768 C
HAPTER 25
Terms & Names
Terms & Names
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
Mobilizing for
Defense
•George Marshall
•Women’s Auxiliary
Army Corp (WAAC)
•A. Philip Randolph
•Manhattan Project
•Office of Price
Administration
(OPA)
•War Production
Board (WPB)
•rationing
Following the attack on Pearl
Harbor, the United States
mobilized for war.
Military industries in the United
States today are a major part
of the American economy.
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Charles Swanson looked all over his army base for a tape recorder
on which to play the tape his wife had sent him for Christmas.
“In desperation,” he later recalled, “I had it played over the
public-address system. It was a little embarrassing to have the
whole company hear it, but it made everyone long for home.”
A PERSONAL
VOICE MRS. CHARLES SWANSON
“ Merry Christmas, honey. Surprised? I’m so glad I have a
chance to say hello to you this way on our first Christmas
apart. . . . About our little girl. . . . She is just big enough to
fill my heart and strong enough to help Mommy bear this ache of
loneliness. . . . Her dearest treasure is her daddy’s picture. It’s all
marked with tiny handprints, and the glass is always cloudy from
so much loving and kissing. I’m hoping you’ll be listening to this on
Christmas Eve, somewhere over there, your heart full of hope, faith and courage,
knowing each day will bring that next Christmas together one day nearer.
”
—quoted in We Pulled Together . . . and Won!
As the United States began to mobilize for war, the Swansons, like most
Americans, had few illusions as to what lay ahead. It would be a time filled with
hard work, hope, sacrifice, and sorrow.
Americans Join the War Effort
The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor with the expectation that once Americans
had experienced Japan’s power, they would shrink from further conflict. The day
after the raid, the Japan Times boasted that the United States, now reduced to a
third-rate power, was “trembling in her shoes.” But if Americans were trembling,
it was with rage, not fear. Uniting under the battle cry “Remember Pearl Harbor!”
they set out to prove Japan wrong.
