It Gave Us Better RADAR
RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging) technology and its underwater cousin, SONAR, benefited from extensive research and development in WWII.
Thanks to radar technology, 21st century folks enjoy the convenience of microwaves, which use a cavity magnetron, a by-product of radar tech development.
It Made Germany Less Outwardly Patriotic
Following the horrors of WWII, Germany experienced suppressed patriotism that has continued into the 21st century. NBC reporter Andy Eckhart called it a "lost identity." In 2005, Eckhart reported seeing signs everywhere: German schoolchildren don't sing the national anthem, German colors are rarely on display (sporting events are an exception), and publicly expressing pride in German heritage has been "hijacked" by neo-Nazis.
Former President Richard von Weizsäecker, elected President of West Germany in 1984, put it this way: "In my generation, we lived under the impression that the term patriotism was poisoned during Nazi times."
It Created A 'Nation Of Readers'
Yoni Appelbaum of The Atlantic argues that American publishers created "a nation of readers" by basically giving away "122,951,031 copies of their most valuable titles" to soldiers overseas in the middle of World War II. The publishers struck a deal with the armed forces, creating cheap paperbacks to ship to units across the globe. Appelbaum says this inadvertently "democratized the pleasures of reading." Books were a luxury item at the time, costing two dollars or more on average, even in 1931.
Thanks to cheap wartime paperbacks, books became "as popular as pin-up girls" to soldiers stationed in remote locales like Dutch New Guinea in the Pacific.
It Gave Us Synthetic Rubber
Due to its seizure of rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, Japan was basically in control of the world's natural rubber supply during WWII. As a result, the Allies had to come up with high-quality fake rubber for the gazillion tires and boots needed to get Jeeps and feet on the ground. Government Rubber-Styrene (GR-S) was the answer. GR-S was flying out of factories at more than twice the rate of the natural stuff by the end of the war, so the need was met, for sure. What about the legacy of GR-S?
Its synthetic cousins are used everywhere these days in everything from tires to hairbands to pet toys to rubberbands to surgical gloves and devices to sports equipment to erasers.
It Contributed To American Obesity
Some scholars have suggested that WWII contributed to the current American obesity crisis. How? A chain reaction: the postwar GI Bill era ushered in a huge rise in suburban living. Suburbs aren't made for walking, so everyone started driving. Food also became cheaper, more abundant, and easier to prepare: a "post-war abundance" of fatty, processed foods grew in large part because the war left the government with a huge surplus of fertilizer and pesticides to use up (corn production, especially, went through a boom that never really ended).
This abundance - with "stuffed refrigerators and snack-bearing moms with oversized smiles" - also quickly became symbolic of domestic well-being. Today, obesity affects as many as 93.3 million American adults, and the postwar era of prosperity may be partly to blame.
It Gave Us Super Glue
The chemical name for Super Glue, cyanoacrylate, isn't nearly as catchy as it colloquial name. This super strong adhesive was discovered by scientists in 1942 while trying to create clear plastic gun sights for use in World War II. Cyanoacrylates weren't the answer (too sticky!), so the discovery went unused for more than a decade.
Eastman Kodak researchers grabbed the sticky baton in 1951 and eventually released the adhesive as a commercial product under the name "Eastman #910" in 1958. It wasn't until the 1970s that it gained the now-ubiquitous Super Glue name.
It Gave Us Duct Tape
Johnson & Johnson invented duct tape as a waterproof sealing tape during World War II. Specifically, the government asked the company to create a cloth-based tape that would keep moisture out of ammunition cases. Johnson & Johnson claims that it was originally called "duck tape" for its water-repelling properties, but that the term later morphed into "duct tape" when it was used in air ducts during the postwar building craze.
This claim has been refuted by etymologist Jan Freeman, who says it doesn't hold water.
It Gave Us Tupperware
Plastic in the 21st century has a pretty bad wrap. It has become synonymous with "cheap" in the age of artisanal everything. But just after World War II, plastic - and especially Tupperware - was considered downright patriotic. Tupperware tumblers made of polyethylene, a plastic developed to insulate electrical wiring in wartime gadgets, were featured in full-color ads in popular magazines.
In 1949, inventor Earl Tupper literally compared polyethylene to a soldier: "With the end of the war [polyethylene] was another young veteran that had accelerated from childhood to a fighting job... It had done its job well, but like all young vets returning from the wars, it had never had civilian adult experience." That experience came in the postwar years when Tupperware helped "domesticate" plastic and make it a popular choice in American kitchens for decades to come.
It Helped Teach Us A Ton About Birdsong
Before World War II, ornithologists had a tough time making sense of bird calls. Unlike, say, a piano, a bird's voice is hard to notate in a meaningful way. But after WWII-era technology used to track submarines - such as sound spectrography - was declassified, the birdsong game was changed forever.
Birdsong expert Peter Marler said it in a far more eloquent way: "For the first time, the extraordinary virtuosity of the avian voice was revealed in all its glorious detail." Today, ornithologists use sound spectrography to make birdsong visible as often as accountants use spreadsheets. It helps them to understand how local bird dialects vary from place-to-place, how birds learn songs, how many they know, and a great deal more.
It Helped Make M&M's Hugely Popular In America
Did you know that M&M's were, at one time, reserved strictly for military use? The now hugely popular candy-coated chocolates originally hit store shelves 1941, about two years into World War II. But when the US entered the war, the candies were yanked from stores and enlisted. Why? They were easily transportable and the candy coating prevented them from melting in warm climates, so they were perfect as sweet treats for soldiers-on-the-go.
When the war was over, thousands of M&M's-loving soldiers came home to see them once again stocked on store shelves. The candies went on to become one of America's favorites, thanks in part to the cachet they earned by helping to feed the troops.