WWII Drafts
In World War II, all men between ages 21 to 45 (many websites gave different ages) were all entered into the United States military draft. Men that had physical disabilities, men who were still in school, men who worked in important war industries, and lastly men whose primary role was supporting their children. The government had put out propaganda to influence people to join the army, a famous piece including the Uncle Sam poster.
The draft was growing in favor of the public. National polls showed that more people favored the draft. But not everybody was in favor of the draft. Before World War II, the United States already had done drafts for both the Civil War and World War I. One of the most destructive draft riots occurred in New York, Jul 11, 1863 – Jul 16, 1863, and also killing 120 people. This riot began because the working class was not interested in fighting the Civil War and decided that they should start a riot to show their frustration.
The war that was happening in Europe frightened the government in the United States so they began to assemble a military. This led the way to the draft that would occur for World War II.
50 million men had been entered the draft and 10 million had served by the time the war effort had ended. In order to register for the draft, every male citizen was required to join the Selective Services system one month before their 18th birthday. Every man was required to do this but some men evaded joining the draft by either not signing up for selective services or fleeing the country. There was a 20% chance of being drafted if you had signed up with the selective services.
After entering the military, soldiers served one year of service. An acronym was created by soldiers, “OHIO”, standing for Over the Hill in October. October would mark the end to their 12-month service in the military and was the time that would allow soldiers to return to their families. This acronym commonly found written on the walls of barracks.
Sources:
https://www.historynet.com/how-were-soldiers-drafted-in-ww2.htm
https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/conscription
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/draft-and-wwii
It is interesting to learn that most people were actually in support of the draft. It is also insane that such a high percentage of people were drafted for the war effort. The WW2 drafts were actually America's first peacetime draft, but the concept of conscription was nothing new to the world, dating as far back to Mesopotamia. The Hammurabi Code, for example, gave legal provisions so that the elite could use laborers who owed them for military service, and similar arrangement took place in Feudal Europe during the Middle ages. The first official draft took place during the French Revolution. The US had also experienced a draft during the civil war, which also resulted in draft riots similar to those during WW2. Ironically, the deadliest draft riot during the civil war era was also in New York.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/conscription https://www.historynet.com/how-were-soldiers-drafted-in-ww2.htm
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/draft-and-wwii
It is interesting that this draft was conducted on such a large scale. 50 million men made up over a third of the US's 1945 population (140 million). Compared to World War I, the draft in WWII gathered much more support. In WWI, only 73,000 men volunteered, in part due to the strong notions of isolationism and neutrality present. The Selective Service Act of 1917 was enacted to randomly draft people for the war, similar to the draft of WWII that was mentioned. The act required all men between 21 and 30 years old to register for military service, which was a much smaller pool of the population. 24 million men registered in the Selective Service Act. Both drafts were successful and necessary to succeed in both wars, but World War II's was much larger.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-congress-passes-selective-service-act
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/capsules-world-war-i