Home Front 1941-45

      On Friday in class we watched a documentary called "Home Front 1941-45".  It talked about the American involvement in the war.  Roosevelt put together a draft and 15 million men ended up registering for the military.  The only problem with this number of men was that it would be hard to train all of them to fight against the well oiled armies of Germany.  

     The impression of Roosevelt at the time was a positive one.  He would be on the radio all the time talking to the people about the war.  The people felt close to him and regarded him as a beacon of hope.  He had the capacity to inspire and moving the citizens with only words.  The documentary then talked about the role of production in America.  At the time, the US was the mightiest production center on earth.  Every month they put out 4000 tanks and 4500 planes. Factories were working 24 hours a day, and in 9 months, the entire automobile industry shifted to producing war materials. Usually it took 1 year to produce a ship, but now it took just 17 days. This production got the country out of the Great Depression because of its boost to the economy. Since a lot  of the men were not home because they were at war, the women worked at the factories.  This changed the role of women in society forever.  

Since the Japanese had bombed pearl harbor, there was a lot of anti-Japanese propaganda showing them torturing the Chinese.  120,000 Japanese americans were sent to prison camps in the middle of the country.  This was knows as Executive Order 9066.  Most people nowadays call this one of the worst civil rights violation in the history of the United States.