Frank Wang Class 13 April 18, 2013 In the United States history, wars often came along with

major social changes and developmentthe American Revolution wiped out the autocratic British government and resulted in a democratic government based on all men are created equal; the Civil War ended the possible spilt of this great nation and started the pace toward society without racism. Based on the past wars and their social and political changes, some people believe World War II also had similar significant effects on America. However, the gains for minorities and women in America were very limited or the development stepped backwards and beneath the surface of unity were womens inequality, ethnic exclusion, and severe racial tensions. Even though considerably large number of women gained working opportunities in defense industries, those employment were only for the expansion of national production and lack of male labor force and women also received unequal treatments. As Franklin D. Roosevelt stated in the Fireside Chat, In order to keep stepping up our productionwe can no longer afford to indulge such prejudices and practices, implying a simple fact that the government urged industries welcomed thousands of colored labor force, women workers and the elder, who were unacceptable in the past mainly because America needed them for war supply production while the former majority of men had gone to the military, leaving labor shortage. This logic behind the increased employment of women indicated the underlying and strongly existing stereotypes to womenwomen were not as competitive as men so they were hired as substitutes for men during the war; they usually were good at domestic labor so their skills of housework were transferred to similar industrial jobs and womens salary were relatively lower than those of male employees. As a result, both the government and firms did not expect to employ those

female labor after the war for their primary labor source would come back. It is apparent that the so-called social development was a temporary but necessary response to the war rather than an important success of women equality. Apart from limited progress in womens social positions, driven by fear, anger, or racism, the United Stated government conducted controversial ethnic exclusion and isolations upon Japanese Americans. After the Pearl Harbor, although there was almost no solid evidence indicating that Japanese Americans were threats to the national security, exaggerated by the AntiJapanese propaganda, hatred toward Japanese Americans as Congressman Rankin clearly radiated when he repeated Once a Jap always a Jap led to the Internment of Japanese Americans, and all Japanese Americans up to their third generations were included in the Executive Order 9066. Those Japanese Americans were isolated in the internment camps, which actually were prisons lack of water, food, medical care, and other living necessities. Lack of basic living conditions and seriously deprived of civic rights in the Internments, Justice Murphy argued in Korematsu v. United States in 1944, were discrimination and racism. Without indisputable proof of public danger to America, the Internment was an ugly, crazy action based around racism on Japanese Americans, taking over constitutional rights of part of American minorities. This shameful piece of history definitely is not a progress but is a major failure of civic rights and anti-discrimination. At the same time, for African Americans, racial tensions were patriotically conciliated to some extent but continued throughout World War II. No matter how the Navy portrayed Dorie Miller, an African American cook in Navy, as a glorious hero in Pearl Harbor, the propaganda oriented to unite African American could not eliminate the discrimination in the military: they could only be servants in the Navy, were excluded from the Marine, and were segregated in the

Army. Also, the idea of Double Victory was another manifestation of the racial tension. People only fight for what they have not earned or what they can improve and so did African Americans who suffered from racism and struggled for equality. They founded the Congress of Racial Equality and took steps of civil disobedience, such as Sit-ins in Southern states. A. Philip Randolph also proposed a march in Washington D.C. for their victory of nondiscrimination. President FDR immediately responded with the Executive Order 8802 that guaranteed zero discrimination in defense industries to prevent this march. The victory for racial equality really resulted from the concerns about the march might have on the rally of the United States during the war while other conflicts between different races still went on. The World War II pulled the Americas Economy out of the abyss of the Great Depression but it failed to bring momentous social and political changes and even worsened in some aspects. It was indeed a mixture of ephemeral reform for the unity of America, expansion in production, and the final victory for the war and endless conflicts of womens change in social position, ethnic exclusion, and racial violence.