Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Sunday, December 28, 2025
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.
Last edition:
Thursday, December 27, 1945. Big Bills.
Thursday, December 25, 2025
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.
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Sunday, July 22, 1945. Open to negotiations, but not threats.
Japanese forces attempting to breakout of the Pegu Hills suffered heavy casualties.
US Task Force 92 bombarded Paramushiro in the Kurile Islands.
Nine U.S. destroyers penetrated Tokyo Bay under the cover of a storm.
The Japanese government announced that it was open to peace negotiations, but not to threats.
Allied military police were allowed to cross into any zone in Berlin.
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Monday, July 9, 1945. Dutch land at Balikpapan.
Dutch troops landed north of Balikpapan, completing the encirclement of the bay.
Chinese troops captured the Tanchuk airbase.
The Brazilian cruiser Bahia accidentally sank itself by hitting itself during antiaircraft firing exercises. 294 men were killed.
Charles de Gaulle proposed a national referendum to decide the system of government in France.
A crowd of 30,000 gathered in Perth for the funeral procession of John Curtin to Karrakatta Cemetery.
A total solar eclipse was visible across parts of the northern hemisphere, including parts of North America.
Life magazine featured a model in a bikini, something that various magazines had been doing a lot of in 1945.
Last edition: