What was labor culture and military life like during World War 2 in America?

Answer 1

Here is how World War 2 was experienced by the Americans during World War 2.

• First the American men were sent to training camps and then overseas to fight in the war or do war support jobs.
• Second women had to take over their husbands' businesses and farms.
• Next women were recruited to work in war plants and to join the armed forces. 300,000 women joined the armed forces to serve as nurses, officers, clerks and to do jobs which were left unfilled when the men went to the war front.
• Women were needed to work on the farms and they went.
• Women who could not work in war plants often did childcare for the women who did work in the war plants, on the farms and at their husband's businesses.
• Women had to cooperate with a strict rationing program that rationed certain foods, goods, products and gasoline. They did a good job of it and started growing "victory gardens" to supplement their diet.
• Women lost their loved ones or had their loved ones come home either wounded, without a limb or suffering from combat fatigue, now known as PTSD. Some men came home changed and most would not talk about the war. Not all men were ruined by the war but it was hard for the families who had men return from war "messed up".
• Blacks had to struggle to get wartime jobs but Eleanor Roosevelt intervened for the black with Congress and her husband President Roosevelt. This forced the Congress to enact laws allow the blacks to work in the war plants, local civilian jobs and businesses. She also intervened on behalf of the blacks in the Army. They were allowed to fight with the infantry, tank battalions and the combat airmen.
• People had to give up driving and use public transportation.
• The people held war bond drives and Americans bought many billions of dollars of war bonds to support the war effort.
• Teens held dances to raise money for the war bonds and to entertain armed forces if they were nearby.
• The Entertainers of the US started up the USO and Canteens where servicemen could get free food, entertainment and dance with women.
• The hardest part for the home front was losing their men or having them injured or missing in action. Some of the men are still listed as missing in action sixty five years later.
• People who worked in the war plants often saved their salary pay so they could get a home, get married, buy a car or whatever they dreamed up. Some went to college with the money.
• The GI bill was created. The GIs benefited with college money, housing purchase aid, and some could get cars with their GI money. Not true today however. The GI program is different now.
• While life was difficult and bleak during World War 2 the people managed to thrive and come together as a community to provide support for one another.
• The minorities suffered before, during and after the war because segregation and racism did not end with the war. They did not get their civil rights and full citizenship until the 1960s.

Labor Force work went on 24 hours a day. Some of the war plant jobs were repetitive and others had a lot of variety and were difficult to do. There was a lot of pressure to crank out the ships, boats, vehicles, planes, weapons and ammunition. It was tiring but they bucked up and did the work knowing the war was won or lost based on their work output.

In the military it took eighty percent of the armed forces to support the twenty percent on the war front. The war was scary, dirty, bloody and deathly. Many men got combat fatigue from the constant bombing. They had to be taken off the front and taken to the rear to get care. Others who did not get wounded had to serve in battle after battle, eat crummy rations, sleep in ditches and get a bath very infrequently. They had to use their helmets to do their body cleaning, shave, and any other task they could think of. Some even used their helmet to dig.

It was hard to be in the battles, bury the dead, identify the dead, kill the enemy, be cold, be hot, get malaria and a lot of other diseases. For the enlisted men they had to put up with officers and the officers perks. The minorities had to put up with segregation and racism. It was really hard for them to lose their buddies. Some men stopped making friends with the relief men. These relief men experienced loneliness because they could not get the "oldies" to make friends with them.

Officers had the horrible task of notifying parents and families their loved ones were dead, wounded or missing in action. They had to deal with failed strategies, failed battles, their men being taken prisoner or having their entire command killed. They too had to deal with the climates, disease and combat fatigue. The officers who did all the support work were often grateful they were not sent into combat since it was so difficult.