Henderson 1
Nathanial Henderson
Ms. Caldmeyer
Survey in U.S. History 2
6 March 2017
Douglas Airport
The Douglas municipal Airport that was founded in 1938 and became a World
War II base showed that life in America during this time was full of war preparation and
the roles of woman changed after the start of the Second World War. After the bombing
of Pearl Harbor the Unites States was scrambling to get ready for war. From rationing
food to selling metal, Americans were all in to support the United States in War against
the Japanese. While Men were sent of to war, woman’s had to drastically change their
roles from a housewife to business worker.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on the Hawaiian
military base in Pearl Labor. This attack destroyed the whole naval base including 164
aircraft and 18 warships. This attack killed over 2400 Americans including serviceman.
The day after this attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt made this statement in his Pearl
Harbor speech “no matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated
invasion, the American people in the righteous might will win through absolute victory.”
(Roosevelt, 2017) After this attack, America went into full panic mode. America was not
prepared for war and became scare creating propaganda about the Nazis. A prime
example can be found in Walt Disney’s 1943 cartoon Der Fuehrer’s face. This
propaganda film portrays Donald Duck as this big bad American presence in the war. The
point of the film was to make Americans want to pay taxes to help support the war effort.
Henderson 2
The writers of the film wanted to make the people watching the film relate and make the
problem of the war actually seem real. The film ended with Donald Duck killing the
character representing Hitler with a tomato. This was created to make Americans commit
to the war and give them hope that they can defeat the big character, like Hitler.
Americans commitment became a big role in the World War. Americans had to start
rationing portions of their food to outlast the war. There was a campaign named “Food
For Victory” and this campaign made people want to eat leftovers in order to save food.
(America goes to war, n.d.) Not only did Americans join in on this Food for Victory
campaign they also joined on several others campaigns including some to make
Americans save house fat in order for the Military to use glycerin for explosives and
substitutes used for metal including a steel penny in order for the Military to use the
