Government Restrictions in World War Two

In World War II, it is hard to maintain your country and deal with war.  Countries need to juggle both issues and certain rights.  Freedom was restricted within the countries population, to maintain the control and peace within the country.  Restricting the rights and freedoms of the population was the one way for the country to survive in the war.  Some of the ways they restricted rights and freedom are:

Newspaper/Media

            The News would write all the current events of the war but with restrictions.  War photos were digitally modified so that it would show good things happening to their own country and bad things happening to the enemy.  Most of the article written in the newspaper about war were censored and looked over by the government before being published.  This was mostly present in Nazi Germany.

Letters from Soldiers

            Letters sent by soldiers was another thing that had restrictions.  A soldier put the letter in a envelope which was to be read by someone else, who would write the letter again, but censoring part about the bad things happening in war and about the government.  The only letters that were not read were not read would be put in a special and different color envelope.  An example of these letters would be love letters to girlfriends back home.

Rationing

            Rationing of food and gas was used to help the country spent less on imports of food and more money on the war.  They would do this because the government spent less on food to insure that the country would not bankrupt.  Gas was also rationed because gas was needed for the war to drive the tanks, airplanes, and ships.  You were entitled to only a certain amount of food or gas per month depending on how many family members you had.

Aliens/Enemy Nationality

            Aliens/Enemy Nationality was another thing the government restricted rights and freedoms.  If you were the same nationality of the country that is opposed to the country you live in, there would be hatred and anger towards you.  One example of this racism is when attacked Pearl Harbor. Canada thought the Japanese in Canada would try to overthrow the government, so all the Japanese Canadian in British Columbia were told they were moving and they were sent to work camps.  Also German-Canadians were taken from their homes because they were considered a threat to the Canadian government.  These people rights and rights and freedoms were taken away because of nationality.

            Many right and freedoms were lost in the war due to the fact that the government needed to set these regulations if they wanted to stay in the war.  If they didn’t restrict rights and freedom, the country would go chaotic and they would have little chance in the war.