Mobilizing for WWII.

Read Chapter 25-1: Mobilizing for War and note how each of the following contributed to that effort.

1. Selective Service System
-expanding the draft and providing another 10 million soldiers to meet the armed forces needs.

2. Women
women contributed by working as nurses, ambulence drivers, radio operators, electricians, and piolets. They worked doing every duty except direct combat.

3. Minorities
-more than 300 000 mexican americans joined the armed forces, about one million african americans served in the military, more than 13000 chinese americans joined the armed forces, 33000 jaoanese american put on uniforms and several thousand of them volunteered to serve as spies and intererpretes in the pacific war. and 25000 native americans enlisted in the armed services, including 800 women.

4. Manufacturers
-across the nation many factories were converting to war production. a maker of mechanical pencils turned out bomb parts, and a bedspread manufacturer made a mosquito netting, and a soft drtink company converted from filling bottles with liquid to filling shells with explosives.

5. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)
-this spurred improbements in radar and sonar, new technologies for locating submarines underwater, and encourages the use of pesticides to fight insects which resulted in the u.s soldiers probably being the first in history to be relativly free from body lice.

6. Entertainment industry
-in the aftermath of pearl harbor, hollywood churned out waroriented propoganda films. these movies energized people to join the war effort.

7. Office of Price Administration (OPA)
this fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods, the government encourages americans to use their extra cash to buy war bongs. also, they set up a system for rationing.

8. War Production Board (WPB)
-this decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. they also organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and cooking fat for recycling into war goods.

9. Rationing
-this was a sustem that helped buy scarce goods such as meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, and gasoline. most americans accepted rationing as a person contribution to the war efforts. workers carpooled or rode bikes.