listening to women's war stories through Rosie the Riveter

I wanted to visit another National Historical Site, the same way Daddy and I visited the John Muir house in Martinez last year. This time, we picked Rosie the Riveter/ WWII Home Front National Historical Park... and Anna was with us. She's also ready to get her visit stamped onto her National Parks Passport (I also have a copy of this).

The three of us didn't know who Rosie the Riveter was so we were curious. It turns out that the story of Rosie the Riveter was the story of the people left in the USA while WWII raged on. The USA entered the war after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. Men were asked to enlist into the armed forces. To fuel the support for the soldiers, the USA had to figure out how to make sure that military supplies were constantly available to the troops. Because of a need to staff the military manufacturing sector, the government started employing women and people of colour... yes, including immigrants and African-Americans. This was particularly apparent in shipyards, like those found in Richmond and in other parts of the Bay Area.

Whoever the president was during this time, I thank him for beginning to cut down the barriers of discrimination. I don't think that this statement was merely rhetoric because there really was a serious shortage of able-bodied men to handle the construction of ships, planes, and other military craft. It allowed people of different races, creed, and colour to work side by side... it also showed, quite clearly, how deep the culture of discrimination got. 

It got me thinking: the USA is most likely decades ahead of other countries in realising how poorly non-whites and women were assimilated into society. For instance, the train attacks in Paris in 2016 fuelled discussions on improving assimilation of people of different religions and national origins into the mainstream society. In the USA, this has been on the table since the 1940s. But the gap could be deep-seated; this is evidenced by ethnic centres like the "towns" that have popped up in cultural melting pots (e.g., Chinatowns, Japan towns, Little Italy). Is there a Filipino town anywhere? 

But I digress...

Walking through the museum, I thought that probably, this period was the dawn of women empowerment in the country. Posters were exhibited around the museum; these showed that women could do shipyard jobs previously occupied exclusively by men.

Naturally, when the job vacancies were opened up to any person, the little town of Richmond boomed in terms of economy and of population. There were so many people working in the shipyards that the poorest rented beds. Three people working three different shifts could rent the same bed, for instance. Those who couldn't afford a roof above their heads slept under vehicles or in tents. I wonder how the hygiene situation was during that time... how did the city expand its capacity to accommodate the deluge of people?

Women, who used to wear skirts, stay at home, and/or work in "pink" collar jobs, suddenly found themselves working in blue collar jobs, in similar working conditions as their husbands, brothers, and fathers. What an adjustment they must have made to be able to work the jobs tasked to them. The men they worked alongside with often remarked that they wouldn't permit their wives to work in such conditions (either because of the harshness or because of the men's attitudes).

This could also have been the beginning of the LGBT movement for women in the country because these women were actually allowed to leave the feminine stereotype and to express their repressed selves freely. In one of the exhibits, the museum was actually eliciting for stories about the community from the 1940s and their connection with working in the shipyard. 

Aside from working in the shipyards, contributing what they can to the war effort, they were also supposed to ensure that their rations could stretch as far they can to ensure that soldiers had enough food in the war front. This meant that they had to deal with reduced sugar, flour, and meats. They had to tend "Victory" gardens so that they could have vegetables and fruits. They had to plan their trips well to reduce their use of gasoline.

But the most difficult task of all, in my opinion, was to listen to news updates from the war front, hoping that their husbands and brothers survive the violence that they have been subjected to. As I listened to the educational film presentation, I learned that there were also shows designed to empower immigrants and people of colour. Perhaps, this has led to the birth of the civil rights movement in the USA. After all, soldiers of diverse origins fought side by side; why couldn't they live side by side as well? The story focused mostly on the experience of African Americans. The Asian experience was mostly left out of the narrative. Maybe, we'll find it in a different national historical site.

Life went on as the war raged overseas. Women left behind took care of the children. How did the kids deal with growing up without their father? I was thinking that the children, particularly those of the shipyard labour force, got used to living in crowded rooms and in stretching their resources.

The children also might have lived in constant fear that the war might reach their shores. Air raid sirens might have kept everyone on his/her toes... these are the situations that children born after the war didn't have to go through. These children might also have been the first generation to witness their mothers break the feminine stereotype and take on jobs that men normally took, out of a sense of duty or out of necessity. In short, they grew up in a world that witnessed a big change in how family roles were defined.

If in the John Muir house I got to know about the man credited for the national parks, In Rosie the Riveter, I got to know Henry J. Kaiser and the Permanente Metal Corporation, names I now encounter whenever I see the Kaiser Permanente hospitals. Kaiser is a ship-builder who used prefabricated ship parts to increase the efficiency in the industry. Permanente Metal Corp. managed the Richmond Shipyards. Perhaps, the hospital involvement stemmed out of a necessity to keep the shipyard workers healthy. I did see a poster about the company monetising each non-sick day, which indicated how the company valued the health of its workers.

It was another interesting afternoon learning about a piece of history of the Bay Area. It was, and still is, a major melting pot of cultures in this country... people of diverse origins have developed a culture of acceptance that the current residents are continuing to live by. This way, their individual cultures are further enriched. 

I'm now looking forward to my family's next national park visit.