Memories of B-29 air crews on big Tokyo raids of May 24-25, 1945
http://www.40thbombgroup.org/memories/Memories8.pdf
http://www.stalag-viiib.com/content/pow-diaries-1945-may-24-1945-jhhallam-stalag-viiib
P.O.W. Diaries 1945
J.H.Hallam
Stalag VIIIB
Thursday May 24 1945
“Feeling fine, the weather is a dead loss these days -— dull and trying to rain. I have just had my morning drink. We had sausages for breakfast, and porridge. I got a letter from May last night, said she arrived back late. I have had letters from Mother, Charlie Woods and Aunt Emm today. Aunt Emm sent me a packet of Craven “A”, two books of stamps, writing paper and a 10/- note. I feel quite lively today. My appetite grows daily. I have written to May again. The time flies here. I am looking forward to getting home.”
http://www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Jackfert.htm
Video interview
Edward Jackfert
- US Army Air Corps, 28th Bombs Squadron
- Malaybalay, Tottori Maru, Tokyo Camp # 2,
Nishing Flour Mill Camp, Kawasaki, Japan.
“On May 24th, 1945 B-29s hit our camp area without any air raid warning being sounded. . We immediately jumped out of bed, took what clothes we could get on and headed for our shelters at the Mitsui dock area. Then on May 29th, I was on the Mitsui dock slave labor detail, carrying 120 lbs sacks of rice into railroad box cars. The general alarm siren blasted at 7 AM, however, we continued work detail at the Mitsui dock and warehouse area. At approximately 9:00 AM, the short siren blasts sounded, indicating that a bombing raid was imminent. However, we were force to continue or work on the Mitsui dock area despite the short blast warning. A little after 9, we heard the sound of airplane engines and looking toward Yokohama, we saw a large number of B-29s over the city. We heard the sound of explosions as the bombs hit the city. Soon, we saw large clouds of smoke over the area which was bombed and we knew that much devastation and loss of life had occurred. As the planes left the Yokohama area, they proceeded to fly directly over the Mitsui dock area where we were working. Our Japanese overseers would not permit us to seek protection in an air raid shelter during the raid.
We had been informed that all of the prisoners of war at the Nippon Steel camp had been evacuated to a less dangerous area. However, the Japanese authorities continued to keep us in the Tokyo Area Camp # 2 area and refused to evacuate us to a safer area. One note of importance here is that all of the Japanese workers who were employed and worked beside us at the Mitsui dock area had began to leave the area and refused to work at the Mitsui facility due to the fear of the B-29 bombings. Americans were the only work force available currently available at the Mitsui dock area detail.”
Stalin was born to a working class family in Imperial Russia. One of three sons, he was the only one to survive infancy. Initially, the Jughashvili [Stalin's original family name] family prospered, but Stalin's father became an alcoholic, which gradually led to his business failing and him becoming violently abusive to his wife and child. As their financial situation grew worse, Stalin's family moved homes at least nine times in Stalin's first ten years of life. His father beat his mother and himself so violently that Stalin once had blood in his urine for over a week. His childhood deprivations left him short. At the age of seven, Stalin fell ill with smallpox and his face was badly scarred by the disease. The smallpox left him pockmarked. About the time Stalin began school, his left arm became disfigured. Stalin himself has given conflicting accounts as to the cause, either because of a blood poisoning or because of physical abuse. Whatever the cause, his left arm became a couple of inches shorter than his right; this injury would later exempt him from military service in World War I. At the age of 12, Stalin was struck again by a horse-drawn carriage and injured much more severely. He was taken to a hospital in Tiflis where he spent months in care.
So one arm was significantly shorter than the other. So painting Stalin in a way that pleased him was difficult. Under no circumstances should his withered arm be noticeable. But the painting should not be unrealistic either. But Nalbandian found a way to please Stalin.
“Stalin executed a few artists. At first they were summoned to the Kremlin in order to immortalize the leader and teacher. And obviously they failed to please the leader. Stalin wanted to be tall. And the hands should be the same length. Artist Nalbandian outwitted everybody. On his portrait, Stalin with his hands folded somewhere on the stomach makes it straight towards the spectator. The view is taken from below.From this angle, even a midget seems a giant.
Nalbandian followed Mayakovski’s advice: an artist should look at a model like a duck looks at a balcony. And from this duck’s position Nalbandian painted the portrait of Stalin. Stalin was greatly pleased. Reproductions of the portrait were hung in all institutions - even in hairdressing salons and in bathhouses.”
Nuremberg Trial Defendants:
Julius Streicher
"Through his words and his deeds Julius Streicher assumed for himself the unofficial title of "Jew-baiter Number One" of Nazi Germany. For the course of some twenty-five years, Streicher educated the German people in hatred and incited them to the persecution and to the extermination of the Jewish race. He was an accessory to murder, on a scale perhaps never attained before."
"Streicher was sentenced to death by hanging at the Nuremberg Trial. On October 16, 1946, Streicher was executed. When he went up to the scaffolding, he spat at the hangman and said, "The Bolsheviks will hang you one day!" Just before he fell to his death, he shouted, "Purim Festival, 1946!" apparently referring to the Jewish celebration commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from Haman, who had advocated their extermination, but had instead himself been hanged."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12225
Harry Truman: Special Message to the Congress on the Organization of the Executive Branch.
May 24, 1945
To the Congress of the United States:
The Congress has repeatedly manifested interest in an orderly transition from war to peace. It has legislated extensively on the subject, with foresight and wisdom.
I wish to draw the attention of the Congress to one aspect of that transition for which adequate provision has not as yet been made. I refer to the conversion of the Executive Branch of the Government.
Immediately after the declaration of war the Congress, in Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941, empowered the President to make necessary adjustments in the organization of the Executive Branch with respect to those matters which relate to the conduct of the present war. This authority has been extremely valuable in furthering the prosecution of the war. It is difficult to conceive how the executive agencies could have been kept continuously attuned to the needs of the war without legislation of this type.
The First War Powers Act expires by its own terms six months after the termination of the present war. Pending that time, Title I will be of very substantial furrier value in enabling the President to make such additional temporary improvements in the organization of the Government as are currently required for the more effective conduct of the war.
However, furrier legislative action is required in the near future, because the First War Powers Act is temporary, and because, as matters now stand, every step taken under Title I will automatically revert, upon the termination of the Title, to the pre-existing status.
Such automatic reversion is not workable. I think that the Congress has recognized that fact, particularly in certain provisions of section of the War Mobilization and Reconversion Act of 1944. In some instances it will be necessary to delay reversion beyond the period now provided by law, or to stay it permanently. In other instances it will be necessary to modify actions heretofore taken under Title I and to continue the resulting arrangement beyond the date of expiration of the Title. Automatic reversion will result in the re-establishment of some agencies that should not be re-established. Some adjustments of a permanent character need to be made, as exemplified by the current proposal before the Congress with respect to the subsidiary corporations of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Some improvements heretofore made in the Government under the First War Powers Act, as exemplified by the reorganization of the Army under Executive Order No. 9082, should not be allowed to revert automatically or at an inopportune time.
I believe it is realized by everyone—in view of the very large number of matters involved and the expedition required in their disposition-that the problems I have mentioned will not be met satisfactorily unless the Congress provides for them along the general lines indicated in this message.
Quite aside from the disposition of the war organization of the Government, other adjustments need to be made currently and continuously in the Government establishment. From my experience in the Congress, and from a review of the pertinent developments for a period of forty years preceding that experience, I know it to be a positive fact that, by and large, the Congress cannot deal effectively with numerous organizational problems on an individual item basis. The Congressional Record is replete with expressions of members of the Congress, themselves, to this effect. Yet it is imperative that these matters be dealt with continuously if the Government structure is to be reasonably wieldy and manageable, and be responsive to proper direction by the Congress and the President on behalf of the people of this country. The question is one that goes directly to the adequacy and effectiveness of our Government as an instrument of democracy.
Suitable reshaping of those parts of the Executive Branch of the Government which require it from time to time is necessary and desirable from every point of view. A well organized Executive Branch will be more efficient than a poorly organized one. It will help materially in making manageable the Government of this great nation. A number of my predecessors have urged the Congress to take steps to make the Executive Branch more business-like and efficient. I welcome and urge the cooperation of Congress to the end that these objectives may be attained.
Experience has demonstrated that if substantial progress is to be made in these regards, it must be done through action initiated or taken by the President. The results achieved under the Economy Act (1932), as amended, the Reorganization Act of 1939, and Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941, testify to the value of Presidential initiative in this field.
Congressional criticisms are heard, not infrequently, concerning deficiencies in the Executive Branch of the Government. I should be less than frank if I failed to point out that the Congress cannot consistently advance such criticisms and at the same time deny the President the means of removing the causes at the root of such criticisms.
Accordingly, I ask the Congress to enact legislation which will make it possible to do what we all know needs to be done continuously and expeditiously with respect to improving the organization of the Executive Branch of the Government. In order that the purposes which I have in mind may be understood, the following features are suggested: (a) the legislation should be generally similar to the Reorganization Act of 1939, and part 2 of Title I of that Act should be utilized intact, (b) the legislation should be of permanent duration, (c) no agency of the Executive Branch should be exempted from the scope of the legislation, and (d) the legislation should be sufficiently broad and flexible to permit of any form of organizational adjustment, large or small, for which necessity may arise.
It is scarcely necessary to point out that under the foregoing arrangement (a) necessary action is facilitated because initiative is placed in the hands of the President, and (b) necessary control is reserved to the Congress since it may, by simple majority vote of the two Houses, nullify any action of the President which does not meet with its approval. I think, further, that the Congress recognizes that particular arrangement as its own creation, evolved within the Congress out of vigorous efforts and debate extending over a period of two years and culminating in the enactment of the Reorganization Act of 1939.
Therefore, bearing in mind what the future demands of all of us, I earnestly ask the Congress to enact legislation along the foregoing lines without delay.
HARRY S. TRUMAN
Citation: Harry S. Truman: “Special Message to the Congress on the Organization of the Executive Branch.,” May 24, 1945. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
83rd Infantry Division - Radio News
May 24, 1945
http://83rdinfdivdocs.org/documents/radionews/83rd_Signal_Co_19450524_Germany_Vol_VIII_No_28.pdf
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/zussman.html
May 24, 1945
Raymond Zussman was a Jewish American soldier who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in honor of his valor during World War II.
Zussman (born July 23, 1917; died September 21, 1944) was born in in Hamtramck, Michigan and joined the U.S. Army from Detroit, Michigan in September 1941.
By 1944, Zussman was serving as a second lieutenant, commanding tanks of the 756th Tank Battalion. On September 12, 1944, during a battle in the city of Noroy-le-Bourg, France, Zussman repeatedly went forward alone to scout enemy positions and exposed himself to enemy fire while directing his tank’s action. Under Zussman’s heroic and inspiring leadership, eighteen enemy were killed and ninety-two were captured. He survived the battle but was killed in combat nine days later.
On May 24, 1945, Zussman was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military decoration, for his actions at Noroy-le-Bourg.
Zussman was buried at Machpelah Cemetery in Ferndale, Michigan.