Rear Support — World War II US Propaganda Posters

In addition to the many work closely related to the progress of the war we mentioned before, the United States domestic security work also needs to be properly handled by the Roosevelt administration: once the German and Japanese armed forces launched an attack on U.S. soil, it will certainly create a lot of panic among the people, and will have a very negative impact on the production work of the rear.

Roosevelt signed Presidential Directive 8757 on May 20, 1941, ordering the formation of the U.S. Civil Defense Agency under the Office of Emergency Planning and the full integration of all militias in the United States. The U.S. Civil Defense Agency had nine regional command centers throughout the United States and maintained a cooperative relationship with the U.S. Department of the Army from the beginning to the end. In order to expand the organization, the Civil Defense Agency then established the Office of Volunteers and the Militia Prevention Corps to receive and recruit the general public.

In addition, on December 1, 1941, the National Air Patrol was established to mobilize domestic civilian air resources for coastal surveillance and patrol. On June 21, 1942, two 30-kilogram incendiary bombs were dropped on Brookings Grove, Oregon, causing a mountain fire, and on September 29, Nobuo Fujita repeated his tactics by dropping two incendiary bombs on the area around Port Orford. In addition to the Japanese, who made their move, the Germans also made air raids on North America an important part of their strategic plan.

The August 1942 Chicago Civil Defense Administration Civil Defense Brochure includes information on air defense and evacuation. In fact, in 1942, fires and electrical power failures caused by negligence in major factories in the United States also caused great economic losses to the United States, so the Civil Defense Administration intensified its propaganda efforts to require public institutions such as factories, institutions and companies in the country to do a good job in preventing the use of electricity, fire and working at heights.

Of course, we should also mention here a little bit about another aspect of the Civil Defense Agency’s work, which is to assist the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture in their firefighting efforts. As early as February 1942, the Forest Service established the Comprehensive Forest Fire Prevention Plan, which required every member of the public to take an active part in preventing fires. Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture issued an order at almost the same time, requiring agricultural workers to be aware of the possibility of wildfires in agricultural areas while working. These initiatives were not very effective, and the problem of forest fires became more pronounced in late 1944 when the Japanese began using balloon bombs in large numbers. In that year, the Forestry Service officially launched their campaign with the slogan “Only you can stop wildfires”.

In addition to the Civil Defense Administration, the American Red Cross, the Victory Farm Corps, the American Agricultural Corps, and the Women’s Labor Corps are also large domestic civic groups in the United States.