When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, America had already been struggling economically through a depression. This new catastrophe, rather than knocking the American people any lower, actually, managed to unite them. With enlistment and the draft taking the strong, able-bodied young men into military service it was left to those on the home front to provide aid to the war efforts and continue caring for their families and citizens who remained on American soil.
The U.S. government contracted factories to build their war planes, jeeps, ships, munitions and a multitude of other necessities used for the war effort. With these contracts came jobs that needed filled, the problem was that there wasn't enough male laborers left to fill them. So, the government enlisted the use of propaganda in the forms of posters, newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts and Hollywood movies, all to bolster morale and incite patriotism. Now, women, the disabled and those of a different race were encouraged to step out and join the work force.
The American people united by sacrificing, recycling and doing new things they had never had to do before, such as rationing food, clothes and gasoline. They were encouraged to grow their own produce, in the forms of "victory gardens", and buy war bonds, all in the effort to contribute to the financing of the war. Whether the sacrifice was large or small, every American was impacted some way or another, and every American had some part in shaping our history.
