The war put 3.5 million men into the armed forces, but it mobilized the entire nation — business and industry, farm and factory, men, women, and children. In this chapter you'll explore how Americans at home supported and endured the war — from civil defense and housing prisoners of war to rationing and buying war bonds. Although the focus is on North Carolina, we've also included primary sources on the Japanese-American internment.

Section Contents

• Primary Source: Roosevelt's Fireside Chat 21
• Primary Source: Roosevelt's Fireside Chat 23
• North Carolina's Wartime Miracle: Defending the Nation
• Japanese American Imprisonment Part I 
• Primary Source: Poster Announcing Japanese American Removal and Relocation
• Rosie the Riveter
• Germans Attack Off of North Carolina's Outer Banks
• Primary Source: Wartime Wilmington, Through the Eyes of the Cape Fear
• Primary Source: Margaret Rogers and Prisoners of War in North Carolina
• Rationing
• War Bonds
• Covering the Beat: UNC in the WWII Era