During WWII, over 46,000 Canadian women served overseas in non-combat roles like nurses, pilots, mechanics, and welders. At home, women worked in factories producing clothes, weapons, and ammunition to support the war effort, though they faced gender discrimination and lower pay than men. The war pulled Canada out of the Depression as total government control of industry mobilized economic production. However, debates over conscription deeply divided French and English Canadians. Additionally, over 22,000 Japanese Canadians had their rights stripped and were interned in camps due to racism and fears they may aid Japan despite most being Canadian-born.

1. HOME FRONT
& Japanese Internment

2.  List and explain howWWII impacted Canada
on the Home Front
 Explain / Evaluate Canada’s contributions to
WWII
 How has international conflict impacted
Canada in the years 1914 – 2001?

3. Women: Military
 During WW II Canada created
women’s branches in the army and
46000 women served overseas as
cooks, nurses, pilots, mechanics,
radar operators and welders.
 CWAC – Canadian Women’s Army
Corps
 “Wrens” – Women’s Naval Service
 Women also worked as spies in the
SOE (Special Operations Executive)

4. Women: Production
 At home women again
worked in factories to help
supply the war.
 Like WWI, Women made
clothes, weapons,
ammunitions for the war
effort. They also held jobs
like aircraft mechanics
 Still, they were paid less
than men for doing the
same jobs and expected to
go back to being housewives
after the war.

5. Production and Economy
“The Arsenal of Democracy”
Jobs in the military and in war production
brought Canada out of the Depression
Total War: All aspects of Canada were
focused on winning the war.
Factories made armoured cars,
tanks, munitions, etc.
Rationing and War Bonds return
War Supply Board: Government controls all
industry; can order companies what to do C. D. Howe, Canada’s Minister of War Production

6. 1940 – National Resources Mobilization Act: Requires all men to help
with war effort in some way
1942 – PM Mackenzie King holds a plebiscite (citizens can vote
directly on an issue) to introduce conscription
He had promised Canadians there would be no conscription,
but Canada needed more troops!
80% of English Canadians supported conscription, 70% of French
Canadians did not
Anglo-French relations are strained, but not as badly as WWI
Conscription Crisis 2.0

7. Conscription Crisis 2.0
“Conscription if
necessary… but
not necessarily
conscription”

10. The Military at
Home
 BCATP –Trained pilots
and crews for the RAF
and RCAF
 Camp X – Allied top
secret spy school near
Oshawa, Ont.

11. Propaganda
Just like in WW I, governments created posters and
films to convince Canadians of the importance of the
war and the evil nature of the enemy.

18. “Enemy Aliens” and
Japanese Internment
 After Pearl Harbour, people in Canada
feared that Japanese Canadians might
supply Japan with secret information or
even help them invade Canada
 Starting in 1942 all Japanese Canadians
were stripped of their rights and required
to carry ID cards at all times.
 They were given a choice to go back to
Japan or to relocate away from the West
coast.

19. 22000 Japanese Canadians were
sent to internment camps, 14000 of
whom were born in Canada
All of their possessions were sold
cheaply and the money went to pay
for “storage and handling” charges. On
the west coast, entire fleets of
Japanese fishing boats were simply
taken away.
After the war they were released
from the camps.
In 1988 the federal gov’t apologized
and gave $21,000 to each survivor.