Los Angeles In 1940s

Los Angeles in the 1940s Imagine being an American citizen while the United States participated in World War II. Everyone and everything were focused on one thing, victory in World War II. American icons such as celebrities and professional sports players dropped everything to fight in the war. The government began enforcing rations for things like sugar, gas, butter, and meat. American citizens supported and adapted to the rations so the soldiers could have their needs met. According to the National World War II museum, a popular phrase was “Do with less, so they will have more”. The unnamed author of the webpage, was talking about American citizens accepting the rationings law so the soldiers could have everything. The focus of the culture

People of all ethnicities worked in production lines to produce the necessary war supplies. Jeanne Willette author of the article “Culture in Los Angeles, 1940-1950” wrote, “Los Angeles was known for being the City of Immigrants during the 1940s”. Many families that lived in Los Angeles during the 1940s were Japanese- Americans. When citizens considered the current circumstances America found themselves because Japan launched a surprise attack on America, one can imagine there was some discrimination and animosity toward the Japanese-Americans. They were eventually forced to relocate to internment camps under President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 on February 12, 1942. Everyone had just experienced a war that began on the outside of the borders and was afraid another one would begin from inside the borders. Since desegregation did not take place for around another fifteen years, African Americans and Hispanics were perhaps the main ethnicities that felt the effects of segregation. African Americans were given the lowest status jobs, denied a higher education, forced by segregation to live in the most poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods, and were looked down upon by other people groups. Once African American soldiers returned home from World War II, they saw the struggle for

Although it may not be clear if it is before or after the ending of the war, the reader can speculate it is after because Easy mentions several times killing blue-eyed Germans. Mosely wrote, “. . . I killed enough blue eyed young men to know when they were just as afraid to die as a I was” (Mosley 45). The killing of the Germans has as lasting effect his psyche. Easy is the main character, who is African American. He fought in the war and risked his life for the freedom of the country, he is mistreated by authority figures when returning home. He is a mechanic but lost his job until Mr. Albright finds him. Mr. Dewitt Albright is a white male that employees Easy to do his dirty work as a detective. He does not want the police pestering him, so he hires someone he does not care about in case things end badly. Easy is an obvious choice to Albright because he is African American, meaning he was thought of as worthless and replaceable by white male authority figures. It also did not help that he is desperate for a job. The first encounter with Albright is described as, I was surprised to see a white man walk into Joppy’s bar. It’s not just that he was white but he wore an off-white linen suit and shirt with a Panama straw hat and bone shoes over flashing white socks silk socks. His skin was smooth and pale with just a few freckles. One lick of strawberry-blond hair escaped the band of