BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Richmond -- Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front -- Visitor Center

CA -- Richmond -- Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front -- Visitor Center:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ROSIV1_140720_036.JPG: Protesting the Port Chicago mutiny trials -- Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco
2. ROSIV1_140720_044.JPG: Crew at North American Aviation in Los Angeles
3. ROSIV1_140720_047.JPG: A man working at the 24 inch lathe in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
4. ROSIV1_140720_071.JPG: Fore'n'Aft The Ocean Vanguard This picture was snapped at the launching of the first hull built in Richmond. Whether or not the photographer knew it, it is a great picture, not so much because it records an important achievement as because it shows what the men who built the ship thought of her and each other. We don't know the names of the two in the foreground but we know exactly what sort of men they were. They are the men that in every black hour America has gone through, have gone out and done what had to be done, and not said much about it. They came from all over the country, from every trade and craft. They came because they were needed. They, less than the things they do, are our pride. They make America.
5. ROSIV1_140720_087.JPG: The Port Chicago Disaster The Largest WWII Home Front Tragedy "We were cruising at 9,000 feet above sea level and there were pieces of metal... that went quite a ways above us. They were... as big as a house or garage." -- The copilot of an Army Air Force plane flying overhead "We was not trained to load ammunition.... they told us it would not explode cause it didn't have no detonator in it. We believed that." -- Seaman 2nd Class Albert Williams Supplying the War: During World War II, African American sailors served in segregated units. Most were assigned duties as cooks, loaders, or stewards. At Port Chicago, in Concord, CA, black sailors worked under unsafe conditions loading ammunition onto cargo ships. On July 17, 1944, the SS E.A. Bryan and the SS Quinault Victory were docked at Port Chicago. The cargo in the dock area totalled 5600 tons of ammunition. At 10:18pm there were two explosions that instantly killed 320 men and destroyed everything at the docks. Turning Point:L Three weeks later, 268 enlisted men were ordered to return to the loading dock. The men refused to march to the loading dock without proper training in munitions handling. "I was marching on the outside. I called cadence. And then the Lieutenant said, 'Column left!' And when he said 'Column left,' everybody stopped, because 'Column left' meant we were going to the docks. And the docks meant loading ammunition." -- Seaman 1st Class, Joseph R. Small Eventually, all but 50 men returned to work> The remaining 50 men were court-martialed and convicted of mutiny. Legacy: The explosion and mutiny trial exposed a need to prevent a similar tragedy. Formalized training and certification for anyone handling explosives became standard practice. Furthermore these events helped lead to the desegregation of the Navy in 1946. "I didn't know anything about mutiny. I just knew that I didn't want to work under the same conditions and advance the change of the same thing happening again." -- Seaman 1st Class, Joseph R. Small
6. ROSIV1_140720_093.JPG: Port Chicago Disaster The explosion sent debris flying and shattered windows over 20 miles away
7. ROSIV1_140720_096.JPG: After the Port Chicago explosion, 268 men refused to return to duty
8. ROSIV1_140720_099.JPG: Survivors of the explosion recalled that officers often placed bets to see which crew could load ammunition the fastest.
9. ROSIV1_140720_102.JPG: These were the bathrooms in the visitor center
10. ROSIV1_140720_109.JPG: Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park "I specifically didn't do anything... great, but I participated in something that was great." -- Marian Sousa, Draftsman, Richmond Shipyard #3
11. ROSIV1_140720_121.JPG: Who was Rosie? Even during World War II, the term "Rosie the Riveter" served as shorthand for the women workers flooding the industrial workplace. The first Rosie popped up in a popular tune released in early 1943. As the song put it, "She's a part of the assembly line. / She's making history, / Working for victory, / Rosie the Riveter." Artist Norman Rockwell was undoubtedly aware of the song when he painted the May 29, 1943, cover of the Saturday Evening Post. His subject is a young riveter on break, with her lunchbox clearly marked "Rosie." The one-two punch of the song and magazine cover made Rosie a lasting icon.
12. ROSIV1_140720_127.JPG: In the 1940s, aircraft manufacturing was relatively new, especially compared with the ancient art of shipbuilding. Many historians believe that such newness made the aircraft industry less prone to prejudice and more willing to employ women. Norman Rockwell's Rosie holds a rivet gun typically used in shipbuilding.
13. ROSIV1_140720_130.JPG: Songwriters Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb wrote "Rosie the Riveter" for the Paramount Music Corporation in 1942. Many musicians would soon record it. One of the most popular versions was by the Four Vagabonds, an African American group from St. Louis.
14. ROSIV1_140720_133.JPG: Created in 1942 as a poster for Westinghouse by J. Howard Miller, "We Can Do It!" graced company walls for a few weeks and was then forgotten. Rediscovered in the 1970s, it quickly became a symbol of female empowerment as well as a reminder of wartime America's shared sense of unity and purpose.
15. ROSIV1_140720_142.JPG: "... there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color or national origin." -- Executive Order 8802
16. ROSIV1_140720_145.JPG: Try your hand at riveting
17. ROSIV1_140720_152.JPG: Who Was Rosie? As the war progressed, companies found that they needed to "enlist" new kinds of worker. Many of the men who had made up the pre-war workforce were now in the military, and the scale of war production created many new jobs. Over time, the defense industries employed women, people of color, older people, and those with disabilities. Achieving such diversity was not without challenges and pitfalls. Many businesses were slow to overcome long-standing prejudices. In fact, President Roosevelt only signed Executive Order 8802 -- the Fair Employment Act of 1941 -- after A. Philip Randolph and other African American leaders threatened a protest march. Throughout the war, African Americans, women, and others continued to endure discriminatory treatment, and they were the first to be laid off when the war ended.
18. ROSIV1_140720_155.JPG: Who Was Rosie? As the war progressed, companies found that they needed to "enlist" new kinds of worker. Many of the men who had made up the pre-war workforce were now in the military, and the scale of war production created many new jobs. Over time, the defense industries employed women, people of color, older people, and those with disabilities. Achieving such diversity was not without challenges and pitfalls. Many businesses were slow to overcome long-standing prejudices. In fact, President Roosevelt only signed Executive Order 8802 -- the Fair Employment Act of 1941 -- after A. Philip Randolph and other African American leaders threatened a protest march. Throughout the war, African Americans, women, and others continued to endure discriminatory treatment, and they were the first to be laid off when the war ended.
19. ROSIV1_140720_158.JPG: Women's Work: Prior to 1940, women had few employment choices. Working-class women and women of color were segregated into poorly paid, low-status jobs such as domestic service, textile manufacturing, and agriculture. Middle and upper-class women may have had access to "pink collar" professions like teaching, nursing or clerical work, but could never hope to achieve managerial status. Wives and mothers were expected to stay at home. According to a 1936 public poll, 82 percent of Americans believed that a wife should not work if her husband had a job.
20. ROSIV1_140720_164.JPG: Our Collection: In addition to the historic sites around the City of Richmond, Rosie the Riviter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park is the repository for a rich collection of home front artifacts from across the country. These drawers contain just a few examples. Visit the National Park Service website to see even more of our objects, photographs, and documents. We are always interested in adding to our collection. Do you or someone you know remember what life was like during World War II? Everyone has a story to tell!
21. ROSIV1_140720_171.JPG: For the Duration: During the war, the number of women in the paid labor force surged by 50 percent, growing from 12 million in 1941 to 18 million in the peak production year of 1944. Some became welders, machinists, electricians, carpenters, or mechanics, jobs considered "men's work" before the war. Others worked in the rail yards, at gas stations, on farms, and in the military. Still others found clerical positions in offices. Most of the new jobs available to women were entry level, low paying, and repetitive, such as assembly-line production. Rural women and women of color were often restricted to dangerous jobs like ammunition production. Even though women were proving they could do these jobs as well as men, it was generally considered that these jobs would be available to women only "for the duration" of the war.
22. ROSIV1_140720_174.JPG: "Hitler was the one who got us out of the white folks' kitchen." -- Fanny Christina Hill
23. ROSIV1_140720_176.JPG: The Threat: The rise of fascism in Germany and Italy during the 1920s and 1930s created political and territorial conflict in Europe. Seemingly unstoppable, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Western Europe, and the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941. Across the globe, Japan's desire for control in Asia and the Pacific led to war with China in 1937. At the end of 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and European possessions in the Pacific, and the United States was plunged into the middle of a global crisis. With exposure along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, America felt vulnerable after Pearl Harbor. Would Japan organize an attack on the West Coast? Would German U-boats sink more ships along the East Coast? Anything seemed possible.
24. ROSIV1_140720_179.JPG: Wartime Cooperation: Ramping up for war on opposite sides of the globe would be challenging at any time. The fact that the U.S. had paid little attention to its military since World War I made the task exceptionally daunting. It took extraordinary cooperation between the federal government, big business, labor unions, and the American people to make U.S. industry productive enough to win a war. By 1945, the U.S. was able to account for more than half of the world's industrial production.
25. ROSIV1_140720_182.JPG: World War II was expensive. The American people footed much of the bill. Taxes for the rich rose above 90 percent, and, for the first time, taxes were deducted from every paycheck. Most famously, more than 85 million U.S. citizens purchased war bonds, small-scale loans to the government. Over the course of the war, the national debt rose to its highest level in U.S. history.
26. ROSIV1_140720_185.JPG: Keep Buying War Bonds: World War II was expensive. The American people footed much of the bill. Taxes for the rich rose about 90 percent, and, for the first time, taxes were deducted from every paycheck. Most famously, more than 85 million U.S. citizens purchased war bonds, small-scale loans to the government. Over the course of the war, the national debt rose to its highest level in the U.S. history.
27. ROSIV1_140720_187.JPG: Together We Win Get behind your labor-management committee
28. ROSIV1_140720_190.JPG: The government took an unprecedented level of control over the nation's wartime economy. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration created new agencies like the War Production Board, the Office of Price Administration, and the National War Labor Board. Here, Roosevelt comments James Merrill, a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemist, for an idea that improved bulletproof fuel tanks.
29. ROSIV1_140720_195.JPG: The Nation Mobilizes: The U.S. government began preparing for war as early as 1940 in response to growing conflict in Europe and Asia. Initial efforts included expanding the military, exploring ways to increase industrial production, and lending equipment to our allies in their fight against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Momentum accelerated significantly when the U.S. entered the war in late 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt put it bluntly: "Powerful enemies must be out-fought and out-produced." More than 16 million men and women joined the armed forces, and another 24 million contributed to an unprecedented nationwide effort to manufacture the vehicles, tools, weaponry, and supplies necessary to win a war.
30. ROSIV1_140720_198.JPG: The Nation Mobilizes: The U.S. government began preparing for war as early as 1940 in response to growing conflict in Europe and Asia. Initial efforts included expanding the military, exploring ways to increase industrial production, and lending equipment to our allies in their fight against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Momentum accelerated significantly when the U.S. entered the war in late 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt put it bluntly: "Powerful enemies must be out-fought and out-produced." More than 16 million men and women joined the armed forces, and another 24 million contributed to an unprecedented nationwide effort to manufacture the vehicles, tools, weaponry, and supplies necessary to win a war.
31. ROSIV1_140720_201.JPG: War Hysteria: In the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many U.S. leaders regarded people of Japanese ancestry -- including Japanese American citizens -- with fear, anger, and suspicion. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in early 1952, giving the government the power to exclude people from any area designated as "military." Japanese Americans across the West Coast were forced from their homes and businesses and incarcerated in bleak "relocation centers." The government ultimately imprisoned a total of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. In 1988, the U.S. government issued a formal apology for the event, calling it "the result of race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."
32. ROSIV1_140720_205.JPG: Help Wanted: In 1942, the U.S government estimated that, between the battlefront and home front, the war demanded the efforts of nearly half of all Americans. At the time, the nation's population was about 134 million. The surge in jobs was a great boon following the Great Depression. Between 1939 and 1945, unemployment fell from over 17 percent to 1.2 percent.
33. ROSIV1_140720_208.JPG: More than one million farm workers left the fields to serve in the military or to take higher-paying jobs at defense plants. To alleviate the shortage, the U.S. negotiated with the Mexican government to create the Bracero Program, which employed hundreds of thousands of Mexican nationals as short-term laborers in industry and agriculture. "Bracero" became synonymous with "laborer."
34. ROSIV1_140720_211.JPG: Most of the first wave of women war workers had jobs already. Later in the war, the War Manpower Commission targeted women who had never worked outside the home, using magazine articles and advertisements to promote war jobs.
35. ROSIV1_140720_214.JPG: New York, New York. A crowd of newly hired Kaiser workers prepares to migrate west to the shipyards of Portland, Oregon. Job opportunities across the country lured Americans from their homes. By the end of the war, 15 million Americans had migrated and eight million had moved permanently to another state. The West Coast received an especially large influx of newcomers.
36. ROSIV1_140720_220.JPG: Democracy for All? Even as the U.S. government urged its citizens to unite in a common cause, prejudice and discrimination remained an everyday reality. African Americans and other people of color chafed at this double standard. As poet Langston Hughes put it, "How long I got to fight / BOTH HITLER -- AND JIM CROW?" As African Americans intensified their call for equality, whites pushed back. Violent confrontations erupted in cities across the U.S., peaking in 1943. That year, rumors that jobs would go to black workers led thousands of white naval shipyard employees to burn down African American neighborhoods in Beaumont, Texas. In 1943, Detroit, New York City, and Los Angeles also experienced large-scale riots.
37. ROSIV1_140720_223.JPG: Democracy at Home -- Abroad: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1942, Pittsburgh Courier, the nation's most widely circulated African American newspaper, launched what it called the "Double V" campaign. Through pins, songs, banners, and other items carrying the logo seen here, this awareness-raising effort effort hoped to achieve victory over both fascism abroad and racism at home.
38. ROSIV1_140720_226.JPG: Detroit, Michigan. Jobs and housing were the hottest flashpoints for racial conflicts. In 1942, a crowd of jeering whites prohibited African American families from moving into a federally funded Detroit housing project. In a bitter irony, the housing complex bore the name of Sojourner Truth, a 19th-century African American activist and former slave.
39. ROSIV1_140720_231.JPG: Los Angeles, California. For five days in 1943, authorities looked the other way as white servicemen stripped and beat Mexican American teenagers dressed in flashy "zoot suits." Te public showed little symphony, believing zoot suits were a waste of fabric during a time of rationing. Wearing zoot suits became a misdemeanor.
40. ROSIV1_140720_235.JPG: America Calling
41. ROSIV1_140720_239.JPG: I gave a man! Will you give at least 10% of your pay in War Bonds?
42. ROSIV1_140720_241.JPG: Salvage Victory Through your scrap into the fight!
43. ROSIV1_140720_243.JPG: Victory waits on your fingers -- Keep 'em Flying, Miss U.S.A. Uncle Sam needs stenographers! Get Civil Service information at your local post office U.S. Civil Service Commission, Washington, DC
44. ROSIV1_140720_248.JPG: If you tell where he's going ... He may never get there!
45. ROSIV1_140720_250.JPG: Promoting the Cause: All of the warring nations relied on propaganda, the spreading of selective facts and loaded messages to promote a cause. The U.S. was no exception. Federal agencies like The Office of War Information (OWI) found that the simple poster was a cheap, flexible, and effective propaganda tool. Using bold colors, dramatic images, and pithy wording, the posters made it very clear who the country's enemies were, reminded Americans of the sacrifices made by enlisted men and women overseas, and detailed the numerous ways average citizens could contribute to the war effort. As one popular poster put it, "We can... We will... We must!"
46. ROSIV1_140720_253.JPG: San Augustine, Texas. War posters were everywhere: in front of post offices and city halls, on the sides of buildings, and in hotel lobbies, stores, restaurants, libraries, schools, and railroad stations like this one.
47. ROSIV1_140720_259.JPG: Raw Ingredients: The war devoured large quantities of raw materials, including petroleum, coal, nylon, steel, aluminum, and other metals. The government strictly controlled their use, telling civilians to conserve, recycle, or do without. The great demand for these materials led to increased use of plastics and development of new wood products.
48. ROSIV1_140720_264.JPG: Business Retooled: Existing industries stopped production of consumer goods and retooled their factories -- or built new ones -- to produce guns, vehicles, supplies, and equipment for the military. Even factories that did not retool, such as typewriter makers, had their entire production channeled to the war effort. The Ford Assembly Plant (next door) went from building cars to assembling jeeps and outfitting tanks.
49. ROSIV1_140720_267.JPG: Richmond, California. Auto manufacturing was the largest industry in the U.S. before the war, rolling out over three million cars in 1941. After Pearl Harbor, the government prohibited auto plants from making private cars in order to make military vehicles, guns, planes, boats, and specialized engines.
50. ROSIV1_140720_271.JPG: Crated Jeep (reproduction) Over the course of the war, the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant (next door) was a high-volume factory, producing nearly 50,000 jeeps for the military. Workers received parts by rail, assembled the jeeps, test-drove the finished vehicles, and then partly disassembled them so they could be packed in crates and shipped to army units around the world. The tough, all-terrain, multipurpose jeep proved to be invaluable to the war effort and was used by every branch of the U.S. military. Many historians think "jeep" derived from the military designation GP ("General Purpose"). Or soldiers may have likened the car to "Eugene the Jeep," a magical jungle pet owned by cartoon hero Popeye the Sailor Man. Whatever the source, the name stuck and remains in use today.
51. ROSIV1_140720_277.JPG: Building Ships for War: America's entry into World War II required shipping troops, machines, and materials across two oceans. It was critical to quickly build up both the U.S. naval and merchant fleets. Ship construction took place on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, and on the shores of the Great Lakes. The San Francisco Bay Area was the center of the West Coast effort, not only geographically but also in terms of its importance. At the war's height, there were 14 shipyards in the region, four of which were operated by the Kaiser Company.
52. ROSIV1_140720_280.JPG: "Problems are only opportunities in work clothes." -- Henry J. Kaiser Call Henry Kaiser: Construction began on Richmond's shipyards in January 1941, before the U.S. had even entered the war. Great Britain, already fighting Germany, had ordered 60 new cargo ships. Henry J. Kaiser teamed up with Todd Shipyards Corporation, an experienced shipbuilder, to tackle the huge project. As a businessman, Kaiser was willing to take unusual risks -- his company had no previous shipbuilding experience. He was skilled at brokering beneficial relationships. He allied himself with social reformers and was a favorite of New Deal planners. Once the shipyards were up and running, Kaiser partnered with Dr. Disney Garfield to offer his employees a groundbreaking employer-sponsored, affordable health care plan.
53. ROSIV1_140720_283.JPG: Call Henry Kaiser: Construction began on Richmond's shipyards in January 1941, before the U.S. had even entered the war. Great Britain, already fighting Germany, had ordered 60 new cargo ships. Henry J. Kaiser teamed up with Todd Shipyards Corporation, an experienced shipbuilder, to tackle the huge project. As a businessman, Kaiser was willing to take unusual risks -- his company had no previous shipbuilding experience. He was skilled at brokering beneficial relationships. He allied himself with social reformers and was a favorite of New Deal planners. Once the shipyards were up and running, Kaiser partnered with Dr. Disney Garfield to offer his employees a groundbreaking employer-sponsored, affordable health care plan.
54. ROSIV1_140720_285.JPG: Kaiser recognized trade unions at all his factories and mills, negotiated pioneering pension and health care plans for his employees, and boosted morale with company-sponsored recreational programs and on-the-job entertainment.
55. ROSIV1_140720_289.JPG: Henry J. Kaiser, a California transplant from New York, purchased a failing road paving company in 1913. He transformed the business into a construction powerhouse, and it became part of the Six Companies group that built the Boulder, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee dams. In this 1935 image, Kaiser poses triumphantly at the Boulder Dam, now known as Hoover Dam.
56. ROSIV1_140720_294.JPG: In return for his cooperation with New Deal politicians, Kaiser received lucrative war and public works contracts and benefitted from the federal government's desire to balance economic power between the eastern and western states. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (right) and Oregon governor Charles Sprague (left) toured Kaiser's shipyards in Portland. The company also operated shipyards in Vancouver, Washington.
57. ROSIV1_140720_304.JPG: The Richmond Shipyards: Between early 1941 and the end of 1942, Richmond's marshy waterfront was rapidly transformed into a complex shipbuilding operation. The four Kaiser shipyards built 747 vessels over the course of the war, and at their peak employed over 90,000 men and women.
58. ROSIV1_140720_307.JPG: The site was sparsely developed before being converted to shipyards as seen in this 1941 photo.
59. ROSIV1_140720_313.JPG: Don't be a Job Hopper Our soldiers are sticking to their guns Stick to your job!
60. ROSIV1_140720_317.JPG: Do Your Part! Contribute Creativity: New York ad agencies and Hollywood film studios lent their talent to the production of war propaganda. For example, Walt Disney personally created this poster, and Disney Studios made films for every branch of the U.S. military and government.
61. ROSIV1_140720_325.JPG: The Greatest Mother in the World War Fund 1943
62. ROSIV1_140720_328.JPG: War Fund 1943: Do your part! Help Others: Countless Americans volunteered time and money to aid troops serving overseas, as well as victims of war in Europe and Asia. Both local groups and national organizations like the Red Cross spearheaded such activities as making clothing and blankets for refugees and visiting wounded soldiers at nearby hospitals.
63. ROSIV1_140720_334.JPG: Factory Whistles are Bugles, Too Factory Savings are Bullets, Too
64. ROSIV1_140720_338.JPG: Richmond Pitches In: The Kaiser shipyards may have formed Richmond's biggest war-related business, but they were not its only one. Some existing local companies converted their operations to defense production. Others secured government contracts for products they already made.
65. ROSIV1_140720_349.JPG: Why Richmond?
66. ROSIV1_140720_352.JPG: Even before the U.S. officially entered the war, city leaders persuaded businessmen to choose Richmond as the location for a massive shipbuilding operation. The city offered four key benefits: it was the terminus for a major railroad line; it had a deep harbor; there was ample land available; and there were plenty of potential workers within the San Francisco Bay Area.
67. ROSIV1_140720_355.JPG: This San Francisco Bay regional map shows the extensive railroad network that supported shipbuilding industries during World War II.
68. ROSIV1_140720_358.JPG: (1) Deepwater Port: In 1929, local developers literally scooped away the bed of Richmond's harbor to create a deepwater channel. Large ships could navigate the revamped inner harbor with ease.
69. ROSIV1_140720_361.JPG: (2) Ready Workforce: Between Richmond and the nearby metropolitan areas of Oakland and San Francisco (shown here), there was a large pool of skilled workers.
70. ROSIV1_140720_364.JPG: (3) Railroad Terminus: Richmond had been the western terminus for Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, since the early 1900s. All the materials and parts necessary to build ships could be delivered to the yards.
71. ROSIV1_140720_367.JPG: (4) Available Land: On the eve of World War II, Richmond had plenty of cheap, undeveloped marshland. Some of this space was landfill created by the dredging of the harbor as seen in this 1939 aerial view.
72. ROSIV1_140720_379.JPG: On The Alert: Downtown Richmond was the nerve center for federal, state, and local agencies responsible for overseeing the local war effort. The U.S. Employment Service, on Nevin Avenue, ensured that workers were assigned to essential defense jobs. The local draft board oversaw military enlistment. Local civil defense organizations designated air raid shelters across the city, including the Elks Club, main library, Carquinez Hotel, and post office. Richmond had four air raid districts divided into precincts, with a captain for each.
73. ROSIV1_140720_381.JPG: On The Alert: Downtown Richmond was the nerve center for federal, state, and local agencies responsible for overseeing the local war effort. The U.S. Employment Service, on Nevin Avenue, ensured that workers were assigned to essential defense jobs. The local draft board oversaw military enlistment. Local civil defense organizations designated air raid shelters across the city, including the Elks Club, main library, Carquinez Hotel, and post office. Richmond had four air raid districts divided into precincts, with a captain for each.
74. ROSIV1_140720_383.JPG: Lucille Zeisenhenne (left), a U.S. Employment Commission employee, recalled that, "Everybody had to get a clearance from us... You could not work unless you had a War Manpower clearance to prove... that you were free to take that job."
75. ROSIV1_140720_385.JPG: In Richmond, as elsewhere in America, war news was all but impossible to avoid. Newsboys shouted out the day's headlines. Radio programs and newsreels provided war updates. Still, the government Office of War Information forbade the use of images considered too shocking for the general public.
76. ROSIV1_140720_388.JPG: This 1930 photo of the intersection of 11th and Macdonald features the Winters Building on the right. Named for its original owner, Adolph Winters, the building served as one of the city's air raid shelters.
77. ROSIV1_140720_394.JPG: Booming Business: Local businesses profited from the surge in population and jobs -- a welcome contrast to the hard times of the Great Depression. Shoppers thronged Richmond's streets, lining up at restaurants, dress shops, jewelry stores, barber and beauty shops, furniture stores, pharmacies, grocery stores, and banks. One local resident remembered a Macdonald Avenue shopkeeper saying, "Sometimes they were three to four deep at the counter. No salesmanship was needed. You just made change."
78. ROSIV1_140720_397.JPG: The wartime surge in jobs translated into more spending money. Between 1939 and 1945, Americans doubled what they spent on clothes, which generally were not rationed. Richmond's many clothing stores included at least two specializing in furs.
79. ROSIV1_140720_399.JPG: People may have had money, but they could not always buy what they wanted. The government rationed food, rubber, leather, and other goods used by the military.
80. ROSIV1_140720_401.JPG: On Saturday mornings, representatives from the Mechanics Bank met shipyard workers coming off their shifts and cashed their paychecks as a courtesy.
81. ROSIV1_140720_408.JPG: A Swinging City: Richmond offered a wide range of downtime distractions during the war years. There were pool halls, bars, theaters, dancehalls, and bowling alleys. Edith Schwartz, whose family owned Schwartz Ballroom at 260 10th Street, recalled that, "People of all walks of life enjoyed forgetting the war and their problems for a few hours of good time dancing." Not everyone was forgotten, however. Many venues including the USO Club at 10th and Virginia, remained segregated throughout the war.
82. ROSIV1_140720_412.JPG: Going to the movies was a favorite national pastime, with 85 million tickets sold each week. Richmond's two theaters grew into ten over the course of the war. Some theaters showed movies all day and all night.
83. ROSIV1_140720_415.JPG: Richmond rang with music during the 1940s. Downtown, the Moose Hall swung to Ray Wade and his Ozark Mountaineers. The Winters Building and local parks also regularly featured bands. The African American neighborhood of North Richmond hosted several blues clubs. Tappers Inn, located on Chesley Street, not only offered music and dancing, but also food and round-the-clock barber and beauty services.
84. ROSIV1_140720_417.JPG: Use it Up -- Wear It Out -- Make Do! Our labor and our goods are fighting
85. ROSIV1_140720_428.JPG: Housing Crunch: Like other World War II boomtowns, Richmond was not prepared to house the thousands of migrants who flooded the city seeking shipyard work. Locals hurriedly rented out any space that they could spare, including garages, barns, and even boats. Makeshift trailer parks sprang up overnight, while some newcomers slept in tents or even on the ground. One cheap alternative was the "hot bed," a mattress available for rent in three 8-hour shifts.
86. ROSIV1_140720_431.JPG: "Our friends back home write and ask us about jobs in the shipyards. We write back and tell 'em wages are high, but we wouldn't have come if we'd known we couldn't find houses to live in." -- Migrant family
87. ROSIV1_140720_434.JPG: A government team documenting living conditions in and around Richmond observed that, "This outmoded bus has become a home for a family of six. Two children have been sleeping in the luggage compartment."
88. ROSIV1_140720_437.JPG: Investigators studying Richmond's housing crisis identified this man as an "Okie." Migrants came from all over the United States, although a significant portion hailed form the southern states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
89. ROSIV1_140720_440.JPG: African American newcomers from the South found that the West Coast was no refuge from discrimination. Denied access to many housing options, a large number ended up in North Richmond, an unincorporated area previously settled by a few African Americans and immigrants from Japan, Italy, and other European countries. During the war years, North Richmond become a predominantly black community.
90. ROSIV1_140720_443.JPG: Young migrants show off their outdoor, thatched-roof bedroom, a temporary shelter while their parents build a "waterproof shack."
91. ROSIV1_140720_446.JPG: All-night movie theaters provided shelter for some exhausted workers. Tony Avalos, A Richmond native and shipyard worker, recalled that, "The Studio Theater, it was open all night, and people just got off work and went over there and slept."
92. ROSIV1_140720_449.JPG: "... Bounded by one side by the city dump, on another by the tide-water swamp... On a third side of this site is a particularly odorous hog farm... Never-the-less, the group of shacks provide(s) homes for four shipyard workers' families. 'Very temporarily,' they say.: -- Report on Richmond housing conditions
93. ROSIV1_140720_451.JPG: "When they started to build the shipyards, people were coming from all over. They had no place to stay. They were sleeping in a car, right on Macdonald Avenue." -- Sal Chavez, Richmond native, shipyard worker
94. ROSIV1_140720_459.JPG: Too Many Kids! Many migrants hoping for jobs in the shipyards arrived in Richmond with their whole families. School enrollment rose from 6,417 in 1940 to 21,000 in 1944. Retired teachers and newly hired ones were needed to staff school sessions being conducted in shifts. The community developed a host of after-school and weekend activities to prevent juvenile delinquency. The local YMCA and USO developed afternoon programs, while the Housing Authority and Richmond Recreation Department created activities for teens, like weekly dances, drama clubs, sewing classes, and charm school. Meanwhile, the Elks Club funded a new building for the Richmond Boys Club, which served 600 children from 7am to 10pm.
95. ROSIV1_140720_471.JPG: Government-directed pro-childcare campaigns included cartoons like this one. A 1944 study of San Francisco Bay Area workers showed that a woman's responsibilities at work and home made for a 17-hour shift.
96. ROSIV1_140720_476.JPG: Discriminatory social practices of the time limited participation by people of color in childcare programs. Parents relied instead on neighbors, family elder,s and other children.
97. ROSIV1_140720_481.JPG: Most facilities were conveniently located near schools, defense housing, and the shipyards. Arlene Corbin, a time checker at the shipyards, dropped off her two year old daughter at one center every morning after working the midnight to 7:30am shift. As Corbin caught up on sleep, the center kept her daughter "busy and happy."
98. ROSIV1_140720_484.JPG: Maritime Child Development Center -- COME VISIT! The Maritime and Pullman child development centers, founded during the war as childcare resources for shipyard workers, were pioneers in early education. Both centers are still in use, although the Pullman was later renamed the Ruth C. Powers Center. The park offers interpretive programs in the restored classroom in the Maritime Center.
99. ROSIV1_140720_490.JPG: A Child's Perspective: How did Richmond's children experience World War II? Newspaper headlines, newsreels, blackouts, and air raid drills were constant reminders of the war. Some children also had close family members serving overseas. Meanwhile, migrant children had to adjust to new neighborhoods and schools. It was also an exciting time. Kids played war games and followed patriotic-minded radio programs, films, and cartoons -- Captain America and Wonder Woman are both World War II creations. School-aged youth could also "earn their stripes" by buying and selling war stamps and bonds, and participating in scrap drives.
100. ROSIV1_140720_493.JPG: "While my father was overseas, my mother and I lived with grandmother in her house. It was a house made up entirely of women." -- Rachel Love, daughter of an Air Corps instructor
101. ROSIV1_140720_495.JPG: "I was afraid, you know... especially during the blackouts and air raid sirens. The air raid sirens are the things that really frightened me." -- Altha M. Humphrey, child in Richmond during the war
102. ROSIV1_140720_502.JPG: Richmond's Maritime and Pullman child development centers consulted with experts at the University of California, Berkeley to create programs that promoted mental, social, and physical health. Under the guidance of teacher Monica Haley, art was a regular part of the day> The children created their own paintings and also viewed works by Matisse, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Renoir.
103. ROSIV1_140720_511.JPG: Meeting the Demand: With a city bursting at the seams, the first order of business was housing. Together, federal and local agencies built over 21,000 units of wartime housing. Even then, there were not enough dwellings to go around. The shipyards and new housing developments taxed the city's water, sewer, road, and electrical systems. Between 1942 and late 1945, the municipal and federal governments spent more than $125,000 on road improvements and $730,000 for a new sewer main.
104. ROSIV1_140720_514.JPG: The housing crunch lasted throughout the war. Private homeowners rented space wherever it was available... even if that space was on a boat! Richmond resident Stanley Nystrom remembered, "My mother was a brand new 57 year old widow with no job as such. So she rented out rooms to shipyard workers for income. She moved out of her bedroom and put three shipyard workers in there."
105. ROSIV1_140720_516.JPG: This photo, taken in January of 1943, shows the nearly complete Canal War Apartments. Located to the south of Atchison Village, the development included over 1,300 units.
106. ROSIV1_140720_519.JPG: The U.S. Maritime Commission funded and oversaw six huge housing projects flanking Cutting Boulevard. Most of the buildings followed the same design: six units in each two-story structure.
107. ROSIV1_140720_522.JPG: The Richmond Trailer Camp, built with federal money, contrasted with the ill-equipped, impromptu trailer parks that sprang up in local farmyards and backyards. The trailer camp had 300 units and was located just across the railroad tracks from Shipyard No. 2.
108. ROSIV1_140720_525.JPG: Atchison Village: STILL HERE! The Richmond Housing Authority managed the largest defense-housing program in the nation. Archison Village, planned as permanent public housing, remains occupied today as a housing cooperative. Originally segregated, its first African American tenants were admitted in 1953.
109. ROSIV1_140720_531.JPG: Fire Station 67A: STILL HERE! This fire station, located at 1131 Cutting Boulevard, served war housing communities. In early 1944, five fires destroyed portions of several housing projects, killing and injuring several people. A dormitory fire the following January killed eight more workers.
110. ROSIV1_140720_536.JPG: "We were lucky to get into Atchison [Village]... I think it had something like 350 square feet, including a small bedroom, but it was a space that was ours." -- Don Hardison, architect at Kaiser Shipyards
111. ROSIV1_140720_544.JPG: "We heard of the FBI taking our friends and neighbors to jail during the night... We worried that if we were found with Japanese items... we could by severely punished. Mother spent hours burning many items. The hardest thing for her to do was to burn the Buddhist altar that held the tablets of our ancestors. She wept bitterly while asking for forgiveness." -- Meriko Maida, member of Richmond family with a cut-flower business
112. ROSIV1_140720_546.JPG: Starting in the 1920s, Native American railroad workers from New Mexico's Laguna and Acoma pueblos were housed in converted boxcars in Richmond's Santa Fe rail yards, as pictured in this 1960s photo. During the war, the population of the "Indian Village" increased as more families came out to California for war jobs.
113. ROSIV1_140720_552.JPG: Italian Americans, Richmond's largest foreign-born group in the 1930s, were regarded with suspicion during the war. Angiolina Accornero, with her son Henry, was among hundreds of elders who had not secured U.S. citizenship. Labeled "enemy aliens," they were forced to leave Richmond in 1942. Accornero was later able to return home.
114. ROSIV1_140720_555.JPG: By the end of 1942, most of Richmond's Japanese American families were imprisoned at Topaz War Relocation Center near Delta, Utah. Amy Oishi Takaki is depicted here with her daughter, Jeanie, the first child born at Topaz.
115. ROSIV1_140720_558.JPG: "They didn't have "No Colored" signs or anything like that, but they had other ways of telling you that they didn't want you." -- Ruth Gracon, migrant from Arkansas
116. ROSIV1_140720_561.JPG: Latent racism among white Richmond natives exploded as African American newcomers sought access to jobs, housing, and entertainment. When arguments turned into fistfights, the local press usually cast blacks as "the problem." In response, the city organized a "tolerance committee" in 1943.
117. ROSIV1_140720_563.JPG: Like several of Richmond's Japanese American families, the Hondas owned a cut-flower nursery prior to the war. One month after Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were required to register at the city's main post office, and soon became subject to strict curfews. In the spring of 1942, they were given two weeks' notice, then "relocated."
118. ROSIV1_140720_566.JPG: Americans All? President Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged Americans to set aside their differences and focus on the war effort. However, in Richmond as elsewhere, discrimination was a part of daily life. Longtime residents who were Italian-born or of Japanese ancestry were suddenly labeled "enemy aliens." Established residents viewed migrant newcomers warily, often expressing resentment in racial terms. African Americans who had migrated to California from the South in hopes of seeking new freedoms were disappointed to find they were still barred from many employment, housing, and recreational opportunities. In 1944, residents of the Harbor Gate defense housing project formed a local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to address discrimination in Richmond.
119. ROSIV1_140720_572.JPG: The Richmond Housing Authority, which managed the city's new defense housing program, declared that it would reserve 20 percent of its units for African Americans. Although this reflected the percentage of black shipyard workers, racial discrimination in private housing meant the quota was inadequate to meet real needs.
120. ROSIV1_140720_592.JPG: Think recycling is a new idea? Spin the drum to see what materials were in demand for the war effort. Save Scrap: Do Your Part! The government encouraged citizens to save and recycle materials that were important to the war effort. For example, rubber was in short supply because the war cut off imports from across the Pacific. Aluminum was needed for airplane manufacturing, steel for shipbuilding, and household fats for explosives.
121. ROSIV1_140720_597.JPG: Richmond Shipyard No. 3 COME VISIT! Explore Kaiser Shipyard No. 3, now designated a National Register historic district. You will see the original warehouse, sheet metal/riggers/paint shop, machine shop, forge shop, first-aid station, and cafeteria, as well as a whirley crane (a 360-degree rotating crane) and five dry docks. The SS Red Oak Victory, currently owned by the Richmond Museum of History, is open to the public for tours.
122. ROSIV1_140720_605.JPG: "On a twenty-four hour basis these big grey cars would move out [from Oakland] to Richmond to discharge shipyard workers." -- John Parr Cox, Richmond resident
123. ROSIV1_140720_612.JPG: Getting to Work: At their wartime peak, the Richmond Kaiser shipyards employed 90,000 people. Many of these workers lived in the City of Richmond, but others came from communities across the San Francisco Bay Area. The flood of commuters overwhelmed existing transportation services. Once again, improvisation and ingenuity were the order of the day. Many workers walked, bicycled or shared rides. Bus routes added the shipyards as destinations. A new ferry service brought workers from San Francisco. The federal government even paid for the creation of the interurban railway from Emeryville and Oakland using an old freight right-of-way.
124. ROSIV1_140720_614.JPG: When you ride ALONE you ride with Hitler! Join a Car-Sharing Club TODAY!
125. ROSIV1_140720_617.JPG: Conserve Fuel -- DO YOUR PART! With fuel rationed, carpooling to work became commonplace. The government also discouraged people from taking "unnecessary" bus or train trips to free up seats for workers headed to their jobs and for troops being moved across the country.
126. ROSIV1_140720_622.JPG: Now Hiring: With newspaper and radio ads placed across the country, the Richmond shipyards attracted job seekers by the thousands. The company even lent prospective workers train fare to get to California. Once they arrived in Richmond, newcomers headed to the Kaiser hiring hall downtown for job placement. Membership in a union was required. Richmond yard workers belonged to some 18 different unions, each representing a different skill. Here and across the country, labor unions benefitted from war production. Nationally, membership rose by nearly 50 percent between 1941 and 1945.
127. ROSIV1_140720_625.JPG: Like many other unions, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers of America resisted admitting African Americans. Instead, it created Local A-36, an auxiliary chapter specifically for African Americas. Members did not receive the same benefits or union representation as their white counterparts. However, through their organizing in response to union discrimination, they helped catalyze the local civil rights movement.
128. ROSIV1_140720_628.JPG: "The shipyard had a union for the workers but it was segregated. The union was collecting dues from everybody but it was representing the blacks unfairly." -- Tennie Edwards, welder at Kaiser Shipyard No. 2
129. ROSIV1_140720_631.JPG: Do the job HE left behind Apply U.S. Employment Service
130. ROSIV1_140720_634.JPG: Working in the Shipyard: Many of the shipyard workers had no previous industrial experience. The shipyards could process and train workers quickly because they broke complex assembly steps into smaller tasks and made each task easy to learn. Shipyards across the country adopted pre-fabrication and electric-air welding to speed wartime production, but Kaiser's Richmond yards were built and managed to maximize the efficiency of these technique. As a result, by war's end Richmond had produced more Liberty and Victory ships than any other place in the country.
131. ROSIV1_140720_658.JPG: "I remember climbing a steep ship's ladder with a heavy coil on my shoulder. I was pretty small then and was struggling. The man coming up the ladder behind me lifted the cable off my shoulder and said: 'You women are going to be some pretty good men after the war.' " -- Ludie Mitchell, migrant from Texas, shipyard worker
132. ROSIV2_140720_001.JPG: A Community of Workers: Jobs at the Kaiser yards included many traditional shipbuilder trades such as carpenters, electricians, shipfitters, painters, riveters and boilermakers. Skilled workers were in high demand. Others found work in support jobs such as scalers, tool-checkers, drivers, blue print copiers and office workers. Pre-war experiment with mass production, such as welding versus riveting, increased the pace of shipbuilding. Unskilled workers could learn and execute basic welding techniques faster than traditional riveting. Severe labor shortages pushed employers to hire a more diverse workforce. By 1944, women of many races comprised 27 percent of the total shipyard workforce.
133. ROSIV2_140720_008.JPG: Danger on the Job: While worker safety is a concern for any large-scale manufacturing operation, wartime industries were also under pressure to produce as quickly as possible and relied on workers with little previous training. A January 21, 1944, article in the New York Times noted that there had been 37,600 on-the-job deaths in the U.S. since Pearl Harbor. An additional 210,000 workers were "permanently disabled" and 4.5 million "temporarily disabled." Among Richmond's shipyard workers, traumas -- especially bone fractures and breaks -- were the most common injuries. Other ailments included joint pain, hernias, pneumonia, and fever or vomiting from inhaling metal fumes.
134. ROSIV2_140720_011.JPG: "The welders get what they call welder's flashes. If you happen to stare at the arc as it takes place, it will blister your eyeballs. I'll never forget the first time I got welder's flash. I woke up in the night and my eyes were just killing me." -- Louis Fantin, migrant from Colorado, shipyard worker
135. ROSIV2_140720_013.JPG: It's plain horse sense act-think safety
136. ROSIV2_140720_016.JPG: SS Red Oak Victory -- COME VISIT! Climb aboard a ship made right here! Workers at the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond made 142 Victory ships during World War II, including the SS Red Oak Victory. It is moored at Berth 6A in the historic setting of Shipyard No. 3.
137. ROSIV2_140720_019.JPG: Be a healthy shipbuilder Sign up today Stay healthy for 50 cents per week
138. ROSIV2_140720_022.JPG: "There were really all kinds of little injuries, bruises and broken bones and cuts and flash burns for the welders and foreign bodies in their eyes... The people were treated and sent back to work." -- Harriet Stewart, migrant from Nebraska, shipyard nurse
139. ROSIV2_140720_025.JPG: A Visionary Plan: In August 1942, the Kaiser shipyards began offering an innovative health plan that gave employees high quality preventive and emergency care at an affordable price. Workers only needed to contribute a fraction of their pay for the plan -- just 50 cents a week. The architect of the plan was Dr. Sidney Garfield, who had worked with Henry Kaiser before. Kaiser and his wife Bess set up a charitable foundation to launch and support the plan. By 1944, 92 percent of the shipyard workers had enrolled. After the war, the "Kaiser plan" expanded throughout most of California, despite unfounded criticisms that it was a form of "socialized medicine."
140. ROSIV2_140720_028.JPG: The health plan for shipyard workers expanded in March 1945 to include workers' families. In July of that year, the plan was opened to public enrollment and operated as an independent, non-profit trust.
141. ROSIV2_140720_032.JPG: Kaiser Permanente Field Hospital -- STILL HERE! The Richmond Field Hospital on Cutting Boulevard opened in 1942 to receive injured workers from first-aid stations. Fractures, sprains, and dislocations were common injuries. The original structure was a functioning Kaiser Permanente clinic until 1995. It is now privately owned.
142. ROSIV2_140720_039.JPG: Workers signing up for the Kaiser Plan in August of 1942, when the health plan was first introduced.
143. ROSIV2_140720_044.JPG: It takes taxes and bonds
144. ROSIV2_140720_047.JPG: Invest in the War -- DO YOUR PART! The American people helped finance the war effort by buying bonds and savings stamps -- essentially loans to the government. High-publicity and high-pressure bond drives yielded significant funds and promoted national unity through feelings of common cause. Eighty-five million Americans owned war bonds by the end, double the number of citizens who filed income tax returns.
145. ROSIV2_140720_063.JPG: The Average Richmond Shipyard Employee Receives ... $61.00 per week Spends for: Food ... $18.30 Rent ... 8.50 Recreation, Household Expense ... 6.75 War Bonds ... 6.10 Taxes ... 6.70 Clothes ... 5.50 Transportation ... 2.45 Miscellaneous and Savings ... 6.70 [TOTAL] ... $61.00 Is ... 42 years old Travels ... 8.9 miles to work Has been employed at Richmond for 1 year
146. ROSIV2_140720_066.JPG: Pay Day: A comfortable salary was especially welcome after the hardships of the Great Depression. Men and women across the country rejoiced. "It was an absolute miracle," exclaimed one Kentucky worker. "We had money and we had food on the table and the rent was paid. Which had never happened to us before." In Richmond, the average shipyard employee made $61 a week. Even after paying taxes and bills, he or she usually had an extra $6.70 to save or spend. "[My wife] worked as a welder... We cashed our checks together on Tuesday mornings ... We had our money, saving our money. That was quite a thrill." -- Lewis Van Hook, shipyard worker
147. ROSIV2_140720_069.JPG: Famed photographer Dorothea Lange took these portraits of Kaiser workers on pay day.
148. ROSIV2_140720_078.JPG: "[My wife] worked as a welder... We cashed our checks together on Tuesday mornings ... We had our money, saving our money. That was quite a thrill." -- Lewis Van Hook, shipyard worker
149. ROSIV2_140720_080.JPG: More than a Job: Henry Kaiser and his leadership team believed that boosting morale increased worker productivity. Like other San Francisco Bay Area defense contractors, the company offered after-hours recreation, break-time entertainment, and an upbeat weekly newsletter. Management also encouraged friendly competition among the four shipyards. Each yard tried to be the safest, fastest, and most productive.
150. ROSIV2_140720_086.JPG: "I remember that while working at the shipyards we used to get out of eleven thirty and go see a movie afterwards before we came home. We could sleep late in the morning." -- Mary Ann Ceminski, migrant from Colorado, shipyard worker
151. ROSIV2_140720_088.JPG: Kaiser employee Beulah Whittington won a drawing to christen the SS S. Hall Young in 1943. Very few of her co-workers saw a launching up close. "We didn't quit work to watch [a launching]," remembered a burner. "Except for maybe a few minutes as the ship slid down the ways and splashed into the water, empty and high."
152. ROSIV2_140720_095.JPG: War Ends -- VICTORY! On September 2, 1945 -- following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the United States. Germany had been defeated four months earlier. The war was officially over. Richmond celebrated along with the rest of the country, but it was a bittersweet victory for the many Kaiser shipyard workers laid off almost immediately. By November, shipyard employment had dropped from a peak of 90,000 to approximately 8,500.
153. ROSIV2_140720_098.JPG: War Ends -- VICTORY! On September 2, 1945 -- following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the United States. Germany had been defeated four months earlier. The war was officially over. Richmond celebrated along with the rest of the country, but it was a bittersweet victory for the many Kaiser shipyard workers laid off almost immediately. By November, shipyard employment had dropped from a peak of 90,000 to approximately 8,500.
154. ROSIV2_140720_103.JPG: What Happened to... Workers? Richmond's shipyard workers were among the many who found themselves out of a job after World War II. Most jobs in shipbuilding, munitions production, and aircraft manufacture were severely cut. But, after more than a decade of Depression and war, Americans were hungry for new goods, cars, homes, and schools. All this pent-up demand ignited a great postwar economic boom than soon employed most displaced workers. Working-class incomes doubled between 1947 and 1973.
155. ROSIV2_140720_106.JPG: "The shipyard days gave women a whole new outlook on life: that I am an individual and I am important, and I can earn my own living." -- Patricia Buls, junior engineer at Kaiser Shipyards
156. ROSIV2_140720_107.JPG: What Happened to... Workers? Richmond's shipyard workers were among the many who found themselves out of a job after World War II. Most jobs in shipbuilding, munitions production, and aircraft manufacture were severely cut. But, after more than a decade of Depression and war, Americans were hungry for new goods, cars, homes, and schools. All this pent-up demand ignited a great postwar economic boom than soon employed most displaced workers. Working-class incomes doubled between 1947 and 1973.
157. ROSIV2_140720_112.JPG: With the war's end, government cost controls lifted. Living expenses spiked immediately, but wages remained frozen. Angered by the discrepancy, millions of U.S. workers went on strike. One of the largest protests was the Oakland general strike of 1946, which swelled to 100,000 workers from across the metro area.
158. ROSIV2_140720_117.JPG: The dramatic wartime growth of Richmond's African American population forced the city to tackle the issue of job discrimination -- as the Macdonald Avenue banner demonstrates. An interracial committee pushed the city to pass a "fair employment" ordinance in 1949, making Richmond one of the first cities in America to do so.
159. ROSIV2_140720_122.JPG: Although some laid-off Kaiser workers left Richmond in search of new opportunities, many more stayed put. The shipyards may have closed, but other local businesses stayed open and new businesses moved in. For example, the local Standard Oil (now Chevron) refinery expanded its petroleum research operations after the war. Meanwhile, the Safeway Distribution Center took over part of what had been Shipyard No. 2.
160. ROSIV2_140720_125.JPG: Rosie Rebounds: About three million American women were dismissed from war jobs by 1946. Many were told that veterans needed their high paying jobs. Some women were glad to focus on raising children. However, many women still wanted -- or needed -- to work, and had to accept lower paying jobs in fields like nursing, teaching, waitressing, and domestic service. The "pay gap" between women and men doing the same job grew even larger after the war. Over time, these post-war experiences of social and economic inequality inspired women to organize and demand equal rights.
161. ROSIV2_140720_128.JPG: What happened to ... Shipyards? Like all wartime shipyards, the Kaiser shipyards were technically property of the U.S. government after 1945. After all, the government had paid for the construction of the yards. Henry J. Kaiser tried to hold onto Shipyard No. 3, but was thwarted in his efforts. By August of 1946, all of the Richmond yards were closed. For Richmond's residents, the sudden quiet must have been strange. The shipyards had been the source of the city's sudden explosion in population and employment.
162. ROSIV2_140720_131.JPG: What happened to ... Shipyards? Like all wartime shipyards, the Kaiser shipyards were technically property of the U.S. government after 1945. After all, the government had paid for the construction of the yards. Henry J. Kaiser tried to hold onto Shipyard No. 3, but was thwarted in his efforts. By August of 1946, all of the Richmond yards were closed. For Richmond's residents, the sudden quiet must have been strange. The shipyards had been the source of the city's sudden explosion in population and employment.
163. ROSIV2_140720_133.JPG: So easy to see... Kaiser's the car! 1951 Kaiser ... the only car with Anatomic Design!
164. ROSIV2_140720_137.JPG: In the decades after 1945, the task of finding new uses for the abandoned shipyards was up t the newly formed City of Richmond Redevelopment Agency. Today, the Marina Bay neighborhood, the Port of Richmond, and many other industries now occupy former shipyard property.
165. ROSIV2_140720_142.JPG: "You can't sit on the lid of progress. If you do, you will be blown to pieces." -- Henry J. Kaiser
166. ROSIV2_140720_144.JPG: After the war, many of the ships were sold to foreign and domestic operators. Others were "mothballed" for years at reserve-fleet anchorages across the country like nearby Suisun Bay (shown here). Most have now been scrapped. A notable exception is SS Red Oak Victory, docked at Kaiser Shipyard NO. 3 and open to the public.
167. ROSIV2_140720_148.JPG: Industrial Might: The war required immense industrial capacity. After the fighting ceased, factories were repurposed to create a new universe of consumer goods and to ensure that the U.S. military continued to advance. Close wartime connections forged between government and private defense companies were redoubled during the Cold War and continue to influence federal policymaking and spending today. The powerful aircraft carrier is just one example of the lasting influence of America's wartime production capacity. This 1964 image shows the U.S. Navy's first all-nuclear task force; USS Enterprise, USS Long Beach, and USS Bainbridge.
168. ROSIV2_140720_151.JPG: What Happened to ... Richmond? The city of Richmond met the uncertainty of post-war life with optimism, and had reason to do so. The shipyards had closed, but plenty of other businesses thrived. School enrollment continued to increase, and the city invested in new infrastructure and housing. In 1952, Richmond was declared an "All-American City." Yet the 1950s saw the city's population shrink 25 percent. The causes for this decrease are complex yet similar to those in many cities across the United States: the closing of major employers like the Ford Assembly Plant, the rise of suburbs, and the lack of investment in urban centers.
169. ROSIV2_140720_154.JPG: "We've inherited a vast source of labor, and we're going to keep it here. We don't want Richmond to crumble the moment the yards close. The struggle has only begun. So in a way, this is our D-Day..." -- Richmond City Manager Wayne Thompson, 1945
170. ROSIV2_140720_160.JPG: What Happened to ... Richmond? The city of Richmond met the uncertainty of post-war life with optimism, and had reason to do so. The shipyards had closed, but plenty of other businesses thrived. School enrollment continued to increase, and the city invested in new infrastructure and housing. In 1952, Richmond was declared an "All-American City." Yet the 1950s saw the city's population shrink 25 percent. The causes for this decrease are complex yet similar to those in many cities across the United States: the closing of major employers like the Ford Assembly Plant, the rise of suburbs, and the lack of investment in urban centers.
171. ROSIV2_140720_162.JPG: After the U.S. government lifted its restrictions against them, Richmond's Japanese Americans began returning in spring and summer of 1945. Some families were able to repair and rebuild their cut-flower nurseries. Larry Oishi, posing in the 1960 class photo, was the son and grandson of family members who reclaimed their Richmond nursery after World War II incarceration. Others lost everything. In 1988, the U.S. government issued a formal apology and paid reparations.
172. ROSIV2_140720_169.JPG: Because many wartime migrants remained in Richmond, "temporary" defense housing remained very much in use. Over the next few decades, government officials wanted to tear down the outdated buildings, while residents fought to save them. In 1964, a local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality held a sit-in at the Richmond Housing Authority.
173. ROSIV2_140720_176.JPG: Financed by a $4 million bond, the Civic Center on Macdonald Avenue was completed in 1949 and dedicated the following year as a tribute to the men and women who served in World War II. Today, the Memorial Auditorium is a popular venue for community festivals, cultural fairs, car shows, and musical events.
174. ROSIV2_140720_182.JPG: Golden State: World War II transformed California. Within 30 years, it became the most populous U.S. state and the world's seventh largest economy. California's role in the home front laid the foundation for its emergence as a center for aerospace and technology. Meanwhile, ethnic and racial diversity accelerated by the war made California the first "majority minority" state. The young couple in this image strolls down an Oakland sidewalk around 1950. Such dramatic change altered perspectives on what it meant to be a Californian... or, for that matter, an American. As writer Wallace Stegner once observed, "California is like the rest of the United States -- only more so."
175. ROSIV2_140720_185.JPG: "... It took a war to liberate American women." -- Josephine Bakovic Stober, gas station manager, Long Beach, California
176. ROSIV2_140720_190.JPG: "In one respect I was happy because the war was over, but was sad because I had such a well paying job that I was going to miss." -- Dolores Hnot, drill press operator, Wayne, Michigan
177. ROSIV2_140720_193.JPG: Lasting Legacies: The events of World War II -- both on the battlefield and on the home front -- dramatically shaped U.S. history. We feel their influence even today. Many of the trends, policies, and social assumptions of our times were established or set in motion by the war. * How did the war affect your family or your community? * How do you think it changed the world? * What do you think is the war's greatest legacy? * What issues can you mobilize around today? * Tell us what you think!
178. ROSIV3_140720_001.JPG: Wartime Propaganda
179. ROSIV3_140720_004.JPG: The flag inspires nationalism. Its presence tells us that the output of the workers is essential to the country. The fact that the men are wearing nearly identical colorless clothing focuses the eye on a key difference: their race. Notice the phrase "WE win" The poster is including the viewer in its message, ALL Americans are part of the unity effort. The poster's designer has stripped out details that might identify the factory. Why? The image needs to be relevant to all industries.
180. ROSIV3_140720_008.JPG: The hand with the Japanese symbol is on the left, roughly where the Pacific Coast would be on a map of the U.S. The Nazi hand menaces the right, or Atlantic side. The mother and child are white, well dressed, and well fed. They represent ideals of "mainstream" America. The poster focuses on the "threat" to the United States -- although the country experienced no battles on its mainland. The hands with Japanese and German symbols are monster-like to instill fear.
181. ROSIV3_140720_014.JPG: One of the essential rights described in the U.S. Constitution is freedom of speech. Should this right be curtailed in times of war? Does this design imply that women are more likely to gossip then men? "Careless" talk could refer to any number of war-related topics: factory output, troop whereabouts, or civilian defense initiatives. What else can you think of? The identify of the woman is a mystery. Is she a factory worker? A secretary? A soldier's wife?
182. ROSIV3_140720_023.JPG: This poster promotes good health, which directly supported the war effort by keeping people on the job. The patriotic colors of the label imply that preserving things -- not wasting them -- aids the nation. The leafy background suggests that the fruits and vegetables shown came from a household "victory garden." The text at bottom equates traditional housework with war work.
183. ROSIV3_140720_026.JPG: The mist or smoke in the distance suggests that the soldiers are on the battlefield, giving a sense of urgency to the poster. The text connects home front activities to the battlefront: If the soldiers have to walk, so can I! The green color of the woman's jacket and hat brings to mind army uniforms. The wrapped packages echo the soldiers' packs. The woman wears a wedding band, hinting that she has a husband serving in the war.
184. ROSIV3_140720_038.JPG: Crane Operator: Skilled operators ran the controls of the whirley cranes that lifted steel plates, boilers, propellers, engines, and whole ship sub-assemblies into place. The job was relatively high paying.
185. ROSIV3_140720_041.JPG: Boilermaker: The trade of boilermaker evolved from 19th-century industrial blacksmithing. In shipbuilding, boilermakers helped create large steel components. About a fifth of the yards' workers were boilermakers.
186. ROSIV3_140720_047.JPG: Painter: Salty seawater corrodes steel, so almost every surface on every ship had to be painted.
187. ROSIV3_140720_050.JPG: Rigger: Riggers worked to ensure that heavy components were fastened safely to the hooks of the yards' giant cranes.
188. ROSIV3_140720_053.JPG: Welder: Welders used electricity to fuse steel components together. The process was extensively used because it saved time and materials compared to riveting. Around a quarter of the workers at shipyards No. 1 and No. 2 were welders.
189. ROSIV3_140720_056.JPG: Shipfitter: Shipfitters put the pieces of a ship together. Working with riggers, crane operators, welders, and riveters, they made sure pieces were properly aligned, frequently using hammers to nudge heavy plates into position.
190. ROSIV3_140720_058.JPG: Riviter: Key supporting parts were riveted together, a process that required multiple workers to heat the rivets, pass them along, and drive them into place.
191. ROSIV3_140720_061.JPG: Nurse: Nurses worked at the first-aid stations located in each of the Richmond yards, dealing with cuts, splinters, burns, sprains, respiratory complaints, and other common shipyard injuries.
192. ROSIV3_140720_064.JPG: Clerk: All war industries hired legions of clerks, typists, and secretaries to manage the mountains of paperwork that went with organized production. Forty-eight percent of the office and clerical staff at the Richmond shipyards were women at the beginning of 1943.
193. ROSIV3_140720_066.JPG: Draftsman: The original construction drawings for the Liberty and Victory ships were drawn by a team of hundreds of draftsmen in New York City, but the Richmond yards maintained their own drafting offices to create plans for special situations and to make the hundreds of plan copies needed for every ship.
194. ROSIV3_140720_069.JPG: Fore 'n' Aft
195. ROSIV3_140720_073.JPG: He Gave Til It Hurt This Year Give Double
196. ROSIV3_140720_135.JPG: Richmond's Ships
197. ROSIV3_140720_137.JPG: British Ocean-Class Cargo Ships 60 ships built nationwide 30 (50%) built in Richmond On August 14, 1941, the Ocean Vanguard became the first Richmond-made ship to launch. It was four months before the U.S. even entered the war. Built in Richmond Shipyard No. 1, the shipyard was built to fulfill a contract from the British government to make 30 Ocean-class cargo ships.
198. ROSIV3_140720_139.JPG: Liberty Ships: 2,710 ships built nationwide 489 (18%) built in Richmond The Liberty Ship was the mainstay of America's wartime cargo fleet, and the Richmond yards built 489 of them. The first Liberty ship was named for Virginia statesman Patrick Henry, who famously said, "Give me liberty or give me death!" The Maritime Commission named subsequent ships after such prominent men and women as writer O. Henry, artist Mary Cassatt, labor leader Andrew Furuseth, scholar Jose C. Barosa, and Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L'Ouverture.
199. ROSIV3_140720_144.JPG: Victory Ships: 550 ships built nationwide 142 (26%) built in Richmond The Maritime Commission named most of the Victory ships after cities, colleges, and countries. Several communities won naming rights after raising funds for ship construction. Twenty-two Victory ships from the Richmond yards were attack transports and were named for U.S. counties.
200. ROSIV3_140720_150.JPG: C4 Troop Ships: 75 ships built nationwide 35 (47%) built in Richmond Because C4 ships were intended for the transport of army troops, most received the names of U.S. Army generals. The final five, however, got whimsical monikers that combined the word "marine" with an animal: Marine Adder, Marine Swallow, and Marine Leopard.
201. ROSIV3_140720_153.JPG: C1-M Cargo Ships: 227 ships built nationwide 24 (11%) built in Richmond The C1-M cargo ship was an adaptation of a small coastal freighters designed by the Maritime Commission before the war. Those built in Richmond generally served as ammunition ships in the Pacific. The first 16 made in the Kaiser shipyards were given country names. The last eight carried the names of sailors' knots, such as Square Sinnet, Spindle Eye, and Marlingspike Hitch.
202. ROSIV3_140720_156.JPG: LSTs 1,051 ships built nationwide 15 (1%) built in Richmond Tank Landing Ships (LSTs) carried equipment and men to the beaches of Europe and the Pacific. So many were needed in such a short period of time that the Maritime Commission assigned them to shipyards all across the country, and the navy did not bother to give them names.
203. ROSIV3_140720_158.JPG: Patrol Frigates 96 ships built nationwide 12 (13%) built in Richmond Shipyard No. 4 built 12 patrol frigates for the navy. Intended as anti-submarine and anti-aircraft boats, many of these vessels were operated by the Coast Guard as weather stations.
Wikipedia Description: Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park is located in Richmond, California, near San Francisco. The park encompasses an array of historic properties in the city which were constructed during the 1940s to support America's entry into World War II.

The park is a "partnership park", meaning that no land or buildings are actually owned by the National Park Service, which only administers the park. This relatively new National Park was established in 2000 and is still under development. Bus tours of the park began in 2007 and were run by the city as the park has formed a unique partnership and is jointly administered by the National Parks Service and the city government.

Park attractions:

During this initial developmental phase, the park has limited visitor services. A self guided auto tour with optional walking tour is available for downloading. In the summer of 2007 prelimentary bus tours were begun with a new guideless model, which instead filled half of the bus with residents who spoke of their experiences from the time to put what are otherwise everyday streets for residents into a greater historical perspective.

The Rosie the Riveter Memorial in Marina Bay Park is open year round, dawn to dusk, as are the other Richmond city parks within the National Park's boundaries.
The Rosie Memorial in October 2007.

Rosie Memorial:

The park's creation was spurred by the construction of a Rosie the Riveter memorial in a city shoreline park (three years prior to the creation of the National Park), to honor the "Rosies", women who made up much of the workforce at the shipyards. The four Richmond shipyards with their combined 27 shipways, produced 747 ships, more than any other shipyard complex in the country. Richmond was home to 56 different war industries, more than any other city of its size in the United States. The city grew nearly overnight from 24,000 people to 100,000 people, overwhelming the available housing stock, roads, schools, businesses and community services.

The effort behind the memorial was initiated by then-Councilwoman Donna Powers. It grew under Project Director Donna Graves to become the first national tribute to home front American women.

The memorial is located at Marina Bay Park, the site of former Kaiser Richmond Shipyard #2. It is the length of a Liberty ship with a form of the ship being built. The simple metal pier represents the stern at the water's edge, a simple cylinder frame is the smoke stack, and the bow is made of prefabricated parts similar to those assembled by the shipyard workers. A timeline of World War II is placed along the walkway running the length of the memorial. Interpretive panels within the structures present information on women's history, labor history, and the Home Front.

Ford Richmond Plant:

The Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant was the largest assembly plant to be built on the West Coast. One of only three tank depots in the entire country, approximately 49,000 jeeps were assembled and 91,000 other military vehicles were processed here. Ford employed thousands of workers at the site during World War II, many of them women who were entering the work force for the first time. "Rosie the Riveter" was a period song representing these women.

In mobilizing the wartime production effort to its full potential, Federal military authorities and private industry began to work closely together on a scale never seen before in American history. This laid the groundwork for what became known as the "military-industrial complex" during the Cold War years.

Noted architect Albert Kahn is credited with the design of the Ford plant in Richmond. After World War II, Ford moved its Northern California factory to Milpitas, where it became known as the San Jose Assembly Plant.

Richmond Shipyards:

The four Richmond Shipyards were part of the Kaiser Shipyards. The construction of 747 ships during the war here is a feat not equaled anywhere else in the world, before or since. The park's Rosie memorial is located on the former grounds of Shipyard #2. Shipyard #3 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Both Liberty and Victory ships were constructed here. These ships were completed in two-thirds the amount of time and at a quarter of the cost of the average of all other shipyards. The SS Robert E. Peary was assembled in less than five days as a part of a special competition among shipyards; but by 1944 it was only taking the astonishingly brief time of a little over two weeks to assemble a Liberty ship by standard methods.

SS Red Oak Victory:

The SS Red Oak Victory is a Victory ship preserved as a museum ship. It was one of 414 Victories built during World War II (constructed at the Richmond Shipyards), but one of only a few of these ships to be transferred from the Merchant Marine to the U.S. Navy. The vessel issued cargo and munitions to various ships in the fleet throughout 1945. During a hazardous tour of duty in the Pacific, SS Red Oak Victory handled many tons of ammunition, supplying the fleet without a single casualty.

Atchison Village Housing Project:

The huge explosion of workers coming to live in cities like Richmond, caused intense strain on city infrastructure. One of these strains was the severe lack of housing. Workers arriving in these rapidly expanding urban centers were forced to find what they could. They slept in all night movie houses, shared "hot beds" (i.e. when one person got in bed, it was still hot from the last person getting out), or just camped out.

Atchison Village Housing Project is an example of the local-Federal collaboration that provided much needed housing and domestic support for defense workers and their families. The modest, wood-frame buildings clearly reflect the constraints (time, money and materials) placed on publicly-funded housing construction during the period. Just prior to and during the war, the Lanham Act of 1940 provided $150 million to the Works Progress Administration, which built approximately 625,000 units of housing in conjunction with local authorities nationwide. These were highly sought after and company managers were the most likely to be able to procure housing in Atchison Village.

Due to racial discrimination, minorities fared very poorly in gaining housing. They often lived in shacks, in the crates that brought the raw materials to the city, in trailers, or in automobiles. They and other lower income earning workers were lucky when they were able to move to barrack-like dormitories constructed for the mass of World War II workers.

The Richmond Housing Authority was selected to be the first authority in the country to manage a defense project. Atchison Village represents one of 20 public housing projects built in Richmond before and during World War II. Constructed in 1941 as Richmond's first public defense housing project, it is the only project funded by the Lanham Act that still exists in Richmond, and one of the few in the nation not destroyed after the war.

Today, Atchison Village is a collection of privately owned houses managed by a cooperative of the homeowners. While most of the dormitories and other low income housing of World War II are gone, Atchison Village, built as permanent housing, remains.

Kaiser Richmond Field Hospital:

More American workers died in Home Front accidents then US soldiers killed on World War II battlefields. This was true up to the Battle of Normandy in June 1944. Henry J. Kaiser, owner of the Richmond Shipyards, realized that only a healthy work force could meet the deadlines and construction needs of wartime America. He institutionalized a revolutionary idea, pre-paid medical care for workers, which soon expanded beyond workers. For many workers, this was the first time they had seen a doctor.

The Kaiser Richmond Field Hospital for the Richmond Shipyards was financed by the U.S. Maritime Commission, and opened on August 10, 1942.

By August 1944, 92.2 percent of all Richmond shipyard employees had joined the plan, the first voluntary group plan in the country to feature group medical practice, prepayment and substantial medical facilities on such a large scale.By 1990, Kaiser Permanente was still the country's largest nonprofit HMO.

In part due to wartime materials rationing, the Field Hospital is a single-story wood frame structure designed in a simple modernist mode. The Field Hospital operated as a Kaiser Permanente hospital until closing in 1995.

Maritime and Ruth Powers Child Development Centers:

The Maritime and Ruth Powers Child Development Centers were two of approximately 35 nursery school units of varying sizes established in the Richmond area during World War II in order to provide child care for women working in the Kaiser shipyards. The Maritime center was funded and constructed by the Maritime Commission as part of a larger development that also included housing, an elementary school and a fire station. The temporary housing was demolished after the war but a larger permanent housing complex remains as do the other buildings.

The Maritime Child Development Center, a wood frame, modernist style building operated by the Richmond School District, incorporated progressive educational programming, and was staffed with nutritionists, psychiatrists and certified teachers. It had a capacity of 180 children per day. At its peak, with 24,500 women on the Kaiser payroll, Richmond's citywide child care program maintained a total daily attendance of 1,400 children. Unlike the Federally-funded WPA day care facilities implemented during the New Deal, the World War II centers were not intended for use by the destitute, but for working mothers.

The Kaiser-sponsored Child Care Centers, particularly those at Kaiser's industrial sites in Vanport, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, gained a reputation for innovative and high quality child care. The center is still in operation today.

Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park:

Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park, named in honor of local community activist Lucretia W. Edwards, honors the wartime contributions made by the Bay Area Shipyards during World War II.

Bay Area shipyards:

In addition to the local Richmond Shipyards, shipworker's bootprints with plaques set in the sidewalks and long low seating walls point visitors to the other Bay Area shipyards.

The following inscriptions are engraved into the concrete walls:

Bethlehem San Francisco - The only privately owned shipyard in the nation to operate a submarine repair base, this 16th Street yard overhauled 31 subs in two years.
Moore Dry Dock handled the difficult jobs of production, repair and conversion that slowed overall output in other yards.
Hunter Point Naval Dry Dock - Hunter Point repaired 600 fighting and support ships.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard - Mare Island built more than 400 vessels. Mare Island Naval Shipyard set a shipbuilding record for a destroyer that was never broken completing the USS Ward in just 171/2 days.
Marinship - The 75,000 Americans who poured into Marinship during the war years build 93 ships.
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