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 of course 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. We have begun to collect information on American homelife during the War. Here 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 war, but changed Ameica in many fundamental ways.
The 1940s begins with America returning to affluence in the early 1940s and then after Pearl Harbor (1941) 4 years of War. This of course significantly affected advrtising. As the economy hifted to war proiduction, advertising as not as important as during an era of producing consumer goods. After the German and Japanese surrender (1945), the United States quickly returned to a peace-time economy and an exposion of advertising as the economy expanded. We have found a range of advertising from the 1940s. Knickers have obviously gone out of fashion. They show younger boys dressing up in Eton suits with actual Etoin collars. School scenes show most boys wearing long pants. "T"shits had become popular. Cun and Boy Scouts appear in a number if adverisements.
Home life in America was vey different than in the occupied countries or even Britain and Germany after 1941. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) set up a system of rationing. During the War, OPA rationed 20 essential items including gasoline, rubber, shoes, silk, nylon, butter, sugar, chocolate, meat, milk and coffee. Families ate substitutes for products they liked such as honey for sugar. Maccroni (now called pasta) was an increasingly common dinner-table item. Even chicle, the main ingredient of bubble gum was no longer available and a synthetic rubber was substituted. Blowing bubbles, a favorite America kid activity, became hard work indeed. Probably the item that most affected American families was the food rationing. Supplies of many food stuffs as well as were limited to support both American servicemen as well as servicemen in Allied countries. Everyone made do with less. Still Americans ate better during the war then the people in ant othermajor combatent country. Schools offered home economics classes where they learned gardening, rationing system, recipies, and other useful information. They were able to use the information they obtained at home by working in their Victory Gardens, and helping sometimes confused family members understand the complexities of the rationing system. Girls helped their mothers make foods from different recipes in Liberty cookbooks. Many families also canned and preserved the food they grew in their gardens.
Virtually every American family had a radio which was usually given a place of honor in the living room. The radio was at the time a major piece of furniture. There were no transistors in 1941 and the vacume tubes used in radios made sets much larger than modern radios. Most American families would gather around the radio after dinner. Listening to news broadcasts and special programs on the radio was a familiar after dinner activity. Estimates indicate that Three-quarters of all Americans used the radio as a major source of information on the war. Parents would often update war maps after listening to overseas correspondents. Edward R. Murrow was best know because of his London broadcasts during the Blitz, but other correspondents such as Eric Severide and Robert Schrier also
broadcast from Europe, insome cases from Berlin and some occupied countries before Hitler declared War on America in December 1941. Some parents also worried about the impact of the War reporting as well as some vilent radio programs would have on their children--a concern which has continued to this daty. Children listened to radio adventure programs an average of 14 hours a week, much less than the moder TV generation. Some of the programs most popular with children were Captain Midnight, The Shadow ("Who knows what evil lurkes in the minds of men. The Shadow knows."), The Green Hornet, Jack Armstong--the all American Boy, Dick Tracey, The Lone Ranger, Tom Mix, Sky King, Terry and the Pirates and the most popular radio hero, Superman (who was introduced in 1938 just as the NAZI menace was becoming apparent to many Americans). These heros except for dated ones like the Lone Ranger pitched right into the War eefort. The plots of many of the shows involved foiling the misdeeds of Japanese and German evil dooers. Many of these programs were based on popular comic strips and would be some of the most important eraly television programs after the War. The radio adventure programs as well as the daytime series had a simplistic moral tone of good versus. evil with justice always prevailing in the end. Listening to these programs today one is struck by how much more evil the Japanese milatarists and German NAZIs actually were than the comic book presentations. Children were often encouraged at the end of the program to help out in any way they could: collecting scrap materials, buying war bonds, planting a victory garden, writing to a service person, and a variety of other suggested activities.
Families of service men were given a blue star to place in their windows. A gold star meant that a family member had been killed on active duty, giving rise to the term "Gold Star mothers". Children as well wives had a difficult time dealing with the absence of dads and brothers. They fearing the loss of loved ones and all too many had to learn about death. Mothers assumed new respnsibilities in the household. Some young unattached women actually enlisted in female auxileries of the different services. A much largernumber, including married women with children, got jobs to support thecwar effort and wrote checks for the first time. They also had to handle the job of discipling the children that dad had often done in most homes. These experiences wre to have a major impact on American women.
American music also went to war. Jazz restyled as swing music so as to seem less black was all the rage. The NAZIs supressed jazz as "degenerate" in Germany. In America it was all the rage. All the big bands like Less Brown, Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, and many others played it. Miller enlisted to bring his music to the troops. He was killed in a plane flight in the closing months of the War. During the war years music was a combination of patriotism and sentimentality. Music was on the radio. Many Americans also had record players. It was a family item. Kids at the time did not have such items in their own rooms. Again they could be quite sizeable. They all played 78-rpm records which were very breakable. The RCA Victrola was particularly popular. Generally American servicemen wanted to hear American music. The one exception was the German song, "Lili Marlane". Popular American songs included: "Praise the Lors and Pass the Amunition," "The White Cliffs of Dover," "Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else But Me," and "Till I Come Marching Home." Some important classics came out of the War like "White Christmas" reflecting the desire of servicemen to be back with their family for Christmas.
War news was reported in local newspapers. There were also a number of magazines that brought the War into the American living room. There was no television and radio could not begin to convey the grim brutality of war. Two magazines more than any other provided a view of the War because of their focus on photographic images--Life magazine anf Time.
Hollywood along with the rest of the country went to war in December 1941. There was already a great deal of anti-NAZI and Japanese sentiment in Hollywood even before America entered the War. Films like "Casablanca" and "???" were made before Secember 1941. Moving going was much more common in the 1930s and 40s. Many Americans got their news in the Newsreels, which were shown between before and after the feattures along with animated cartoons. One estimate indicates that one-quarter of the 1,500 films made during the War years were combat related. They also showed short Government public service films. The movie stars that did not actually go to war (Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and others) fought the Japanese and NAZIs on film (Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, and others). Even Dinald Duck, Buggs Bunny, and other beloved cartoon favorites engaged the eneny. Especially popular were movie serials included Captain Marvel, Spiderman, Batman, and Spy Smasher who did their best in the War effort.
One of the casulties of war most affecting children were toys. Japn was a major priducer of toys and of course that stopped. Germany had been an important touy profucer, but I believe that German toy shioments had declined in the 1930s as the NAZIs directed war production to war. (This needs to be confiemed. Soon after Pearl Harbor the Government stopped the production of all toys made from metal and rubber. Production was not resumed until after the Japanese surrender in September 1945. Some toy companies duiverted priduction to War goods. Other closed or went out of business. Metal was a major component of most toys in the 1940s. Favorite items like bicycles and trikes, wagons, ice skates, sleds with metal runners, rubber squeak toys, model railroads, and others were unavailable. Even worse, you could not even get replacement tires for the existing bucycles and trikes. There wee a lot of well patched bike tires during the War. The only toys avavilable were made of wood, paper, or cardboard. There were some plastic toys, but plastic was not yet a major material for toys and because it was petro-chemical based was also it sgort supply. Girls had itvsomewhat easier than boys during the War. Dolls, which were made of composition sawdust and glue, were less affected by production cuts. Children were resourceful and used their imaginations. Often scraps items were used to play war games targetting backyard NAZIs.
I'm not sure to what extent girls' play was affected by the War, but boys' play was changed amost over night. Boys in the 1930s might play cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers. After Pearl Harbor it was warfare full tilt. I know in the late 1940s and 1950s this was still the case, at least until Davey Crockett appeared on television about 1956. I know that among my friends the popular target was the Germans. I am not sure that this sas the case during the War as Pearl Harbor may have inspired a desire to fight the Japanes. That certainly was the case fofr the public at large that wanted to focus on the Japanese in contrast to the war planners who from the very beginning adopted a Germany first policy.
We notice a variety of parades in America. There were many at the beginning of the War after Pear Harbor. They were often associated with scrap drives for metal, rubber, fat, and paper. During the War Memorial Day an 4th of July commonly involved parades which took on new meaning during the War. And there were parades after the War when the service men began coming home. They varied greatly from community to community, but most cities and towns had parades of various dimensions. Often Scouts participated in the parades. After the War the major participants were the returning servicemen. One of the most famous photographs of the War were taken when the Japanese surrender was announced. A photograph of a sailor kissing a woman on Times Square in New York.
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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