The World War II brought about significant developments and changes in the ideologies upheld by the United States government through race equality, economic shifts, population movements as well as the roles of the minorities. These changes were experienced through the vast range of efforts from the volunteers who submitted to the government strategies and policies in the economy. The labor market also experienced radical changes in accordance to labor and race diverted due to pressure emanating from other communities in the call for national unity. These changes brought about significant changes in the ideologies of race equality especially in the 1940s. The Second World War brought about severe impacts in the field of agriculture, economics, taxes and controls of prices, labor, the role of women, labor unions just to mention but a few. The war brought forth contributions from the United States in terms of funds, technology and industrial output, food and armed forces. The U.S aimed at maximizing their output in economic across the nation. In return it also brought about increased output where exports of supplies to the American forces involved in the war saw an end to unemployment.
Similarly, the war brought together many workers who moved from areas that had low productivity to well efficient jobs. It also improved the production rates through improved technology and management as well as improved rates of employment. However, these activities were very demanding and exhausting and the ideologies maintained were forced to change as labor was required from all sources. Immigrants from all corners also gave their support as the Black Americans moved from their slavery jobs to acquire blue collar jobs. This paper will focus on discussing how these conditions of the World War II introduced a shift in the U.S ideologies of race equality in the 1940s. It will also discuss ethnic groups such as the Chinese, Filipinos, Indians and Koreans benefited from policy changes as a direct result of the World War II. This will be accompanied by an analysis on the major policy changes in terms of how they impacted the Japanese Americans and how their internment was indeed not a result of military necessity. In order to achieve these points, the essay will revolve focus on the post 1965 economic shifts that led to the fall of the manufacturing sector and the import of Japanese automobile.
The World War II brought about conditions in the economy where most of the durable goods became unavailable while some became tightly rationed. There was shortage of houses as people were forced to pair up in shanties. The conditions intensified and the people even those unemployed were forced to pay federal income taxes as wages were controlled. In 1940 the rate of unemployment had declined by about 3.4 million especially in war centers. This called for the government agencies to call upon the people to apply for war jobs. Incidentally, even the retired people enrolled for the jobs as well as housewives and students who claimed to be patriotic to their country. This saw people shift from their ordinary jobs to engage in the war in one way or another. Retailers shifted from counter services to self service where the stopped doing deliveries. Women on the other hand also joined the war in few numbers to support the men. Similarly, the state guards who were initially mandated to protect the country were transformed into federal army men who replaced the national guardsmen overseas. The civil air patrol incorporated the civilians through search and rescue operations as well as transport. This was coupled with operations in the coast guard where civilian boats were used to rescue the war troops during the war.
The civilians were trained and placed in strategic points to serve as the eyes for the army while black outs were initiated in order to remind the people that the war was still on-going. The establishment of the United Service Organizations in 1941 ensured provision of morale and support for the military service members. Women offered services for areas such as the Red Cross and other facilities that were in direct support of the war (Osajimi, 31). In addition to this, there was massive migration of people to industrialized areas where wives accompanied their husbands to camps where the military members were residing. This was accompanied by large movement of Black Americans from cotton fields to the cities and areas were training camps were established. Overcrowding emerged as people could not access constructions that were not facilitated by the military (Lee, 261). Racial tensions had emerged but due to the call of patriotism they all engaged in the war and got along peacefully. It occurred through a federal executive order for the Fair Employment Practices Commission that required companies to ensure fair treatment regardless of race or religion. This brought about the facilitation of ethnic minorities to acquire jobs as per the order given by President Roosevelt in 1943 (Lee, 263).
The policy changes in the United States brought about significant benefits to ethnic groups such as the Chinese, Filipinos, Indians and Koreans as a direct result of the World War II. This came about as a result of the traditional enclaves that occurred before the World War II by the Chinese, Japanese and Filipino immigrants. The laws of discrimination and housing segregation had forced Asian immigrants to move into the urban ethnic enclaves. This forced them to create their own institutions and internal labor markets where the communities evolved into centers for residential housing as well as community and religious organizations. They also offered ethnic shopping and employment and offered protection and survival to the members of the ethnic community in order to defend them from extinction (Junhyoung, Wonsoek, and Sooyeon, 7).
The policy changes that occurred in the World War II brought about the development of satellite enclaves after the 1965 Immigration Act. It also brought about redevelopment of the urban centers that began with the liberalization of immigration law in 1965 where Asian immigrants from all over Asia entered the United States (Junhyoung, Wonsoek, and Sooyeon, 8). Many of them also benefited from the immigration and education policy where those with managerial and professional skills got privileged. The traditional enclaves in the other hand expanded as new ones were created by Asian Americans with economic resources to live in the middle class. Similarly, there were residential and business location patterns that led to the creation of new suburban enclaves for existing ethnic Asian Americans populations. This contributed to the movement of Chinese Filipinos as well as other new immigrants seeking to leave the traditional enclaves to urban ones (Junhyoung, Wonsoek, and Sooyeon, 11). The Korean immigrants also created new enclaves such as the Korea town in Los Angeles which is the largest Korean ethnic enclave in the United States. Most of the immigrants benefits came about due to improved conditions that occurred after the World War II where many brought about multiple reasons that reflected the needs of the ethnic groups.
How the major policy changes impact Japanese Americans and their internment that was indeed not as a result of military necessity.
During the war in 1942 the U.S department had demanded that all the enemies be removed from war zones on the west coast. This brought a challenged of how to remove about 120,000 Japanese citizens from California. This came about due to evidence that the Japanese in the Philippines had collaborated with those in the invading troops (Lee, 265). Similarly, evidence portrayed instances of espionage through coded languages from Japanese agents in North America ad areas such as Hawaii. This initiated controversy among the Americans and magic cables were constructed and hidden from the people except those authorized. In effect to these activities many people with the United States started to question the loyalty of the American born citizens of Japanese descent. The issue was later resolved by President Roosevelt who declared that the loyal citizens were eligible to democratic rights and to exercise the responsibilities of their citizenship no matter their origin. The issue was later legalized in the United States Supreme Court in 1944 where the internees held were released (Lee, 267).
In 1930s, Japanese businesses were thriving with some section of the Seattle International District including 45 restaurants, 20 barber shops, laundries and lodging houses. However, during the World War II the Japanese communities were literally closed down and boarded up while the Japanese Americans were shipped off to internment camps. Even under the harsh conditions they were taken through, the Japanese relied upon social interactions and community organizations. They had interned Japanese formations that brought about consumer cooperatives. The long stereotypes that occurred to Asian Americans saw them as passive laborers that gave them an increasing vocal constituency in Washington state politics (Lee, 287). This saw the rise of the first Chinese American elected to the Seattle City Council, Wing Luke. However, there was growing diversity of the Asian American community that threatened the communal harmony. They established most of their activities which angered the Native Americans. Their educational skills had started being an issue of concern to them. Similarly, their political endeavors saw majority of them rise against the issue of discrimination where Vincent Jen Chin was murdered as a result of hate crime.
These activities brought about the anger towards Asian Americans as they had protested and raised tension in the fight for justice. Discrimination was still a burning issue as it affected the prominence of Asian American businesses, politics, education as well as other social amenities in their lives. The issue of Vincent Chin was argued in court where the fight that had occurred at the Fancy Pants strip club that saw him and his group thrown out brought the heated tension (Osajimi, 45). The fact that Jin was Asian American brought the controversy as his assailants blamed stereotyped him as the people who caused the Americans to lose their auto manufacturing jobs to Japan. This issue brought about many incidents as the Japanese manufacturing sector was closed down to end the hate crimes. The perpetrators of Jin served no jail term which angered the Asian Americans where they fought for federal charges.
Incidentally, civil suits were made against Chin’s perpetrators which made them to pay heavy fines. His mother had to move back to China in order to avoid the constant reminder of son’s death.
Works Cited
Junhyoung Kim; Wonseok Suh; Sooyeon Kim; Himanshu Gopalan. "Coping strategies to manage acculturative stress: Meaningful activity participation, social support, and positive emotion among Korean immigrant adolescents in the USA."International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being 7 (2012): 1-10. Web.
Lee, Dong Ok. "Commodification of Ethnicity: The Sociospatial Reproduction of Immigrant Entrepreneurs." Urban Affairs Quarterly 28.2 (2002): 258-275. Web.
Osajimi, K. “Asian Americans as the Model Minority: An Analysis of the popular Press Image in the 1960s and 1980s” from CAA, 2012
