1/14/2024 0 Comments Ww2 aftermath on us citiesSomewhat surprisingly, it was common and accepted for discharged soldiers to express anxiety before returning to a place that had changed while they were away, and to people whom separation had made unfamiliar. Once holding discharge papers, a soldier, though still in uniform, was officially a veteran.Ī returning service member bound for home, though a common enough sight, was a deeply evocative moment-and, for this reason, an attractive plot device in literature and film, perhaps most memorably in the opening scenes of the 1946 film classic, The Best Years of Our Lives. Anything other than “honorable” discharge disqualified a veteran from the GI Bill, and could often imperil job prospects as well. The last day at the center entailed a departure ceremony, the final act of which was to award discharge papers, a record of service denoting the terms of separation, honorable or dishonorable-or “blue,” an administrative discharge usually given to soldiers found to engage in same-sex intercourse, or African American soldiers who protested the segregation of the military while serving in it. While at the separation center, soldiers received vocational counseling, an important medical exam (which might serve as the basis for a disability claim), and a pitch to re-enlist. To facilitate the process, soldiers were sent to domestic “separation centers”-including six posts dedicated exclusively to the discharge of members of the Women’s Army Corps (WACs). Instead, for inspiration, they looked to Franklin Roosevelt’s social programs of the New Deal, as well as to opportunities traditionally offered to disabled veterans.ĭischarge itself was a jarring experience, and potentially a source of anguish for men who had grown accustomed to a new life and bonded to new friends. But farmland was no longer the principal form of security in an industrial US economy, leaving them without any direct precedent upon which to model their approach. Like others who came before them, government officials planning for the postwar looked upon access to opportunity as superior to cash when considering the transition of soldiers back to civilian life. Notwithstanding these benefits, many veterans lobbied for compensation in the form of cash-the most fungible and immediately useful of assets, yet one that was frowned upon by generations of lawmakers as an unseemly degradation of the citizen-soldier ideal. But land grants might also be regarded as something more than compensation: in an agrarian economy, land might be considered access to opportunity, an asset that would produce many returns. The increase in housing construction following World War II, led to the growth of suburban areas and to new housing programs for declining urban areas authorized by the Housing Act of 1949.A parcel of land can be considered a form of payment, one that a young country disposed to view the continent as open to settlement could bestow on veterans without incurring much financial cost. The Act authorized funds to localities to assist in slum clearance and urban redevelopment, new construction, and activities not directly related to housing construction (open space land, neighborhood facilities, and basic water and sewer facilities). The exodus to the suburbs led to new housing programs for declining urban areas authorized by the Housing Act of 1949. The increase in housing construction following World War II, which led to the growth of suburban areas, is in part attributable to this financing program. The 1944 authorization of the Veterans Administration (VA) home loan program guaranteed millions of single-family and mobile home loans. Legislation during this period, however, had a major impact on housing. World War II caused a temporary moratorium on domestic housing construction, except for defense purposes.
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