Well hey there and welcome back to Heimler’s History. WE’ve been going through Unit 7 of the AP U.S. History curriculum, and in this video we’re about to get mobilized for World War II. So if you’re ready to get them brain cows milked, let’s get to it. What we’re really trying to do in this video is the following: Explain how and why U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society. So I left off the last video talking about the event that shattered all hope of continued American isolation in World War II, namely, the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. After that fateful moment, America got itself right in the middle of World War II. Now in the next video we’ll talk about the actual fighting of the war, but in this one, we’re going to see how getting ready, which is to say, mobilizing, for the war completely changed American society. Now you might remember that World War I changed American society on a whole host of fronts because it was what’s called a total war. This means that a country leverages all its assets, both military and domestic, in order to fight the war. And World War II was just as much a total war as its predecessor. So once America began mobilizing, federal spending increased by something like 1000% percent. If you remember my previous video on the Great Depression, you’ll remember that America was in a bad way economically. And president Roosevelt’s solution to our economic crisis was the New Deal, which included massive federal spending to get the U.S. out of the depression. Now, whether that would have worked in the long run or not, we’ll never know, because as American industry was leveraged for mobilization, all that government spending had the effect of increasing GDP by 15%, which effectively pulled us out of the Great Depression. To this end, private industries were commandeered for wartime production. Thanks to two new agencies created by Roosevelt, the War Production Board and the Office of War Mobilization, automobile factories began producing planes and tanks and other factories began producing all manner of war munitions. At that point, the U.S. went from the crippling unemployment of the Great Depression to a labor shortage as men began shipping off for war. In order to address the shortages in labor, the federal government made a concerted effort to get women working in factories. And to this end, the government produced posters like this one with the now-famous Rosie the Riveter which presented women workers as both strong and necessary for the war effort. And the truth is, campaigns like this were needed because with the exception of wartime production during the first World War, women were, in general, discouraged from doing industrial work, especially those in the middle and upper classes. All of this taken together was, for all intents and purposes, an overnight transformation of the American economy. And despite the continuing issues of racial tension between whites and blacks during this time, black Americans joined the military to the tune of about one million soldiers. And many participated in the war effort as a way to put race issues on the national agenda and to raise their status at home. To this end, the NAACP encouraged black Americans to participate in the Double V Campaign which meant that they were working for victory in the war and victory against racism at home. Even with this push, black regiments remained segregated from white regiments, but some of the black regiments served with distinction and garnered some well-earned recognition like the Tuskegee Airmen who flew in almost 1600 combat missions. In addition to black Americans fighting in the war, no small amount of Mexican Americans deployed for duty as well, something like 300,000 of them. However, many of these folks were agricultural workers and since they were leaving their fields in staggering numbers, a new provision was made in 1942 to allow Mexican farm workers to enter the U.S. and help with planting and harvesting without having to go through the normal immigration procedures. Over the course of the war, almost 15 million Americans of all stripes served in the war, and a bulk of those participants came in thanks to the Selective Service Act passed in 1940 (which, if you’re keeping track, was one year before the U.S. entered the war). This was the first peacetime military draft in United States history, but it got the job done. Now one of the darker moments of domestic wartime mobilization was the Japanese Relocation begun in 1942. On the west coast, especially, there was a large population of Japanese Americans, and let me just emphasize that last part: they were American citizens. But unfortunately for them, despite holding this status, they were associated with the hated Japanese who were now our wartime enemy. All of the sudden, this population of Japanese AMericans were suspect: how did we know they weren’t spies for the Japanese government? And so out of this fear, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which authorized the federal government to relocate over 100,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps scattered throughout the western states. And this order applied not only to Japanese Americans who had emigrated from Japan, but also their children who were born on American soil. And not only were they forcibly removed from their homes, but the government also confiscated much of their personal property as well. However, one of these Japanese Americans by the name of Fred Korematsu refused to comply with this gross violation of his and his family’s civil liberties. And so when he was arrested, his case eventually made its way up to the Supreme Court, and this is a case you definitely need to know: Korematsu v The United States in 1944. The American Civil Liberties Union represented Korematsu and argued that the forced removal was an unconstitutional violation of the fifth amendment, which in case you’re rusty, protects Americans from answering for crimes without the indictment of a Grand Jury. Ultimately, however, the COurt ruled that the Japanese Relocation WAS constitutional on the grounds that it was a “martial necessity arising from the danger of espionage and sabotage.” It was a truly horrifying thing to have occurred. However, although it doesn’t occur in this time period, it’ll be important for you to know that in 1988 the federal government formally apologized the citizens that were interned and offered them or their surviving descendants $20,000 in reparations payments. Okay, that’s what you need to know about Unit 7 topic 12 of the AP U.S. History curriculum. If you need more help getting an A in your class and a five on your exam in May, these videos, then the way you let me know is by subscribing. Heimler out.