Sunday, August 12, 1945. War, ripples of war, and impacts of war.

Fr. Karl Leisner died of tuberculosis after having been imprisoned in Dachau.  He was beatified in 1996.

The number of German Catholic Priests that resisted the Nazis is really not appreciated.  They were not alone, of course  Evangelicals (Lutherans) did as well, but nonetheless their numbers are remarkable, and in some instance their resistances to the Nazis is astounding.

The Red Army entered Korea.

Chinese-American headquarters canceled operations against Fort Bayard, Hong Kong and Canton, in light of the imminent Japanese surrender.

American bombing raids over Japan, however, continued.

The USS Pennsylvania was damaged by an attack from a Japanese torpedo bomber off the island of Okinawa. 

A Japanese submarine sank the USS Thomas F. Nickel and the landing craft Oak Hill.

The US released the Smyth Report.

Russian DPs (Displaced Persons) began the trip home to an uncertain future.

"1500 Russian displaced nationals were taken from the D.P. center, Caserne De Cavalerie in Charleroi, Belgium, and sent by train to Russian territory in Germany. 12 August, 1945. They took long strides, singing most of the way, as they turn into the depot at Charleroi. This is the last of the D.P.'s to leave France and Belgium. Photographer: Pfc. Stedman"

The victims of Nazi horrors, they were regarded as suspect by the Soviet Union as the USSR knew that they had been exposed to the West, and hence to the fallacy of the Communist system.  Given a choice, most would likely have refused repatriation.

Their fate, while grim, mirrored the unhappy situation of millions in Europe.  Many were being repatriated to nations that would repress them and to which they did not wish to return.  Many found themselves in countries whose post war political system was foisted upon them by the USSR. Others simply had no home. The war was over, but the impacts of the war far from over.

Only the US was in a really good place, culturally and economically, which would form its economic and political reality into the early 21st Century, forming a sense of entitlement and dissociation from reality whose impact is still yet to be determined.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 11, 1945. The US rejects the Japanese attempt at surrender and the Soviets invade South Sakhalin. And stuff that doesn't neatly fit into accepted history.

Labels: . 1940s, 1940s, 1945, Battle of Khalkhin Gol, Battle of Sakhalin, Japan, Monarchy, Philippines, Potsdam Conference, Red Army, Russo Japanese War, Soviet Navy, The Law of Unintended Consequences, War Crimes, World War Two