Prelude (WW II) – Old Magazine Articles

The Arsenal of Democracy Kicks-In
(Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

Sitting before a senate committee, FDR’s Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson (1867 – 1950) warned the country that the United States will have a time trying to catch-up with the Germans, who have been producing armaments since 1933. Whether our factories are making weaponry for the Allies alone, or whether we enter the war and have to make ordinance for us and the Allies – a challenge has presented itself.

Japan Rejects the Washington Naval Treaty
(Literary Digest, 1935)

The first successful attempt in world history to limit armaments was marked for the scrap-heap on December 31, 1936, when Hirosi Saito, the slim and smiling Japanese Ambassador to the United States, bowed himself into the State Department building in Washington last Saturday and handed to Secretary Cordell Hull a document that the world has expecting for many months – Japan’s formal denunciation of the Washington Naval Treaty.

Click here to read about FDR’s Secretary of State, Cordell Hull.

Japan: More power For The Military
(Newsweek Magazine, 1937)

As 1936 came to an end in Tokyo, the aftershocks of the February 26, 1936 failed military coup could still be felt throughout the halls of Japan’s Government. The uprising of the military hardliners resulted in four assassinations and a suicide before the constitutional powers regained control. This article covers a more peaceful dust-up on the Parliament floor – and when it was concluded the Generals had the upper hand.

Still the country’s most privileged class, military leaders – modern equivalent of the Samurai, medieval knights – can exert pressure on the government by reason of a 42-year-old imperial edict: the War and Navy Ministries must be headed by army and navy officers; if either resigns, the Cabinet falls.

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….

Preparing for War with Motorcycles
(Literary Digest, 1937)

A short news piece from The Literary Digest reported on an investment that the Nazi forces were making to insure a lightening-fast attack:

Motorcycles, a cool million of them, have become a German army specialty. The new Wehrmacht specializes in them. (it knows it will be short of horses; as when in March, 1918, the Teuton cavalry arm was virtually abolished, west front and east.) The British and French have only half a million machines apiece.

Read about the mechanics of W.W. II German motorcycles…

No, Joe Biden, U.S. Relations With Germany Were Bad Before W.W. II
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1939)

During the Presidential debate of October 22 (2020) Vice President Biden remarked that the American diplomatic corps made nice with Hitler up until the German invasion of Poland – the attached article from 1939 refutes this statement:

Eight months prior to the day when W.W. II would commence, diplomatic relations between Berlin and Washington got ugly; the carefully controlled German press declared that matters between the two camps were at their lowest point since 1917. Hitler’s diplomats demanded apologies and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee clarified the American position by stating that the American people have a general dislike for Fascism. The Department of the Navy announced that it was expanding its presence in the Atlantic.

Anticipating the War with Japan
(The Saturday Review, 1925)

The Great Pacific War
was one of the truly remarkable books to hit the shops in 1925; the problem was that this would not be recognized until at least 1944. Unlike the unfortunate writers charged with the task of reviewing the novel, the author, Hector C. Bywater (1884 – 1940), was something of a clairvoyant, and was able to spell out how the war between Japan and the United States would unfold; the contested islands and the American victory. He wrote that the war would commence with a Japanese surprise assault, he recognized the importance that naval aviation would play and he predicted the Kamikaze attacks. Some elements of the war he did not predict, such as Hiroshima, but in 1945, after the smoke had cleared and the bodies were buried, many were amazed to pick the book up and read how much he got right.

The World Navies Expand
(The Literary Digest, 1937)

Here is a concise report illustrated by a chart that indicates the size and tonnage of the leading naval powers in 1937.

In 1922, when a halt was called on the vicious race for bigger and better battleships by conclusion of the Washington Naval Treaty, later supplemented by the London Pact of 1930, there were but five major sea powers: America, Britain, Japan, France and Italy. Today, the world picture has changed and two new faces are on the list, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

All in all, as the treaties end, the United States Fleet stands on par, if not superior to, the armada of the British Empire…

Click here to read more about the expansion of the U.S. Navy.

Click here to read another article about the pre-WW II expansion of the world’s Naval powers.

Click here to read more about the demise of the Washington Naval Treaty.

When Germany Quit the League of Nations
(Literary Digest, 1935)

In October, 1933, Baron Konstantin von Neurath (1873 – 1956), Germany’s Foreign Minister, sent a telegram to the Geneva Disarmament Conference announcing Germany’s resignation from the Conference and the League of Nations. The resignation will become effective Sunday, October 20, two years after notice of retirement was given… In March, 1935, Chancellor Hitler announced universal military conscription for Germany, thereby making the Treaty of Versailles a ‘scrap of paper’.

Italy left the League of Nations in 1937 – click here to read about it.

Fascist Italy Quits the League of Nations
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Italy’s friction with the League of Nations began May 11, 1936, when her delegates stalked out of a lively League Council meeting after it had voted to continue economic sanctions against her over the Ethiopian war.

Nazi Germany quit the League years earlier, click here to read about it…

U.S. Congress Approves Naval Expansion
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1934)

In 1934, the members of the U.S. Congress were able to see how ugly the world was becoming – and with this forethought they approved the Vinson Act. This legislation did not violate any of the restrictions agreed to under the Washington Naval Treaty and provided funds for 102 additional ships to be added to the American fleet by 1942.

British Civilians Trained to Use Gas Masks
(The Literary Digest, 1936)

This article appeared in 1936 and reported that the populations of both England and France were being trained in the general use of gas masks in anticipation of a German invasion.

Even babies will be protected in covered perambulators, into which masked ‘Nannies’ can pump air, forcing it through filter cans. Researchers are working on an infant’s mask with a nipple attachment.

Military Buildup in Belgium
(Literary Digest, 1936)

With a clear understanding as to what was coming down the pike, Belgian Foreign Minister Paul Henri Spaak (1899 – 1972) prevailed upon Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland to push through the Chamber of Deputies a bill increasing the military service from twelve to eighteen months for Belgium’s 44,000 conscripts while at the same time, reinforcing the fortifications along the French border.
Over half the article pertains to the fascist party of Belgium, REX, a group that hardheartedly resisted any such defensive posturing. A few weeks following this printing, Léon Degrelle (1906 – 1994), the leader of REX, the Belgian fascist party, marched on Brussels and brought down the van Zeeland government.

Versailles Treaty Violations
(Literary Digest, 1936)

Attached is an interesting article that announced the Nazi march into the Rhineland as well as the island of Hegoland. The journalist also listed various other Versailles Treaty violations:

• The treaty said that Germany should have no troops in the Rhineland. On March 7 of this year, they marched in.

• The treaty said that Germany should never have a conscript army. On March 16 of this year, conscription was announced by Chancellor Hitler.

• It said that Germany should have no military aviation. She has it.

• It said that the Great German General Staff should be abolished. It was never disbanded.
*Violations of the Versailles Treaty began, in fact, a week before it was signed.

Click here to read an additional article concerning the Versailles Treaty violations.

The Growth of the German Airforce
(Ken Magazine, 1939)

Published four months before Germany’s attack on Poland (September 1, 1939), this article outlines Hermann Goering’s efforts to build the Luftwaffe from scratch, the creation of various flight schools, the Luftwaffe collaboration with the Hitler Youth organization, and his aspirations to out-class the air forces of the United States and Britain. The article also addresses the business dealings of American manufacturers Boeing and Douglas Aircraft had with the German Luftwaffe.

Click here to read about the corrupt American corporations that aided the Nazi war machine during the 1930s.

The Arms Race
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Stirred by [the] Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and by subsequent German scrapping of the Versailles Treaty, military experts of every nation have been altering the smallest details of army life to make their forces bigger, faster and more deadly than those of their neighbors.

Nowhere was there any indication that the pace of armaments might slacken. No nation gave any sign of dropping out of the race.

The economist who made the German rearmament possible was named Hjalmar Schacht, click here to read about him…

Military Buildup in Germany
(Ken Magazine, 1939)

The German Army is the greatest enterprise in the world. It has a million employees on it’s payrolls, the active officers and soldiers, and, at a conservative estimate, feeds another million workers in the munitions industry. Actually the army employs all of Germany. Military needs alone determine the way of life in the besieged fortress into which 80 million Germans have more or less willingly formed themselves.

The German economist who made the rearmament possible was named Hjalmar Schacht, click here to read about him…

Japan and the Road to War
(Literary Digest, 1933)

A collection of opinions gathered from the newspapers of the world concerning the belligerency of Imperial Japan and its poor standing in the eyes of the League of Nations:

Feeling grows among the Japanese that events are shaping toward a second world war, with Japan in the position that Germany occupied in 1914…A Canadian Press dispatch from London, in THE NEW YORK TIMES, estimated war supplies sent from England to China and Japan. According to statistics of the British Government for 1932, the largest individual items were 7,735,000 small-arms cartridges for China and 5,361,450 for Japan…Japan also purchased 740 machine guns.

Four years after the Pearl Harbor attack, a Japanese newspaper editorial expressed deep regret for Japan’s aggressiveness in the Second World War, click here to read about it…

Click here to read about a 1925 novel that anticipated the war with Imperial Japan.