Sunday, January 6, 1946. A sort of election in some areas of Vietnam.

Elections were held in Vietnam in areas controlled by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with  the nationalist but communist dominated Viet Minh Party, led by Ho Chi Minh, winning 230 of the 300 seats in the National Assembly.  The ballot was not secret and ballot papers were filled out in the presence of aides who were "to help comrades who had difficulty in making out their ballots."

It was not a free and fair election, but its interesting that those who will engage in antidemocratic activities still crave the legitimacy of elections.

The election does illustrate the tense situation in Indochina.  The 1945-46 War in Southern Vietnam was over, with the French in control, but in areas of North Vietnam the Viet Minh were. They had not yet fully evolved into an unabashed communist party, and there were non communists in it, but that would not last long.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 2, 1946. Nuptials with the enemy.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Army, Austria, Corregidor, Germany, Hungary, Imperial Japanese Army, It was because of World War Two, Italy, Mexico, Post WWII Occupation of Germany, Romania, The relationship between men and women

Wednesday, January 6, 1926. Deutsche Luft Hansa

Deutsche Luft Hansa (DLH), the predecessor of Lufthansa, was formed.

It ceased operations in April, 1945, but it's personnel later reformed the company as Lufthansa in 1955.

Last edition:

Sunday, January 3, 1926.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Cartoons, Ethel Hays

Wednesday, January 2, 1946. Nuptials with the enemy.

Mexican troops fired on demonstrators in León, Mexico, killing at least 40.

The U.S. Army lifted a ban on U.S. servicemen marrying enemy nationals, save for Germans.  The lift, therefore, applied to Austrians and Italians, as well as perhaps Hungarians and Romanians.

On Corregidor twenty Japanese soldiers, who had just learned of Japan's surrender from a newspaper, surrendered themselves to a solitary Army soldier.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 1, 1946. The first baby boomers.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Baby Boom Generation, It was because of World War Two

Tuesday, January 1, 1946. The first baby boomers.

The way demographers categorize things, the first Baby Boomers were born on this day, although its notable that nine months had not passed since the end of World War Two and lots of troops still hadn't been discharged from the service.

It occurs to me that this is a topic, along with several others, that I should have addressed in yesterday's 1945 entry.

Last edition

Monday, December 31, 1945. The end of a historical episode and the dawn of a new one.*

Labels: 1920s, 1927, 1930s, 1939, 1941, 1945, 1946, Chinese Civil War, Germany, Harry S. Truman, It was because of World War Two, Japan, New Year, Rape and the Red Army, The Cold War, World War Two, Yeoman's Fourth Law of History

Saturday, December 29, 1945. Korean protests on US decision.

Korean civilians attacked U.S. soldiers in Seoul in protests of a U.S. decision two days prior to wait five years before granting the country independence.

It would in fact come quicker than that, with South Korea becoming independent in 1948.  Originally, the entire peninsula was to have been part of the new republic, but the post war separation into two occupied halves kept that from coming about.  U.S. occupation of South Korea would end at that time.

The period from 1945 to 1950 in South Korean history is not looked at much, but it was marked by strife, including what would become a hard fought guerilla war between the newly formed Republic of Korea and Communist guerillas.

Hitler's will and marriage certificate were found.

And the Coast Guard was going back to the Treasury, which is where it should be.

Last edition:

Friday, December 28, 1945. War Brides. Yank ends.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 79th Congress, Cheesecake, Ethnicities, It was because of World War Two, law, Marriage, The Press, The relationship between men and women, Women, World War Two

Friday, December 28, 1945. War Brides. Yank ends.

Congress enacted the War Brides Act allowing for admissible alien  spouses, natural children, and adopted children of American troops to enter the U.S. as non-quota immigrants.  The act expired in 1948.

Before expiring, about 70,000 British,, 150,000 to 200,000 Europeans, including 14,000 to 20,000 Germans, 50,000 to 100,000 from the Far East, including 51,747 Filipinas and 50,000 Japanese, and 16,000 Australian or New Zealander women came in through the act.  Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the numbers, in some ways, is the high number of Germans, given the nature of the war, and the comparatively high number of Japanese.  Also remarkable is that the marriages from Asia were interracial.

Yank announced that as of the end of the year, it was no more.

Less thought of today than The Stars and Stripes, the popular World War Two service published magazine had various theater editions and was popular, something aided by every issue having a mild cheesecake centerfold.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 27, 1945. Big Bills.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Belgium, Bretton Woods, Currency, United Nations, World Monetary Fund

Thursday, December 27, 1945. Big Bills.

The UN International Monetary Fund was established.

The United States discontinued the printing of "large denominations", that is over $100.00, of currency.

The bills printed up to that date were discontinued officially on July 14, 1969 and began to withdraw them from circulation at that time.

Belgium ratified the UN Charter.

Last edition:

Wednesday, December 26, 1945. Boxing Day.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Birds, boats and ships, Boxing Day, Charles de Gaulle, Chinese Civil War, French Empire, French Indochina, French Third Republic, Monarchy, Personalities, Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, Vietnam

Wednesday, December 26, 1945. Boxing Day.

Seagulls surround the USS Wisconsin after it dumping of Christmas meal leftovers.

Former Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân, 45, (Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San) was killed in an airplane crash in Central Africa.

As Emperor, he had participated in an anti French rebellion while only 16 years old, an event which lead to the French removing him from his throne.  He thereafter went into exile on Réunion Island, where he retained pro independence views.  During World War Two he held anti Vichy views and entered the Free French Navy, and then Army, when the island was liberated from Vichy.  DeGaulle, realizing how desperate the situation in French Indochina was, was having  him returned to Vietnam where he would have been re-installed as Emperor, which would have amounted to deposing Boa Dai, who had sided with Vichy.  His untimely death left the Communist dominated Viet Minh as the only real functioning anti colonial force in the region.

Still highly regarded in Vietnam, most Vietnamese cities have streets named after him.  His remains were reinterred in Vietnam in 1987.

The Red Chinese won the Gaoyou–Shaobo Campaign in which the Nationalist troops were principally made up of units that had formerly collaborated with the Japanese.

Admiral of the Fleet Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, who in spite of his age saw some service in World War Two, died at age 73.

Last edition:

Tuesday, December 25, 1945. Christmas.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Cartoons, Cheesecake, Christianity, Christmas, Holidays, Imperial Japanese Navy, It was because of World War Two, Newspapers, religion, The Cold War, Wake Island, War, War Crimes, Women

Tuesday, December 25, 1945. Christmas.

It was the first peacetime Christmas for much of the World since 1938, although in some areas of the globe new wars and the continuation of old wars raged on.

A souvenir edition of Stars and Stripes was put out for occupation forces in the Pacific.  It featured a 1946 calendar I'll decline to put up of pinup illustrations, in black and white, starting with a clearly Asian woman, chest hidden behind the month, followed by eleven other such girls until the last three months of the year in which the figures are much more clothed and American, with the suggestion being that the surprised GI is surprised in those months by the pursuit of an American girl whom he likely marries.

Japanese Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the mass execution of the 98 American civilians on Wake Island on October 7, 1943.  He yelled out, prior to his sentencing, that Americans were equally as complicit due to the atomic bomb strikes earlier that year.

According to the Rocky Mountain News:

Truman pardoned 4,000 Federal convicts who had served in the Armed Forces during the war.

The RMN also contained cheesecake for its Christmas edition, with a picture of an 18 year old Miss Finland.

Normally I wouldn't have posted that either, but I'm struck by how much older than 18 she looks.  Photographs of late teens of the era, male and female, tend to show people who look older than the same ages today.

Bill Mauldin was appearing in stateside papers.

The Cold War was clearly arriving.

Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born in Folkstone, England.  He's pass away in 2003.

Last edition:

Monday, December 24, 1945. Patton laid to rest.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, 1916, Art, China, Christmas, Holidays, Mexican Border War, National Protection War, New Year

Monday, December 24, 1945. Patton laid to rest.

 

He was interred next to a Private of the Third Army.

The same paper ran a classic edition of Out Our Way.

Last edition:

Saturday, December 22, 1945. Truman prioritizes displaced persons in immigration.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Christian Democrats, Diplomacy, Displaced Persons, Harry S. Truman, Immigration, Netherlands, Yugoslavia

Saturday, December 22, 1945. Truman prioritizes displaced persons in immigration.

DIRECTIVE BY THE PRESIDENT ON IMMIGRATION

TO THE UNITED STATES OF CERTAIN DISPLACED PERSONS AND REFUGEES IN EUROPE

Memorandum to: Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Attorney General, War Shipping Administrator, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, Director General of UNRRA:

The grave dislocation of populations in Europe resulting from the war has produced human suffering that the people of the United States cannot and will not ignore. This Government should take every possible measure to facilitate full immigration to the United States under existing quota laws.

The war has most seriously disrupted our normal facilities for handling immigration matters in many parts of the world. At the same time, the demands upon those facilities have increased many-fold. It is, therefore, necessary that immigration under the quotas be resumed initially in the areas of greatest need. I, therefore, direct the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, the War Shipping Administrator, and other appropriate officials to take the following action:

The Secretary of State is directed to establish with the utmost despatch consular facilities at or near displaced person and refugee assembly center areas in the American zones of occupation. It shall be the responsibility of these consular officers, in conjunction with the Immigrant Inspectors, to determine as quickly as possible the eligibility of the applicants for visas and admission to the United States. For this purpose the Secretary will, if necessary, divert the personnel and funds of his Department from other functions in order to insure the most expeditious handling of this operation. In cooperation with the Attorney General, he shall appoint as temporary vice-consuls, authorized to issue visas, such officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service as can be made available for this program. Within the limits of administrative discretion, the officers of the Department of State assigned to this program shall make every effort to simplify and to hasten the process of issuing visas. If necessary, blocs of visa numbers may be assigned to each of the emergency consular establishments. Each such bloc may be used to meet the applications filed at the consular establishment to which the bloc is assigned. It is not intended however entirely to exclude the issuance of visas in other parts of the world.

Visas should be distributed fairly among persons of all faiths, creeds and nationalities. I desire that special attention be devoted to orphaned children to whom it is hoped the majority of visas will be issued.

With respect to the requirement of law that visas may not be issued to applicants likely to become public charges after admission to the United States, the Secretary of State shall cooperate with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in perfecting appropriate arrangements with welfare organizations in the United States which may be prepared to guarantee financial support to successful applicants. This may be accomplished by corporate affidavit or by any means deemed appropriate and practicable.

The Secretary of War, subject to limitations imposed by the Congress on War Department appropriations, will give such help as is practicable in:

(a) Furnishing information to appropriate consular officers and Immigrant Inspectors to facilitate in the selection of applicants for visas; and

(b) Assisting until other facilities suffice in: (1) transporting immigrants to a European port; (2) feeding, housing and providing medical care to such immigrants until embarked; and

(c) Making available office facilities, billets, messes, and transportation for Department of State, Department of Justice, and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration personnel connected with this work, where practicable and requiring no out-of-pocket expenditure by the War Department and when other suitable facilities are not available.

The Attorney General, through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, will assign personnel to duty in the American zones of occupation to make the immigration inspections, to assist consular officers of the Department of State in connection with the issuance of visas, and to take the necessary steps to settle the cases of those aliens presently interned at Oswego through appropriate statutory and administrative processes.

The Administrator of the War Shipping Administration will make the necessary arrangements for water transportation from the port of embarkation in Europe to the United States subject to the provision that the movement of immigrants will in no way interfere with the scheduled return of service personnel and their spouses and children from the European theater.

The Surgeon General of the Public Health Service will assign to duty in the American zones of occupation the necessary personnel to conduct the mental and physical examinations of prospective immigrants prescribed in the immigration laws.

The Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration will be requested to provide all possible aid to the United States authorities in preparing these people for transportation to the United States and to assist in their care, particularly in the cases of children in transit and others needing special attention.

In order to insure the effective execution of this program, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, War Shipping Administrator and the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service shall appoint representatives to serve as members of an interdepartmental committee under the Chairmanship of the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

The United States and the United Kingdom recognized the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The Catholic People's Party was founded in the Netherlands.

Last edition:

Friday, December 21, 1945. Patton dies.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, China, Chinese Civil War, Death, George S. Patton, Patton Slapping Incident, Personalities, Petroleum, Post death visitations by the dead, Transportation, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming's boom and bust economy

Friday, December 21, 1945. Patton dies.

George S. Patton died at age 60, the result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident several days earlier.

The general's daughter woke up in the United States and saw him standing, in full uniform, at the foot of her bed, where he smiled.  His daughter Beatrice received a phone call in which he asked "Little Bee, are you alright?'”  An attempt to confirm the call in the morning ended up in the information that no oversees call had been placed.

Such incidents are not uncommon. A fairly large number of people experience post death visitations of people they knew, with it most commonly being the case that they happen very soon after the person's death.  Indeed, in ancient times, Jews believed that the spirits of the dead were not aware of their deaths for a three day period, and the Irish custom of a wake stems from a desire to stay awake with the recently departed to help them know that they had died.

Patton was one of the most controversial American generals of the Second World War.  A member of the cavalry branch, he's famously recalled as an armor general. Almost all of the really effective armor generals in the U.S. Army from the Second World War were cavalrymen.  While now hugely admired, during the war the two slapping incidents he was involved in nearly cost him his career.

Patton, although he died due to an accident, fits into a fairly large collection of senior military officers that died right after the war.

The Battle of Shaobo in China ended in a Communist victory.  It was another one of the battles in which Chiang Kai Shek pitted Chinese collaborationist units that had rejoined the Nationalist against the Communists.

From the same newspaper as above:

Casper received news that the Texas Refinery was going to expand.

It's now closed.

Ethiopian Airlines was founded.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 20, 1945. Tires.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Automobiles, Rationing, Transportation, United Nations

Thursday, December 20, 1945. Tires.

President Truman signed the United Nations Participation Act.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 20: 1945   Tire rationing in the U.S. ended.

Last edition:

Wednesday, December 19, 1945. Unifying the services.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1945 at the movies, Department of Defense, Department of War, Harry S. Truman, It was because of World War Two, Movies, Switzerland, War Crimes

Wednesday, December 19, 1945. Unifying the services.

President Truman starts down a road that would turn out like poking a bear:

This is a bit confusing, historically, as what it resulted in is the current Department of Defense, replacing the Department of War (which is further confused by the illegitimate Trump interregnum pretending the Department of Defense is the Department of War), but it had real consequences.  The War Department had effectively been the Department of the Army, as a second Department of the Navy had been created shortly after the War Department and it largely did not oversee the Navy.  The problems associated with that became clear during World War Two, and therefore the desire to bring them under one roof made sense, although the Armed Forces did not like it.

The result was the current Department of Defense and its current, albeit evolved, structure.

U.S. Navy Captain Charles B. McVay III, the commander of the USS Indianapolis, was found guilty in his court-martial for failing to zigzag but  not for failure to order abandon ship in a timely manner. He was sentenced The court sentenced McVay to lose 100 numbers in his temporary rank of Captain and 100 numbers in his permanent rank of Commander. In 1946, at the behest of Admiral Nimitz, Chief of Naval Operations, Secretary of the Navy Forrestal remitted McVay's sentence and restored him to duty.  He committed suicide in 1968.

Regarding the Second World War, John Ford's They Were Expendable was released.  I always think of this as a film that was released during World War Two, but it wasn't.  It's director, John Ford,  has been in the Navy, and Robert Montgomery, one of the actors in the film, also had been after having also been an ambulance driver in France up until Dunkirk.  Montgomery would direct part of the film due to Ford breaking his leg, and prove so good at it that his career thereafter evolved in that direction.

The Swiss Parliament passed a law permitting the immediate expulsion of all foreigners with pro-Nazi or fascist views.

British fascist and founder of the British Free Corps John Amery was executed for treason at age 33.  Amery's tragicatory in life is interesting in that it somewhat reminds people of some of the far right incels around now.

Last edition:

Sunday, December 16, 1945. Sinclair boosts wages.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, football, Japan, Petroleum, Strike Wave of 1945-1946, World War Two, Wyoming (Sinclair)