American Legion Magazine

The Nation’s Capital as ‘Boomtown’ (American Legion Magazine, 1943)

“Every day in Washington, and twice on Sundays, there will be parades. You love parades. You’ll never get tired of turning out for bands, even though they always stop playing just as they get opposite you…. Anyhow, there will always be the feel of parades in Washington, and the echoes of martial music, and the sight of waving flags. Where else, oh where elese, could they sing so fervently God Bless America?”

Japan’s Industrial Shortcomings (American Legion Magazine, 1943)

This article said nothing to the American home front readers that they didn’t already know, in fact the Associated Press ran a similar article that appeared on numerous front pages on December 8th of 1941. Simply stated, it reported that the Japanese were totally incapable of maintaining prominence in a war against the United States due to the fact that Japan’s war industry was far too small and they had few natural resources to rely upon. The reason that the subject was broached again in early 1943 was because it was all beginning to appear quite true. During the first 13 months of the war the Japanese let loose with everything they had, now they were on the defensive, and discovering that their industry was woefully inadequate.


Articles about the significance of 1943 can be read here can be read here and here…

”Never Again” (American Legion Magazine, 1939)

In the attached article, an American journalist ruminated about the U.S. experience in W.W. I on the eve of W.W. II. All told, he didn’t think intervention was a good idea but was grateful America learned its lesson.


“Suffice it here to record the unquestioned fact that American determination which was enthusiastic at the outset became more and more grim as reality replaced imagination.”

”Never Again” (American Legion Magazine, 1939)

In the attached article, an American journalist ruminated about the U.S. experience in W.W. I on the eve of W.W. II. All told, he didn’t think intervention was a good idea but was grateful America learned its lesson.


“Suffice it here to record the unquestioned fact that American determination which was enthusiastic at the outset became more and more grim as reality replaced imagination.”

1943: The Year the Japanese Had Shot Their Wad (American Legion Magazine, 1943)

“Japan in the first 13 months of war let loose virtually everything she had against us. Now she’s feeling the pinch, for her lack of industrial capacity makes replacements slow, and she hasn’t the savvy to keep up with her opponents in improving plants and weapons. This is particularly true in the all-important matter of aircraft.”

General Charles Summerall (American Legion Magazine, 1939)

Looking back twenty-one years at the W.W. I commands of General Charles Summerall (1867 – 1955), historian Fletcher Pratt pointed out that it was the general’s unique understanding of artillery that served as the key to his success in battle.

General Charles Summerall (American Legion Magazine, 1939)

Looking back twenty-one years at the W.W. I commands of General Charles Summerall (1867 – 1955), historian Fletcher Pratt pointed out that it was the general’s unique understanding of artillery that served as the key to his success in battle.

The Japanese Spy Problem (American Legion Magazine, 1939)

“At the end of last year, our authorities discovered that there were nearly one hundred Japanese leg men in New England reporting to the Boston office. More than five hundred in Washington; something above two hundred in Chicago; twenty-five hundred were in the New York area; twenty-five in Cleveland; thirty-eight in Detroit; eighty-odd in Florida, and so on out to the West Coast where around three thousand Japanese are ‘on duty’ from San Diego to Port Washington.”

Amerikanskies (American Legion Magazine, 1939)

This article is one that has reoccurred throughout the Twentieth Century and into the Twenty-First. It recalls the good will that has existed between the American soldier and the children in the countries that hosted them or the lands they occupied. The American Doughboys in W.W I France were very sympathetic with the numerous orphans that were created in that war and contributed heavily to their charities. Their comrades serving in Siberia were charmed by the boys and girls of that land and quickly became fast friends. The attached article was written by a former officer posted to the Siberian Expedition, and in this column, he put pen to paper and recounted the happy friendships he witnessed between the Amerikanskies and the children of Siberia.

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