American Women in World War II - HISTORY

It was all hands on deck as Americans pitched into a second World War effort after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

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After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt committed American forces to the Allied cause in World War II.

Seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, American and Japanese forces clashed over Midway Atoll, a dot of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Battle of Midway tested intelligence and combat capabilities on both sides – while decidedly altering the outcome of World War II.

With the United States now entered into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt uses the occasion of Washington’s birthday to broadcast to the nation on February 23, 1942, an outline of America’s progress in the war.

In his speech delivered July 23, 1942, Secretary of State Cordell Hull explains the aims of the United States in World War II.

In a radio interview on March 6, 1944, a Swedish industrialist on a fact-gathering mission to the United States describes the effects of war rationing in neutral Sweden.

To ensure that there is enough food available to reach U.S. soldiers fighting abroad, the United States enacted a canned goods rationing program in 1942. Paul M. O'Leary of the Office of Price Administration carries on a "conversation" with a housewife and grocer in a December 12 radio broadcast.