10. Economic gains
•Unemployment fell to only
1.2% by 1944 and wages rose
35%
•Farmers benefited as
production doubled and their
income tripled
11. Industry
• Americans converted their auto
industry into a war industry
• The nation’s automobile plants began
to produce tanks, planes, boats, and
command cars
• Many other industries also converted
to war-related supplies
14. • Women joined the
workforce. Before
the war, only about 3
million worked in the
U.S.
• Most were housewives
and raised families.
• Desperate for workers
to produce
weapons, women
replaced the men
that went to war.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Before After
Women
15. Rosie the Riveter
• 1940-1945 - the female percentage of the
U.S. workforce increased 27%-37%
• 1942 - Congress instituted the Women's
Auxiliary Army Corps, later upgraded to
the Women's Army Corps (WACs)
which had full military status.
• By 1945 - nearly one out of every four
married women worked outside the home.
19. U.S. DROPS TWO
ATOMIC BOMBS
ON JAPAN
• Truman warned
Japan in late July
1945 that
without a
immediate
Japanese surrender,
it faced “prompt
and utter
destruction”
• On August 6
(Hiroshima) and
August 9
(Nagasaki) a B-29
bomber dropped
Atomic Bombs on
Japan
The plane and crew that dropped
an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, Japan
20. JAPAN SURRENDERS
At the White House, President Harry
Truman announces the Japanese
surrender, August 14, 1945
• Japan surrendered
days after the
second atomic bomb
was dropped
• General MacArthur
said, “Today the
guns are silent. The
skies no longer rain
death . . .the entire
world is quietly at
peace.”
