Figure 35. A B-17 bomber under construction at a Douglas Aircraft factory at Long Beach, California. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
American, Northrop, Lockheed, Hughes, Douglas, Consolidated, and Vultee enormously expanding their operations in the area. In 1939 the United States Army Air Corps possessed 400 planes. During World War II America manufactured more than 231,000 airplanes, far exceeding the President’s announced goal of 50,000 a year. SEE FIGURE 35
Chief Executive almost unlimited power to mobilize manpower, manage industrial production and labor relations, allocate materials and resources, censor mail, and stabilize prices. Presidential agencies were established in these areas within a few months. As has so often happened in history, an international crisis and centralization of authority went hand in hand. DECEMBER 27, 1941 Rationing of Gasoline and Food Shortages of fuel, tin, rubber, and food were severe in wartime America and necessitated the imposition of a rationing system designed to reduce civilian consumption and guarantee a minimum of fairness in distribution. Automobile owners were required to display an A, B, or C sticker on their windshields and could buy only as much gasoline as their category allowed. Every citizen was provided with a ration book with only enough stamps to buy certain types and quantities of meat and other foods. Certain products, such as automobiles, refrigerators and radios were not manufactured during the war.
DECEMBER 7, 1941 Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor
With major powers focusing on Europe, Japan was encouraged to pursue its imperial ambitions in Asia, generating great unease in Washington. In September 1940, when Japan allied itself with Germany and Italy and dispatched forces into French Indo-China, the United States embargoed exports to Japan of scrap iron and steel. The following July, after Japanese troops occupied the rest of Indo-China, Roosevelt froze Tokyo’s assets in the United States, cutting off oil shipments that accounted for almost 80% of Japanese consumption. Faced with the choice — either accept Washington’s demands that it cease its expansion into Asia or secure alternative sources for oil, rubber, and other resources — the government of Japan began to prepare for war against the United States. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was devastating but it ended almost all opposition to the U.S. entry into
World War II. SEE FIGURE 36
DECEMBER 18, 1941 War Powers Act Gives Roosevelt Unprecedented Authority The New Deal’s response to the Depression had strengthened the office of the presidency, but the onset of war prompted Congress to grant the
Figure 36. Wreckage of the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
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