Description
YANK — The Army Weekly
VJ Issue / China-Burma-India Edition • September 22, 1945 • Vol. 3, No. 8
Published by the enlisted men of the U.S. Army; main editorial office, 205 East 42nd Street, New York 17, N.Y.
24 pages scanned
Price: 5¢ (U.S.) or 3 Annas (CBI). Managing Editor: Sgt. Joe McCarthy.
Cover Page
Front cover (VJ Issue masthead): Four cheering GIs crowd around a teletype machine reading out the bulletin of Japan’s surrender, with strips of wire-service tape reading “JAPAN HAS OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED ALLIED TERMS FOR UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER WITHOUT QUALIFICATION — PRESIDENT TRUMAN ANNOUNCED TONIGHT AT SEVEN PEE EM.” Photo credit: Sgt. Robert Rockwell.
Back cover (China-Burma-India edition front cover): A homeward-bound GI in a pith helmet sits among barracks bags beside a large sign reading “No. 1 BERTH — PRINSEP GHAT,” taking a break before boarding a troopship at Calcutta. Photo credit: Pvt. Kenneth Stevenson.
Major Headlines & Content
“How Soon Out?” — Sgt. H. N. Oliphant lays out the War Department’s demobilization and discharge-point plans for soldiers now that Japan has surrendered.
“Victory” — YANK correspondents Sgt. Sanderson Vanderbilt, Sgt. Barrett McGurn, Sgt. Dave Richardson, Sgt. Larry McManus, Sgt. Allan B. Ecker, Sgt. Robert MacMillan, Cpl. Tom O’Brien, Cpl. Len Zinberg, and Sgt. Al Weisman report V-J Day celebrations from Dallas, New York City, Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, Pasadena, Washington, Camp Kilmer (N.J.), the Atlantic Ocean, Manila, Honolulu, Paris, Rome, London, Berlin, and Alaska, naming servicemen and civilians including Pfc. William E. Boynicki, Pfc. Guy Rogers, Mrs. Mary Williams, Lt. Helen Span, WAC Sgt. Rayetta Johnson, Maj. Gen. Thompson Lawrence, Marine Pfc. James Prim, Pfc. Nobuichi Masatsugo, T-4 Cyril D. Robinson, Pvt. Mitchell Rosen, and Sgt. Bernard Katz, alongside a photo of President Harry S. Truman reading the Japanese surrender message with Admiral William Leahy, Secretary of State James Byrnes, and former Secretary of State Cordell Hull.
“The Last 125 Days” — Pfc. Robert Bendiner recaps the war’s final four months: the deaths of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler; the German surrender; the Potsdam Conference among Harry Truman, Winston Churchill (succeeded by Clement Attlee after Britain’s election), and Joseph Stalin; the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; the Soviet Union’s entry into the Pacific war; and Japan’s surrender.
“The Mighty Atom” — Cpl. Jonathan Kilbourn explains the basic science of atomic structure and nuclear fission behind the bomb, illustrated with diagrams of the hydrogen and uranium atoms.
“The Atomic Bomb” — Kilbourn continues with the secret history of the bomb’s development, crediting scientists Dr. Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn, F. Strassmann, Dr. Otto Robert Frisch, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, and Enrico Fermi, and the Manhattan Project’s Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell, Dr. Vannevar Bush, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Secretary of War Henry Stimson, culminating in the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
“Atomic Bomb Away” — Robert Schwartz Y2c recounts the Enola Gay’s mission to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, naming pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., co-pilot Capt. Robert A. Lewis, bombardier Maj. Thomas W. Ferebee, weaponeer Capt. William S. Parsons, navigator Capt. Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, radar operator Sgt. Joe Steiborik, tail gunner S/Sgt. George Caron, flight engineer S/Sgt. Wyatt E. Duzenbury, electronics officer Lt. M. U. Jeppson, and assistant flight engineer Pfc. Richard H. Nelson.
“Separation” — Cpl. Martin S. Day, a counselor at the Fort Meade, Md., separation center, describes the discharge-point system and the personal and financial problems GIs bring to him on their way out of the Army.
“VJ-Day” — An unsigned editorial reflects on the meaning of Japan’s surrender and on veterans’ responsibilities as they return to civilian life.
Other Content”
Cartoon — “Sad Sack” by Sgt. George Baker (Philippines) — the hapless Sad Sack celebrates news of Japan’s surrender.
Pin-up feature — “Miss Liberty” — the Statue of Liberty is featured as YANK’s pin-up girl, with a soldier’s handwritten note about seeing her from the deck of a troop ship.
Masthead/staff note — Lists YANK’s main editorial office staff, led by Managing Editor Sgt. Joe McCarthy, and correspondents posted with bureaus in Washington, France, Britain, Australia-Philippines, the Central Pacific, the Marianas, Italy, Alaska, the Africa-Middle East-Persian Gulf, Panama, Puerto Rico, Iceland, Newfoundland, and the Navy.