Homefront During WW1

The First World War impacted significantly on the homefronts of the participating nations in many different social, political and economic areas. There was a widespread restructuring of primary industry with a large orientation towards militarism. There was massive political change where new systems of power were introduced that gave governments a range of new powers including the control over industry. The civilian population had severe restrictions placed upon their rights and liberties due to the necessities that total war required.

America’s involvement in World War I not only impacted the war front but also the people left on the home front. When America entered World War I in 1917 the government enforced many measures on its citizens, many of which violated constitutional rights. The biggest measure inflicted on the American population was censorship. The formation of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and the passing of the Espionage Act and Sedition Amendment stole American’s freedom of speech, created an anti-German sentiment, and led to deportation during the post-war Red Scare.

During World War I, the Australian home front was impacted by a long and varying list of occurrences during the period of time between the years of 1914 to 1918. The home front was influenced politically through the arguments over the conscription vote and as Australia became divided between the different war beliefs. It was also influenced by social change, as the use of censorship drastically altered the Australians’ views of war and women began to pick up odd jobs in order to assist the soldiers as very few of them were allowed to directly help as nurses in Gallipoli. There were also extreme economic alterations as the wages in Australia were pushed down and prices were pushed up, and the country discarded major trade partners who had become their enemy.

(Just as a side note, I had pictures of the posters in the original paper but couldn 't transfer them to here. The first link in the bibliography has tons of WW1 propaganda posters you can use.)

While coming up with a topic for this paper, one of my questions dealt with war and cultural groups. I will be the first to admit, Racism was the last thing on my mind. The original question being, “How does war affect a Social Culture and how does it stand today?” When I started thinking about Cultures that had been so deeply affected by war, one of the first that came to mind were the Japanese in World War II. Then I recalled what one person had told me of their younger days at college, when they were attending school. Their name will remain anonymous; I do not want to make the victim’s name public as it has a very personal nature.

In the mist of the countries involvement in one of the most grueling wars in history new barriers were broken to make room for an equal America. Although true equality was not reached, these short four years would lead to the turning point in American acceptance toward diversity, both in and out of the work place. The movement of thousands of men overseas create a substantial gap in the work place, creating a never before seen chance for women, Blacks, and immigrants to flood the many war based jobs. At the same time, the Japanese faced radical discrimination for the events in which provoked the United States entry in to the War. In the years incasing WWII opportunity opened to those who had been affected hardest but

In the United States World War II has been one of the most remembered wars of all time. Acclaimed historian Ronald Takaki asserts that for many Americans, World War II was fought for a “double victory”: on the battlefront as well as on the home front. Takaki’s book Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II reminds the audience that there was much, much more happening at home and on the frontlines during World War II than in the battlefield. Takaki presents a strong central argument; it illuminates the incongruity of America's own oppressive behavior toward minorities at home, even while proclaiming the role in World War II as a fight against oppression abroad. It also pays tribute to the determination and perseverance of ethnically diverse Americans in their two-front war against prejudice and fascism. In addition Takaki tells the story through the lives of ethnically diverse Americans: Japanese Americans who felt betrayed by their own country when families were sent to internment camps; For African Americans, the war for freedom had to be fought in their country’s own backyard; a Navajo code talker who uses his complex native language to transmit secret battle messages and confound the Japanese, while his people are living in desperate poverty on a government reservation. Their dual struggle to defeat the enemy abroad and overcome racism at home gives the Double Victory its title and its texture.

officials eventually began to recruit these internees into the American army. Not only was WWII a war about political alliances and geographical sovereignty, but it was also a war about race and racial superiority throughout the world. Propagating this idea, Dower (1986) argues, “World War Two contributed immeasurably not only to a sharpened awareness of racism within the United States, but also to more radical demands and militant tactics on the part of the victims of discrimination” (War Without Mercy: p.5). In elucidating the racial motivations and fallout from WWII, Dower helps one realize the critical role that race and racial politics played during the war and are still at play in our contemporary world. An analysis of this internment process reveals how the ultimate goal of the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans and the United States’ subsequent occupation of Japan was to essentially “brainwash” the Japanese race into demonstrating allegiance to America.

The author believes that the war had a positive outcome but it was unnecessarily disturbing. The accomplishments made during the war has indeed undermined the failures, with misconstrued views. People today think this war was “The best war ever.” Adams creates a realistic picture of the war by describing the major aspects as well as topics that have little coverage to the masses. This includes; the development of teen culture, treatment of homosexuals who took part in the armed forces, minority combat during the war, the physical and mental scars, and economic reorganization of war production.

World War II is primarily known to be a war that established peace and equality throughout Nazi Germany and its allies. This war according to many, came to be known as the “good war”, but not to Ronald Takaki. One revisionist argument he makes about the “good war” was that it was not good or equal in any sense. In the first paragraph of Double Victory, Takaki argues that “The ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ was not democratic: defense jobs were not open to all regardless of race. The war against Nazi Germany was fought with a Jim Crow army” (5). Based on previous knowledge of WW2, history does not discuss the side of history where segregation and racism were also a present problem amongst the American people and on their own

Not every man who 's fought in a war planned on doing so. In fact, not all of them even want to. It 's rare to find enough people voluntarily willing to lay down their lives for their country, so more often than not militaries used what we would call “citizen soldiers.” Citizen soldiers are exactly what they sound like, regular citizens taken from society and turned into people capable of serving in the military. Although it may seem obvious when plainly written out, citizen soldiers had vastly different experiences compared to career soldiers, and Stephen Ambrose attempted to pin down that specific experience in his book Citizen Soldier. Ambrose uses oral interviews from World War II veterans and other materials to explain the experiences of the common American soldier who served in WWII between D-Day and the eventual surrender of the German forces. However, when examining his book, it 's important to ask how successful Ambrose was in painting an accurate picture of this kind of soldier 's life during his service. Is the information he uses specific to the men who served in Europe, or can it also be linked back to the soldiers in the Pacific? This paper will evaluate his work by comparing it to oral interviews from WWII veterans both from the same areas that Ambrose 's veterans serve in and in locations not included in his work.

World War I began in 1914 but America remained neutral until its entrance into the war in 1917. The U-boats sinking of the British liner Lusitania in 1915, the sinking of five American ships in 1917, and the “Zimmerman telegram” sent from Germany to Mexico led up to America’s declaration of war. America’s involvement in World War I not only impacted the war front but also the home front.

Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran. He recalls that when he enlisted in the army he was proud because he believed what the newspapers said. It was not long until he was forced to hold back his patriotism in the face of the blatant racism he experienced: “I believed that I was part of the hope of the world. But then I found that the army was segregated just like the South” (Mosley 104). In the beginning of the war Easy worked as a typist because black soldiers were segregated from the white soldiers and usually put in noncombatant positions. This was until the year 1944, when the Armed Forces were temporarily desegregated and black

The role of identifying areas that narrate home front stories is challenging. Many factories, research laboratories, government office buildings, housing projects, United Service Organization canteens, military bases, schools, and day care centers were expanded or built during the Second World War. Theaters in many of communities in the nation had a role in the sponsorship of the War through driving and showing terrifying newsreels as well as uplifting entertaining movies. Bus and railroad stations in small towns and major cities could not contain the millions of people passing through to new defense jobs or military service. The alternative places represented negative wartime stories with segregated military bases and housing, war relocation environments for individuals with Japanese descent, prisons, and conscientious objectors were observed. Most of the sites were engaged in racial conflict and labor confrontation in Pearl Harbor.

War on the home front was not a shaped many Canadian negatively in WWI. The Wartime Elections Act had an effect on Canadians politically. The great influenza affected Canada socially. Lastly, propaganda and victory bonds caused Canada to fall economically. Canada’s home front during WWI had a negative impact on the Canadian people politically, socially and economically.