The generation that fought in World War II, both abroad and at home, has long mythologized those years as a symbol of total American unity and commitment to winning the war. America created the world’s largest industrial base at the time during the war. It achieved full employment, fielded victorious armies around the world, built the largest navy in history, and created nuclear energy and weapons technology. That’s right, and it was a Herculean effort.
But the image of the home front marching in step with the troops is false. Americans resented rationing and took steps to ease its hardships, using both legal and extralegal means. Thousands tried to escape the draft. Rationing, especially of gasoline, meat, and sugar, created large black markets across the country, just as Prohibition had two decades earlier. Recruiting offices, corrupted by political machines and organized crime, sprang up in cities across the country.
Film and literary depictions of the time ignored public grumblings about wartime restrictions and focused on patriotism. Many still do. It’s simply the time-honored practice of one generation reminding subsequent generations how much better off they are than the old days. Make no mistake, millions of Americans sacrificed during World War II. But most weren’t happy about it, and many took steps to make their sacrifices a little less strenuous. Here are ten facts about the home front during World War II.
10. Gasoline was rationed, but not because of a fuel shortage.
The United States never had a fuel shortage during World War II, despite the enormous consumption by the Allied war machine and the industries that supported it. On December 11, 1941, just four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Price Administration announced the creation of 7,500 food boards across the country. The boards, composed of unpaid volunteers, were charged with rationing items needed for the war effort. People connected to the board members, professionally or personally, had the opportunity to cheat the system In some areas, fraud has become widespread.
The first items to be rationed were tires. Before the war, the United States imported almost all the rubber it needed, much of it from areas then under Japanese control. In order to conserve existing tire supplies, the sale of new automobiles was suspended on January 1, 1942. Only certain professions were allowed to purchase automobiles from existing stockpiles. These included medical workers, other professionals deemed essential to the war effort, and the clergy.
Gasoline rationing was introduced to change behaviour , forcing consumers to change their driving habits and thus save rubber. It was almost universally despised. Letter stickers attached to cars notified fuel retailers how much gasoline the owner was entitled to buy per week. In addition to the stickers, drivers had ration cards that recorded the amount purchased. “Stickers,” the lowest category, were allowed to buy up to four gallons per week. “X stickers,” the highest, allowed unlimited fuel purchases. Not surprisingly, about 200 members of Congress received X stickers, causing a national outcry. Americans resisted gasoline rationing throughout the war, especially in the West, where longer distances required more fuel.
9. Americans had to be convinced to buy war bonds
During the war, more than $250 million in advertising donations begged Americans to buy war bonds. War bonds were intended to remove cash from circulation , to reduce inflation, and to finance the war. Americans were bombarded with advertisements, movies, radio programs, Bond Drives, and posters urging them to buy bonds. About half of all Americans did so, raising about $185 billion, even though the bonds paid below market rates when they matured in 10 years.
Advertisements appeared on radio programs, newsreels, short animated films , advertising in magazines, newspapers, posters and in the closing credits of feature films. War Bond Drives, Backed by celebrities and decorated combat veterans, the War Bonds Campaign encouraged Americans to buy bonds. Children were encouraged to save stamps until they could redeem them for bonds. Eight separate war bond sales were held during the war, heavily publicized by donation drives. All exceeded their stated goals.
Of the $185 billion raised through wartime bond sales, $156 billion entered the national treasury through eight scheduled sales, the last of which took place in the fall of 1945 after Japan's surrender. The government touted war bonds (called Series E bonds) as "the greatest investment on earth." Their sales continued until 1980, when they were replaced by other government bonds.
8. Black markets for food rationing flourished in the United States.
As rationing spread across the United States, consumer resistance grew. Sugar, coffee, cooking oils, some dairy products, meat, canned fish, jams and jellies, and numerous processed foods were rationed. To obtain food on the cards, consumers needed cash to pay for it, as well as the necessary ration points listed in ration books obtained from local boards.
Black markets for rationed food emerged almost as quickly as rationing itself. Meat became a popular black market item. In early 1945, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter took over a truck and bought more than tons of beef, veal and pork on the black market within a 30-mile radius of the city, all of it obtained illegally. Even though several other sources of protein were available without rationing, including some meats, Americans resisted efforts to limit their consumption of the foods they had grown accustomed to.
In the United States, black market traders have found large buyers market , willing to flaunt the rationing system and buy illegal goods, especially meat, sugar, and gasoline. Another illegal market flourished in many cities: counterfeit food stamps. Just as the population had resisted Prohibition in the 1920s, rationing led to a surge inanother form of bootlegging, replacing alcohol with other consumer goods that people refused to give up despite government action.
7. Modern recycling practices began with scrap metal disks
During World War II, organized dumps of metals, cooking oils (reduced into gelatin used in explosives), rubber, leather, and paper began the practice now called recycling in the United States. When the war began, More than 1 million tons of scrap metal could be found on American farms alone , enough to build over 100 battleships. Before the war, there were few options for what to do with the metal other than just leave it to corrode in the fields.
The exponential expansion of government and military bureaucracy created a huge demand for the government's basic material output. Paper shortages began almost immediately. Paper storage devices collected newspapers, magazines, boxes, cardboard boxes, and other items for recycling. The paper hoardings of World War II directly contributed to the shortage of many pre-war magazines and comics, increasing their value as collectibles for later generations.
Almost all of it was collected for scrap metal everything that could be recycled. Tin cans, bicycle tires, broken tools, discarded pots and pans, leather goods, nylon, old clothing, recycled cooking oils and grease. Scrap metal collections continued throughout the war, almost all of them conducted by volunteer organizations like the Boy Scouts or fraternal groups like the Rotarians. How much they contributed to the war effort is debatable, but they were a rallying point for the home front during World War II, widely praised in government propaganda campaigns.
6. America produced more steel than was needed for military needs.
Despite producing thousands of ships, tanks, armored vehicles, trucks, and countless other items that required steel, the United States produced or processed enough steel to create a surplus. The steel was sold to the Allies and used to earning money at home to allow copper to be used for military purposes. Steel mills in the United States flourished during the war, unhampered by supply shortages or labor disputes.
Beginning in January 1942, steel, both new and recycled, was diverted from the production of automobiles and some other consumer goods to the needs of the war. By the end of the war, industry was at full employment. Steel was shipped to shipyards, tank factories, truck factories, railroads, and overseas to feed the industries of America's allies. By the end of the war, there were enough steel stockpiles to build LST (Landing Ship/Tank) in just 30 days. Before the war, such a ship was on its way to the builder for more than a year.
When the war ended in 1945, the United States was the world's largest producer of industrial products, including steel. Throughout the rest of the 1940s and 1950s, demand for steel continued as much of the world needed to be rebuilt and domestic production of consumer goods returned. By the end of the last decade, supply had outstripped demand, and the steel industry in the United States went into decline, never returning to its postwar peak.
5. Hollywood entered the war with a bang
In the first year of the war alone, more than 10% Hollywood employees, actors, directors, photographers, writers, animators, technicians and others served in the war effort. They did so in the armed forces, the propaganda industry, the Office of War Information and other organizations. Producers who continued to make films were told to consider whether the picture will help in the war before making it.
Among the films made during the war were films intended for recruitment to specialized units armed forces. Films such as "Bombardier" (1943); Emergency Drive (1943); and "Wake Island" (1942) were aimed at educating audiences about the duties of members of the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Submarine Service, and the U.S. Marine Corps, respectively. Each featured famous Hollywood stars playing heroic roles in the hopes of encouraging young Americans to emulate them and enlist in the armed forces.
Other films warned of the threat to the home front and the overall war effort posed by espionage, such as " Saboteur" Alfred Hitchcock (1942) and "Above suspicion" (1943). Hollywood produced training films for the military, morale-boosting films to entertain those on the home front and overseas, and propaganda films depicting America's enemies. Among the latter were seven movies "Why do we fight? "produced by the War Department in collaboration with Hollywood to "inform" the public about the need for war.
4. Americans were reluctant to embrace rationing, despite post-war claims that they had done so.
In later years, Americans were told of the joyful acceptance of sacrifice shown by their ancestors during World War II. In truth, many of the sacrifices demanded of men on the home front were widely resented and often resisted. As the war went on, resentment grew, especially as abuses within the system became more apparent. Ways to circumvent the difficulties caused by rationing emerged, and abuses of the system were often ignored. Americans often ate better, than in the pre-war decade.
Americans at home, who had long been unable to buy certain goods because of the Depression and a shortage of money, found themselves busy, with money to spend, and too often without goods to spend it on. At the same time, agricultural production flourished. Americans saw the bounty and questioned the need for standardization , especially food and clothing. Travel restrictions were an added irritant, as it was clear to everyone that fuel shortages were of little help. Citizens needed government-mandated travel priorities for train, plane, boat and bus travel. Car travel was limited by petrol rationing and a national speed limit of 35mph.
Ration books were intended solely for the use of those to whom they were issued and their immediate families. Within a few weeks of the system's introduction, its intentions were thwarted by the Americans substituting one form of ration card for another. Rationing was far from free and welcomed by the Americans,a myth that developed in the post-war years. The efforts made by the federal government and law enforcement to curb abuses of the rationing system are evidence that Americans at home during the war hated and resisted it.
3. American restaurant patrons were not subject to rationing
If someone wanted to have a steak dinner at home during World War II, they needed money to pay for the steak, the appropriate amount of rations to buy it from, and a butcher who happened to have the desired cut of beef. However, if someone went to a restaurant to have a steak, especially a well-known restaurant in a big city, all that was needed was the necessary cash and a table reservation. Cards were not required to order food in restaurants, not even for coffee and sugar (although the government did impose price ceiling for many products).
As a result, Americans, especially in cities, began to eat out more often Restauranteurs could sell what was on their menus without being hampered by ration books when they bought their groceries. American workers, with disposable income that they had trouble spending at groceries, butchers, or dry goods stores, found that they could eat to their heart's content at most restaurants without feeling guilty about cheating the system.
By the end of the war, whiskey, although not rationed in coupon books, almost disappeared as distilleries turned to producing alcohol to support the war effort. What whiskey they produced was largely distributed to distributors in restaurants and clubs. Eating out provided an opportunity to drink with food, and Americans enjoying cocktails before dinner became a feature of dining out.
2. Draft evasion was present throughout World War II.
About 60% of the men who served in the military during World War II were conscripts. During the first year of the war, some tried to avoid the draft by enlisting in other services, such as the Coast Guard or the Navy. Others cited religious beliefs that allowed them to avoid conscription. After the government made conscription mandatory for all branches of the armed forces, , conscientious objector status was given to some, but not all, of the objectors. About 6,000 were stripped of their CO status and jailed. Thousands more evaded the draft through corrupt military recruiting offices.
Conscription ensured that men would not flock to one service at the expense of others, such as joining the navy to avoid serving in the army's combat infantry. It also ensured that all men of draft age were registered and known. local draft boards, which initially determined the CO status, health status and other issues that affected the ability of conscripts to enter or be discharged from military service.
When the draft began in 1940, exemptions were available for men who were married or had children. By 1941, the marriage rate for draft-age men had jumped 25%. The increase in men choosing marriage over military service led Congress to amend the law in 1942, exempting only those who had married before the attack on Pearl Harbor. As in every American war that required conscription, opposition to forced military service existed during World War II, regardless of whether it was the Greatest Generation.
1. Sales of home pressure cookers increased nearly fivefold in 1943 thanks to Victory Gardens.
Rationing led to an increase in home gardening, encouraged by the government. In turn, the additional output from gardens led to increase in home canning, for which pressure cookers came in handy. Home canning offered foods that would otherwise be rationed and allowed Americans to barter for foods that were not subject to the rationing system. This allowed Americans to grow and process their own food and use it to barter with their fellow citizens.
Homemade 1940s pressure cookers were far from the program and forgot about modern electronic pressure cookers. They required close attention, careful maintenance, and yet could lead to catastrophic consequences in the kitchen. Few companies made pressure cookers during the war, switching to military production, and older, less reliable stoves were used. Canning jars could be used over and over again, but their lids and seals could not, and they were in constant demand during the war at hardware stores, department stores, and through catalog sales.
Victory Gardens sprang up in backyards, on city rooftops, in alleys, and in many communities in shared public parks and gardens. Home canning boomed during the war, largely died out in the post-war era, and has only recently seen a revival, fueled by renewed interest in less industrialized foods and the more convenient and safe pressure cooker. People growing their own food have also seen a revival, fueled by a desire for healthier eating rather than necessity caused by food rationing.
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