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The Comic Book Industry: Tweleve Years Old in 1945 (Yank Magazine, 1945)
1945, Home Front, Yank Magazine

The Comic Book Industry: Tweleve Years Old in 1945
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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This is an article about the 1940s comic book industry and the roll it played during W.W. II.


The writer doesn’t spell it out for us, but by-and-by it dawned on us that among all the various firsts the World War Two generation had claim to, they were also the first generation to read comic books. Although this article concentrates on the wartime exploits of such forties comic book characters as Plastic Man and Blackhawk, it should be remembered that the primary American comic book heroes that we remember today were no slackers during the course of the war; Superman smashed the Siegfried Line prior to arresting Hitler as he luxuriated in his mountain retreat; Batman selflessly labored in the fields of counterintelligence while Captain America signed-up as a buck private.


Click here to read an article about the predecessor to the American comic book: the Dime Novel.

If you would like to read a W.W. II story concerning 1940s comic strips and the failed plot to assassinate General Eisenhower, click here.

Absolute, Total Morons on the Home Front (Collier's Magazine, 1943)
1943, Collier's Magazine, Home Front

Absolute, Total Morons on the Home Front
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

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If you’re one of those types who tend to feel that Americans aren’t as smart as they used to be, this is the article for you: attached is a collection of quotes generated by eight home front dullards who were asked the question:

Do you know what you are fighting?

They all understood that their nation had just finished it’s second year fighting something called Fascism but were hard-pressed to put a thoughtful definition to the term:

A Kansas cattle raiser defined Fascism as ‘…the belief in a big industrial enterprise. Anyone who thinks that way is Fascist-minded.

Additionally, it is fun to see the pictures of all the assorted noobs who made such ridiculous statements.

1942, Home Front, Rob Wagner's Script Magazine

Art on the Home Front
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1942)

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The United States had only been committed to the Second World War for twenty weeks when the American artist Rockwell Kent (1882 – 1971) felt compelled to write about the unique roll artist are called upon to play within a democracy at war:

The art of a democracy must be, like democracy itself, of and by and for the people. It must and will reflect the public mood and public interest…Awareness of America, of its infinitely varied beauties and of its sometimes sordid ugliness; awareness of the life of America, of its fulfillments and its failures; awareness, if you like, of God, the landscape architect supreme – and political failure: of the promise of America and of its problems, art has been, or has aimed to be, a revelation. It is for the right to solve these problems our way that we are now at war.

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Here Comes Denim (Collier's Magazine, 1942)
1942, Collier's Magazine, Home Front, Recent Articles

Here Comes Denim
(Collier’s Magazine, 1942)

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Nine months into the war the American fashion industry awoke to discover that one of the most sought after cottons being purchased domestically was denim.


Denim was first seen in 1853, worn by the men who panned for gold in California. When faced with hard labor, this sturdy twill had proven its worth again and again, and when the American home front recognized that there was a great deal of work to be done in the fields and factories if the war was to be won, they slipped on jeans and denim coveralls and saw the job through.


Who on Sixth Avenue could have known back then that denim would be the main-stay in American sportswear for decades to come?


A far more thorough history of blue jeans can be read here.

American Civil Defense Volunteers 1942 | WW II Air Raid Wardens in American Neighborhoods | Click Magazine Article s1942
1942, Click Magazine, Home Front

Air-Raid Wardens on the Home Front
(ClicK Magazine, 1942)

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The Congressional Declaration of War was a mere five months old when this photo-essay appeared that documented the earliest days of the American Civil Defense efforts during the Second World War. At this point in the war, the Marines were still three months away from landing on Guadalcanal and the Army wouldn’t be arriving in North Africa for another six months – but the neighborhood volunteers of the Civil Defense seemed to be prepared.

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American Public Reaction to Pear Harbor Attack
1941, Home Front, St. Louis Star-Times

‘Man on the Street Solidly Approves of War Declaration”
(St. Louis Star-Times, 1941)

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This report appeared in the evening edition of the St. Louis Star-Times on December 8, 1941 and it serves as an eyewitness account as to how the St. Louisans reacted both during and after listening to the President’s declaration of war broadcast before Congress:

In downtown restaurants and taverns, people paused to listen to the dramatic broadcast from Washington. Work was at a standstill for those minutes in many office buildings and stores. Pedestrians crowded around newsboys to obtain the latest ‘extras’ and along the streets groups could be seen collected about radio-equipped automobiles.

WW II Sugar Rationing | Sugar Rations on the WW2 Home Front | WW2 Individual Sugar Allowances
1943, Home Front, Pathfinder Magazine

Sugar Rationing Hits The Candy Industry
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1943)

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The candy-makers of the nation are not having a such a sweet time of it, for, like most other manufacturers, they are bothered by scarcities of labor and materials and so must cut corners and find substitutes.


The article goes on to point out that the sugar that was available was largely devoted to military personnel (18 pounds a year); as a result of this candy rationing, movie-goers were introduced to popcorn as a substitute (you can read about that here).

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WW2 Fabric Rationing | WW II War Production Board Magazine Article
1945, Home Front, Yank Magazine

World War II Fabric Rationing in the United States
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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This illustrated article appeared in Yank Magazine during March of 1945 and explained fully what fabric rationing was and how the American home front fashion consumer was affected:

The absence of cuffs and vests aside, pre-war styles in men’s clothing are still obtainable. A man can get plaids, stripes, herringbones and all sorts of weaves in brown, blue, gray and all the various pastel shades. …Women generally have had to make great changes in their dressing habits. In the first place the shortage of rubber has raised hell with the girdle, or foundation garment..


Click here to read more about fashion on the W.W. II home front…


Read a 1940s fashion article about fabric restrictions and the War Production Board.

The Most Dreaded Telegram on the Home Front (Coronet Magazine, 1944)
1944, Coronet Magazine, Home Front

The Most Dreaded Telegram on the Home Front
(Coronet Magazine, 1944)

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By the time this historic piece was written, thousands upon thousands of Western Union casualty telegrams had been delivered to altogether too many American households. This article lucidly explains how they should be delivered and how they shouldn’t be delivered. Recognizing the solemnity of the task, the men who passed the news along were often older men, who had tasted some of life’s bitterness:


One mother, receiving the news that her son was dead, crushed the paper in her hand and looking beyond the messenger, said, ‘If it hadn’t been my son, it would have been some other mother’s’.

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WW II Postal Censorship In America | USPS Censors During WW II | Colonel W Preston Corderman Mail Censor
1942, Home Front, The American Magazine

He Censored The Mail
(American Magazine, 1942)

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During the Second Word War all mail headed out of the country and all inbound mail from foreign locales fell under the discerning eyes of U.S. Post Office censors. The censors, all 15,000 of them, were under the command a U.S. Army cryptologist named Colonel W. Preston Corderman; click the title link above to learn more about him.


Click here to read about censoring the mail during W.W. I.

World War 1939 - 1945 Posters | Sheldon - Claire Company WW2 Posters | WW2 Poster Campaign
1942, Home Front, Newsweek

Posters For Encouragement
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

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There were many varieties of posters to be found on the American home front of W.W. II – most depicting sweaty barrel-chested young men. Yet in the factories another type was prevalent, these were the ones that showed the non-heroic faces of the average American worker. Below these images would be found simple quotes declaring their unique patriotic reasons for laboring on the production lines. This article recalls who dreamed them up and how popular they were.

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Adultery During WW2 II | Promiscuity in WW2 | Infidelity During World War II | Illinois Attorney General William J Tuohy
1945, Home Front, Newsweek

Adultery on the Home Front
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

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The overlords of the Illinois justice system became so fed-up with the growing divorce rate in their state as a result of wives who stepped-out while their husbands were fighting overseas, and they decided to do something about it. The Illinois Attorney General proposed a plan:


Penalties for conviction range from $500 fine or a year in jail or both for the first offense to $3,000 fine or three years in jail or both for a third conviction.

Economic Benefits of World War II | Low Unemployment During WW2 |
1943, Home Front, The United States News

Results of the Economic Boom On The Home Front
(United States News, 1943)

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After suffering eleven years of the squalor brought on by the Great Depression, many Americans were in shock to find their pockets fully lined with cash and their days spent in gainful employment when W.W. II came along (in 1943, the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 1.9%). The bars and restaurants that were situated around defense plants found that for the first time in years they were fully booked with paying customers. This article points out that this new economic boom on the home front was not without complications: absenteeism. As more factory workers discovered the joy of compensated labor, the more frequent they would skip work – which was seen as a nuisance for an industrial nation at war.

Many workers, not just youngsters, are making more money than they ever made before in their lives.

Fair Employment Laws Enforced on the WW2 Home Front | President's Committee on Fair Employment Practices Meets in NYC 1942
1942, Home Front, PM Tabloid

Fair Employment Laws Enforced
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

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Some six months prior to Pearl Harbor FDR signed Executive Order 8802 which made it illegal for defense contractors to discriminate based on race or religious faith. Eight months later the President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practices was convened in New York City to review the evidence at hand indicating that numerous defense contractors were failing to comply with the law.

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