Postwar
Politics and Culture in Modern America
Series Editors: Margot Canaday, Glenda Gilmore, Michael Kazin, Stephen Pitti, Thomas J. Sugrue
Volumes in the series narrate and analyze political and social change in the broadest dimensions from 1865 to the present, including ideas about the ways people have sought and wielded power in the public sphere and the language and institutions of politics at all levels—local, national, and transnational. The series is motivated by a desire to reverse the fragmentation of modern U.S. history and to encourage synthetic perspectives on social movements and the state, on gender, race, and labor, and on intellectual history and popular culture.
POSTWAR
Waging Peace in Chicago
Laura McEnaney
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2018 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McEnaney, Laura, author.
Title: Postwar : waging peace in Chicago / Laura McEnaney.
Other titles: Politics and culture in modern America.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2018] | Series: Politics and culture in modern America | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018004673 | ISBN 978-0-8122-5055-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Reconstruction (1939–1951)—Social aspects—Illinois—Chicago. | Postwar reconstruction—Social aspects—Illinois—Chicago. | Chicago (Ill.)—Social conditions—20th century. | Chicago (Ill.)—Economic conditions—20th century. | Chicago (Ill.)—Ethnic relations—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC F548.5 .M37 2018 | DDC 977.3/11043—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018004673
CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Bathrooms, Bedrooms, and Basements: War Liberalism in the Postwar Apartment
Chapter 2. Japanese Americans on Parole: The Perils and Promises of a Postwar State
Chapter 3. Living the GI Bill: Postwar Prosperity Through Government Dependency
Chapter 4. “I Would Not Call This the More Abundant Life”: Working-Class Women Get Their Peace
Chapter 5. After the Double V: African Americans Demobilize for a “Real Peace”
Conclusion: Writing the History of What Happened After
Archival Collections Consulted
ABBREVIATIONS
| ASHA | American Social Hygiene Association |
| CHA | Chicago Housing Authority |
| CRC | Chicago Resettlers Committee |
| CUL | Chicago Urban League |
| DOW | Department of Welfare (Chicago) |
| FEPC | Fair Employment Practice Committee |
| HWLC | Harold Washington Library Center |
| JACL | Japanese American Citizens League |
| JASC | Japanese American Service Committee |
| JERS | Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study |
| MRC | Municipal Reference Collection |
| NAACP | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People |
| NAM | National Association of Manufacturers |
| NAREB | National Association of Real Estate Boards |
| OHE | Office of the Housing Expediter |
| OPA | Office of Price Administration |
| OWMR | Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion |
| RRA | Race Relations Adviser |
| TAS | Travelers Aid Society of Chicago |
| UIC | University of Illinois at Chicago |
| USO | United Service Organizations |
| USES | U.S. Employment Service |
| VA | Veterans Administration |
| VEHP | Veterans Emergency Housing Program |
| VES | Veterans Employment Service |
| VFW | Veterans of Foreign Wars |
| VIC | Veterans Information Center |
| VRA | Veterans Relations Adviser |
| WCMC | Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago |
| WMC | War Manpower Commission |
| WRA | War Relocation Authority |
| YMCA | Young Men’s Christian Association |
| YWCA | Young Women’s Christian Association |
Figure 1. Map of Chicago showing locations of apartment disputes and local welfare resource centers.
Postwar
INTRODUCTION
The End
This book begins with an ending. In August 1945, American pilots flew over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to drop their atomic cargo on Japanese civilians. The war in Europe had ended months before, and this was the frightening and fiery finale to the Pacific war. Within hours, news of this terror from the sky reached those on the ground in the United States, and among the myriad reactions to the bomb was impatience for a quick exit from the war. Peace was now finally perceptible, almost fully real, so it was hard for Americans to digest the official line that dismantling the war in