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Posted by: Neely Tucker
Haruo Shimizu, a Japanese schoolteacher, survived the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. One year later, he wrote down his memories of that horrific day for a friendly U.S. soldier stationed in Japan, who brought it home after his deployment. Today, it is one of the items featured in the new Treasures of the Library gallery.
Posted in: LCM, Manuscripts, Poetry, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
When the San Francisco Opera debuted “Doctor Atomic,” an opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams based on physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the test of the first atomic bomb, its first lines contained a scientific error. Marvin L. Cohen, president of the American Physical Society, was in the audience and caught it immediately. Here's how he and Adams changed it.
Posted in: Concerts, LCM, Music, Performing Arts, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Some of the U.S. military's best intelligence assets during both World Wars were Native American troops who used their own, unwritten languages as the basis for coded radio messages. These Code Talkers, particularly Navajo Marines, were invaluable in the Pacific theater of World War II. Twenty-nine Navajo Code Talkers were later awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Many of these soldiers' personal stories are preserved in the LIbrary's Veterans History Project.
Posted in: American Folklife Center, LCM, Native Americans, Veterans History Project, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The stunningly complete, intellectually voracious files of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, are preserved at the Library. The files fill more than 300 boxes that occupy a line of files that would stretch, if stacked end to end, more than 120 feet. That’s not including more than 70 boxes of research files compiled over 20 years by Martin J. Sherwin for his part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” (Kai Bird shared the Pulitzer as a co-writer.) Those stretch another 27 feet. The files tell his epic life story in granular detail.
Posted in: Manuscripts, Science, Technology, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. Secretary of State, died today in Washington at the age of 84. The cause was cancer, her family said.. Albright, who donated her papers to the Library in 2014, was a key figure in the administration of Bill Clinton, serving both as ambassador to the United Nations and then as Secretary of State during his second term. Outspoken to the end, she wrote an essay for the New York Times in late February warning about the effects of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. She included her notes from her first meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, more than two decades ago: "Putin is small and pale...so cold as to be almost reptilian."
Posted in: Manuscripts, National Book Festival, News, Women's History, World War II, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library kicks off Black History Month with a new By the People crowdsourcing project -- transcribing the papers in the William A. Gladstone Afro-American Military Collection.
Posted in: African American History, American Revolution, Civil Rights, Civil War, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
David Breger, a successful freelance cartoonist, drafted into the Army in 1941, created the "Private Breger" cartoon during his off-duty hours at Camp Livingston. Once it caught on, the name (but little else) was changed to "G.I. Joe." From there, it became a cultural icon.
Posted in: Comics, LCM, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
In World War II, the U.S. government enlisted American citizens to report what their neighbors, coworkers and classmates were saying about the war in a controversial "rumor control" project.
Posted in: American Folklife Center, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
William Dillard, a former U.S. Army soldier who fought in World War II, won the gold medal in 100 meters in the1948 Olympic Games in London, on his way to becoming of the armed services' greatest Olympic athletes.
Posted in: African American History, Photos, Veterans History Project, World War II