sep 5, 1942 - War rationing is ramped up

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As in World War I, the United States escaped the physical devastations of conflict. Bombs did not fall on American cities, and civilians were not killed or displaced by the fighting. But the war profoundly changed everyday life just the same. Americans welcomed wartime prosperity but shuddered to see a Western Union boy on his bicycle, fearing that he carried a War Department telegram reporting the death of a son, husband, or father. Citizens also grumbled about annoying wartime regulations and rationing but accepted that their lives would be different “for the duration.”

Spurred by both government propaganda and a desire to help the cause, people on the home front took on wartime responsibilities. They worked on civilian defense committees, recycled old newspapers and scrap metal, and served on local rationing and draft boards. About twenty million backyard “victory gardens” produced 40 percent of the nation’s vegetables. Various federal agencies encouraged these efforts, especially the Office of War Information (OWI), which disseminated news and promoted patriotism. The OWI urged advertising agencies to link their clients’ products to the war effort, arguing that patriotic ads would not only sell goods but also “invigorate, instruct and inspire” citizens

A U.S. government poster during World War II reminding people to conserve food so that the troops would have the supplies they required. Many government agencies, like the War Food Administration, which produced this poster, the Office of War Information, and the Office of Price Administration, used billboards, newspaper and magazine advertisements, posters, and other forms of media to get their message to ordinary Americans: unite together in patriotic sacrifice for the good of the war effort.

Popular culture, especially the movies, reinforced connections between the home front and the front lines. Hollywood producers, directors, and actors offered their talents to the War Department. Director Frank Capra created a documentary series titled Why We Fight to explain war aims to conscripted soldiers and the wider public. Movie stars such as John Wayne and Spencer Tracy portrayed heroic American fighting men in films such as Guadalcanal Diary (1943) and Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944). In this pretelevision era, newsreels accompanying the feature films kept the public up-to-date on the war, as did on-the-spot radio broadcasts from CBS reporters such as Edward R. Murrow and Mary Marvin Breckenridge, the network’s first female radio correspondent.

All Americans had to deal with wartime shortages of consumer goods. Beginning in 1942, federal agencies subjected almost everything Americans ate, wore, or used to rationing or regulation. The first major scarcity was rubber. The Japanese conquest of Malaysia and Dutch Indonesia cut off 97 percent of America’s imports of that essential raw material. To conserve rubber for the war effort, the government rationed tires: many of the nation’s thirty million car owners put their cars in storage. As more people walked, they wore out their shoes. In 1944, shoes were rationed to two pairs per person a year. By 1943, the government was rationing meat, butter, sugar, and other foods. Most citizens obeyed the complicated rationing system, but at least one-quarter of the population bought items on the black market, especially meat, gasoline, cigarettes, and nylon stockings.

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