From the Annals of WWII Detroit

[Lowell]

I have been on a long-running project of reading the New York Times day-by-day same-every-day for the WWII years [I'm currently in 1943]. It is interesting to read history as it unfolds, as one might have done back then. Naturally my eye is drawn to Detroit stories. Hence this thread.

Last month I came across this story, appropriate to today with the swirl of protests triggered by the George Floyd murder. It is a reminder of why his death has become more of a culmination of a long history of systemic racism and injustice.

Col. William T. Colman staggered out to his chauffeured staff car in a drunken stupor and saw Pfc. William H. McRae as his driver. Col. Colman became so incensed by the sight of McRae who was Black that he shot McRae twice.

And the punishment? A reduction in rank to Captain!

[Lowell]

Meanwhile, yesterday [1943] the first rumblings of what would explode into the 1943 riot were being reported with this disturbance at the Packard Plant.


An astonishing discovery of reading these years was the amazing number of massive strikes that occurred in the midst of the war. In May Akron was shut down as tens of thousands struck all major rubber plants. This was followed by equally large strikes in the coal fields. American dissent is nothing new.

[renf]

Thank you for posting, Lowell. FEPC accomplished a great deal in
Detroit during World War II but there was very much racial conflict about
jobs. No city has played a larger role in this nation's history of the racial
struggle for equal opportunities than Detroit.

[EastsideAl]

That wildcat Packard "hate strike" was the only time my father, then 18 years old, ever worked through a strike in his life.

[Packman41]

That wildcat Packard "hate strike" was the only time my father, then 18 years old, ever worked through a strike in his life.

The strike was started when Packard management promoted several black workers over the objection of the union, At that time the union was largely populated by immigrants accustomed to trade-craft, union apprentice rules of eastern Europe and saw this as a threat to the union.

My mother also worked through the "hate strike."

[renf]

Thank you for posting, Lowell. We overlook the many labor disputes that took place during World War II. Some, of course, were the "hate strikes" linked to Roosevelt's FEPC order but many of the strikes were focused on the traditional issues. My father worked for B F. Goodrich in Akron during that 1943 strike.

[Jimaz]

One thing I've always wondered about WWII was how the average U.S. civilian became aware of the atomic bomb. Of course it was a military secret before it was dropped. I've heard the Truman speech where he publicly announced its existence for what seems to be the first time but there must have been more. It was called a bomb so I imagine at first most people would have thought it was just a very, very large conventional bomb. The reports of radiation and scope of blast damage would have filtered through to the public eventually, indicating there was a lot more to the story.

It must have been like living in a real-life science fiction tale. Imagine listening in on the everyday conversations of the time in barbershops and coffee shops, etc.

[Ray1936]

I remember it being in the headline of the Freep the day after. There was some half-assed description of nuclear power which went in one ear and out the other. Of course, there were no photos of Fat Man, but they did post a photo of a very large British bomb and a caption something to the effect of it didn't amount to squat any more.

Anyway, Fat Man and Little Boy saved far more lives that they took. But leftists will never admit that.

[Jimaz]

... But leftists will never admit that.

Ok, now you're just goading.

You can't deny that the entire United States of America was ANTIFAscist at that point in history can you?

Please don't shoot your country, Ray.

I'm hoping Lowell will share some NYT stories about how the atom bomb was explained to the public.

[Ray1936]

Ok, now you're just goading.

You can't deny that the entire United States of America was ANTIFAscist at that point in history can you?

No, but extremism in either direction tends to be self-defeating, I think.

[Lowell]

Interestingly the $2 Billion project was not the biggest defense project. Can you guess what was? ... The B-29 that delivered it.

[pjbear05]

I remember it being in the headline of the Freep the day after. There was some half-assed description of nuclear power which went in one ear and out the other. Of course, there were no photos of Fat Man, but they did post a photo of a very large British bomb and a caption something to the effect of it didn't amount to squat any more.

Anyway, Fat Man and Little Boy saved far more lives that they took. But leftists will never admit that.

Leftists have no idea of Operations Olympic and Coronet, the planned invasions of the Japanese home islands, and their conservatively estimated 1 million casualties. Little Boy and Fat Man thankfully stopped that.

[Lowell]

I actually read 1945 first and found it so interesting that I embarked reading the entire war, starting Sep. 1, 1939. I had just read Ian Buruma's Year Zero, a history of 1945 which drew me in.

All along the way I had screen snapped articles for a digital scrapbook, particularly anything mentioning Detroit. But since you asked, here was the big news. What's interesting is that they simultaneously released a trove of hitherto top secret information about the bomb development--such as the until then virtually unknown Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Hanford.

FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON JAPAN
NEW AGE USHERED
Day of Atomic Energy Hailed by President, Revealing Weapon
HIROSHIMA IS TARGET '
Impenetrable' Cloud of Dust Hides City After Single Bomb Strikes
Japanese Solemnly Warned Most Closely Guarded Secret FIRST
A Sobering Awareness of Power Explosive Charge Is Small Investigation Started in 1939

Click the image to view it larger...

[RGK20m3]

I actually read 1945 first and found it so interesting that I embarked reading the entire war, starting Sep. 1, 1939. I had just read Ian Buruma's Year Zero, a history of 1945 which drew me in.

All along the way I had screen snapped articles for a digital scrapbook, particularly anything mentioning Detroit. But since you asked, here was the big news. What's interesting is that they simultaneously released a trove of hitherto top secret information about the bomb development--such as the until then virtually unknown Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Hanford.

FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON JAPAN
NEW AGE USHERED
Day of Atomic Energy Hailed by President, Revealing Weapon
HIROSHIMA IS TARGET '
Impenetrable' Cloud of Dust Hides City After Single Bomb Strikes
Japanese Solemnly Warned Most Closely Guarded Secret FIRST
A Sobering Awareness of Power Explosive Charge Is Small Investigation Started in 1939

Click the image to view it larger...

I find the article about the death of Maj. Ira Bong more interesting on that front page; died flight testing a jet fighter [[P59 if I recall).

[Jimaz]

This month's National Geographic has a good article in which some of the last survivors of WWII are interviewed. It's The Last Voices of World War II. The hardcopy contains a fascinating graphic comparing lives lost in such tragedies across all of human history including even Aztec human sacrifices. My favorite quote was from Arthur Maddocks, a British code breaker.

But by the time the war was drawing to a close, Maddocks and his colleagues — assisted by Colossus, the world's first large-scale digital computer — were reading communications between Nazi leaders so far in advance that Germany's surrender in May 1945 was something of an anticlimax, Maddocks says. "We already knew it was over."

[wilderness]

Jimaz,
the movie 'The Imitation Game' offers some unique insights into the use of Colossus and code breakers.

[Jimaz]

Jimaz,
the movie 'The Imitation Game' offers some unique insights into the use of Colossus and code breakers.

Thanks wilderness. That is one of the few movies I own. Loved it.

[EastsideAl]

My father remembered seeing a headline about "A-Bomb dropped on Japan" and wondering what was so important about yet another bomb dropped on Japan.

The "leftist" formulation above seems a bit odd to me, since American leftists of every stripe, from Democratic New Dealers to actual Communists, were much more supportive of the US participating in the war against nazism, fascism, and militarism than rightists were. I also think that most "leftists" [[whatever that term means) of my age are well-aware of the various plans for the invasion of Japan. I don't think many younger people of any political persuasion are, because why would they be interested in the particulars of history that never happened from their great-grandparents' day?

[Don K]

IDK, I'm pretty lefty, and I've read about the plans for the invasion of Japan, mostly because I've developed an interest in Japan's history, and I agree on net that the nukes saved lives, both American and Japanese, and civilians as well among the Japanese. Much more morally problematic in my mind is the firebombing of Japanese cities earlier in 1945, which incinerated more than 100,000 civilians.

[Meddle]

I'm never in favor of deliberately targeting civilian populations, regardless of the reasons.

[Ray1936]

I'm never in favor of deliberately targeting civilian populations, regardless of the reasons.

Pretty much agree, Meddle, although the books tell me that there were major military installation in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'm sure there was MUCH meditation over targets. We are not a nation without heart. Well, at least, we didn't used to be.

[Meddle]

although the books tell me that there were major military installation in both

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.

[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.

[Jimaz]

This appears to be an amateur recording of a radio report made soon after the Hiroshima bomb.

Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima - CBS Radio 8-7-45