America Mobilizes For War

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

• 2, 403 Americans killed• 1, 178 American wounded• 21 ships sunk/damaged• 300 aircraft

damaged/destroyed

December 7, 1941 Japan attacks the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

On December 8, 1941 delivers a speech to a joint-session of Congress asking for a declaration

of warAudio Clip http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm

- Japan hoped to show Japanese Power and Strike fear into America

What they got: “Patriotism”1. Battle cry “Remember Pearl Harbor” 2. Million Americans join military

- 5 million Americans volunteer

- Selective Service System (draft)provide 10 million

men

- Segregated units for minority groups

- Noncombat role until April 1943

- Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC): created to allow women volunteers to serve in noncombat positions (Established in May,

1942)

- Women served as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots (noncombat jobs)

- Americans go to work for the war effort (war industries)

- Factories turn to war production

* Automobile plants convert to

produce tanks, planes, boats,

and military vehicles

- Shipyards and defense plants convert to meet wartime needs

War Effort on the Home Front

- Women work in “war industries” * “Rosie the Riveter”= term given to women employed in war industries

* earned 60% of male salary

You Tube Clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GarCzR_6Ng

- 2 million minority workers * racial discrimination leads to labor leader A. Philip Randolph to convince FDR to allow full equality in war industries

- Office of Scientific Research & Development (OSRD) est. in 1941

Goal: bring scientists into war effort

Projects:

1. radar & sonar

2. pesticides

3. penicillin

4. atomic bomb

Mobilization of Scientists

- 1939 German scientists split atom - 1941 committee studies making bomb (3-5

years) - 1942 Manhattan Project= program for

scientists to create the atomic bomb You Tube Clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhSKqzwwypQ

Economic Controls: attempt by govt. to control rapid inflation and rising prices for products

Federal Govt. and Industry

Office of Price Administration (OPA): froze wages, prices on goods, & rent

War Bonds: issued by the Dept of the Treasury to raise money for the war effort & fight inflation

War Production Board (WPB): decided which companies to convert to war effort & allocated raw materials for war effort

Rationing: system est. by OPA which stated how much military

essential goods each individual household can buy

The Home Front

Victory Gardens: encouraged by the OPA so that food

can go directly to military efforts

Examples: meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, and gasoline http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWlIfH8SR50You Tube Clip