The American Home Front and the Buildup to World War II: Plan for The Worst, Hope for the Best

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This article is part of the series, The American Home Front and World War II. It explores life on the home front by looking at the things people invented, created, and used and the ways that everyday life changed. They include the effects of war mobilization and of conflict and incarceration on the home front, especially as it relates to civilians.

“Let’s Stay OUT of Europe’s War and Make AMERICA Safe for Democracy.” Flyer for an America First rally at Municipal Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri, April 4, 1941.

Wikimedia.

America Tries to Stay Out of World War II

The American government and the American people were aware of the conflicts brewing in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 1930s. Still hurting from the losses of World War I and in the grip of the Great Depression, there was little congressional or public interest in getting involved. In fact, there were efforts to keep America out of the conflict.

Between 1935 and 1939, Congress passed a series of neutrality laws. These included banning US companies from selling arms to countries who had declared war on each other (“belligerent nations”). Until 1939, these laws kept American factories from investing in large-scale manufacture of implements of war for export. Manufacturers were afraid that, at any moment, the law would cut them off from their buyers. And so, they chose not to tie up their money in product or retooling their production lines. [1]

With Congress repeatedly refusing to fund any preparations for war, FDR used New Deal programs to build up military readiness.[2] Researchers have identified over 6,000 military projects done by the Works Progress Administration, the Public Works Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. They built armories, airfields, target and bombing ranges, as well as hundreds of military ships and airplanes. [3]

In the 1930s, Japan left the League of Nations. They invaded China (but did not officially declare war) and began expanding their military presence in the Pacific. [4] Because they were not technically at war, Japan was able to buy supplies and materials from the US throughout the 1930s. In particular, they bought a lot of high quality scrap iron and oil. By 1940, 80% of Japan’s fuel supply was coming from America. [5] Japan built airfields, ports, and fortifications across the Pacific. [6] This concerned the United States, who saw it as a threat to American political, business, and civilian interests in the region, as well to US allies China and Australia. [7]

The American government responded by looking to increase US presence in the Pacific. But they had to be careful not to violate (or appear to violate) the League of Nations restrictions on military expansion. The government wanted to be cautious also, that they didn’t aggravate the Japanese or worry the American public. The perfect cover? Civilian settlement via the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project and commercial expansion through Pan American Airways’ ambitions for trans-Pacific service. Both of these programs were still active when the US entered World War II. [8]

Four colonists – Joseph Kim, Charles Ahia, Bak Sung Kim, and Edward Young – wave to the ship that dropped them off at Jarvis Island. Photo, January 19, 1937.

Collection of the National Archives and Records Administration (Record Group 80, Series CF).

American Expansion in the Pacific

The American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project and the establishment of Pan American Airways facilities across the Pacific were, on the surface, both civilian projects. Behind the scenes, the US military facilitated the programs as a way to build up American presence in the Pacific. All the civilian improvements, like landing fields and radio facilities, could be (and were) transferred to military use during the war.

American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project

The US government established this secret project in 1935. The purpose was to solidify US claims on the islands. And to have the civilian colonists build weather stations, landing fields, and other strategic resources. The colonists were not told of these military ambitions. As far as they knew, they were there to record events, wildlife, and weather and to collect specimens for Hawai’i’s Bishop Museum. [9]

Over 130 colonists, now known as Hui Panalāʻau (“society of colonists” or “club of settlers of the southern islands”) took part. They were mostly native Hawaiian men between 19 and 24 years old, recruited with the promise of adventure and $3 per day (almost $67 in 2023 dollars). Little information is available on average wages for Hawaiians at this time, but evidence indicates a high rate of unemployment on the islands. [10] The US Coast Guard dropped off five to seven Hui Panalāʻau at a time on Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands. The Coast Guard left enough water and supplies to last six weeks to several months. When the ship returned, it would bring new supplies and new colonists. The first response of the colonists on their arrival was of dismay:

The Pan Am Hotel on Midway, 1930s. Pan Am used similar “woody” style cars at all of their Pacific hotels.

Courtesy Pan Am Historical Foundation / paa.org.

Once you get there, you wish you never got there. You know, you’re on this island just all by yourself and it’s, you know, nothing there at all. Just birds, birds, millions and millions of birds. And you just don’t know what to do with yourself, you know. It takes you a while to adjust to that, but once you adjust to it, it’s fine. -- Elvin Mattson, colonist

Initially housed in tents, the government later provided permanent structures including housing, administrative buildings, fences, and water and food storage. [11]

In 1940, the colonists began sending reports back to the mainland of nearby Japanese ships. In June of 1941, with military tensions in the Pacific rising, US Naval officials recommended evacuating the islands. Superiors denied the request, and colonists were on-island when the Japanese attacked just a few months later. Two of them were killed.[12]

Pan American Airways

American civilians also lived and worked on several Pacific islands in support of trans-Pacific flight. Advances in airplane technology in the 1920s and 1930s made commercial air flight possible – for people, mail, and cargo. [13] In the 1930s, Pan American Airways (Pan Am) established a fleet of flying boats that they called Clippers. Able to land on water, these planes did not require runways and could refuel in shipping ports. [14]

Pan Am’s transpacific route hopscotched from Alameda (later San Francisco) to China by way of islands belonging to the United States.

Popular Mechanics 1935 Issue 4, p. 485.

With airplane technology able to handle long Pacific distances, Pan Am (in coordination with the US government) began building the infrastructure for a trans-Pacific service. They built facilities – small towns, really – at Wake Island, Midway Atoll, and Guam where the Clippers could re-supply. And they leased and built out facilities in Hawai’i and the Philippines. [15] US ships blasted and dredged lagoons to make landing safe for the clippers. Pan Am installed radio navigation systems, and built employee housing, power plants, hangars, and desalination plants to produce fresh water. They also planted gardens to produce food.

The first trans-Pacific airmail flight was in November of 1935. Less than a year later, in October 1936, the first passengers crossed the Pacific. Passenger and mail service ran on regular routes connecting California, the Philippines, and later Hong Kong until World War II started. [16] Pan Am transferred their operations to the US military immediately after Pearl Harbor. By that time, the Pacific clippers had carried 350,000 passengers, 750,000 pounds of mail, and logged 2.4 million miles. [17]


FDR and the US government worked hard to remain neutral and stay out of direct involvement in the conflicts in Europe and across the Pacific. Despite their best efforts, however, events unfolded that pulled the United States into a World War on three fronts: Europe, the Pacific, and at home.

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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.

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Notes

[1] Kennedy 1999: 386-395, 431. While FDR agreed that the US should stay out of the conflict, he did not like that the Neutrality Acts applied equally to all belligerents, and would limit his ability to support American allies (US Department of State Office of the Historian n.d. The Neutrality Acts, 1930s). The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited Americans from exporting arms, ammunition, and implements of war to belligerents. It became in effect as soon as governments declared formal hostilities, and applied to all sides. In 1936, Congress renewed the Act, with the addition that Americans could not extend any credit to belligerent nations. The Neutrality Act of 1937 forbade American citizens from traveling on ships belonging to belligerent nations, and prohibited American ships from transporting passengers or cargo to belligerents, even if the cargo was manufactured elsewhere. The 1937 law gave the President the authority to, at his discretion, allow belligerent nations to buy non-military goods from the US, provided they paid immediately in cash, and provided their own transportation (“cash-and-carry”). The Neutrality Act of 1939, passed in November, lifted the arms embargo, and made all trade with warring nations “cash-and-carry.”

[2] da Cruz 2018; Goodfellow et al. 2009: 31, Appendix B, Appendix C; Thompson 2016 WPA. Examples include renovation and repair of the Springfield Armory, Springfield, Massachusetts and cleaning and improvements to the Paterson Armory, Paterson, New Jersey (Kalish 2015; McKee 2014). Springfield, Massachusetts and Paterson, New Jersey are American WWII Heritage Cities. Springfield Armory was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 and designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960. It became part of the NPS on October 26, 1974 as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.

[3] da Cruz 2018; Goodfellow et al. 2009: 31, Appendix B, Appendix C; Paige 1985; Thompson 2016 WPA.

[4] Even though these islands were technically under their administration while Japan was a member of the League of Nations, they treated them as part of the Japanese Empire, and continued to do so after they left the League.

[5] Hotta 2007:3-4; Kennedy 1999: 403, 505. Although the US was sympathetic to China, Japan had more money, and was therefore a much larger customer for American goods and supplies.

[6] Asia for Educators n.d.

[7] Williams 1933:428.

[8] Horner 2013: 55-56, 64-65.

[9] Congress.gov 2011; Grover 2002; Hirsh n.d. The Bishop Museum in Honolulu was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 26, 1982.

[10] Congress.gov 2011; Mack 2017: 135; Schmitt 1976: 94; Young 2013.

[11] Horner 2013: 58, 61, 66; Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex 2007: 3-16; Young 2013. Several oral histories with Hui Panalāʻau members are available online via the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

[12] Congress.gov 2011; Grover 2002; Mack 2017: 137. The US recalled the Hawaiian colonists in October 1940, after negotiating a reciprocal deal with the Pan Am station manager (Horner 2013: 72).

[13] Airplanes made their WWI wartime debut close to the end of hostilities: “The soldiers rode in on horseback and flew out on airplanes” (Myre 2017). The planes of the time were still very basic, built of wood and canvas. After the war, aircraft and engines improved, and an airline industry developed carrying passengers, mail, and cargo. The infrastructure to support air flight also developed, including long distance radio, aircraft carriers, airfields, and airports (Ryan 2020).

[14] Pan Am gave up domestic flights in order to secure exclusive rights to international routes (National Air and Space Museum ca. 2015b). See Lyons (2020) for a three-part documentary.

[15] Dodson 2018: 44-45; Popular Mechanics 1935. The US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Pearl City Peninsula has been documented by 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 Pan Am Hotel at the Naval Station in Guam was listed on the Guam National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1974. It has not been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The ruins of the Pan Am facilities on Wake Island are included in the National Historic Landmarks nomination for the United States Minor Islands: Wake Island, September 16, 1985.

[16] Dodson 2018: 45, 51, 54-55; National Air and Space Museum ca. 2015a; Thompson 1986: 8-2.

[17] Horner 2013: 57; Nolte 2010.
 

Sources Cited

Asia for Educators (n.d.) “Japan’s Quest for Power and World War II in Asia.” Asia for Educators.
 
Congress.gov (2011) “Text - H.Res.388 - 112th Congress (2011-2012): Acknowledging the contributions and sacrifices of the young men who served as colonists on behalf of the United States in the Federal occupation of the islands of Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Canton, and Enderbury from 1935 through 1942, facilitating the United States claim of jurisdiction over such islands.” Congress.gov, September 6, 2011. 

da Cruz, Frank (2018) “New Deal National Defense Projects in New York City 1933-1943.” New York City New Deal, December 7, 2018. 

Dodson, Jamie (2018) “Paving the Way: The Voyages of the SS North Haven.” In Teresa Webber and Jamie Dodson (eds.) Hunting the Wind: Pan American World Airways’ Epic Flying Boat Era, 1929-1946, pp. 42-55. Schiffer, Atglen, PA.

Goodfellow, Susan, Marjorie Nowick, Chad Blackwell, Dan Hart, Kathryn Plimpton (2009) “Nationwide Context, Inventory, and Heritage Assessment of Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps Resources on Department of Defense Installations.” Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program, Project Number 07-357, July 2009.

Grover, Gretchen G. (2002) “The Coast Guard’s Pacific Colonizers.” Naval History Magazine 16(4). 

Hirsh, Heidi (n.d.) “The Hui Panalā’au Story of the Equatorial Pacific Islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis: 1935-1942.” Discovering the Deep: Exploring Remote Pacific Marine Protected Areas, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Horner, Dave (2013) The Earhart Enigma: Retracing Amelia’s Last Flight. Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna.

Hotta, Eri (2007) Pan-Asianism and Japan’s War 1931-1945. Palgrave MacMillan, New York.

Kalish, Evan (2015) “Paterson Armory (Former) Improvements – Paterson NJ.” The Living New Deal, January 10, 2015.

Kennedy, David M. (1999) Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. Oxford University Press, New York.

Lyons, Stephen (dir.) (2020) Across the Pacific: The Incredible Story of Pan American Airways (documentary), Moreno/Lyons Productions in association with The Pan Am Historical Foundation. 

Mack, Doug (2017) The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches From the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA. WW Norton, New York.

McKee, Brent (2014) “Springfield Armory National Historic Site – Springfield MA.” The Living New Deal, October 29, 2014.

Myre, Greg (2017) “From Wristwatches to Radio, How World War I Ushered In The Modern World.” Weekend Edition Sunday, National Public Radio, April 2, 2017. 

National Air and Space Museum (ca. 2015a) “Pan Am Clippers: Pan Am Spans the Pacific.” Hawai’i by Air, National Air and Space Museum. 
--- (ca. 2015b) “Pan American Airways & International Commercial Aviation.” National Air and Space Museum. 

Nolte, Carl (2010) “China Clipper’s Flight Made History 75 Years Ago.” San Francisco Chronicle, November 22, 2010.

Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex (2007) “Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge Draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan and Environmental Assessment.” US Fish and Wildlife Service, August 2007. Archived.

Paige, John C. (1985) The Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service, 1933-1942: An Administrative History. National Park Service, Washington, DC. 

Popular Mechanics (1935) "Trans-Pacific Airlines to Touch at Islands". Popular Mechanics. 63(4): 485.

Ryan, Mick (2020) “Radio, Airplanes, and World Wars: Next Steps for the Profession of Arms.” Modern War Institute at West Point, December 15, 2020. 

Schmitt, Robert C. (1976) “Unemployment Rates in Hawaii During the 1930s.” Hawaiian Journal of History 10: 90-101. 

Thompson, Erwin N. (1986) “National Historic Landmark Nomination: World War II-Era Military Facilities, Midway Islands.” June 24, 1986. 

Thompson, Lisa (2016) “Works Progress Administration (WPA) (1935).” The Living New Deal, November 18, 2016. 

United States Department of State (n.d.) “The Neutrality Acts, 1930s.” Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations, Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State. 

Williams, E.T. (1933) “Japan’s Mandate in the Pacific.” The American Journal of International Law 27(3): 428-439. 

Young, Peter T. (2013) “Hui Panalāʻau.” Images of Old Hawai’i, March 30, 2013. 
 

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Full Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The American Home Front Before World War II

2A The Greater United States
2B World War I, The Great Depression, and The New Deal 

3. The American Home Front and the Buildup to World War II

3A Plan for the Worst, Hope for the Best

3A(1) Pan American Airways on the Home Front in the Pacific

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

4B Enemies on the Home Front

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

More From This Series

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  Home Front Buildup to World War II

  Pan American Airways on the Home Front

  Pan American pioneered the transpacific air route, extending the American home front westward across the Pacific.

• 

  Home Front Buildup to World War II

  The Draft and the Arsenal of Democracy

  World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939. In the US, the government implemented a peacetime draft and expanded manufacturing.

• 

  The Home Front During World War II

  A Date That Will Live in Infamy

  On December 7, 1941 Japan executed a coordinated, multi-pronged attack on the US home front.