Free Republic

his U.S. territory in the western Pacific is known for its epic World War II battle, white-sand beaches and the enduring culture of its indigenous Chamorro people. But for a certain class of Chinese parents, Saipan has become known as the latest hot spot for birth tourism, a place where women can give birth to babies who will automatically acquire U.S. citizenship.

As six Pearl Harbor veterans stood by his side, President Trump signed a presidential proclamation from the White House Thursday recognizing December 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. One of the survivors of the surpise attack, Michael Ganitch, who was also wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt for the occasion, broke out into song with "Remember Pearl Harbor" during the president's remarks. "What can I say? Wow that was good -- he's a very shy person too," Mr. Trump joked as Ganitch finished the song. The president praised each of the six veterans as heroes, thanking them for their service...

Local residents recall date that will live in infamy SIERRA VISTA — Thomas Stoney Sr. still vividly remembers the paper that morning. It was a copy of the News and Courier, a paper his older brother, Oliver, delivered in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. His father had it on the kitchen counter that Sunday morning, where Stoney could catch a glimpse of the shocking news splashed across the front page. “The big headline: The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and it was an extra edition,” Stoney recalled Wednesday at his Sierra Vista home 76 years later. At the time, Dec....

President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.” On that day, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. The bombing killed more than 2,400 Americans. It completely destroyed the American battleship U.S.S. Arizona and capsized the U.S.S. Oklahoma. The attack brought the United States into World War II. The attack sank or beached a total of twelve ships and damaged nine others. 160 aircraft were destroyed and 150 others damaged. The attack took the country by surprise, especially the ill-prepared Pearl Harbor base. December 7, 2017 marks the 76th anniversary...

We were having an 8 a.m. coffee with family in their home on the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam when the music started.Ringing through the morning, as happens every day here and on U.S. military bases around the world, was the melody of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”“O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,“What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming …”As the song plays, people strolling through the neighborhood freeze in their steps, cars pull to the side of the road, and even children stop playing and stand tall, exactly as they have been taught, to honor...

President Trump referred to Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” at a ceremony honoring Navajo code talkers on Monday. Trump has referred to the senator from Massachusetts often by that name, a reference to Warren’s dodgy history claiming native American heritage. “I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here,” Trump said. “Although, we have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time, longer than you, they call her Pocahontas!” Warren responded to the President, saying “It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the...

The ghosts of thousands of long-forgotten villages haunt Britain, inhabitations suddenly deserted and left to ruin. As a new campaign begins to shed further light on these forgotten histories, the Magazine asks - what happened and why?Albert Nash, blacksmith for 44 years in the village of Imber, Wiltshire, was found by his wife Martha slumped over the anvil in his forge. He was, in her words, crying like a baby. It was the beginning of November 1943, a day or two after Mr Nash and the rest of the villagers had been told by the War Office they had 47...

Russian inmate points an identifying and accusing finger at a Nazi guard who was especially cruel towards the prisoners in Buchenwald camp. (Colorized Photo)

On Sunday, a high school student from the Siberian city of Novy Urengoy made a conciliatory speech to Germany's parliament... "I was extremely upset,"Nikolay Desyatnichenko said, "because I saw the graves of people who died innocently, and many of whom wanted to live peacefully and didn't want to fight." He ended his short speech by saying he hoped "the world would never see war again." Not long after a Bavaria-based Russian posted the speech on Facebook with his outraged comments, thousands of posts ripped apart the high schooler, his school and his family. Thousands of people recalled the atrocities their...

This is the chilling moment a group of nurses laughed as a World War II veteran died in a Georgia care home. The nurses were meant to be fixing an oxygen mask onto 89-year-old James Dempsey after he called for help saying he couldn't breathe. But a surveillance camera captured them laughing as the breathing machine failed, and Dempsey fell unconscious, and records show they waited an hour to call 911. One of the nurses is seen laughing so hard she is doubled over Dempsey's deathbed. Initially, Dempsey's family in Woodstock, Georgia, thought he had died of natural causes in...

Two RAF Squadrons drop 29 "tallboy" bombs on the German battleship Tirpitz in Tromso Fiord, Norway. The ship is hit at least twice by the 10,000 pound bombs. The damage is fatal and Tirpitz capsizes. At least 950 German sailors were lost with the ship.

Seventy-five years ago this month, the Soviet Red Army surrounded --and would soon destroy -- a huge invading German army at Stalingrad on the Volga River. Nearly 300,000 of Germany's best soldiers would never return home. The epic 1942-43 battle for the city saw the complete annihilation of the attacking German 6th Army. It marked the turning point of World War II. Before Stalingrad, Adolf Hitler regularly boasted on German radio as his victorious forces pressed their offensives worldwide. After Stalingrad, Hitler went quiet, brooding in his various bunkers for the rest of the war. During the horrific Battle of...

Infantry weapons of World War 2 began mostly as the standard issue weapons that had been used in World War 1, but by the end of the war, numerous modern assault rifles, automatic pistols, and machine guns were being made. These weapons were made in the millions, and some were the standard issue in front line forces around the world well into the 1970s. Rifles like the M1 Garand, Lee-Enfield, and German Karabiner 98, along with the famous Tommy Gun, Sten Gun and MP44 are familiar from countless war movies and documentaries. These weapons changed the nature of combat, allowing...

On 7 December 7 1941, the United States experienced one of its most defining moments in history: the attack on Pearl Harbor. A day of sadness, fear, and chaos – that early Sunday morning marked the unforgettable time that the Japanese attacked the Hawaiian naval base, forcing America to enter World War II. In total, 2,403 men and women were killed during the surprise attack, with thousands more left to recover from terrible injuries and acute burns. Though many were sadly unable to recount their experience from that fateful incident, Naval Lieutenant Jim Downing currently lives on to tell the...

With the death of Stan "The Big K" or "Krusher" Kowalski on October 20, the world lost more than just a father, a World War II veteran, a tireless fundraiser, and a professional wrestler. It also lost a great friend.

Donald Malarkey, a World War II paratrooper who was awarded the Bronze Star after parachuting behind enemy lines at Normandy to destroy German artillery on D-Day, has died. He was 96. Malarkey was one of several members of "Easy Company" to be widely portrayed in the HBO miniseries, "Band of Brothers." He died Sept. 30 in Salem, Oregon of age-related causes, his son-in-law John Hill said Sunday. Malarkey fought fight across France, the Netherlands and Belgium and with Easy Company fought off Nazi advances while surrounded at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

On the morning of December 8, 1941, tens of thousands of American and British civilians living in China woke up to learn that the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor had been bombed by Japanese forces. Their nations were suddenly at war with Imperial Japan. The Japanese had invaded China years earlier, and the troops stationed there wasted no time turning these Westerners—who were now part of the enemy—into prisoners of war. “They appeared the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked,” Mary Previte told the Trumpet. “We were now the prisoners of the great emperor of Japan, they said.”...

VIDEO: Click on link for 14:36 minute video.

Irena Sendler Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98) Warsaw, Poland During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids. Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants...

Nearly half of Russian citizens approve of 1939's Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, a Levada Center poll released on Wednesday has found. Thirteen percent of Levada’s respondents said they “definitely approve” of the pact, while 32 percent they “somewhat approve” of it. A combined 17 percent said they “definitely” or “somewhat” disapprove of the treaty that the USSR and Nazi Germany signed on Aug. 23, 1939. Two-fifths of the 1,600 people polled said they had “heard of” the pact and “think that it happened in real life,” the survey revealed. One-third said they’ve never heard of...