auxiliary units and the rise of women's baseball leagues during the time, including the all-american girls professional baseball league, which operated from 1943 to 1954. her class is about an hour ten minutes. >> all right, you guys ready to talk about world war ii on the home front? last time you guys saw part of a documentary called "total war" and i know that some of those images were probably pretty gruesome. one of the reasons i show that to you is to give you a sense of what that concept, total war, means. war is never -- i don't care what war we're talking about -- it is never simply about two armies fighting one another on a battlefield. it is all encompassing.

i think that video probably helped to show that. it gives you an opportunity to see, and i think the news reels and things, the images on there, give you an opportunity to see what that was like. what the beginning of world war ii was like in europe, specifically, and of course in japan as well. at the beginning of the semester, i told you guys my mantra. i don't know if you remember that or not, but it's all about perspective. that's how i teach. that's how i teach history. that's my mantra when it comes to my own research and scholarship. it's all about perspective. when i talk to you about that at the beginning of the semester, i used world war ii as an example to illustrate that.

we're going to come back to that now. the images you saw from the battlefield and from the bombings in europe, that's one perspective. if all you do is see that video, if all you do is hear the stories of the infantry men who were on the beaches in normandy. if all you do is talk about the impact of war on sailors, you're only getting one perspective and you really don't understand world war ii. you might understand one piece of that military history, but you don't really understand world war ii. as i said to you before, in order to really understand world war ii, you have to look at world war ii from all different perspectives. in order to understand it, yes, it's important to look at it through the eyes of that

20-year-old marine on normandy. but it's also important to look at it through the eyes of japanese-americans. through the eyes of women and african-americans. you simply cannot understand the full impact, the total war impact unless you do that. so what we're going to do today is sort of flesh that out a little bit. the greatest effect that war has on the people involved is change. in war times, change occurs. and that seems like a very simple statement, but it doesn't just occur on a global scale or a national scale. it changes us individually. it changes the way we see the world. it changes the way we are in the world. whether we're talking about

world war ii or whether we're talking about vietnam or whether we're talking about the war with iraq, people change as a result of war. and it's not just the people pointing guns at one another. people change as a result of war. one of the most incredible changes, and one that i guarantee you, if you spend any time talking about or studying world war ii, i suspect this is not a change or not a piece of it that you have talked about. but one of the most incredible changes is an identity. individual identity. the changes that happen to us as individuals. world war ii specifically, and i believe you can make this argument for about any war, but we happen to be talking about world war ii. world war ii specifically

enabled people to learn about each other, about other cultures, different races, ethnicities, cultures. genders. all of a sudden, we're doing similar things out in the world. we're working in similar jobs. we had a common enemy. that change was huge. and it was felt long after world war ii. war in general and specifically world war ii for many women and african-americans particularly was about gaining strength and mobility. from the beginning of this country's history, women and first africans and then african-americans, have always been limited in their mobility. war helped to change that. war was very much a doorway through which women ventured out of the homes where they had been, and for african-americans, it was a way to overcome the

racism, at least temporarily. now i'm not trying to suggest that, ah, thank god there was a war because now african-americans and women have an opportunity to bust out and gain some equality. it was just the effects of war. it was a byproduct of war. keeping in mind this idea of it is all about perspective and this idea that in order for us to truly understand world war ii, to truly understand the impact the total war impact of the war, we have to look at individuals. now, we could spend the entire semester doing this. we could spend weeks and weeks

talking about the impact of world war ii on japanese americans and an entire semester talking about the impact of world war ii on african-americans and certainly another semester talking about women. and we're going to in a class period or two, we were going to be addressing the civil rights movement, the modern civil rights movement, and we'll talk more specifically about the connections between world war ii and the modern civil rights movement then. i'll going to spend a little time talking about the impact on african-americans, but there will be a lot more of it when we get to the civil rights movement. african-americans, and i said this to you guys when we were talking about world war i. african-americans have served valiantly in every single war or conflict this country has ever been part of. and certainly, world war ii was no different. the figures for the numbers of

african-americans who served in world war ii are these. first of all, prior to, say, 1941, there were fewer than 4,000 african-americans serving in the military. and only 12 -- 12 -- african-americans had become officers. by 1945, more than 1.2 million african-americans were serving in the united states military, in the pacific, in europe, and on the home front. yeah? in 1945. by 1945. we all have seen those images of what happened to recruiting stations after pearl harbor, haven't we? after pearl harbor, after the united states was attacked by japan at pearl harbor, every

young man, old man, middle age man, just about every man that could possibly do so went to a recruiting office and signed up. you don't get to attack us. young men lied about their ages and got in. old men lied about their ages and got in. men who were probably physically not capable lied and got in. and the same was true of african-american men. this was not just white men. it was everyone. including some of those asian american men who were not taken to kindly. african-american men joined the military in huge numbers. in huge numbers. unfortunately, however, the segregation that was present in

the united states at the time spilled over into military life. african-american soldiers were given in many cases supplies that were maybe not up to snuff. they were given boots that didn't fit. now, not always. obviously i'm being very general here to make this point. sometimes the uniform did not fit and we did not want them in combat. they were often expected to do things such as service duty, kitchen work, supply, maintenance, transportation. now this was in the beginning of the war at least. many drove supplies during d-day. how many of you have seen the movie "saving private ryan"? i mentioned this to you before but it's a perfect image of what i'm talking about. that 30 minutes, the first 30

minutes of "saving private ryan," horribly, horribly bloody, and as i understand it, fairly accurate portrayal. there's a scene, a shot at the very end of that 30 minutes and it's a shot that's down the beach. there's no one talking and there are bodies littered everywhere. the water is red from blood. and off in the distance for just a few seconds, you can see hot air balloons. african-american men piloted hot air balloons over the beaches on d-day. i'm not sure which end of the gun to hold, but i could shoot that down. those are incredibly dangerous jobs, by the way, not really a movie critic here but i will say that appeared to be the only nod

to african-americans in steven spielberg's movie. the efforts of african-americans were second to none. the bravery second to none, but those are the kinds of jobs they were given. it was invaluable. the information they were able to radio back from being at that vantage point very valuable. but very, very dangerous. they also loaded and unloaded live ammunition. still, we did not want them in, quote, combat. that started to change, as you can imagine, as the war continued. and we needed more and more men in battle. we started to include african-americans in some of those battalions. one of the things that the army

air force did was start to recognize that we needed more pilots. we needed people to protect fighters. we needed pilots who would fly supply missions. so a group of african-american pilots that became known as the tuskegee airmen, many of you have heard of the tuskegee airmen? a couple of really good movies about the tuskegee airmen. [ inaudible ] i'm sorry? >> can you spell that please? >> t-u-s-k-e-g-e-e. the tuskegee airmen. the tuskegee airmen flew support missions. they protected bombers over southern italy.

they flew more than 15,000 missions. between may 1943 and 1945. 66 tuskegee airmen died in combat. certainly the tuskegee airmen were not the only african-american men to serve valiantly during the war, but it's the one that most of us have heard of. african-american men continued to serve in every branch of the military. by the way, every branch of the military was segregated until 1948 when harry truman decided that was not appropriate. they served in segregated military units. they went off to war, they

fought and they died for democracy. yes. [ inaudible question ] >> 1948. they went off to war and they fought and they died for democracy. they fought and died for the united states yet they lived in a segregated world. remember our conversations about jim crow from the cradle to the grave? they lived in that segregated

world. a leader, one of the leaders of the black community, a man named a. phillip randolph, the initial a., phillip randolph. a. phillip randolph was extremely important figure in the black community. and he said to african-american men, fight for freedom. if you go off and fight for freedom for this country, they simply cannot take away your freedom when you get home. he helped it to institute the double "v" campaign, "v" as in victory. victory overseas and equality at home. you cannot expect the united states of america to give you your freedom, your equality, earn it. the campaign was put into place to help encourage african-american men and women to do their part during the war.

it was a. phillip randolph who convinced fdr that he needed to stop racial discrimination in job programs, in new deal job programs. he also went to fdr and he said, this double-v campaign, understand we're willing to fight for our country but we expect you to fight for us when we get back. african-american men served tirelessly in the united states military. and african-american women did their part, too, believe me. we're going to talk about the impact of world war ii on women in this country and talk very specifically about some images that you have all seen, rosy the riveter, for example. but don't let these images fool you. most of these images are of white women because those are

the women that the propagandists wanted us to see. black women were very much a part of the war effort. we'll talk about that in a little bit. for women, life changed during world war ii like no other point in american history. prior to world war ii if women worked outside the home, and many did -- it's a misconception to think there was this perfect family of 2.5 children and mom and dad and, you know, that was an image. women often worked outside the home. and when they did, they worked in something called pink collar

jobs. what is a pink collar job? what does that mean? any ideas? yeah? >> something that would be suitable for a woman, quote/unquote, for a woman to do. >> exactly. suitable women's work. now if you had to define that, what would that be? what's an example of a pink collar job? i'm sorry? >> cleaning. >> cleaning, what else? >> making clothes. >> seamstress. exactly. what else? >> child care. >> child care. anything else? nurses. i'm sorry, go ahead. >> waiting tables. >> waiting tables. service industry, acceptable women's work. what do you think is something all those jobs have in common aside from the fact they're service jobs? any ideas? low pay. it was perfectly legal to pay women less money. now may not be the time for me to have a conversation about pay

equity today but it was certainly nowhere near equal in the 1940s. women's work, it's not career, it's not a career. it's a job. one of those things women did before they got married. after they got married, chances are they were not going to work outside the home, or at least that was the popular image. prior to world war ii, if women are working outside the home, and many were, they were working in these pink collar jobs. certainly there were exceptions to that, but not as many. after the war began, as you know, many, many women go to work in factories because so many men had gone off to war. we talked last week about the

fact that it was fdr's move into war production that ultimately got us -- helped to get us out of the depression. that war production had to continue and especially after the united states had entered the war. so who is going to do that job? well, some people suggested to the war department, what if we let women into the factories? what if we allow women to do those jobs? and the initial response was, oh, no. no, no, no. women are not going to get out of bed in the morning and go do these awful, dirty jobs. well, as you know, that was not the case. women answered the call just like men did, and there are a lot of different ways women participate in the united states' efforts in world war ii. one of them factory workers and we'll talk about that first. another is the fact that they

were used images of women were used as propaganda. we'll talk about that as well. and i have some images i want to show you. women joined the army -- the women's army corps and the women's army air corps. there were a lot of ways women participated in the war effort. the first one, as i said, the one most of us are familiar with and that is they went to work. they went to work in factories. you've all seen this image, haven't you? rosy the riveter. this was a propaganda poster. we can do it. propaganda was important in getting women to, quote, do their part. many of you may even have grandparents or great-grandparents who worked in the factories.

anybody have a family member who worked in the local factories? there were a number of those rosies who worked in this area. most of these women who went off to work in the war industry at the beginning, anyway, were single women, often boyfriends or brothers or fathers or other family members had gone off to war. so industry, war industry, the shipping industry, all kinds of war industry reached out. they recruited women from everywhere. they sent out -- you know those posters, those uncle sam wants you, they did those kinds of posters directed at women. we need you to work. go ahead, kaitlyn, and click to the next. women answered the call in huge numbers. think about this for a minute.

these women -- and this is this really wonderful photograph of these women leaving -- i don't know what the factory is, but as you can tell they're dressed like workers. these women had an opportunity for the first time in their lives. they left home. at this time women stayed home with their parents until they got married. and then they moved in, of course, with their husband. there were very few opportunities for women to live on their own. all of a sudden these women are coming from small towns all over the united states into industrial centers around the country and they can go to work dressed like that. there is an incredible sense of independence that these women have. they live in an apartment with,

say, two or three or four other women. they go to work in coveralls and hard hats and bring lunch pails just like the men did. on a break, they sit outside and have their lunch and cigarette, and afterward, they stop at the local bar and have a beer. this sounds like no big deal to us, right? it was a huge deal. it was a sense of independence, but, also, a sense of i'm doing my part. women had an opportunity with this to make their own money, to participate in the war effort. yeah? >> were they getting paid the same as men were? >> oh, of course not. in fact, i'm glad you brought that up. the kinds of jobs women did in these factories varied. they could have -- they became welders, electricians, riveters, all kinds of things. jobs that, believe me, were not

pink collar jobs, and jobs that they would never have had access to before. but all was not equal. they worked in very dirty and unhealthy conditions. they worked long hours. and certainly their pay was nowhere near what it was for a man. and here is an example. if a woman had training and one year experience as a welder, she could make $31.21 per week. if a man was trained as a welder and had one year experience, he made $54.65 a week. now, i'm not suggesting that women didn't complain about that, but i suspect they didn't a whole lot. that's just the way it was done. that's just what happened.

women, as i said, worked in all kinds of industry. go ahead and click the next. this is another example of one of those war propaganda posters. victory waits on your fingers. women were also expected to do some of those jobs that were considered women's work, pink collar jobs, but do it in the war industry. these kinds of posters put pressure on women to do their part. go ahead and do the next one. do the job he left behind. again, there was all kinds of recruitment. these posters were everywhere, they were in women's magazines. they were on posters in local small towns. go ahead, kaitlyn. and then there's this.

the propaganda against japanese-americans, and this one is frightening but there's one coming up that's even more frightening, one of the things that we needed to do was to convince women, and men for that matter, but specifically women, we needed to convince them that there's a big, bad enemy out there. if you take a day off -- and, see, that was their biggest fear, that women were just not going to take this seriously and they were going to take too many days off. you know, they would sleep in and they just wouldn't be able to handle the rigors of a full-time job. so the images of japanese-americans are very animalistic. it's very clear what will happen if you don't do your job. go ahead, kaitlyn. and again, beautiful women. very feminine.

you've got to do your job. we understand that you're longing for your love. but in addition to working, make sure you're buying war bonds. there are also posters that are directed at women that encourage women to do things like grow victory gardens. not all of them were about working in factories. go ahead. and this one is the one i was talking about. one of the most disturbing images of all -- i told you women were often used -- the images of women were used during wartime as propaganda. this is an example of that. as you can see this japanese soldier, again, does not look human. he is -- he is a monster. and he's after these poor, defenseless women. there are several of these.

one has the same sort of japanese soldier and he has this woman thrown over his shoulder as he goes skulking off with her. at the bottom it says, this is what we're fighting for, to protect the virtue of our women. these images, again, were everywhere. go ahead. this is one -- and you may have seen something similar to this when you saw the total war movie the other day -- this one is actually from britain. and one of the earlier images. now women were strong workers in the war industry. their images were used as propaganda. but women were also very willing

to step up and do their part in the military as well. the womens army corps or the w.a.c. was established in the early 1940s. now, again, much like it was with the tuskegee airmen, the thought was we need more men going off to battle, so we need to have some of these jobs that are taken care of by military, male military personnel, we need some of those to be done by women. so let's create a women's army auxiliary corps. this was huge for women. this was enormous. you could join the united states military. you had a uniform. you had a job. you had a purpose. you were part of the war effort. the wac took over jobs like file

clerks, operators, cooks. that allowed the men who were in the military to then be trained for combat. but it wasn't just the wacs, it wasn't just the women's army corps. it was also the wasps. the women's army pilot service. the waps were like the tuskegee airmen. they had to make a claim that they would be useful. a woman named jackie cochrane who was a pilot and a florida native along with a test pilot

named nancy hartniss love approached fdr at the beginning of the war and said, you know, there are a lot of women who could fly supply planes, there are a lot of women who could pull targets, who could transport planes from one place, from the factory to a base. and again, as the same response when the effort was first made to get women into the war industry, no, no, no. we can't do that. we don't want women. we don't want women in those roles. well, it didn't take long before it was clear we needed someone to take over those roles. we needed someone to fly the planes from the factories to the bases. so in september of 1942, the wasps, the women service pilots,

were headed to their first training. the initial training, some of it took place in texas. some of it in florida. these women had a pilot's license, a commercial pilot's license, and they learned to fly, quote, the army way. they were not trained in combat maneuvers because they were not allowed to in any way participate in combat. more than 25,000 women applies to be a w.a.s.p. fewer than 1,900 were accepted. after the training w.a.s.p.s were stationed in over 120 air bases across the u.s.

they flew 60 million miles of operational flights from aircraft factories to bases. they also towed targets for target practice. now is that a job you want? they towed the targets for the guys to use their surface to air missiles for target practice. they flew supply missions. by 1944 they had delivered over 12,000 aircraft of 78 different types. yes. by 1944 they had delivered over 12,000 aircraft, 78 different types. and they were in every area

where the united states was located during the war. 38 w.a.s.p.s lost their lives. now listen to this. 38 lost their lives. and they were all over the world. but when their bodies were sent back home, they were not allowed to be sent home in a flag-draped coffin. you know as well as i do, if you've never been part of a military family -- and i have not been, really -- but if you've never been part of a military family and all you've done is watch the news, you know the significance of a fallen soldier being brought home in a casket covered by the united states flag. they were not allowed to have the u.s. flag.

from as early as 1943, efforts were made in congress to get them recognized. as early as 1943. people started to get them -- tried to get them the recognition that they deserved. but once the war was over, and, again, they were all over the world, once the war was over, their superiors went to them. they took their wings, they took their uniforms, and they were told to find their own way home. eventually people continued to try to get the recognition. does anybody know when the w.a.s.p.s were finally given the recognition that they were due as world war ii heroes? anybody know when that might have happened? take a guess.

no? it has happened. >> probably very recently. >> president barack obama in 2009 was the first president, the remaining -- the remaining members of the w.a.s.p.s, and there were only a handful, were brought on may 10th, 2010, were brought to the capitol and jointly given the congressional gold medal. yes? >> they still don't have the ability to be buried in arlington national cemetery. >> that's correct. they cannot be buried in arlington national cemetery. now, i think it can be dangerous to compare, well, you know --

well, more men died and men had a harder time or these women died and had a harder time. i'm not comparing and we shouldn't compare, but what we should do is respect what they were able to do as pilots. so we've looked at women as propaganda. we've looked at the ways in which women participated in the war effort as factory workers. go ahead and flip through, kaitlyn. there are another couple of images. i'm sorry, i got ahead of myself. these are some training photographs and, again, more training photographs. other thing women did, they played baseball. in the all-american girls professional baseball league.

now, i guarantee you if you've ever taken a class that talks about the history of world war ii and the importance of individuals or groups, rarely, if ever, have you ever had a h had conversation about baseball. how many of you have seen the movie "a league of their own." >> oh yeah, if you have no not -- please don't tell me. in 1943 as i said to you before, men of all ages, of all shapes and sizes, head into war. and that included professional baseball players. we all know baseball is america's past time, chevrolet, pies, moms, baseball. >> that's the i mage. more and more ballplayers and minor league players were

leaving to go to war. a lot of the owners were concerned. remember we have just coming out of a depression and still in an economic depression. some of the best ballplayers have gone off to war. so many owners including a man gamed phillip wrigley. wrigley's chewing gum and if you are a baseball fan, wrigley's field. phillip was concerned that baseball was going under. there was a discussion whether they should play baseball during the war. in the letter written by fdr to the commissioner of baseball that would be come known as the green light letter. fdr says no, it is important that we play. it is crucial that we play

baseball. that's what these guys are fighting for. they're fighting for the memory of that and what that means to this country. phillip came up with the idea of what if we start a women baseball league. now, you have to have a little context and you have to understand women softball in the midwest was extremely popular, extremely popular. by 1939, women softball brought in more fans than minor league baseball in the midwest. so wrigley said what if we take some of these minor league baseball parks. they are empty, lets create a

professional softball league. women softball league. it will get attendance to these field making money and it will also provide entertainment to citizens during the war. a couple of problems with this, female softball players had a bit of a bad image. as a baseball player, i can tell you and some of it probably deserved it. they were too masculine, not feminine enough. wrigley said, lets go out and recruit some of these softball playe players. we have to be careful of who awwe go out and recruit of certain kind of people. those of you who have seen the

movie "a league of their own." you know the scenes of the scouts going off in the farms and stuff and they, you know, they're recruiting people in june. that's kind of the way it was. they recruited a bunch of softball players and brought them to wrigley field. spring training, the first spring training, may 17, 1943, hundreds of women were brought to wrigley field for try outs. ultimately, teams were chosen and many of the women did not make the cut unfortunately. . initially there were four teams.

racene, south bend indiana, illinois. on may 30th, 1943, the first gay took place. wrigley had no clue what to expect. do i sell this as a novelty? go ahead and change the image. this is a group's photograph. but, wrigley had to decide do i sell this as a novelty? women in dresses playing ball? well, it did not take long for him to realize no, these are

ballplayers. these are good ballplayers. go ahead. again. as you can see this is a popular photograph. these women played ball in dresses. that did not stop them. they're one of the ballplayers, who was 89 years old. she talks about yeah, i got a gravel out of my hips from the flying and the dresses. that was what it was like to play baseball in a dress. remember me telling you how women didn't have a lot of opportunities to work outside the home and certainly not a lot of opportunities that challenge the societial norms. these women were given the opportunity to play professional baseball. now, the first season, it was called the all-american girls

softball league. wrigley realized that these were good ballplayers and people came to watch them. the size of the ball changed and it became the all american girl professional baseball league. these women were paid 45 to $80 a week. that was enormous. enormous amount of money. they got to do it playing baseball. something they would never have dreamed or thought possible. go ahead. caitlin. this is also one of my favorite photographs. these women were very serious ballplayers. go ahead. i spend a lot of time with these women, the one who is are still

with us. they will tell you the single most important thing in their lives that they had an opportunity to participate in the war efforts by saving baseball. i asked one of the ballplayers, a woman named bead. when i first met her of my first reunion at the ballplaye ballplayer -- very tall and lengthty and friendly woman from oklahoma. she came up to me and somebody told me her name and she said k kit-kat so i became kit-kat. when i first had a conference with bead, what does this mean

to you that you got to play baseball and she shook her head and she said cat, it means everything. it was my life. it is the best thing i have ever did. the reason it was the best thing i ever did is because we help to make sure that baseball stays alive for those men coming back from war. we also did something else. we created a foundation on which the young women of today can stand. we help to bridge from the 1940s and women playing professional baseball to title nine. they understand their significance in the bigger picture of women's athletic. the league lasted 11 years. and in that 11 years, over 600 women were given an opportunity to play baseball. they travel around the country.

they play baseball in the yankees stadium. they had spring training in 1947 in havana cuba. they were, by the way, four cubans who played professional baseball group. over 30 canadians played inside the 11 years of the league. they had spring training in mississippi and florida. they had an opportunity of some of those girls to travel places around this country they had never seen before and would never had an opportunity to travel. what that opportunity gave them was an opportunity to go to college. they saved some of that money. they sent themselves through college and they sent siblings

through college. they became doctors and lawyers. one became with first female manager of any department. they became principals, surgeons, politicians, pilots. they were able to do that because they had access to professional baseball. so when i ask them -- what does it mean to you to play in the league, they said everything. it is exactly right. what did it mean for this country and the efforts of these women to help during wartime it meant everything. i have asked a number of these

women -- so what was it like to have played baseball in a dress. their answers varied. >> some of them i could repeat and some of them i cannot. basically, we would play naked and whatever it took, we got to play baseball. we truly believed that we helped keep baseball alive during a war. as i said the league ended in 1954. it lasted 11 years. the league expanded over the 11 years from 14 to 12 teams. it is possible that the expansion maybe happened too

quickly. i think the fact that there was expansion in the league and the war was over. women were being told to go back to some of those traditional s and all of those things and including the arrival of television and major league baseball on television help to bring about an end to the all american professional baseball league. if we look at the impact of african-americans, women, japanese americans -- any other group you can possibly think of. if we start to pick that apart, if we start to look at their actual roles in winning the war and surviving the war in some

cases, we'll start to see a full picture of what life was like for people involved in the war and those involved even in a preserve r periphery. war is a consuming thing is what we started out. it was not just about two armies shooting at one another. we start to think about what that meant and how we could further understand world war ii if we bring all these pieces and parts together. well, we can try and that's what i am trying to do here is to get us understand again my montague

is all about perspectives. we have to understand it all to have a full view of world war ii. for me, because i am a women sports historians. for me, the role of women in professional baseball during world war ii is an extremely important pieces of story. important because it is not one that most of us know about. also, because those women, those 600 women, they believe they made a different in the world effort and they did. so the number of women i talked to who worked in rosies, they y

made a difference in the world effort and they did. every single person who went to work in the factory and every single person who have victory garden. every single person who participated in blackouts, gas rationi rationing, food rationin rationinrationing rationing -- every one of those people participated in and helped win world war two. >> go ahead caitlin. >> this is another picture i wanted you to see. standing in the lawn outside the baseball hall-of-fame of outside of cooper, new york. it is a statue.

by the way, that has happened in 2006. go ahead. this is an example of what happened before every single baseball game. women lined up in the v for victory sign. go ahead. finally, "a league of their own." the movie that brought these women's stories to the forefront. for every single one of these individuals, for every one of these groups we talked about, they play a role in world war ii. they played a role in surviving

world war ii. for us to fully understand it, we have to understand all of those perspectives. questions. comments? [ inaudible ] >> oh, no, they were not. there were no african-americans women in the league. it is a bit of a contentious subject. there is probably one of the best scenes in the movie of "a league of their own" is jimmy davis who's there in the catcher's gear missed the ball and the ball went past her and two or three african-american women were standing off to the side and she ran and told the

women to throw it to her and instead she threw the ball past her and into the hands of someone who was standing behind her and realizing what an incredible arm that woman had. if you ask any of the players, they'll tell you -- well, there were no rules about segregation necessarily. black women just did not try out. segregation from the cradle to the grave. no, there were no black women that played in the league. however, there were a number of black women who did play very successfully with the shnegro league. i they play wi m they played with the one. >> they did not have

african-american players. >> did other country hav have -- france or britain, how did they choose near women? >> yes, in fact, great britain did have and i don't remember the name of their women's pilot core -- i don't have that information. they did make use of them and in fact, jackie cochran, spent time there flying with those women. as a result of her time there and of that experience, she was able to help and come back here and encourage the united states to do the same. >> it was applied and not combat related. other questions, comments?

>> does anyone know what a victory garden is? >> yes, go ahead. >> something for growing u up -- you were doing your part by providing your own -- they started it in britain, did it? >> yes, victory garden. >> it was a time where you can only buy certain foods and we were rationing things. we wanted a lot of stuff to go to the war efforts. gas were one of the things we rationed. women were told to grow a garden. go out in the backyard and grow a garden and help to feed not only your family but maybe another family. there were a lot of ways that women participated in the war efforts and certainly that was one. if you were at home and lets say

your husband had gone off to war and you at home had kids. you didn't have the opportunity to go off to work in a factory or playing professional baseball but there were other things you can do and that was one. >> yes. >> were children also like sent to the factories to work? >> no. by the time we got to world war ii, we had child labor law in place and that was as a result of the efforts of the progressive that we talked a about. they did not mean -- they did help in other ways, of course, they did. >> they were not working in factories. in fact, that would have been illegal. >> we had nurses in the army and stuff, they were in combat, were

they not? >> in theory, they were not in combat. of course, we had nurses who were killed. during the war, we had nurses who were taken prisoners of war. so, yes, that happened everywhere. they were not officially in combat. >> we still had that argument, right? i mean that's obviously changed a lot. women can in theory any way do any of the job of the military that men can do. i believe that's the case right now. other questions, comments? no? >> the anti-japanese propaganda -- we served in italy.

one of the hardest places we had to fight of japanese americans. >> yes, there were a number of stories like that. i mean a number of male japanese americans who were rounded up and sent to camps and places like montana and wyoming had served in the united states military during world war one before american citizens. yeah, it was a very dark, i think, difficult time in our history. we understand if you think back about itnd a certainly, we can bring this to the present and think about what we felt like after 9/11. we are fearful when certainly we

have been attacked and threatened by a group of people. we get scared. and so what we did in world war ii was wound up japanese americans and put them in concentration camps in the middle of the country. sadly, there are folks who wants to do similar things today. other questions, comments? for your midterm that's tuesday, yes? you can write me a nice essay of total war where you talk about the importance of perspectives and understanding, all of those importance pieces in parts. yes? okay. i will be counting on that.

yes. >> so would you agree that total war means that war was more than just fighting. it means like everybody, everybody was affected by the war and everybody puts their parts to help. >> i think you hit the nail in the head and you said it much more zinced than i did. it is exactly that. it is of course about those battles. it is, of course, unfortunately, about the killings and the protection of your country or your geographic location. but, it is also about the change that happens to individuals. and, if we expand our views

beyond of that piece of it then i think we can get a sense of that. >> in the same way -- most of you were pretty young. in the same way, again, i keep on using 9/11 because it is the most current, similar experience. those of us who were a little older on 9/11, yes, and you know i didn't go to war. i didn't go to battle. but, here is what happens to me. i walked into my classroom on that day and a classroom much like this one and we were all devastate and we talked about that. we talked about what that meant and then as the weeks went on, there were fewer and fewer young men in my classroom. after about oh, i don't kno

know -- a month, six weeks? i looked out into my classroom, i had two or three young men and that's it. i go back to my office on that day and i have an e-mail from someone here at the university saying -- by the way, a lot of reservice have been called up. i stood in my classroom and i watched these young men leaves my classroom. and they went to war. they literally went to war. i don't know what happened to them. i have no idea. did i fight in the war? no. will that memory live with me for the rest of my life? yes. other questions, comments?

okay. all right, then i will see you on thursday. this sunday night on q&a, the university of toronto of jean edward smith on our president, george bush. >> maybe bush's fault is a fact that he's a born identity of christian who brings that ideology into the presidency. he believes that he was god's agent here on earth to fight evil. >> bush called francois of france -- the book of revelation of the new