During World War II, the US government called on its citizens to aid the war effort from the home front. One of the most widespread campaigns was Salvage for Victory, launched on January 10, 1942, just over a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Salvage for Victory called on Americans to collect and donate items that could be recycled into war materiel. Items collected included scrap metal, rope, rubber, and waste fat from cooking. Millions of tons were collected by the end of the war, and the campaign helped keep up civilian morale through a long and brutal conflict.

This image shows a neighborhood scrap drive at the Yesler Terrace housing development in Seattle in November 1942. Children were often involved in collecting scrap metal from their neighbors. The slogan written on a board on the scrap pile uses a racial slur against Japanese people. Yesler Terrace was finished in 1941 and many Japanese people lived in the area until being forcibly removed by the US government in early 1942.

Caption information source: “Salvage for Victory: World War II & Now,” National WWII Museum, retrieved from https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/salvage-for-victory-world-war-ii.