271 26 35MB
English Pages 208 [216] Year 1981
Women employees at an P
-*'
'"
'
'
'
ne yeai:, Kii/t.-
work
imum
u/if
c-
aviation plant in Long tines of transparent s. During the War million women found '
in war-related jobs
on the home
front.
ma® BOOKS Other Publications: LIBRARY OF HEALTH EPIC OF FLIGHT
THE THE THE THE THE
GOOD COOK SEAFARERS
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COLLECTIBLES GREAT CITIES HOME REPAIR AND IMPROVEMENT THE WORLD'S WILD PLACES THE TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF BOATING HUMAN BEHAVIOR THE ART OF SEWING THE OLD WEST THE EMERGENCE OF MAN THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS THE TIME-LIFE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDENING LIFE LIBRARY OF PHOTOGRAPHY THIS FABULOUS CENTURY FOODS OF THE WORLD TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF AMERICA TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF ART GREAT AGES OF MAN LIFE SCIENCE LIBRARY THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES TIME READING PROGRAM LIFE NATURE LIBRARY LIFE WORLD LIBRARY FAMILY LIBRARY: HOW THINGS WORK
IN
YOUR HOME
THE TIME-LIFE BOOK OF THE FAMILY CAR THE TIME-LIFE FAMILY LEGAL GUIDE THE TIME-LIFE BOOK OF FAMILY FINANCE
Other World War Prelude to
II
Volumes:
War
Blitzkrieg
The Battle of Britain The Rising Sun The Battle of the Atlantic Russia Besieged
The War
in
the Desert
WORLD WAR
II
TIME-LIFE ROOKS
•
ALEXANDRIA. VIRGINIA
BY RONALD
H.
BAILEY
AND THE EDITORS OF TIME-LIFE DOOKS
Time-Life Books Inc. is
a
wholly owned subsidiary of
TIME INCORPORATED Founder: Henry
R.
Luce 1898-1967
Editor-in-Chief: Henry Anatoie Grunwald President: J. Richard Munro Chairman of. the Board: Ralph P. Davidson Executive Vice President: Clifford J. Grum Chairman, Executive Committee: James R. Shepley Editorial Director: Ralph Graves Vice Chairman: Arthur Temple
TIME-LIFE
BOOKS
The Author: RONALD H. BAILEY is a freelance author and journalist who was formerly a senior editor of Life. He is the author of Violence and Aggression and The Role of the Brain in Time-Life Books' Human Behavior series, and has written a photography book. The Photographic Illusion:
Duane
Michals.
He
has also published several ar-
on prison reform for the magazine Corrections and was a contributor to The Unknown Leonardo, a book about the inventive genius of Leonardo da Vinci. While at Life, he edited a book of Larry Burrows' war photographs, Larry Burrows: Compassionate Photographer. ticles
INC.
Editor: Jerry Korn Executive Editor: David Maness Assistant Managing Editors: Dale
Managing
M. Brown
George Constable, Thomas H. Flaherty Jr. Martin Mann, John Paul Porter Art Director: Tom Suzuki Chief of Research: David L. Harrison Director of Photography: Robert G. Mason Assistant Art Director: Arnold C. Holeywell Assistant Chief of Research: Carolyn L. Sackett Assistant Director of Photography: Dolores A. Littles (planning) (acting),
The Consultants: COLONEL JOHN R. ELTINC, USA (Ret.), is a military historian and author of The Battle of Bunker's Hill, The Battles of Saratoga and Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. He edited Military Uniforms in America: The Era of the American Revolution, 1755-1795 and Military Uniforms in America: Years of Growth, 77967857, and was associate editor of The West Point Atlas of American Wars.
Chairman: Joan D. Manley President: John D. McSweeney
RICHARD POLENBERG, Professor of American
Executive Vice Presidents: Carl G. Jaeger,
ganizing Roosevelt's Government, 7936-7939 and War and Society: The United States, T94T-T945, and is the co-author of The American Century, a history of the United States in the 20th Century.
John Steven Maxwell, David
J.
tory at Cornell Universitv,
Walsh
Vice Presidents: George Artandi (comptroller); L. Bair (legal counsel): Peter G. Barnes;
Stephen
Nicholas Benton (public relations); John L. Canova; Beatrice T. Dobie (personnel); Carol Flaumenhaft (consumer affairs); James L. Mercer (Europe/South Pacific); Herbert Sorkin (production); Paul R. Stewart (marketing)
WORLD WAR
is
Histhe author of Reor-
He was the editor of America at War: The Home Front and Radicalism and Reform in the New Deal.
II
Editorial Staff for
The
Home
Front: U.S.A.
Goolrick Picture Editor/Designer: Raymond Ripper Anne Horan Hicks, Text Editors: Jim Staff Writers: Dalton Delan, Richard W. Flanagan, fd/tor.'
William
K.
Henry Woodhead Researchers: Martin Baldessari, Michael Blumenthal, Oobie Gleysteen, Karen L. Michell, Clara Nicolai, Phyllis K. Wise, Frances G. Youssef Editorial Assistants: Dolores Morrissy, Connie Strawbridge Editorial Production Production Editor: Douglas B. Graham Operations Manager: Gennaro C. Esposito,
Gordon
E.
Buck
(assistant)
Assistant Production Editor: Feliciano
Quality Control: Robert
James
J.
Cox
(assistant),
L.
Young
Daniel
J.
Madrid
(director),
McSweeney,
Michael G. Wight (associates) Art Coordinator: Anne B. Landry Copy Staff: Susan B. Galloway (chief), Victoria Lee, Barbara F. Quarmby, Celia Beattie Picture Department: Alvin L. Ferrell Traffic: Jeanne Potter
write: For information about any Time-Life book, please
Reader Information Time-Life Books 541 North Fairbanks Court Chicago, Illinois 60611
© Correspondents: Elisabeth Kraemer (Bonn); Margot Hapgood, Dorothy Bacon, Lesley Coleman (London); Susan Jonas, Lucy T. Voulgaris (New York); Maria Vincenza Aloisi, Josephine du Brusle (Paris); Ann Natanson (Rome). Valuable assistance was also provided by: Enid Farmer (Boston); Donna Miskin (Chicago); Jean Belden (Houston); Judy Aspinall, Karin B. Pearce (London); Carolyn T. Chubet, Miriam Hsia, Christina Lieberman (New York); Mimi Murphy (Rome); Robert Case (Waterloo, Iowa).
1978 Time-Life Books Inc. All rights reserved. part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval devices or systems, without prior written permission from the publisher, except
No
that brief passages may be quoted for reviews. Third printing. Revised 1981. Published simultaneously in Canada. Library of Congress catalogue card number 77-87556. School and library distribution by Silver Burdett
Company, Morristown, New TIME-LIFE
is
a
Jersey.
trademark of Time Incorporated U.S.A.
CHAPTERS A Day to Remember 2: America joins Up
16
Miracles of Production
76
Home
102
in
Motion
142
of Dazzling
Growth
180
1:
3: 4:
Bringing the Conflict 5:
6:
Days
A
Nation
42
PICTURE ESSAYS Homeland
6
Bitter Exile in the U.S.
28
Army Now
56
Distaff Side
66
Home
Front
88
The Youngest Warriors
118
One Family's War Making Do with Little
128
Wonderful Town
166
The
Jittery
You're in the
The Heroines of the
154
in Chief
188
Bibliography
204
Acknowledgments
204
Picture Credits
205
Index
206
The Commander
CONTENTS
THE JITTERY HOMELAND
A /.'w
f/cUA
.-liter
Pcjrl ILvbor, a haHily constructed barrier of sandbags protects the telephone C(>n)pan\ in San Francisco against
bombs
that never
came.
GETTINB READY FOR THE LONG HAUL On December
7,
1941, thirteen-year-old Douglas Jaynes
heard the news of the sneak attack on the radio and raced
through the streets of Florence, Alabama, to spread the
word
"The Japs have bombed Pearl Hartown crier, "and they're
to the neighbors.
bor," shouted the self-appointed
headed
for us
of geography, assault
down
on Four Mile Creek." This youthful distortion which had the enemy making a waterborne a tributary of
the Tennessee River, reflected
more advanced
the worst fears of citizens of In practically
cans
felt
every
threatened.
city In
and
Georgia, a citizen's army
Ameri-
known
as
— those too young or too old the with deferments — about preparing coastal
the State Guard
and others
years.
village in the nation,
draft
for
set
German
defenses for an anticipated
invasion.
To meet the
emergency, Georgia convicts were conscripted and put to
work round-the-clock
in
an effort to improve seashore ap-
proaches and build bridges over which the home-grown
army would rush
to
meet the invaders on the beaches. In removed from the
the landlocked state of Arizona, far Anticipating a wartime shortage of alcohol, Washington, D.C., shoppers jam the Milstone's Acme Liquor store in the Christmas season of 7947.
Atlantic or the Pacific oceans, residents fretted over the
prospect of trouble from another direction. "We've got
one said. "Things are liable to pop down there any time." The top officer of the American Legion in Wisconsin appealed for the creation of a guerrilla army that would be composed of the state's the Mexican border to worry about,"
25,000 licensed deer hunters
— "a
formidable foe for any
attackers," he insisted.
Almost everywhere, the preparations to repulse the entinged with fear and panic. In San Francisco, a
emy were sentry on
woman
the Bay Bridge shot and seriously
motorist
who was
slow to halt
at a
wounded
checkpoint.
a In
away against fragments descended on
Los Angeles, an antiaircraft battery blazed
imaginary warplanes; the shell the
city,
injuring
dozens of the
jittery residents.
nation spent a subdued Christmas season and the arrived without an
enemy
attack,
frayed
But as the
new
year
nerves calmed
somewhat and Americans settled into a stringent wartime routine marked by shortages, rationing and dimouts.
Chomping
a cigar, nationa. /'.;l. .\dministrator
Leon Henderson pedals a
'-Victory''
bicycle-touled
as
awarlimestand-m
for
automobile^-inlanuarv 1942.
ON THE ALERT AFTER PEARL HAROOR In
the confusion that
came on
the heels of
Pearl Harbor, the frenzied behavior of the
American people took some bizarre and even irrational turns. Air-raid alarms evand accompanying blackery one false outs threw major cities into panic. In Seattle, during one of the frequent
—
—
air-raid alerts,
a
mob
of 1,000 angry
citi-
zens attempted to enforce the blackout by
smashing windows and looting stores did not
One
comply with the
skeptic
in
that
lights-out order.
San Francisco, fed up with
incessant sirens, asked a valid question: "If
there are Jap planes around
why
aren't
they dropping bombs?" The next morning, Lieut.
General John
L.
DeWitt, the chief of
West Coast defenses, insisted against all evidence that 30 enemy warplanes had flown over San Francisco. "Why bombs were not dropped, do not know," he said. "It might have been better if some bombs had dropped to awaken this city." In New York, where officials decided that the schools would close in the event the
I
of an air-raid alert, a false alarm released
one million children from their classrooms and sent distraught parents through the streets in search of their kids.
A New York cop
10
protects Japanese diplomat Morito Morishima outside the consulate
on December
7.
A Coast Guard motor
Dug
into a California
lifeboat escorts San Francisco crab fishermen in early 1942, a time
beach
in
December
1941, a soldier trains his
when
machine gun ^
TBlAIHIIEiBCMy ^^^f Co
TO cler.onstr^te
Hi. loyalty, a
/apanese-Amencan grocer c/.p/ayed
h,.
naUomlity
lor
,^l^NTo Co
everyone to see;
as the
topmos, s,gn ,nd,cares.
/.e s.//
had
,n get out.
31
A japanese-Amencan ^voman solemnly pauses
Clutching her pockethook and
32
in the
a halt-eaten apple, a
driveway of the
bewildered child
stately
sits
home
that she
numbly amid her
was forced
to
exchange
for a single
room
in a flimsy barracks.
Angeles. family's belongings as she awaits transport out of Los
Facing a
row
of
armed
soldiers,
arriving evacuees from Los Ar^geles line up lor inspection after
at
an
a
enter set
up
at thie
Santa Anita race track.
33
34
Three generations of
Japanese-American family
gatfier at tkie stoop of a assembly center, one of 15 crudely constructed camps on the West Coast where the evacuees were held until more permanent camps were built farther inland a
tiny dwelling place in the Salinas, California,
Exiles
from the West Coast arrive by the truckload
Wyoming
at their
new home
in the
Mountain Relocation Center. In the camp, temperatures plunged to 30° below zero in winter, and the residents had to bank the earth against their barracks to keep out the icy winds. desert, the Heart
A BARREN EXISTENCE IN MAKESHIFT CAMPS "Every place
we go we
cannot escape the
dust," wrote a Japanese-American youngster of his
Topaz, Utah, internment camp.
"Inside of our houses, in the laundry,
the latrines,
in
the mess
halls,
in
dust and
more dust, dust everywhere." All except two of the 10 camps were situated in barren, ly
desolate desert country. Each fami-
was assigned
to an
feet
—
in a
—
one wood-
"apartment"
room measuring 20 by 25
en barracks covered with tar paper. "Aside from the absurdity of living that way," an internee later recalled, "life went
on pretty much as usual." The JapaneseAmericans maintained a stable small-town existence, complete with fire, police and post-office departments, schools, hospitals
and camp-written newspapers. And even though they had been imprisoned by their own government, many began their days by pledging allegiance to the American flag. Furthermore, the Japanese-Americans were subject to the draft; 8,000 served in the U.S.
armed forces, many with combat overseas.
great
distinction in
35
A
japanes^e-American
woman and
her children beat the heat and the in the refreshing waters of a
mnnotonou:^ routine of camp life by wading brook near the Manzanar Relocation Center
in the California desert.
at the Tule Lake Relocation Center in northern California entertain their fellow internees by staging a production that they grandly called the Cabaret Internationale.
Costumed Japanese-Americans
36
fibers, women their faces marked lo prevent inhalation of harmful netting. For internees aid the U.S. war effort by weaving camouflage residents up to $19 a month. this and other jobs, the U.S. paid the camp
With
owned A Japanese-American farmer tram Auburn. W ashington. who being mterned, before years (or business poultry own his and operated Lake Relocation Center gatl^ers eggs in the camp lienliouse at tlie Tule
W
37
38
The one-room apartment of the Hosokawa family, internees at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, was a typical camp dwelling with Armyissue cots, a potbellied stove, and shelves and furniture made from scrap lumber. Pictures and curtains made the drab cubicle more livable.
Japanese-American soldiers on leave from the U.S. Army visit with their relatives in the USO center at the Heart Mountain internment camp. "The biggest irony of all," one young internee later recalled, "was seeing three older brothers being drafted, one by one, out of our camp."
my
39
A Buddhist temple
in Los
Angeles
lies
ransacked during the wave of anti-Oriental feeling.
HANDIWORK OF VANDALS AND VIGILANTES the
In
fall
War
of 1942, the
Authority, which
Relocation
was created by the gov-
ernment to run the internment camps, began a campaign to channel the JapaneseAmericans into communities outside the West Coast "war zone." Many towns were still
seething with hatred for the Japanese.
When
five
men who had been
one camp went
to
work
for a
farmer, local vigilantes set
A Japanese-American Denver was
girl
interned
New
fire to
in
Jersey
the farm.
who found
a job
by the minister of her new church that she might feel more at in
told
home
in her own place of worship. By the end of the war with Japan, however, some 55,000 Japanese-American internees had taken up life again outside the barbed wire. Those who eventually went back to their homes on the West Coast often found their property vandalized, their farms gone to seed and their businesses
bankrupt. During their exile, the Japaneselost nearly half a billion dollars
Americans
—
in assets of which only about 10 per cent was returned by a repentant federal government two decades later.
40
1 :.^:
'^''^ii0i
ttk>'
i
M^'-
^5^
An abandoned West Coast farmhouse
is
littered with leaves
and
trash;
its
lapanese-Amencan owners were delated
at
one
oi the
truwdcd
/;i£erni:^cnt c,imp-
41
wake
the
In
of the Pearl Harbor attack, everyone
seemed
ready to join up. Practically everyone wanted to enlist
war
effort.
Army and Navy
recruiting stations
and
in
the
civilian-
defense headquarters were deluged with volunteers.
In Deone family grandfather, father and son showed up at the Navy recruiting station. In Washington, D.C., the revered military leader of World
—
three generations of
troit,
—
War now
General of the
I,
Army John
J.
"Black Jack" Pershing,
was driven over to the White House from his suite at the Walter Reed Medical Center to offer his services. At Overbrook, Kansas, Edward Brentlinger got on his bicycle and rode 28 miles to Topeka to enlist. Hollywood film star Jimmy Stewart fattened up his spindly frame 81
and
infirm,
the minimum weight requirement for the and economics professor Paul Douglas of the University of Chicago joined the Marines as a buck
so he could
Army
make
Air Forces,
Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford joined up. So did Joe DiMaggio, Gene Autry, Texas newspaper publisher Mrs. Oveta Gulp Hobby and a high-school kid in a suburb of Philadelphia who wanted to be a fighter pilot and ate so many carrots to sharpen his vision that his skin
private at age 50.
briefly
turned orange.
Volunteers and draftees, movie
stars and farm kids, proand students, center fielders and congressmen were joining up. To be of military age and not in uniform was to
fessors
be physically or mentally impaired, or the subject of suspicion and innuendo about one's connections or courage. All told, nearly
16 million Americans wore a uniform during
number who served during World War At any given time late in the War, some 12 million were in the service, one in every 11 Americans. Able-bodied men in civilian clothes became so scarce that, in professional baseball, the St. Louis Browns resorted to using a one-armed outfielder named Pete Gray. A popular song lamented that the men who were left behind were "either too young or too old; they're either too bald or too bold." And in Hollywood, where most of the leading males were in uniform, an agent summed up for a producer his the War, about four times the I.
A rush to the
recruiting stations
numbers from a glass bowl The categories of men: 1-A to 4-F
Picking draft
The prize for attempted
A surprisingly high
draft evasion
rate of rejections
Small-town send-off for the boys
Waking up
in
the
Army
Patton orders tank parts from Sears, Roebuck Getting married on the run Camp followers, brothels and brawls The cruel dilemma of America's blacks
newest draft-proof discovery: "I've got a prospect a young guy with a double hernia."
for
you
—
As the waves of newly inducted servicemen shuttled between training camps, shipped out for overseas, traveled
home
to wives
AMERICA JOINS UP
and sweethearts or simply went out
for a
dence. Stimson then drew the
and bus terminals became kaleidoscopes of olive drab, navy
first capsule from the bowl and handed it to the President, who extracted the slip of paper and read the number into a battery of radio microphones. The number was 158. "That's my son," shrieked a
blue, marine green.
woman
The uniforms, like many other things in military life, were known as Government Issue, or Gl. And the swarms of men who wore them took for themselves the same unromantic label, Gl. Though many GIs were volunteers, fully two
registrants with the same number.
night
on the town, suddenly uniforms were everywhere.
In
the 16 days that followed Pearl Harbor, railroads on the
home
front
moved more
up through
thirds joined
than 600,000 troops. Train stations
a
system that was largely alien to
America, conscription. Until 1940, the U.S. had been one of in the world that lacked a program of compulsory military training. Then, in September of that year. Congress approved the Selective Training and Service
the few countries
Act, the
peacetime draft
first
controversial,
it
bitter.
One
American
was approved only
sharp debate. Opposition from ly
in
some
history.
Highly
weeks of was extremethe draft would
after several
quarters
clergyman predicted that
reduce American youth to "syphilis and slavery."
The new law required
all
men between
the ages of 21 and
35 to register with their local draft boards on the 16th of
October.
On
that
country, 16,316,908
resignation"
—
the holders of
had held the first number plucked from the bowl by World War Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. The fateful number then was 258. Once the numbers had been picked, questionnaires were
earlier his father
glass
I
sent out by local draft boards to
all
registrants in the order
of the selections from the bowl. Those
who appeared
from
the answers to be qualified for service were then given a
were classiThose who were fit were then called up in the order of the drawing of the numbers from the glass bowl. Those with number 158 who were qualified for military service would go first. physical examination. After that the registrants
fied
according to their fitness for the
The decision
as to
who was
fit
draft.
was made by the
all-
powerful local draft board. The board was an eminently
who
were at least 36 years old and residents of the country over which they had jurisdiction in short, the older friends and neighbors of the young men upon whom they might have to
The
lines at local draft
mood,
York Times, "seemed to be philosophical
certainly not that of "a
day of mourning for
I,
signed registrants by their local draft boards. the
Among
of Boston. Twenty-three years
Jr.
democratic group, consisting of three or more persons
registered.
the death of the American way of life," as the registration was dubbed by the Socialist leader Norman Thomas. Every man who registered received a draft number. Two weeks after the registration. President Roosevelt, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and other officials met in Washington around an enormous glass bowl to determine the order in which the registrants would be drafted. The bowl, which had been used for the same purpose in 1917 when the U.S. entered World War contained 9,000 bright blue capsules. In each capsule was a numbered slip of paper. The numbers, from 1 through 9,000, corresponded to the ones as-
When
158 was Alden C. Flagg
were 6,175
men
Rockefellers, factory workers and field hands. Their
New
the audience. Across the land there
day, at 6,175 draft boards across the
boards included executives and truck drivers. Fords and reported The
in
moment
for the plucking of the
numbers from
the glass bowl arrived, an aide blindfolded Secretary Stim-
—
pass judgment. Volunteers
who
served without pay, they
were appointed by the President upon recommendation of the state's governor. The boards ranged in manner of operation from the bureaucratic formality of the big city to the
country folksiness of the one
in
Fentrees County, Tennes-
was presided over by the famous Sergeant Alvin York. A World War hero who had earned the Congressional Medal of Honor by killing 25 Germans and singlehandedly capturing 132 others, York had a special feeling for the problems of the young men under his jurisdiction. Before his own induction in 1917 he had at first refused to serve on religious grounds, insisting "War's agin the Book." Now, when a draftee filed an appeal, York and other board members would journey through the mountains to the man's home and conduct the hearing on his front porch. see, that
I
The
spirit of
the draft
was
set
by the director of Selective
son with a swatch of upholstery taken from a chair used 164
Service, Brigadier General Lewis B. Hershey,
years before by the signers of the Declaration of Indepen-
local civilian control and
wanted
to
who
favored
keep red tape
at
a
43
minimum. A square-framed
professional soldier with a wiry
brush of reddish-gray hair and the voice of a
drill
Hershey would survive for three decades
an essentially
in
sergeant,
thankless job. "Let's keep this thing so simple," he said, "that even crooks will say, like all the
'I'll
be patriotic and
register just
other guys.' " Indeed, special draft boards were
pendency essential
or relatives and
of family
ments on the ground that there were
some
young men assumed
mentally or morally unfit for service").
largest
Those in their
most
state
who were
classified
1-A soon found a form
mailboxes. "Greeting,"
yourself to a local board
it
letter
began. "Having submitted
composed
of your neighbors for
their
exceptions.
1-A ("available for military service") to 4-F ("physically,
in
an
employment was
essential to
down on the farm A 70-year-oId man who oper-
the national defense. Nevertheless, even
ated a 765-acre farm
up
in
million farmworkers had been given occupational defer-
and federal prisons, and more than 100,000 convicted felons were taken into the armed forces. The local boards had a great deal of leeway in classifying a potential draftee. They could place him in any of more than a dozen different classifications, which ranged from set
employment
occupation such as farming. By 1944 almost two
sons
lost five of
in Illinois
them
have been inducted in
with the help of
to the draft.
And
his six
the sixth son
grown would
he had not suffered a broken hip
if
an accident. Marriage alone did not warrant deferment, though it
manufacturers of wedding
reported a 250 per cent increase Service Act In
the
many
would, and one of the nation's rings,
J.
R.
Woods &
in sales after
Sons,
the Selective
was approved.
first
years of the draft, fathers
were
were excused from and
the purpose of determining your availability for training and
military service. Babies
armed forces of the United States, you are hereby notified that you have been selected for training and service in the Army." The letter, signed by a member of the local board, told the draftee when and where to report. Deferment from the draft was based on a wide variety of reasons, including conscientious objection, economic de-
by mid-1943, eight million fathers were deferred. But as the
service in the
manpower
called "draft insurance,"
pool dwindled and demands from the battle-
more and more fathers lost their deferin status was opposed in Congress, where one Senator insisted that "slackers in the government bureaus" ought to be inducted "before American homes fronts increased,
ments. The change
...OFFICERS
©SAD
44
SACK, INC.
ONLY
are broken up." But by the
end of 1944, only 80,000 men
held deferments as fathers.
still
education.
In
the two draft registrations held before Pearl
Harbor, 347,038
men
out of a
total of
over 17 million had to
The burgeoning manpower needs forced Selective Service to conduct a total of eight different registrations. The age span v^as broadened to include all men from 18 through 65, though only those between 18 and 36 were actually called up. In the fourth registration, on April 27, 1942, the 60-year-old President of the United States registered and re-
mark because they could not write their own names. Before the War was over, the Army needed men so desperately that it had to lift the ban on illiterates and set up special schools to try to bring the uneducated up
ceived the draft card that he kept
suffered by his Gl students:
In
in his
wallet until he died.
— nearly 50 — there were remarkably few attempts to evade the
view of the enormous number of registrants
million
Most of the 348,217 cases logged by
draft.
involved technical violations, such as
Selective Service
out a form
filling
correctly, rather than outright evasion.
Some men
in-
attempt-
sign their forms with a
to the fourth-grade level in reading.
Goodman, wrote
B.
his
An Army
teacher, Roger
parents of the learning agonies
"One
boy,
who was
trying to
read for me, started trembling and sweating. His hands,
clutched around his pencil, were shaking like leaves and the sweat was standing out under the hair on his knuckles. A big drop of moisture rolled down his chin and plopped on the page. The soldier was so embarrassed that he put his
over the stain so that
I
might not notice
fist
it."
ed to avoid service by faking deafness, heart ailments or mental disorders. However, the prize for attempted draft
accounted
evasion belonged to Everett Stewart of Valley Station, Ken-
reasons for the high rate of rejections on this score are
tucky. Stewart kept the local board posted
on the alleged
extremely complex and have never been completely untan-
deterioration of his health by impersonating various of his
gled. The anxious times in which these men were living no doubt had something to do with the rejections, and there were other factors. The author Philip Wylie blamed what he
concerned loved ones
—
a sister, half brother, father
and
crippled old uncle. Finally, wearing a wig and floppy hat, he
appeared
own
at the
board as the bereaved
widow
death. For his performance, Stewart
three years
in
—were
rejected
were the most
deficiencies. Until
men
— more than
for physical, educational
called
major cause of rejection, emotional
third
for the 4-F status of
"Momism"
have been
some
— overprotective
right, in part at least. His
instability,
three million men.
mothers.
He may
The
well
view was supported by
Edward Strecker, a psychiatric consultant to the Secretary of War, who said many women "had failed in the elementary mother function of weaning offspring emotionDr.
problem faced by Selective Service during the
War. An astonishing number of lion
to
the federal penitentiary at Atlanta.
Rejections for legitimate reasons, however, frustrating
to report his
was sentenced
The
five mil-
or mental
1943 the Army was the only branch to
ally as
well as physically." Even those
often suffered from
who were
Momism, according
eration of Vipers he wrote:
"I
accepted
to Wiley. In
Gen-
cannot think, offhand, of any
which an entire division of
rely on draftees, and it deliberately set its physical requirements at rock bottom. The minimum height for draftees was
civilization
and the minimum weight 105 pounds. The selectees had to have correctable vision and at least half of their natural teeth; they must not have flat feet, hernia or venereal disease. In 1941 the rejection rate was so high, about 50
spell
Most Americans who were physically and mentally qualified were ready enough to take up arms for their country,
per cent, that Franklin Roosevelt convened a national con-
conscience.
ference to investigate. The conference concluded that the
induction, 42,973
five feet
chief causes of the rejections
— bad
teeth and bad eyes
men
but
except ours
in
living
has been used during wartime, or at any other time, to
out the word 'mom' on a
a small
tive Service
drill
field."
percentage chose not to serve for reasons of
Of
the 10,022,367
were
men ordered
officially classified
to report for
under the Selec-
Act as conscientious objectors "by reason of
Some
COs
could be traced to the shortage of basic medical care and
religious training
the lack of adequate nutrition during the recent Depression.
agreed to enter the service as medics or
Another major cause of rejection, illiteracy, could also be traced to the Depression and its crippling impact on public
duty that would not require them to bear arms. About
Typiiying the plight of the
and
12,000 others worked
belief."
at alternative
25,000 of the in
other lines of
nonmilitary service
in
Army
enlisted man, cartoonist Sergeant Ceorge Gl readers of Yank during World War II loses in his off-duty hours. Intent on a big time in town, he discovers as many a private did that the choicest spots are off limits, except to officers. When Baker's hero finally finds acceptance, the "Enlisted Men Only" notice lures him to a crowning ignominy. Baker's
—
—
Sad Sack out, even
—
a favorite of
—
45
151
Civilian
Public Service Camps.
refused to serve
The remaining 6,000
any capacity and were sent to federal
in
Most were Jehovah's Witnesses, Quakers, Mennoor members of the Church of the Brethren. When a
cial
artists. Some of them worked in mental and about 500 volunteered to be infested with
workers and
hospitals,
prison.
typhus-bearing
nites
serums. But most were assigned to menial labor
number
surprisingly large
of his coreligionists decided to
accept induction after Pearl Harbor, one imprisoned war suggested that the prewar pacifists
bitterly
resister
changed
their
minds and went
to
who
war should be prosecuted.
Conscientious objectors with a clear-cut religious opposi-
war were treated with more sympathy by draft boards and by the general public than those who balked at conscription on political or philosophical grounds. The War's most publicized CO, actor Lew Ayres, was a philosophical pacifist, whose belief stemmed in part from his tion
to
celebrated role as a disillusioned All
German
soldier in the film
Quiet on the Western Front. After Ayres was assigned to
woodsman
duty as a
in a Civilian
public reaction to him was so adverse that refused to
show
starring Ayres,
with
a
Camp, the many theaters
Public Service
which he was featured. One film Be Bad, was reshot by the producers
films in
Born to
new male
lead.
Later,
Ayres distinguished himself
with the Chaplains' Corps, caring for the dying and
ed under
Many
fire,
of the
on the
COs
island
in Civilian
wound-
of Leyte in the Philippines.
Public Service
Camps were
college-educated, highly trained professionals: teachers, so-
46
trees
lice
or infected with malaria to test
and building roads
—
new
— cutting
that neither suited their talents
nor satisfied their intense personal desire to be socially useful.
A
Stanford University research chemist, Dr.
DeVauIt, was assigned to digging ditches.
he did research on penicillin molds special
camp
until
for "rebellious" objectors.
tive Service to
In his
he was sent to a
He begged
announcing he would work full time he was prosecuted and imprisoned.
refused,
The COs
in
paid for their
the camps,
who worked
own food and
regimentation of the camps. tration
ance
When
in his
he
labora-
without wages and
clothing, resented the military In
some
instances their frus-
boiled over into strikes and other passive
tactics
Selec-
allow him to complete his penicillin studies
but was ordered to report for further ditchdigging.
tory,
Don
spare time
borrowed from Mohandas
K.
resist-
Gandhi's inde-
pendence movement in India. In federal prisons, where COs accounted for every sixth inmate, COs staged work stoppages and hunger strikes to protest racial segregation, mail censorship and parole restrictions. At the Danbury Correctional Institution in Connecticut, 18 protestors went on strike for 135 days and won
a
major victory when
officials
agreed to
racially integrate
were so effective that some of the same COs later used them in the civil-rights movement. Prison officials, accustomed to dealing with hardened criminals, had never seen anything like it. The superintendent of a Western prison said he yearned "for the good old days of simple murderers and bank robbers." Even murderers and bank robbers found it hard to understand the COs. One CO tried to explain to the notorious Louis Lepke what had brought him to Danbury. At first Lepke, the boss of Murder, Inc., could not comprehend exactly what crime the CO had committed. Then suddenly he understood and asked incredulously, "You mean they put you in here for not killing?"
The
the dining halls.
tactics
Most young men did not balk at entering the military service, however. If they were physically and mentally qualified, they were classified 1-A and given 10 days to tidy up their affairs. Then, on the appointed day, they gathered with 100 or so others
one with
at the
a suitcase or
designated point of departure
bundle and often with
— each
his wife, girl
friend or parents in tow. In
was
a
major
local event.
A
was described by the sociologist W. Lloyd Warner in his study of a town in Illinois, Democracy in Jonesville: "At 6:30 a crowd of people gathered outside a local cafe where the selectees were having their breakfast and receiving final instructions. Outside, the high school band would fall into position and next a color guard from the American Legion. As the boys came out of the door of the cafe, they lined up and the head of the draft board called 'Forward march.' They marched down Liberty Street to the railroad station where a large crowd had gathered. Everywhere
group of
little
Benning, Georgia; the Southern boy shivered that
blew across the
lynite
came back
a rattlesnake,
drill
ed individuals about to leave. As the
train
of fat supply sergeants
did not always or Marx!" in
who
The sharp break from
the story of the sergeant
The train pulled out and the buzz of crowd was drowned out by the band playing the Marine Hymn. Within a minute or two the station became deserted except for the two men loading in
train.
the
this ain't Hart, Shaffner,
was summed up
civilian life
who was
of draftees so he could swear
them
group Army. "Gentle-
trying to quiet a
into the
men, please be quiet," he begged. Then,
goddam
it,
SHUT
command, he
after they
had
"Now,
roared,
UP!"
camp, the recruit gave up his civilian identity rank and serial number and surrendered his mind and
In training
for a
body
—
numbing rituals morning calisthenics, cadence of 128 steps per minute, practicing the manual of arms and performing the drudgeries of kitchen to a series of
marching
in
He learned
police.
a
new
mal
—
"chow" for food; "on "SNAFU" for "situation nor-
vocabulary:
the double" for hurrying;
fouled up"; and "SOS" as the acronym for the
all
chipped-beef-and-gravy abomination that was served to
him on for ".
.
toast at six in the morning. (The .
on
"O" and "S"
stood
a shingle.")
The college graduates often had officers' training,
climbed onto the
from
doled out drab uniforms that
growling "Buddy,
fit,
pick up tensely and the band begin to play. Hurried kisses,
One
Wisconsin, one Brook-
explaining that he "got 'em off a big woim."
time adjusting to barracks
by one the boys shook hands with the draft board and
the cold
Inside the camp, the recruit found himself in an alien world of inch-long doctor's needles and half-inch crewcuts,
would come
embraces, and handshakes from relatives and friends.
in
Great Lakes Naval
to his barracks bearing a set of rattles
around the curve from the west the conversation would
excitement
fields at the
Camp McCoy,
Training Center. At
recruits
groups of people surround-
made another
The destinations of the trains and buses were stateside camps with such names as Dix, Benning and Meade. The arrival at one of these outposts was like stepping down on another planet. The climate, the culture and almost everything that moved could seem initially hostile to the newcomer. The boy from the North sweltered in the heat of Fort
taken the oath and were his to
small towns, the going-away
typical send-off given to a
mail and baggage onto a truck. Jonesville had
contribution to the war."
but those
life.
a particularly difficult
Many
of
them went
who remained
in
into
the enlisted
ranks found themselves
in an environment that bore no resemblance to the college campus. They had to get used to country music and barracks language. They grumbled at the lack of decent reading matter, and the officers in one camp forbade them to read anything but the Bible during the first
six
weeks
of training.
When one
recruit
had
his first
chance
After registering for fhe draft in 1942, World War I hiero Sergeant Alvin C. Yor/c (in hiat and tie), stops to cfiat outside tlie same country store in Pall Mall, Tennessee, where he had been inducted 25 years earlier. The 54-
year-old veteran was one of 13 million men between 45 and 64 who signed up in the country's fourth draft registration. Though York was raring to go, no one over 36 was actually called up; instead he served through the War as head of the draft board in Fentress County, Tennessee.
47
A TEXAS-SIZED RESPONSE TO A JAPANESE TRIUMPH Shortly after midnight
on March
1,
1942,
the flagship of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, the cruiser Houston,
was sunk by the Japanese
south coast of Java. The entire crew of 1,087 was either killed or captured. off the
Aroused by the sinking of their city's namesake, the citizens of Houston, Texas, vowed that they would get even. With the motto "Avenge the Houston!" as his talisman, district Navy public relations officer Clarence C. Taylor initiated a whirlwind campaign to recruit 1,000 men from the
crewmen. was set up, and an 80-foot replica of the Houston was built to attract recruits. Taylor's campaign was so successful that by Memorial Day, when the official swearing-in of the Houston volunteers was to take place, more Houston area
A
to replace the lost
special enlistment station
than 1,400
men had
Thousands jam Houston on May
48
In
enlisted.
30, 1942, to
watch the swearing-in of Navy
recruits
Navy uniform, Clarence
whose
local
C.
Taylor awaits recruits.
— and national—patriotism led them
to join
up
and go into town, he was surprised to hungered for books more than for women;
to get off the base
find that he
instead of going to town, he hurried to the
(where he was approached by
a
young
sailor
camp
library
who
asked,
—
"Hey buddy, which is true fiction or nonfiction?"). The noncommissioned officers who presided over the training of the fledgling soldiers
the
Army and
and
sailors
Marines, petty officers
— sergeants Navy— were in
the
in
by-four timbers and Ford trucks hung with placards pro-
claiming them to be tanks.
commanders sometimes found strange ways overcome the equipment shortages. In the Louisiana maneuvers in the summer of 1941, a tough but canny major general named George S. Patton jr. was in command of an ill-equipped armored division. The division's tanks included an early 12-ton model that lacked a periscope, which meant Resourceful
to
commander had
monsters unlike anything the recruits had ever seen. To the
that the tank
seemed that the only object of these drillmasters was to make life miserable. "I shall nourish an allencompassing hatred for him so long as live," the newspa-
up through the
recruits
often
it
I
per reporter Jim Lucas wrote of a sergeant at his Marine
boot camp. "He roared until the
moment we
at us
left.
from the
Our bare
moment we appeared which we
existence, for
were humbly apologetic, plagued him, and sent him into spasms of rage." At times the treatment handed out by the sergeants and the officers was brutal. Dr. William C. Menninger, who was chief consultant in neuropsychiatry to the Army Surgeon General, recalled a medical officer who related to him "how well he had handled psychiatric problems when he was company commander." The officer had used a serup.
If
the enlisted
point to the notice on the
company
command.
black eye
—
in a collision
board forbid-
would not disobey
perhaps the recruit had gotten
his
with a door.
was exposed to a different kind of danger as he learned to dodge bullets in simulated combat, and to hug the ground and move forward while artillery fire whizzed overhead. "I've just had my first taste of advancing In
the field, the recruit
under
fire,"
In
Texas.
over
I
its
parts,
but they could be ordered by mail from Sears, Roe-
buck, Patton sent off a mail order and paid for the parts out of his
own
pocket.
America's citizen-soldiers,
War and
in
the Civil lot.
They
when
they could chuck the military
—
—
month when dismay of some
was due to expire. of their more hidebound comTo the manders, the citizen-soldiers frequently showed almost no
desert
in
the
itself."
top speed, the recruits frequently trained with
make-believe guns and tanks. They had to make do with painted wooden rifles, "machine guns" carved from two-
the draft law
respect for rank. Their brashness surfaced in the Tennessee maneuvers of 1941 in one of the most celebrated and controversial home-front incidents of the War. On a hot midsummer afternoon, a truck convoy bearing 350 troops
returning from a
Country Club.
month
When
yelled at the golfer
missed the
in
the field passed the
the troops saw
shorts strolling near the
a friend
I
had nothing to fear but fear
ancestors
chafed under regimentation and lived for the day
wolf whistles and shouts
admit
like their
the Revolution, were a brash and unruly
from
"I'll
the days before the American war machine began to
run at
meant go forward; a kick in the right shoulder meant turn right. Some of Patton's tanks were so old that they were continually breaking down. When a mechanic told him the Army did not have the badly needed spare
the back
was scared sweatless, but know what Roosevelt meant when he
Corporal Melvin Fauer wrote to
Camp Hood, now that it's said that we
—
deliver instructions to the driver through his feet: a kick in
would proudly
bulletin
Surely the sergeant
orders, said the officer
head poking fire and
and mock
barracks walls, tanks and trucks, a threat that they might
ding noncommissioned officers to even touch soldiers under their
to dust
to the
man came
report the beating, the officer
officer to
to ride with his
— exposed
life and go home. In the months before Pearl Harbor, the recruits began chalking on for "over the hill in October" the word "OHIO"
geant, a former boxer, to handle complaints from enlisted
men by roughing them
turret
first
Memphis
group of
tee, they set
girls
in
up a chorus of
— "Yoo-hoo-o-o-o!" A soldier also
on the
ball entirely
a
first tee,
"Fore!"
When
the golfer
someone shouted, "Hey, buddy, do
you need a caddy?" With that, the golfer threw down his club, vaulted a three-foot fence and presented himself to the convoy. He was Lieut. General Ben Lear, commanding general of the
49
WOMEN WHO
HEEDED THE CALL TO ARMS
IN
THE NATION'S HOOR OF NEED
To help
recruit female college students, Eleanor Roosevelt (center) visited U.S. campuses with military directors (left to right) Mildred McAfee
WAVES, Oveta Gulp Hobby of the WACs, Ruth C. Streeter of the women Marines of the
and Dorothy
A WAVE
C. Stratton of the SPARs.
takes aim with a pistol during target Although women in the Navy were never assigned to combat duty, and few of them ever got to leave the United States, WAVES served as gunnery instructors for men.
practice.
when almost every able-bodied man was away in uniform, women came out of the home to work in factories and At a time
foundries (pages 88-101), and to assume military roles hitherto
The nationwide rush
Women's Army
performed by men. to enlist in the
new
Auxiliary Corps startled re-
Soon the other seropened their ranks to women, though there were many restrictions. The Navy took some 77,000 into the Women's Naval Reserve, but although WACs were allowed to serve overseas, it was not until cruiters (pages 66-75).
vices as well
late in 1944 that WAVES— Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service got to travel to such safe areas as Hawaii, Alaska and the Caribbean. Similar restrictions applied to the smaller groups of women Marines and the Coast Guard's SPARs
—
a contraction of
semper paratus,
Latin for
"always ready."
—
Women's
Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Female fliers, known as WAFS, underwent a stepped-up version of the pilots' training program, sometimes putting in 16-hour days drilling, mastering Morse code and map-reading, and flying single- and twinengine planes. As pilots, they proved faster with instruments and smoother at the controls than their male counterparts. Nevertheless, WAFS were restricted to ferrying planes from factories to Army air bases. The Navy made sure that the women under its command spent most of their time on land, operating control towers, repairing and maintaining everything from plumbing to parachutes, and performing whatever other tasks would free the men for
combat
duty.
By 1945, the number of the military was
women
serving
still
small, but given
society's preconceptions
about the female
in
The Army Air Forces as the air force was then known was so hesitant about enlisting women that it created an Army-
Amazons," the more than 200,000 women on active duty in the armed forces repre-
supervised branch of the Civil Service, the
sented a breakthrough.
—
50
role,
as well as a fear of creating
"new
WAFS makes a solo single-engine plane. Officially members of the Civil Service rather than the Army Air Forces, WAFS nevertheless were trained by the Army and flew Army planes. A
pilot in training for the
flight in a
A
female Marine operates a camera that was used for air reconnaissance. Women filled many ground positions at Marine air stations, directing air traffic
and repairing
aircraft
engines as well as driving service vehicles.
51
Second Army during the maneuvers from which the troops were returning. After Lear chewed them out properly, he prescribed the punishment: a 300-mile round trip by truck to their quarters in Arkansas and back to Memphis, where
camp
they would pitch
way
of the
took
War
it
back to Arkansas with
then march 15 miles gear.
full field
The troops World
in stride, singing an improvisation of the old
song
I
at the airport,
as they
putt, parley voo. vers, civilians
.
.
marched, "Old Ben
he missed
But throughout the rest of the maneu-
."
would
Lear,
his
line the streets
and shout
at the truck
convoys, "Yoo-hoo-o-o-o!" There were loud protests about Lear's harsh discipline from parents and congressmen, but Franklin Roosevelt refrained from intervening.
For
all its
growing pains, the Army emerged from
battles and training routines as a
Harbor,
Pearl
300,000 shall
er"
men
in
modern
— and what Chief of
Staff
mock
had grown from General George Mar-
than two years,
less
its
fighting force. By
it
described as "the status of that of a third-rate pow-
— to
1.5 million
men organized
Moreover, the organizational base zation of eight million
men was
into 31
combat
for the
divisions.
wartime mobili-
to the forefront the
men who would
lead the nation's fighting forces throughout World War II: men like Patton and that inconspicuous newcomer Dwight
D. Eisenhower. As Chief of Staff of the Third
Army
in
the
maneuvers of 1941, Colonel Eisenhower had conceived and directed the brilliant strategy that had routed the Second
Army under "Yoo-hoo Ben years,
Eisenhower would
Western Europe, but
Lear." Within the space of three
command
at the
the great invasion of
beginning of the War, he was
American public that a newspaper picture caption identified him as "Lt. Col. D. D. Ersenbeing." When Ike saw the photograph, he quipped, "At least the initials were right."
so
little
known
to the
The War swept aside many strongly held prejudices toward servicemen. In the pre-Peari Harbor days, men in uniform often were treated shabbily by the public. "Soldiers and
—
a restaurant near a training
keep out," read a sign in camp. But after America entered the War, servicemen were respected, and the uniform became a symbol of pride. Girls flocked to the soldiers, sailors and Marines. The marriage
dogs
52
women
a
months
after Pearl
Harbor an
day married servicemen.
In
1940
many marriages had been the hope of avoiding the draft. Now, for many, it was the search for an emotional anchor among the new uncertainties of war. "1 the motivation for
don't love him," a young told
him
I
woman
told a sociologist. "I've
don't love him. But he's an aviator and he says
should marry him anyhow and give him a
little
I
happiness.
He
says he knows he'll be dead in a year." The old taboos of class, family consent and lengthy courtship were swept aside. Quick courtships were the order of the day, and perhaps the most impressive was that of the movie star Private Mickey Rooney. Assigned to Camp Siebert, Alabama, he met a lovely 17-year-old who had just been named Miss Birmingham. He proposed to her on their first date and they were married after an engagement of was deonly seven days. "I married Betty Jane because termined to marry someone," Rooney later wrote in his autobiography. "I'd had some drinks, was hurt and lonely, reached and grabbed." I
Some
firmly set.
Even more important, perhaps, the maneuvers and the
war games had brought
rate soared, in the first five
estimated 1,000
of the quickie marriages involved
young women, known ing,
as
unscrupulous
"Allotment Annies." After marry-
they received the $50 monthly allotment check due
each serviceman's wife and were the beneficiaries of the
Some married more than one Gl at a time. One Allotment Annie specialized in combat pilots, who were known to have a high mortality rate. Another woman, who was only 17, worked as a hostess in a nightclub and specialized in sailors who shipped out from the big Naval base at Norfolk, Virginia. Two of her husbands met by chance in a pub in England and compared pictures of their wives. After the Shore Patrol broke up the fight, the two sailors joined forces to end the career of this
Gl's $10,000 life-insurance policy.
particular Annie.
For most servicemen, courtship and marriage had to be
long distance. At
carried
on
Private
Wayne
at
Camp
Roberts, California,
Harris spent an entire month's
pay
— $21
when the draft started, scarcely more than the $16 that Civil War recruits got 75 years before on one long-distance call
—
to his sweetheart in
Los Angeles.
Some wives attempted
to
keep up with
their
husbands
in
the service. Disheveled and careworn, carrying babies, they crowded the bus and train stations, moving from one train-
ARCHITECTS OF WAR: THE TOP
Army
Chief of Staff George C. Marshall (second from
Although America's military leaders on the battlefields abroad garnered most of the home-front headlines, four men in Washington, D.C., the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
were
charged with deciding how the nation's military could most effectively combat the Axis
enemy. Theirs was
sibility
—
to carve
a chilling respon-
out a worldwide strate-
gy for 11.2 million soldiers and airmen, 4.1 million sailors and more than half a million Marines.
U.S.
left)
BRASS
confers with other Joint Chiefs
(left to right)
The men who ran America's war effort from the home front were strikingly different. General George C. Marshall was known for his force of character and quiet dignity. Admiral Ernest J. King was just the opposite outspoken, blunt and proud of
—
his
reputation for toughness. Lieut. Gen-
Henry H. Arnold, head of the U.S. Army Air Forces, earned himself the nickname "Hap" because of his genial manner. Admiral William D. Leahy, President Roo-
eral
Ernest
].
King, William D. Leahy
sevelt's brilliant
was
and
and Henry H. Arnold.
versatile Chief of Staff,
a skilled organizer.
All four bore heavy burdens, but the most important man was Marshall. So incisive was his mind and so respected was his judgment that when his name came up for
the role of
commander
in
the crucial inva-
sion of Western Europe, President Roosevelt
decided he was too valuable
in
Wash-
ington to be spared, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower
was chosen
instead.
53
camp
ing
Near each camp, they
to another.
set
up house-
keeping as best they could, often paying outrageous
cooking on Sterno stoves and seeing few hours at a time. At Leesville, Louisiana, near
Camp
their
rents,
mates for only a
Polk, a reporter discov-
menace
ered young servicemen's wives paying up to $50 a month to live
in
chicken coops and ramshackle
sheds, converted
which had been broken up into cubicles with makeshift partitions. In one place, a single toilet and shower served 35 families. The local milk apparently was unsafe, and several babies died. In Brunswick, Maine, a college barns,
town, the families of
sailors at the
nearby Naval
air station
were more fortunate. Many of them were taken into the homes of Bowdoin faculty members; one professor provided meals and lodging for 26 people. For the servicemen
who had nowhere
else to
go for enter-
tainment, there was always the tawdry allure of the honky-
tonk
districts that
sprang up around almost every training
camp. Bearing such names
as
"The
Strip" or
they were garish clusters of bars, dance or brothels.
women lights.
in a
"Bug Town," sleazy hotels
At Albany, Georgia, near Turner Field, the
names in neon Alabama, across the Chattahoochee
brothel brazenly displayed their
Phoenix
City,
became was known
River from Fort Benning, Georgia, its
halls,
brothels and brawls that
it
so notorious for as Sin City.
Clergymen and other guardians of the public morality waged an unceasing war against the fleshpots. One unexpected champion of continence was Lieut. Commander Gene Tunney, chief of the physical-fitness program for the Navy, who also happened to be a director of the American Distillers
Corporation.
In a
Reader's Digest article entitled
"The Bright Shield of Continence" the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world asserted that abstinence from sex kept men "at the peak of physical force." He urged all servicemen to remain chaste for the duration and insisted that "Any man above the emotional level of a tomcat must realize that the professional's embrace is not only a
54
to health but a
shameful desecration of ideal love."
The chief weapon of the reformers was the so-called May Act of 1941, which enabled local communities to shut down brothels near military installations. By 1944, some 700 municipalities had closed their red-light districts. But shutting
down
organized prostitution only increased
the vast army of streetwalkers and
operated near the military
camp
installations.
who
followers
The clampdown
was accompanied by a sharp increase in venereal disCoupled with the desire to protect "nice girls" from predatory GIs, this led some spokesmen to advocate the
also
ease.
establishment of special, supervised brothels for soldiers. substitute do we offer for prostitution?" asked a Navy surgeon, who then answered ominously, "Like it or not, somebody's daughter."
"What
Most communities tried to provide alternatives to brothels and red-light districts. Across the country, there were United Service Organization centers where 3,000 USO a Gl could enjoy a clublike atmosphere and find a date for the Saturday-night dance. There were also hundreds of canteens sponsored by churches and local civic groups and occasional invitations for dinner or the weekend with private families. Famous personalities contributed their time to these servicemen's centers. At the New York Stage Door Canteen, the popular comedian Jack Benny served beer to GIs. At a canteen in the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., GIs were entertained by Vice President Harry Tru-
—
—
man's plunking out
a waltz
while film actress Lauren Bacall
perched seductively atop the piano. substitute for the All of the
home
—
girl
problems of being
for
en
in
the service and
the service, the
was no
away from
from loved ones and
first
civilian
—
of the
representatives of their sex
in
the
The Army, Navy Air Corps, Marines and Coast had separate branches for women. They ferried
forces. all
wrenched from
some members
sexual and racial
there
ways were armed services by discrimination. There were 300,000 wom-
the shock of being
armed Guard
in
the loneliness, the separation
intensified
Still,
back home.
planes, drove trucks, served as clerks and otherwise re-
men
leased
for
women
The
combat
uniform were regarded as second-class
in
citizen-soldiers.
They had
to
scored
endure the wisecracks of
who
fellow Cis and the derision of civilians
their
alternately
biased
who
feared they
PWOP — "pregnant
gals just stay
would
get, in the military
acronym,
"Why can't these own sweet self, instead of
without permission."
home and be
their
being patriotic," wrote a soldier trying to dissuade his
from
dam
enlisting.
he told
all,"
it
us dogs.
A Marine
Now
it's
officer put
his first
female
it
more
crudely,
arrivals. "First
sister
"Cod-
they send
women."
But the prejudice encountered by
women was
mild com-
who
pared with that encountered by blacks. The 961,000
compiled by the blacks were depressed by
inferior
educa-
The experience of Jackie Robinson showed how pervawas in the Army. Californian Robinson
sive racial prejudice
faced rigid discrimination for the his
Army
service.
A
serving as a morale officer for a black
One
time
first
in his life
during
lieutenant, he had the unenviable job of
company
at Fort Riley,
one of his men sum up the state of company morale: "They want to send me 10,000 miles away to fight for democracy when a hundred feet away they've got stools can't put my black butt on and Kansas.
day, Robinson heard
I
drink a bottle of beer."
of the War, a policy of strict racial segregation pre-
change. "Nobody's going to separate any bullets and label
system
far
more
rigid
In
life.
the training camps, blacks were relegated to facilities.
Army
were
units
segregated by race from the battalion to the division level
any
in
unit,
no black
officer
could outrank
a
white one.
At the beginning of the War, the Navy accepted blacks only as mess attendants; the Marines would not accept
them at all. Intermingling of the races, said the official government policy approved by President Roosevelt in 1940 "would produce situations destructive to morale and
—
—
detrimental to the preparation for national defense." Fur-
thermore, the Army, with the support of the American Red
went
so far as to segregate the blood plasma donated
by blacks and whites, even though the fected the
method
man who had
for preserving plasma,
per-
Dr Charles
R.
Drew, was himself black. Secretary of
War Stimson and many
—
a be-
reinforced by their generally poor performance on the
Army General
them told
'for
him
white troops' and angrily. "Let
who was unaware to
have your wife
me
put
his caller sitting
Camp Hood,
'for it
was
colored troops,' this
"
Robinson
way," said the provost,
black,
"FHow would you
like
next to a nigger?"
was court martialed after he refused to sit in the back of a bus on the post. Charges were filed against him and, though he was a teetotaler, he was given a test for drunkenness. When two major black newspapers got hold of the story, most of the charges were dropped and Robinson quickly was found not guilty of the remaining two charges. Other blacks from the North ran afoul of Army prejudice and civilian hostility. The training camps were located largely in the South, and there were frequent outbreaks of vioLater, at
Texas, Robinson
lence. In 1941, black soldiers at Fayetteville, North Carolina,
of his generals frank-
believed that blacks were intellectually inferior
lief
were
The next day, Robinson telephoned the camp provost
separate eating and recreational
ly
tests
favor of middle-class whites and that the scores
marshal to protest the segregated seating at the post ex-
vailed.
Cross,
Psychologists
For
a caste
the discrimination they had experienced in civilian
and,
in
test.
conclude that the
to
than
entered the service faced
much
the bottom 40 per cent on the
tional environments.
accused them of lesbianism and heterosexual promiscuity
and
in
have tended since then
duty.
Classification Test. Products of a largely seg-
regated and poorly funded educational system, most blacks
company of white five wounded. of the first man ever
fought an hour-long gun battle with a military police, leaving
One
of these clashes claimed the
killed rifle:
two men dead and
with the Army's
new
life
basic infantry
weapon, the M-1
he was a black American sergeant.
55
SHRUNKEN SHORTS FROM THE LAUNDRY
PREYED
ON
BY
WOLVES
IN SERGEANT'S
i YOU'RE IN THE
ARMY NOW
CLOTHING
The
classic tribulations of
an
Army
rookie are
lampooned
in a series ol
photographic montages syndicated by King Features during the Second World War.
57
CIVVIES TO KHAKIS:
THE MAKING OF A Gl life, millions of young Americans who had never attempted to execute the manual of arms or been exposed to the wrath of a fire-eating first sergeant
Fresh from civilian
or
marched
to
ducted into the
At Fort Douglas in Utah, solemn-faced recruits file off arriving buses and get ready to form ranks upon the command of a sergeant (lower left).
anybody's cadence but their
Army during World War
own were
in-
Going into the Army then carried an impact all its own, for America had been at peace for almost a quarter of a century, and most American men were total strangers to military life and discipline. Green, terrified, and accustomed to his privacy and individuality, the young rookie was in for a series of jolting experiences as soon as he was sworn in. He had said goodbye to his mother, his wife or his girl friend and now found himself in an environment where, as the soldier-author of the time, Marion Hargrove, put it, "persecution is deliberate, calculated, systematic." Or so it could seem during "processing." Here, in a routine as inhuman as an industrial production line, the rookie was first fingerprinted and given a physical, then interviewed, clothed and assigned to a training company. He also received a fitting welcome from U.S.
II.
grinning regulars: "Hello, sucker!" Later, at the barber's, he lost in
50 seconds what might have taken years of careful
grooming
to produce.
"Home" was now
where beds standing in and quickly; where all worldly goods were stored in foot- and wall lockers; and where there were no partitions between toilets. Food, though there may have been enough of it, was a double rows had
far cry In
from
home
to
a barracks,
be made
tightly, neatly
cooking.
the ensuing weeks, the recruit
range of Gl woes
fell
heir to the
whole
— everything
from being blasted out of bed by predawn bugles to toting a full field pack on morning marches. He learned how to strip and reassemble a rifle
"enemy" with a bayonet, even lob hand grenades with the precision of a pro quarterback. "It was tough to learn how to do that stuff," one veteran later blindfolded, gut the
said of his to
58
own
muscle and
training. But
during the process flab turned
a U.S. fighting
man emerged.
During processing,
a draftee at Fort Dix.
New
jersey,
whose
hat
is
now
his sole
claim to dignity,
is
inoculated from both sides for smallpox and typhoid.
59
Grinning troops at
Camp
Shelby, Mississippi, wait their turn to be sheared of their locks by one of their buddies. CI haircuts were
in,"
CLIPPED HEADS
AND LONG JOHNS
Still, if
As the rookie quickly learned, the Army had a reason for everything. Whether the
made sense or not was a differmatter. He was obliged to forfeit two
reason ent
he retorted, "not to make you look
like Cinderella."
and sanieven though he was perfectly ca-
each
man wound up
not always well
basic issue
fitted.
were three
well clothed,
Included
his
in
suits of khakis,
two
wool winter uniforms, two sets of fatigues, two pairs of shoes, four pairs of socks, five suits of summer underwear and two sets
thirds of his hair for "cleanliness
of winter ones.
tation,"
Describing his two-piece regulation long underwear, Private Hargrove commented sarcastically: "The undershirts are cut on a sweat-shirt pattern and are form fitting enough to send any Hollywood designer into frenzies of envy. The nether garments,
pable of taking care of
it
himself.
To get his shoe size, he had to hold two buckets of sand weighing 50 pounds, or as much as his marching pack. When his bare foot spread under the added weight, that was his "correct" size as far as the Army was concerned. One new man complained that he wore a size 9, not the lOVz that was issued to him. But the Army fitter would have none of it. "These shoes are to walk
60
which are called
omable
'shorts' for
some
reason, look like the tights
unfath-
worn
in
medieval days and show off the shapeliness of the masculine leg to best advantage
— or otherwise."
dubbed
"chili bowls.
A
rookie at Fort Sheridan,
Illinois, is
measured
for
long
johm
nlhs,longunde'
duty as paiamas.
\
61
nJnfaSSgSerrpray. 62
all
ul
L .c^u,pmcni
lor a lull
Uckl mspecUon.
I
he 1^17 helmet and the Springf.eld
rifle
began
to
be replaced
in
1941.
LEARNING AND LIVING BY COMMAND draftee's first three weeks in the Army, dubbed the "hardening period" by veterans, were the roughest. It was the time when every private felt he had two left feet and every sergeant would agree with him. Blistered soles were common, and a good laugh was hard to come by.
A
Besides drilling endlessly and standing
innumerable humiliating inspections, the men found themselves subjected to grueling work details. They stoked fires, hauled
and pulled KP. One private, describing his morning misery, wrote: "We have
trash
nothing to do until 7:30 so we just sit around and scrub toilets, mop the floors, wash the windows and pick up all the matchsticks and cigarette butts within a radius of 2,000 feet of the barracks."
After a hard day's work,
many wanted
Some
shot pool or played cards. Others spent their free time reading, or talking and eating at the PX. And almost
just to
relax.
everyone dreamed of a weekend pass.
Sitting
TS atop milk crates, dungareed soldiers
A sergeant shows
rookies at Fort Slocum,
oTkP at Fort McClellan, Alabama, peel a 'sack
New
York,
how
to tuck in their ties for
an A-1 appearance.
method. of spuds using the time-honored knife-and-concentration
63
64
with his girl His basic training a thing of the past, a sergeant enjoys dancing Washington, DC. friend at the USO, or United Service Organization, in Instead of Soldiers stationed close to smaller cities were not as fortunate. excitement and girls, most found little to do in the nearby towns bowl, have a few beers and catch a movie before returning to camp.
but
Whiling away free hours at Iron Mountain, California, CIs watch a film on purposes, movies were a makeshift screen in the desert. For morale shown on a regular basis at most Army posts in everything from ordinary theaters to winterized circus tents that could seat 2,000 soldiers.
65
THE DISTAFF SIDE
^^"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^T^^^lT^^Tr^rTn^vpfa Director Uveta Limp rookies contrast with two crisp officers (far right) as
Hobbv reviews CuId noooy Luip
a training b unit of
the
Women's Army
Auxiliary Corps.
67
VOLUNTEERINQ FOR A MAN-SIZED JOB American men were not the only ones reality of it,
too.
Army
On
volunteers privates
—
life.
A number
of
jolted by the harsh
women
got a good taste of
the hot, sticky morning of July 20, 1942, the
—440
first
and 330 auxiliaries, or Des Moines, Iowa, to begin train-
officer candidates
•rolled into Fort
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, forerunner of the Women's Army Corps, or WAC, established in 1943. Eventuing in the
more than 143,000 women served in the WAC, the women's services in World War II. Releasing
ally
largest of the
manpower
badly needed
for the firing line, they did every-
thing from repairing trucks to making aerial surveys
—
in all,
Army jobs. Recruiting began on May 27 and the response was overwhelming: more than 13,000 women stormed registration centers across the country. College girls, career women, secretaries, housewives and widows applied; even an Indimore than 235
an
woman
in
different
tribal
Washington, D.C.
Women cruiting,
volunteers line up in Washington, D.C. On the first day of re750 showed up more than three times the number expected.
—
dress.
(left),
that
So great was the turnout
embarrassed
application blanks twice during the day.
women
officials ran In
New
in
out of
York, 1,400
more than eight hours to sign up. "If the guys can take it," one volunteer said of her new life in uniform, "so can I." This remark was no idle boast. The women took the usual inoculations in stride; a sheepish Gl stood by with smelling salts just in case they were stood
in line for
in most cases they weren't. Like all rookies, the endured the assembly-line issuance of ill-fitting uniforms (they were too narrow in the hips and rode up the thighs), and they joked about the "rich mud-brown color" of their regulation slips and panties. They stood reveille
needed, but
women
all day. Many drilled Army manuals in the lighted after taps. For some old-line offi-
every morning and trained rigorously in
the evenings or studied
latrines of their barracks
—
and enlisted men, the idea of women in the service or "Wackies" was a bitter pill. But at least one 25-year vetercers
—
an disagreed. "They're a
damn
commanded
Fort
they could do
Des Moines.
we
ever
C. Faith,
who
sight better than
expected they would be," said Colonel "I
Don
honestly didn't believe
it."
After arriving at Rock Island Railroad Depot, lov^a, women bound for Fort Des Moines get ready for their first ride in an Army truck. Officer candidates trained lor six weeks at the camp which was the first of five while the training centers for women to open across the country auxiliaries underwent a four-week-long course.
—
68
—
69
70
Des of ibem already in uniform, emerge from the Fort CI Moines clothing warehouse, toting hefty duffel bags full of regular brassieres each. clothing and equipment, as well as two girdles and three
New arrivals, some
through a Beaming trainees are served soup on one of their first trips the calorie content was line The women ate standard CI fare, but men. reduced on the theory that they burned up less energy than
chow
^M with some of sergeant escorting arrivals lends a helping hand given the As part of their training, the women were how to properly make a bed.hovv^ to care initial instruction as
An Army
their suitcases.
same
for their
own
clothing
men—
and equipment, and
"fall
out" and
-fall
in"
71
The threat of inspection produces a flurry of activity. In standard twostory barracks like this one, which housed 30 women on each floor, cots were placed head to foot to reduce the chance of spreading colds.
Apprehensive trainees stand by their beds during an open-footlocker inspection by Colonel Faith (left center) and Director Hobby. Personal items filled the top tray; issued underwear was stored underneath.
11
f»-rji:
-»
Hundreds of
trainees do a waist-bending exercise during calisthenics Oglethorpe, Georgia. In another exercise, which was designed to strengthen arches, each worTian had to pick up a pencil with her toes.
at Fort
Coveralled students of
a motor-transport class line up in froi.i ^. iii^.r Des Moines motor pool. Women learned how to well as how to free mired trucks and assemble engines.
vehicles in the Fort drive in
convoy
as
A HARD NEW LIFE IN AN OLIVE-DRAB WORLD The
women
trainees did not find thempampered. Although they did not handle weapons or undergo tactical training, they endured the same rigid regimen
selves
that
the
—
men
did, with
much
the
same
results aching muscles and sore feet. And they had to put up with a lack of privacy,
too. At
one
post, the
women
that their barracks, like all
discovered
Army
barracks.
women
skillfully navigate a wooden obstacle at Fori Oglethorpe. Training given for overseas assignment also included descending 30-foot cargo nets and crawling through a barrage of tear-gas grenades.
Agile
had no shades on the windows. At others, they encountered latrines with only makeshift cardboard partitions. No less unnerving were the visits of inspecting officers dubbed "bloodhounds in the boudoir" by the women who scrutinized everything from the straightness of stocking seams to hairdos. There was, of course, KP and the daily ritual of calisthenics. And when the women were not sweating their way through gas-mask drills, they were hiking around the countryside or learning to "survive" in the field. They
—
—
dug
slit
trenches, even bathed out of hel-
in training to go overseas, they clambered over mazelike obstacle courses and took long hikes in the rain. Through it all, the women managed to preserve their dignity and neatness beauty parlors were set up on post and suffi-
mets. Later,
—
cient irons
were issued
for pressing easily
creased uniforms. They also managed to have fun. For four hours in the evenings
and for a day and a half on weekends, they were on their own. And like soldiers everywhere, they "did the town."
73
Before a contingent of visiting officers at Fort Des Moines, well-drilled
74
women— now prou d veterans of tfie training grind—pass smarlly in
review. Rookies
in
tt
bleachers
watch
how
it is
done
(right rear). Drilling
went on
for at least an
hour
a day,
sometimes during snowstorms, but
it
offered a respite from dull classes.
75
In
March 1941, bulldozers began
banks of
a lazy
construction of a building. In the
would use up
clearing
mammoth new
next
six
woodlands on the
downtown
Detroit for
Ford Motor
Company
creek 27 miles west of
months, the building's planners
five miles of blueprint
paper
a day,
tons of structural steel would be consumed.
and 25,000 complet-
When
ed, at a cost of $65 million underwritten by the federal
government, the barnlike edifice covered 67 acres and was
most enormous room in the history man." Nearly a quarter of a mile wide and half a mile long, it was so large that errands had to be run by motorcy-
aptly described as "the
of
cle or automobile.
Called Willow Run, after the creek on which ed, the
new
it
was
building was the largest aircraft factory
world designed
locatin
the
produce long-range bombers, B-24 Liberators, at the rate of one every hour. The manufacture of the bombers, as conceived by the Ford Motor Company's to
production chief, Charles
Raw
E.
Sorensen, called for an orderly
would be fed into one end of components made in adjacent areas would then be joined together on four main assembly lines; these would converge into one line at the other end of the structure, where the completed planes would be rolled series of steps.
materials
the building;
outside onto concrete runways and flown
off.
Almost from the start, however, there were huge problems. Some were technical: the B-24 had 100,000 parts as
compared with 15,000 production the
Army
in
a Ford,
and
in
the
first
year of
Air Forces ordered 575 major design
bomber plant
changes, each of which required the retooling of machines.
A new B-24 every 63 minutes The show-me Senator from Missouri A mild-mannered war production czar A two-and-a-half-ton metal duck
An even more critical problem was keeping the machines manned. Willow Run had been selected as a site before the imposition of gasoline and tire rationing. Because there was little housing in the immediate area, more than half of the
josef Stalin's predilection for jeeps
workers had to commute from Detroit, an hour each way.
The world's
largest
The new breed of industrial leaders From pinball machines to parachute harnesses A White House floor mat goes to war Chewing gum for K rations
A
use for midgets inside airplane wings
How to fly a B-29 Marilyn
A coal
Monroe on
in five
minutes
the assembly line
strike that fueled the fires of hatred
The
daily absentee rate ran as high as 17 per cent, three
times the national average, and the turnover was appalling:
during one month. Willow Run hired 2,900 workers and
lost
company's cantankerous founder, 79-year-old Henry Ford, did not help. He was bitterly antiunion, banned smoking on company time and
3,100.
The personnel
refused to hire
policies of the
women
for factory jobs.
Even after he relaxed the
rules,
the plant
still
was beset
with personnel problems. By the end of 1943, the elaborate
MIRACLES OF PRODUCTION
assembly-line setup was turning out only one
bomber
a day,
and people across the country were joking that Willow Run's name should be changed to "Willit Run?" At the government's urging, Ford began to decentralize the
mammoth
operation.
Much
of the
equipment used
to
manufacture parts for the B-24 was farmed out to other Ford and to subcontractors. The scaled-down work force
plants
could
now
focus on the assembly-line operation, the pivotal
materials as steel
critical
items
deemed
and aluminum
to
producers of
nonessential to the defense effort. The carrot
was the prospect
of profits to be gleaned by converting to
the manufacture of essential goods. As Secretary of
Stimson baldly put going to
try
go
to
capitalist country,
in
it
War
the privacy of his diary: "If you are
war,
to
you have to
or to prepare for war, let
business
in
a
make money out
of the process or business won't work."
duced dramatic results. By 1944, a B-24 was rolling out of Willow Run every 63 minutes. In all, the plant produced
The money to be made was alluring indeed. The no-risk arrangement devised by the government and known far and wide simply as "cost plus" guaranteed the holder of
8,685 Liberators, capable of delivering up to four tons of
a
bombs apiece each time
hefty profit as well.
point of Sorensen's original concept. Decentralization pro-
they roared over
enemy
territory.
—
—
defense contract not only funds to cover
The cost-plus policy took The planes that rolled off the assembly line at Willow Run were only part of an avalanche of armaments produced by American industry during World War II. Before that conflict came to an end, American plants turned out 296,429 airand self-propelled guns, 372,431 artillery pieces, 47 million tons of artillery ammunition, 87,620 warships, 44 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition in all, $183 billion worth of war materials. So impressive was this feat that even such a grudging admirer of American achievements as Russian Premier Josef Stalin proposed a planes, 102,351 tanks
—
toast at the
Teheran Conference
late in
1943 "to American
war would have been lost." America's role as the great armaments maker of World War II began a year before Pearl Harbor. "We must be the great arsenal of democracy," President Roosevelt said in a and fireside chat, calling upon America to supply its allies with planes, tanks, guns and build up its own defenses production, without which
this
—
—
ships.
States
But harnessing the industrial might of the United
and turning
it
from
civilian
production to war output
but a
his costs
effect during the pre-Pearl Har-
bor defense build-up and soon incurred the wrath of a
peppery United States Senator, Harry In late
Truman
of Missouri.
1940, he began receiving complaints from constitu-
ents about waste
an
S.
Army camp
in
the construction of Fort Leonard
house thousands of the new see for himself.
Wood,
the southern part of his state intended to
in
One
draftees.
Truman decided
to
wintry day he got into his broken-
down Dodge and drove from Washington unannounced. What he saw there made his blood als of all kinds were out unprotected
to the
camp,
arriving
Building materi-
boil. in
snow and rain, would
the
"getting ruined, things that could never be used,
never be used.
Some
of
them had been bought because And there were men,
somebody knew somebody.
.
.
.
hundreds of men, just standing around and collecting pay, doing nothing."
Truman had been an serving under
fire in
artillery
captain
France, and he
was
spending that would help the soldier's
required a massive governmental effort. Only the govern-
he also expected the government to get
ment could
He was
World War government
in
all
their
I,
for
any way; but money's worth.
lot in its
award contracts, allocate scarce materials. The task, gargantuan in itself, was further complicated by the traditional American aversion to government "meddling" in private enterprise. Businessmen
huge fixed fees assured to cost-plus contractors regardless of what they had been charging for their products before the War. The government, he concluded, was handing out these profits "in
accustomed to freewheeling did not take kindly to dictates from Washington bureaucrats, let alone the baffling regula-
Christmas party."
effectively decide priorities,
and the reams of paper work they generated. The government's solution was to employ the old carrotand-stick technique. The stick was the power to deny such tions
much
especially incensed at the
the
same way Santa Claus passes out
After visiting Fort Leonard
gifts at a
church
Wood, Truman drove more
than 25,000 miles to other camps and to defense plants
around the country, finding evidence of millions of taxpay-
77
ers' dollars
going
down
Upon
the drain.
his return to
Wash-
ington, D.C., he called for the establishment of a special
move
Senate watchdog committee, a
that
March
was warmly en-
of 1941
dorsed by
his
Committee came into
to
being, with
resigned
order to run for the Vice Presidency
in
colleagues.
In
Investigate the National
Truman
as
its
the Special
Defense Program
chairman. Until he in
1944, he
was to remain the relentless scourge of such misusers of government funds as makers of defective airplane parts and cheaters
who
lied
about the tensile strength of the
steel
Shoddy workmanship would never be completely eliminated, of course. Some American weapons and equipment proved faulty: improperly welded Liberty ships that broke apart, guns that jammed, torpedoes that did not explode. But thanks in considerable measure to Truman and his investigators, these failures were exceptional; moreover, by the War's end, the committee's sleuthing had saved
the
who were more and sincerely eager to pitch in to help the cause of democracy. Many of them went to Washington on their own to seek a contract only to find the capital a mindboggling maze of rival agencies and divided authorities. A
—
supposedly all-powerful
More
for
that
much
defense program. The businessman
78
Manageover the
often than not, small businessmen bidding for a
Truman and
of the trouble in the
who
admitted
that, "if
it
in
the
and anything but impressed with what they had seen of the capital. "Washington's a funny town," one frustrated cold,
petitioner fumed. "It's got scores of hotels, and you can't get a room.
meal.
The
blame
final say-so
share of the defense effort found themselves out
nesses
to
Office of Production
awarding of contracts; that was up to such long-entrenched agencies as the Army-Navy Munitions Board and the Mari-
his col-
was
new
ment, for example, did not have the
It's
It's
got 5,000 restaurants, and you can't get a
got 50,000 politicians, and
thing for you. I'm going
billion.
The bungling and the waste itself
couldn't have handled our profits
altruistic
leagues uncovered were far from one-sided. The govern-
ment
we
time Commission.
plate that they produced.
country an estimated $15
hadn't been for taxes,
with a steam shovel" was offset by others
industrial
— and
nobody
will
do any-
home."
giants fared
better than the small busi-
not only because of their proven ability to
produce on the mass scale
that the military required.
enjoyed added influence through company
They
men who were
the capital serving in the
in
government
for a dollar a year,
but who often retained their corporate salaries and loyalties. A survey made in December 1942 showed that 71 per cent of
defense contracts were held by America's 100
all
biggest corporations.
Yet
ing committee, he had access to the
What he had
nation's business leaders
were
at first
many
of the
wary of plunging
White House at will. was short but not
to say to Roosevelt this time
sweet: his committee was about to issue
and it would an unholy mess. report,
of the certainty of great gain,
in spite
the increasingly prestigious chairman of a Senate investigat-
its
annual
first
war production
indict the
effort as
Following Truman into the Oval Office was Wendell
into
L.
the defense effort. After the Depression of the 1930s, the
Willkie, the Republican Presidential candidate in 1940.
economy had just begun to flourish again, releasing a pentup civilian demand for automobiles, refrigerators, vacuum
had come armed with an impressive personal statistic. had counted up, he told Roosevelt, and found that he had
cleaners, luxury gadgets. Eager to exploit this ket,
growing mar-
manufacturers foresaw only the headaches that would
be involved
retooling their plants and coping with ever-
in
Moreover, no one could be sure how much longer the war in Europe would continue; Hitler appeared to be on an irreversible winning streak. shifting military specifications.
the postwar era, overexpanded plant facilities could be
In
a costly
burden.
American manufacturers was to same time keep turning out a cornucopia of consumer goods. This attempt to resolve the classic dilemma of guns versus butter was doomed to failure: arms production during the prewar period fell far short of the government's goals. It took the rude awakening of the catastrophe at Pearl Harbor to put America's war machine into high gear.
some
for
military orders but at the
Willkie
—
—
who was in charge except himself. Even his supportconceded that he was no genius as an administrator. "The boss," said one, "either appoints one man to do four
clear ers
jobs or four
One day America's
men in
do one. Often he does both." mid-january, 1942, more than a month
in
One
to
make
125th
his
try
in
a
—
Willkie did not have to
make
the 125th
afternoon a big, affable Missourian
Later that
try.
named Donald M.
summoned from
ing of the government's Supplies, Priorities
a
Nel-
meet-
and Allocations
Board. As the SPAB's executive director. Nelson was already the top ranks of Washington's wartime hierarchy; even
in
he was stunned to learn of the elevated post that Roose-
so,
velt
had
in
mind
for him.
He was
to
be head of
a
new War
Production Board (WPB), with more authority over the nation's
economy
than any other American except the Pres-
ident himself.
discussing his marching orders with Roosevelt, Nelson
politely
reminded the President
that previous so-called su-
peragencies had failed because neither their functions nor
powers had been adequately defined; he would need, an Executive Order spelling out his role. The President's reply was typically breezy. "He told me," Nelson recalled, "to write out my own order and send it over to
their
he
said,
him; he'd sign
it."
Drafted by Nelson, with the help of his advisers, the or-
der was unprecedented
in
grabber; he was,
somewhat abashed by
in fact,
scope. Nelson was no powerhis
sudden
press acclaim as a "dictator" about to "tackle the biggest
months before
facture of products he judged to be nonessential. Moreover,
visitor
in to
went on, he planned
see Roosevelt for just a brief social call; now, as
entry into the War, Roosevelt received
visits that
helped change
was Harry Truman. As
a
his
mind about
a
freshman Senator
1934, he had been obliged to wait five
getting
after
87
in all history." But he was a thoroughgoing pragmatist. To do the job, he required, and got, the authority to commandeer materials and assign priorities in their use, compel the conversion and expansion of plants and bar the manu-
official
two successive czar.
to
effort
speech before an audience Roosevelt could not afford to shrug off the United States Conference of Mayors.
In
The Japanese attack touched off a nationwide clamor for a single director of the war effort a "czar" empowered to do whatever was necessary to get things done. Some of the men around Roosevelt had been urging such an appointment for many months, but the President's preferred way was to spread responsibilities so diffusely that it was seldom
war
times during the campaign and 37 times since. That night,
son arrived at the White House,
The prudent course
take on
publicly called for a single director of the
He He
job
Production czar Donald M. Nelson climbs down from an armored vehicle 1942, while Chrysler president K. T. Keller (left) and plant manager E. J. Hunt (center) look on. Industry-wide conversion from cars to war production had recently been completed, and Nelson was in Detroit to give defense workers a pep talk. Their job was just beginning, he told them; in 7943 the U.S. would count on them to turn out $12 billion in war materiel nearly nine times their output in the previous six months. in July
—
79
his
orders were to take precedence over those issued by any
to
come
At 54, Nelson had the
little
Missouri town of
way since his boyhood in Hannibal, made famous by Mark a long
Twain; once, while taking a piano lesson
in
Twain's old
when he dropped youthful aspiNelson's own look around. nostalgic in for a to become a profesrations were academic; he had hoped house, he had even met the great author
sor of chemistry. Instead, he had
Roebuck,
rising to
president
in
How
become
its
gone
to
work
for Sears,
$70,000-a-year executive vice
charge of merchandising.
this qualified
him
to supervise history's biggest pro-
duction job was a mystery to
many people
in
Washington;
Nelson himself long remembered the "polite coughs and lifted
eyebrows"
that greeted his elevation. But, as he point-
ed out, the Sears, Roebuck experience was invaluable. Responsible for procuring 100,000 different items, from spools
ture in order to
As
WPB
a lot
about
know where
boss, he
was
methods of manufacthem at the right price.
their
to find
to retain a merchandiser's eye.
he saw Winston Churchill ing a one-piece siren suit,
When
White House meeting wearhe was instantly reminded "of a
at a
which we had sold in great quantities Roebuck & Co. to filling-station operators and
pair of the overalls at Sears,
who
had to crawl underneath automobiles."
was
a
major weakness:
distaste for contention. In spite of his dictatorial
he preferred to
rely
his
powers,
on persuasion and amicable compro-
mise, patiently hearing out
sides of a dispute, his
all
and untroubled face reminding one observer of Western Buddha."
a
plump
"Middle
manner posed a problem with respect to Though nominally he had the
Nelson's mild
the awarding of contracts.
control, he chose to leave this vital matter to the military.
The military, chafing in any event under civilian direction, was not especially grateful, and some observers thought Nelson was too easygoing with the brass. "One of these War Department generals," a Nelson aide remarked, "will stick a knife into Nelson, and all Nelson does is pull the knife out and hand it back and say, 'General, believe you " dropped something.' I
But beneath
of thread to fertilizers to heating equipment, he had been
compelled to learn
mechanics
Offsetting Nelson's strengths
other government agency.
tougher than some of
his critics
followed the WPB's creation, a his office sharply curtailing
tion of approximately to the
war
effort.
was to prove weeks that stream of edicts flowed from
affable exterior Nelson
his
suspected.
In
the
or entirely banning the produc-
300 items judged to be nonessential
Among them were
refrigerators, bicycles,
waffle irons, beer cans, toothpaste tubes, coat hangers
even metal caskets. The manufacturers of these products
were given
a hard choice: they could convert to essential
and make do with
items, or they could try to find
substi-
tute materials.
For consumers, the worst
would have In
to get
blow was the word
along without
four decades, Americans had
new
that they
cars for the duration.
grown used
to the picture
of Detroit as a boundless purveyor of pleasure on wheels;
since 1900, almost 86 million automobiles and trucks had rolled off
its
assembly
lines,
But
now
those assembly lines
the core of the mass-production system that
key to victory
— had
to
would be the
be preempted. Predictably, the man-
datory conversion of the automobile industry was Nelson's
first
edicts.
No
among
other industry could produce with
in the volume required in wartime. In the was to turn out $29 billion worth of war materiel. The wheeled and tracked vehicles of war were obvious candidates for manufacture by Detroit, and they came off the lines in staggering numbers: a trainload of tanks every
the speed and
end,
The boarded window ol an electrician's shop in Coolidge, Arizona, proclaims somewhat optimistically the fate of one small business in 1942. Facing shortages and giant competition that they could not keep up with, many such businesses had to shut down and in doing so changed a traditional American fact of life. At the beginning of the War, some 175,000 small companies did 70 per cent of the nation's business; by March 1943, however, they accounted for only 30 per cent.
—
—
—
80
it
day, 2.4 million military trucks in
strange
known
new conveyance,
all.
There was also
the amphibious
as just plain "duck." Half truck
DUK-W,
and
a
odd animal character
half boat, the
of the official designation
the invasions of Sicily and the mainland of
in
the
Popeye; the government
duck could lumber through the water transporting 50 soldiers at a speed of 6.4 mph, then clamber ashore and make as much as 50 mph on the highway. It was used with great success
came from
better
Italy,
cle. Josef Stalin
via
insisted that
— GP
Lend-lease that he kept asking for more of them,
—
beyond the Ural Mountains
barrels capable of extremely rapid
origin of
name. Some people claimed that the name
its
al-
though Russia's dictator did nothing to dispel the Red Army myth that they were Soviet-made produced in a secret
The only bone of contention about the jeep concerned the
of
a corruption
purpose" vehi-
took such a fancy to the jeeps he received
factory
in a string
the comic strip
was
for "general
amphibious operations in the Pacific that included Tarawa, Kwajalein and Saipan. The most popular wartime vehicle to come out of the auto industry was the rough-riding jeep, made by WillysOverland and by Ford. Equipped with four-wheel drive, it could travel cross-country and just about anywhere else.
and
in it
at a
place improbably
called "Willys-Overland."
The techniques used
to turn out vehicles also
proved
adaptable to the mass production of weaponry of every sort. Chrysler, for
40mm
example, tackled the manufacture of the
which had from one to four fire. The Swedes, who had developed the Bofors, required 450 man-hours to make Bofors
antiaircraft gun,
A PAIR OF THE WAR'S
MOST VERSATILE VEHICLES Two
most ingenious vehicles turned home front were the jeep and the amphibious DUK-W, or duck. The jeep proved as nimble as a motorcycle and was able to negotiate rocky hills, marshy swamps and shifting sands. Originally designed for messenger service, it was soon being put to dozens of other uses in every war theater. With an antitank gun of the
out by workers on the
in
tow,
it
could quickly bring firepower to
tached,
enemy armor or, with evacuate wounded off
the battle-
field.
was variously called the
iron pony,
bear on
It
leaping lena and panzer
a litter at-
killer.
Brigadier
General Theodore Roosevelt, son of President Teddy Roosevelt, and an assistant di-
commander in North Africa, Sicily and France during the War, affectionately
vision
named The
his
jeep Rough Rider.
jeep's less widely sung but equally
heroic cousin, the duck, had
its
two-and-a-
half-ton truck chassis encased in a water-
and rudder The duck gave a new
tight hull fitted with propeller
for duty in water.
dimension to landing operations. Transport ships could anchor out of range of beach-based guns, open their bows, lower their ramps and disgorge hundreds of ducks that ferried troops and cargo ashore and then carried them inland at speeds up to 50 mph. About 1,000 ducks took part in the invasion of Sicily
twice that
mandy
number
in
1943; more than
participated in the Nor-
landing the following year.
Troops
roll
overland
in a
duck, which by a
flick
of a lever could be converted to sea duty
81
one gun by handcrafting. Chrysler's engineers designed jigs, dies and other machine tools to mass-produce the parts, which could then be put together on the assembly line; total manufacturing time was 10 hours. By the summer of 1942 the auto makers were also heavily involved
in
the manufacture of airplanes, engines and other
While Ford was ironing out the production problems at Willow Run, the Packard Motor Company was making Rolls Royce engines for the RAF, Chrysler was manufacturing bomber fuselages, and General Motors was assembling fighters and turning out wings, landing gear and other parts for bombers. aircraft parts.
But the aircraft production goals set by President Roosevelt required a gigantic effort,
have to be borne by the
and the major burden would
aircraft industry itself. In the
turers
the defense build-up
had produced
in
a total of
in
1942, and 125,000
in
ta,
six billion
1940
number
of aircraft
to 81 in 1943,
while floor
space for plane manufacture and assembly was expanded
from 14 million
to
170 million square
feet.
Employment in the aircraft industry rose from 100,000 in to over two million at the peak of the war effort.
1940
Although President Roosevelt's goal of 125,000 planes 1943 proved unattainable, the total U.S. production
in
in-
creased from 23,000 planes per year before Pearl Harbor to
85,898
in
1943 and 96,318
Moreover,
as the
War
in
1944.
progressed, the quality of Ameri-
can aircraft improved dramatically. The performance of the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator, the work-horse
82
predecessors, the B-29 could travel a third farther and
and carry over two and a half times the bomb load. improved dramatically from the sluggish
U.S. fighters also
P-40
Tomahawk
the swifter,
widely used
more
at the outset of the
agile P-38 Lightning,
and P-51 Mustang, generally regarded of World War II.
War
to
P-47 Thunderbolt
as the finest fighter
hack their way through jungles of red tape, improvise
solutions to production problems and inspire their employ-
ees to herculean efforts.
1943.
Georgia. Across the country, the in
its
faster
to
aircraft
plants increased from 4!
the B-29, the gigantic Superfortress. Almost twice as large as
1940, U.S. aircraft manufac-
equipment were on order. orders would require an enormous Fulfillment of these enlargement of production potential, and the aircraft industry set about at once to increase its plant capacity. The Boeing Airplane Company began expanding in the Seattle area; Douglas Aircraft enlarged its facilities in Southern California to include a new $12-million plant at Long Beach. Bell Aircraft put up a new fighter assembly plant at Niagara Falls, New York, and a huge new bomber factory at Marietand
arma-
75,000 planes by the use of
Within a few weeks of the Pearl Harbor attack, dollars in planes
its
ment was dramatically increased. Before the end of the Second World War the B-17 and B-24 were superseded by
To meet America's stupendous production goals a special breed of industrial leader was required. Men were needed
handcraft methods. The President was calling for 60,000 planes
speed and range remained about the same, but
32
years between the Wright brothers' pioneer flight and the start of
bombers of the Army Air Forces, was improved: the B-17's speed was increased from 256 to 287 miles per hour, and its range was extended from 1,377 to 2,000 miles; the B-24's
Of
all
the miracle workers, the
most dynamic, perhaps, was the shipbuilder Henry
J.
A landlubber who
bow
persisted
in
"front end," Kaiser built nearly Liberty ships
— the
calling a ship's
one
Kaiser.
the
third of America's 2,716
ungainly-looking merchant vessels that
bore the brunt of carrying materiel to the fighting fronts. Kaiser's very
name became
done
effectively.
fast
and
He had been
a
synonym
for getting things
shipyard only once before he started
in a
new pursuit he brought organiand the techniques he had perfected in the construction industry. A junior-high-school dropout, he began his career as a photographer and paving contractor, building ships. But to this
zational genius
and went on to construct the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge and the world's largest dam, the Grand Coulee. During the War, Kaiser operated seven shipyards and revolutionized shipbuilding. Instead of laying a keel and constructing the ship around and above fabricated and then effective
it
by
riveting,
that at the
peak of the War he astounded the
world by building and launching and 30 minutes. Kaiser
was
a
he had sections pre-
welded together. His methods were so a ship in only
260-pounder with energy
to
match
80 hours his
phy-
sique. In his early sixties, he slept only four hours a night.
phone
calls
and
rushed around the country hiring workers, organizing
new
spent $250,000 a year projects and cutting for steel
of steel,
and
in
long-distance
government red tape
to get priorities
and other materials. When his shipyards ran short he borrowed $106 million from the government
built California's first steel mill, near Fontana. Kaiser,
said an associate, "is like a breathless elephant.
He
just leans
belt just long
enough
Priority ratings, lar
match
to
when
that proportion
— 60
feet.
obtainable, proved to be a particu-
source of discouragement to small businessmen. The
WPB
and C, but wangle an A soon found that it had been topped by ratings AA and AAA granted indestarted out simply with the ratings A, B
applicants
who managed
to
—
pendently of the
WPB
by the military's chief contracting
on you, smiles, and you move."
agency, the Army-Navy Munitions Board. Henry Kaiser him-
The industrial giants such as Kaiser and Ford usually got what they wanted, but in the scramble for materials many small companies fell by the wayside. Some were elbowed
took a dim view of the system. "A priority," he said, "is something which gives you an option to ask for something which you know you're not going to get anyhow." Kaiser could cut his way through the labyrinth of the self
out
in
whose
the competition for scarce metals; the
product required just a
stood no chance experts in
War
fellow
power
move them, and the arsenals
in
where
who were
lucky
enough
to secure a hearing
could not always be sure of a logical reaction from the thinkers.
a priority for materials to
or belt.
When
a
WPB
One
food processor requested
construct
official
a
100-foot-long convey-
asked what proportion of the
company's production went into the war effort, the reply was "60 per cent." The official did some quick figuring and ruled that the
lost.
In
less
than a year
to juggle the dwindling supply for use
Production Board's
they were made.
WPB's bureaucratic
smaller fry tended to get
Nelson's domain had 25,000 employees and a stupefying table of organization that included such units as the Pipe,
the electric transmission lines to
Businessmen
WPB;
Wire Products and Galvanized Steel Jobbers Subcommittee of the Iron and Steel Advisory Committee. The howls of the modest entrepreneurs quickly reached Capitol Hill. In mid-1942 an act of Congress required the War Production Board to set up a Smaller War Plants Divi-
the
the ships and trains to
in
little
copper, for example,
own
when
were having
munitions,
bit of
company could have
priority for a
conveyor
sion "to mobilize aggressively the productive cai^acity of
all
small business concerns." Later reorganized as a corporation with lending powers,
it
was headed by
Congressman, Maury Maverick,
who
a
former Texas
up to his name. A passionate foe of bureaucracy, Maverick was destined to win a permanent [jjace in the dictionary by coining the word "gobbledygook" to decry bureaucratic jargon; his
own memos were
liked to live
labeled with such trenchant phrases as
"bloody urgent." Maverick championed the cause of the small businessmen, securing prime contracts and subcontracts for thousands of them. But the battle was never fully won. Many would-be [participants in the war eftort had to shut down; by 1942, there were 300,000 fewer small companies in existence than there had been before the War. large, medium ,\nc\ All told, some 200,000 companies small successfully made the conversion to war production. Some were able to take the leap with relative ease. A bedspread manufacturer turned to making mosc|uito netting for use in tropical combat zones. A soft-drink maker, accustomed to filling bottles with liquids, instead loaded shell casings with explosive chemicals. A producer of rub-
—
—
ber boots
A New
pontoons.
A paper-box manufacturer
man implements his solution to the tire shortage in 1942— made from soles of old shoes. Rubber was one of the most
jersey
retread critical
now made
— and scarcest —of wartime materials:
a flying Fortress took half a
needs for the 18-month period beginning in July 1942 were estimated at 842,000 tons— 200,000 more than in the national stockpile. Not until mid-1944 was there enough synthetic rubber to ease the shortage and again allow civilian consumption. ton, a destroyer
some 50
tons. Military
83
turned out plasma
kit
own
One
containers.
to
its
at least.
C.
Smith had started out
L.
roots,
typewriter
company
on one side of the corporation,
went back
in
the 19th Century by
fashioning shotguns, and later merged with Corona typewriter business.
producing
Now
the
the
in
merged company turned
to
was more
difficult,
A
maker of model trains switched to bomb fuses, a merry-goround manufacturer to gun mounts, a casket factory to airplanes, a piano factory to airplane motors, a pinball-
machine producer to hardware for parachute harnesses. The requirements of mechanized warfare compelled the creation of some new industries, most notably as a result of a perilous shortage of rubber. In early 1942,
seizure of \lala\a and the Dutch
when
Japan's
East Indies cut off 90 per
cent of America's imports of natural rubber, the United States had less than a years supply
on hand
— and the needs
increasing: a B-17 Flying Fortress required half a ton of
One
potential source of natural rubber was the gua\ ule which grew wild in the Southwest and in Mexico, and which, in fact, had provided half of America's rubber supply in the early part of the 20th Century. An attempt was made to cultivate guayule on a large scale, but the harvest was too plant,
potential source
June 1942, Roosevelt called
was reclaimed scrap rubber. In on the public to turn in "old
old rubber raincoats, old garden hose, rubber shoes,
bathing caps, gloves."
In
New
York
City, a carload of
chorus
Broadway musical drove up to one collection depot, Nat Jupiter's service station, and wriggled out of from
a
their girdles. In L.
it
up and had
est collection point.
brought
in
his
mat
at
the
chauffeur deposit
White House, it
at the near-
Within four weeks Roosevelt's appeal
some 450,000
tons of scrap rubber. But
much
it, like ickes' floor mat, already had been reclaimed once and was unsuitable for further reprocessing. Finally, Roosevelt imposed nationwide gasoline
ing
— more
to
conserve rubber than gas
of
at least
— the equivalent of the
har-
vest from 180 million rubber trees.
Washington
the neat trick of persuad-
peacetime product was war effort. The classic case involved Wrigley's chewing gum. To stav in business, Philip K. Wrigley had to solve two formidable problems: the lack of chicle, which, like rubber latex, had been coming from trees in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia, and the shortage of sugar, which was rationed in the United States. Wrigley overing
that their regular
essential to the
came
the
obstacle by turning to South America, where
first
grew abundantly. He had
chicle trees
there tap rubber trees grow ing
in
his
gum-tree tappers
same
the
He then
areas.
arranged to ha\e the chicle transported back to the States
in
ships carrying the high-priority rubber. Next, to obtain a
sugar
priorit\'
from the government, Wrigley needed to his chewing gum was essential to the war
He argued — w the help of — that chewing gum was great
effort. ry
ith
a
wound up
sion; he
a
government laboratowartime ten-
reliever of
the rations
in
foreign
to
become, along w ith such other and cigarettes, the
as chocolate bars
currency for GIs
soil.
who
bartered their
Wrigley also distributed
plants, with this skillful sales pitch: feel better,
for
packing
rations, but
his factory as well.
American stand-bys
common
gum
not only supplying a stick of
each package of the Army's combat K
work
his
way
across
product to war
"To help your workers
better, just see that they get five sticks of
chewing gum every day."
was ultimately responsible for was the most productive in the nation's history and the most unusual. Operating at full blast, industry had to rely heavily on the skills of those who had been largely excluded from the
The
civilian labor force that
the wartime triumph of American technology
—
factories in ration-
— and ordered
full-
steam-ahead on synthesizing rubber from petroleum, a process in which the Germans had a huge head start; they had
84
a year
Washington, Secretary of the Interior Harold
Ickes spotted a rubber floor
rolled
were
to private industry. By 1944, the factories
producing 800,000 tons
Chewing gum was thus
slow to count on.
girls
them
government spent
svnthetic-rubber factories, then
build 51
demonstrate that
rubber, and U.S. tanks used a ton.
tires,
leased
the 1930s. The American
to
A few manufacturers performed
For other manufacturers the transition
A second
in
it
$700 million
rifles.
involving the use of unfamiliar machines and techniques.
were
undertaken
prewar days: women, blacks. Southern white
migrants, teenagers, convicts and ex-convicts, the aged and
the physicalK' handicapped. At San Quentin prison fornia, inmates turned out materiel ranging
marine nets to night
sticks for the National
in Cali-
from antisub-
Guard.
In
Maine
a builder of ters
wooden minesweepers
lured 100 ship carpen-
man aged knew how to use
out of retirement, including one
discovering that no one else
84, after
an old-
fashioned tool called an adz. Aircraft plants hired midgets to inspect the ers to sort
cramped
out
rivets
insides of plane wings, blind workfrom the floor sweepings. Other fac-
by mid-1943, some three million youngsters aged 12 to
those with a high degree of training. Former watchmakers
states
17 were employed
Unemployment
in
war work. Even those
who
in
wound up with jobs. Urban police rounded up skid row inhabitants, weeded them out for useful skills and offered suspended sentences to those in trouble with the
1942,
Inc.,
when
filed
his
law
—
if
they would go to work.
Hoboes of America customary annual report with the State of Jeff Davies, president of
Indiana, he disclosed that virtually
members had
left
the road.
few had
virtually disappeared.
ordinary times chose to remain idle
In
—
example, shortened the training period required for a welder from three months to just 10 days. In fact, workers with
noise level
tion;
were not full-fledged hoboes at all, Davies added "They're just bums." Though most of the newly employed had never seen the inside of a factory, new training techniques and the relative simplicity of mass-production methods reduced the need for long apprenticeships. Henry Kaiser's shipbuilders, for
deaf for jobs in plant areas where the high was intolerable to people of normal hearing. suspended their child-labor laws for the dura-
tories hired the
Many
the rest had jobs. The few exceptions
all
Many were
two million the service and
of the in
skills
to
sometimes fared better on the assembly
be retrained because of
their distressing
lines than
tendency to
stop the assembly line and repair faulty parts instead of
throwing them out.
How-to manuals came the Boeing Airplane uals, totaling
ment
into their
Company
more than 2,000
official visited
all
When
pages.
Boeing's plant
questioned the need for Forces colonel
own. For the B-29 alone, a dozen man-
published half
in
a high
govern-
Wichita, Kansas, and
those manuals, an
who was showing him around
Army
Air
staged a con-
He picked an employee at random and had him study the Boeing Pilot's Handbook for five minutes. Then the employee climbed into the cockpit of a vincing demonstration.
B-29 Superfortress, compared the tles
had
with the illustrations all
in
the
maze of dials and throtbook and 18 minutes later
four engines running.
/The most
significant addition to the wartime work force, more than six million women who took jobs (pages 88W1 ), came relatively late. Factory managers had been loath to hire women, arguing that they did not understand machines and, moreover, would distract male workers. In 1941, when Vultee Aircraft took the plunge and hired 25 women for production jobs, it rushed them to work on March 31
the
a
day
planned
earlier than
—
lest
the experiment be branded
an April Fool's joke. In
the
months
first six
women
after Pearl Harbor, an estimated
applied for work
in war plants, but only about 80,000 were taken on. With a growing shortage of manpower, however, industry was forced to reconsider, and
750,000
an intensive recruitment of
women
began. Radio stations,
newspapers and magazines exhorted
employment
women
to "enlist" at
showing Lockheed Aircraft's mythical "Rosie the Riveter" a buxom, longlashed heroine in coveralls began appearing everywhere, their local
office.
Posters
—
In Valparaiso, Indiana,
pound pile
junkman Frank Schumak
of scrap that military
—
vainly defends a
policemen have come
200 000-
to appropriate.
Schumak, claiming he wanted the metal as an investment for his old age, had refused to sell it at the government's price of $18.75 a ton. But such holdouts were rare. Three weeks after the government called for scrap drives in mid-1942, civilians had contributed five million tons of pots and pans, horseshoes, discarded car bumpers and other metal objects.
85
along with feature stories about her "If
you can run Connecticut ordnance
you can drive
slogan of a
5,000 more
a car
a
counterparts.
real-life
machine," became the
plant's
campaign
to hire
women.
The addition of
current myth that a job on an assembly line could cause
including a mysterious malady
called "riveter's ovaries,"
which supposedly resulted from
A
excessive vibration.
women
to the
essential for production, but also
work force was not only evidence of the all-out
ef-
bigger deterrent was the matter of
men
unequal pay. Though
it
— "Re-
to get married to get
men's
liked
member when women had
on the home American girl with the toothy smile was supplanted by the image of a dirt-streaked face beneath hair bound up in a bandanna. Military photographers were often assigned to factories to get that morale-boosting new image to relay
— the
women
averaged about 40 per cent
to the forces overseas.
example, simply changed
was on such a mission that an Army photographer named David Conover discovered a curvaceous 19-year-old
and female workers
to
discriminating
pay
fort
traditional picture of the all-
It
the Radio Plane Parts
beauty
at
fornia.
When Conover
liquid
mon
on the
Company
Burbank, Cali-
in
spotted her, she was spraying a
r'uselage of a
plane and radiating an uncom-
mixture of sex appeal and ethereal beauty. Her
was Norma Jean Baker, and she agreed only after he had
to
name
pose for Conover
secured written permission from
her
foreman. Conover spent three days taking pictures of her
—
around the plant in the overalls she normally wore to work and also in a sweater. One of her pictures appeared in the Army magazine Yank and came to the attention of a photographer named Potter Hueth, who in turn photographed her and showed
his pictures to a modeling agency. Under the name of Marilyn Monroe, she would wind up one day making movies. The presence of women in the war plants helped improve working conditions, bringing such innovations as employee cafeterias and decent rest-room facilities, as well as the
addition of such labor-saving devices as mechanical the assembly
lines.
lifts
to
Employers became more aware of the
by
men doing
was
fact
the
same
Board ruled that
women
work, but
too
left
it
in
its
en also had trouble finding transportation to work. What tion difficulties
— led
to a
86
One was
a
— domestic and transporta-
high
rate of turnover
and ab-
senteeism. The turnover rate at Boeing was so high that,
company had
over a four-year period, the
to hire 250,000
women in order to maintain a work force of 39,000. When one woman was questioned as to why more members of her sex did not go into
war work, she snapped: "Because they
don't have wives."
Absenteeism concern
in
— both war
the
female and male
plants. In 1943, with
job running as high as 20 per cent
in
— was
a persistent
absences from the
some
plants, the flying
hero Captain Eddie Rickenbacker undertook a one-man crusade across the nation. "There
Some even greater
separate categories of male
one company labeled "the DTs"
protective guards were built into machines. in
loopholes. General Motors, for its
scales.
foxholes
variety of deterrents.
to
than those earned
The most serious deterrent for many women, however, was the fact that a factory job only added to their domestic burdens. More than 50 per cent of the female work force were full-time housewives, saddled with the continuing need to shop, cook and care for the children. Many wom-
Africa," he declared, "for
for a
less
wages paid
"heavy" and "light" and went on
for safety precautions; industrial accidents were causmore American casualties than the fighting itself. Safety goggles were made mandatory for certain operations and
might have gone into war work
the
should receive equal pay for equal
many
ing
Women
now
The government's War Labor
jobs.
need
numbers except
even
that
about
to joke
wages?"
The
front.
all
of bodily ailments,
sorts
a
in
bayonet
is
no absenteeism
in
the
the jungles of the Pacific or the burning sands of
in
if
their bellies
attempted there, they would get
from
their fellow
Americans."
and other cash incentives to work every day, while women employees of
industries used lotteries
keep people
at
a Portland shipyard hit
upon
their
own
effective solution:
who were
they refused dates with fellow workers
absent
without good cause. Soon, other companies followed
— No
and started "No work Strikes
proved
less of a
woo"
suit
clubs.
after Pearl
Harbor, labor leaders took
a no-strike
and
for the
most part they
Overall, strikes cost
less
than half of
per cent of
1
dispute that did erupt
up
lived
made
to
it.
work
all
pledge,
time, and any labor
The most notorious involved higher wages. Their leader, John
a series of strikes in
L.
1943,
who were demanding
Lewis, a burly
man
with
a
mane, beetling black eyebrows and a gift for Biblical rhetoric, was by far the most colorful figure
silvery gray
rolling in
the American labor
movement. Lewis detested Roosevelt
all of Washington. When the government took over the struck coal mines and threatened to operate them with soldiers, his defiant answer was: "You can't mine coal with bayonets." Soon, critical shortages of coal developed along the East Coast, eliciting from Interior Secretary Ickes one of the worst puns of the War: "We can fuel all of the people some of the time, and fuel some of the people all of the time. But in war we can't fuel all of the
and was ready to take on
people
all
was probably the most unpopular man
America. Polls showed that though
people thought the miners deserved
wage
ceilings,
"John
The miners' increase,
a raise despite
wartime
L.
Lewis,
strikes,
—
Amerthe Gl newspaper Stars and
men. "Speaking
ican soldier," said an editorial in Stripes,
majority of the
a
87 per cent regarded Lewis unfavorably
feeling shared by the fighting
damn your all
strikers
would enable the government
deemed
whatever jobs
it
velt called for
such
a
law
wage
be drafted and
to assign people to
necessary. In January 1944, Roosein his
State of the
but neither business nor labor wanted
women. "A woman kept on any job
.
.
has the strongest won't."
Cleveland company producing airplane parts,
Inc., a
ish
baihs and referred to
Andrew Jackson
ates."
.
it.
Union message, Nor did most
against her will
is
all
of
its
9,000 workers as "associ-
Higgins, a swashbuckling Louisiana
manufacturer of torpedo boats and landing an unabashed appeal to
his
craft, relied
on
employees' patriotism. He had
"The Star-Spangled Banner" played over loudspeakers and had pictures of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito posted in the men's rooms, with the caption: "Come on in, brother. Take it
easy. Every
minute you
loaf here helps us plenty."
The workers themselves spurred on one another through sheer pride of craftsmanship. Engineers burgh, steel
New
made what
is
They sent
it
it
was almost
show you what wc are doing in Newburgh." wire came back mounted on a steel small microscope attached. One by one the
just to
later the
block with a
find that their rivals in
New-
to a rival factory upstate with the note,
engineers peered through hole
at a plant in
they thought was the finest
wire possible, stretched so thin that
invisible.
"This
York,
the microscope, chagrined
had succeeded
in
boring
a
to
minuscule
the wire.
For workers with
ties
to the
men on
the battlefronts
the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and wives on the pro-
—
at home there was a special incentive that outweighed everything else: the possibility that their own handiwork might somehow directly affect the life of a loved
duction lines
coal-black soul."
revived discussion of a national service law, similar to Britain's, that
tries,
for the
eventually settled after a small
brought demands that
woman
head of a
man may have
Most employers devised their own answers to the problems of labor disputes and absenteeism. Many got around government wage ceilings by introducing such fringe benefits as medical insurance. Jack and Heintz Precision Indus-
A few weeks
of the time."
For a time, Lewis in
a leash," declared the
gave monthly banquets for employees, provided free Turk-
headlines.
by approximately 400,000 coal miners
on
organization. "Don't forget that a
the strongest will, but a
war production. Shortly
threat to
likely to act like a cat
women's
one. They relished
the story of a
seaman named
Elgin
Staples, whose ship went down off Guadalcanal. Staples was swept over the side, but he survived, thanks to a life belt that proved, on later examination, to have been inspected, packed and stamped back home in Akron, Ohio,
by
his
own
mother.
87
^
-
*
^
113 per cent during the War.
A
23-vear-okl worker in a steel mill
in
Cuy,
In u/ci/id,
OMc..^ wio
movement
of a
huge
ladle used for
molten iron to the
transfer car she operates at
left.
99
i^
^^:-
,:>•;
'*'
^ififal
r
Kir
V
n
V %-
Asscmhiy-line workers
100
at
>^*i lam
A. N. Y/n-LJA»4»
the
iiinTfTTniiitnTiMrrtuJM rf*wif na
&45JAh
TAXI PA
I
J
"i.
"I'm sorry to be the one to deliver this,"
19
d Oi
PM
taxi
driver said to Albert
Wood
as
he
handed him the envelope. The message would make January 19, 1945, the darkest day of the War for the Woods. Albert later recalled: "I realized the driver knev^ the
j:co;;d ave portwaj:
my telegram, and that it must be one of those next-of-kin missives I'd hoped never to receive." The message was blunt. Francis had been seriously wounded
contents of
:T TO
n^FQPa.i
YOU yOUR-SON STAFF SERGEANT'FRAHCIS F
;E;jousLY""\'^io^r^Ef"i:,1^
eiGmT
:.CTrc*j T'venty
JIRECT
..
iiiaaiiTT
-
'
ifTTf -'ifw:DUN}.OP; ACTING THE A:"!JUTA T
FRO'.:
'~^
;DECE;..oEr;
HOSPITAL
^~'
•
; JE;ic
Vf(
lu
_.
.
J
^^^7
Ti
in
the Battle of the Bulge.
weeks with practically no news of their son's condition, Albert and Louise were relieved to learn from a friend After several
who
visited Francis at a hospital in
England
was recovering nicely. "The war the Pacific was not over, and we began
that he
in
to
anxious about Paul," Albert wrote, his words hinting of the ordeal that faced parfeel
B
COMPANY WllL APPRECIATE SVOOESTION3
mOV IT?
ents with sons
still
fighting.
Wood was twice wounded and received the Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster (right). The first wound was minor; the second one was revealed to his parents in this telegram.
Francis
Relaxing in Bavaria, where he was stationed in the late summer of 1945, Francis enjoys a liqueur that he once described as "sweet and
powerful as
this
new atomic bomb."
Francis sent his parents a his scar. Five
weeks
photograph (above) of
after his family learned
of his injury, the Army mailed them an abruptly worded bulletin (below) on his progress.
4-173
US HOSPITAL PLANT
NEW-IQM,
llY.
2 4 FEB
1945
S/Sgt Prancls F. Wood, 42124899 IWAKING nORi.JA L ir^jPRnVFucf^T;
Wound, left chest. V«y tn|)r JTDM^
L>or, MAP. _ _T^ Beg j^ 3 1 ra r_ (1KB.
138
l-«)n«H«L-*»M(Mr«r*i
Louise and Albert played together often in the winter of 1945. Alter their son Francis was
wounded and news was
scarce, they turned to music for solace.
139
from the War, the Wood clan celebrates in Port Washington. are: foreground are Francis (left) and Bertram. Standing (from left) Gardner. and Albert Penelope, Bartlett, Robert brother-in-law Moyer,
Home In the
gathering of the family and his wife, Louise, host a postwar friends in of the children and their wives, husbands and gid Hotel in New York City. the elegant dining room of the Waldorf Astona
The patriarch for
some
SONS REUNITED AFTER THE TEST OF FIRE of Albert and Louise Wood returned from the War eager to make up the time that they had sacrificed. Only Francis bore a scar, but all four had changed. Like so many fathers of his generation, Albert
The sons
Wood
discovered that
his
sons had
left
boys and had been forged by the first fires of their experience into men. At sudtheir to adjust to difficult it found he
home
as
den maturity, their new sense of independence and their reluctance to resume life exactly as it had been before the War. But he came to accept these changes. "We all polished up our rose-colored glasses," Albert said of this period, "and peered deeper into
what we thought the world of ever-
lasting
peace held
in
store for us."
been artistically inand now they plunged into the acting, writing, painting and sculp-
His sons had always clined, arts:
ture.
But gradually, as the
last
of
their
Army paychecks diminished, they began to spend more time in the shop of Albert Wood & Five Sons, finding again the old pleasure of working together in Port Washand looking ahead to the future. ington
—
140
141
Sometime during the autumn R.
of 1942 an
lowan named John
Brauckmiller decided to pull up stakes and go West. Like
thousands of Americans seized with the same notion, he
had motives both patriotic and personal. By getting
some shipyard along
the
booming
a job in
he would
Pacific Coast,
bit for the war effort but also betterincome he had been able to earn as a construction worker and blacksmith in Grand Island, Nebraska. Brauckmiller, however, was not exactly foot-loose. He had a wife, 10 sons, three daughters and 16 grandchildren. Although several had left the fold one son to go into the Army, another to work in a defense plant in the East, a daughter to live near the Army camp where her husband was stationed the rest of the Brauckmillers were still close-knit. They saw no reason to disrupt their happy state.
not only be doing his ing the
—
—
And
so they migrated en masse, traveling
in
assorted jalop-
—
and arriving at their chosen destination Portland, Oregon in successive waves. The trek failed to dampen the Brauckmillers' zest for togetherness. Before long, 15 of them had found jobs at the same place Henry j. Kaiser's Swan Island shipyard and on the same midnight-to-morning graveyard shift. Grandpa Brauckmiller, eight sons and a son-in-law worked as shipfitters, while a daughter and four daughters-in-law worked as welders, welder's helpers and shipfitter's helpers. Grandma Brauckmiller might have joined them except that she was keeping house, looking after her youngest daughter and grandchildren, tending the family pooch and canary, feedies
—
—
—
ing three non-Brauckmiller boarders and, as a sideline, rent-
two furnished rooms to transients. Portland, like were reaping a bonanza in war contracts, was crowded and short of housing; Grandma, after a lifetime of enforced frugality, was not about to miss a chance at ing out
Boomtowns and Sleeping
the housing shortage
in shifts at
25 cents a turn
Willow Run goes "trailerwacky" Rivers of spending money Broadway's biggest season
The War as a leveler An upsurge in weddings, births and divorces The teenager's new independence The Sinatra craze Those aggressive Victory girls Zoot suit with a reat pleat The seeds of racial equality
other
cities that
some
extra cash.
But the Brauckmillers' lean years were over. The ship-
yard contingent's combined weekly take at the Kaiser pay
windows averaged
among
a princely $996.
Even after
the 15 individual earners, the pay was
was split enough to
it
permit them to invest anywhere from a tenth to a half of their
wages
in
War
Bonds.
Numerous though they may have been, the Brauckmillers were by no means unique in pulling up stakes. They were part of a mass movement that was one of the home front's
A NATION IN MOTION
most dramatic and not
America was
features.
during the War.
An estimated 40
just for training
a nation
motion
in
million people
left
home,
camps or assignments overseas, but
to find jobs or seek their fortunes in other parts of the
country. Moreover, the dislocation
was not
just physical,
but social and psychological as well. By providing rich
job opportunities and putting rivers of
money
new
into circula-
War produced sudden and startling changes in the economic and social status of many people. In the process, individuals, families and the whole fabric of it subjected American society to great strains.
Camp
men were employed in its construcaccommodations were inundated, and residents were persuaded to open their homes to those in need of shelter. Still, some who were unable to find other housing
addition to the 16 million people
In
who
left
home
for
changed their residences across county lines. For most of them the magnet was jobs, often in places far from where they had been living. According to Bureau of Census estimates, 1 .7 million Americans moved to other states and 3.6 million to and
different parts of the country. California's shipyards
alone attracted 1.4 million people, helping to
aircraft plants
set the stage for the state's later
population center
As an early
in
ascendancy
as the largest
the United States.
result of the
massive reshuffling of the pop-
ulation, acute shortages of
housing developed. Hundreds
than 20,000
tion; local
slept in cars or lived in lean-tos, roadside brush piles or
even packing cases.
Many Southern
tion, the
military service, an estimated 15.3 million civilians
Blanding, a post for 60,000 soldiers, was built close
More
by.
cities,
converting
in
hurry to heavy
a
were overrun by newly arriving workers. The situation was most acute along the Gulf Coast, where shipyards drew tens of thousands of job seekers from the backwoods. In Mobile, Alabama, the population shot up 60 per cent in three years. So crowded was the metropolitan industrialization,
area that landlords rented so-called "hot beds" to workers in
shifts
— eight
hours' rest for 25 cents.
To the
visiting
author John Dos Passes, Mobile looked "trampled and battered like a city that's been taken by storm."
however, that the
living conditions there,
He noted,
though primitive,
were often an improvement over the new residents' prelot: "Housekeeping in a trailer with electric light and running water is a dazzling luxury to a woman who's lived all her life in a cabin with half-inch chinks between the
vious
splintered boards of the floor."
boomtowns appeared across the nation, as the sheer numbers of new migrants quickly overwhelmed existing housing, schools and other facilities. Around many cities instant slums sprang up so-called "new Hoovervilles" that
lack of housing was critical elsewhere, too: in Portwhere the Brauckmillers settled; in Hartford, Connecticut, and San Diego, California, where many workers
consisted of trailer camps, shantytowns and tent settle-
er
of
—
ments.
A
many
newcomers, and the established residents did ease their plight. "Those folks in houses think trailer
to
little
sense of impermanence governed the
lives
of
of the
people are vermin,"
a
newcomer
to Pascagoula, Mississip-
Agnes E. Meyer, whose investigations of boomtowns were later published in a book aptly titled pi,
told reporter
journey through Chaos.
No
other area of the country
tion
more
there
— before
felt
the effects of the migra-
sharply than the South. The Pearl
Harbor
boom came
from the economic stagnation that had beset Civil
War.
Its
early
raising the entire region
resurgence stemmed
in
part
it
up
since the
from the scores of
camps located there. Starke, Florida, formerly a depressed backwater town with a population of 1,500, overnight became the state's fourth largest city when military training
The
land,
rooms, makeshift houses and trailhead of the Federal Security Administra-
lived in barely furnished
camps
that the
tion said constituted a new kind of "slum on wheels." The most notorious boomtown was Willow Run, Michigan, site of the giant Ford aircraft plant. The plant attracted more than 32,000 new residents to the area, and its assembly-line
technology contrasted cruelly with the primitive
around
Outdoor
living
con-
were situated dangerously near wells. One fairly typical house served five men li\ing in the basement, a family of five on the first floor, four people on the second floor, nine men in the garage and four families in four trailers parked in the yard. Working in the Ford plant was not so bad, a resident told a visiting reporter, but after being cooped up in the trailers all day the women went "trailerwacky." To alleviate the housing shortage at Willow Run, the federal government planned construction of a permanent ditions
it.
privies
143
community
that
was
to
accommodate 30,000 people. But
security
men
ripped up the surveying stakes. Eventually
the plan ran into heavy opposition. Residents of the area
10,000 temporary housing units were constructed, half
opposed permanent housing because they feared that Wil-
the form of dormitories for single
low Run would become a ghost town and tax burden after the War. And Ford officials feared that the existence of a
As America's war plants went into
permanent community would strengthen the auto workers' union. When surveyors began work on the project, Ford
in
men and women. full
production, the
country became prosperous once more. Unemployment levels
and the number of low-paying jobs declined dramati-
Dubbed by a West Coast newspaper as "the shipbuildingest family America," the hard-hatted clan of John R. Brauckmiller (sixth from left) perches on a railing at Portland, Oregon's Swan Island shipyard. There, 15 Brauckmiller kin found jobs after migrating en masse from the Midwest in search of a larger share of America's generous wartime wages. in
144
income soared from $96 billion to War years. The weekly earnings of the average factory worker nearly doubled, rising from $25.25 to $47.08, and many people (such as the Brauckmillers) did much better. With the economy running at top speed, some workers began to eye the prospect of peace with ambivalence. "It's a pretty good war if you don't get shot at," one man said. After stinting through a decade of Depression, people suddenly had money to spend, and they did not let rationing or shortages stop them from doing so. Production of consumer goods rose by 12 per cent in spite of the high priority accorded war materials, and the nation went on a spending spree. "People are crazy with money," observed a jeweler in Philadelphia. "They don't care what they buy." Overall, personal
cally.
$171 billion
in
the four
They bought
furs,
26 per cent
in
cosmetics, handbags. Jewelry sales rose
On
1942.
the third anniversary of Pearl
Harbor, Macy's department store a
in
New
York City enjoyed
record-breaking selling day. Driven by the pressures and tensions brought on by the
War, people began to spend lavishly on entertainment.
Wartime business was up 40 per cent at nightclubs like New York's Latin Quarter, which featured elaborate, flashy shows. Lou Walters, the club's owner, explained: "You gotta keep in mind you are selling them luxury and waste." Broadway enjoyed its most prosperous season in 1944-1945, mainly with frothy, escapist fare. The movie business was also booming. In Portland, Oregon, theaters stayed open all
night, featuring a workers' "swing-shift
midnight to 4 o'clock
dance in
at race tracks
in
New
in
its
history,"
the morning. Betting and atten-
reached their highest wartime levels
noted columnist Dan Parker of the
York Da/7y News.
To many soldiers returning seas,
it
often
seemed
ious to the true
that
to the
United States from over-
Americans
at
home were
obliv-
dimensions of the War. "Their way of
life
changed a damn bit," grumbled an Army Air Forces bombardier on furlough. His bitterness was understandable: civilians all around him appeared to be having the time of their lives. But in spite of the fun, economic and social changes of profound significance were taking place. hasn't really
in the process America was being irrevocably altered. The new job opportunities and the new prosperity were the catalysts, job prospects improved up and down the line. A poll showed that seven out of every 10 citizens questioned felt that they now had a better chance of getting ahead than their parents had possessed. Businessmen, farm-
ers,
the
women, good
workers shared
skilled workers, unskilled
times. But the biggest gains
of the social pyramid.
While income
creased by 20 per cent,
it
rose
in
came in
at the
the top
the bottom
in
bottom fifth
fifth
in-
by 68
per cent. Perhaps the best index of the economic gains was the increase in the number of Americans who had to pay income taxes. In 1940, only 7.8 million filed tax returns; in 1945, no fewer than 48 million in a population of 140 million filed returns with the Internal Revenue Service. (To some degree the tax-paying population was in-
creased as well by a reduction
in
the
minimum
taxable
income from $800 to $500.) The War was not only putting more money in most people's hands; it was having a democratizing effect as well through the impact of rationing and shortages. A social reformer pointed the fact out early in the War: "Rockefeller and can now get the same amount of sugar, gasoline, tires, etc., etc., etc., and the etc.'s will soon fill many pages." The gasoline shortage even forced that arbiter of upperclass manners, Emily Post, to revise her code. Hosts were no longer expected to pick up their guests at the train I
station, she ruled.
A more
matinee" from
1944 and 1945. "America was on the damndest gambling
binge
And
fact that
serious
many
consequence
for the
lost their servants to
upper crust was the the lure of wartime
wages, never to get them back again. By 1944 the number
women in domestic work had decreased by one fifth. Newspaper want ads attested to the shortage of maids. A woman in Newark offered "room, radio, good salary and nice home," then desperately threw in the privilege of wearing her mink coat on days off. The old ways died hard, of course, and the people who were high on the status ladder went to great lengths to of
maintain in
a
Seneca,
semblance of Illinois
River), the units of a
project
were
all
social stratification. At a shipyard
(which had direct access to the Mississippi
new government-constructed housing
exactly alike
—
in style,
the shipyard quietly arranged for
its
quality
and
rent.
But
executives to reside
in
145
MAKING DO ^, „„.„„ WITH TEEN-AGE POWER With the War's growing appetite for ablebodied men consuming America's labor supply as
the early T940s, teen-age boys
in
were among those who filled in replacements. At the same time, many
and
girls
had to relax their child-labor laws there to allow minors to work. By 1943, were almost three million American boys
states
American fields them in at the paid were they where defense plants
and and
on the job
girls
half
factories,
standard
These
a
in
million of
rate.
striplings
stitutes for strong
were not just poor submen: they pulled their
load, despite
share of the
their
lack
of
defense contractor, Lock1,500 boys in 1943 as hired Aircraft, heed riveters, draftsmen, electricians and sheetmetal workers. Their delighted supervisor? discovered that two voung people working more than a four-hour shift accomplished
seasoning.
One
an adult employee who was doing a regular eight-hour stint. numIn the process of bringing great bers of children into the work force, the War altered the lives of many adolescents.
Lured by high wartime wages, they took jobs and forgot about their education. Be-
tween 1940 and 1944, the number of teenage workers in America increased by 19 million; the
number attending school de-
clined by 1.25 million.
Many who
tried to
combine school and work fell asleep in job. class, weary from the demands of the
In a California shipyard,
Tom
Powell (above
foreground), 17, and his youthful co-workers chip excess metal from a jig used in the construction of ships. Roy Popp (right), works on a transport plane's fuselage on the .
right,
16,
'
assemhiv
146
line of a
West Coast
aircraft plant.
the block of houses nearest town. Although a carbon copy of
the others
all
in
the project, this block
became known
as
"Gold Coast Row."
—
man, of course did not comment on unfaithful soldiers. Problems of separation and infidelity had always plagued marriages in wartime, but World War II introduced a com-
Many GIs came home to find that their become much more independent. The new selfsufficiency stemmed from the fact that more than six million women, better than half of them married, had experiplicating factor.
While people were growing richer, the physical and social upheavals of the War imposed severe strains on many of the country's most basic institutions. Foremost among these were marriage and the family, which endured conflicting
wives had
and often intolerable stresses. The War had a double-edged effect. On the one hand the rash of whirlwind romances
of earning their
produced an upsurge of weddings and
terror. In
a startling rise in the
birth rate. In 1943, after declining since the 1920s, the birth
rate
reached
its
two decades, thanks in no "goodbye babies," those con-
highest level
small part to the
boom
in
in
ceived just before their Gl fathers
same
left
more
than half a million marriages were dissolved
— almost dou-
ble the prewar figure.
number
for the sharp increase in the
of divorces was, of course, the
burden of long separation
between servicemen and their wives. The women had to learn to wait; as one wife put it, "to endure the slow trickle of time from hour to hour, from day to day, for weeks in anguish and suspense." Some women sleepwalked through the War. Others cracked up or turned to alcohol for sol-
ace
— by
1943 the
jumped from Infidelity,
1
female alcoholics
ratio of
to 5 to
whether
was
it
to
male had
real
was
or only imagined,
husbands and wives. A 1943 -revealed that nearly
principal source of stress for
taken of young
women
in
first
time the excitement and independence
own paychecks
(pages 88-101). For them
Iowa, sociologists studied 135
bands had gone
A
to war.
sizable
not miss their husbands at
some
a
poll
half
of
women whose
number
its
hus-
of the wives "did
the sociologists concluded
all,"
and, indeed, "were glad to be free."
While the
and mother was changing, the
role of wife
dislocations of the
War were
radically altering the status of
member of the family. acquired a new independence another
was the teenager, who through the breakdown of
This
normal family
life and the availability of jobs that paid well. Aided by ready access to plenty of easy money and the
relaxation of social constraints, the
wartime crop of teen-
agers developed into a highly specialized subculture, with
own
The young dance known as the jitterbug, which required such strenuous hopping and leaping about that scarcely anyone over 20 could, in the teen-age parlance of its
clothing styles, interests and problems.
people evolved
a
the day, "cut a rug." Psychologists concluded that the
to 2.
1
for the
divorce, or the prospect of living alone, lost
for overseas. At the
time, the divorce rate rose dramatically. In 1945
The primary reason
enced
bug was
—
as
one put
it
— "a
jitter-
mating dance that emulated
sexual foreplay."
The psychologists
had
a
ready explanation for the
— singer
Frank Sinatra. They attrib-
also
believed that their husbands were being untrue to them.
teenagers' biggest craze
Servicemen were equally worried about receiving "Dear
uted his great appeal to frustrated love induced by the
John"
letters
from home, informing them that
their
sweethearts had taken up with other men. Valid infidelity it
were not compiled during the pre-Kinsey
common enough
was
wives or
statistics
bishop to suggest that
at
era.
on But
across the Atlantic for a British
the end of the
War
all
reunited
couples should forgive each other's lapses and go through a
second marriage ceremony
start.
in
A
less conciliatory
in
New Jersey who declared, "If who are unfaithful would
wives
letters
and have
their
order to achieve
a
fresh
opinion was heard from the judge I
had
my
way, soldiers'
be branded with
heads shaven." The judge
scarlet
— who was
a
pressures of wartime. Whatever the cause, American
show
business had never before seen anything like the hysteria that
surrounded
who was
this
classified 4-F
scrawny young man from Hoboken because of
a
punctured eardrum and
whose voice reminded one
adult critic of "worn velveteen." swooned. Two girls almost strangled him in a tug of war with his bow tie. Once, when he sang "I'll Walk Alone," a voice from the audience cried out in Brooklynese: "I'll walk wid ya, Frankie." His appearance at Manhattan's Paramount Theater in 1944 caused a near riot by 30,000 teen-age girls (they were called "bobby-soxers"), and more
Teen-age
girls
147
order. than 700 policemen had to be called in to restore even was and Sinatra was blamed for teen-age truancy
denounced
in
Congress
one
as
of "the prime instigators
and disof juvenile delinquency in America." But other— parate wartime phenomena were also blamed: working
—
mothers, the absence of fathers, the sense of impermanence engendered by wartime mobility, the lack of customary
boomtowns, even the violence on the popular radio show The Lone Ranger. The increase in juvenile delinquency during the War was
social restraints in
dramatic. During the nile
first full
year, 1942, the rate of juve-
delinquency rose 8 per cent
among boys and
an as-
tounding 31 per cent among girls. The increase of delinquency among girls was accounted for largely by sexual misbehavior, attributed to the "khakiwacky" teenagers who
hung around drugstores, bus depots and other places where servicemen on leave usually congregated. These girls were known as "patriotutes" or "Victory girls" because, as one observer wrote, out of "a misguided sense of patriotism giving [she] believes she is contributing to the war effort by herself to the
man
uniform."
in
were not just promiscuous but aggressively around its so. In Detroit, the Navy had to build a fence worker social a Antonio, San In V-girls. armory to keep out Victory
girls
reported that prostitutes were angry pies" because they
New
York
were "cramping
at
workers reported that
City, social
And in more than 60
among
soldiers
had
Americans, teen-age promiscuity seemed to
sig-
per cent of the cases of venereal disease
been contracted from
To many
"the young chip-
their style."
girls
nal a general decline in
under
21.
moral standards. They found confir-
the public dalliances of actor Errol very young Flynn, who seemed to have a preference for rape by statutory In 1943, Flynn was charged with
mation of that belief
in
women.
But his canny lawyer attacked the character of the plaintiffs, and Flynn was acquitted.
two 17-year-old
girls.
people Public concern about delinquency among young their on than morals sexual their on less frequently focused clothing.
known and
Some young men wore
as the
zoot
suit,
an outlandish costume
which had overstuffed shoulders
a jacket that reached almost
down
to the knees.
The
that coat was worn unbuttoned to reveal baggy trousers the at from 16 inches wide at the knee to 6 inches
tapered
in Los Angeles wears a popular nonmilitary garb of the early '40s— a zoot suit, complete with a thigh-length, broad-lapelled jacket and baggy trousers pegged at the cuff, topped off by a broad-brimmed felt hat. The City Council made the wearing of zoot suits a misdemeanor after servicemen and police clashed with zootovertones. suiters in June 1943 in a series of riots that had ugly racial
A Mexican-American youth
148
pegged bottom and
a
key chain that almost dragged on
the floor. Zoot-suiters often carried switchblade knives their girl friends bra.
Under
packed whiskey
wide-brimmed
a
flasks
felt
shaped
to
fit
and
one reporter
as "of
first
important
In
I,
had urged
The zoot suit, which originated among teenagers in Harlem and other urban slums, became a widespread fad. A song helped enhance its popularity: "I wanna zoot suit with a reat pleat/With a drape shape and a stuff cuff." To some observers, the zoot suit was a harmless emblem indicative of the desire to wear gaudy plumage before drab Army khaki replaced it. To others it was the uniform of young street gangs, an affront to the established order, a symbol
ances." Most had, at
— perhaps because of among whom
nority youngsters,
quency was
its
association with mi-
the rate of juvenile delin-
War
between zoot-suited pachucos and GIs provoked a crackdown by the county sheriff, who believed that MexicanAmericans had "a biological predisposition to criminal tendencies" because their ancestors, the Aztecs, had practiced human sacrifice. Then, in June 1943, a rumor spread that a sailor had been beaten up by a gang of pachucos. A mob of 2,500 soldiers and sailors gathered and, waging a "clean-up campaign," began pummeling some 100 young MexicanAmericans and ripping off their zoot suits. The Los Angeles City Council in contrast to other communities where
—
lawmakers dealt with teen-age violence by imposing p.m. curfew or by providing
new
recreational facilities
sponded by outlawing the wearing
a
10
—
re-
but agonizing period at
in
the struggle for equality.
the outset by discriminatory hiring policies
defense industries and trade unions, and by the gation practiced
our special griev-
disregarded them.
however, blacks were determined to
mocracy on two
fronts
— abroad
and
at
World
In
fight for de-
home. Only
this
determination could overcome the cynicism and despair
many
that
student
of
at a
them
felt
black college
he declared "The :
Army
the early days of the War.
in
in
the South spoke for
jim crows
us.
The Navy
A
many when lets
us serve
only as messmen. The Red Cross refuses our blood. Employers
and labor unions shut us out. Lynchings continue. We crowed and spat upon. What more
are disenfranchised, jim
As
in
the
armed
services,
in
rigid segre-
blacks began
a matter of fact, a
few blacks expressed an empathy
not with the Germans but, because of their color, with the Japanese. "By the way. Captain," a sharecropper
hear the Japs
New York in
said to
a plantation
"I
In
City a poll of blacks revealed that 18 per cent be-
lieved they
than
is
owner after Pearl Harbor, done declared war on you white folks."
have remarked to
would be
treated better under Japanese rule
white America.
Elijah
Muhammad,
the leader of
was charged with sedition for his proJapanese sympathies and eventually served a four-year prison sentence for dra't evasion. the Black Muslims,
Most black leaders, however, urged full participation in the war effort. They felt that if their people could work as equals, American society would reward them with equal rights. The first major move in this direction came in th months before Pearl Harbor when blacks were being ex one
one on the home front was affected more deeply by the upheaval of World War II than America's 13 million blacks. For the blacks the War years marked a Aroused
least,
eluded so blatantly from the defense labor build-up that
of zoot suits.
the long run no
critical
II,
his fellow blacks to "forget
could Hitler do than that?"
high.
Antagonism against the zoot suit reached its zenith in Los Angeles where the outfit was favored by the pachucos, teen-age Mexican-Americans who had acquired a reputation for toughness. A series of small-scale clashes in 1942
In
of the Nation-
Negro Committee, which later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
al
increasing density and length at the neck."
of lawlessness
rights victories since the period of
civil
War Reconstruction. World War W. E. B. DuBois, cofounder
post-Civil
inside a
hat the zoot-suit wearer
usually sported a hairstyle described by
the
to
press effectively for their rights and in the process scored
aircraft
employees.
company had only 10 In
May
blacks
among
the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, federal
government
and threatened the
number
its
33,000
1941, A. Philip Randolph, president of
to
ban discrimination
to lead a
in
called
on the
defense plants
march on Washington on
July 1.
As
of potential marchers escalated from 10,000 to
50,000, liberals and
some
black leaders tried to dissuade
Randolph. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the blacks' most influential
friend in Washington, told
Randolph
that such a
march
149
would be impractical because the hotels and restaurants in the nation's capital were not open to blacks. But Randolph persisted. Five days before the scheduled march, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 that forbade racial discrimination in defense industries
and
Commission to enforce the ban. Although the FEPC had the power only to investigate complaints, not to compel compliance, it immeone diately became a lightning rod for Southern hostility newspaper called it "dat cummittee fer de perteckshun of Rastus & Sambo." The FEPC proved able to resolve successfully only one third of the 8,000 complaints received^ and established the Fair
Employment
Practices
—
even
compliance often took a bizarre turn toward The Kingsbury Ordnance Plant in Indiana,
legal
total segregation.
which was constructed
money, had a and bomb shelter marked
entirely with federal
special production line for blacks, separate toilets
the most preposterous indignity
—
a
"for colored only." Nonetheless Roosevelt's Executive Or-
der was
a
landmark
— the
first
federal intercession
on behalf
of equal rights for blacks in three quarters of a century.
The planned march on Washington signaled a new turn the civil rights struggle. For the first time a major protest had been planned to exclude white participation. In relying solely on the resources of the black community, the movement rekindled some of the mass enthusiasm sparked by the Jamaican-born black separatist Marcus Garvey in in
No
the 1920s.
longer,
commented
the conservative
Pitts-
burgh Courier, would blacks make "the mistake of relying entirely
upon the gratitude and sense
of fair play of the
American people." The new black militancv' fed on the hypocrisy of a nation that was waging war on totalitarianism abroad while main-
home. The hypocrisy never seemed more ironic than in the case of privileges extended to some German prisoners of war who were interned in the U.S. In Salina, Kansas, for example, a black soldier went to a restaurant on the main street just to watch German POVVs having lunch and was reprimanded by the counterman. "You know we don't serve colored here," he was told. Of this incident, the soldier later wrote: "If we were untermenschen in Nazi Germany they would break our bones. As taining segregation at
—
'colored'
men
in Salina,
the black singer Lena
POW filled in
they only break our hearts."
Home was
camp she discovered
When
German camp commander had
invited to sing at a
that the
the front rows with prisoners and put the black guards
— the back
the blacks' traditional place
down from
seats.
turned defiantly to the Germans, sang for her
The
civil
She stepped
the stage, strode up the aisle and, with her back
rights struggle at
bitter fact that black
own
people.
intensified by the
servicemen overseas often found that
they were treated better
home
home was
b\'
the local populace than by the
where between blacks and local women sparked violent clashes among black and white American servicemen, British b\standers sometimes joined in on the side of the
whites at
fraternizing
Detroit policemen tangle with a rioter on February 28, 1942. a day of racial violence that exploded when white defense workers cordoned off a new federal housing project intended for black occupants. The riot was a prelude to a wave of race conflicts in 1943 in several American cities, including Detroit, where blacks endured poor housing and low income.
150
or by their fellow GIs. In Britain,
.^.
v:
Alter a 25-mile hike in sweltering desert beat, soldiers of the 93rd Inlantry Division, Annerica's first all-black combat division, march in parade formation at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in the sumnter of 1943. During the Second World War the majority of blacks in the Army served in segregated supply and construction units, which were not sent into combat.
151
blacks.
A few pubs even
practiced a kind of reverse dis-
crimination, posting signs that read, "This
House
Is
for
Englishmen and Coloured American Troops Only."
Aroused by discrimination both services, the
organizations such as the rapid gains
in
in
and out of the armed
heightened black consciousness pushed older
membership
NAACP
to a
new
militancy and
— during the War, NAACP mem-
bership increased ninefold,
new
-iff'
of
in
it
the South. The
new
groups such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which adapted the principles and tactics of nonviolent resistance that Gandhi practiced
Among CORE'S
early
in
India.
leaders
were James Farmer and who would figure
Bayard Rustin, two young black pacifists
^^lu OHP^^E ^^ BHi. ^^^^F ^^^
much
black awareness also led to the formation of
.JF^^
^^
"^j
\l
W^^^M
'
Ai the end of a harvest day in August 1944, three German prisoners of war begin the drive from the farm where they wor/c to their nearby detainment camp in IHoopeston, Illinois. During World War II, more than 425,000 Axis POWs were held in the U.S. At the War's end, some fought deportation to homelands ravaged by war and stayed in America.
152
prominently
in
new weapon
for desegregating restaurants
the North
future integration battles. Their principal
was the mass
sit-in.
In
1942,
and theaters
when
in
a restaurant
downtown Chicago balked at serving blacks anything except sandwiches made of eggshells and garbage, CORE in
sent
in a
group
large biracial
to attempt to get seats. At
first
the restaurant refused to seat them, but finally an elderly
white
woman
to the
invited
one
of the blacks to share her table
applause of some 200 white diners
who had
tensely
watched the drama. The War years saw other gains, many in the entertainment field. All-black films began to appear regularly, and the hit of the 1943 Broadway season was Othello, starring Paul Robeson (page 175). On a more basic level, the Supreme Court, in 1944, outlawed all-white primary elections, thus taking the first step toward guaranteeing Southern blacks
economic
were scored during the War frequently served to fuel black impatience and discontent. While black employment rose by one million and the number of skilled workers doubled, the average black family's income by the end of the War still was only half that of the average white's. Moreover, living conditions remained substandard for most blacks. The paradox of progress feeding discontent, which social scientists would latgains that
er label "the revolution of rising expectations," set the cities in
—
in
25 years
the worst race riot
fact,
jobs
in
On
— came
in Detroit.
Though
who
had newly migrated from the South
in a
the war plants, most of
them were boxed
the tracts of
facilities
in
whites had allegedly and her baby. Then came full-scale war. Blacks from nearby Paradise Valley smashed and looted white-owned stores. White mobs counterattacked. Be-
woman
killed a black
fore federal troops had forced a troubled peace on the area
36 hours
later,
nine whites and 25 blacks were dead. Seven-
teen of the blacks had been killed by the police.
The bloodshed
in
Detroit and other riot-afflicted cities
Springfield, Massachusetts;
stirred
El
— had
Paso and Port Arthur, Texas; at least
one
salutary effect.
cities
and towns
set
up
interracial
committees. And
ning to
wake up
to the old discontent
were beginand the new militan-
cy of black Americans. In 1942, a year before the
were "pretty well
satisfied
1944, only 25 per cent
Many South who had
of the whites
were
also
newcomers from
the
brought their prejudices with them. White workers regard-
ed the growing prosperity of blacks
as a
threat to their
62
armed
with things
felt that
in
this
country." In
way.
which had black soldiers was agonizingly slow. The seeds change were sown, but meaningful results were a long
Even
in
the
services,
fighting abroad, progress
ing in
in
coming.
1944, the
camp
Army ordered
facilities,
the South,
the desegregation of
its
train-
but the pace of compliance, especially
was slow. Overseas,
late that
same
year,
when
the Battle of the Bulge produced a shortage of infantry
Army took
battlefield integration:
with the growing resentment of working-class whites.
riots,
per cent of the whites interviewed believed that blacks
tentative step toward
companies. But integration did not go beyond
were concomitant
blacks
It
the public opinion polls indicated that whites
where sewage ran The frustrations
Detroit's
—
nationwide concern about the race problem. More
than 200
In
the streets.
— multi-
woman;
replacements, the
of
in
June, racial fistfighls
squalor of the ill-named Paradise Valley, a 60-block slum in
—
crowded municipal park on Belle Isle in the Rumors spread a black man had supposedly
raped and killed a white
time
into the
upon by
Smith. Overcrowding
—
Detroit River.
things
to find
K.
L.
steaming Sunday afternoon
a
broke out
the
in
had been getting better for Detroit's blacks, especially for the 60,000
fear skillfully played
a
plied the potential sources of friction.
of
1943.
The worst outbreak in
—
housing, transportation and recreational
helped to
scene for the rioting that rocked several American
United States
status
such hatemongers as Gerald
Hubbard, Ohio; Harlem
the right to vote. Ironically, the
own
and white
soldiers
still
it
its first
attached black platoons to white
were not mixed
in
that.
combat or
Black
training
was not until after the War— July 26, 1948— that Truman signed the order officially desegregating the armed forces.
outfits.
It
President
153
{
\\\\\
J^
m^
Cro%^ f
i-!r
lii^B \MUV'-\
'
5(S
ANCVS. "^..'''18**''"'
MAKING DO WITH LITRE
Zr^^!^d^5 pressed
into service as ambulances, the Boston
Record American uses horse-drawn u.gons
to
make
da.ly dcl,ver,es o, the newspaper.
155
SCARCITY IN THE LAND OF PLENTY To be
living
on the home
front during the
War was
to
experience almost daily the frustration of not being able to To save gas and rubber, a 35-mph speed limit was imposed; commuters formed car pools, and driving alone produced a touch of guilt.
buy what you wanted, when you wanted it. Even with the coupons for rationed foods and goods, the money for a major purchase or the patience to wait in long lines, there was never quite enough to go around.
Auto makers were ordered to stop building family cars 1942; gas was rationed, and tires even retreads were in short supply. Gone from store windows were new toasters and refrigerators, irons and washing machines in fact, most household appliances. Meat eaters got by on an initial weekly ration of 28 ounces. Butter lovers were held to an average of 12 pounds a year, 25 per cent less than normal. Coffee drinkers made do on a pound every five weeks, less than a cup a day. The sugar ration averaged eight to 12 ounces a week. Cigarettes were hard to come by, because 30 per cent of production went to the military. There was hoarding of scarce commodities one man in New Jersey stashed away enough sugar to satisfy his sweet tooth for 577 years. Many storekeepers learned soon enough to "set aside" for favored customers, and for a price, goods not readily available. Most Americans, however, fortified their patience, drew on the old Yankee ingenuity and made do. They patched up aging cars, drove slower and shared rides. Their motoring reined in, they jammed railroads, which in 1942 turned a profit on passenger traffic for the first time in 15 years. Housewives used saccharin and corn syrup instead of sugar and stretched meats with all sorts of casseroles. Smokers revived the "roll-your-own" cigarette, and coffee drinkers rebrewed grounds. Neighbors shared appliances. The annoyance of shortages was compounded by the
VICTORY
SPEED
— —
—
in
—
—
amount of money ready to be spent more than $90 billion more in the pockets of consumers in 1944 than at the time of Pearl Harbor. In general, though, spirits remained high.
Home-front
sacrifices stirred a sense of duty. Victory
was
coming. The promise of plenty made scantily stocked grocery shelves, and even
156
empty auto showrooms,
tolerable.
Although the bjiic gasoline rjtion
tor ph.\'.'.tiic
dnving peimiUcd only three to
t /\
.
.1
week, drivers often discovered
that the
pumps had run
dry.
157
THE STRUGGLE TO REMAIN MOBILE When
War
the
Production Board banned
the manufacture of private automobiles
in
February 1942, the order had the impact
bomb on American motorists. There were more than 27 million cars on the road and an inventory of barely half a million
of a
replacements. In addition, with industry geared up to make vehicles for military use, spare parts for the civilian
came
market be-
virtually unobtainable.
The result was a frantic campaign by car owners and the government, in the slogan of the times, to "Keep 'em Rolling." Drivers wore tire treads down to the cord and scavenged junk yards for everything from intake valves to exhaust pipes. Tire and gas rationing, introduced in 1942, saved equip-
ment by reducing automobile mileage one third
by 1943.
America's inventors got into the act, too. There were engine modifications to save gas,
and wooden wheels
livery trucks
produced
a
—
— usually
One was made
to save rubber.
wheel that
on de-
A
driver sets a torch to the charcoal-burning generator that helped to
power his
truck with methane.
tinkerer
of steel
springs covered with layers of paper.
And
Newport, Rhode Island, a dowager got around town in a beach chair propelled by a motorcycle. As a result of its conservation measures, America did keep rolling: the number of passenger cars in use at the peak of the war effort was off only 12.9 per cent from what it was in 1941. in
Two
158
pairs of
hardwood
tires
— one
set
new. the other driven 500 miles— are displayed by
a
mechanic.
A
straining wife
p ushes
as
parts the garage. The car', reverse gear was broken, and replacement her husband steers the family car out of
159
Soldiers
on weekend furlough
line
up with
civilians for
THE CRUSH OF WARTIME TRAVEL If
the car
was broken, the
tires
al-
ways public transportation. But millions of travelers had the same idea. Virtually every train station, bus depot and airport in the country was jammed with military personnel on the move between training camps, military posts and ports of embarkation. The railroads carried 97 per cent of the traffic, transporting two million men a month, more than 43 million in toto. Troop movements required half of all Pullman space, relegating weary civilians to fretful nights in cramped coach seats. Troop trains, some with white flags denoting them "specials," churned from coast to coast and forced parlor-car riders onto sidings for hours on end. A scheduled overnight's journey from New York to Chi-
160
at a station in
Colunihuf, Georgia. Military personnel had
cago invariably got the weary traveler to his destination by lunch instead of breakfast and often as late as dinner. The government begged foot-loose civilians to stay at home. "The time is here," warned the Office of Defense Transportation in 1942, "when all must realize that unnecessary travel can seriously harm the war effort." But travel volume, necessary or not, was huge. In 1944, railroads logged three times as many passenger miles as in
—
bald or the
gasoline ration expended, there was
bus tickets
1941; intercity buses, more than twice as
many
miles as
in
prewar days.
Riders endured cattle-car conditions
and were grateful even for standing room. There was a brisk trade in black-market Pullman reservations. Scalpers sold tickets at markups of $10 to $50; tourist agencies added $20 "service charges" to reservations. All told, the War meant unprece-
dented travel turmoil. An ad for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad said, correctly: "You'll be more comfortable at home."
first call
on transportation.
Pa eked shoulder to shoulder, nders on a Southern Raikvay coach log
some
ot the 55 Ivllion passenger nvlcs tallied
on trams
m
the United States
m
1942.
161
A crowd
>unds a dealer as he doles out precious heating oil in 1942.
ol
post
PLEASURES NO LONGER TAKEN FOR GRANTED Americans choosing to stay at home often found life uncomfortable there, too. During the icy winter of 1942-1943, fuel ra-
was begun, and consumers were about two thirds of their 1941 consumption barely enough to heat homes to 65°. The situation became so severe in tioning
allotted
—
the Northeast that Connecticut launched a
campaign
to
list all
wood
lots
where
resi-
dents could cut kindling and logs to burn in
stoves and fireplaces.
Everyday items of convenience or selfindulgence, long taken for granted, were hard to
come by
cial tissue,
—
liquor, laundry soap, fa-
cotton diapers, thumbtacks and
Nylon had "gone to war," and back to stockings of rayon and cotton. In late 1944, most stores had to
"No
— many
Cigarettes" signs. But
did
have black-market "stoopies" "the kind you stoop down behind the counter for." The shortage that hurt people most involved a staple meat. In New York, beef
—
were 35 per cent of normal. Boston, used to a million pounds a day, received three carloads instead of its normal 75. Housewives in almost every U.S. city found themselves with meat ration coupons to stocks
spare, but nothing to buy.
The alternatives were to patronize the black-market butchers, who got an estimated 20 per cent of the beef, or to locate substitutes. Unrationed and going for 20 cents a pound, horsemeat became a replacement for beef, which cost 55 cents a pound or more. Some restaurants began to serve buffalo, antelope and even beaver
Gourmet magazine soon joined
hair curlers.
meat.
women went
trend: "Although
162
The policeman was on hand
it
the
isn't/Our usual habit,/
This year we're eating/The Easter Rabbit."
to help regulate distribution.
Nassau streets in 1944. Each customer was allowed to purchase only two packs. N/cot/ne-stan ed Ne.J Yorkers queue up for scarce cigarettes at Fulton and
MAfTo^
j
pT^^r/.
/.e.
nnd.
a
woman
slips
right into a pair of
nylon hose.
^^|WARK;s7iRsT
The Man-O-War Packing Co
,n
Newark.
Now
ler..
Icature^ horser^eat .
163
A Washington,
with a houseboat D.C., couple solves the housing shortage
Used houses, ready
for purchase, are inspected
by
a family in Los Angele.
A CRUNCH
ON LIVING SPACE The most stubborn and ubiquitous shortage of all was housing, with 98 per cent of U.S. cities reporting insufficient singlefamily houses and 90 per cent unable to
meet apartment needs. Workers streaming booming defense towns were greeted with "No Vacancy" signs. The lucky shared
to
rooms with other new
arrivals or
moved
rows of jerry-built boxes of plywood and plasterboard. The unlucky resorted to tents and even shelters nailed together out of packing cases. For some, such makeshift dwellings became "home." When social workers asked a man to move his large family from a tent to a government-housing unit, he refused: "What's good enough for the boys in Africa," he said, "is good enough for me." into
164
Hungry workers from an
aircraft plant dig into j
mcjl ^nved
at
an o\erc/ou dcJ
boardinghouse
in
San Dil-^u.
i'ub!:^
War Housing
Centers
^cmun^cd communitn
rooms. sod space and urged householders to double up and rent spare
165
>t
jr
(Ill
/
i"***
#
Sa,/or5
on shore leave from the battleship US.S. North Carolina, accompar^ied by
a civil iar., possibly a iourr^alist, cross
New York
Harbor to Mar>haitar.
or. a
bunch.
THE GLinERING ALLURE OF OLD OROJUHNAY The pressures and tensions of the War created a need for escape annong hard-working people on the home front and one of the best places to get away from it all was New York City. There was more opportunity for enjoyment per square inch along the streets of midtown Manhattan than anywhere else in the country, and servicemen in particular took full advantage of it. They swarmed over Times Square and Broadway, New York's "Great White Way," in search of live
entertainment and the company of pretty
York,
in turn,
About 200
girls.
New
way never seen before. some five million meals a Times Square's bustling tourist trade. An
came
alive in a
restaurants, serving
week, catered to evening was hardly complete without a slice of Lindy's famous cheesecake or a cheese blintz at one of Broadway's many delicatessens. Over 50 nightclubs such as EI Morocco and the Stork Club provided drinks and dancing to the
Theater, government and military officials in 1942 check a list of Broadway theater attractions for which tickets were available to officers at half-price.
^'^^^^^H ^^^^^j J
^-^^ yz
SS^i,
V-«*
OFF
11
^^^H ^^^^
music of the big bands, and audiences thrilled to the voice of a young crooner by the name of Frank Sinatra, who was appearing at the Paramount Theater. The Copacabana headlined
Jimmy Durante, the proud possessor
of the greatest
proboscis on Broadway.
showed first-run war themes. Often, as
films dramatiz-
Scores of movie houses ing morale-boosting
See Here, Private Hargrove (sign,
right),
in
the
comedy
the movies
were
simply adaptations of best sellers or of plays that had ready proved their appeal on the
many Broadway
New
York
stage.
al-
With
attractions offering free tickets or discount
audiences swelled. In 1943 people attended Broadway
rates for servicemen, the size of
alone more than 11
shows. The
The
New
million
demand was
so great that the
drama
York Times commented with acerbity:
critic for
"It
was
a
public so anxious to attend the theater that for a time it would attend anything playing in a theater. Some of the
and offered plays which, in normal years, would never have passed Bridgeport." Not that it mattered, for the excitement alone of an evening on
managers took advantage of
this
Broadway was more than enough excursion to
New
to
make
York City worthwhile.
a serviceman's
T^c^J1^*^*** 1
1
%
^ oAvs or
&jm
rMS? 'Jn 'uiM.v r^
B ^^iWw^B^
mBn
^^fmf,-vS^^K
1
P ^^^^^^^
MHHBiBi
-
}*
^
^Bhh '.'^HHHHHIHI
rt li>3;>jc^^f-
Co/or/u/ b,7/board5
and marquees dominate the Great White Way
at
Times Square,
New
i.stv^'
York City's popular cer^ter for movies, plays, dining and dancing
GOING ALL OUT FOR THE BOYS IN UNIFORM Broadway greeted
its
wartime guests grauniform ev-
ciously, ottering the boys in
ife*5.
appear in shows themselves. The cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma! put on 44 free performances for servicemen only, while Irving Berlin's This the Army boasted a "Cast of 300 SolIs diers"
in a
rousing spectacle of
Army
iL
life
i:
set to music.
successful war-
One of Broadway's most time efforts was the Stage Door Canteen, which opened in the basement of the 44th
Ah
long line of Street Theater in place in the a find to thrilled men enlisted with big city where they could live it up were hostesses 2,200 as many the stars. As
1942 to
a
keep the men company and ofdoughnuts fer such all-American treats as order of the on celebrities while and milk, Gypsy Rose Lee, Ethel Merman, Marlene Dietrich, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
on
call to
ioiri actress Tallulah Bankhead n loin Servicemen
in
song
at
New
York's Stage
Door Canteen.
Si *:'-S5HaSS1CT5?"^l»«H)(e^
^M^^I
entertained them. Seven other Stage Door Canteens opened across the U.S., but the A original remained the most famous one.
weekly radio program was broadcast from inevitably a love storyit, and a movie— it. about was made
SOL LESSER in OMOcialion with
mi\m
THEim
wiic
eatures hostesses and The program hook of the movie Stage Door Canteen le
soldiers.
resents
m m. CAST OF 300 SOLDIERJ PROCEEDS TO ARMY EMERGENCY RELIEf FUND (
A poster
lor Irving Rprlin\ Thi^
1^
thr
Army
Veteran Berlin,
touts
in his
its st.irs:
soldiers
from
all
over the
1918 uniform. rehearses with the CI
US
cast.
A
soldier
shows
his
form
as a clancinR waitress
TREADING THE BOARDS IN THE THEATER OF
wU
Jv'jp-M i
WAR
f^h
^
/ ^-^^Ljl
^ 1 1^
HERMAN SHUMLIM LILLIAN
HELLMANS
IIH\HI
^
„..
an American In Lillian Hellman's phv Watch on the Rhine, and her German husband take refuge with her mother.
,,..1
^^^
«•"«""'
t^*''**"*^
«..,..,...„,.
MARTIN BECK THEATRE
—
soldier falls in love in Broadway's longrunning comedv The Voice of the Turtle.
A
i
^
^ f
ii
-1
CI comes home to find he has been writing not to Ruth, but to her younger sister. In the
An
1945 comedy Dear Ruth,
all-black cast brings
prostitute's
Anna
a
drama about a Broadway in 1944.
Lucasta, a
liaisons with sailors, to
U
.pi 1
/
The Broadway
theaters did
come servicemen to they took the War as
their
more than welperformances;
many Works by such
the subject of
of their finest productions.
authors as John Hersey and Lillian Hellman were based on war themes or actual incidents out of the War. The plays reflected the audiences' concern not just with the world conflict, but with the careers and
romances of individual
soldiers.
cast as a lover or a leader, a
Whether
man
in
uni-
form possessed an immediate heroic appeal that civilians, as well as servicemen,
could understand and applaud.
FREDRIC MARCH AIM
ti»
Major Joppolo
11^.^
CORT THEATRE
an March (poster and seated, above left) projects military authontv as Maior loppolo. Bell tor Adano. American serving as military administrator of an Italian town, in the 1944 play A Fredric
Alexandra Danilova of the Ballet Russe
cle
Monte Carlo, which attracted many GIs, dances Swan Lake in a triple exposure taken in 1942.
Judith
Anderson and Maurice Evans enact the
coronation scene of Macbeth. The ruthless king's treachery seemed particularly apt in 1942.
ENTERTAINMENT New
The the
War
IN
THE CLASSIC MODE
York theaters' offerings during
years included not only contem-
porary drama and music, but also classic works everything from opera and ballet
—
to
Shakespearean tragedies. World-famous
ballet dancers, including the corps of the Ballet Russe
de Monte Carlo, who had
Europe, were
ences
in
now
New
fled
performing before audi-
York
City.
keeping with the times, the works presented had war themes or appropriate messages. Program notes sometimes called attention to parallels with ongoing world events and conditions or such villains as In
—
Adolf
Hitler.
^M^
PAUL ROBESON
OTHELLO MOOR
THE
OF VENICE
A X
\_s
this
It
m
may
and
in the
begins,
we
in
are
when
nuddle of a war; and
the
at war.
noe be out of place to keep ocher wars, of other tunes
mind Foe. by
dearer U'e are
which w^ of people
her
"Ochello'
productjon of
niKkfle ol a year
feel offers
in a
war to protect
a
way
the greatest boiefit to the greatest
\enice
in
were
to
wars
may be
means, patterns and directions
this
now engaged
the Sixteenth
protect
Century was
Christianity
m
the
of Ufe
number
fighting too.
Eastern
the
Mediterranean In our conflict,
The Negro
command
all
piloc of
races are allied to fight for
the
Army /ui Corps may
common fly
ideals
under the!
%.
of Chiang in China, just as soldiers of other races|
fought with Venice for the protection of Christianity
*
The program for the 1943 revival of Othello includes a note explaining the significance ni the play for a wartime audience, especially in terms of its racial implications. As Othello, Paul Robeson (right) received one of the longest ovations in New York theater history.
^ * i>y
HASSARD HERBERT
and
allenIienkins
mi^-^
mw^ical fthcl Mprm.in (center -;(.ipe), in the 194^ 5omrt/i/nq /or the Box v p/.n f/ip unlikeh role oi .VTe\-choru< p/>/ \\hosr carborimdum radio. f/pnl.i/ work turns her mto s human Cole Porter <
m
,te
ail
Sophie Tucker, "The Last of the Rod-hiot Mammas," assumes a patriotic Statue of Liberty pose and leads a budesque troupe in High Kickers.
WINGED VICTORY
•
-T
li^m^ ,n . dr.,n...c n.on.en. ^.on,
Bro.c/u.V. ,943 HU
VV',ngec/ V,c,orv,
-u-ngs
'
.re .u.rc/ed to n.em6ers o^ the
An.v A.
Force,
uho H.e
pa.ec/ the. spec./,zec/
•f
J r f
1
:.
i
1
i
i|
training.
The
play,
?
Crccik s(a
J--
-J
*^s)f^^j
^
f'
widow
awards a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor to arrange and son of Colonel Demas T. Craw, killed while attempting to North Africa in November 1942. a truce during Allied landings in French the
FDR
dinner jacket and a black tie, F.D.R. keeps in touch with The gala setting— the East Room of the White House "fireside chat." during a diplomatic reception— was unusual for a
Dressed
in a
the nation by radio.
the President, his neighbors on election night in 1944, W^ivv cane he nrelerred to an overcoat, watches a torchlight
Gathered with ..-..ino f/iP
the spectacle with
Wagner,
him are Mrs. Roosevelt, daughter Anna and Elmer von who helped produce the festivities.
a longtime political friend
^^^K ^^^Bj ^ K'.'
««^ ;j^^
^^^^^H ^^f. ^^^^HP |h' *t;
^^K ^P^
t^t'^
> V ^Bi, ^KVki*->''
*
^ K^:*^ ^Mn
/
^B.5.^; ^^F*^
K
V,
'HJIi ^~^^3^^3 "Lf>
^
^B(^ ^^ka ^^W ^w
'
^^V^'j'
i^ ^K-'i«*'
^^K^
; '
w I
'^1 j^H ^m ^m 4^1 ^^^m ^^^H
.
4/*^ ^im
j
1
of years of The drawn visages of Churchill arid Roosevelt reflect the tension 1944. war leadership at the second Quebec Conference in September
vyaui^^.^v talks with Stalin's deputy, foreign Minisier in 1945. cap) and Churchill (center rear) at Yalta early
A haggard Roosevelt Molotov
(in fur
BONE-WEARYING WARTIME MEETINGS In
the pursuit of his wartime duties, Roosewent to any lengths necessary to meet
velt
with Allied leaders.
He journeyed
to such
Quebec, Casablanca and Cairo to confer with Prime Minister Winston Churchill. And he went to Teheran
distant places as
and Yalta for discussions with Churchill and Russian Premier Josef Stalin. Roosevelt and Churchill hit it off from the start. "It's fun to be in the same decade with you," Roosevelt cabled "Winnie" in 1941. Churchill said being with F.D.R. was "like opening a bottle of champagne." The
two Western leaders were
split
on
Stalin.
F.D.R. said he "got along fine" with the
Russian leader, but Churchill regarded him
with suspicion. Roosevelt's travels
and he usually gia,
visited
after his return
were bone-wearying,
Warm
Springs, Geor-
home
to
recoup
his
by the time he went to Yalta 1945 the War years had taken their toll.
strength. But in "I
noticed that the President was ailing," commented. "Often there
Churchill later
a far-away look in his eyes." His jaw sagged; the famous cigarette holder dangled. Soon he was back at Warm Springs, but this time it was too late. On the 12th of April, 1945, while posing for his portrait, the President succumbed to a massive ce-
was
rebral
hemorrhage.
«
:mm m: 1^ 'mlm
mil
I
III
II
I
lull
i
i
:;\
»
A DAY OF NATIONAL SORROW Franklin Roosevelt
ure and was so
was such a
much
a part of
familiar fig-
the lives of
Americans that the news of his death struck almost everyone on the home front with the same impact as the loss of a member of the family. A shopkeeper in Pittsburgh closed up and hung a hand-lettered
all
sign in the
York
window; "He died."
In
New
got out of his cab, sat on the curb and wept. "It doesn't
a taxi driver
down
seem possible," said a woman in Detroit. "It seems to me that he will be back on the radio tomorrow, reassuring us that it was just a mistake." In
Washington,
a soldier
spoke the nation's grief: "I felt as if knew him. felt as if he knew me— and felt as if he liked me." A special train bore the President's body north to Washington. All along the route, Americans gathered to say farewell. At the I
I
I
White House, the coffin lay in the East Room, where at the close of another terrible war, almost 80 years to the day, Abra-
ham
Lincoln's
body had
lain. In
a steady
downpour, the
train traveled the last leg of
the journey to
Hyde
Park,
where the war-
time leader was given a solemn military funeral. "All that is within me cries to go
back to my home on the Hudson River," F.D.R. had said nine months before. At long last, he was home.
rs
earlier, Franklin
Roosevelt
tf'^.
HE
»''
'
#;
SW
BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, Henry Aver, Fred,
Jr.,
Harry Hopkins. C. P. Putnam's Sons, 1977. Before the Colors Fade: Portrait of a Soldier, George
Lingeman, Richard
H.,
5.
Patton,
jr. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1964. Ayling, Keith, Calling All Women. Harper & Brothers, 1942. Barnes, G. M., Weapons of World War II. D. Van Nostrand Co., 1947.
Baxandall, Rosalyn, Linda
Cordon and Susan Reverby,
eds.,
Amer/ca'5 Working
Women. Random House,
1976. Baxter, James Phinney III, Scientists against Time. M.I.T. Press, 1946. Bliss, Edward, Jr., ed., In Search of Light. Alfred A. Knopf, 1967. Blum, John Morton, V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture during
World War II. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976. Burns, James MacGregor: Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956. Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970. Carr, Lowell Juilliard, and James Edson Sturmer, l\'/7/ovv Run: Study of Industrialization and Cultural Inadequacy. Harper, 1952. Catton, Bruce, The War Lords of Washington. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1948. Cerf, Bennett, Try & Stop Me. A Collection of Anecdotes and Stories, Mostly Humorous. Garden City Publishing Co., inc., 1944.
Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic Oxford Uni\ersity Press, 1972. Alliance. Bantam, 1950. Churchill, Winston S., The Grand Clark, Ronald W., The Birth of the Bomb. Phoenix House Ltd., 1961. Cochran, Bert, Harrv Truman and the Crisis Presidency. Funk and Wagnalls, Chase, William Henry, The American
and
Political Roles, 1920-1970.
1973.
Colby, Benjamin, Tvvas a Famous Victory: Deceptions and Propaganda in the War with Germany. Arlington House, 1974. Conrat, Maisie and Richard, Executive Order 9066. M.I.T. Press, 1972. Cooper, Martin R., Glen T. Barton and Albert P. Brodell, Progress of Farm Mechanization. Miscellaneous Publications —630, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1947.
Correspondents of TIME, LIFE and FORTUNE, The, December
7:
The
First Thirt)
Hours. Alfred A. Knopf, 1942. Dalfiume, Richard M., Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. University of Missouri Press, 1969. Daniels, Roger, Concentration Camps, USA: Japanese Americans & World War II.
Dryden
Das-is,
Press, 1971.
Forrest,
and Ernest
K.
Lindley,
How War
Came. Simon and Schuster,
1942.
Good
Night, Sweet Prince. Viking Press, 1944. American Nation: A History of the United States. Harper & Row, Publishers,. Inc., and American Heritage Publishers, 1966. Girdner, Audrie,and Anne Loftis, The Great Betrayal. The Macmillan Co., 1969. Goodman, Jack, ed.. While You Were Gone. Da Capo Press, 1974. Groueff, Stephane, Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb. Little, Brown and Co., 1967. Guiles, Fred Lawrence, Norma lean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1969. Gunther, John: Inside U.S.A. Harper & Brothers, 1947. Roosevelt in Retrospect. Harper & Brothers, 1950. Hargrove, Marion, 5ee Here, Private Hargrove. Henry Holt and Co., 1942. Hinshaw, David, The Home Front. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1943.
Fowler, Gene,
Garraty, John A., The
Hoehling, A. A.:
Home
Front, U.S.A.
Thomas
Y.
Crowell, 1966.
The Week before Pearl Harbor. W. W. Norton, 1963. Hosokawa, Bill, Nisei. William Morrow, 1969. Lamont, Lansing, Day of Trinity. Atheneum, 1965. Langer, William L., and S. Everett Gleason, The Undeclared War, 1940-1941. Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953. Laurence, William L., Men and Atoms: The Discovery, the Uses and the Future of Atomic Energy. Simon and Schuster, 1959.
R.,
Don't You
Know
There's a
War On?
G.
P.
Putnam's Sons,
1970. Lord, Walter, Day of Infamy. Bantam, 1957. Manchester, William, The Glory and the Dream. Bantam, 1973. Martin, Joe, My First Fifty Years in Politics. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1960. Martin, Pete, V\'/7/ Acting Spoil Marilyn Monroe? Doubleday & Co., 1956. Meyer, Agnes E., journey through Chaos. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1944. Miller, Merle, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman. Berkley Publishing Corp., 1974. Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Rising Sun in the Pacific. Little, Brown and Co., 1948. Morris, Joe Alex, Deadline Every Minute. Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1957. Nelson, Donald ,M., Arsenal of Democracy: The Story of American War Production. Da Capo Press, 1973. Nesbitt, Henrietta, White House Diary. Doubleday & Co., 1948. Pendleton, Ann, Hit the River, Sister. Howell Suskin, 1943. Penfold, J. B., "Japan's Rambling Balloon Barrage." Published in U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. 73, August 1947. Perrett, Geoffrey, Days of Sadness, Years of Triumph. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973. Phillips, Cabell, The 1940s. The Macmillan Co., 1975. Pinza, Ezio, Ezio Pinza. Rinehart, 1958. Pogue, Forrest C, George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope. Viking Press, 1965. Polenberg, Richard: ed., America at War. Prentice-Hall, 1968. War and Society. J. B. Lippincott, 1972. Pusey, Merlo J., Big Government: Can We Control It? Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1948. Rachlis, Eugene, They Came to Kill. Random House, 1951. Reilly, Michael F., and William J. Slocum, Reilly of the White House. Simon and Schuster, 1947. Rogers, Donald I., Since You Went Away. Arlington House, 1973. Roose\'elt, Eleanor, This I Remember. Harper & Brothers, 1949. Roskill, S. W., The War at Sea. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1956. Shea, Naney, The Waacs. Harper & Brothers, 1943. Sherwin, Martin J., A World Destroyed: The Atomic Bomb and the Grand Alliance. Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. Sherwood, Robert E., Roosevelt and Hopkins. Harper & Brothers, 1948. tenBroek, Jacobus, Edward N. Barnhart and Floyd W. Matson, Prejudice, War and the Constitution. University of California Press, 1968. Thomson, Harry C, and Lida Mayo, United States Army in World War II: The Technical Services. The Ordnance Department: Procurement and Supply. Dept. of the Army, 1960. Toland, John, The Rising Sun. Random House, 1970. Treadwell, Mattie E., The Women's Army Corps. Dept. of the Army, 1953. Truman, Harry S., Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. I: Years of Decisions. Doubleday & Co., 1955. Tully, Grace, F.D.R. My Boss. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949. U.S. Air Force Historical Aircraft Background Information. Secretary of the Air Force, Office of Information, Internal Information Di\ision, 1970. von Miklos, Josephine, / Took a War job. Simon and Schuster, 1943. Walton, Francis, Miracle of World War II: How American Industry Made Victory Possible. The Macmillan Co., 1956. Warner, William L., Democracy in jonesville. Greenwood Press, 1976. Webber, Bert, Retaliation: Japanese Attacks and Allied Countermeasures on the Pacific Coast in World War II. University of Oregon Press, 1975. West, J. B., Upstairs at the White House. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973. Whitehead, Don, The FBI Story. Random House, 1956. Wittner, Lawrence S., Rebels against War: The American Peace Movement. Columbia Unixersity Press, 1969. Wynn, Neil A., The Afro-American and the Second World War. Paul Eiek, 1976. Zolotow, Maurice, Marilyn Monroe. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1960.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS this book was prepared by Mel Ingber. For help given in the preparation of this book the editors wish to express their gratitude to Clarence Boston, Records Manager, U.S. Selective Service System, Washington, D.C.; David Bruster, Historian, Agricultural History Group, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.; George Coffman, Agricultural Economist, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.; V. M. Destefano, Chief, Reference Branch, U.S. Army Audiovisual Division, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.; Detmar H. Finke,
The index ior
204
Historian, Center of Military History, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C.; Robert Fredlund, Director of Administrative Programs, U.S. Treasury Department, Washington, D.C.; Jerry Hill, Industrial and Social Branch, National Archives, Washington, D.C.: James Idema, Washington, D.C.; Francis X.
Maloney, Assistant Director, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts; Colonel Bettie J. Morden, Center of Military History, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C.; Allan Priaux, King Features Syndicate, New York, New York; James Sullivan, Cedar Falls, Iowa; Clarence Taylor, Houston, Texas.
PICTURE CREDITS COVER
and page
1
:
Credits from
left to right
are separated by semicolons, from top to
bottom by dashes.
Library of Congress.
THE JITTERY HOMELAND:
6, 7-Wide World. 8-Thoma5 D, McAvoy for LIFE. 10-UPI. 11-Library of Congress-Peter Stackpole for LIFE. 12, 13-Wide World; Library of Congress— Myron H. Davis for LIFE. 14, 15— Eliot Elisofon for LlFE;Thomas D. McAvoy for LIFE.
ONE FAMILY'S WAR: 128 through 137-Copied by Henry Croskinsky, courtesy Wood Family, 138— Copied by Henry Croskinsky, courtesy the Wood Family (4), except top right, courtesy the Wood Family. 139, 140, 141— Courtesy the Wood Family.
9,
the
A DAY TO REMEMBER: 19-Wide World-Photoworld. 20-Wide World. 22UPI (2). 25-Wide World.
A NATION IN MOTION: 144-Ralph
BITTER EXILE IN THE
U.S.: 28,
29-War Relocation
Authority, National Ar-
chives. 30-UPI. 31, 32, 33-War Relocation Authority, National Archives. 34, 35— Myron H. Davis for LIFE; War Relocation Authority, National Archives. 36,
37— War Relocation Authority, National Archives. 38, 39— Hansel Meith LIFE. 40, 41— War Relocation Authority, National Archives (2).
for
UP: 44-Sgt. George Baker, © Sad Sack, Inc. 46-Ed Clark for The Tennessean. 48— bottom. Wide World. 50— U.S. Office of War Information, National Archives— Thomas D. McAvoy for LIFE. 51— Peter Stackpole for LIFE-William C. Shrout for LIFE. 53-Culver Pictures.
AMERICA JOINS
YOU'RE IN THE ARMY NOW: 56, 57-Courtesy King Features Syndicate, Inc. 58-U.S. Army. 59-George Strock for LIFE. 60-Library of Congress. 61-U.S. Army. 62— George Strock for LIFE. 63— Courtesy King Features Syndicate, Inc. (2). 64, 65— U.S. Army; Library of Congress. THE DISTAFF SIDE: 66, 67-Gordon Coster for LIFE, 68-Thomas D. McAvoy for LIFE. 69-Gordon Coster for LIFE. 70, 71-Gordon Coster for LIFE; Bureau of Public Relations, War Department, Washington, D.C. (2). 72, 73— Marie Hansen for Life (3); courtesy King Features Syndicate, Inc. (2). 74, 75— Marie Hansen for Life.
MIRACLES OF PRODUCTION: 78-Hal Burget from The
Detroit News. 8081— Courtesy Bantam Car Company— Wide World. 83— York Daily News. 85— Mercury Pictures, courtesy LIFE.
Library of Congress.
New
Vincent, The journal, Oregon. 146Hansel Meith for LiFE-Johnny Florea for LiFE. 148, 150-Wide World. 151Charles E. Steinheimer for LIFE. 152— U.S. Army.
HOME
HEROINES OF THE FRONT: 88, 89-U.S. Steel, courtesy King Features Syndicate, Inc. 90, 91— Library of Congress. 92— Library of Congress— Edmund B. Girard for LIFE. 93— Lambert Studios/Fredric Lewis. 94— Courtesy LIFE Picture Collection. 95-Otto Hagel for LIFE. 96-Library of Congress. 97-UPI. 98-Library of Congress. 99-Margaret Bourke-White for LIFE. 100, 101-Courtesy King Features Syndicate, Inc.
MAKING DO WITH
LITTLE: 154, 155-N. R. Farbman for LIFE. 156-Library of Coster for LIFE. 157— Rowena Fruth, from U.S. Camera, 1944. 158— Marie Hansen for LIFE (2). 159— Pix Incorporated. 160-Library of Congress. 161-John Phillips for LIFE. 162-UPI. 163-Eli2abeth Timberman for LIFE— Dupont Company; New York Daily News. 164, 165— Thomas D. McAvoy for LiFE-Wide World; Johnny Florea for LIFE.
Congress, courtesy
Magnum— Gordon
WONDERFUL TOWN:
166,
167,
170— Wide World— copied by Lee
168-UPI. 169-Andreas Feininger
for
LIFE.
courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 171— Copied by Lee Boltin, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations— Wide World; courtesy King Features Syndicate, Inc. 172— Copied by Lee Boltin, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (3)— George Karger for LIFE (2). 173— Eileen Darby/Graphic House; copied by Lee Boltin, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 174-Gjon Mill for LiFE-Dmitri Kessel for LIFE. 175— Copied by Henry Croskinsky, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, except top left, copied by Lee Boltin, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 176— Copied by Lee Boltin, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations— Edmund B. Girard for LIFE. 177— George Karger for LIFE: copied by Lee Boltin, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations— George Karger for LiFE-Eliot Elisofon for LIFE. 178, 179-Copied by Henry Croskinsky, from Alfredo Valente, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, inset, copied by Lee Boltin, courtesy Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden FoundaBoltin,
tions.
BRINGING THE CONFLICT HOME:
105-lrving Haberman, PM, from
U.S.
Camera, 1944. 107— Bert Webber, Retaliation, Oregon State University Press (2). 109-Wide World. 112, 113-Office of Price Administration, National Archives; Library of Congress— Office of Price Administration, National Archives; Dmitri Kessel for LIFE. 114— Duane Bryers, courtesy the Museum of
Modern
Art.
THE YOUNGEST WARRIORS: 118, 119-Library of Congress. 120-Wide World. 121-Peter Stackpole for Life. 122-Library of Congress (2). 123-Photoworld. 124— Wide World. 125— Kosti Ruohomaa from Black Star— Library of Congress. 126, 127-Wide World.
DAYS OF DAZZLING GROWTH: Hoffman
182-|.
R.
Eyerman
for LIFE: Eric Schaal for LlFE-U.S. Navy; Fritz
for
Coro
LIFE.
185-Bernard 186-UPI.
for LIFE.
THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF: 188 through 191-Franklin D. Roosevelt Librarv. 192-Harry S. Hood. 193-Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; UPI. 194-Wide World, courtesy the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library— Margaret Bourke-White, courtesy Ed Cantor. 195-Thomas D. McAvoy for LIFE. 196, 197-U.S. Navy; Wide World. 198, 199-Harris & Ewing-Thomas D. McAvoy for LIFE: George Skadding for LIFE. 200, 201— Studio Sun, Ltd., inset, George Skadding for LIFE. 202, 203-George Skadding for LIFE.
205
knowledge of atomic bomb, 187; meets with Roosevelt in Washington, 24-25; at Potsdam, 187; priorities in War, 24; at Quebec, 200: on Roosevelt, 193; at Yalta, 200-201 24;
INDEX Mumerals in italics indicate an illustration of the subject mentioned.
Civil Air Patrol,
Agriculture: agribusiness, 182; growth, 181 productivity, 182 Air raids on U.S.: balloon, 105-106, 707; false ;
alarms, 10; precautions against, 6-7, 10, 72-73, 74-75, 104-105; submarine-launched,
26 Aircraft production, U.S., 82; by aircraft
by automobile industry, 76-77, Willow Run plant, 76-77, 196
industry, 82; 82, 796;
Allis-Chalmers, 186 Allotment Annies, 52
Anderson, Judith, 774 Armaments: produced by aircraft industry, 82; produced b\' automobile industry, 80-82; quantity produced by end of War, 77; women and ammunition production, 700-707. 5ee also Production of armaments Arnold, Henry H., 53 Atlantic Charter, 24
Atomic bomb: construction, 187; decision
to
developments, chain reaction, 186; test, 187
use, 187; early scientific first
women
volunteers, 92, 93
Camps, 46 Codes, Japanese diplomatic code deciphered, 20 Columbia University, 183 "Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer," 117 Compton, Arthur, 184, 186
Autry, Gene, 42 Ayres, Lew, 46
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founding and tactics, 152-153 Conover, David, 86 Conscientious objectors, 45-47 Cost plus, 77 Cox, James M., 193 Craw, DemasT., 198 Crosby, Bing, 107
Baker, George, 45
William, 22 Balloon bombs, 105-106, 707; and censorship, Ball,
105,115 Bankhead,Tallulah, 170 Barrymore, John, 27 Bartlett, Mari Wood and Robert, 728-747 Bates-Batcheller, Tr\phosa Duncan, 116 Bell Aircraft, 82 Bell Telephone Laboratories, 104 Berlin, Irving, 170, 777 Big Four, sign Declaration of United Nations, 25 Black Americans: in armed forces, 55, 757, 153; on Broadway, 772, 775; and civil rights organizations, 149, 152-153; discrimination against, in industry, 149-150; economic changes, 153; effect of War on, 149-150; new militancy, 150; overseas, 150, 152; proJapanese sympathies, 149; and race riots, 750, 153; women in labor force, 98 Blackouts, 8, 73 Boeing Airplane Company, 82 Bofors gun, 81-82 Bohr, Niels, 183 Bombers: B-17, 82; B-29, 82; construction of B-24, 76-77 Boston, Massachusetts, painting of State House,
24,25 Brauckmillcr family, 142, 744
Bureau of Motion Pictures, 116 Bush, Vannevar, 183, 185 Business: and antitrust, 181; and atomic bomb, 186; growth of sector, 181 influence in government, 78-79, 181; small vs. large companies, 78-79, 80 ;
D Danilova, Alexandra, 774 Dasch, George, 116 Davis, Elmer, 117 DDT, 183 DeGreve, Arthur F., 20
DeWitt, John L., 10, 12; on Japanese-Americans, 30 Dietrich, Marlene, 170 DiMaggio, Joe, 42 Dos Passes, John, on Mobile, Alabama, 143 Douglas, Melvyn, 106 Douglas, Paul, 42 Douglas Aircraft, 82 Draft boards, 43-44; deferments, 44; letters from, 44. 5ee also Selective Training and Service Act Drew, Charles R., 55 DuBois, W. E. B.,149
DUK-W(duck),87 Durante, Jimmy, 168
Early, Steve,
Economic
Children: and scrap drives, 118-119, 124-127;
and war effort, 118-127 armaments production, 81-82 Churchill, Winston: addresses in U.S., 24; American ancestry, 24; and Atlantic Charter,
Chrysler,
206
20
policies of U.S.: agriculture, 181-
182; antitrust, 180-181; labor, 181; rationing, 110-111 taxes, 108; War Bonds and Stamps, ;
108-110,120,121 Economy of U.S.: and blacks, 153; boom areas, 143-144; growth during War years, 144-145, 180-183; in the South, 143; before War, 24. See a/so Agriculture; Business; Labor, organized; Labor force; Rationing; Shortages Educational institutions: and armed forces, 182-183; government contracts, 182-183 Einstein, Albert, 183 Eisenhower, Dwight David: chosen to lead invasion of Europe, 53; on day of attack
on Pearl Harbor, 17; position in 1941, 52 Entertainment, 145; and blacks, 153; in New York, 766-779; and propaganda, 116-117 Evans, Maurice, 774
Fair
California Institute of Technology, 183 Censorship, 115, 116 Chayney, Mayris, 106
Flynn, Errol, 148
Fontanne, Lynn, 170 Ford, Gerald, 42 Ford Motor Company: jeep, 81 and Willow Run boomtown, 143-144; Willow Run ;
796 183 Nobuo, 105
factory, 76-77, Frisch, Otto, Fujita,
Garner, John Nance, 188-189 Gar>', Indiana, 72-73 General Electric Company, 186 General Motors, armaments production, 81-82
German-Americans: internment
of, 27; suspicion of, 26-27 Germany: declares war on U.S., 23; forbids uranium export from Czechoslovakia, 183; and sabotage in U.S., 115-116; surrender, 187 Germany, Navy of, attacks offshore U.S.,
26,
106
Grable, Betty, 109
Detroit, race riot, 750, 153^
B
Alden C, Jr.,43
Flannagan, John W., on War, 23
Civilian Public Service
Daniels, Jonathan, 24 Daniels, Josephus, 792, 193
Arnold, Thurman, 181
183-184;
106
Civilian defense, 104-106, 107; air-raid precautions, 6-7, 10, 104-105; blackouts, 8, 73; scrap drives, 107-108, 118-119, 124-127;
Flagg,
Employment Practices Commission, 150 Don C, 72; on WACs, 68
Faith,
War on one, 128-141. See also Social changes Farmer, James, 152 Fermi, Enrico, 183, 184, 186
Family, effects of
Great Britain: losses in Asia, 25-26; trades bases for destroyers, 23 Grew, Joseph C, return to U.S., 20 Groves, Leslie, 184, 786 Gypsy Rose Lee, 170
H Harding, Warren G., 193 Hargrove, Marion, on life
Harvard
the ,^rmy, 58, 60
Hoover, J. Edgar, on day of attack on Pearl Harbor, 17 Hoovervilles, new, 143 Hopkins, Harry, 18 Home, Lena, 150 Housing: for blacks, 153; shortages, 143 Houston, sunk, 48 Houston, Texas, and sinking of namesake, 48 Hueth, Potter, 86 Hull, Cordell, meeting with Japanese on day of attack on Pearl Harbor, 18, 20 Hunt, E. J., 78, 79 I
G. Farbenlndustrie, 181 Italian-Americans: internment of, 27; suspicion of, 26-27 Italy, declares war on U.S., 23 I.
J
Japan: decision to use atomic bomb against, 187; diplomats meet with Hull on day of Pearl Harbor attack, 18; protection of diplomats in U.S., 70 Japan, Navy of: air attacks on U.S. mainland, 105; submarine attack on U.S. mainland, 26
Japanese-Americans: in armed forces, 35, 38, 39; hostility toward, 26-27, 28, 40; internment, 27, 28-39, 40, 41 after internment of, 40; order permitting exclusion of, from areas of U.S., 27, 30; potentially dangerous aliens ordered detained, 20; work in internment camps, 36, 37 ;
Jeep, 87
Johnson, L\ndon, 42 Juvenile delinquency, 148
K
Fireside chat, 798
Kaiser,
Hamilton, and Roosevelt, 21
in
183
Helicopter (YR-4A), first successful Army, 782 Henderson, Leon, 9 Hershey, Lewis B., 43-44 Hobby, Oveta Gulp, 42, 50; and troops, 66-67, 72 Hoffman, Clare E., 104
Fighters: P-38, 82; P-40, 82; P-47, 82; P-51, 82 Fish,
Universit\',
Henry
82-83
J.,
82-83; and shipbuilding,
Keller, K. T., 78,
o
Kennedy, John
Oak
79 16-17 King, Ernest J., 53 Knox, Frank, informs Roosevelt of attack on Pearl Harbor, 18 Krock, Arthur, 23 Kurusu, Saburo, 18, 20
in
Ridge, 186 Office of Censorship, 115 Office of Civilian Defense (OCD), 104-108; Civil Air Patrol, 106; number of volunteers, 107; propaganda, 107; scrap drives, 107-108; Volunteer Participation Division, 106
F.,
Office of Price Administration (OPA), 110, La Cuardia, Fiorello H., 705; and Office of Civilian Defense, 104, 105, 106; on potential for attack on New York, 12 Labor, organized: growth, 181; and politics, 181 strikes, 87; and Wagner Act, 181 Labor force, 84-87, 180; absenteeisnn, 86; blacks in, 98, 149-150; hoboes in, 85; mobility of,
111,112, 114 Office of Production Management, 78 Office of Scientific Research and Development
(OSRD),183, 185 Office of
142-143; in shipyards, 88-89; strikes, 87; teenagers in, 146; of U.S. government, 180; use of normally excluded workers, 84; wages, 86, 87, 94; women in, cover, 7, 86, 88-100, 145; working conditions, 86 Lake, Veronica, 96 Lamarr, Hedy, 109 Landis, James M., and Office of Civilian Defense, 106-107 Laurence, William L., on atomic-bomb test, 187 Leahy, William D., 53, 187 Lear, Ben, 49, 52 Lend-Lease, established, 23 Lepke, Louis, 47 Lewis, John L., 87 Lunt, Alfred,
170
M McAfee, Mildred, 50 Magic, 20 Project, 184-187; chain reaction, 184, 186; controls, 184; production of atomic bomb, 186-187; secrecy, 184, 186, 187; test of atomic bomb, 187; uranium supplies,
Manhattan
184, 186 March, Fredric, 773
Marshall,
Information (OWI), 114, 117.
Oppenheimer,
J.
Robert, 786, 187
P Packard Motor Company, armaments production, 81-82
Company, 181 Patton, George S., Jr., Parker
in
1941 maneuvers, 49
Pearl Harbor, Japanese attack on: fears
and
response of mainland to, 6-75; news of, 16-17 Penicillin, 183 Pershing, John J., 42 Plutonium, 187 Popp, Roy, 746 Porter, Cole, 176 Powell, Tom, 746 "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition," 116-117 Price, Byron, and Office of Censorship, 115 Princeton University, 183 Pringle, Henry F., 114 Prisoners of war, German, in U.S., 752 Production of armaments, 76-87; acquisition of materials for, 83; by aircraft industry, 82; by auto industry, 80-82; awarding of contracts for, 78-79; conversion from civilian production to, 77, 79; and improvement of aircraft, 82;
George C, 53
labor force
in,
84-87; priority
ratings for, 83; profits from, 77-78; rubber,
and small businesses, 83-84; and War Pro-
Martin, Joe, 17
Massachusetts institute of Technology, 182-183 Maverick, Maury, 83 Mead, Margaret, on women after War, 96 Medical research, 183 Meitner, Lise, 183 Merman, Ethel, 170, 776 Meyer, Agnes E., 143 Midgets, and aircraft production, 85, 796 Migration, population, 142-143; and jobs, 143; and racism, 153 Mitchell, Archie, 707 Molotov, Vyacheslav, at Yalta, 200-201 Momism, 45 Monroe, Marilyn, 86 Morgenthau, Henry, Jr., orders President's guard increased, 21 and War Bonds, 108-109 Morishima, Morito, 70 Muhammad, Elijah, 149 Murrow, Edward R., on day of attack on Pearl Harbor, 22, 23 ;
N National Association for the
Advancement
of
Colored People (NAACP): founding of, 149; growth of, 152 Nelson, Donald M., 78, 79, 80; head of War Production Board, 79, 80 Nelson, Lindsey, 16
New York, New York:
War
See also Propaganda
;
air-raid alert in, 10;
entertainment in, 766-779 Nixon, Richard M.: on day of Pearl Harbor attack, 17; and Office of Price Administration, 110 Nomura, Kichisaburo, 18, 20 Nye, Gerald, on day of attack on Pearl Harbor, 17
duction Board, 79,80, 83 Propaganda: against Germany and Japan, 116; in
entertainment, 116-117; poster, 774;
pro-Allied, 116; symbols, 117 Prostitution, near training camps, 54. 5ee also
Victory
girls
Q Quebec Conference, 200
R Racism, 149;
in
armed
services, 55, 757, 153;
armed
forces,
50
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 188-203; as administrator, 79; and Atlantic Charter, 24; and atomic bomb, 183; and Churchill, 200; on day of attack on Pearl Harbor, 18, 20-21, 23; death, 187, 200, 202-203; early life, 790-797; fireside chat, 798; at first Selective Service drawing, 43; on foreign affairs, 194; issues order barring Japanese-Americans from West Coast, 27, 30; meets with Churchill in Washington, 24-25; morale boosting, 796-797, 798-799; on not sending Americans to war, 16; polio,
192; political progress, 193, 194; priorities War, 24; at Quebec Conference, 200; and racism, 55; requests declaration of war on Japan, 18, 79, 23; and Stalin, 200; steps toward war, 23, 194; travels, 200; on U.S. defenses in 1942, 26; at Yalta, 200-201
in
Roosevelt, James, 190 Roosevelt, Theodore (President), 190 Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr., jeep, 81 "Rosie the Riveter," 85 Rubber: cutoff of supply, 84, 181 guayale, 84; industry pact on, 181 needs, 85; produc;
;
tion, 84, 85; synthetic,
84
Rustin, Bayard, 152
Sabotage attempts, 115-116 Sachs, Alexander, 184 5ad Sack (cartoon), 44 San Francisco, California, air-raid alerts, 10 Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr., 117 Science and technology, 181, 185; and agriculture, 182; air conditioning, 785;
armaments
research, 183; atomic bomb, 183-187; computers, 785; health research, 183, 785;
helicopter, 783; peacetime implications of, 185; radar, 785; research contracts, 182183; synthetic rubber, 84, 181 Scrap drives, 84, 85, 107-108; and children, 118-119, 124-127 Selective Training and Service Act, 43; conscientious objectors, 45-47; deferments, 44; draft evasion, 45; first drawing under, 43; physical requirements for selectees, 45; registrations, 43, 44, 47; rejections from service, 45 Servicemen: attitude toward armed services, 49, 52; life at training camp, 47, 49, 52,
54-55; marriages, 52, 54 Shipbuilding: and Kaiser, 82; and women workers, 88-89 Shipping losses, in U.S. waters in early 1942, 26 Shortages, 110-111, 114-115, 154-165; anticipated, 8; and hoarding, 156; housing, 143,
and blacks, 149-150, 152-153; and Federal Employment Practices Commission, 150; and Mexican-Americans, 149; riots, 750, 153. 5ee also Japanese-Americans Randolph, A. Philip, and racial discrimination, 149
764-765; meat, 110, 162, 763; of motor vehicles, 154-155, 158-159; transportation, 760-767. See also Rationing Sikorsky, Igor, and helicopter, 187 Sinatra, Frank, 147-148, 168
Rankin, Jeanette, 23 Rationing, 102, 110-111, 112-113, 156; black market during, 110-111, 162; cigarette, 162, 763; coffee, 112; coupons, 110-111, 772; fuel oil, 762; gasoline, 84, 110, 111, 156, 157; hoarding during. 111, 156; meat, 110, 162, 763; points, 112; as social leveler, 145; sugar, 84, 110, 112. See also Shortages Rayburn,Sam,18, 79 Red Cross, women volunteers, 92
Smith, Gerald L. Smith, Kate, 110
racial
discrimina-
55 Rooney, Mickey, 52 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 190, 797, 794, 198-199, 203; and demonstration against racism, 149; and Office of Civilian Defense, 106; and women tion,
Smyth, Henry 186
D.,
Merrill,
K.,
186
153
on producing atomic bomb,
Social changes, 145, 147-153, 180;
and black
Americans, 149-150, 152-153; breakup of families, 147, 148; moral standards, 148149; and women, 90, 147; and young people, 146,147-149 Songs, patriotic, 116-117. See also Entertain-
ment
Rickenbacker, Eddie, 86, 116
Robeson, Paul, 775 Robinson, Jackie, 17; and
Skidmore-Owings
Sorensen, Charles E., 76 SPARs, 50 Stage Door Canteen, 770
and atomic bomb, 187; at Potsdam, 187; on U.S. war production, 77 Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, agreement with I. G. Farbenindustrie, 181 Stalin, josef:
207
Steinbeck, John, 17 Stewart, Everett, 45 Stewart, Jimmy, 42 Stimson, Henry L.: at first Selective Service drawing, 43; and Manhattan Project, 187; and racism, 55; on war profits, 11 Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation,
186 Stout, Rex, 116 Stratton,
Doroth\ C, SO
Strecker, Edward, 45 Streeter,
Ruth C, SO
Sullivan family, 22 Szilard, Leo,
183
opinion on War, 23 United States, Air Force of, 50; women in, 50,57 United States, armed forces of: attitudes of enlisted men, 49, 52; conflicts with War Production Board, 80; conscientious objec45-47; conscription, 43; convicts in, 44; deferments, 44; early training conditions, 49; and educational institutions, 182-183; enlistments after Pearl Harbor attack, 42; entertainment near bases, 54; entertainment in New York, 766-779; equipment shortages, 49; farewells to draftees, 47; JapaneseAmericans in, 35, 38, 39; Joint Chiefs of Staff, S3; losses in Pacific in 1942, 25-26; preparedness for war, 20, 25; rejection from, tors,
attack,
45; racial and sexual discrimination, 54-55, 757, 153; training camps, 47, 49, 56-65, 66-75;
C, 48 Teenagers, 147-148; and delinquency, 148; in labor force, 746; and zoot suits, 748, 149 Toscanini, Arturo, 117 Transportation: automobiles and trucks, 758759; public, 760-767 Truman, Harry S.: and Manhattan Project, 184, 187; and waste in government spending, 77-78, 79 Tucker, Sophie, 777 Tunney, Gene, on chastity, 54
treatment of enlisted men, 49; women in, 50-57,66-75 United States, Army of: Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), 182; build-up and train-
Tamm, Edward, on day
of Pearl
Harbor
17 Taylor, Clarence
u United Nations, Declaration of the, signed, 25 United Service Organization (USO), 54, 65 United States: anti-Japanese sentiment, 26-27; attacks on mainland of, 26, 105-106; attitudes toward servicemen, 52; dailv life, 102-104; on day of Pearl Harbor attack, 16-18, 20-21, 23; at death of Roosevelt, 202; declares war on Germany and Italy, 23; declares war on Japan, 23; economic changes during War, QO, 145, 153, 180; effects of War on a family, 728-J47; fears of airraids, 6-7,10, 12, 104-105; fears of invasion, 8, 11, 12, 20-21
German
naval attacks on, offshore, 26, 106; reactions in Washington to attack on Pearl Harbor, 20-21 migration within, 142-143; peacetime draft, 23; prewar public
ing of, 52; equipment shortages, 49; first successful helicopter (YR-4A), 782; haircuts, 60; life in training camps, 56-65, 66-75; physical requirements for draftees, 45; racism in, 55, 757, 153; Sad Sack (cartoon), 44, 45; strength by 1942, 52; uniforms, 60; women
in,
SO, SI, 66-75
United States, Coast Guard of, 77; women in, SO United States, Congress of, declares war, 23; investigation of defense spending, 78 United States, federal government of, 180; and business, 181; and educational institutions, 182-183; growth of, during War, 180 United States, Marine Corps of: racism in, 55;
women
in,
50, 57
Victory girls, 148 von Miklos, Josephine, 90
w WACs,
50, 68; training of, 60-75; uniforms,
68,71
WAFS,
50, 57
Wallace, Henry, 18, 79 War Bonds and Stamps, 108-110, 120, 121 War Production Board (WPB), 79, 80; growth of, 83; Smaller War Plants Division, 83 War Relocation Authority, 40
Warner, W. Lloyd, 47 Washington, D.C., defense of, 74-75 Watson, Edwin "Pa," 184 WAVES, SO Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 184, 186 Wheeler, Burton K., and declaration of war on Japan, 23 Wheeler, Lawrence, 26 White, E. B., on prewar years, 23 White, William Allen, on Roosevelt, 190 Wickard, Claude R., 108 Wigner, Eugene, 183, 186 Willkie, Wendell L., 79 Willow Run, 76, 77, 796; housing at, 143-144. 5ee also Ford Motor Company Willys-Overland, jeep, 81
Women: and ammunition 707;
in
armed
changing role
manufacture, 700-
forces, 50-57, 66-75; black, of,
147; daily
life of,
9i
102;
discrimination against, in armed forces, 55; in labor force, cover, 7, 85-86, 88-100, 102, 145, 147; and living conditions near bases, 52, 54; married to servicemen, 52, 54, 147; paid less in industry, 94; prejudice against, in industry, 90; volunteers, 92-93, T22; as wives, 147; work at home, 96 family of Albert and Louise (Anne, Bertram, Francis, Gardner, Mari, Moyer, Paul, Penelope), effect of War on, 728-747 Wrigley, Philip K., 84 Writers War Board, 116 Wylie, Philip, on Momism, 45
United States, Navy of: and enlistments in Houston, 48; Navy College Training Program (V-12), 182; racism in, 55; women in, SO University' of Chicago, 186 Uranium: production of enriched, 187; supplies, 184, 186
Wood,
V-for-Victory symbol, 117 Vandenberg, Arthur, on day of attack on Pearl Harbor, 17 Victory bicycle, 9 Victory gardens, 108, 709
Yalta Conference, 200-201 York, Alvin, 43, 46, 47
initial
;
opinion, 23-24; propaganda campaigns, 116-117; racism, 55, 116, 149-150, 151, 152-153; social changes, 52, 145, 147-153; trades destroyers for bases, 23; unity of
Zoot
suits,
748, 149
Printed
208
in
U.S.A.
^'
l/r^^/f•, "Jl'
•
I'
I
^
1
«,
••
>
.
*^>
'M
^o^-*/::
f.
>
•
•• :,
.'/'• '.v..
y
.'•
.
-««^£*^
J
^-^^^
V
••
ISBN
»
0-8094-2478-9
« i^ijML,
«
••'