Hirohito, Emperor Shōwa, 1935. (Public Domain) By Todd DePastino The Atomic Bomb that destroyed Hiroshima effectively ended the Pacific War. Japan’s perfidy at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was fully repaid with the nuclear strike on August 6, 1945. Because of the Bomb, Japan’s surrender was inevitable. That’s the history most
Vietnam veteran Bill Kapito passed along the letter below written by his uncle Pfc. William Silberman, who was killed in Italy on April 12, 1945. Silberman was a member of C Company, 168th Regiment, 34th Division, a unit that saw 517 days in combat in World War II. He had joined the unit in
Written by Alex Wellerstein, Stevens Institute of Technology. Licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The Manhattan Project was the Anglo-American effort to build nuclear weapons during World War II. It is commonly regarded as one of the most successful, if controversial, mega-projects of the 20th century, bringing together scientific expertise, industrial production, and
Written by Todd DePastino WWII Royal Air Force Veteran and VBC Member Joan Gill just turned 103 years old on June 14! Joan was born in 1922 in Chatham, England, just 30 miles southeast of London and within earshot of the Royal Naval Dockyards. By the time the Battle of Britain raged overhead in
Written by Todd DePastino On July 9, 1853, four American warships steamed into Edo Bay, their guns pointed at the seat of Japan’s ruling shogunate. At their helm was Commodore Matthew Perry, a veteran of the US Navy and younger brother of War of 1812 hero Oliver Hazard Perry. He came with a letter
Written by Todd DePastino When we think of the Declaration of Independence, we picture a finished parchment proclaiming its famous line: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” But how is human equality self-evident? Thomas Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration, didn't use that word. He called the assertion
