Final answer:
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered factories to refocus on wartime production, creating military equipment such as planes and tanks, which helped the country exit the Great Depression and allowed it to produce half of the world's manufactured goods by war's end.
Step-by-step explanation:
U.S. Factory Mobilization After Pearl Harbor
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government mandated a massive shift in domestic production. Factories that formerly produced consumer goods, such as automobiles and appliances, transitioned to manufacture military equipment including planes, Jeeps, and tanks. Notably, the Ford Motor Company exemplified this shift by producing a B-25 bomber every hour at the peak of its wartime efforts. The country's swift conversion to a war-focused economy contributed significantly to lifting it out of the Great Depression, and by the end of World War II, the United States was responsible for producing half of the world's manufactured goods while comprising merely 5% of the global population.
To manage and facilitate this wartime production, measures such as the creation of the Defense Plant Corporation were put in place, establishing hundreds of plants and significantly investing in the economies of western states. Military strategic planning also prompted the transformation of California into a vital training ground for troops, in anticipation of various combat scenarios including tank warfare, amphibious assaults, and desert campaigns.
The federal government's involvement extended to securing the means of transporting this newly produced war material. Through various steps like exempting shipyard workers from military service and taking over commercial shipping for military use, the U.S. quickly expanded its fleet to meet the logistical needs of the war effort.