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World War II

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Full-Text Articles in History

Larkins, Sovern John, B. 1928 (Sc 3733), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jul 2024

Larkins, Sovern John, B. 1928 (Sc 3733), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3733. Letters, 1947-1948, to Sovern John Larkins, Princeton, Kentucky, written during his U.S. Army service with American occupation forces in post-World War II Japan. A fellow servicemen describes conditions on his return home to Louisville, Kentucky and his wife’s reaction to his news that he dated a Japanese girl; his mother sends a Christmas card; a Princeton pastor expresses his good wishes; and a former classmate from the University of Kentucky sends greetings. Includes a photograph of four unidentified servicemen, and additional data about Larkins supplied by his daughter, 2024.


That Way: An Examination Of Male Relationships In Film During The Hays Code, Jane Knudsen May 2024

That Way: An Examination Of Male Relationships In Film During The Hays Code, Jane Knudsen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Hays Code (1934-1968) influenced the construct of United States masculinity and the discourse surrounding masculine presentation between the 1920s to the 1960s. The Hays Code and World War II affected the culture surrounding male/male relationships in the United States. Previous research done by David Lugowski (1999) and Jeffrey Suzik (1999) shows that both World Wars led to crises of masculinity in which the hegemonic ideal of masculinity was restructured to establish men as providers and warriors, and Code-era films reflected the discourse. To understand the gender roles in the 20th century, I analyzed the Hays code, male bonds, …


Minton Family Papers (Mss 761), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2024

Minton Family Papers (Mss 761), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 761. Primarily personal correspondence of John Dean Minton, a Trigg County, Kentucky native who served as fifth president of Western Kentucky University, his father John Ernest Minton and brother Layton Wilson Minton.


Penner, William Hazel, 1914-1990 (Mss 759), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2024

Penner, William Hazel, 1914-1990 (Mss 759), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 759. Letters of William H. Penner (“Willie” or “Bill”) to his parents and brother in Warren County, Kentucky, written during his World War II military service in North Carolina, California and New Guinea. Includes a few other letters to Penner’s mother Maggie.


End Of The Patrol: Analysis Of The Blimp And Its Contributions To The Us Navy, 1941-1962, Spencer M. Benefiel Jan 2024

End Of The Patrol: Analysis Of The Blimp And Its Contributions To The Us Navy, 1941-1962, Spencer M. Benefiel

Channels: Where Disciplines Meet

From 1917 to 1962, the United States Navy was America’s main contributor to the use of lighter-than-air vehicles, from small observational kite-balloons to the massive infamous rigid airships like the ill-fated Shenandoah, Akron, and Macon. Most aviation histories cover the Navy’s rigid airships but ignore the post-rigid era, a period that began after the demise of the Hindenburg. This study serves to examine the Navy’s airship program in the subsequent two time periods: World War II and the post-war era. This study is based upon both qualitative and quantitative sources, most of which come from written …


Ua94/5/6 Lucian Flora Student/Alumni Papers, Wku Archives Jan 2024

Ua94/5/6 Lucian Flora Student/Alumni Papers, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Scrapbook and memoirs created by alumni Lucian Flora of Smiths Grove, Kentucky of his activities as a soldier in World War II. Flora saw action through North Africa and Italy from 1941 to 1945.


Ua1c11/128 Lucian Flora Photo Collection, Wku Archives Jan 2024

Ua1c11/128 Lucian Flora Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Photographs and postcards removed from Lucian Flora's World War II scrapbook.


The United States And The Need For An Improved Global Citizenship In The Twenty-First Century: How History Shaped Our Identity As A Nation, Karin Mika Dec 2023

The United States And The Need For An Improved Global Citizenship In The Twenty-First Century: How History Shaped Our Identity As A Nation, Karin Mika

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article describes how accidents of geography and history enabled the United States to become the global power that it has become. It examines how the extended warring in Europe during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth century allowed the United States to develop as a country without the repeated necessity of continually rebuilding, as was happening in Europe. The Article explores how the isolation of the United States enabled it to develop continuity in its initially experimental political system—a continuity that was never available to Europe. These factors enabled the United States to be in the position of being able to …


The Philippine Economy During The Japanese Occupation, Jasper Lem Sep 2023

The Philippine Economy During The Japanese Occupation, Jasper Lem

Asian Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The economy of the Philippines was derailed by the Japanese occupation during World War II. As an American colony before World War II, the Philippines had close amicable ties with the United States highlighted by promises of independence on July 4th, 1946. The Philippines also maintained a beneficial economic relationship with the States at this time through extensive foreign trade. However, because of the Japanese invasion, the Philippine economy was robbed of this profitable foreign trade and the promise of independence, severely crippling the island nation and her morale. The first policies implemented by Japan were designed to control the …


James Parks Wilson Family Collection (Mss 755), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 2023

James Parks Wilson Family Collection (Mss 755), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscript Collection 755. Primarily genealogical research on the descendants of James Parks Wilson of Hart County, Kentucky. Includes biographical data and papers regarding the military service of his grandson, James Admiral Wilson.


Bewley, Stanley Clyde, 1915-1979 (Sc 3693), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jul 2023

Bewley, Stanley Clyde, 1915-1979 (Sc 3693), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3693. V-mail letter, 28 March 1945, from Army private Stanley Bewley to his sister Mrs. Glen Cole, Austin, Kentucky. He reports on his arrival in Belgium and his homesickness, and asks to be sent some soap and pipe tobacco.


Central Of Georgia Railway Records, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections May 2023

Central Of Georgia Railway Records, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of materials spanning 1941-1947 and includes business records and correspondence of the Central of Georgia Railway Company as well as detailed reports of employees’ United States military service during World War II. These reports include employee military records, interviews conducted by Central of Georgia Railway Company of veteran employees, and letters expressing their gratitude for their service in the war. Find this collection in the University libraries' catalog.


Perkins, John Casey, 1918-2010 (Mss 753), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2023

Perkins, John Casey, 1918-2010 (Mss 753), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 753. Reports of the operations of the U.S. Army, Third Infantry Division in Italy, Sicily, France and Germany during World War II. Includes reports relating to the service of Lieutenant Colonel John C. Perkins of Bowling Green, Kentucky in the Third Signal Company. Also includes memoranda of surrender written by Nazi SS officer Otto Skorzeny, taken into custody by Perkins in Austria in May 1945 (Click on "Additional Files" below for scans).


The Perseverance Of Play: An Archaeological Analysis Of Residential Blocks With Preschools At The Amache National Historic Site, Megan Brown Mar 2023

The Perseverance Of Play: An Archaeological Analysis Of Residential Blocks With Preschools At The Amache National Historic Site, Megan Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to expand on the understanding of experiences of Japanese American children, specifically preschool-aged children, within the Amache National Historic Site, a WWII Japanese American internment facility located in Granada, Colorado. Through archaeological methods, GIS analysis, oral histories, and archival research, I analyzed the landscape and material culture of the five residential blocks within Amache that had designated preschools. I then compared these blocks with preschools to residential blocks without preschools to determine if there are any patterns and discernable differences between the two study areas. The findings of this research provide insight into how …


Stewart, James Minor, 1916-2017 (Mss 748), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2023

Stewart, James Minor, 1916-2017 (Mss 748), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 748. Wartime log kept by James M. Stewart, Bowling Green, Kentucky, during his 2½ years as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II. Includes artwork, poetry and photographs of the prison camp and fellow prisoners.


Ocon At War: The Oconomowoc Home Front During The Second World War, Erika L. Laabs Dec 2022

Ocon At War: The Oconomowoc Home Front During The Second World War, Erika L. Laabs

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

OCON AT WAR:THE OCONOMOWOC HOME FRONT DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

This thesis will examine the local home front propaganda in and around Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (Waukesha County) during the Second World War and compare the Oconomowoc area propaganda to Wisconsin overall and to the national experience. Enlistments, war bond sales, USO events, parades, radio programs/speeches, films, music, popular books/comic books, and images, are the main types of “cultural locations” that I am using as propaganda. I have found solid examples of posters and advertisement images from local newspapers that provide a wealth of information about the way fear, love, …


272nd Army Field Artillery Battalion (Sc 3665), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Nov 2022

272nd Army Field Artillery Battalion (Sc 3665), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3665. Materials collected by Haskell Pedigo, a World War II veteran of the U.S. Army’s 272nd Field Artillery Battalion. Includes copies of reports of actions against the enemy, August 1944-June 1945; unit histories, 1944-1945, and other historical data and reminiscences; and reunion materials, lists of attendees, and memorial rolls.


Creating A 1940s Costume: A Historical Investigation, Jennifer Mott Nov 2022

Creating A 1940s Costume: A Historical Investigation, Jennifer Mott

The Confluence

The purpose of this Art History research investigation was to create a costume from the 1940s by immersing myself in a time period when people often made their own clothing. This was done to better understand what it means to have a personal connection to the items I wear. Our experiences as consumers in the twenty-first century are vastly different than those belonging to the people that lived during the mid-twentieth century because almost all of our clothing is purchased from corporations and created by people that we will likely never meet. For this investigative study, I shopped for and …


Logan, Leland Hallowell, 1905-1980 (Mss 744), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Oct 2022

Logan, Leland Hallowell, 1905-1980 (Mss 744), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 744. Correspondence and papers of Bowling Green, Kentucky attorney Leland H. Logan. Includes some personal material regarding his law practice and draft status, diaries for 1944 and 1945, and a small group of files representing his legal work, especially for the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation.


Full Issue Sep 2022

Full Issue

The Forum: Journal of History

No abstract provided.


From Jerome To Dermott: Comparing The Treatment And Experiences Of Japanese Americans And German Prisoners Of War In Arkansas During World War Ii, Taylor Cash Aug 2022

From Jerome To Dermott: Comparing The Treatment And Experiences Of Japanese Americans And German Prisoners Of War In Arkansas During World War Ii, Taylor Cash

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During WWII the US government housed German POWs at a camp in Denson, Arkansas that it had previously used to incarcerate Japanese Americans. This thesis compares how US authorities treated the camp’s two different inmate populations—one composed of enemy soldiers and the other US residents, about 70 percent of whom were citizens—to analyze larger questions surrounding how the US government interpreted race, citizenship, gender, and nationhood during the war. Federal authorities regulated and surveilled Japanese Americans at Jerome concentration camp with more vigor and energy than they did German prisoners of war at Dermott POW camp. Moreover, US officials provided …


“Good War” On The Cool Medium: The Cold War's Influence On The Portrayal Of World War Ii On American Television, Michael A. Losasso Jul 2022

“Good War” On The Cool Medium: The Cold War's Influence On The Portrayal Of World War Ii On American Television, Michael A. Losasso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a cultural history of the Cold War’s influence on the portrayal of World War II on American television. In it, I chronicle the production, reception, and presentation of the war of three prominent American-produced documentary series from three periods of the Cold War – Victory at Sea (1952-1953), The Twentieth Century (1957-1966), and The Unknown War (1978). The dissertation posits that from the 1940s-1960s, the television portrayal of World War II was an embodiment of the values- that the United Sates was “fighting” for through a “triumphalist” narrative of a “just war” which recast the role of …


Ms-293: Gillilan Family Letters, Jessica A. Cromer, Carly A. Jensen, Merlyn Maldonado Lopez Jul 2022

Ms-293: Gillilan Family Letters, Jessica A. Cromer, Carly A. Jensen, Merlyn Maldonado Lopez

All Finding Aids

This collection contains approximately 90 letters written by various letters of the Gillilan family, including Lewis, his parents, wife, and children. The bulk of the letters are written by Lewis between 1909 and 1910, but there are also a significant amount written by his daughter, Lois, in 1939. These letters provide insight into the life of a stagecoach driver and a young woman studying medicine in Europe during the rise of the Nazi party, amongst other things. Many of the early letters also depict Lewis and Ellen navigating their personal relationship as it was contested by their families.

All of …


Ms-290: Wwii Diary Of Leslie Wright Jr., U.S. Signal Corps, Danielle S. Russell Jun 2022

Ms-290: Wwii Diary Of Leslie Wright Jr., U.S. Signal Corps, Danielle S. Russell

All Finding Aids

Leslie Wright Jr. enlisted in the United States Signal Corps on September 15, 1941, serving as a 2nd Lieutenant, until he was honorably discharged on January 9, 1946. He was first stationed in Richmond-Upon-Thames in Southwest London, before being transferred to Grimsby, in North East Lincolnshire.

This diary details a wide array of subjects relevant to Wright’s personal life and his service with the United States Signal Corps. References are made to politics and pop culture in the early 1940s.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding …


Ms-285: Corporal Anthony John Kachmarsky Wwii Collection, Carly A. Jensen Jun 2022

Ms-285: Corporal Anthony John Kachmarsky Wwii Collection, Carly A. Jensen

All Finding Aids

The Corporal Anthony John Kachmarsky WWII Collection contains photos and documents of his time in the Pacific Theater. The bulk of the images focuses on the Japanese Surrender Treaty Signing and the occupation of Tsingtao. There are also several medals in Box 2 that Kachmarsky earned during his service, including his Purple Heart. There are magazines, books, newspaper clippings, and postcards that illustrate life in the Marine Corps. Susan Ross Southgate’s ration book and Disney-themed War Bond have been removed from this location and relocated to Vertical File Manuscript Collections.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools …


Ms-286: Elizabeth And Elmer Mckee, Class Of 1944, Jessica A. Cromer Jun 2022

Ms-286: Elizabeth And Elmer Mckee, Class Of 1944, Jessica A. Cromer

All Finding Aids

This collection contains over 500 letters, 17 V-Mail, and 25 additional items, including Elmer’s college transcript, military documents, and personal narrative. The bulk of the letters are written by Elmer (Chuck) to Elizabeth (Diz), but there are over 100 letters written by Elizabeth in the closing years of this collection (1945-46). These letters provide insight into the Gettysburg College experience during the early 1940’s and the daily life of men stationed in Europe during World War II. Many of the letters depict Elmer and Elizabeth navigating their personal relationship, whilst simultaneously navigating the complex time period in which they lived. …


Overlooked Diplomacy: A Look Into Missed Diplomatic Efforts In The Pacific Theater Of World War Ii, Maxwell Melanson Jun 2022

Overlooked Diplomacy: A Look Into Missed Diplomatic Efforts In The Pacific Theater Of World War Ii, Maxwell Melanson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines possible diplomatic solutions that may have ceased United States-Japanese conflict throughout the late 1930s and 40s. The first chapter analyzes the declaration of the policy of unconditional surrender, and what this policy entailed. Despite Roosevelt claiming that the idea just came to him, it was a carefully developed policy, and was chosen to be enacted for a multitude of reasons. After the Casablanca conference in January 1943, unconditional surrender became a unifying policy and a politically smart policy in Roosevelt's favor. The second chapter then analyzes the tensions rising between Japan and the United States through the …


Tomorrow’S Wars And The Media, Alexander G. Lovelace May 2022

Tomorrow’S Wars And The Media, Alexander G. Lovelace

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Distilling lessons from the author’s book, The Media Offensive: How the Press and Public Opinion Shaped Allied Strategy during World War II, this article provides applicable suggestions for the US military today. As in World War II, the press is both a weapon and a possible vulnerability in modern warfare. Consequently, this article offers practical suggestions for how the press can be used by public affairs officers, commanders, and policymakers to achieve victory in coming conflicts.


Lucas, Mary Melton - Collector (Sc 3635), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2022

Lucas, Mary Melton - Collector (Sc 3635), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3635. Items related to research for the book That Perfect Feeling in the Air: The Life of Victor Herbert Strahm, a biography of the highly decorated veteran of both world wars, co-authored by Mary M. Lucas, Gilbert T. Calhoun and Jonathan Jeffrey and published by Landmark Association (Bowling Green, Ky.) in 2017. Consists of correspondence; a compact disc with the manuscript and various notes; notes of a telephone conversation with the widow of Strahm’s stepson; text of programs on Strahm given by Lucas and Calhoun; Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame Class of …


Grounds, Robert Lee, 1915-1990 (Mss 680), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2022

Grounds, Robert Lee, 1915-1990 (Mss 680), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 680. Papers and photographs relating to the service of Grounds, of Warren County, Kentucky, in the Civilian Conservation Corps in Wyoming, 1935-1936, and in the U.S. Army during World War II.