World War II history and impact

¶ … World War II was carried out on the home front, how it was presented to the American people and conducted in America. World War II never really touched American shored, but it certainly made a difference in American lives.

On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed congress and asked them to declare war on Japan after their unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7. He called December 7 "a date which will live in infamy," and it brought Americans directly into the war, and their lives changed. As soon as Roosevelt declared war, thousands of patriotic and emotional Americans hurried to enlist and help fight the war. These young people were angry about the Japanese attacks, and they wanted to defend their country. Young men enlisted in the Armed Forces, and young women signed up as nurses, and even pilots, helping to ferry airplanes from one base to another, but never actually in combat.

When so many young people enlisted, there were many open jobs that had to be filled, and the women left at home filled many jobs that had traditionally been held by men. They worked in factories building the ships, planes, and weapons Americans would need to fight in the war. They became known as "Rosie the Riveters," and they were a very famous symbol of how Americans simply dug in and did what they had to do both here at home and on the war fronts. The people at home did not face actual fighting, but they did face many difficulties. There were shortages of food and materials. Many materials had to be recycled into ammunition, weapons, and other defense items, so metals were recycled, and many items disappeared from everyday life, such as butter, rubber, and many other items. "Rationing programs that began with rubber and gasoline soon spread to greatly desired foods, including meats, coffee, and butter. [ ... ] Scrap drives, milkweed pod collections, air raids, blackouts, and numerous Red Cross activities were also part of the day-to-day wartime life ... " (O'Brien and Parsons 3). So, many Americans learned to do without a lot of things during the war, and a lot of people do not realize that.

President Roosevelt had appointed Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson in 1940, and he held that Cabinet post throughout the war years until 1945. Before America ever entered the war, he created what today would be called a lobbying group, named the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies. He never actually commanded the Armed Forces himself; he preferred to let his chiefs in the field do that, who were Army Chief of Staff, General George Marshall, Supreme Commander in Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Commander in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur. There was a large War Department in Washington that employed thousands of people and helped coordinate all the many functions of the war.

There were other hardships during the war. Japanese-Americans throughout the country were rounded up and shipped off to detention centers in remote areas around the western United States. Many of the people were American citizens, but the people were afraid of them and felt they might be enemies. These Japanese lost their possessions, their jobs, and their rights, and they were held from early 1942 until December 1944. It was one of the most controversial happenings of the war here at home, and many Japanese have never forgotten their treatment or forgiven the government for interring them.