World War Two – Page 24 – Old Magazine Articles

Japanese Feudalism Overturned
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1945)

The reforms that were imposed upon Occupied Japan in the Forties and Fifties did not simply come in the form of death sentences for war criminals – but additionally the Japanese came to know the rights and protections that are guaranteed to All Americans under the United States Constitution. For the first time ever Japanese women were permitted to vote, unions were legalized and equality under the law was mandated. This small notice concerned the overthrow of the feudal laws that governed the Japanese tenant farmers.

WACs at Christmas
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

By the time the war ended the WACs were 100,000 strong –
they had earned 314 medals and commendations, including 23 Legion of Merit awards and fourteen Purple Hearts. Throughout the war, seventeen thousand WACs had served overseas but by Christmas of 1945 their global strength had been cut in half.

Americans Answered The Call
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

When it came across the wire that Fall of 1942 saw the U.S. Navy enlistments increase by 150%, the editors of PM were not slow to dispatch a team down to the induction center to check it out (at 67 Broad St., NYC).

Many, many African-Americans answered the call as well, but with understandable reservations…

More about W.W. II induction can be read here

Saboteurs to be Tried in Military Court
(PM Tabloid & Yank Magazine, 1942)

The eight Nazi agents, who landed from U-boats on the shores of of Long Island and Florida, planning to cripple American war production, are in jail here [Washington, D.C.] under heavy guard, awaiting military trial on four charges that carry the death penalty.

General Stilwell In Burma
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

In May 1942 Lieutenant General Joseph Warren Stilwell (1883 – 1946) made that frank statement after leading a tired, battered band of 103 officers, men and nurses on a 20-day march into India, refugees from the Allied rout in Burma… Stilwell’s return to Burma is the result of two years of careful preparation in which two major projects were developed. One was a Chinese-American training center in India…The other was the Ledo Road, a supply route from India by which Allied troops moving into Northern Burma could be equipped and provisioned.

‘Hitler” of Hollywood
(The American Magazine, 1944)

Song and Dance man Robert Watson (1888 – 1965) was Hollywood’s-go-to-guy when they needed a fella to tread the boards as the Bohemian Corporal (Adolf Hitler). Throughout the course of his career he played him nine times.

Japanese Prisoners at Camp McCoy
(Collier’s Magazine, 1944)

A midget Jap submarine went aground on the morning of December 8, 1941, off the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and a lieutenant just one year out of the Imperial Naval Academy walked ashore and became the first, and for many weeks our only, W.W. II prisoner. He eventually wound up at Camp McCoy…

How The Atomic Bomb Was Developed
(Yank, 1945)

The story behind the atomic bomb is a detective story with no Sherlock Holmes for a hero. The number of scientists who took part in the search was without parallel…The dramatic story begins with Dr. Lise Meitner (1878 – 1968), a woman scientist and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin. In 1938 Dr. Meitner is bombarding uranium atoms with neutrons and then submitting the uranium to chemical analysis. To her amazement…

Hiroshima Two Years Later
(Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

The Collier’s article attached herein, The Atom Bomb’s Invisible Offspring does not simply track the radioactive illnesses and contamination generated as a result of the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also discusses the nuclear testings at Bikini and Alamogordo, New Mexico. Attention is paid to how the devastated people as well as all the assorted flora and fauna in the targeted regions.

The Lady was a Spy
(Coronet Magazine, 1954)

During World War II many women played roles as daring and courageous as were required of any man. This is the true story of one such woman, who gambled her life to help the Allies win the final victory in Europe.

…I began my mission in wartime France as a British secret agent. Colonel Maurice Buckmaster had told me what my assignment was:

You will parachute into France with a wireless operator and a demolition specialist. The drop will be 40 miles from Le Mans, where Rommel’s army is concentrated…

Click here to read about the women who spied for the Nazis during the Second World War.

Springtime Over The Kuban Valley
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

The Russians shot down 18 enemy planes over Kuban on Sunday. Moscow estimated German plane losses on all fronts for the week ending Saturday at 381 against 134 Russian planes.

Somewhere In North Africa
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

With the loss at Kasserine Pass and the victory at El Guettar behind them, the U.S. Army in North Africa traveled ever northward in a caravan of Jeeps and trucks looking for their next engagement with Rommel’s Africa Corps.

Laval’s France
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

An article from the Spring of 1942 concerning the efforts of Premiere Laval to fool the French citizenry into loving their Nazi occupiers and hating the Allies.

Laval’s handicaps in reconciling the nation to the ‘new order’ are his personal unpopularity – careful observers estimate that 90 to 95 percent of the population spurn his policies – and the determination of the Nazis to stamp out resistance with terrorism.

Taro Yashima
(Direction Magazine, 1944)

Many are the names of the refugee-artists who fled Hitler’s Germany for the United States – but few are the Japanese artists we remember who departed fascist Japan for America. This slim article tells the story of Taro Yashima (born Atsushi Iwamatsu, 1908 – 1994) who was brutalized by the militarists in his homeland and fled in 1939.

Congress Approved $5,000,000,000 Build-Up
(PM Tabloid, 1940)

To fulfill the [Pentagon’s requirements] the President plans to send Congress one more defense message asking for another $5,000,000,000. After that, with machine industries saturated with orders, Congress can sit back and survey the defense picture – provided England doesn’t collapse overnight… Acting Secretary of the Navy Compton announced yesterday the award of contracts for three aircraft carriers and two cruisers to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co….

‘Guns On French Cliffs Shell British Ships
(PM Tabloid, 1940)

A British convoy in the Straits of Dover today ran the gauntlet of terrific cannonade of long range German artillery on the French cliffs from Calais to Boulogne. The spectacular Channel bombardment was witnessed by thousands on the Dover cliffs. They reported that none of the 18 ships in the British convoy appeared to have been hit.