1942

Articles from 1942

‘Why Hitler Thinks He’ll Win”
(The American Magazine, 1942)

This is a great article, penned by an American correspondent who had actually sat face-to-face with Hitler on numerous occasions. He tells the reader many of his observations concerning the man’s personality, expressions and what he has observed regarding the German people:

I have presented [in this article] the essential psychological and material factors in Hitler’s conviction that he will still win the war. There were signs even while I was still in Germany that the German people have given up the dream of a ‘total victory’ to follow their total war.


More about Adolf Hitler can be read here…

Flight Officer Lawrence Olivier
(Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

When the actor Lawrence Olivier (1907 – 1989) first heard that a state of war existed between Britain and Germany, he was enjoying the breezes off the shore of Southern California in a sailboat skippered by Hollywood’s heir expectant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and it was to Fairbanks that the attached letter was addressed. When this letter was written, Olivier was posted to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm where he gained the understanding that aeronautics was an acquired taste, and one that he simply could not cultivate. In his book International Stars at War, author James Wise noted that Flight Officer Olivier would soon be judged incompetent by the Royal Navy and released for other duties more in line with his abilities (like writing this highly self-conscious letter to his Hollywood friend).


Fairbanks, on the other hand, played an important roll in the U.S. Navy and by the war’s end was sporting a chest-full of ribbons.

Reporter on Bataan
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

War reporter Nat Floyd (news service unknown) briefly explains how he was able to get out of Bataan just in the nick of time and avoid years of starvation at the hands of the Japanese Army.

Private Yori Wada, United States Army
(Script Magazine, 1942)

The attached article was written by a twenty-five year-old Japanese-American Army private named Yori Wada (1917 – 1997). Wada had joined the army some months prior to the Pearl Harbor attack and with all the good fellowship and optimism typical of youth, he explained with some enthusiasm, about how much he enjoyed army life and all the friends he had made within his unit. While the article makes no reference to the unfortunate lot of his family back home, Wada wrote that his future in the army as of April, 1942 was unclear; all he wanted was a fair shot to defend his country, and he didn’t think that he’d get it.

‘The Problem People”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1942)

These assorted color photographs of the Japanese-American internment camp at Manzanar, California helped to illustrate this 1942 COLLIER’S MAGAZINE article by Jim Marshall as to what Manzanar was and was not, who was there and how it operated:


All we can do here is prove that we are good sports and good Americans, and hope that people will respect us and our problems.

Wilson On The Eve of War
(Pic Magazine, 1942)

This article remembers the relationship Wilson enjoyed with a much admired editor and columnist for the N.Y. World, Frank Cobb (1869 – 1923). A page from the newspaperman’s diary recalls his 1917 visit with the President on the night before he appeared before Congress seeking the declaration of war.

I’d never seen him so worn down. He looked as if he hadn’t slept – and he said he hadn’t…

With The War Came New Opportunities
(United States News, 1942)

The government, endeavoring to meet the problem by raising the economic stature of the Negro, create committees, change regulations. The Army admits Negro candidates for officer training to the same schools as whites. It is training Negro pilots for the Air Corps. Negro officers will command Negro troops. The Navy opens new types of service for the Negro in the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, inshore establishments, Navy yards and construction crews.

Men’s Hats and Shoes
(Advertisements, 1942)

When the fops answered the call in 1942, these are the hats and shoes they walked away wearing.


You will be able to easily print the attached page of fashion images.


On another note: the legendary fashion designer Christian Dior had a good deal of trouble with people who would illegally copy his designs; click here to read about that part of fashion history.



Were Churchill and Stalin Hipsters?
(Click Magazine, 1942)

Illustrated with pictures of Winston Churchill’s weird zipper suit and Joseph Stalin’s all purpose costume, 1940s fashion critic Elizabeth Hawes (1903 – 1971) taunts the Great-American-Male and challenges him to respond in kind by wearing copies of these comfortable threads:

Today’s business clothes were worked out by the winners of the Industrial Revolution, whose descendants are the big tycoons of our day…Aspirants to leadership and success normally copy the clothes of existent leaders. Isn’t it about time the most of you changed your suits?

Elizabeth Hawes wrote more on the topic of W.W. II fashions…

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