World War Two – Page 9 – Old Magazine Articles

VJ-Day + 11 Years
(Collier’s Magazine, 1956)

“The new Japan is fermenting a mash of new ideas and old customs. It is mixing political democracy with feudal loyalties, free enterprise with giant monopolies, and several shades of Marxism with a hankering for the good old days. The nation that once meekly did what a handful of leaders told it to do is now outspokenly divided on every major issue… For seven Occupation years the Japanese had no choice of sides. We ran the country and fed them slabs of democracy sandwiched between $2,500,000,000 worth of relief and rehabilitation. Japan enjoyed our help and even digested a good deal of the democracy. But when the Occupation lid came off in 1952 it revealed a country weary of being told what to do, curious to taste the forbidden fruit behind the bamboo curtain and relishing its authority over the foreigners who had been giving it orders for so long.”

Misery in Berlin
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

Here is an eyewitness account of the bleak lives lead by Berliners during the summer of 1943:

“The food situation in Berlin is horrible. At the [Grand Hotel Esplanade] there was no choice on the menu. You either ate what was there or went hungry… There was no bread or butter served at the hotel… The people of Berlin were unfriendly and distant. Although I could not speak their language, I could sense their fear of bombing and disgust with the war. They seemed to be mechanical men, robots, just following daily routine.”

In 1941 Hitler ordered the home front to send as much warm clothing as they could spare to the army on the Russian front – you can read about it here

So, You Want to Be a Guerrilla?
(Coronet Magazine, 1942)

This article was written during a time when guerrilla armies seemed to be popping up all over the globe, and, no doubt, many men and women must have been asking themselves, “What if it happens here? Could I fight?” And with that, out stepped Bert “Yank” Levy (1897 – 1965), a well-seasoned man of war who wrote a mass market paperback for the English speaking world: Guerrilla Warfare (Amazon). Attached are a few pages from his book.

Cocky Montgomery
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

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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.

Detroit Spy-Ring Exposed
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

Here is told the tale of Countess Grace Buchanan-Dineen, a Detroit hostess and amateur Nazi spy. She was posted to Motor City in order to report on all the goings-on there to her pals in Berlin. The FBI turned her shortly after her her arrest and she began spying for them.

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 Fashion Industry Kowtows
(PM Tabloid, 1941)

Two Weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, the New York fashion industry hastily manufactured profiles that were both feminine and practical for the new lives American women were about to have thrust upon them. Overnight, durable and launderable fabrics became uppermost in the thinking of the new war workers and culottes gained greater importance as the need for bicycles became a viable mode of transport for getting to the defense plants.

Inching Forward in Tunisia
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

“The Axis forces in Tunisia, fighting desperately from their mountain fortifications, have stalled for a little longer the day of their defeat…”

King Named to Lead Fleet
(PM Tabloid, 1941)

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America’s Hemispheric Allies Declare War Before FDR
(PM Tabloid, 1941)

Within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, the nations of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominion of Canada all declared war upon Imperial Japan. The United States wouldn’t do so until the next morning.

Although there were a number of Latin American countries that declared war on the Axis, only two, Brazil and Mexico, put men in the field (Mexican nationals served in the U.S. military)- click here to read about the Brazilians.

The Pilots War
(Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

Reviewed anonymously in the attached column are two books, I Was a Nazi Flyer, the diary of Gottfried Leske, and The Airmen Speak, which is a compilation of war stories told by assorted RAF pilots.

Yank Pilots in the RAF
(Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

“Many Americans are serving both with the British and Canadian Air Forces, but the RAF’s Eagle Squadron is the only unit that is all-American save for the British squadron leader who succeeded William Erwin Gibson Taylor (1905 – 1991), a New Yorker, released to rejoin United States naval aviation.”

New Deal Price Controls
(Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

This article appeared six months before the 77th Congress passed a price control law as a wartime measure in an attempt to stave off inflation. The column pertains to the early planning of a wartime economy as the nation prepared to devote itself to total war. You’ll remember that the Supreme Court found FDR’s price control schemes (the NRA) to be unconstitutional during the Thirties. Regardless of their efforts, inflation still kicked-in after the war, up until the Republican Congress cut taxes.

The Victory Corps
(See Magazine, 1944)

The Victory Corps was a voluntary program open to American high school
and college students during the Second World War. It was established in September of 1942 with an eye toward preparing teenagers for military service. Although its primary concern involved weapons training, physical fitness and mathematics, it also had a “farm volunteer” arm, as this article about one branch of the Sacramento Victory Corps makes clear.

More about youth and the war effort can be read here…