THE MAKING OF A NATION 195 - World War Two / Home Front

THE MAKING OF A NATION - May 30, 2002: World War Two / Home Front

By David Jarmul
VOICE 1:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
(Theme)
The United States entered the Second World War late in nineteen-forty-one after a surprise attack by Japanese

forces on Hawaii.

The time and the place of the attack was a surprise. But American military and political leaders had believed that
the United States, sooner or later, would be pulled into the fighting. And they began to prepare for war.
VOICE 2:
President Franklin Roosevelt had been assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during

World War One. He remembered how American troops were not ready for that war. Now that he was president,

Roosevelt wanted to be sure that the United States would be ready when it had to fight.
Throughout nineteen-forty-one, Roosevelt urged American industries to produce more arms and military goods.
And he established new government agencies to work with private industry to increase arms production.

Some business leaders resisted Roosevelt's efforts. They felt there was no need to produce
more arms while the United States was still at peace. But many others cooperated. And by
the time

Japan attacked Pearl¹ Harbor, the American economy was producing millions of guns and
other weapons.

VOICE 1:

This still was not enough to fight a war. After the Japanese attack, Roosevelt increased his
demands on American industry. He called for sixty- thousand war planes, forty-five -thousand tanks, and twenty-
thousand anti-aircraft guns. And he wanted all these within one year.

One month after the Pearl Harbor raid², Roosevelt organized a special committee to direct this military
production. He created another group to help companies find men and women for defense³ work. And he
established a new office where the nation's best scientists and engineers could work together to design new
weapons.

These new government organizations faced several problems. Sometimes factories produced too much of one
product and not enough of another. Sometimes tools broke. And some business owners refused to accept
government orders. But the weapons were produced. American troops soon had the guns and supplies they
needed.

VOICE 2:

The federal government had to expand its own workforce⁴ rapidly to meet war needs. Federal
spending increased from just six-thousand- million dollars in nineteen-forty to eighty-nine
thousand-million in nineteen-forty-four. This was a fifteen-hundred-percent increase in just
five years.

In fact, total spending by the federal government during the war was twice as much as the
government had spent since its beginning in seventeen-eighty-seven.


Roosevelt had to take strong steps to get the money for all this spending. He put limits on wages. He increased
taxes to as high as ninety-four percent of pay. And he asked the American people to lend money to the federal
government. The people answered with almost one-hundred thousand-million dollars.

VOICE 1:

The great increase in public spending raised the threat of economic inflation⁵. There was much
more money in the economy just at the time that factories were producing fewer goods for
people to buy. More money and fewer goods usually makes prices rise rapidly.

Roosevelt was able to prevent this problem by using taxes and borrowing to reduce the amount
of money that people had. But he also created a special office with the power to control prices.

Many Americans agreed with the idea of price controls. But everyone wanted somebody else's
prices controlled, not their own. Federal officials had to work hard to keep prices and supplies
under control. They restricted how much meat and gasoline and other goods people could buy.

The price control program generally worked. Its success kept the American economy strong to support the troops
fighting in Europe and Asia.

VOICE 2:

One reason these strong economic steps worked was because the American people fully⁶
supported the war effort. One can look at photographs of people of those times and see in
their faces how strongly they felt.

In one photograph from the state of North Carolina, a group of men are standing⁷ in front of
old rubber tires collected from automobiles⁸. They are planning to give the tires to the Army
to be fixed⁹ and used for army vehicles.

Another photo shows a woman visiting a hospital. She is singing a song to a soldier to lift
his spirits.

Still another photo shows a man who owns a small food store. He is placing special signs on his meats and cans
of food to tell people how much they are allowed to buy.

VOICE 1:

Radio cannot show the faces in the pictures. But you can get an idea about their feelings by the names of some of
the popular songs of the period. One of the most famous was "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition¹⁰."
Another was "He Is One -Aye in the Army, and He's One-Aye in My Heart." And one of the most hopeful songs
was "When the Lights Go on Again All Over the World."

VOICE 2:

Not all Americans supported the war. A small number of persons refused to fight, because fighting violated¹¹ their
religious beliefs. And a few Americans supported the ideas of Hitler and other fascists¹². But almost everyone else
supported the war effort. They wanted to win the war quickly and return to normal life.

Japanese-Americans felt the same way. Many of them served with honor in the military forces. But many
Americans were suspicious¹³ of anyone whose family had come from Japan. They refused to trust even Japanese-
American families who lived in the United States for more than a century.

Banks refused to lend money to Japanese-Americans. Stores would not sell to them. An American Army general,
John Dewitt, spoke¹⁴ for many citizens when he said, "A Japanese is a Japanese. It makes no difference whether he
is an American or not."

The federal government ordered all Japanese-Americans to live in restricted areas for the rest of the war. Only
after the war ended did it release them. Years later, people agreed that Japanese-Americans had been badly
treated.


An Ansel Adams picture of
the Manzanar War
Relocation Center in
California
(Photo -Library of Congress)
VOICE 1:

Another American minority made progress during the war: black Americans. For
years, black American citizens had been kept in low-paying jobs and poor living
conditions. But black leaders spoke out to say it was unfair to fight a war for
freedom in Europe while blacks at home were not as free as white citizens.

In nineteen -forty-one, black leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead a giant
march on Washington for black rights. President Roosevelt reacted by issuing an
order that made it a crime to deny blacks a chance for jobs in defense industries. He
also ordered the armed forces to change some of their rules for blacks.

Blacks made progress in these government-controlled areas. But most private industries still refused to give them
an equal chance.

Major progress for blacks would come in the years after the war, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties.

VOICE 2:

Life was busy during the war years with all the changes in the economy, business, music, race relations, and other
areas. But in many ways, life continued as it always does.

Americans did what they could during the hard years of World War Two to keep life as normal as possible. But
almost everyone understood that the first job was to support the troops overseas and win the war.

This strength of purpose at home gave American soldiers the support they needed. And it also helped President
Roosevelt as he negotiated¹⁵ with other world leaders during the fighting. Diplomacy¹⁶ and foreign relations were
extremely complex during the war. That will be our story next week.

(Theme)

VOICE 1:

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of
America. Your narrators have been Harry¹⁷ Monroe and Jim Tedder¹⁸. Our program was written by David Jarmul.
The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION.

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1 pearl   

n.珍珠，珍珠母

参考例句：

• He bought his girlfriend a pearl necklace.他给他女朋友买了一条珍珠项链。
• The crane and the mother-of-pearl fight to death.鹬蚌相争。

2 raid   

v.劫掠，攫取，袭击，突击搜捕；n.突然袭击

参考例句：

• Our house was blown up in an air raid.在一次空袭中我们的房子被炸掉了。
• During their raid on the house,the police found a lot of drugs.在对这所房子的搜查中，警方发现了大量的毒品。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

5 inflation   

n.胀大，夸张，通货膨胀

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• The inflation of the airbed took several minutes.给空气床垫充气花了几分钟时间。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

10 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

11 violated   

亵渎( violate的过去式和过去分词 )； 违反； 侵犯； 强奸

参考例句：

• Note that thick, strong angles of tibia are not violated. 注意肥厚、结实的胫骨成角部分未受损坏。
• The soldiers violated the church by using it as a stable. 士兵们把教堂当马厩，亵渎了教堂。

12 fascists   

n.法西斯主义的支持者( fascist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists. 老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 suspicious   

adj.可疑的，容易引起怀疑的，猜疑的，疑心的

参考例句：

• A man was hanging about the house in a suspicious manner.一个男人在房子周围可疑地荡来荡去。
• He's so suspicious he would distrust his own mother.他这个人疑心太重，连自己的母亲也不相信。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 negotiated   

谈判，协商，议定( negotiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 兑现（支票等）； 通过，越过（险要路段）

参考例句：

• The government negotiated with the opposition party over the new law. 政府就新法与反对党进行了协商。
• By careful strategy she negotiated a substantial pay rise. 她精心策划后，谈妥了大幅增加工资的事。

16 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

17 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

18 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网