"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.
Hallett Abend (1884 - 1955) was an American journalist who lived in China for fifteen years. He covered the Sino-Japanese War during its early years and had seen first-hand the beastly vulgarity of the Japanese Army. After Pearl Harbor, the editor at Liberty turned to him in hopes that he would explain to the American reading public what kind of enemy they were fighting:
"In four and a half years of warfare [in China], the Japanese have taken almost no prisoners... Chinese prisoners of war are shot." Recalling the general melancholia that descended upon many societies following the slaughterous First World War, a former member of the British Parliament asked whether we should expect the same after an even larger world war.
If you would like to read 1920 article about the disillusioned post-war spirit, click here.
In 1939, "Canada wisely decided that she could become an ideal training center for pilots and airmen generally. Canada could produce munitions in her factories. Conditions were ideal for both pursuits."
W.W. II: Where were the war poets?
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
In the attached column, Liberty Magazine publisher Paul Hunter responded to all the naysayers who were carping about how poorly the American war was being prosecuted, he would have none of it. Hunter pointed out that previous American wars were plagued with all manner of shortages and bureaucratic foul-ups that hampered military success but that was not the case with the current conflict. The war at that point was not even half-way over, yet Hunter seemed clairvoyant when he wrote these words that historians yet un-born would agree with:
"On performance to date it is an even bet this war will go down in the history books as the best-run war America has ever fought."
A similar article can be read here.
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