A tsunami was experienced in Portugal on this date in 1945, due to a submarine earthquake on the same day.
On this day in 1945 the United States rejected Japan's recent proposals and stated, flatly, that in order for normal trade relations to be restored between the countries, Japan had to withdraw from Indochina and China.
It was clear to the Administration that it was putting Japan in an untenable situation, but the view was that things had come to that. Japan's only theoretical option was essentially to accept defeat in China, a position that it obviously could not agree to, or limp by with reduced resources. On the flipside, the US, having taken a strong stand against it, could not resume supplying raw materials to Japan.
The British lost the battleship HMS Barham to a torpedo attack from the U-331. 800 of the ship's crew died in the attack off of Alexandria, Egypt.
The Germans took the small Russian city of Kashira outside of Moscow. They also murdered almost 5,000 Jews near Kaunas, Lithuania. Hitler, on this day, met with the Anti-Semitic Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
The Germans were repulsed by the 7th Indian Brigade in a counter-attack at Sidi Omar, Libya, while Australian and New Zealand troops linked up at El Duda.
The Anti-Comintern Pact was renewed between Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Manchukuo, Spain, Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, Slovakia and Croatia. Of those signatories, only Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Manchukuo and Spain had belonged before. The original 1936 signatories included only Germany and Japan. Of the new 1941 signatories, only Finland and Romania were not occupied by Germany or Japan.
The Anti Comintern Pact had originally been a Japanese pushed pact aimed at the Soviet Union, but Japan had distanced itself when the Germans entered the Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression pact, which clearly cut against it. That would later be addressed by the Tri-Partite Agreement, but it never regained its real strength, demonstrating the inherent inability of the various authoritarian governments to really agree to a common global strategic policy, as their internal policies were not really aligned. In retrospect, Japan gained a lot from its alliance with Germany, but Germany next to nothing from its with Japan. Indeed, as Germany's attack on the USSR gave the Japanese breathing room in regard to the USSR, Germany's actions allowed Japan to attack the US, which caused the US to become a full belligerent against Germany and Japan.
Manchukuo was a Japanese Manchurian puppet state which gave its occupation of that part of China some supposed diplomatic cover. The Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China was a Japanese puppet government in China. Both fielded armies, but they were under Japanese control.
The leader of the puppet Chinese government, Wang Jingwei, died in 1944. His name is now a nickname for traitor in China.
Closer to Home:
On this day in 1941, my father would have gone to 7th grade, at age 12, in Scotsbluff, Nebraska. That would have been some sort of middle school. A regular day, probably. His oldest sister, at that time, would have been in high school there as a sophomore. His other siblings were behind him in school. His father went to his job managing the Cook Packing Plant in Scotsbuff and his mother would have stayed home.
Likewise, my mother would have gone to school at age 15 at the Convent school for English speaking Quebec Catholics in Montreal. Most of her large family was also in school, save for her older brother Terry who was in the Canadian Army, stationed in England. Her mother would have worked at his then job as a real estate agent in the city, and her mother would likewise have stayed home. At the time, they were battling the economic hardships still lingering due to the Great Depression and were living a very hard life.
