loved one.. Alongs ide na tion al unity raO

deep conflicts on the home front. Racial and ethnic hostilities flar ed repeatedly andon several occas ions erupted in violenc e.

FAMILIES IN WARTIME

Despite the uncertainties of wartime, or perhaps because of them, men and womenrushed into marriage. The surge in personal income caused by the wartime economic