On June 12, 1942, Anne Frank celebrated her thirteenth birthday. One of her favorite presents was the diary she wrote in while hiding from Nazi persecution with her family.
To learn more about Anne Frank, try the following resources:
All of my posts on World War II can be found here.
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On this day in 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in an attempt to liberate German occupied France from Nazi control and and shift the balance of power on the Western Front of World War II. And while the casualties on that die were unimaginable, more than at least 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded, their sacrifices was a turning point in the fight. The momentum had shifted. By the end of August, Germany surrendered control of the French capital and the Allies began their fight towards Berlin.
To learn more about D-Day, try the following resources:
All of my posts on World War II can be found here.
Today marks the anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In it, 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,402 Americans were killed, 1,282 were wounded. The United States declared war on Japan the following day, formally entering into World War II.
To learn more about the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, try the following resources:
All of my posts on World War II can be found here.
On this day in 1945, the United Nations was formally established when the five permanent members of the Security Council ratified the charter that had been drawn up earlier that year. Since 1948, the event's anniversary has been known as United Nations Day - an occasion to highlight, celebrate, and reflect on the work of the United Nations and its family of specialized agencies.
Today marks the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during the final stages of World War II. The attack immediately killed 80,000 people with at least 60,000 more dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. On August 9, another 40,000 people died in the attack on Nagasaki. Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender to the Allies six days later.
To learn more about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, try the following resources:
All of my posts on World War II can be found here. Fred Korematsu was one of the many Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast during World War II. Born in Oakland, California to Japanese immigrants, Korematsu attended public schools, participated in sports, and worked in his family's plant nursery. Still, he faced discrimination because of his ancestry. Restaurants refused to serve him, barbers wouldn't cut his hair, and the US military classified him as a "enemy alien" even though he was an American citizen. Things just got worse following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Four months later, Korematsu's family was sent to Tanforan Racetrack where they awaited transfer to an internment camp. Korematsu refused to go. He was, after all, an American citizen, and didn't think the "government would go as far as to include American citizens to be interned without a hearing," he later recalled. However in May 1942, Korematsu was arrested. He was found guilty of violating military orders and sent toTanforan to await internment. With the help of the Northern California ACLU, Korematsu appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court - and lost in a 6 to 3 decision - in 1944. The government argued his internment was not based on racism and that the Army had proof that Japanese residents were signaling enemy ships and prone to disloyalty. Four decades later, his conviction was invalidated by a federal judge on factual grounds. Research had uncovered Justice Department documents stating that the government’s evidence contained “intentional falsehoods” about the security threat. In 1998, Korematsu was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. To learn more about Fred Korematsu & civil liberties in a time of war, try the following resources:
All of my posts on World War II can be found here. |