hcj

Kansas at War III

The Homefront

GET THE CITIZEN JOURNAL APP - FREE!

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, the lives of Americans everywhere changed overnight — including here in Kansas. While the region's young men donned uniforms and shipped out to distant shores, those who remained behind fought a different kind of battle.

By 1942, rationing had become an inescapable reality for Kansas families. Gasoline, tires, sugar, meat, and coffee — items once taken for granted — were now strictly controlled through a system of ration books and coupons. Rural farmers particularly struggled with gasoline restrictions, vital as fuel was needed for their agricultural equipment. Yet compliance was remarkably high.

In kitchens throughout Hutchinson, Salina, and Abilene, homemakers became resourceful like never before. They swapped recipes that used less sugar and meat, planted "Victory Gardens" in backyards, and preserved vegetables for winter use. The wartime slogan "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" became a way of life rather than just a catchy phrase.

Equally impressive were the community-wide scrap drives. Schoolchildren and volunteers combed homes, farms, and businesses for materials vital to war production. Town squares frequently featured growing mountains of scrap metal, rubber tires, and waste paper. Old farm machinery, metal fencing, and even children's toys were donated to be transformed into tanks, ships, and ammunition.

These grassroots efforts were coordinated through the Kansas Council of Defense and its local county auxiliaries, which by war's end had established operations in all 105 counties and nearly every town in the state. As the Topeka Daily Capital noted at the time, even if civilian defense accomplished nothing else, it was worthwhile if it "breaks down the barriers between neighbors" in pursuit of a common cause.

War bond drives became the centerpiece of civilian mobilization. Kansas communities consistently exceeded their assigned quotas, demonstrating both patriotism and financial sacrifice. Sedgwick County's performance during the Third War Loan drive in late 1943 exemplifies this spirit. With an assigned goal of $21 million, residents enthusiastically raised over $24 million. This achievement represented roughly 76,000 individual bond purchases, with an average value of $320 per bond (equivalent to nearly $5,600 today).

Smaller communities matched this enthusiasm. By 1943, Hutchinson residents had purchased more than $2.8 million in war bonds. Bond rallies became community celebrations, complete with parades, fairs, and even auctions of war trophies.

The personal investment Kansans felt in the war's outcome was reflected in the state's remarkable service record: by April 1947, over 215,000 men from Kansas had served in uniform during World War II — an extraordinary contribution from a state with just 1.8 million inhabitants.

A Changing Landscape

Beyond these visible patriotic efforts, World War II brought seismic changes to Kansas's population, economy, and infrastructure. Nowhere was this more evident than in Wichita, where the aircraft manufacturing boom caused a population explosion. Sedgwick County grew from approximately 136,500 residents in 1940 to roughly 226,700 at its wartime peak in 1944.

People streamed in from rural Kansas communities and neighboring states, drawn by high-paying defense jobs. This rapid influx strained Wichita's infrastructure beyond capacity, creating critical shortages of housing, schools, transportation, and utilities.

The federal government constructed an entirely new war-workers' town on the outskirts of Wichita. Rising from former prairie land in just 15 months, Planeview ultimately included about 4,400 housing units and, by late 1943, housed nearly 20,000 people — instantly becoming the seventh-largest "city" in Kansas. Complete with its own water system, shops, and schools, Planeview represented emergency urban planning on a massive scale.

Other communities experienced similar, if less dramatic, transformations. Hutchinson grew approximately 12% during the 1940s, while Salina expanded by 60% between 1940 and 1950, with new neighborhoods sprouting to accommodate defense workers and, later, returning veterans.

This urbanization came at a cost to some rural areas. Many farming communities saw their populations decrease as young men entered military service and families relocated to defense industry centers. Those who remained on farms often worked longer hours to compensate for labor shortages, or consolidated operations with neighboring properties.

The economic landscape shifted dramatically as well. The Great Depression's stubborn unemployment virtually disappeared in Kansas by 1942, replaced by an acute labor shortage. Wages rose, and many who had struggled financially during the 1930s found themselves with steady paychecks for the first time in years.

Educational institutions adapted to wartime needs. Kansas State University in Manhattan adjusted its curriculum to support the war effort, adding specialized engineering courses and hosting an Army Specialized Training Program. These changes built capacity that would later help the university grow significantly when veterans returned on the GI Bill.

Not all wartime changes proved permanent. When defense contracts were canceled in 1945, many war workers departed, causing a brief economic contraction. Wichita's population declined slightly from its 1944 peak once B-29 production wound down. Yet the long-term trajectory had been irrevocably altered: the war had firmly established an aircraft industry in Wichita that continues to this day, with companies like Boeing, Beech, and Cessna transitioning to Cold War and civilian production.

World War II fundamentally transformed Kansas, accelerating urban growth, modernizing infrastructure, and diversifying the economy beyond its traditional agricultural base. The region emerged from the conflict with larger cities, a robust manufacturing sector, and improved transportation networks. These changes set the stage for postwar development—for instance, Fort Riley's selection in 1955 as the permanent home of the 1st Infantry Division, partly due to wartime expansions that had made it one of the Army's premier training installations.

The war years remain a pivotal chapter in Kansas’s history—a time of sacrifice and rapid change, but also of community solidarity and lasting development that continues to shape the Kansas heartland today.

Thank you for following our "Kansas at War" series. If you missed our previous installments, be sure to read Part I: Enlistment and Training Across Central Kansas, and Part II: Mobilizing the Economy.

citizen journal is Expanding Across Kansas

We talk a lot today about how losing jobs has hollowed out the Heartland, and this is true. But small towns across America have lost more than just manufacturing jobs. They've lost coverage of their municipal governments, lost touch with local kids playing sports, and most importantly, they've lost a common connection to their neighbors.

citizen journal is trying to reinvent the local newspaper for the digital era. We have expanded from McPherson, where we started, to 8 cities in Kansas: Hutchinson, Salina, Lindsborg, Abilene, Junction City, Manhattan, and Hays. McPherson and Hutchinson are ‘full service’ cities, meaning we have local MWF publications there. Our reporters are moms, golf pros, and actual professional, award-winning journalists. We will add more ‘full service’ cities, and we need your help. We’re looking for part-time contributors, so if you or anyone you know wants to help reinvent local news, email me! We are both a news and technology company, and we cover our other six markets with a combination of humans and technology - the future of journalism. We will add more of these cities and will flip them into ‘full service’ markets as we recruit citizen journalists.

If you get this newsletter by email, follow these instructions to get only the emails you want. If you use our iOS or Android app, follow these instructions to subscribe to only the notifications you want. We received 46k views on our website last month and have over 3k app downloads across KS - and America. We're going to sell ads to support this venture. If you're a local business who wants to reach a local audience - in your town or across the state - please consider advertising. And if you ever have any trouble with our website or app, email me - we’re not big enough for a customer support line. -Greg

Hutchinson

Salina

McPherson / Lindsborg

Many more cities coming soon!

Daily US news summary

Daily Kansas news summary