UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
Neutrality during World War II was abandoned after Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor. It’s time to mobilize. Let’s talk
about the effects.
GREAT DEPRESSION ENDS
The first major effect of U.S. mobilization for World War II is that it played a big role in ending the
Great Depression. President Roosevelt tried slapping the Depression with all kinds of different
New Deal programs, but for the most part, that depression just kept depresh-ing. But as it turned out, firing
up the engine of American industry to mobilize for the war was the particular smack needed to cure
the profound ills of the Depression.
Why? In order to manufacture all the supplies needed for the war, the federal government employed
nearly four million Americans and spent unprecedented amounts of money under Roosevelt’s vision to
make the United States an “ arsenal for democracy.” As a result, the U.S. GDP increased by 50%,
industrial productivity nearly doubled, and American unemployment fell by about 85% in a matter of a few
months. This was a big deal. Why? The prosperity of the 1920s was largely owing to the focusing of the
economy on the mass production of consumer goods, and that means precisely two things. One, the
industrial infrastructure needed to produce all those toasters and vacuum cleaners and automobiles
expanded wildly to keep up with demand. Two, American consumers had plenty of money to spend on
those new toys, and even if they didn’t have the money, the expansion of buying goods on credit ensured
they could get whatever they wanted . But when the Depression hit, no one had any money to spend on
those goods and so production dried up. But even if no one is buying consumer goods , guess what still
exists? All those new industrial factories that were built to produce those goods.
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UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
GREAT DEPRESSION ENDS cont’d
During the Depression, all the industrial infrastructure for prosperity already existed, but there were no
buyers . Once mobilization began, U.S. industry got one particular buyer with really deep pockets and a
real itch to spend money, namely, Big Daddy Government. Remember, that was kind of Roosevelt ’s
whole thing. The Keynesian economics that guided the New Deal programs were big on government spending
in order to correct for economic failure, which is what they called “priming the pump.” When it was time
to mobilize , the federal government got busy priming that American economic pump . And much of
that growth was possible because Roosevelt created the War Production Board in order to coordinate
government manufacturing needs with private corporations.
For example, prior to the war, the Boeing corporation built a modest amount of military and civilian
aircraft. But during mobilization, Boeing received massive government contracts and money. In
response, the company rapidly increased its production capabilities by creating bombers on a scale
previously unheard of. Similar results occurred across American industries, including Marinship ,
which built warships, and agricultural corporations, textile companies, etc. The combination of huge
demand and central planning from the government greatly expanded the U.S. industrial capacity
and output in a very short time. It was that unique and large- scale industrial capacity that contributed
significantly to the Allied victory in World War II.
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UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
SUMMARIZE the notes from the previous page in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
OPPORTUNITIES CREATED
The second effect of mobilization for the war was that the process opened opportunities for some Americans
to improve their socioeconomic position, and there are three groups you should know.
First, new opportunities opened for women . All that fabulous industrial output faced one big
obstacle, namely, men held the vast majority of industrial jobs. And the government wasn’t going to get
much out of this fantastic industrial capacity if it was shipping all of its working men across the world
to fight. Therefore, in order to keep American industry running at the pace needed to win the war, women
filled many of these jobs. I know that might make worry you since I mentioned that the general
opinion of the medical establishment at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century was that
women were, by nature , ill-suited for work. I mean, if doctors were worried that women riding bikes
would ruin their faces, and more to the point, their ovaries, then what on earth would happen to these poor
creatures if they took up work in factories? Turns out women proved themselves just as capable as men in
churning out industrial goods for the war, and their faces and ovaries—miracle of miracles—survived.
Rosie the Riveter became the enduring icon of women’s industrial work at home and demonstrated not
the perceived weakness of women, but their strength and vital contribution to the war. Women also
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UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
OPPORTUNITIES CREATED cont’d
replaced men in sports leagues as well. In 1943 the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
was formed owing to sports executive’s fears that Major League Baseball would shut down entirely during the
war. To be clear, women had been organizing for baseball since the 19th century, but this was the first time
all -women professional leagues were created. But the league petered out once the war was over since,
in the owner’s minds, women were only a temporary replacement for men’s leagues. Even so, this created
a strong foundation for the expansion of professional women’s sports in the rest of the 20th century.
Similar to women’s place in the workforce during and after World War I, after this war some women would
remain in the workforce while others returned to their previous roles .
The second group for whom mobilization opened opportunities was Black Americans. Around
700,000 Black Americans joined the ranks of the U.S. military, although combat units were, as a rule,
segregated by race. For example, the Tuskegee Airmen was an all-Black air combat unit that trained at
the Tuskegee Institute of Alabama. Despite their segregated role, this unit fought with distinction ,
destroying hundreds of enemies both in the air and on the ground. However, I probably don’t need to tell you
that though they played a vital role in the U.S. military, the presence of Black soldiers raised debates
about racial segregation. For example, Black labor activist A. Philip Randolph organized a 100,000 person
march on Washington D.C. to oppose segregation in the military. But when Roosevelt heard about it, he
got really annoyed because his whole message to the public about the war was that we were fighting for
freedom and democracy. And a hundred thousand Black people marching on Washington saying
they weren’t free and their access to democracy was limited would constitute no small amount of egg
on the presidential face. So Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 , which did not desegregate the military,
but did set up a regulatory board that would investigate inequality in the military. And after such a
compromise, Randolph cancelled the march. However, Randolph’s march was merely a symbol of a
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UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
OPPORTUNITIES CREATED cont’d
larger push for Black civil rights, namely, the Double V Campaign which claimed that while America fought a
single-front war against hostile powers abroad, Black Americans fought a two -front war, against both foreign
enemies and domestic racists. These campaigns, which worked to secure democracy at home and
abroad, laid the groundwork for many of the successes gained during the Civil Rights Movement in the
next period.
The third group who benefited from mobilization were Mexican immigrants. The agricultural
industries faced the exact same problem industrial corporations and sports leagues faced, namely,
all the male workers were getting themselves shipped across the sea. The government introduced the
Bracero Program , which invited Mexican laborers to enter the country and work in needed wartime
industries, most notably, agiculture , for a limited time. This was a reversal of Depression- era
policies that deported folks of Mexican descent . Again, just like with women and Black Americans,
despite the economy’s vital need for Mexican workers, the sudden influx of so many of them led to
nativist resistance. Probably the most notable example of such resistance were the Zoot Suit Riots
that occurred in California in 1943. Zoot suits had become fashionable among Mexican American youth
in Los Angeles. Because the flowy suits required more than a usual amount of fabric to create,
American servicemen stationed there accused them of being unpatriotic in a time when cloth was needed
for the war effort. That, combined with a long-standing racial bias against Mexican Americans, led white
servicemen to enter a neighborhood and attack anyone they saw wearing a zoot suit, and many that
were not. Soon the zoot suitors retaliated and thus began four days of violence that was part of a larger trend
of race riots that occurred in the summer of 1943.
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UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
SUMMARIZE the notes from the previous page in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
CIVIL LIBERTIES RESTRICTED
Finally, the third big home front effect of mobilization was the repression of Americans’ civil liberties .
To be fair, government repression of civil liberties during World War II was not as widespread as it was
during the first World War. However, some groups endured an out-sized attack on their civil liberties, and
the best example here is the wartime policy of Japanese internment . For the most part, Japanese Americans
and immigrants were clustered in communities on the west coast, and they were targeted for
internment for two reasons. First, they were associated with the hated Japanese enemy who had bombed
Pearl Harbor and killed 2,400 American service people. This association was certainly not helped by
the rampant racism in wartime propaganda which depicted Japanese people in standard stereotypical
tropes meant to invoke fear in the American public. Second, while German and Italian Americans were
also associated with America’s wartime enemies, they were more spread out across the country and by this
point were largely considered white. But Japanese Amerians , unfortunately, satisfied neither of these
categories. Because the government feared that Japanese Americans might serve as spies for the Japanese
government, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 . It mandated that all Japanese people must leave
their homes and be relocated to internment camps throughout the western states. As a result, something like
120,000 Japanese people living in the United States, two-thirds of them U.S. citizens, were forcibly
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UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
CIVIL LIBERTIES RESTRICTED cont’d
removed from their homes without cause and required to live in shoddy camps erected to facilitate full -time
government surveillance.
However, some Japanese Americans challenged such racist and unconstitutional behavior, as did
Fred Korematsu . Like an absolute boss, he decided to plant himself right at home and refused to
relocate to the internment camps. For such intransigence, he was arrested and his plea ultimately wound
up before the Supreme Court in a case called Korematsu v. The United States . Korematsu’s lawyers
argued that the government’s internment policy violated his 5th amendment rights to due process
before the law and the right to a jury trial. However, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the
internment of American citizens as a wartime necessity. However, I should also mention that in 1988
the federal government paid out $1.65 billion in reparations to those citizens it had interned.
SUMMARIZE the notes from the previous page in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
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UNIT 7 TOPIC 12
World War II: Mobilization H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Social Structures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
RESPOND to the learning objective with an evidence-based, argumentative thesis.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society.
© Heimler’s History TM
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