Our Mothers' War : American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II

by Emily Yellin

• ISBN13: 9780743245142
• ISBN10: 0743245148
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-05-04
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

"Our women are serving actively in many ways in this war, and they are doing a grand job on both the fighting front and the home front."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt, 1944

Our Mothers' War is a stunning and unpreceden

Author Biography

Emily Yellin is a longtime contributor to The New York Times. Her work has also appeared in Newsweek and other publications. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Prologue: For Carol Lynn: Unearthing Our Mothers' War Years	p. ix
To Bring Him Home Safely: Wives, Mothers, and Sisters of Servicemen	p. 3
Soldiers Without Guns: Female Defense Industry Workers	p. 37
Putting Up a Good Front: Female Entertainers, Fictional Characters, and Icons	p. 73
This Man's Army: WACs	p. 109
On Duty at Home: WAVES, SPARs, Marines, and WASPs	p. 135
Save His Life and Find Your Own: Volunteers, Land Army, Red Cross Girls, and Nurses	p. 165
Jane Crow: African-American Women	p. 199
Behind Enemy Lines: Spies, Propaganda Workers, and Those Who Worked for the Enemy	p. 225
A Question of Loyalty: Japanese-American Women	p. 253
Qualified Successes: Politicians, Journalists, Doctors, Baseball Players, and Other Professional Women	p. 279
The "Wrong Kind" of Woman: Prostitutes, Unwed Mothers, and Lesbians	p. 305
A War Within the War: Right-Wing, Anti-Semitic Mothers' Groups and Jewish-American Women	p. 329
Inside the Secret City: Wives and WACs in Los Alamos	p. 353
Epilogue: Their Legacy: Our Mothers' War Years Resounding Through Our Lives	p. 377
Notes	p. 385
Bibliography	p. 415
Acknowledgments	p. 429
Index	p. 434
Permission Credits	p. 448
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Chapter One: To Bring Him Home Safely Wives, Mothers, and Sisters of Servicemen Hail to the women of America! You have taken up your heritage from the brave women of the past. Just as did the women of other wars, you have taken your positions as soldiers on the Home Front....The efforts and accomplishments of women today are boundless!But whatever else you do -- you are, first and foremost, homemakers -- women with the welfare of your families deepest in your hearts....Never has there been such an opportunity, and a need, for what American women can contribute.So to you women behind the men, behind the guns, we offer this little book, with its daily helps for wartime mealplanning and cooking.And we salute you all!Betty Crocker, 19431 After Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, and the United States officially joined the war already in progress against Japan, Germany, and Italy, the warnings to young women started coming with a fury. From parents, from the clergy, on the radio, in newspapers and magazines, and even from boyfriends, they went something like this: Be wary of wartime romance. Hasty war marriages are recipes for heartache, for failure. Don't tie your fate to an uncertain future. There will be plenty of time for emotion after the war. Real love can wait.Apparently, not everyone listened. Because despite the naysaying, 1.8 million couples married in 1942, a huge increase from the year before. One bride of a young draftee described her reasons in the June 1942 Good Housekeeping. "He may come back a cripple....The separation will break you up....You can't tell how you'll change or how he'll change." Maybe. But I married my soldier anyway....The deciding factor was the realization that this topsy-turvy world might not right itself for years. Perhaps my reasoning is perverse. But it seems to me that the world's chaos and uncertainty are reasons for marriage, not for postponement. When the writer's boyfriend, Danny, got his draft card during Christmas vacation, he would not consider getting married. Like many men at the time, he didn't feel it was fair to her. But he changed his mind when the couple visited a friend, Irita, the wife of an Air Corps lieutenant. "If you love a man," Irita said, "you are involved in his destiny whether you are married or not. Everyone, in peace or war, runs a risk when he falls in love. A husband or wife may be killed crossing a street. If you want to protect yourself emotionally, the to do is not to fall in love at all." It was too late to stop that. The couple had already fallen in love. And Irita's words finally swayed Danny to consider marriage. As they discussed it in earnest, their concerns echoed those of most couples on the brink of war marriages. They talked about how Danny may come back wounded, or missing a leg or an arm. She assured him she would love him anyway. They talked, as best they could, about the possibility he might not come back at all. They agreed to delay children until after the war. And they decided she would finish college and then find a job to help build a financial foundation for their postwar life. A young wife working had not been the norm before the war, but as the writer said, "This was no time to bother with peacetime conventions about the husband's being the breadwinner."Finally, they set about convincing their parents. Warnings and concerns about the dangers of wartime marriages surfaced again. But after many talks and many tears, their parents warmed to the idea. As the writer said, "Danny and I are making the best of a difficult situation. In war, love is a luxury. It comes at a high price....This brand of marriage, I guess, takes steady nerves." They were married New Year's Day 1942. She was nineteen and he was twenty-two. They believed the sacrifices they were making were