1) The document discusses how American children were influenced by propaganda during World War 2 to support the war effort. President Roosevelt and the Office of War Information produced propaganda to generate public support for the war and involvement of children through activities like collecting scrap metal and buying war bonds.
2) The propaganda dominated all aspects of children's lives and they were made to feel responsible for contributing to the war in any way they could. Many children took on adult roles and responsibilities during this time.
3) While some children no longer see the propaganda as influencing them, it clearly shaped their views and moral perspectives during developmentally important years and continued to affect their lives in various ways after the war.
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The Ready Ones Brochure
1. American Children, World War II,
and Propaganda
Walter Havighurst Special Collections
January 26 – May 15, 2015
3. THE READY ONES
American Children, World War II,
and Propaganda
Walter Havighurst Special Collections
Miami University Libraries
January 26 – May 15, 2015
5. Two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
declared war on Japan, Italy, and Hitler. President Roosevelt determined that he needed to
“win the war” and “win the peace.”1
To fulfill his goals, he personalized propaganda and told
Americans it was their duty to fight for world peace and that victory would bring a better life
for all.
Six months after his speech, President Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI).
The OWI produced or regulated the majority of propaganda with its own goals and strategies.
It believed that propaganda should follow a “strategy of truth,” which delivered a simple
messages based on “facts.” Roosevelt “hindered the development” of the OWI, however, by
creating other government organizations like the Office of Facts and Figures (OFF).2
The
OFF censored calculations given to the OWI. When the public discovered this it almost ruined
the OWI. To recover its reputation, the OWI redirected its goals towards home to programs
“aimed at generating support for the war.”3
Its new approach advocated the sale of war bonds,
encouraged participation, and sustained morale.
Even though President Roosevelt and the OWI had different goals the dual approach succeeded
because many Americans supported the war. Children especially approved of it because they
did not question it. “I thought that everything they told us was the truth,” says Barbra Wright
Reed. “I did not realize until much later it was not.” The values and ideas reinforced by a
steady stream of propaganda became central to American children’s moral perspective because
the war came at an essential time in their development. “Any child who went through that
period it is a part of their personality,” says Barbra, “the hard work, the chores, and feeling
part of a larger thing; a part of the country.”
1
Propagandists
6. In the morning, boys and
girls ate sugarless cereal and
margarine on their toast. In the
afternoon, their schools taught
them to be democratic citizens.
In the evening, children like
Jim Blount dug trenches with
friends and played war. At
night, some sat around the radio
to hear where “Killroy” was on
the map.4
“It affected every
part of your life,” confirms Jim.
He saw propaganda posters for
gas rationing that made him
question, “Is that necessary?”
for every car that passed. For
Fred Holl, it affected his teenage
dating habits. “My friends
and I would double date so we
could double up on gas ration
coupons,” said Fred. The war
dominated life; few could escape
its influence.
2
An Inescapable Reality
7. Some surviving children
believe that propaganda did not
influence them. They think their
parents motivated them, but
what motivated their parents?
The propaganda industry used
parents to repeat its messages
to children. Books such as The
Handbook for Young Americans
explained that good citizens were
patriotic. That meant helping
the war effort by growing victory
gardens, collecting scrap metal
and rubber, eating all of their
dinner, and behaving well for
their parents. Parents tried to
involve their sons and daughters
in the same ways. Propagandists
recognized parents’ important
role and used that relationship to
involve both parent and child.
3
Parents
8. By making children “a partner” in the
war, President Roosevelt obligated them
to the cause.5
Jim Blount’s grandfather
worked up to seven days a week as a
molder in Hamilton, Ohio. When he
came home after an 8 or 11-hour day he
worked his .25-mile victory garden in
an old canal bed. Jim’s grandfather “felt
like anything he did for the war wasn’t
enough.” Jim followed his grandfather’s
example and gave whatever he could.
Jim acted much like the children on the
Office of Education’s Schools at War
Program poster, We Are Ready How
About You? Join the Schools at War
Program (1942), which shows “correct
demonstrations” of “good citizenry.” The
Office of Education’s poster displays
several idealistic children participating
in the three major fronts: scrap metal
collecting, war bond sales, and patriotic
support. Jim gathered paper, collected
tin foil for school scrap drives, and
saved his mother’s cooking grease for
bullets and homemade soap. He also took all the left over produce from the Victory Garden
and gave it to anyone who passed by—all behaviors of an ideal child and citizen.
Propaganda such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Be a Victory Farm Volunteer in the
U.S. Crop Corps See Your Principal (1943) poster shows “real children” taking adult roles by
actively picking crops to help short-handed American farms. Some schools displayed posters
and added shop classes. In those classes students built model airplanes for factories and
taught them the necessary skills for war jobs. Don and Dean Kallander took on adult jobs and
responsibilities during the war. Sixteen-year-old Don felt a “sense of duty” to work at a screen
door factory in Tacoma, Washington after school and on weekends. Dean volunteered as an
assistant air raid warden in Tacoma, Washington. While Dean was in charge during an air
raid, all six of his houses had their lights off and their black out shades down. Dean explains
that, “as a twelve or thirteen year old kid it seemed like you were really doing something,
[even though] sometimes it did not feel like very much.”
4
Duty Calls
9. “I would sit up at night and just worry about how I was going to get another dime,” recalls
Mary Sue. She and her friends were avid gum chewers and penny candy eaters. They vowed
to stop spending their dimes on it and used them for bonds. When someone caved and bought
gum they scraped the tin off the wrappers and turn it in for scrap.
Many boys and girls felt bound to the war effort and sacrificed beyond their means. Mary Sue
lived in a relatively poor area of Kentucky but her school insisted its students buy more war
bonds. It encouraged children to buy more through the “Buy a Jeep” program. She and her
classmates loved jeeps because only soldiers used the exciting vehicles. The first civilian model
was not available until after the war in 1945. Mary Sue’s school raised over a thousand dol-
lars for the Jeep. As a reward, she and other members of the student council rode in the rare
automobile.
War Bonds
5
10. Shaken by the attack on
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii,
children feared the Japanese
would bomb their homes or
attack them. Jackie Blount
was just three years old at
the war’s start but the attack
on Pearl Harbor gave her
nightmares that lasted years
after. “At night, swinging
in the corner of my room, I
would see a tiny Japanese
man with a large palm leaf.”
Terrified, she pulled the
covers over her head and
pleaded for him to go away.
“I would not put my arm
out or leg out because I was
afraid that if I did he would
cut it off with his sword.”
Other children watched the
skies for the enemy. When
a plane passed Barbra
Wright Reid’s house in
Oxford, she immediately
ran inside to hide in her
closet. “My biggest fear was
that the Japanese would
bomb Oxford,” she says.
Children rarely saw planes
because many commercial
airlines temporarily stopped
domestic flights for the war. The OWI produced plane-spotting books for children and adults to
help them identify enemy and friendly planes. The government also conducted air raid drills
to prepare civilians for an enemy attack. Plane spotting books and air raid drills tried to help
Americans plan for bombings, but air raid drills created more panic than a sense of being
prepared.
Fear
6
11. The American public justified racism and
hatred towards the Japanese because Pearl
Harbor “was personal.” Propagandists
confirmed many Americans’ hatred of the
Japanese and created a sense of “otherness”
because they did not look like the average
American at that time. Japanese became
sharp-toothed, cockeyed monsters who
preyed on the innocent.
World War II propagandists did not create
the same type of propaganda against
Germans they classified “good Germans” as
innocent victims and “bad Nazis” as products
of Hitler’s brainwashing. Many Americans
already blamed Germans for the First World
War. During World War I, The Committee
on Public Information (CPI) attempted to
create a similar caricature, the German Hun.
It did not convince Americans because they
discovered the CPI made up stories about
the “barbarism” of the Hun. It also failed
because many Americans were of German
descent, which complicated relationships
with German-Americans. “There were no
Japanese people around us so we could hate
all of them,” says Mary Sue.
For children on the West Coast, hatred of Japanese did not come as easily. Dean Kallander
lived in Tacoma, Washington during the war. “There were rumors about the Japanese,” says
Dean. A large population of Japanese people lived in Seattle and the surrounding valleys. He
and his father bought vegetables from them. “My father observed that the internment of the
Japanese had nothing to do with disloyalty. It was just a land grab for their productive farms.”
After President Roosevelt interned them, their farms ruined and never recovered from their
absence.
Many surviving children now recognize that the negative representations were wrong and no
longer hate Japanese people. For some, lingering tensions towards the nation of Japan remain.
Some traveled the world, yet “have no desire” to visit Japan. Others admit they cannot bring
themselves to buy Japanese cars.
Education of Hate
7
12. “Retrospect is very interesting,” says
Ruthie Kallander. “At the time I don’t
recall any of the information we got
as being propaganda. There wasn’t
a question about the fact that it was
necessary whatever that was…”
Children’s recollections and their
war-related participation show the
power of propaganda’s messages and
its affect on them. When asked why
they participated almost all said they
felt like they could never do enough
for the war effort. Dean explains, “It
was not something [we] needed to
do—it was something [we] had to do.”
Propagandists obligated children to
the cause by constantly asking them
to “be ready” and to do whatever was
“necessary” for it.
Children became an integral part
of the war effort, but it also became
an important part of their identity.
“[Propaganda] has a permanent
effect,” says Mary Sue Kallander, “you
can’t deny it.” For many children what
they did for the war determined their
self worth. Barbra Wright Reed says
war-related activities “made them feel
a part of something bigger than themselves—a part of the country.” Children’s labor filled the
desperate need for ammunition, bombs, and military vehicles. They volunteered thousands
of hours and collected tons of material. Their pains and endurances embodied the belief that
victory required their involvement. “We were not perfect,” says Barbra, “we were all victims of
propaganda.”
Conclusion
8
13. End Notes
1. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “On the Declaration of War with Japan” Speech, Public
Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941.
http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/120941.html
2. Allan M. Winkler, The Politics of Propaganda: The Office of War Information, 1942-1945.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978. 20
3. Winkler, 54
4. Killroy was a popular drawing of a large-nosed man. He represented American G-I troops.
Radio stations gave out Killroy buttons that some children placed them on world maps in
their home to track where American troops were that day.
5. Roosevelt, “On the Declaration of War with Japan”
Exhibited Books
• Deidre Conselman, William Conselman, and Frederic Louis Fox. Keedle. New York:
Hillman-Curl, 1940.
• Munro Leaf. A War-Time Handbook for Young Americans. Philadelphia: Frederick A.
Stokes Company, 1942.
• Thomas J. Morrison and Genevieve Burke. My Savings Book for Defense: SavingsBonds
& Stamps, Serve by Saving. New York: Binney & Smith Co. [distributor], 1941
• Walt Disney Productions and Chester S. Williams. The Victory March; The Mystery of
the Treasure Chest. New York: Random House, 1942.
14. Images
• United States Treasury Department and the United States Office of Education.We Are
Ready, What About You? Join the Schools at War Program. Print. D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office. 1942.
• Walt Disney Productions, and Chester S. Williams. The Victory March; The Mystery of the
Treasure Chest. New York: Random House, 1942.
• United States Office of Defense Transportation and the Office of War Information. Is Your
Trip Necessary? Print. D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943.
• Ewing, Harris &. “FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt]- Radio Broadcast.” Still image, 1933.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/hec2013015906/.
• The Sheldon Claire Co. This is America Keep it Free, No. 8. Print. Chicago: The Sheldon
and Claire Co., 1942
• “Training School ‘Buys’ a Jeep,” The College News. January 10, 1944.
• “Art: The Tokio Kid.” Time. June 15, 1942. Accessed November 1, 2014.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795843,00.html.
• “Down with the Japs, The Rats.” 1942. New York.
http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/race/ww2-rac.html
• Rosener, Ann. “Conservation of Durable Goods. So-O-O-O Big! But Still Not Quite Big
Enough to Sell to the Junk Man or Give to the Red Cross, Boy Scouts or Other Agencies in
the Neighborhood. Conservation of Waste Paper Will Save Millions of Dollars Annually for
Uncle Sam. When That Pile Is Broomstick High, They’ll Be a Hundred Pounds of Essen-
tial.” Still image, 1942. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/oem2002002059/pp/
15. Acknowledgements
This exhibit is curated by Katherine Wills-Wright with assistance from Elizabeth Brice,
Kimberly Tully, Bill Modrow, Marcus Ladd, Ashley Jones, Jim Bricker, and the Center for
Digital Scholarship. This exhibit is a part of Katherine’s masters’ thesis project. She conducted
all of the interviews from surviving children in the Oxford, Hamilton, and Tacoma area. The
participation of community members and the cooperation of several other organizations were
integral to this project. Special thanks belongs to:
The Walter Havighurst Special Collections
for its staff, archives, support, and exhibit space
The Butler County Historical Society
for its loan of several artifacts and posters
The Smith Library of Regional History
for its loan of several artifacts and poster
Lee Hendley at the Tacoma Washington Historical Society
for his efforts to scan and send photographs of the Kallander brothers
The Florida Memory Blog
for its permission to use a photograph for the exhibit
Stephen Gordon at the MucGuffey Museum
for his support and information
To featured participants Jim and Jackie Blount, Fred Holl, Dean and Mary Sue Kallander,
Don and Ruthie Kallander, and Barbara Wright Reed,
and all other participants of this thesis project,
Thank you for sharing your memories and your personal items for this special project.