Chapter+28+-+The+Homefront

** Chapter 28 - The Homefront ** With the outbreak of war, the American people of all class and status were affected. The nation was experiencing the Great Depression up to the start of the Second World War due to over speculation and buying on margin in the stock market. After the bottom fell out in the markets, the great stock market crash initiated the Great Depression. The war however, caused for despair and poverty to change for the better. With the increased desire for wartime materials employment, industrial production, the Gross National Product (GNP), and personal incomes soared. However the increase of wartime goods caused a shortage of consumer goods.  When the American troops declared war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were sent overseas to either the Atlantic or the Pacific. The American home front would then change drastically. With the soldiers out at war fighting there was a decrease in employed workers. The need for new sources of labor caused a migration in America. Freed Blacks from the south moved north to gain factory working jobs, and women also took the place of men in the factory jobs.

Rationing was one of the major efforts of the US home front. The amount of food needed to feed the American soldiers as well as the Allied European soldiers was too great for the agriculture of America to provide with a thriving economy. The people during the era of the Second World War rationed everything that could be bought or sold. Gas was limited to a specific amount per week and gas stations had quotas to meet. Food especially was rationed, with a limit of butter, pork, and other essentials. Food stamps were quite common and used by everyone in the united war effort.

The home front was known for more than its manufacturing and its rationing. The home front also played a pivotal role in financing the war. Famous celebrities would buy war bonds to help finance the war and soon the masses would follow. Buying war bonds gave the government money to pay for war. Powerful propaganda filled posters would portray the soldiers in the war and instill a feeling of patriotism as well as an awareness of the war.

Later into the war there was some trouble towards the west coast. With the fighting with the Japanese soldiers, the American citizens created internment camps where Japanese American citizens were rounded up and placed into camps to contain them during the war. Not to be confused with the concentration camps in Europe, the purpose of the internment camps was to contain the Japanese American citizens.

Sources [] [] [] [] [] [|http://farrit.lili.org/files/farrit/images/Heart_mtn.jpg] [] American History: A Survey, 12th Edition (written by Alan Brinkley, pages 743-756)