Home Fronts During the War
America
When the Japanese bombed the Pearl Harbor American lives changed a great amount. Americans started to collected pieces of metal to make weapons. Food, gas and clothing were rationed. Women also took roles such was working for the military and building planes and other aircraft. Major league baseball players also traded in their uniform to military uniforms. Directors of TV shows and movies stared to make movies about the war and that people show about the war and to try to get them to join the war. Dramatic radio programming increasingly featured war-related storylines (www.history.com).
Britain
http://www.ducksters.com/
Throughout the war, the Ministry of Information (under Alfred Duff Cooper and later Brenden Bracken) tried to boost public morale through propaganda campaigns. It also frequently prevented the press from publishing information that would damage public spirits, such as photographs of bomb-damaged houses in poor parts of London. ‘Local Defence Volunteers’, was formed on 14 May 1940, a response to the Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden’s call for ‘men of all ages who wish to do something for the defense of their country’. The Home Guard became a key plank of the strategy of civilian mobilization. 1.5 million men rushed to join, convinced by the bleak international picture that a German invasion was on its way (www.history.com). Rationing was another unwelcome yet necessary fact of life. Before the war, Britain had imported 55 million tons of food each year; by October 1939, this figure had fallen to just 12 million.
Germany
http://www.ecu.edu/
The home front in Germany during World War II was characterized by both its wartime economy; an economy led by the Nazi-driven industrial production of war materiel, and that of an existence under the continued uncertainty and terror imposed by the Allied bombing campaign(http://wwiidiaries.com). The other focus on the German home front was a survival of diet and rationing. All of the authors concur that the continued hardships endured by the citizens was grueling (http://wwiidiaries.com). The German citizens stared to be affected by the German bombing campaigns and wondered what they were fighting for and why their homes were ruins.
Japan
For Japanese civilians, the war began in July 1937, with the launch of an all-out campaign by the Japanese military in China. The government didn't need to persuade people to express their support for the military, through gestures such as dressing up boys in military costume for the traditional shrine visit; or cooling themselves with fans decorated with military motifs; or rallying to celebrate the fall of Nanking in December 1937. But for most Japanese people, the war in China was still a very remote event, and the realities of that brutal campaign were yet to be felt in the homeland (https://today.duke.edu). the government launched a 'National Spiritual Mobilization Campaign(https://today.duke.edu). This continued under varied auspices throughout the war years. This campaign was primarily concerned with bringing the many independent patriotic organizations already in existence in Japan under a single umbrella, and providing guidance from the center.
Sov
Sov
Soviet Union
http://russiatrek.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/soviet-world-war-2-posters-1.jpg
During World War II, Soviet women were unique among the women of the great powers in their large-scale participation as fighters in the armed forces. They also played a proportionately greater economic role than the women of the other major belligerents (http://what-when-how.com/). There was rationing on food during the war. People were reduced to eating dogs and cats. Food crimes—the theft of food and the theft and forgery of ration cards—were widespread. Incidents of cannibalism were even reported. All of these crimes were harshly punished, frequently by summary execution (http://what-when-how.com/). It is estimated that 7 million Russian combatants, male and female, died during the war. The toll on civilians was at least twice that. Among the millions of civilians who died, women constituted at least half, if not more, of the casualties (http://what-when-how.com/).
Published May 13, 2015
Published May 13, 2015