Rationing in the United States "even if Japan does not fold now, the war will certainly be over before the books can be used." On August 15, 1945, World War II gas rationing was ended on the West Coast of the United States. Most other rationing restrictions also ended in August of 1945 except for sugar rationing, which lasted until 1947 in some parts of the country. Rationing in the United States Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allotted portion of the resources being
Rationing in the United States panics, such as flashlights and batteries after Pearl Harbor. Scarce medicines such as penicillin were rationed by triage officers in the US military during World War II. Civilian hospitals received only small amounts of penicillin during the war, because it was not mass-produced for civilian use until after the war. A triage panel at each hospital decided which patients would receive the penicillin. The work of issuing ration books and exchanging used stamps for certificates was handled by some 5,500 local ration boards of mostly volunteer workers selected by local officials. Many levels of rationing went into effect. Some items,