1945

Articles from 1945

Architect Rudolf Schindler (Direction Magazine, 1945)

Esther McCoy (1904 – 1989) was one of the few voices in Forties journalism to champion modern architecture in the city Los Angeles. Sadly, the common thinking among too many critics and editors at the time held that Gomorrah-Sur-la-Mer could only to be relied upon for innovations like Cobb Salad and valet parking – but McCoy recognized that the city’s dramatic quality of light and odd lunar landscape combined to create fertile ground for modern architecture. Unlike other like-minded critics and historians who discovered the city in later decades, such as Reyner Banham, McCoy came to know the Viena-trained architect Rudolph Schindler, who is the subject of this 1945 article.

The Wartime Leadership of Sian-Kuan Lin (Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

As well as anything else, the leadership of Sian-Kuan Lin explains why the people of China continue to wage barehanded battle against the overwhelming might of Japan. It is a story that starts in 1927 when Chang Kai-shek marched North against the war lords, fighting to make Sun Yat Sen’s dream of a great Chinese republic come true.

VJ – Day in Berlin (yank Magazine, 1945)

The city that had seen its own brand of fascism and international banditry tumble only a few months before had little energy left for reaction to the fall of Japan. The American Forces network broadcast the first authentic VJ news at 0210, and most of Berlin’s polyglot occupation population, as well as most native Berliners, were asleep.

VJ-Day in Boston (Yank Magazine, 1945)

Boston’s peace celebration exploded suddenly after the official news of Japanese surrender poured out of the countless radios. All morning and afternoon while many other cities were already wildly celebrating, the Hub, with true New England caution, waited soberly for confirmation.

But the staid attitude was swept away…The most general impulse seemed to be to shout, sing and hug passers-by. For men in uniform the celebration seemed to be more of a kissing fest than anything else…

VJ-Day in Pasadena (Yank Magazine, 1945)

A quick dispatch filed by YANK MAGAZINE correspondent Larry McManus from the pristine halls of a Pasadena military hospital (previously the Vista del Arroyo Hotel) where total bedlam broke out when the word was announced that the Japanese had cried uncle:

They went wild…they slid down banisters, they chinned themselves on the hospital’s chandeliers. The remark most of them made was, ‘No Pacific trip now!’

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