Lecture--Section 1, Chapter 17
Mobilizing for Defense

 I. Americans Join the War Effort
    With the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese newspapers reported that the United States had been reduced in size to a third-rate power that was "trembling on her shores". In truth, the United States awoke to the battle cry "Remember Pearl Harbor"!
 A. Selective Service and the GI
      1. Five million volunteered for military service but this number...
      2. The Selective Service System expanded the draft and eventually provided...
      3. The volunteers and draftees reported to military bases around the country...
  B. Expanding the Military 
      1. Army Chief of Staff George Marshall pushed for the formation of a...

      2. This law, although seen by many as silly, gave the WAACs an...

      3. In July 1943, after thousands of women had enlisted, the U.S. Army dropped the "auxiliary" status, and granted...
       4. WACs worked as...
  C. Recruiting, Discrimination and dramatic contributions
      1. For Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans and Asian Americans, desegregated neighborhoods and inequality at home left many wondering...
      2. Despite discrimination in the military, more than...
      3. Over 1 million African Americans served but in mostly...
      4. Over 13,000 Chinese Americans joined as did 33,000 Japanese Americans who served...

      5. Some 25,000 Native Americans joined the war effort and made substantial...

II. A Production Miracle
 A. Industries retooled to to support the war effort
      1. In February of 1942, the production of automobiles halted as automobile plants...

      2. A mechanical pencil maker turned out ________; a bedspread manufacturer made__________; a soft-drink company converted from filling bottles with liquid to_____________________.
     3. Shipyards and defense plants expanded their work in an astonishing rate. 
         a. Industrialist _______________ had built seven massive new shipyards that turned out tankers, troop transports, and "baby" aircraft carriers.
         b. Hull 440, a Liberty ship was assembled...
 B. Labor's Contribution
     1. By 1944, 18 million workers were laboring in war industries,...
     2. More than 6 million of these new workers were woman and they proved skilled at_____________, riveting guns getting the name, "______________________". 
     3. African Americans were hired in Defense plants taking on minimal jobs as discrimination plagued them even there.
         a. To protest such discrimination in the military and in industry, _________________, president and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized...
         b. Fearing white resentment or violence, Roosevelt backed down and called for labor leaders "to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color or national origin."
 C. Mobilization of Scientists
     1. In 1941, Roosevelt organized the____________________________ to improve radar, sonar; create pesticides to fight mosquitoes, and miracle drugs such as penicillin.
     2. The most significant achievement of the OSRD was the secret development of a new weapon...

     3. A German refugee and physicist wrote to FDR warning him that German scientist had succeeded in splitting uranium atoms and that this discovery could be used to create a weapon of enormous destructive power.
    4. The OSRD set up an extensive program to develop the bomb as quickly as possible. Research at _______________ in Manhattan by brilliant scientist let to the top-secret program known only as...

III. The Federal Government Takes Control
 A. With most industry geared toward the war effort, demands for goods increased but supplies were dropping. It looked as though prices would shoot upwards.
      1. FDR created the ____________________ (OPA) that fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods.
      2. Congress raised________________ and extended the tax to millions of people who never paid it before.
      3. Higher taxes reduced consumer demand on scarce goods by leaving workers with less to spend.
      4. The government encouraged Americans...
B. The War Production Board (WPB) decided which companies would convert from...
     1. The WPB organized nationwide drives to collect __________, ________, ______, _____ and children scoured attics and cellars looking for useful junk to recycle.
     2. The OPA also set up a system for rationing, .....
 
         a. Under this system, household received rationing books with coupons to buy scarce materials such as meat, shoes, sugar, coffee and gasoline.
         b. Most Americans accepted rationing as a personal contribution to the war effort.