Troopship
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)
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1945
Articles from 1945
The Jeep
(Coronet & Yank Magazines, 1945)
When General Marshall listed the numerous advantages that the U.S. Army enjoyed during the war (you can read it here), he included on his list the Willys Jeep. The Jeep and the Two and Half-Ton truck, he believed, contributed mightily to the mobility of American Forces in most theaters. The two articles attached herein go into some detail about the strengths of the Jeep, but concentrated primarily on the improvements made in the vehicle as Jeep prepared for its launch in the civilian market place.
Tommy Gun
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)
“Soldiers respect for this weapon traces to two things. It fires .45 caliber slugs as a cyclical rate of 600 to 700 per minute. An enemy struck by a carbine or riffle bullet can keep coming – as Japs have shown. A man struck by a Tommy Gun slug is stopped dead in his tracks. A burst of fire can cut a man in two.”
Tommy Gun
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)
“Soldiers respect for this weapon traces to two things. It fires .45 caliber slugs as a cyclical rate of 600 to 700 per minute. An enemy struck by a carbine or riffle bullet can keep coming – as Japs have shown. A man struck by a Tommy Gun slug is stopped dead in his tracks. A burst of fire can cut a man in two.”
Katherine Dunham
(See Magazine, 1945)
Katherine Dunham (1909 – 2006) was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, anthropologist, author and Civil Rights activist – enjoying throughout the decades one of the most successful dance careers a dancer could ever hope for. Attached is a profusely illustrated review of her 1945 production, Tropical Revue. It implies that much of the audience came away recognizing her originality and genius – while others simply thought she was a burlesque artist.
The Coast Guard Fired the First Shot
(Philadelphia Record, 1945)
“Philadelphia Coast Guardsmen yesterday observed the surrender of Germany by recalling that their branch of service fired the first American shot in the war against Germany, capturing the first enemy ship and taking the first Nazi prisoner… It was in September, 1941, that the Coast Guard cutter Northland captured the Norwegian freighter Busko, loaded with equipment for a German weather station to be established in Greenland.”
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Socialized Medicine
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)
Here is an in-depth examination as to whether or not government-sponsored healthcare was suitable for post-war America. Written by a journalist who was decidedly for the proposal, you will not be surprised to read the same exact arguments were presented on both sides as they were during the Obama years.
“The bill’s friends argue that tax-supported medicine is no more un-American than tax-supported education.”
First Election Planned for Post-Fascist Japan
(Philadelphia Record, 1945)
“The Japanese Cabinet decided yesterday a general election will be held January 20 to 31 [1946], and the Tokyo newspaper Yomuri Hochi urged ‘spontaneous and vigorous action’ toward forming a democratic government.”
Wanting the Japanese Cabinet to know who was in charge, General MacArthur moved the date up to December seventeenth [1945]. It was the first time Japanese women had ever voted.
Doenitz’ Aid Warns of Hardships
(Philadelphia Record, 1945)
“No one must be under any illusions about the severity of the terms to be imposed upon the German people by our enemies.”
Discovering the Deathworks
(PM Tabloid, 1945)
“American troops in Germany last week hit the Nazi death camp belt, an area that revealed such horrors – the bodies of thousands of Allied prisoners shot, starved, beaten and burned to death – that even the cynics of the civilized world now could not fail to be convinced of the truth of German atrocities.”
Returning Nisei Targeted by Racists
(PM Tabloid, 1945)
“It is reported by WRA (War Relocation Authority) that between January 2 and April 22, there have been 16 shooting incidents in California. Nobody was hit. It is clearly terroristic activity aimed at frightening Nisei who have the temerity to come home and try to earn a living from their farms again”.
Dance at Tule Lake.
Jim Crow Officer Corps
(PM Tabloid, 1945)
The brainiac who wrote the Jim Crow rules for the U.S. Army officer corps forgot to segregate the officer’s clubs.
The Two World Wars Compared
(PM Tabloid, 1945)
Using the most accurate figures available to them at the time, the editors at PM Daily News compared and contrasted the two world wars for their readers in their VJ-Day issue.
The American Leviathan
(Liberty Magazine, 1945)
Between the years 1941 and 1945 the United States achieved a level of power that the tyrants of yore only dreamed about:
“Clearly here was a phenomenon to make anyone sit up and take notice – a new kind of military machine, a new kind of global power that apparently could be delivered anywhere in the world, at any time… By building 75,000 to 100,000 planes yearly and by improving planes and motors, we have emerged suddenly as an air power…No other nation has made a comparable investment in carrier aviation. No other nation would dare to put an expeditionary force to sea against a nation strong in carriers and land -based aircraft…With the object of defending ourselves, we have solved one problem after another until we have stumbled on a formula for conquering most of the world.”
A similar article appeared twenty years earlier…
One Journalist’s Encounter with General Patton
(PM Tabloid, 1945)
We have no idea who Tom O’Reilly was – beyond what can be immediately conjectured, that he was a staff columnist with PM, and so admired that they thought it a grand idea to clean him up and send him off to see Nazi Germany in its death throes. O’Reilly had a very candid, off-the-cuff manner of writing, which came across as quite humorous when he explains how unimpressed he was with General Patton’s dramatic appearance.
Press Reviews from Coast to Coast
(PM Tabloid,1945)
Here is a smattering of editorial opinions collected from numerous newspapers across the United States concerning the Japanese surrender and the close of World War II.
Goering Captured
(PM Tabloid, 1945)
“Reich Marshall Hermann Goering, No. 2 Nazi, wanted by civilization as directly responsible for the torture and death of millions innocent men, women and children, is well and not unhappy…Goering seemed delighted with his captivity and appeared unaware that he may be tried as a major war criminal.”