From the Annals of WWII Detroit

[Mikeg]

During June of 1942 and May of 1943 there were work stoppages over "racial issues" at the US Naval Ordnance Plant [[Nine Mile and Mound Rds., Center Line mailing address).


Read the summary reports in the US Navy 9th Naval District War Diaries:
https://grobbel.org/centerline/CL_Or...m9WarDiary.htm

[Mikeg]

A few years ago I was given access to the WW II photo scrapbook that was created by Detroiter Fred Oselett, who was a Yeoman Second Class aboard the USS LST-726 in the Western Pacific during 1944-1946. Using his photos and captions, I was able to research and write a story of his travels and experiences, which can be viewed here: http://grobbel.org/lst726/

Here is an excerpt describing what Fred Oselett witnessed on Aug. 10, 1945:


The day after Hiroshima was bombed on August 6th, the LST-726 arrived in Okinawa, which was the staging ground for Operation Downfall - the invasion of Japan that was planned to begin on November 1st. The crew of the 726 had unloaded their passengers and cargo by Aug. 10th and were still on the beach when first word was received on Okinawa that the government of Japan had communicated its intention to accept the Potsdam Declaration's terms of surrender.


The many soldiers and sailors present on Okinawa could not wait to begin celebrating their apparent release from Operation Downfall. From the Aug. 20, 1945 edition of "Life Magazine":


Okinawa
The first news reaching Okinawa of a peace proposal was greeted by jubilant GIs who slapped each other's backs, danced, cheered and shouted, "To hell with 'Golden Gate by '48', we'll be home by September 8". Most GIs took every weapon within reach and started firing into the sky with rifles, 45s, ack-ack and machine guns and the sky was criss-crossed with literally millions of rounds of tracers. It looked like a 4th of July celebration, only noisier and more spectacular.

Trigger-happy kids fresh from home got their first opportunity to fire their guns but veteran, combat-wise correspondents and officers donned their helmets and ran for shelter. The sky was thick with shrapnel and flak. In the district where I was, 23 men were hurt and hospitalized as a result of the promiscuous shooting and the falling flak. Some ships in the harbor, not knowing of the peace proposal, thought it was a Kamakazi attack. A general quarters alarm was sounded, causing men to go to their stations clad in underwear, steel helmets and Mae Wests. Smokescreens were laid and most of the ships opened up with antiaircraft. This barrage by shore and water batteries was caused partly by the fact that news of the peace proposal almost coincided with with an air alert. When those who hadn't heard the news saw and heard the celebrant's barrage, they opened fire, too. Seasoned correspondents of many campaigns said this was the most spectacular show they had ever seen. Shrapnel and bullets pierced many tents. The pyrotechnics lasted only a few minutes as those who listened at radios got word from the High Command to cease firing. Some quick-thinking unit commanders ordered troops to fall in with their rifles, then told them, "The first man firing his weapon will be court-martialed." [[A saddening note: six men were killed during the excitement.) - George Lacks


The LST-726's August 1945 War Diary soberly noted the events of August 10, 1945 as follows:


The tremendous amount of anti-aircraft fire which arose is common knowledge. Even more dangerous was the small-arms fire on the beach. It was this command's desire to keep the crew and passengers below decks, when "Flash Red, Control Yellow, Make Smoke" came over the air. General Quarters was sounded. Two 20 mms. opened fire at nothing but were immediately silenced when they heard the cease firing horn. The gun crews upon being questioned at Mast admitted they had no orders or cause to fire, and were made fully aware of the danger of their actions..... Afterwards, upon securing from General Quarters prematurely to avoid falling shrapnel and any further display of enthusiasm by our gun crews, it was learned that a transport outside Naha Ko had received a torpedo during and in spite of all the a.a. fire. The incident impressed all present that in spite of peace talks, the enemy was still carrying on with the fight. Further enemy activity in the area on other nights confirmed this.


It wasn't until August 15th that Japan formally agreed to the unconditional surrender terms of the Potsdam Declaration and from that point on, the LST-726 was tasked with supporting the occupation of the Japanese home islands.

[Lowell]

I've learned a lot about Wendell Wilkie during this reading project and the more I learn, the more I appreciate him. As you may know, he was the Republican dark horse candidate who lost to FDR in 1940. But once the war started he dropped all partisanship and cooperated with FDR in the war effort, touring allied countries to bolster support and more.

But today's reading really sent his stock up in my estimation when he makes an impassioned plea for Afro-American rights. In the shadow of the Detroit, LA, and Beaumont, TX riots he castigates both parties, for what he describes as a "Fascist attitude of mind" and calls for full rights for Negroes [appropriate term in that era].

From this day 1943...

[lpg]

A few years ago I was given access to the WW II photo scrapbook that was created by Detroiter Fred Oselett, who was a Yeoman Second Class aboard the USS LST-726 in the Western Pacific during 1944-1946. Using his photos and captions, I was able to research and write a story of his travels and experiences, which can be viewed here: http://grobbel.org/lst726/

Here is an excerpt describing what Fred Oselett witnessed on Aug. 10, 1945:


The day after Hiroshima was bombed on August 6th, the LST-726 arrived in Okinawa, which was the staging ground for Operation Downfall - the invasion of Japan that was planned to begin on November 1st. The crew of the 726 had unloaded their passengers and cargo by Aug. 10th and were still on the beach when first word was received on Okinawa that the government of Japan had communicated its intention to accept the Potsdam Declaration's terms of surrender.


The many soldiers and sailors present on Okinawa could not wait to begin celebrating their apparent release from Operation Downfall. From the Aug. 20, 1945 edition of "Life Magazine":


Okinawa
The first news reaching Okinawa of a peace proposal was greeted by jubilant GIs who slapped each other's backs, danced, cheered and shouted, "To hell with 'Golden Gate by '48', we'll be home by September 8". Most GIs took every weapon within reach and started firing into the sky with rifles, 45s, ack-ack and machine guns and the sky was criss-crossed with literally millions of rounds of tracers. It looked like a 4th of July celebration, only noisier and more spectacular.

Trigger-happy kids fresh from home got their first opportunity to fire their guns but veteran, combat-wise correspondents and officers donned their helmets and ran for shelter. The sky was thick with shrapnel and flak. In the district where I was, 23 men were hurt and hospitalized as a result of the promiscuous shooting and the falling flak. Some ships in the harbor, not knowing of the peace proposal, thought it was a Kamakazi attack. A general quarters alarm was sounded, causing men to go to their stations clad in underwear, steel helmets and Mae Wests. Smokescreens were laid and most of the ships opened up with antiaircraft. This barrage by shore and water batteries was caused partly by the fact that news of the peace proposal almost coincided with with an air alert. When those who hadn't heard the news saw and heard the celebrant's barrage, they opened fire, too. Seasoned correspondents of many campaigns said this was the most spectacular show they had ever seen. Shrapnel and bullets pierced many tents. The pyrotechnics lasted only a few minutes as those who listened at radios got word from the High Command to cease firing. Some quick-thinking unit commanders ordered troops to fall in with their rifles, then told them, "The first man firing his weapon will be court-martialed." [[A saddening note: six men were killed during the excitement.) - George Lacks


The LST-726's August 1945 War Diary soberly noted the events of August 10, 1945 as follows:


The tremendous amount of anti-aircraft fire which arose is common knowledge. Even more dangerous was the small-arms fire on the beach. It was this command's desire to keep the crew and passengers below decks, when "Flash Red, Control Yellow, Make Smoke" came over the air. General Quarters was sounded. Two 20 mms. opened fire at nothing but were immediately silenced when they heard the cease firing horn. The gun crews upon being questioned at Mast admitted they had no orders or cause to fire, and were made fully aware of the danger of their actions..... Afterwards, upon securing from General Quarters prematurely to avoid falling shrapnel and any further display of enthusiasm by our gun crews, it was learned that a transport outside Naha Ko had received a torpedo during and in spite of all the a.a. fire. The incident impressed all present that in spite of peace talks, the enemy was still carrying on with the fight. Further enemy activity in the area on other nights confirmed this.


It wasn't until August 15th that Japan formally agreed to the unconditional surrender terms of the Potsdam Declaration and from that point on, the LST-726 was tasked with supporting the occupation of the Japanese home islands.

Interesting story. My dad was on Okinawa at the time. 5th AAF. I saw a picture of him standing next to a B-24 named "Bread Line in 49". The belief was the war would last until 1949 and they would return to the breadlines of the depression. There are pictures of this B-24 online. It was heavily damaged during a crash landing during a typhoon. My dad also was with the army of occupation in Japan.

[Lowell]

From today 1943. Another disgraceful race strike, similar to the Packard wildcats earlier in the year that triggered the 1943 Detroit Riot, shuts down a major wartime production facility--the time Bethlehem Steel shipyards. The cause was the enrolling of Negros in classes to become riveters.

The social turmoil that boiled inside of America amid the larger crisis of war has striking similarities to that boiling now amid the larger crisis of the pandemic. Something that was never mentioned in the history books of my childhood education.

[mikefmich]

During June of 1942 and May of 1943 there were work stoppages over "racial issues" at the US Naval Ordnance Plant [[Nine Mile and Mound Rds., Center Line mailing address).




Read the summary reports in the US Navy 9th Naval District War Diaries:
https://grobbel.org/centerline/CL_Or...m9WarDiary.htm

I thought Ford had taken over that location by mid-war years, the one that later moved to 17 & Mound.

[mikefmich]

A few years ago I was given access to the WW II photo scrapbook that was created by Detroiter Fred Oselett, who was a Yeoman Second Class aboard the USS LST-726 in the Western Pacific during 1944-1946. Using his photos and captions, I was able to research and write a story of his travels and experiences, which can be viewed here: http://grobbel.org/lst726/

Thanks a ton for that Mike, I really enjoyed that read. AND the issue of Life from Aug of '45.

[Mikeg]

Hudson Motor Car Co. had the contract from the US Navy Dept. to operate the ordnance plant when it opened in Oct. 1941. Westinghouse took over the contract in Oct. 1943 and relinquished it to the US Navy Dept. in Feb. 1946. At its peak, the plant employed nearly 10,000 workers, but was down to about 1,000 in Feb. 1946.

[Lowell]

August 1943, rioting breaks out in Harlem and the Detroit riot is invoked.


The spark is familiar to our times, a white policeman shoot a Negro soldier [newspaper terms for ethnicity of 1943].


The June Detroit riot gets called out in somewhat of a "were not as bad as Detroit" fashion, claiming this riot was not a race riot.

[renf]

Thank you for posting about racial issues during World War II and for
noting that Wendell Wilkie had some relatively liberal ideas in this era. I have often wondered if FEPC has been given too little credit in creating the stable African American blue collar middle class that emerged in Detroit, Chicago and other cities after World War II?

[Jimaz]

Here's an animation showing World War II fronts as they changed. Go full screen for best view.

World War II on All Fronts: Every Day

Just imagine the roll Detroit played in that.

There are similar videos showing a closeup of WWII Europe and even the American Civil War.

[Lowell]

Luxury amid war. As I day-by-day read WWII years NYTimes, now up to before Christmas in 1943, I am realizing how, in spite of doubling production of fighters, bombers, war ships, feeding the world, arming its Allies and more in 1943, America was still fighting the with one arm held [not tied] behind its back. While I read reports of Swedes returning from bombed out Berlin telling of the remaining stores with nothing to sell on one page, I see these ‘ho-hum what war? ad on another. The only indication of war being “Every slipper… is ration free.” So buy as many slippers as you wish.

[Zacha341]

^^^ I desire to have that many shoes! Heavenly.......

[Jimaz]

... “Every slipper… is ration free.”...

Yeah, I suppose there wasn't much demand for slippers among GIs on the front lines. HA!

[Jimaz]

Speaking of WWII fashion rationing, this interesting video just popped up:

Sticking It to Hitler by Looking Damn Fine

I knew about the nylon shortages [[nylon was used for parachutes) but advertising unobtainable cosmetics? What was that all about? And repurposing TNT as hair dye? Yikes!

And we think adapting to Covid inconveniences is difficult.

[Richard]

^ that was pretty cool,even more so the use of TNT to dye ones hair blond.

At the start in the picture of the coupons,there is a block of National Butter and a block of Special Margarine,I wonder what was so special about it.

Even more so in Berlin you had to look your best while dashing to the nearest bomb shelter.

In the UK anyways everybody was supplied seeds so they could grow a war garden in oder to have fresh vegetables.

[jcole]

They were called Victory Gardens here and nearly everyone who could have one did. And I don't think there was ever anything special about the margarine they had to use then; it was a plastic bag of lard with a small packet of yellow dye that you pressed and broke into the lard and kneaded until the lard turned yellow. Mmmmm

^ that was pretty cool,even more so the use of TNT to dye ones hair blond.

At the start in the picture of the coupons,there is a block of National Butter and a block of Special Margarine,I wonder what was so special about it.

Even more so in Berlin you had to look your best while dashing to the nearest bomb shelter.

In the UK anyways everybody was supplied seeds so they could grow a war garden in oder to have fresh vegetables.

[Danny]

This is the time when the U.S. Government is giving all of the auto making companies up to billions of dollars to have them make planes, tanks, jeeps, guns, bombs and many more. Detroit was indeed The Arsenal of Democracy!

[cla1945]

Maybe so, but the impetus was to shock and demoralize the population with a right hook, then a left uppercut and force the Emperor to face the possibility of the next one hitting Tokyo directly. Fortunately, Hirohito valued the lives of the Japanese population more than Truman did.

He didn't value anyone's lives.
Under Emperor Hirohito, numerous war crimes were perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy that resulted in the deaths of millions of people. Some historical estimates of the number of deaths which resulted from Japanese war crimes range from 3 to 14 million through massacre, human experimentation, starvation and forced labor that was either directly perpetrated or condoned by the Japanese military and government^. Some Japanese soldiers have admitted to committing these crimes.

[Lowell]

He didn't value anyone's lives.
Under Emperor Hirohito, numerous war crimes were perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy that resulted in the deaths of millions of people. Some historical estimates of the number of deaths which resulted from Japanese war crimes range from 3 to 14 million through massacre, human experimentation, starvation and forced labor that was either directly perpetrated or condoned by the Japanese military and government^. Some Japanese soldiers have admitted to committing these crimes.

Agree and there are higher estimates, in the tens of millions in China alone when those that died as are result of famine and disease brought on by the war are added. The Emperor was revered, especially with the ruling clique led by Tojo, and could easily have swayed extent of violence but he quietly stood by to the end.

Japan itself went largely unscathed until the capture of Saipan and the development of the B-29 put it range in the final year of the war. Even then its civilian deaths were 'only' 500-800 thousand. That is a terrible, terrible number and the fire-bombings and the nuclear bomb attacks horrifying, but the US did not release the genie of war from its bottle and set off that miserable cycle of violence. Hirohito only escape punishment because the US needed him to hold our control of Japan in the following Cold War.

[Lowell]

Detroit's closest chance at the Olympics? From Oct. 30, 1939 NY Times. With war broken out in Europe, Tokyo at war with China and having given up the Olympics to Finland who was now a month away from invasion by the Soviet Union, Detroit appeared to be next in line. Mayor Reading was excited, Frederick Matthai not.

[Ray1936]

What a difference 80 years makes. But then, I'm 84, and still as good as new. LOL!

[Jimaz]

What a difference 80 years makes....

Yeah. Did I hear this correctly? Is breakdancing now an official Olympic sport? I'm not kidding.

[Henry Whalley]

Detroit was indeed The Arsenal of Democracy!

The arsenal remains but democracy gave way to plutocracy and the MIC.

[Herman Krieger]

I worked in the photo department of Packard during 1943-44, but it must have been after the strike, as I don't recall it.
www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm
Herman Krieger