The War for Mainland America

[Trebor]

hey guys, I just thought about this today....most to all of us know what went on in the pacific, Africa, Eastern front, and Europe. but what was the war like in America? sure we've been taught about the propaganda, savings bonds, women working in factories for the war effort while men fought overseas, and even turning off the lights at night, but what was it like? how was the economy? how did people live? in short...what was life like? I'm just wondering about that. heh

 

[RabidAlien]

If you can, get ahold of a copy of Ken Burns' documentary, "The War" (2007). It shows both sides, front lines and homefront, with interviews of vets from both.

Hulu - Search

"The War" (2007)

 

[evangilder]

There is also an interesting book on it that has stories and photos called "We Pulled Together and Won". It covers the homefront well.

 

[bobbysocks]

i do remember hearing the stories about rationing and scrap drives. families had a ration book that you tore out tickets if you wanted gasoline and certain other items ( my grandfather had a gas station way back then ). rubber...tires and the like were also rationed...and was the subject of scrap drives. copper was in demand to the point where the pennies minted in the war years were steel and not copper...and the nickels had less of the nickel alloy. silk was rare and silk stockings were sought after by women...and hense a gold mine to possess if you were a guy. a lot of kids and people were into amature radio...there was no microphones but morse code. that was strictly monitored becasue of the threat of spying. you read alot about the asian american being inturred...even the ones who had boys serving in the armed services. the german americans had to deal with a little suspicion, bitterness, and hostility. this happened also during ww1. it was due to that that my grandparents, aunt and uncles "lost" their german accent...all save for aunt hedwig. once she opened her mouth you knew where she came from. everybody in the neighborhood had a family member or close relative in the service...and knew someone very closely who was killed. civil defense ran pratice drills of black outs and emergency situations just in case mainland america started getting bombed. basically you learned to live without because so much was heading into the war effort. buying bonds was a huge thing with celebs doing the drives. that is just a few things i remember hearing my family talk about when i was young.