1940s and World War II
New Jersey shipyards were responsible for the construction of many naval ships, including battleships, aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers and destroyers. New Jersey received 9% of all allied war-related contracts throughout the World War II era. During the war, Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County was opened for naval production, which provided ships with a safe port to take on ammunition. A German U-boat (U-869) was sunk off the coast of New Jersey in 1945.
Camp Kilmer was a staging area near New Brunswick serving the port of New York. Buildings were painted such that they had a camouflage effect. Camp Kilmer helped to serve troops by offering medical care and providing them with supplies. Camp Kilmer became inactive in 1949 but was reactivated for the Korean War. It again became inactive in 1955, but was reactivated for the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Fort Dix was opened again for the training of soldiers for the war effort. Nearly 500,000 soldiers enlisted for the war, leading many women to take jobs in their husbands’ absences.
Millville Airport opened on August 2, 1941. It was called "America's First Defense Airport" because it was opened as a gunnery training area for fighter pilots. Over 1,500 pilots were trained for advanced aircraft fighting at this airport. Fort Hancock, New Jersey was also opened in Sandy Hook (New Jersey). Gunners in the fort prevented German submarines from entering New York Harbor.
An internment camp housing people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent was located in Gloucester City, New Jersey. In addition, Seabrook Farms, New Jersey took advantage of Japanese labor to increase productivity when the government allowed small groups of people from the internment camps to work there. At the end of World War II, the government closed down the internment camps, but many people from the camps continued to work at Seabrook Farms.
In 1947 the current version of the New Jersey State Constitution was ratified, reorganizing the state government. Governors were allowed to serve four years instead of three, and a bicameral Legislature was created, consisting of a 40 member Senate and an 80 member Assembly. The new State Constitution also returned the right of suffrage to females and blacks.
In 1947 the Trenton Six Case went to trial in Trenton, New Jersey. Six African American defendants were convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly white shopkeeper based on coerced confessions.
Read more about this topic: New Jersey In The 20th Century
Famous quotes containing the words war ii, world and/or war:
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)
“Has the world ever been changed by anything save the thought and its magic vehicle the Word?”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“War talk by men who have been in a war is always interesting; whereas moon talk by a poet who has not been in the moon is likely to be dull.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)