Mobilizing for WWII.

1. Selective Service System
The Selective Service expanded the draft. By doing this they provided another 10 million soldiers to the already 5 million, who volunteered for military service. This helped to meet the armed forces' needs. Later on when the war began, the Selective Service System warned defense contractors that the nation did not have enough workers to meet both its military and industrial needs but they were wrong.

2. Women
There was also a great need for the military's work force. With this being so Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall pushed for the formation of a Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). In support he stated, "There are innumerable duties now being performed by soldiers that can be done better by women". This bill allowed women volunteers to serve in noncombat positions. Even though the bill had opposition from some members of Congress, it was passed and became a law on May 15,1942. The law gave the women an official status ans salary but they were only given some of the same benefits given to male soldiers. Thousands of women had joined the WAAC by July 1943. This caused the U.S Army to drop the "auxiliary" status and granted the WACs the full U.S. Army benefits. WACs worked in a number of different job fields which ranged from nurses to radio operators and even pilots but these were all duties which did not involve direct combat.

3. Minorities
Minorities (African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans) faced new dilemmas due to the war. They were restricted to racially segregated neighborhoods and reservations, being denied the basic citizenship rights. Some even went on to question whether or not this was their war to fight. For example, an editorial in an African-American newspaper stated, " Why die for democracy for some foreign country when we don't even have it here?"

Even though there was discrimination in the military, more than 300,000 Mexican Americans ended up joining the armed forces. This ethnic group only made up a tenth of Los Angeles's population, but suffered a fifth of the city's wartime casualties. About 1 million African Americans also enlisted in the military. Members of this ethnic group were forced to live and work in segregated units. They were also limited to mostly noncombat roles but due to much protest they finally began seeing combat by the beginning of April 1943. Asian Americans also wanted to help in the struggle. More than 13,000 Chinese Americans, or about one of every five adult males, joined the armed forces. On top of this 33,000 Japanese Americans joined too. Out of this group several thousand volunteered to serve as spies and interpreters for the war in the Pacific. During battles they would sneak up close enough to be able to hear the Japanese officers' commands and then take this information and translate it back to their American counterparts. About 25,000 Native Americans also enlisted in the armed service. This included 800 women. Their great willingness to serve led to The Saturday Evening Post to comment, "We would not need the Selective Service if all volunteered like Indians."

4. Manufacturers
Early February of 1942 automobile production was shutdown for private use and instead the nation's plants had been reopened to produce tanks, planes, boats, and command cars. This quickly resulted in the conversion of factories into those for war production. Examples include the conversion of a maker of mechanical pencils to one for bomb parts, a bedspread manufacturer to mosquito netting, and a soft-drink company into a company that filled shells with explosives instead of on that filled bottles with liquid. Expansion of shipyards and defense plants rapidly increased. An industrialist by the name of Henry J. Kaiser built seven enormous shipyards, which produced cargo carriers, tankers, troop transports, and baby aircraft carriers at an astonishing rate.

Laborers were equally as important, for they made up these manufacturing companies. Despite the draft nearly 18 million workers were laboring in war industries. This was 3 times as many as in 1941. More than 6 million of these new workers were women. At first, war industries were hesitant to hire women because they believed they lacked the necessary stamina for factory work but after women proved themselves, employers could not hire enough of them, especially since women made only about 60 percent as much as men who did the same jobs. Defense plants also hired more than 2 million minority workers during the war. Like women they faced strong prejudice in the beginning. Before the war began, 75 percent of defense contractors simply refused to hire hire African Americans while the other 15 percent employed them in only menial jobs.

5. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)
The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was created by Roosevelt to bring scientists into the war effort. The OSRD improved radar and sonar, encouraged the use of pesticides to fight insects, and pushed the development of "miracle drugs" such as penicillin. As a result of these technologies for detecting submarines underwater improved, U.S. soldiers were probably the first in history to be relatively free from body lice, and the "miracle drugs" saved countless lives on and off the battlefield. Although these were not even close to the most significant achievement. The most significant achievement of the OSRD was the development of the atomic bomb. After Albert Einstein warned Roosevelt of the Germans being able to successfully split uranium atoms, Roosevelt created the Advisory Committee on Uranium to study the discovery. The code name for the project to build the atomic bomb became known as the Manhattan Project.

6. Entertainment industry
After Pearl Harbor, Hollywood began making war-orientated films, which obviously contained a out of propaganda. Heroic movies glorified America's new wartime ally, the U.S.S.R. They also made films, which stirred up hatred against the Nazis. This helped to energize people to join the war effort. There was a downfall to these propaganda and war themed movies as the war continued on. Many people grew tired of them. Hollywood responded by creating musicals, romances, and other escapist fares to take film goers away from the grim realities of war, even if it was only for an hour or two.

7. Office of Price Administration (OPA)
With war production increasing and fewer consumer products becoming available for purchase, there was and increasing demand for a limited amount of supplies. It only seemed logical that the prices would likely shoot upwards. Roosevelt responded to this threat by creating the Office of Price Administration (OPA). The OPA fought against inflation by freezing prices on most goods. Congress went on to raise income tax rates and extended the tax to millions of people who had never paid it before. These higher taxes reduced consumer demand on limited goods by leaving workers with less to spend. On top of this the government encouraged Americans to spend their extra money on war bonds. this resulted in inflation reaming below 30 percent.

8. War Production Board (WPB)
The War Production Board (WPB) assumed the responsibility of providing the armed forces and war industries with resources needed to win the war. The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and divided up raw materials to key industries. In addition the WPB also organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and even cooking fat for recycling into war goods.

9. Rationing
The OPA also set up a system of establishing fixed allotments of goods deemed essential for the military, or better known as rationing. Under this system households received ration books with coupons to be used for buying these scarce goods (meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, and gasoline). Gas rationing was especially hard on those who lived in western regions because driving was the only way to get around in this area. Eleanor Roosevelt sympathized with their complaints. Most people accepted rationing as their contribution to the war effort. Some workers carpooled or rode their bicycles. Families coped with shortages of almost everything. As usual there were those who hoarded scarce goods or purchased them through the "black market" where rationed goods could be bought illegally without a coupon at inflated prices.