It was a horrible war. Millions killed worldwide, economics crashed, families torn apart, morality lost. Although FDR had tried to organize a United Nations prior to the war to prevent it from happening, it just didn't work out the way he wanted it to, more like back-fired on him. So, after the second, he found a way to work it together.
Many Americans were struggling with the fact that we were fighting racism abroad, the reason we were at war, yet we were protecting it at home. It seemed illogical to most Americans because it was. The war had lead to unifying the nation as everyone strived for a similar purpose – America to prosper and for loved ones to return home alive. As the war drew to an end, the leader of the allies tried once again to build up the United Nations, with the purpose that things could be talked out instead of fought out on the battle field.
They drew up a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It stated many absolutes about people being equal, how we were each born with the same capabilities, therefore should be given the same opportunities despite race, gender. It states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” What a great idea! The leaders of the United Nations definitely had a good idea of world peace, yet the execution is what counts.
There are many instances particularly in the United States that contradict this direct quotation for the Article. Since the foundation of America, the country has driven off slaves and “free” labor by the “less qualified”. The African Americans had fought for their freedom and suffrage from the very beginning, with little no progress, sometimes regressive. During the course of the war, the Public Law 45 Pace Amendment of 1943 was passed that said government wouldn’t respect collective bargaining from the agricultural industry or a minimum wage or maximum hours. They were once more discriminated against and not given the same rights as other “more qualified”, in the middle of wartime. Yet, the president wanted everyone to be given equal dignity and rights throughout the world.
Another example of this on the home front would be the Executive Order of 9066, which stated that the government had the right to preserve and protect areas that they were threatened by, indirectly meaning that Japanese Americans, about 80% native born Americans, were to be forced into interment, concentration camps striped of their belongs. Although the government was trying to fight for its country and do what it felt necessary to “preserve and protect areas” after the brutal attack of Pearl Harbor, it still contradicts the Human Rights declaration made at the UN to unify the world from another world war.
Although most like to disregard the hypocrisy going on within their own country, denying certain people groups rights, the United States eventually ratified the Declaration of Human Rights in order to maintain that there is no way but the American way to other countries throughout the world.