How did world war II affect America ?

How did world war II affect

America

Before world war two the US was an isolationist, this is when a country doesn’t get involved with wars and such like. But many Americans wanted to enter the war, they believed that it could bring them out of the great depression although most Americans didn’t want to enter the war they believed that it would only bring suffering. Therefore there was division, which was typical of America at this point. I will be looking in this essay on how the war affected America and whether the division remain at the end. Roosevelt thought that he needed to get America into the war but without the people’s support he wouldn’t be able to do it. So he decided to start selling the allies weapons but they would have to collect them. Next he said that he would lend the allies weapons but any that were lost would need to be replaced, and that he would transport the weapons as far as Iceland. He gave that ships orders not to fire upon enemy boats etc. unless they were fired upon first. Then the attack on pearl harbour came and this was like a God send to him, it meant that he could bring America into the war with all the people’s support.

World war I had made the states the richest country in the world, however in 1929 the USA experienced the great depression in which many people found themselves unemployed and with little money. World war II finally ended this although there were mixed views with regard to the economy. For instance the war created an economic boom that has never been equalled and brought an end to the economic depression in America. The fall in unemployment was due to the fact that a lot more jobs were being made in weapons manufacturing along with in the army. Even women managed to find a lot more jobs in the factories and in the army, although they were never fighting just jobs like nursing etc. Because of all these new jobs being created the average income for white families rose 3,000 with an increase of 2,000 for blacks, and with it the standard of living rose to. Seen as everyone had so much money they could afford to buy items previously thought of as luxuries. Like cars, televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. At least 70% of all families owed these things, as opposed to the measly 4% in Britain. In the 1950’s there was a ‘baby boom’ the population of America grew 30% this was probably due to the fact that everyone was happier and felt that they had enough money to raise a larger family. On the other hand however things were not good for everyone. For instance many families lost members mainly due to fighting, this would lower the average income of the families that suffered because they would lose their husbands and women could not get very many jobs at that point. There were also some food shortages during the war although these did not affect families and businesses too much. Government expenditure rose greatly during the war, from $20 billion in 1941 to a massive 97.2 billion in 1944. As there was so much being spent the government had to raise taxes and the public were advised to save money in war bonds. As an effect of this the American national debt grew six times over. As well as this most of the factories signed to make ammunitions were large corporations because they could produce weapons quickest, as these grew the custom of smaller businesses fell so the suffered because of the war as well. As television grew so with it the rate of juvenile delinquency. There was a ‘spiral of decline’ in inner cities as fewer people wanted to live there. As the rich people that could afford to move out went so to with the money, so shops lost a lot of business.

The war also brought mixed feelings amongst people, for example there was a ‘baby boom’ in America after the war. This generally meant that people were more happy and better off. The US was never attacked or invaded so no civilians had any real hardship during the war. There wasn’t even any real rationing, or at least nothing like Britain had. Having said that some families were affected with family members, mostly men, being killed on the front lines. This meant that less money would be coming into families, as it was hard for women to get jobs.

Another area ...

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Another area where the war had an impact was with regard as to how groups of people were treated. For instance the Japanese-Americans were very harshly treated, although before the war some Japanese-Americans were discriminated against, after the attack on pearl harbour within a day the behaviour towards all ‘aliens’ but mostly Japanese changed for the worse. The reason it was mostly the Japanese that were affected was because they had no one to stand up for them, they were a minority. Over 100,000 Japanese were interned most of them from the west coast. They were told to take what they could carry anything else would be sold or thrown away. The Japanese were treated like prisoners in the relocation camps most of them were born in the US (Nisei). 17,000 Japanese fought for America, they formed the 442nd, which was one of the most decorated combat squads in the war. But still the Japanese-Americans were seen as a threat and many anti-Japanese slogans were used like ‘slap the Japs’.

Discrimination also existed towards black Americans. For instance, before the war there were the ‘Jim crow laws’ in the southern states, which discriminated against black people. Black people weren’t allowed to vote and had to have special toilets only for black people, special areas in cafes that were only for black people and any black person had to give up their seat on a bus etc. to a white person. There was also a lot of lynching on black people, which was to illegally hang someone. These hangings were usually committed by members of the Klu Klux clan who would come around to black people’s houses at night wearing sheets and just kill them there and then, purely because they’re black. However the war provided a good opportunity to address discrimination because black people could point out that they were fighting for freedom and democracy when they didn’t have it in their own country. Also the war provided a chance for the black community to show themselves as patriotic citizens and they could prove themselves to be equal with white people by fighting or applying for the many vacant jobs on offer. Therefore the war brought changes within the army, where there were no black pilots, racially segregated units of black and white and near to no black officers afterwards there were several units of black pilots, racially integrated units were much more common and there were many more black men allowed to fight on the front line along with many more black officers. In America too, advances were made towards equality, after A. Philip Randolph lead a march on Washington against the exclusion of black people in the defence industry Roosevelt issued executive order 8802 ‘Government agencies, job training programmes and defence contractors must put and end to discrimination’. He threatened to remove contracts if not followed. Also the CORE was set up, black people’s expectations rose and they became more active. FEPC threatened to take away contracts if black people weren’t employed. The National association for the advancement of coloured people grew ten times over. However progress was not always smooth, the arrival of loads of black people in the major cities created a lot of racial tension. On the 21st of June 1943 there were riots in Detroit in which 25 blacks were killed along with 9 whites. More than 700 people were injured and damage estimated at over 2 million dollars. There were riots in 9 black army training camps where black soldiers resented the treatment they had been receiving. There were even more riots in the summer of 1943, one in Harlem, New York where six black people were killed and over 300 injured. I think that now after the war there was much more equality than before although there was still a long way to go with disenfranchisement, poverty for blacks, segregation in the south and discrimination in employment, education and housing.

The final area that needs to be looked at now is how the war affected the lives of women. Before the war women’s roles were as housewives, looking after the kids and doing the ironing, washing etc. or being models for adverts to be looked at. They had to wear dresses and had to adhere to particular style and appearance, they had to look beautiful. Women before the war were not allowed to work very much. Only some jobs were open to them like nurses etc. evidence of this is that before the war only 36 women worked in shipyards and only 17% of women worked at all. However the war changed this as women began to be called upon to fill the jobs of men or to help the war effort. During the war the number of women workers increased from 12 million to 18.5 million. There were 300,000 working in the armed forces. Most women had higher pay than before and in some states they even had equal pay to men. This improved women’s confidence that they could do good work. There was also progress in terms of women’s attitude towards work. Many women didn’t want to go back to domestic jobs. 32%of married women still had jobs after the war. 60% of the US was in favour of married women continuing to work after the war. Women were beginning to be perceived differently for example Rosie the Riveter (a very masculine women). Despite this once the war had ended many women went back to traditional roles. 50% of women preferred working in the home. And in 1950 only 2% more women were working than before.

Therefore in conclusion I think that the war brought about major changes in an economic view. I think that it definitely brought them out of the depression and people generally became happier. And certainly in the war the attitudes to Japanese-Americans changed although this was only short term and does not affect them today. I also think that it took a great step towards equality for blacks but it did not bring it around straight away. As for women during the war a lot changed but afterwards most women went back, but they still had the confidence to work and that’s why they’re where they are today.