U.S. At War: In the Navy's Wake

Even before the final whistle blew, some 5,000,000 war workers knew that within weeks, perhaps days, they would have to turn in their badges.

The Navy was first to hack away. Before the Jap surrender offer had become poop-deck patter, it stopped construction of 95 ships, canceling contracts totaling $1.200,000,000. Halted in various stages of construction were the 45,000-ton battleship Illinois, the 27,100-ton carriers Iwo Jima and Reprisal, 20 heavy and light cruisers. (Still abuilding were 167 Navy ships, including one battleship, eleven aircraft carriers; still unanswered: what to do with the partly built battle hulls.)

This was a taste of what the Government would dish out on V-J day and after. War workers were confused. In Philadelphia, shipyard workers asked when their jobs would end, learned that their bosses did not know. Some plants planned a two-day holiday—so that employes could celebrate while the companies try to discover Washington's intentions.

Wright Aeronautical Corp. and Curtiss-Wright Corp. told their 150,000 employes in 16 plants to go home on V-J day and stay there—until the Government comes clean. At the Army ordnance plant operated by the U.S. Cartridge Co. in St. Louis, one official said: "We'll just keep going until the Army tells us to stop."

Here & there, some employes were sitting pretty; they knew that their companies could and would reconvert quickly.