Going in to WW2 America was sharply segregated society with racial inequality enforced by law and custom
-aa were disfranchised in the south and only beginning to achieve voting power in the north
-they had only limited access to the political,legal,or economic system
-Some 750,000 black moved to the northern cities for jobs during the war
- they received moral support from the presidents wife Elanor, who was an advocate of civil rights and known for participating in integrates social functions
- AA understood the wrong of fighting for a country that denied equality
*A Harlem news paper called for a double V campaign (victory at home as well as abroad)
- A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead tens of thousands of black workers on a march to Washington DC
-the march was canceled when Roosevelt created the fair employment practices commission(FEPC) but the agency had little authority Roosevelt did not change the policy of seg. in military
-the red cross maintained seg. blood banks
-AA were excluded from combat until late in the was when man power shortages pressured administration

There was some racial discrimination in hiring
- unions supported racial discrimination for fear that hiring lower paid , non-white workers would jeopardize their own higher paid jobs
- there were several instances of whites walking off the job to protest the hiring of AA
Despite a wartime no-strike pledge there were strikes
-the united mine workers is an example
Wartime propaganda
-americans were asked to fight to perserve the american way of life Norman Rockwell's and freedom paintings are an example. Frank Capra made a series of government films entitles "why we fight" Capra set Rockwell type characters in motion and contested them with Harring potraits of mass obedience and militariasim in Germany and Japan
-print media of ten used the word "freedom" in advertisements
-in spring Roosevelt created the office of war information to coordinate polies related to propaganda and censorship
impact of war on gender/racial equality
-as women took over jobs the idea of gender began to be taken more seriuosly
*congress authorized a womens corp. with toll status for each branch of the service
Racial Tension increased especailly in cities
-public housing projects were particulary explosive dilema
-whites resisted the forced integration of public housing
-detroit a full scale race riot broke out
in southern CAlifornia soldiers and sailors clashed with mexican americans
-the Zoot suits if lamboyant outfits with oversized coats and trousers incidents broke into virtual warfare
-commitee of racial equality(later congress) formed and was made up of black and whites who advocated non-violent resistance to seg.
*core introduced sit ins
JApanese Americans suffered the most
-government issued executive order 9066 in febuary directing the relocation of 1st and 2nd generation japanese americans in inland camps
-forced to leave possesions nearly 130,000 were confined in flimsy barracks with barbed wire
-the u.s supreme court upheld this treatment in Korematsu V. u.s
-the structure of united nations worked out ar the dambarton oaks conference in Washington in August and a subsequent meeting in san fransico in April
-only permanent members of the IN securite council(U.S.,Britian,France, Russia ,China)have the veto

The Bretton Wood conference created:
-international monetary fund(IMF)to maintain stable exchange be assuming that national currency could be converted into another country
-international bank for reconstruction and devolopment, now to world bank to provide loans to war
-Germany,Poland,Koreabecame issues
Germany divided into four zones of occupation
-this solidified into a west Germany and east Germany
-at the Yalta conference the Soviet Union agreed to permit free elections in Poland after the war,Stalin thought he agrred to Soviet dominance of Poland
*after war ameicans charged the Soviets with bad faith for not holding free elections in Poland and for not relinquishing control
-yAlta conference Stalin pledged to send troops to asia within 30 days of Germany defeat
-When the atomic bomb became operational the u.s. wanted to limit soviets invovlment in the pacific war
-U.S. took sole charge of occupying and reorganizing Japan
U.S. and Russia union split Korea into 2 Zones
-US granted freedom to the Phillipines