Race, Industry, and the Aesthetic of a Changing Community in World War II Portland
the most fascinating aspects of the history of the American home front in World War II is the speed with which communities, institutions, industries, and individuals completely transformed themselves to meet the demands of the emergency. Portland is one of many cities whose wartime transformations permanently changed the community. The quiet, provincial city became the center of a shipbuilding boom in 1942, when the Kaiser Shipbuilding Corporation received generous government contracts to build two gigantic shipyards and to expand an existing Portland facility. The U.S. War Manpower Commission was quick to realize that Portland had nowhere near the labor force required to operate the yards on a 24 hour schedule. The commission designated Portland a zone of immediate need and worked with Kaiser to quickly recruit 10,000 workers from across the United States. By the end of the war, industry and government had brought 160,000 newcomers to a city whose prewar population had hovered at about 406,00o.1