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A Look Back at the Berlin Air-Lift (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)
1949, Berlin Blockade, Pathfinder Magazine

A Look Back at the Berlin Air-Lift
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

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Last week, after the Russians announced they would lift the blockade on May 12 [1949], the airlift took a bow and added a modest nod at the 324-day record:


• 189,247 flights;

• 1,528,250 tons delivered;

• best day’s work: April 16 with 12,947 tons hauled in 1,393 flights.


– [and if the West had not chosen to answer the Soviet challenge in Berlin] there might never have been an Atlantic Pact or a Western German state. The Communists might have gone amok in France and Italy. Russia might have won the Cold War in the first heat.

Captain Edward Steichen of the U.S. Navy (Collier's Magazine, 1945)
1945, Collier's Magazine, Photographers

Captain Edward Steichen of the U.S. Navy
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

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As informative as this World War Two article about photographer Edward Steichen (1879 – 1973) is, it fails to convey to the reader what an interesting soul he must have been. Steichen was a respected photographer in modernist circles prior to volunteering for service in the First World War, and by the time he joined the U.S. Navy for the second go-round, his stock was even higher.

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American POWs Korean War 1953 | American POWs Interviewed 1953 | POW Abuse in North Korea Prison Camp
1953, The Korean War, The United States News

American POWs in North Korea
(United States News, 1953)

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Here is a collection of interviews with the men who, just a week earlier, had all been POWs in North Korea. Each of them recall their own unique account as to how they had been captured, their forced march to the camp, the poor medical care, sanitation and the high death toll from exposure to the cold. The intense practice of Communist brainwashing is described in detail.

Capture of Heinrich Himmler | SS Commander Heinrich Himmler Captured 1945
1945, POWs, Yank Magazine

The Capture of Heinrich Himmler
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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A quick read, which begins with the story of how the British Army of occupation in Germany managed to detain and identify Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900 – 1945) when he was disguised in the Wehrmacht uniform of a sergeant. The remaining paragraphs are devoted to instructing the reader as to how similar ploys could be managed to identify other German war crimes suspects when they are in captivity.

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Italian Partisans 1945 | Corpo di Volontari Della Liberta 1945 | Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Alta Italia 1945
1945, Benito Mussolini, Collier's Magazine

‘Fascist Finale”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

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They killed Mussolini and his henchmen. They killed 1,000 persons in five days in and around Milan. Some Partisans thought the city was still not cleaned of Fascists when the American Army finally entered on Sunday afternoon April 29 and by their presence ended the assassinations.The fighting was about over; the even more difficult struggle was for stability was already beginning but with less excitement.

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1945 Fire Bombing of Japan | 1945 Destruction of Japan
1945, Collier's Magazine, World War Two

‘Terror in Japan” Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

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On March 10, 1945, a group of Superforts crossed Japan’s coast line. Behind them came another group, and another in a line stretching far back toward Saipan. In a long, thin file they roared over Tokyo. They flew low and out of their open bellies spilled bombs of jellied gasoline. When they hit, they burst, spewing out billowing, all-consuming fire. The flames leaped across fire lanes, swallowed factories, destroyed skyscrapers.


Click here to read about August 28, 1945 – the day the American occupation began.

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Reforms in Post-Fascist Japan (United States News, 1946)
1948, 48 Magazine, World War Two

General Douglas MacArthur
(’48 Magazine)

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If you’ve been looking for an editorial that was intended to take General MacArthur down a peg or two, you’ve found it. It was penned by Shelley Mydans (1915 – 2002), a journalist who was primarily known at the time for her LIFE MAGAZINE news dispatches; she found the General to be both admirable and repulsive at the same time and was thoroughly baffled as to why he was so loved on so many different continents.


Written two years before General MacArthur’s stunning 1950 victory in the Korean War (the Battle of Inchon), this article makes apparent a deep-seated fear held within the senior leadership of the Democratic party that MacArthur was planning to challenge Truman in the 1948 presidential election.


Another article on General MacArthur can be read here…

Max Hill Associated Press Japan
1943, Click Magazine, World War Two

When Japan Went on the Defensive
(Click Magazine, 1943)

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Japan’s one purpose now is to fight back and stall for more time – not to attack. That period in her war is over, and she came out on top…All signs now point to a growing major Allied offensive, and for the first time the enemy will be faced with the problem of holding territory which he can’t afford to lose.


1943 was truly the year that proved to have been the turning point in the war, click here to read about it…

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A Hollywood Movie in Japan (Quick Magazine, 1952)
1952, Post-War Japan, Quick Magazine

A Hollywood Movie in Japan
(Quick Magazine, 1952)

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We were sympathetic when we learned that the Japanese did not much care for the movies Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Back to Bataan (1945) or David Lean’s masterpiece Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – but when we heard that they hated Sands of Iwo Jima (1952) – we finally realized that there are some people you simply cannot please. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who felt this way: the editors of QUICK MAGAZINE were so outraged on this matter they dispatched a reporter to document the venom that spewed-forth from those Japanese lips as they left the theater.

Reforms in Post-Fascist Japan (United States News, 1946)
1946, Post-War Japan, The United States News

Reforms in Post-Fascist Japan
(United States News, 1946)

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Speaking of naive: when I was privileged to visit Japan in 2011 I actually believed that there would be a few native-born women who would recognize that I was an American and step forward to express some measure of gratitude for my country’s part in granting Japanese women the right to vote. I’m still waiting – however, it is important for all of us to remember that in the immediate aftermath of the war, our occupying forces introduced American values to the Japanese and they have thrived as a result:

General MacArthur has ordered the Japanese Government to provide for freedom of speech, of press, of assembly, and of worship. ‘Thought control’ by the secret police is to be a thing of the past.

To Live in Occupied Tokyo (Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1947)
1947, Post-War Japan, Rob Wagner's Script Magazine

To Live in Occupied Tokyo
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1947)

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A breezy account of American occupied Tokyo as reported by a literary magazine:

Regardless of the festivities, the War Crimes Trials proceed as usual and the accused sit with earphones listening intently as the defense presents the China Phase.
Japan seems to be striving toward Democracy, their interest in government affairs has broadened, and the voting in the national elections showed their arousal.

Should you like to read how the city of Kyoto fared during the Second World War, click here.

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