WO R L DWA R II: The Homefront
by Steve Milquet
he Second World War was fought and won on
T the homefront as well as in the far-flung
combat theaters. While military service
affected millions of American males and some females
between the ages of eighteen and thirty-eight,
rationing and price controls affected the lives of every
man, woman, and child in this country.
Some commodities, such as sugar, automobiles, tires,
and gasoline, were rationed for the duration of the
conflict. Shoes, typewriters, meat, butter, coffee, and
some processed foods were rationed for part of the war.
The rationale for most controls was clear. The war in
the Pacific had cut off Malaya and the East Indies, the
major sources of rubber, an essential war material. Tire
rationing began in January 1942. Automobile production
was terminated in February 1942 as auto plants converted
to the production of military vehicles, tanks, and aircraft.
Gasoline rationing, which began in the East in May 1942,
spread nationwide in December. This was necessary
because of the extraordinary demand for aviation fuel and
other fuels and materials produced from petroleum.
Another factor was the loss of oil tankers carrying crude
oil from Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico oil fields to East
Coast refineries due to German U-Boats attacks.
The case for sugar rationing is difficult to understand.
Sugar was one of the first items to be controlled (May
1942) and was the last item taken from the ration lists in
June 1947. Sugar manufacture in Hawaii and the
Caribbean was largely unaffected by the war, and
Photograph courtesy of the Outagamie County Historical Society © 2000
domestic sugar beet production continued unchanged.
In front of a billboard that promotes religious unity and freedom of (The Fox River Valley was a major production area.)
religion, Appleton Mayor John Goodland spoke to a large crowd on 11
November 1944.
Sugar was easily rationed and monitored because of rela-
tively few producers and because it helped bring the war
home to the American people in an immediate and
dramatic way, as it had in World War I. The weekly sugar
ration of one-half pound per week was sufficient for most
8 V O Y A G E U R S U M M E R •
people. An additional ten pounds or more were available
to those who preserved fruit for home consumption.
Unlike sugar rationing, the control of autos, tires, and
gasoline had a major impact on the populace. Most
drivers received the basic “A” allotment of four (later
two) gallons per week. Those whose jobs or circumstances
necessitated more, such as doctors and veterinarians, were
granted larger allotments. Most people turned to public
transportation, car pooling, and better planning of
shopping and work trips to compensate for restrictions.
A national speed limit of thirty-five miles per hour was
also imposed to help conserve tires and gasoline. By the
end of the war, most people were driving cars that were at
least five years old and often much older. Many vehicles
were put on blocks because their tires had worn out and
could not be replaced or because spare parts were no
longer available for older cars. Similar problems ensued
when electrical appliances broke down and could not be
repaired or replaced. Because of leather shortages, adults
were limited to two pairs of shoes each year.
Perhaps the greatest sacrifice made by Wisconsin civil-
ians was the great reduction in their ordinarily heavy
consumption of meat. By the end of the first year of the
war, the meat ration was down to 2.5 pounds per person
per week (about 4.5 ounces per day). Sacrifices were
accepted as necessary by most but not without a modicum
of good-natured complaining.
Black markets in meat, gas, and other rationed
commodities existed, but the number of people who
traded in them is unrecorded. Apparently Wisconsin
citizens remained law-abiding although the practice of
trading ration coupons or scarce commodities (both tech-
nically illegal) was widespread.
In response to food shortages and to supplement their
diets, thousands of families raised vegetables in backyard
Victory gardens, on vacant lots, in parks, and on tax-
F A L L 2 0 0 0 9

delinquent property made available by local governments.
An estimated 20.5 million gardens were planted, accounting
for about one-third of the vegetables consumed nationwide.
Children collected scrap metal, newspapers, tin foil from
chewing gum and cigarette wrappers, milkweed pods, cooking
fat, worn aluminum ware, and other salvage. They saved their
nickels and dimes to buy war stamps. When the stamps
totaled $18.75, they could be exchanged for a $25 war bond.
Even infants experienced the shocks of wartime life. The
baby carriages manufactured during the war often had
wooden wheels barely covered with rubber. The wooden disks
tended to become square blocks after a few months of being
pushed along concrete sidewalks.
“We used to laugh over this,” one mother remembers,
“especially when the jolting and rumbling would loosen the
bolts and a wheel would fall off. . . . Soon, I learned to carry
a wrench in my purse along wih the ration books.”1
Recycling was also an important part of the war effort. In
Green Bay, $26,000 was spent to tear up the long-abandoned
trolley tracks on West Walnut Street and Shawano Avenue,
so several hundred tons of steel could be recycled. While
recycled scrap paper met about fifty percent of the country’s
paper needs by 1945, it is doubtful that tin foil balls and
milkweed silk ever made a significant impact on the Axis war
machine. Local scrap drives, however, often did real long-
Photograph courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County
10 V O Y A
term harm by destroying many valuable historic artifacts in
the name of patriotism. The careful planning to deal with
these shortages and the collecting and conserving of scarce
materials were means by which Wisconsin’s civilians of all
ages expressed their willingness to do whatever they could to
win the war.
About fifteen percent of Americans left their hometowns
to work in defense plants in bigger cities. Most communities
were unable to accommodate the immigrants. Housing was a
scarce commodity that proved difficult to supply, especially in
cities where war production had created a sudden increased
demand for labor and attracted workers from many small
towns and rural areas. As early as March 1942, Green Bay,
Manitowoc, Beloit, Milwaukee, and Superior were all desig-
nated critical defense housing areas. This action entitled
them to favorable treatment in access to scarce building
materials, loans for rehabilitation or new construction, and
federally-funded housing projects.
There were many instances of price-gouging even though
rents were supposed to be controlled. It was particularly diffi-
cult for families with children, even servicemen’s families, to
find affordable housing. Skilled industrial workers with firm
job offers sometimes could not find housing for their families
for the same reason. Instances of two to five families occu-
pying single-family dwellings were common.
Housing situations were fluid and
could and did change from month to
month. Typically local realty and
construction interests—usually backed
by elected officials—maintained that
they could provide enough housing
through the private sector. At the
same time, federal housing authorities
often insisted that temporary govern-
ment housing was needed. Even
where housing was adequate, schools
and other public facilities were rarely
sufficient to accommodate increased
population.
Government rationing attempted to
assure fair distribution of scarce goods.
Black markets existed in meat, gas, and
other rationed commodities. Trading of
ration coupons or scarce commodities
(both illegal) was widespread in
Northeast Wisconsin.
G E U R
Local scrap drives, such as the
Outagamie County Scrap Aluminum for
Defense drive pictured at right, were
common throughout Northeast
Wisconsin. Scrap metal, newspapers, tin
foil, and cooking fat were also collected
to help the war effort. In the name of
patriotism, some scrap drives actually
destroyed valuable historic artifacts.
One typical housing project was
Custerdale, located on the edge of
Manitowoc to meet the demand for
workers at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding
Company and elsewhere. Four hundred
pre-fabricated or demountable housing
units were built in the summer and fall
of 1941 and cost about $3,000 each.
Initial occupancy was low, due to a
building boom in the private sector, Photograph courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County
heating problems at the project, and
dissatisfaction with the quality and
appearance of the units. While the first
set of units eventually filled, later apartments did not. Said engines, equipment, and parts on an even larger scale,
Manitowoc officials, “We don’t want Custerdale as a perma- feeding shipbuilders across the country. With the East and
nent part of our city.”2 Nevertheless, many temporary build- West Coast shipyards stretched to their limits, the U.S.
ings continue to dot the landscape throughout the state. government turned to the Great Lakes, and Wisconsin’s ship-
yards launched an impressive array of vessels.3
merica’s prewar consumer economy quickly Fire-fighting barges (CGB type) were also constructed for
A became a war economy almost overnight, with
record production levels. Wisconsin’s manufac-
turing and food-processing economy was ideally suited to
the U.S. Coast Guard at several Wisconsin yards, but Coast
Guard records do not specify the exact locations or numbers.
At least one Green Bay firm (George F. Reeke, Inc., a
produce the kinds of goods needed to fight World War II. plumbing contractor) was a major subcontractor on the
Machine tools and heavy machinery were the mainstays Sturgeon Bay-built subchasers, and Northeastern Boiler built
of Wisconsin industry, particularly in Milwaukee, but also frigate components for Walter Butler in Superior. The
on the Lake Michigan shore and in the Rock River Valley. Manitowoc-built submarines acquired a deserved reputation
Wisconsin was a major producer of automobile compo- for the high-quality of their construction. They performed
nents, most of which were essential to military transport. The with distinction.
state was a leading producer of engines for ships, aircraft, and Wartime shipbuilding brought boom-town conditions to
land vehicles. With its emphasis on metal working of nearly Manitowoc and Sturgeon Bay. Employment at Manitowoc
every kind, industry in the state was capable of producing just Shipbuilding reached 7,000 workers, including 385 women
about any military commodity needed by the armed forces, machinists and welders. Many farmers, most of whom were
including entire warships. Wisconsin’s textile and leather experienced welders from their years of repairing farm equip-
industries supplied uniforms, footgear, underwear, raincoats, ment, took high-paying jobs in the shipyard.
socks, gloves, and blankets. Its food-processing industries The situation was similar in Sturgeon Bay, where there
were important suppliers of preserved foodstuffs to the were almost 8,000 men and women working in four yards.
fighting forces. The shipbuilders worked around the clock. Even little
Shipbuilding is a very old industry in the state. On the eve Kewaunee Engineering had 500 employees building its Army
of the war there were important shipyards on both Lake freighters.
Michigan and Lake Superior. Wisconsin also supplied marine
S U M M E R • F A L L 2 0 0 0 11
 Northeast Wisconsin Shipbuilding Companies
Burger Boats, Manitowoc
U.S. Navy subchasers and minecraft (SC, PCS, and
YMS types)
U.S. Army tugs and aircraft rescue vessels (ST and P
types)
Dunphy Boat Works, Oshkosh
U.S. Army launches (J type)
Fox River Boat Works, De Pere
U.S. Navy motor launches and plane-rearming boats
Kewaunee Engineering, Kewaunee
U.S. Army freighters and tugs (FS and ST types)
Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding, Sturgeon Bay
U.S. Navy subchasers and frigates (PC and PF types)
U.S. Maritime Commission freighters (N3 type)
Manitowoc Shipbuilding, Manitowoc
U.S. Navy submarines (Gato and Balao types)
Marinette Marine, Marinette
U.S. Maritime Commission tugs and barges
Northeastern Boiler and Welding, Green Bay
U.S. Navy barges (BC type)
U.S. Army tugs (ST type — cancelled in mid-1945)
Peterson Boat Works, Sturgeon Bay
U.S. Navy subchasers (SC type) and motor launches
U.S. Army aircraft rescue vessels (P type)
Sturgeon Bay Boat Works, Sturgeon Bay
U.S. Army patrol craft and harbor tenders (P and T
types)
Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding and Drydock, Green Bay
U.S. Army freighters, tugs, minecraft, and aircraft
retrieval vessels (FS, ST, L, and H types)
War factory jobs paid very well, with average wages nearly
doubling within a few years, but the hours were very long. A
sixty-hour work week was typical.4
Wisconsin’s railroads also helped win the war, both at
home and overseas. Employees of the Chicago and
Northwestern and Milwaukee Road lines formed the nuclei
of the 720th and 744th Railway Operating Battalions, respec-
tively, of the Army Transportation Corps. Both units served
in France and Germany from August 1944 to the end of
1945.5 The formation of approximately twenty such units and
the increased domestic traffic opened up 320,000 new
railroad jobs nationwide. Many positions were filled by
women, an unthinkable prospect before the war.
Wisconsin also contributed steam and diesel-electric loco-
motives numbering in the thousands to the Allied war effort
overseas. Most were built to standardized plans, some dating
12 V O Y A
back to the U.S. Railroad Administration in World War I. (A
diesel-electric engine used on the Trans-Iranian Railway is
housed at Green Bay’s National Railroad Museum.)
Domestic railroads doubled the total tonnage of freight
hauled annually. Some 278 million tons of freight were
hauled for the Army alone. On average, fifteen new freight
trains started every minute, day and night, across the country.
Every minute, 1.3 million tons of freight were moved one
mile. Approximately two million freight cars were kept in
nearly constant use. “Saving minutes here saves lives on the
battlefield,” read at least one roundhouse sign.6
Passenger traffic reached record levels—an astonishing
95.5 million passenger-miles nationally in 1944—even
though civilian travel was actively discouraged. Troop trains,
114,000 of them, transported some forty-three million
servicemen and women during the war years, accounting for
all but three percent of the armed forces’ organized
movement.7
Nonetheless, not enough cars were available to carry the
multitudes of military passengers. A conference in
Washington duly produced designs for a troop sleeping car, a
troop kitchen car, and a hospital car. These were turned out
in quantity by the Pullman Sleeping Car Company.
Troop trains kept the embarkation ports on both coasts
supplied day and night, without the unreasonable delays and
car shortages that had been experienced in World War I and
that had necessitated the nationalization of the industry.8
America’s airlines also did record business, but without a
doubt, it was the railroads and the uninspiring cargo ships —
the plodding Liberty and Victory hulls — that were the most
essential cogs in the great Allied war machine. Many of them
began life in the Badger State.
Fighting the war at home could be dangerous, too. It is
rarely publicized that more than 15,000 American men and
women were killed in industrial accidents during the war.
Another three million were injured. “Making sacrifices” was
more than just a figure of speech.
he agriculture of America’s Dairyland was remark-
T ably well adapted to produce both the volume and
variety of foodstuffs most needed in the war effort.
During World War II, great emphasis was placed on the
production of a wide variety of balanced food items: milk,
meat, eggs, other protein foods, and vegetables, especially
canned and preserved types. Because Wisconsin was the
nation’s leading producer of both dairy products and
canned vegetables and was also an important producer of
G E U R
meat and eggs, the state’s farmers were under extraordi-
nary pressure to surpass all previous production levels.
This Herculean effort was needed to meet the demands of
America’s armed forces and the requirements of the Allies. A
combat soldier consumed an average of 4,000 calories per day,
nearly double peacetime per capita consumption. Losses due
to submarine attacks and air raids all had to be made up from
increased domestic production.
A number of factors, including unusually good weather,
contributed to the record levels of production that Wisconsin
farmers did in fact achieve during the war. Technological
improvements were also important. The increased use of
commercial fertilizers and of hybrid corn and rust-resistant
oat strains also contributed to higher yields. Despite wartime
shortages of new agricultural machinery and gasoline,
Wisconsin farmers continued to mechanize their field and
barn operations, which increased production and helped
overcome the wartime farm labor shortage.
Another significant factor was the wide variety of types of
farm operations that existed in the state, and the consequent
flexibility of the farmers to adjust rapidly to changing needs.
For example, Wisconsin had long imported animal feed, but
difficulties in buying and transporting feed, together with the
large demand for animal products, led most Badger farmers to
plant much larger acreages of feed crops such as corn, oats,
S U M M E R • F
and clover and timothy hay. Soybeans, long grown in
Wisconsin as a forage crop, were planted in large quantity as
a protein supplement for livestock. Hemp, for making rope,
was grown in much greater quantities during the war years
than either before or after. The war also stimulated increased
production of the more common farm products. Egg produc-
tion, for example, increased by about twenty percent at the
same time that greater numbers of chickens (turkeys, too)
were being marketed. There were similar gains in the
marketing of cattle, calves, hogs, and sheep.
As they did before the war, however, the majority of
Wisconsin farmers concentrated on producing milk, which
also increased by about twenty percent during the war years.
Wisconsin milk represented twelve percent of the total
national milk production. Butter, a rationed item, declined in
quantity, but impressive gains in the production of cheese
and of evaporated, condensed, and dried milk products were
achieved. In 1942, Wisconsin produced forty-six percent of
the nation’s cheese, much of it being purchased by the federal
government.
A second, but smaller, group of farmers specialized in
growing vegetables for the canneries. Government-guaran-
teed minimum prices to growers led to a doubling of the
acreage devoted to canning crops. The more than 150
canning plants in the state operated at full capacity for the
The “Bay 4 gang” of Manitowoc
Shipbuilding Company wrote
chain letters to servicemen. Two
Photograph courtesy of Area Research Center, Cofrin Library UW-Green Bay
were 14 feet long, and the third
was 12 feet long. Along with
each letter, the employees sent a
check for cigarettes. This
picture appeared in The Keel
Block News Supplement, which
was a company publication of
the Manitowoc firm. The
women in this picture were a
part of the dramatic increase in
women working
manufacturing during the war.
in
A L L 2 0 0 0 13
 duration of the war. Pea production, the leader among crops,
expanded to 250 percent of the prewar amounts, while sweet
corn for canning quadrupled in quantity. Other canning crops
such as beets, snap beans, lima beans, and tomatoes also
underwent expanded cultivation in this period. Not coinci-
dentally, farm income increased enormously.
Wisconsin farmers experienced shortages of feed, fertilizer,
new machinery and replacement parts, and materials for the
construction and maintenance of buildings and fencing. In
retrospect, however, the most serious shortage was that of
farm labor.
The predominant kinds of agriculture in the state —
dairying and vegetable and fruit farming — did not at the
time seem to lend themselves to a high degree of mechaniza-
tion. The average dairy farm was a one-or two-man opera-
tion, usually the farm owner and his son, who typically put in
an average workday of eleven hours. The labor needs of fruit
and vegetable growers were seasonally much greater, being
highly concentrated in the few weeks when the crops were to
be harvested.
However, the operations of the Selective Service System,
the attraction of higher wages in industrial jobs, and the
patriotic pressure on young men to enlist all combined to
produce a shortage of farm labor.
Until the severe labor shortage in the summer and fall of
1942 occurred, military deferments for farm workers were rare
and few young men sought them for fear that a deferment
indicated a lack of patriotism. This stigma gradually evapo-
rated, but deferments became much more difficult to obtain
in 1944 and 1945 as the Army’s need to support its huge
offensives in Europe and the Pacific grew.
Teen-aged boys and girls still in high school constituted
the largest untapped source of temporary farm labor. Federal,
state, and local governments and voluntary organizations
such as the Boy Scouts made repeated efforts to mobilize
teenagers for farm work for short periods of time, especially
during the fruit and vegetable harvest in late summer and
early fall. These methods were mostly successful, particularly
when the school population was made up largely of farm
youths.
For the harvesting of the large cash crops, such as vegeta-
bles, fruits, and sugar beets, local reserves of temporary help
were not always sufficient. The growers looked to the state
and federal governments for help in recruiting large groups of
short-term laborers who could be moved around the state as
needed. While experienced farm hands were naturally
preferred, students, office and factory workers, and some
business and professional men at one time or another spent
time in Wisconsin’s fields. By 1945, the University of
Wisconsin’s Agricultural Extension Service had recruited
14 V O Y A
45,000 men, women, and young people to work on Badger
farms. Even these large numbers were not enough for the
growers who raced against time to bring in their fruit and
vegetable crops.
The army was requested to provide troops, but it declined.
Instead, beginning in 1943, German and Italian prisoners of
war were assigned to the task. For instance, three hundred
POWs, veterans of Rommel’s Afrika Korps, were brought to
Door County to help with the cherry harvest.
Perhaps more significant, in both the numbers hired
during the war and in the establishment of a pattern that
would continue well into the postwar years, was the hiring of
migrant workers. A few Mexican-Americans, primarily from
Texas, had worked in Wisconsin’s sugar beet fields between
the wars, but they were first hired in large numbers to help in
the wartime harvesting of other crops. The federal govern-
ment also brought in experienced farm workers from the
British West Indies and elsewhere. Shifting from harvest to
harvest, their labor provided the critical margin in saving
several important crops.9
Although the rosy economic picture for Wisconsin’s
farmers did not continue in the immediate postwar period, as
the domestic consumption of foodstuffs returned to normal
levels, the trends toward increased diversification, mecha-
nization, and the use of migrant labor continued.
he war provided unprecedented employment
T opportunities for women, blacks, Hispanics, and
other minorities. Nationally, the work force
expanded from forty-six to fifty-three million people
within the space of a few years. With approximately
fourteen million men in uniform, most of whom were
previously employed in the civilian sector, this meant
that more than twenty million new job openings were
created. Some of these positions were filled by women,
but many others were filled by men who previously had
been considered undesirable.
Initially, most American women saw the war as a serious
disruption to their “normal” life, rather than as an opportu-
nity for long-term change. Few planned to stay employed
after the war and the greatest concern for most women
remained the possibility of lengthy separation from their
loved ones.
Between 1940 and 1944, however, the number of women
in the national labor force rose from thirteen million to more
than nineteen million. Wisconsin experienced a similar
boom. At the time of the 1940 Census, only 260,000 or
twenty-two percent of the approximately 1.2 million women
in Wisconsin who were fourteen years or over were employed
or looking for work. The remaining seventy-eight percent
G E U R
Green Bay Packer players showed their support, ca. 1942-1943, for a bond drive during World War II. While campaigns such as this
were aimed at adults, children saved their nickels and dimes to buy war stamps. When the stamps totaled $18.75, the children could
exchange the stamps for a $25 war bond.
consisted primarily of women engaged in housework in their
own homes and younger women still in school. Of the
230,000 employed women, less than twenty percent worked
in manufacturing. Most were involved in personal service
jobs — household maids, hotel help, and so on — having a
much lower pay scale. There existed, then, in Wisconsin and
elsewhere, a large reservoir of labor which could be drawn
upon to fill the new jobs created by the war and to take the
place of men and women who went into service or who took
jobs even more essential to the war effort than the ones they
had previously held. By 1943, women made up thirty-five
percent of the national work force.
Military service also provided useful employment opportu-
nities for women and minorities. Although nursing and
related occupations were considered a natural (and therefore
non-threatening) extension of prewar employment for
women, the necessity of training women for skilled positions
such as aircraft ferry pilots was a novel experience for all
concerned. Combat service was not permitted, but many
women regularly risked their lives in the performance of non-
combat roles. And while the armed forces were still largely
segregated by race, every service established officer training
programs for blacks and other minorities.
Women occupied many vital positions in industry. For
example, by late 1944 women made up forty percent of the
work force in aircraft-assembly plants and twelve percent of
shipyard work forces. “Rosie the Riveter” was much more
than a poster image. However, women in manufacturing
earned an estimated forty percent less than men, partly
S U M M E R • F
Photograph courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County
because management positions were not open to them, but
sometimes because of blatant discrimination. Employers
sometimes established arbitrary divisions of light assembly for
women and heavy assembly for men although there was no
distinguishable difference between the labor efforts.
One important outcome of the war was that some women
more than ever before wanted to hold jobs after the war was
over. These included women who derived real satisfaction
from their jobs; single, widowed, and divorced women with
no other means of support; married women working to help
buy a home or pay for their children’s education; and women
working for other reasons. It was clearly not possible for so
many women, or men for that matter, to remain at work in a
job market no longer inflated by the production demands of
war, even without the competition of returning veterans.
Even before the war ended, the government propaganda
mill had been set in motion to persuade women to give up
their jobs and return to their homes — the so-called normal
life. Major employee layoffs began as early as 1944, with most
women and minorities returning to their peacetime occupa-
tions. About two-thirds of the women workers did stay
employed postwar, however, although often in lower-paying
occupations or positions.
More than anything, these wartime experiences produced
raised aspirations for many women. The correspondence of
Margaret Koelsch of Madison to her sister Catherine Smith
of De Pere provides an excellent example. Re-entering the
job market in 1942 after twenty years devoted to raising a
daughter, she wrote after being called for a job interview, “I
A L L 2 0 0 0 15
 War themes were common even in films intended as enter-
tainment. Today, Hollywood’s portrayal of the war is often
found to be lacking in both entertainment and educational
value. To be sure, government supervision had a lot to do
with this. The Office of War Information, headed by veteran
newspaperman Elmer Davis, reviewed more than 1,600
scripts during the conflict, and the Office of Censorship
reviewed finished films prior to granting export licenses. This
dual review ensured that the finished products never strayed
far from the approved government line. The first casualty of
war, it is often said, is truth, this was the case even in
America from 1941 to 1945.
On balance, though, Hollywood’s producers were probably
Photograph courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County to blame for the fact that most Axis soldiers and officials were
portrayed as stereotypical villains, rather than as three-
Patriotic parades and rallies boosted morale. These Red Cross nurses participated in a military parade in Green Bay in 1942.
dimensional characters. At the worst, they were blatantly
racist. Further, there was often a subtle message of race prej-
udice inherent in the films. For example, most scenes of the
haven’t been so happy in a long time. I felt as if I had crept ollywood also fought the war to the best of its Pacific War were set in places which suggested to most
out from under a big shell. . . and could see light.” Seventeen
months later her only regret was that she had waited so long:
“When I look out and all the gals that hung on to
H abilities. The principal contribution to the war
effort was undoubtedly its work to boost the
morale of soldiers and civilians by continuing to produce
American viewers the absence of civilization — jungles, for
instance — while European settings invariably were “in cities
and villages where the impress of human order could be seen
in churches, plazas, streets, and houses.” Twelve America’s
concept of equality clearly still had flaws.
Far more valuable and interesting today are the documen-
tary films of the period, made for the U.S. government by
many of Hollywood’s most talented directors — the afore-
mentioned Litvak, Toland, Huston, and Wyler, plus John
Ford, Frank Capra, and others. Some filmmakers were unable
to resist the urge to add dramatic, but fictional scenes to their
documentaries — John Ford used many posed scenes in
December 7, for example, that have often been reused in
other documentaries as if they were genuine historic
sequences. Most of the producer-directors provided excep-
tional footage, however.
No other country felt the need to explain the war in the
moral terms evident in American films. The Why We Fight
series of seven films, produced by Frank Capra and directed
by Capra and Litvak, was perhaps the most notable group of
war films to explain U.S. policy prior to the war and the
necessity of fighting it. Originally intended for viewing solely
by servicemen and women, the films were so well received

their jobs for the last twenty years while I was lis-
tening to that keep the home fires burning stuff
and take care of the baby and house stuff, I should
never have listened to it. I probably would be an
executive now.”10
Not withstanding that the aspirations of many women had
been disappointed in the short run, women as a group
remained a much larger factor postwar than ever before in the
labor market. From 1940 to 1950, the percentage of women
aged fourteen or older employed or looking for a job increased
from twenty-two to twenty-nine percent of all women.
Changes had also occurred in the type of work performed by
women. Between 1940 and 1950 the proportion of employed
women working in the generally higher-paying manufac-
turing sector rose from one-fifth to one-fourth. At the other
end of the income scale, the percentage of women in personal
service jobs declined drastically from twenty-two percent to
ten percent. The war did not open unbounded economic
opportunities for women, nor for racial or ethnic minorities,
but it is clear that in Wisconsin they did as a whole enjoy
some substantial long-term gains in employment as a result of
the wartime experience; further, the raised expectations
played an important role in the formation of the organized
Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation movements of the
1950s and later.
the usual variety of entertaining pictures. America’s
moviegoers still had their standard selection of comedies,
musicals, westerns, animated features, and dramas to help
take their minds off the grim realities of the battlefield.
Independent film producers were actually the first to bring
the war to American screens. They were more willing to
cover the controversial topics and events that conservative
documentary producers, such as the March of Time, shied
away from. As the war approached, more mainstream film-
makers began producing documentaries arguing in favor of a
defense buildup and better preparedness. One such film was
The Ramparts We Watch (1940), made for the March of
Time by Louis de Rochemont. This was one of the first
instances in the United States of the reuse of German footage
— Feuertaufe (Baptism of Fire, 1940) — for anti-Nazi propa-
ganda.
Hollywood studios also began to make a number of anti-
Nazi feature films, despite the discouragement offered by a
Washington subcommittee investigating the alleged dissemi-
nation of war propaganda.
When war did come to the United States on 7 December,
1941, the military departments quickly drew upon a major
portion of the Hollywood film community. Among the well-
known makers of entertainment films inducted into military
service were Anatole Litvak, Gregg Toland, John Huston,
and William Wyler, who transferred some of the glamour of
the film industry to warfare.11

16 V O Y A G E U R S U M M E R • F A L L 2 0 0 0 17
 that they were released to the general public. Prelude to War
(1942), Divide and Conquer (1943), and Battle of Russia
(1944) are generally considered to be the most effective films
in this series.
Other films, such as Huston’s Report From the Aleutians
(1943) and the controversial Battle of San Pietro (1944),
Ford’s Battle of Midway (1942), and William Wyler’s Memphis
Belle (1944, featuring Green Bay native Harold Loch)
combined combat footage of American servicemen in action
with a stirring narrative tribute to human courage, personal
sacrifice, and moral commitment. Such films had great power
to shape personal values and commitment during the war.13
Newspaper, magazine, and book publishers also played an
important role in both educating and entertaining the public.
The nature of war, with its long periods of inactivity alter-
nating with intense moments of frenzied motion, both
induced the need and provided the opportunity to read for
instruction and amusement.
Magazine and newspaper publishers took an extremely
active part in keeping America informed. The level of war
reporting, and of photography in particular, reached great
heights. Much of the reputation of Life magazine, for
example, was founded upon its outstanding pictorial coverage
of the war years, both at home and overseas. Many journalists
risked, and some lost, their lives in the effort.
Newspapers and magazines were governed by a Code of
Wartime Practices for the American Press which provided a
workable basis for cooperative self-censorship. There were
certainly abuses; the flagrant violation of security by Stanley
Johnston and the Chicago Tribune is a prime example. If any
Japanese spies had happened to read the front page of the
Tribune in the wake of the U.S. Navy’s victory in the Battle
of the Coral Sea, they would have learned that America was
reading all of the Japanese Navy’s codes and cyphers. A subse-
quent American victory in the Battle of Midway — widely
known as the turning point of the war — would never have
occurred. However, most newspaper editors were much more
cautious to avoid the ire of officialdom (the supply of
newsprint was under the direct control of federal rationing
authorities, creating an official if controversial channel for
censorship) and of their patriotic readers.
In fact, the wartime shortage of newsprint was a more
serious problem for most editors and publishers. Optimizing
the use of the paper supply increased the difficulty of
choosing between more advertisements, and hence more
profits, or more news coverage, and hence greater reader
satisfaction.
While movies and the print media served an informational
function, popular music had the purpose of providing pure
entertainment. The period from 1935 to 1945 is today known
18 V O Y A
as the Swing Era, exemplified by large bands playing a
commercialized form of jazz, courtesy of skilled composers,
arrangers, and musicians.
Swing was not a single category, but an entire spectrum of
popular music, ranging from light salon music (Glen Miller),
big band dance music (Count Basie), and popular symphonic
music (Duke Ellington and Paul Whiteman). Although the
best band was considered to be Ellington’s, followed by
Basie’s, white bands and band leaders were regarded as more
commercially exploitable on a national scale. Thus, the most
successful bands included those of Benny Goodman (billed as
the King of Swing), Harry James, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey,
and Glen Miller (himself a war casualty in 1944).
The peak popularity of the style was relatively short, but it
provided America with many memorable songs and instru-
mentals.
Most of these works reflected the world at war, directly or
indirectly. Songs such as “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree”
and “We’ll Meet Again” expressed a genuine depth of feeling
that ordinary Americans were largely unable or unwilling to
articulate themselves. Of course, songs like Spike Jones’
“Right in Der Führer’s Face” revealed another aspect of the
American personality. Some song titles — “We’re Gonna
Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap (And Uncle Sam’s the Guy
Who Can Do It),” — would be considered hopelessly out of
step with political correctness today, but they too reflected
the tenor of the times (no pun intended).
Today, the films, sound recordings, and publications of the
period comprise the bulk of the tangible remains of the 1940s.
As a result, they continue to play a significant role in shaping
both individual memories and in scholarly interpretations of
the wartime era.
ublic attitudes toward people of German, Italian,
P or Japanese descent living in the United States
during the war varied considerably. In general,
Americans and Wisconsinites were far more tolerant of
people of foreign extraction than they had been in
previous conflicts.
Prior to World War I, most German-Americans (and they
formed the largest ethnic group in Wisconsin) followed polit-
ical affairs in Europe closely and generally sympathized with
the aims of the Kaiser. This support was largely a matter of
community pride rather than a genuine commitment to a
cause. Upon the outbreak of war, however, this attitude led to
an immediate and violent outburst of emotion on the part of
most Americans toward any and all things German.
Manifestations of anti-German prejudice arose almost
overnight. German language newspapers suffered advertiser
boycotts, raids on their offices, and internment of a few of
G E U R
their editors. The teaching of German in the public schools
was banned, and German books were pulled from the library
shelves. Music by German composers disappeared from
concert programs. German street and family names were
changed. Some alterations were laughable: Dachshunds
became “liberty pups” and sauerkraut “liberty cabbage.”
Pretzels were discovered not to be German at all; their origins
were traced instead to a monastery in Italy.
However, there were more serious manifestations of mob
rule, including kangaroo courts and at least one lynching.
Milwaukee’s German Socialist mayor was accused of sedition
and other high crimes. He escaped imprisonment, but his
Poster courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County
Posters, such as the one above, were wartime tools that encouraged
civilians to do a variety of things: buy war bonds, save cooking fat, ride
share, plant Victory gardens.
S U M M E R
chauffeur was eventually convicted of espionage. In spite of
all this, by the end of 1918 high government officials were
testifying readily to the complete loyalty of German-
Americans.
The World War II experience for German-Americans was
significantly different, as most Americans — perhaps feeling
ashamed of the anti-German hysteria of 1917 — recognized
that very few German-Americans were ideological supporters
of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party. The same
could be said of the Italian-American interest in Mussolini’s
Fascist movement.
There were notable exceptions, especially Fritz Kuhn’s
frankly pro-Nazi German-American Bund, which
drew strong support from other white supremacist
groups. President Franklin D. Roosevelt told his
Attorney General, “I don’t care so much about the
Italians, they are a lot of opera singers, but the
Germans are different. They may be dangerous.”14
About five thousand German and Italian aliens —
including opera singer Ezio Pinza — were interned in
the first few months of the war. Most were released
within a year.
In fact, World War II was a war that most German-
Americans had no difficulty in supporting whole-
heartedly. The German-American observer cited
earlier also noted:
Pearl Harbor ended the argument about inter-
vention and unified the nation. The fact that
Japan actually provoked the war made it com-
paratively simple for German-Americans to rally
to the support of the United States, for now they
were fighting the “Yellow Peril” quite as much as
the Nazis.15
Unfortunately, as this statement indicates, much of
the irrational hatred that had been directed toward
the Germans in the Great War was now redirected
with equal intensity toward the Japanese. Even worse,
there was also a racist aspect to the issue. All of this
was made easier by the less pervasive influence of
Japanese culture upon America as compared to that of
German culture. Following a period of virulent news-
paper agitation, especially in California, a total of
112,000 Japanese-Americans, mostly living in six
West Coast states, was rounded up in early 1942 and
placed in internment camps. Unlike the German and
Italian internees, most Japanese spent at least three
years in the camps. Ironically, the principal excep-
tions to this rule were the young men who were
drafted out of the camps to serve in the U.S. armed
• F A L L 2 0 0 0 19
 forces. Also unlike the German and Italian internees, who
were resident aliens, the majority of Japanese internees were
American citizens. Most suffered heavy financial losses in the
process. Although government propagandists claimed that
most internees supported the action as being for their own
good, most Japanese-Americans seemed as bewildered by the
situation as the German-Americans had been one generation
earlier.
The American Civil Liberties Union was later to call this
action “the worst single wholesale violation of civil rights of
America citizens in our history.” The U.S. Supreme Court
said otherwise in December 1944, when it upheld the
confinement as being justifiable under the powers to wage
war. It also ruled that the security threat had receded and that
the detainees should be released. After many delays, the
federal government finally authorized in 1990 the paying of
compensation to the 60,000 survivors of the internment
camps, in the inadequate amount of $20,000 each. Ironically,
one of the most fervent supporters of internment in 1942,
California Governor Earl Warren, was to earn a reputation in
the 1950s and 1960s as a champion of civil rights within the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Wisconsinites had virtually no firsthand experience with
people of Japanese descent. In 1940 there were only twenty-
three such persons in the entire state. More than half of them
lived in Milwaukee County. During the war, contact with
Japanese came in two ways: first, via the 100th Infantry
Battalion, a unit of Japanese-Americans (Nisei) from Hawaii,
who trained at Camp McCoy in Monroe County before
becoming part of the much-decorated 442nd regimental
Combat Team in Europe; and second, via Japanese prisoners
of war. More than 2,700 of them were subsequently impris-
oned at Camp McCoy.
The local response to the Japanese POWs was very
different from that accorded to German POWs (some of
whom were permanently kept at a camp near Chilton in
Calumet County, in addition to the farm laborers brought to
the state in 1945), or to the Nisei soldiers. German POWs
were treated with great friendliness by their neighbors and
responded in like fashion, but residents of Western Wisconsin
were warned by the authorities to be on the alert and report
any suspicious activity: “The Japanese, with their reputation
for trickiness and sneakiness, are apt to make a greater
attempt to disturb our homefront security than the Germans
ever did.”16
On the other hand, members of the 100th Infantry
Battalion were well-liked locally, and much preferred to the
2nd Infantry Regiment, comprised mostly of Texans, which
also trained at Camp McCoy. Some Nisei even returned to
live in Western Wisconsin after the war.
20 V O Y A
Photograph courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County
Hatred of Japan, as evidenced in this Marine recruitment poster in
Green Bay, resulted in prejudice and discrimination against
Japanese-Americans. Many were placed in relocation camps, such
as Manzinar. German- and Italian-Americans did not experience
the same harsh treatment and discrimination as Japanese-
Americans because of World War II. Wisconsinites had little
firsthand experience with Japanese-Americans because only
twenty-three of them lived in the state at the time.
In retrospect, the mistreatment of Japanese-Americans,
most of whom were as patriotic as their white neighbors,
remains as perhaps the greatest embarrassment of the war for
Americans to face. Most Wisconsin residents, at least, can
have a fairly clear conscience in this regard.
hen the first Japanese bomb struck Ford Island
W in the center of Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. on
Sunday, 7 December 1941, the world was
changed permanently for all Americans.
The most obvious result of World War II was the perma-
nent end to America’s political isolation from the rest of the
world. The temporary wartime alliance known as the United
Nations eventually became a peacetime establishment that
was intended to secure a long-term peace, a goal that has
proven to be frustratingly elusive. Within just a few years, the
United States found itself locked into a series of mutual-
defense pacts, all of them directed against a former wartime
ally, the Soviet Union, and all of them independent of the
United Nation’s organization.
G E U R
The top-secret $2 million Manhattan Project produced wounds had a wider impact. Most personal relationships
the atomic weapons that ended World War II, but also led to underwent great stress in wartime. Many prewar marriages
the widespread paranoia and fear of a nuclear holocaust that were incapable of withstanding the strains of lengthy separa-
characterized the 1950s. Throughout the long period of tions or the personality changes that one or both spouses
uneasy peace, military spending reached unprecedented often underwent. Many hasty wartime marriages could not
peacetime levels. Two undeclared wars — in Korea and survive postwar without those lengthy separations. During
Vietnam — were also part of the military and political legacy the war, people felt free to question existing social and moral
of World War II. The “better world” for which many values. The traditional rules of courtship and behavior were
servicemen fought was far too slow in arriving. suspended for the duration, and many such rules were not
The war had many positive, though largely material, whole-heartedly re-adopted afterward.
effects. Tremendous advances were made in technology, espe- At least one out of four Americans had left his or her home
cially in electronics and aeronautical engineering, and also in during the war, to serve in the armed forces or to work in the
medicine — where there were major gains in burn treatment, war industries. Many of these people chose not to return to
reconstructive surgery, aviation medicine, blood transfusion
services, and the introduction of penicillin. The GI Bill, put
into law in June 1944, extended education benefits to all
interested veterans, thus offering them the opportunity to
improve their own lives. About four million took advantage
of it. Veterans Administration guaranteed home loans also
gave many Americans their first chance at home ownership
and unintentionally spurred the suburbanization of most
American cities.
One of the coincidental effects of the war, as was the case
during World War I, was a careful re-examination of the
moral principles on which the war was being fought and on
which the United States of America was founded. The exten-
sion of voting rights to women and to American Indians
came as a direct result of World War I. Similarly, World War
II produced a greater awareness of the social and economic
problems faced by women, blacks, and by other minorities
who had contributed to the war effort.
African-Americans received the first fruits, beginning
with the 1948 desegregation of the armed forces, the desegre-
gation of professional sports, and the series of court rulings
culminating in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which
ended legal school segregation once and for all. Progress was
slower for women, but the practical experience and raised
expectations of the war years could not in the long run be
denied. The country may have returned to prewar “normalcy”
for a time, but it was a normalcy undergoing constant redefi-
nition.
Sadly, some lessons learned during the war were quickly
forgotten. For instance, energy conservation and waste recy-
cling were concepts that had to be reluctantly relearned by
the next generation.
The war also came with considerable personal cost. A total Photograph courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County
of 292,000 Americans were killed in the service of their
Civilians were always interested in what was happening to their
country, 8,000 of them from Wisconsin. About one out of friends, neighbors, and loved ones who were fighting overseas. This
every one hundred and ten households in America lost a issue of The Saturday Evening Post featured an article about a local
family member in the fighting, but physical and psychological Green Bay hero.
S U M M E R • F A L L 2 0 0 0 21
 Perhaps the most significant long-term postwar domestic
impact was the Baby Boom, that enormous population surge NOTES

that has dominated social and public facilities planning in
the United States ever since, from the great school and park
expansion programs of the 1950s and 1960s to the current
concerns about Social Security’s future.
Whether the effects were positive or negative, the war had
the greatest impact upon the men and women who served in
uniform and had undergone experiences that could never be
forgotten, experiences that continue in subtle ways to shape
their lives today. Actor-turned-bomber-pilot Jimmy Stewart
once explained his feelings about the experience:
“It was a strange, exciting, sometimes wonderful, some-
times terrifying time. I don’t talk about it much but I think
about it a lot. I’m glad to have had the experience. It helped
me to develop as a person.”17
Clearly, the war helped America as a nation develop as
well.
1. Letter from Mrs. M. Maduschka, published in “The War Years,” Insight magazine
of the Milwaukee Journal, 7 December 1975.
2. William F. Thompson, The History of Wisconsin, Vol. VI, Continuity and Change,
1940-1965 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1988). The chapter
on World War II provides an excellent summary of the period, as well as informa-
tion from many difficult-to-access original sources.
3. Robert Gardiner and Roger Chesneau, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships,
1922-1946 (New York: Mayflower Books, 1980).
David H. Grover, U.S. Army Ships and Watercraft of World War II (Annapolis:
United States Naval Institute Press, 1987).
Paul H. Silverstone, U.S. Warships Since 1945 (Shepperton, U.K.: Ian Allan Ltd.,
1986).
Robert L. Scheina, U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II (Annapolis:
United States Naval Institute Press, 1982).
Norman Friedman, U.S. Small Combatants (Annapolis: United States Naval
Institute Press, 1987).
Allied Landing Craft of World War Two (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute
Press, 1985), repr. of 1944 edition by U.S. Navy Division of Naval Intelligence.
“$150,000 Contract to Build Lighters Given to Northeastern Boiler and Welding
Co.,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, 9 April, 1942.
“Contract Let to Fox Boat Works,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, 6 May 1942.
“Marinette Firm Gets Contract,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, 17 April 1943.
“Ships Leaving Sturgeon Bay,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, 26 April 1943.
Charlie Balestrieri, Dolly Juhlin, et. al., “Fifty Years of Shipbuilding Excellence,
1933-1983” (Sturgeon Bay: Peterson Builders, Inc., 1983).
Steven R. Milquet, “A Lakeshore Legacy: Manitowoc Submarines,” Voyageur,
Vol. 6, No. 1.
4. Thompson, ibid.
5. Shelby L. Stanton, World War II Order of Battle (New York: Galahad Books,
1991).
6. Don Ball Jr. and Rogers E.M. Whitaker, Decade of the Trains: The 1940s (Boston:
Little, Brown and Co., 1977).
7. Ball and Whitaker.
8. John Westwood, Railways at War (San Diego: Howell-North Books, 1981).
9. Thompson.
10. Letters of Margaret Koelsch to Catherine Smith, 9 February, 1942, and 2 July,
1943, in the Horace J. Smith Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Collection; quoted in Thompson.
11. William Murphy, “Essay and Filmography,” in Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda
(Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers, 1993).
12. Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics,
Profits, and Propoaganda Shaped World War II Movies (New York: The Free Press,
1987).
13. Koppes and Black.
14. Ronald H. Bailey et. al., World War II, The Homefront: USA (New York: Time-
Life Books, 1977).
15. Carl Wittke, “American Germans in Two Wars,” Wisconsin Magazine of History
(Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1943) Vol. 27, No. 1
(September 1943).
16. Quoted in Thompson.
17. Quoted in Philip Kaplan and Rex Alan Smith, One Last Look (New York: Cross
River Press, 1983).

Photograph courtesy of Neville Public Museum of Brown County

Wartime always involves loss, and people on the homefront
honored fallen men and women in a variety of ways. Baum’s
Department Store in Green Bay used one of its window displays
to honor young men from Northeast Wisconsin who had given
their lives for their country.

Pick-up
their hometowns. The trends thus established — the migra-
tion from the small town to the big city and from the rural
TWIGS
South to the industrial North — continued for many years.
In the process, the face of urban, and especially suburban,
America was radically changed. Most small towns never
recovered from this precipitous decline. Equally important,
once Americans had accepted that they were no longer
obligated to reside in the same house or in the same town
Private baths, TVs and VCRs, Stereos, Whirlpools, and Fireplaces
where their parents had lived, moving cross-town or moving
cross-country seemed normal activities.
The war created a new age group in America as well—
teenagers, no longer children, but not yet adults. Adolescent
frustrations were soon transformed into anti-social behavior. www.chocolatecandies.net
Juvenile delinquency, for example, was first recognized as a
national problem in the 1940s.

22 V O Y A G E U R S U M M E R • F A L L 2 0 0 0 23