ResolvedThe Americas
Expanding and Contracting Rights for Populations During World War II
Japanese, German and Italian Americans saw their rights and opportunities contract during the war, while women as well as African and Native Americans saw their rights and opportunities expand.

An interesting phenomenon that took place during World War II was how certain segments of the population in the United States saw their rights and opportunities contract while others saw them expand. Specifically, Japanese, German and Italian Americans saw their rights and opportunities contract during the war, while women as well as African and Native Americans saw their rights and opportunities expand.
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, racism toward Japanese Americans soared in the United States. Fear of the Japanese combined with fact that — unlike many Chinese Americans at the time — Japanese Americans tended not to live close to each other. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order that let the military designate areas from which persons could be excluded.
Japanese Americans were excluded from the entire west coast of the United States, and more than 100,000 of them from this area were forcibly interned in what could be called concentration camps. There they stayed for the duration of the war even though more than 60 percent of them were U.S. citizens.
Many German and Italian Americans also found themselves interned during World War II, through the authority given by the Alien and Sedition Acts. But their numbers were about a tenth the size of Japanese internments, despite the fact that their populations were considerably larger. Also, most of those interned were not U.S. citizens. However, like Japanese Americans, many German and Italian Americans were subject to discrimination and harassment during the war.
Women, though, found their roles greatly expanded during World War II. Because most able-bodied men were fighting in the war, there was a great shortage of workers, especially those needed to manufacture vital equipment needed in the war. Prior to this, these types of jobs were only done by men.
During the course of the war, more than 6 million women entered the workforce, and nearly half of these women worked in manufacturing. While many of these women returned to homemaking after the war, due to a continued shortage of workers many others remained. The wars years also saw a large increase in women becoming nurses, and many of these became military officers, which was not common prior to the war.
African Americans also saw their roles expanded during World War II. Many African American men served in the armed forces, which was still segregated at the time but still gave African Americans opportunities they did not have outside it. Many African Americans who did not serve in the military moved from the agricultural South to the industrialized North and West, where, like women, they found employment that was unavailable to them before.
Still, African Americans, like Hispanic Americans, were often victims of racism during the war period. There were numerous race riots against both populations during the war. In response to this, many African Americans became involved in what was called a Double V campaign, which represented the fact that they were striving toward two victories: one against fascism outside America, and the other against racism inside it. This campaign formed the foundation of the civil rights movement that would change America in the years after the war.
Native Americans saw increased opportunities because of World War II as well. Prior to the war, most Native Americans found themselves effectively restricted to the reservations they had been placed during the previous century. But, because of the war, tens of thousands of them served in the military alongside white Americans. Most famous of these were the Navajo Code Talkers, who performed a critical role by using their language to communicate secret code.