Last updated: November 16, 2023
Article
The American Home Front During World War II: Enemies on the Home Front
Enemy Attacks
Once the US formally entered the war, Germany sent U-boats into American waters. They targeted merchant cargo vessels up and down the East Coast and in the Caribbean. Their goal was to cut Europe off from American supplies, and to cut American industry off from needed materials. Within eight months, the Germans had sunk hundreds of merchant ships and disrupted the transportation of millions of tons of raw materials, fuel, and supplies. Afraid of losing vessels, the US stopped shipping food, supplies, and fuel to Puerto Rico. The US also stopped importing Puerto Rican products like rum. This hobbled the economy of the island. Afraid of losing tourist business, several coastal cities on the US mainland chose not to enforce blackout orders. The result: U-boat crews had no problem seeing and sinking cargo vessels silhouetted against the city lights. [3] They sank several ships close enough to shore that beachgoers were witnesses. In 1942, when the US began protecting cargo ships with military convoys, attacks by U-boats virtually stopped.In the Pacific, Japanese forces repeatedly attacked (and in some cases occupied) the Greater American home front. Planes and submarines reached as far west as the Philippines and attacked Fort Stevens in Oregon and the Ellwood oil field in Goleta near Santa Barbara, California. Dutch Harbor in Alaska was bombed, and Japanese forces invaded the Alaskan islands of Attu and Kiska. The Japanese also targeted forests in Oregon. The goal was to cause panic, destroy needed lumber, and divert labor from production to fire fighting. Attacks on Hawai’i continued into March 1942, including a second attack on Pearl Harbor. Civilian targets included areas on Maui, Kaua’i, and the Big Island. [4] Elsewhere in the Pacific, Japanese vessels destroyed the settlements on Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands in 1941. Two of the colonists (part of the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project) were killed during the attack on Howland Island.[5] When Japan attacked the Naval station on American Samoa in January of 1942, several shells hit residential homes and businesses. [6]
And then there were the balloons. Late in the war, from November 1944 to April 1945 Japan launched over 9,000 balloons called Fu-Go. They carried anti-personnel and fire bombs into the recently-discovered Pacific jet stream. Their goal was to reach North America and cause damage. [9] About 300 of the balloons made the trip into the Greater United States, reaching as far east as Michigan. This was the first intercontinental weapon in modern times. Fu-Go balloons resulted in forest fires and temporarily cut power to the Manhattan Project. One also caused the death of six Americans in Oregon when they found it during a picnic outing. [10]
Covert Operatives
Germany, Japan, Russia, and Britain all had spies working across the Greater United States leading up to and during World War II. An expanded network of spies in Latin America included those for Spain, who, though technically neutral, sided with Germany.[11]German U-boats brought at least 10 German operatives to America. In June 1942, submarines landed four spies each on beaches in New York and Florida. Armed with money and explosives, their job was to sabotage military production and cause fear. In 1944, U-boats landed two spies on a beach in Maine. The operatives had made their way to New York City and Chicago to carry out their plans by the time the FBI captured them. Some occupants of German U-Boats captured or killed were also probably spies on their way to being deployed. [12]
Not all German spies arrived by submarine. Many had been living and working in the United States for years and several were naturalized citizens. Some were working aboard the SS America as it traversed the Panama Canal Zone, collecting information and recruiting accomplices. The FBI broke up at least four German spy rings between 1938 and 1942, arresting and charging 51 spies (men and women). Some were recruited to work for the US as double agents.[13]
Not all those spying for Japan were of Japanese ancestry. Authorities charged at least 18 white people and convicted at least 10 of them. While no person of Japanese ancestry living in the US was convicted of any serious act of espionage or sabotage during World War II, 18 white people were convicted as Japanese operatives. Among those 10 was Velvalee Dickinson. By coding ship and troop movements as repairs to dolls in a series of letters, she conveyed critical information to the Japanese and contacts in Argentina.[14]
British intelligence operatives, unlike the others, were here with the grudging blessing of the US government. They also worked behind the government’s back to encourage the US to enter the war. Through the British intelligence outpost in New York City, Winston Churchill worked to convince the United States to enter the war. At the same time, FBI agents were receiving training in espionage and counter-espionage from the British.[18]
Attacks on the Greater United States home front and the presence of German, Japanese, and Russian spies led to reactions fueled by fear and national security.
This article was written by Megan E. Springate, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, for the NPS Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.
[2] To be designated a V-Home (a program of the Office of Civilian Defense) certain criteria needed to be met. Homes that observed blackouts, did not have excess flammables, had protective equipment and a “refuge room” earned the right to display a V-Home sticker. They were also encouraged to buy war bonds, participate in material drives, and not spread rumors.
[3] Domenech Abreu 2021; Gannon 1990: 186, 345; Kennedy 1999: 566.
[4] Barnett 2020/2021; Graff 2021; Young 2019. The Japanese targeted Battery Russell, part of Fort Stevens. There was little damage to the Fort as most shells hit a nearby baseball field. Fort Stevens was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 22, 1971. Heightened nerves after the Japanese attacks in California led to what is now known as “the Battle of Los Angeles.” What was likely a weather balloon triggered a flood of anti-aircraft fire from Los Angeles and elsewhere. Shells damaged buildings and cars in LA, and five people died in car crashes or from heart attacks. The Pacific Rim Peace Memorial dedicated to those at Fort Stevens and those aboard the Japanese submarine was installed near Battery Russell in 1992. It reads, in part: “Near this place on the night of June 21, 1942, they faced each other when the Japanese submarine shelled Fort Stevens, making it the first foreign attack on a continental military installation since the War of 1812. May peace between our nations be everlasting.”
[5] Congress.gov 2011; Hirsh n.d.; Horner 2013: 73-75; Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge 2007: 3-16 to 3-17. The two colonists killed by Japanese attacks were Joseph Keliʻihananui and Richard "Dickey" Whaley. The US military finally picked up the surviving colonists in February 1942. They also destroyed any remaining buildings and facilities to keep them from being taken by the enemy.
[6] National Park Service 2020.
[7] In Manila, destruction included 70% of the utilities; 75% of the factories; 100% of the business district, and 80% of the residential district (Tharoor 2015).
[8] Palomo and Aguon 2023; Tharoor 2015.
[9] Rizzo 2013.
[10] Mikesh 1973: 69-78. The Mitchell Recreation Area, including a memorial to the six killed by the exploding Fu-Go, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 20, 2003.
[11] Spyscape n.d.
[12] Commander Eastern Sea Frontier 1942, 1944; Cox, S. 2017; Federal Bureau of Investigation n.d. d; German Navy 1942; Holzwarth 2019; Kellert 2012; Rouse 1982. A Coast Guardsman from the Amagansett U.S. Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station on Long Island (listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 27, 2018) reported the arriving German spies. One of the spies, George Dasch, traveled to DC to turn himself in and identify the other spies. While in DC he stayed at the Mayflower Hotel (listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 14, 1983). The FBI arrested one of the other spies while he was staying at the Sheridan Plaza Hotel in Chicago (listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 21, 1980). After a secret trial at the Department of Justice building in DC (part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site), President Roosevelt sentenced six of the eight to death and the other two to long prison terms. The executions took place at the DC jail. A memorial to them, placed by the National Socialist White People’s Party (formerly known as the American Nazi Party), was found in the Blue Plains area of DC. Officials removed it in 2010 (Cox, J. 2017).
Targets of the landed spies included Hell Gate Bridge in New York City; the power grid at Niagara Falls; the railroad infrastructure at Altoona, PA; and unspecified locks along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
Targets Represented in the Historic American Engineering Record
- Hell Gate Bridge, New York City
- Pennsylvania Railroad, Altoona Works, Altoona, Pennsylvania
- Mississippi River locks:
- Lock and Dam No. 1 (Ford Dam), Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
- Lock and Dam No. 4, near Alma, Wisconsin
- Lock and Dam No. 5, near Minnesota City, Minnesota
- Lock and Dam No. 5A, near Fountain City, Wisconsin
- Lock and Dam No. 6, near Trempealeau, Wisconsin
- Lock and Dam No. 7, near La Crescent, Minnesota
- Lock and Dam No. 8, near Genoa, Wisconsin
- Lock and Dam No. 9, near Lynxville, Wisconsin
- Lock and Dam No. 10, Guttenberg, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 11, Dubuque, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 12, Bellevue, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 13, near Fulton, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 14, near LeClaire, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 15, Rock Island, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 16, near Muscatine, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 17, near New Boston, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 18, near Gladstone, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 19, near Keokuk, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 20, near Canton, Missouri
- Lock and Dam No. 21, near Quincy, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 22, near Saverton, Missouri
- Lock and Dam No. 24, near Clarksville, Missouri (see also Lock & Dam Nos. 24-27 HAER)
- Lock and Dam No. 25, near Winfield, Missouri (see also Lock & Dam Nos. 24-27 HAER)
- Lock and Dam No. 26 (demolished 1990), near Alton, Illinois
- Chain of Rocks Locks and Dam (Lock and Dam No. 27), near St. Louis, Missouri (see also Lock & Dam Nos. 24-27 HAER)
- Melvin Price Locks and Dam, near Alton, Illinois
- Ohio River Locks
- Emsworth Locks and Dams, Emsworth, Pennsylvania (see also Emsworth Locks and Dams at Ohio River Mile Markers 6.2 and 6.81 and Emsworth Locks and Dams, Back Channel Dam)
- Gallipolis Locks & Dam, Gallipolis, West Virginia
- Ohio River Lock and Dam 52, Brookport, Illinois
- Ohio River Lock and Dam 53 (demolished in 2020), Olmsted, Illinois
- Ohio Slack Water Dams, Lock & Dam No. 4, Ambridge, Pennsylvania
- Mississippi River locks:
Targets Represented in the National Register of Historic Places
- Niagara Falls power grid: The headquarters of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., who operated the power grid for much of the northeast, including the generating facilities at Niagara Falls, was located in Syracuse, NY (listed June 14, 2010)
- Mississippi River locks (unless noted, all listed as part of the Multiple Property Nomination “Upper Mississippi River 9-Food Navigation Project, 1931-1948,” March 10, 2004):
- Lock and Dam No. 11 Historic District, Dubuque, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 12 Historic District, Bellevue, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 13 Historic District, Fulton, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 14 Historic District, near LeClaire, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 15 Historic District, Rock Island, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 16 Historic District, near Muscatine, Iowa
- Lock and Dam No. 17 Historic District, near New Boston, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 18 Historic District, near Gladstone, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 19 Historic District, near Keokuk, Iowa (see also an individual listing for Keokuk Lock and Dam, October 19, 1978)
- Lock and Dam No. 20 Historic District, near Canton, Missouri
- Lock and Dam No. 21 Historic District, near Quincy, Illinois
- Lock and Dam No. 22 Historic District, near Saverton, Missouri
- Lock and Dam No. 24 Historic District, near Clarksville, Missouri
- Lock and Dam No. 25 Historic District, near Winfield, Missouri
- St. Anthony Falls Historic District, Minneapolis, Minnesota (listed March 11, 1971)
[13] These were the Duquesne Spy Ring, the Ludwig Spy Ring (also known as the Joe K. Spy Ring), the Rumrich Spy Ring, and the Vonsiatsky Spy Ring. Two members of the Duquesne Spy Ring posed as crew on the SS America in the Panama Canal Zone. Rene Froehlich, part of the Ludwig Spy Ring, was a US Army private stationed at Fort Jay on Governors Island, New York. After capture, Kurt Ludwig (leader of the Ludwig Spy Ring) was eventually imprisoned at Alcatraz as prisoner no. 596. You can view his entry in the warden’s notebook via the FBI. Bernews 2011; Federal Bureau of Investigation 2014, n.d. b; n.d c, n.d. e, n.d. g, n.d. i; Hastedt 2011: 481; Kellert 2012; Panama Canal Museum 2018. The Wading River Radio Station (Benson House) on Long Island, New York was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 4, 2018. It was the location where double agent ND-98 and the FBI transmitted counterintelligence to America’s enemies. Fort Jay was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 27, 1974. Alcatraz was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 23, 1976 and designated a National Historic Landmark on January 17, 1986. Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Alcatraz is managed by the NPS.
[14] Cal 2018; Densho 2013; Federal Bureau of Investigation n.d. f, n.d. h; Loureiro 1989; National Park Service 2023; Time 1940; Zimmer 2017. Both Farnsworth and Thompson became Japanese agents after the Navy discharged them for poor behavior – drinking, recklessness, and in the case of Thompson, homosexuality (Zimmer 2017). The US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor is documented in the Historic American Building Survey. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 29, 1964 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. The Federal Reformatory for Women in Alderson, West Virginia where Velvalee Dickinson was imprisoned is documented in the Historic American Building Survey.
[15] In the days before the agreement, talks about an alliance between Britain, France, and Russia had failed. Roberts 2006: 30-32.
[16] Sudoplatov and Sudoplatov 1994: 217.
[17] Associated Press 1995; Carr 2016: 136; Cowell 1999; Ding 2018; FBI n.d. a; Hagedorn 2021: 67-69; Rhodes 1996: 190; Roberts 2003; Sudoplatov and Sudoplatov 1994: 217; Udsin 2005. Some of the places that Russian operatives were working during World War II include:
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico (listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 and designated a National Historic Landmark on December 21, 1965. Los Alamos is part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Los Alamos County is an American World War II Heritage City);
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (The X-10 Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 and designated a National Historic Landmark on December 21, 1965. Much of Oak Ridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Multiple Property Submission and an Historic District. Oak Ridge is an American World War II Heritage City and part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park);
- Army Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey (documented in the Historic American Engineering Record);
- Arlington Hall Station, Arlington, Virginia (documented in the Historic American Buildings Survey);
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge (the MIT Technology Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987);
- Pupin Physics Laboratory at Columbia University in New York City (listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 and designated a National Historic Landmark on December 21, 1965);
- and were even present for the Trinity Test at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico in July 1945 (listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 and designated a National Historic Landmark on December 21, 1965).
[18] Boyd 2006; FBI 2016; Gage 2022; Ignatius 1989. Prior to World War II, the FBI had predominantly been focused on “crime, delinquency, and vice.” The offices of the BSC (British Security Coordination) took up three floors of the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The FBI was also operating out of the Rockefeller Center under cover as the Importers and Exporters Service Company in Room 4332. Rockefeller Center was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 23, 1987.
[19] You can view the full collection of materials about FuGo balloons in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum Archives. It includes Japanese propaganda, newspaper clippings, photos of Japanese women sewing the balloons, a Japanese launch site, balloons recovered in the US, and more.
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--- (1944) “War Diary, November 1944, Chapter II: Nazi Agents Land at Hancock, Maine.” War Diary 11/1/44 to 12/31/44, pp. 8-9. Collection of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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--- (2014) “Operation Bodyguard: FBI Recognizes WWII Counterintelligence Landmark in New York.” FBI News, June 9, 2014.
--- (n.d. a) “Famous Cases & Criminals: Atom Spy Case/Rosenbergs.” FBI History.
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--- (n.d. i) “Famous Cases & Criminals: Vonsiatsky Espionage.” FBI History.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The American Home Front Before World War II
3. The American Home Front and the Buildup to World War II
3B The Selective Service Act and the Arsenal of Democracy
4. The American Home Front During World War II
4A A Date That Will Live in Infamy
4A(i) Maria Ylagan Orosa
4C Incarceration and Martial Law
4D Rationing, Recycling, and Victory Gardens
4D(i) Restrictions and Rationing on the World War II Home Front
4D(ii) Food Rationing on the World War II Home Front
4D(ii)(a) Nutrition on the Home Front in World War II
4D(ii)(b) Coffee Rationing on the World War II Home Front
4D(ii)(c) Meat Rationing on the World War II Home Front
4D(ii)(d) Sugar: The First and Last Food Rationed on the World War II Home Front
4D(iii) Rationing of Non-Food Items on the World War II Home Front
4D(iv) Home Front Illicit Trade and Black Markets in World War II
4D(v) Material Drives on the World War II Home Front
4D(v)(a) Uncle Sam Needs to Borrow Your… Dog?
4D(vi) Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front
4D(vi)(a) Canning and Food Preservation on the World War II Home Front
4E The Economy
4E(i) Currency on the World War II Home Front
4E(ii) The Servel Company in World War II & the History of Refrigeration
5. The American Home Front After World War II
5A The End of the War and Its Legacies
5A(i) Post World War II Food
-
The Home Front During World War IIA Date That Will Live in Infamy
On December 7, 1941 Japan executed a coordinated, multi-pronged attack on the US home front.
-
The Home Front During World War IIIncarceration and Martial Law
The US government incarcerated many Americans and others in camps and prisons across the country. Martial law was declared in Hawaii.
-
The Home Front During World War IIIllicit Trade and Black Markets
Despite rationing and other limits on goods during the war, some people figured out how to profit and get what they wanted outside the law.
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