Figure 1.--American boys as part of school or Scout activities participated in a variety of activities to support the war effort. These Boy and Cub Scouts in a 1942 photograph are collecting scrap medal. |
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American children were not affected by World War II like children in Europe and Asia. The Atlantic and Pacicific Oceans acted as an affected barrier to the Germans and Japanese. Many American children lost their fathers, but unliked European children were not orphaned or displaced. American children, however, did particiapte in a variety of war-time activities to support the war effort. Children studied current events. Air raid drills and alerts were common. Both children and their families were involved with conservation and recycling of goods. The Scouts and other youth groups were actively involved in may home-front activities. Children often worked in sponsored rallies, parades and cultural events (such as dances) to raise money to buy war stamps and bonds to finance the war. Some children were more adversely affected by the war. Althiough not separated from their patents, Japanese Americans in Pacific coast states were interned in concentration camps. Italian and German families were also interned, but only those who parents were believed to have been involved in subversive activites.
President Roosevelt first used the term "Arsenal of Democracy" on December 29, 1940 in a radio broadcast to the American people. Her explained the importance of supplying the people of Europe, at the time primarily Britain with the "implements of war". He said that the Unites States "must be the great arsenal of democracy". The very day he spoke, a Luftwaffe raid on London severely damaged famous buildings and churches in the city center and engulfed St. Paul's Cathedral in flames. [Gilbert, p. 356.] Hitler feared America more than any other country, but was convinced that Britain could be defeated before America could be mobilized or American industry could be effectiverly harnessed for the war effort. Neither the NAZIs or the Japanese had any idea just how effectively American production could be converted to war production. Air Marshall Goering sneered. "The Americans only know how to make razor blades." Four years later with the Luftwaffe in tatters, Goering said he knew that the War was lost when American P-51 Mustangs appeared over Berlin escorting waves of bombers. The record of American war production is staggering and in large measure determined the outcome of the War.
American farmers had played a major role preveting mass starvation in Europe after World war I. Millions of children were saved from starvation. The American farm economy, however, after the War, however, experienced an economic decline and depression conditions. Declining markets were exacebated by the Dust Bowl. The Wall Street crash and industrial decline resulting in the Great Depression created even more problems. Many farmers lost their land. President Roosevelt and the New Deal made national agricultural policy a major priority (1933). The New Deal attempted to raise farm prices by limiting production. At the same time, The New Deal adopted a system of price supports that guaranteed farmers "parity" prices set at levels during more favorable market times.
Another New Deal initiative was the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) which helped make electric power available to frmers. Rural highway construction and soil conservation programs also aided farmers. The New Deal did not solve the farm problem, but it did put a break on farm bankrupsties. The New Deal policies also improved the quality of farm life as well as increased the efficency and productive capacity of American farmers. And World War II was to create even greater demands on the American farmer.
The Government organized a major conservation and recycling effort. Cities and states were given quotas. Children and their families were involved with conservation and recycling of goods. Many children participated scrap metal, used tire, and paper drives to collect materials iseful to the war effort. Contests were held to meet established quotas. Newspapers reported on the quantities of material collected. Some comapnies sponsored drives and offered prizes. Children would even brought their own old toys in for scrap drives. At that time toys were much mpre likely to be made from metal than in our plastic society today. While these activities and drives were very widely publicized, we are not sure just how useful the amterials collected actually were. We have not yet found any studies indicating the actual value of these drives.
All the important youth groups sponsored activities to promote the war effort. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts were the two most impoprtant organizations. But a variety of other organizations were also active. Groups like the Boy and Girl Scouts reached a much wider range of the country in the 1940s than was true in other countries with smaller middle classes. The Boy Scouts were very active during the War. Scouts begin campaign selling Defense Bonds and Stamps in 1941. They sponsored a variety of scrap drives beginning in 1942. The most important were for newspapers, scrap metal including tin cams, and old tires. The Girl Scouts was and continues to be a separate organization from the Boy Scouts in America. Girl Scouts collected silk stockings. Silk was needed for parachuttes and before the War, Japan had been a major supplier of silk to America. Camp Fire in the 1940s was exclusively for girls and known as the Camp Fire Girls. They sponsored programs in flag etiquette, first aid, and nutrition. The Minute Maids were active on college campuses during the War. They sold war stamps and bonds among other activities. There were also a varirty of other organizations, including local groups, which involved children in the War effort.
World War II accounts of course focus on the desperate fighting fought out on the far-flung battlefields of the War. An important topic is also the home front. This is especially true of America which in President Roosevelt's words became the great Arsenal of Democracy as well as its breadbasket. American war production exceeded that of all the Axis countries combined. We have begun to collect information on American homelife during the War. It armed not only its own forces, but helped armed its allies as well. Concerning the Ameroican home front there are a range of interesting topics, including advertisng, rationing, popular culture, and much more. The American homefront not only played a major role in the winning the War, but the vast effort to expand productio also changed Ameica in many fundamental ways.
Many American children became aware of the war listening on the radio (there was of course no television yet) with their parents to Edward R. Murrow, "London calling ..." during the NAZI blitz of England in 1940. American school children studied current events much more closely than before the war. Certain subjects like geography were maningless to many children until December 7, 1941. Soon every child knew where Pearl Harbor, Midway Island, Guadacanal, Stanligrad, Sicily, Normandy, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and other places were located that they had never heard about before. All schools conducted air raid drills and alerts. Ameroca was not actually attacked, but everyone had seen newsreels of Japanese bombing raids on Chimese cities (especially Shangahi) and German bombing of Europeanncities (Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, and other English cities). If the War had lasted longer, the Germans would have also targeted American cities. At school children line-up and dutifully followed their teacher into the hallway and sat down against the wall. Schools also organized after school activities related to the war effort. High school students might learn Morse code. Recerve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was a popular activity at many schools. Civil Air Patrol classes taight children to identify types of American and foreign aircraft. Schools often sponsored rallies, parades and cultural events to raise money to buy war stamps and bonds to help finance the war. Dances were especially popular. These were conducted through both schools and other organizations. Liberty stamps cost $0.10 each which was the cost of a comic book.
Church attendance and membership was very strong in America atvthe tome of World War II and churches were very important community institutions. I am not sure at this time what role churches played in the Isolantionist movement. After Pearl Harbor and American entry into the War, American churches played an important role on the home front. They were involved in a wide range of activities. This varied widely from church to church. They sponsored groups like the Red Cross, Boy and Girl Scouts, blood donor groups, and many community programs which played roles in the war effort. Churches at the time were only one of a range of community institutions that sponsored Scout troops. After the War churches helped returning veterans adjust to civilian life. The War was also a major mile stone in Church history. This is largely due to the move to the suburbs that followed the War. The congregations of many city churches moved toi the suburbs. Thus the ethnic makeup of city churches chngeed. Also until World War II, most American churches were built on substantial lots that provided an area large enough to provide congregnts with burial facilities. This was true even in major cities. The chiurches built after the War were generally built without adjacent burial facilities.
American factories geared up for the War effort and many new factories were opened. The unemployment so severe during the Depression was no longer a problem. In fact there was now an increasingly severe lanor shortage. This was not only a matter of increasing production, but also the draft tghat begun in 1940 began to take men out of the work force. This was increadsingly important after Pearl Harbor (December 1941), wae production was increased to unprecedent levels and millions of men were drafted or enlisted in the military. The vacancies in the work force was made up with youths, women, and minorities. Sometimes older children worked part time along with their mothers to support their families. Child labor laws were suspended during the war. Millions of children between the ages of 12-17 years were employed in a wide range of jobs. Even in factories it was common to see boys of 16 and 17 years of age working. It was not just mom in the form of Rosey the Riveter that went to work during the War. Jobs were opened to minorities, especially blacks, that were formerly excluded from many jobs. Both the British and Russians adopted similar policies to mobilize the civilian population for War work. The Germans took a very different approach. Instead of women and youths, they employed slave labor to keep their factories going.
Movie studios and the U.S. Government agencies were involved in propaganda during World War II. The studios were involved before Amerixa entered the War. The Government mostly after America entered the War. Quite a few Hollywood films addressed World War II. The most interesting period was before America entered the War aftervthe Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (December 1941). Before that there were no Government censorship or directiveds on content. Even so the films made were strongly critical of the NAZIs and Japanese militarists. The most interesting fact is that during this period, there were no films made which endorsed the strong isolatiionist sentiment that was widely held by Americans. It is also interesting to note how Hollywood ignored the Soviet aggressions. After Pearl Harbor, of course, Hollywood enthusiastically signed up for the war effort. There were also a number of related films made after the War.
America was still a very segregated society in the 1940s. Many of the initial actions taken against Jews by the NAZIs were not unlike the Jim Crow segreagation laws in the South. The Nuremburg Laws of 1935 began to develop a radically different priogram of removing Jews from the national economy rather than the focus of the American segregation laws which was exploit blacks economically. Still there were similarities as both systems were designed to destroy or precent the formation of a culture and a political roll in scociety. Other groups were also desriminated against to various degrees including Catholics, Jews, Chinsese, Mexican Americans, and others. It was only after the War and the horrors of the Hollocaust reached American newspapers and newsreels that an increasing numver of American began to question their own mistreatment of minorities and fuel the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.
Some children were more adversely affected by the war. Although not separated from their patents, Japanese Americans in Pacific coast states were interned in concentration or relocation camps as they were called. Italian and German families were also interned, but only aliens or those whose parents have been involved or suspevted of involvement in subversive activites. President Roosevelt in February 1942 signed the order "evacuating" Japanese, most of whom were Japanese citizens, from the West Coast. The order only affected the West Coast, not the Japanese on Hawaii. About 127,000 Japanese Americans were interned. It was one of the most grevious violations of the civil rights of American citizens in United States history. While the internment of Japanese Americans was a terrible injustice, depriving them of their property in many instances and their freedom for several years, the camps were quite different than the the NAZI and Japanese concentration camps. The internees were given adequate food and the children attended local schools. Japanese Americans formed Boy Scout troops such as at the Gila River Relocation Center, Arizona, during 1943.
Only a small number of American children were displaced by World War II. These wee almost entirely the children of Americans taken captive by the Japanese in the Philippines (1942). They were held in terriblr conditions and many died or were near starvation with Anerican forces liberated the camps (1945). America also took any many displaced children and families with children. This took place after the War. Refugees were a contentious political issue before the War. The United States enacted very restrictive emigration laws during the 1920s. These laws prevented any massive effort to provide refugee to the victims of Fascist tyranny in the 1930s. And there was widespread opposition to any changes in those laws. Had the Roosevelt Administration attempted to do so, the effort would have failed in Congress and it swould have emperiled efforts to prepare militarily and to support the Allies (Briyain and France. There was a program after the fall of France (June 1940) to take in British children. These were not war orphans, but children sent to America and Canada for saftey. This progrm was ebded by the British after the RAF's victory in the Battle of Britain madfe invasion unlikely and children were lost in U-boat attacks. After the War America did accept war orphans and refugee families. This was made possible in part through changes in the emigration laws.
World War II changed peoples lives in a myriad of ways. The pattern varied from country to cuntry. In many of the major combatant countries, the coinsequences werehorebndous. This was not the case in America. Many Americans paid a terrible price. About 0.4 million Americans were killed and many others greviously wounded. For most Americans, however, the War brought new experiences and opportunities. The war finally ended the Depression. Employment opportunities expanded dramatically, including opportunities for blacks and other minorities that had been previously been unable to obtain good paying jobs. And opportunities for women also opened up which would in part lay the fondation for the post-War woman's movement. Americans who had never traveled much beyond their immediate neigboirhood were all of the sudden involved in military operations in virtually every corner of the world. Than after the War, American of all classes through the G.I. Bill obtained access to higher education. The experiences of blacks in the armed frces and in defense industries played a role in the developing civil rights movement as did the reaction to NAZI racism. And adding to the diversity of American society were the war brides that arrived with the returning soldier.
One little girl at the time remembers her immigrant Polish grandmother. In the front window of her Provincetown, RI home were five stars--one for each son serving in the military. The little girl's father was a career naval officer serving in the Pacific. The girl lived in New London, Conneticut--a Navy town. When a classmate was absent, they thought the father might have been killed in action, not about a sick day. She remembers going to the movies and seeing the newreels. They cheered the Allies and booed the Axis. After school the children rolled bandages and knitted afghans. She ewrote mant letters. Her mother wrote her father every day and the image of her mother writing those letters is still strong today. [Zabilsky Scalan]
Zabilsky Scalan, Mae, "Pride, purpose and worry," The Washington Post May 28, 2004, p. W12.
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