#v: wwii

[joyfulmagic]

@kit-just-kit // WWII! Kit & Illya

“<Stop, you did your job,>” Illya informed Kit, taking the blade from her and cleaning it with his own handkerchief before handing it back. “<Too much attention to the details of his death will draw the N@zis right back to you,>” he warned, offering a secondary blade for Kit to keep. Changing up the way the blade severed the main artery would keep the SS detectives on their toes, compared to what seemed like a serial killer targeting male SS officers.

Illya looked down at the body, sliding a glove on so he could make sure the n@zi was deceased. “<You’re rather skilled with a blade,>” he complimented once he was certain there was no pulse, offering a small smile to Kit despite the nature of their business. It sounded like a set up for a joke — two Allied Forces spies walk into an SS bar, and they walk out alive.

“<We need to go,>” Illya suddenly added, eyes darting to the door, tossing the SS officer’s body over his shoulder with uncanny ease. He took Kit’s hand with his free one, going over to the window. “<Can you jump down to the ground from the awning, or do you need me to catch you>?” Illya asked, wanting Kit to get out of there safely. His French accent cracked during the question, a Russian one momentarily slipping through.

[ofgunsandlipstick]

@lamentingwclf || cont'd

She rolls her eyes, but it's certainly mostly for show. She doesn't like feeling invalid and certainly hates showing any signs of weakness, especially in front of soldiers who already question her fitness for her position without an excuse. But it doesn't seem he will be much of the shame.

"Has anyone- mm- ever told you you're rather annoying?" she teases, still biting back the pain, though perhaps not bothering to hide it on her face anymore. She sighs softly as the air of his breath takes a bit of the sting.

[ofgunsandlipstick]

She ducked her head, accepting his kiss, even if she wanted to grab him and pull him and kiss him properly. But she knows this is the only bit of affection they can risk in such an open area. Still, she let herself grasp at his hand for just a moment, only letting go when he got too far to hold on.

"I make no promises!" she called after him, grinning as he left the infirmary.

Steve shook his head and quickly looked around to make sure no one was looking before he kissed her forehead. He'd grab some things to keep her occupied, being stuck and bed and bored was awful.

"I'll be back, be good."

[theworldatwar]

A British Mark V tank from WW1 on display in the city of Kharkov - date unknown. The tank had been installed in 1938 as a monument

[vox-anglosphere]

Two teenage princesses slipped into the roaring crowd unnoticed. After six years of blackouts, it was a night of unsurpassed jubilation.

[ofgunsandlipstick]

Her eyebrow stays raised, studying him for a good long minute as he explains the situation to her. Before responding, she takes a moment. Perhaps she is too lax with him. They're more than coworkers at this point and she enjoys his company more than most. And perhaps that does cloud her judgment.

However, as he talks, she doesn't think that's the case here. Peggy purses her lips, taking a sip of water. "Sergeant, all I hear is that our job got done sooner and with fewer casualties. To me, that sounds like a win."

As she turns the full brunt of her gaze on him, he laughs, almost nervously. Somehow, he knows telling her she's beautiful when she's pre-mad will get him no where. So his laugh turns into a cough, and he readjusts his laxed pose.

"I - " Actually Dugan, "was made aware of a drop off happening in my squads vicinity of enemy supplies - weapons included. I - " Actually his team, "made the decision to appropriate the cache instead."

He was the commanding officer on duty, but his LT felt slightly different, but that could have been the fact they'd also stolen a jeep to drive the supplies back to camp. "Might have had conduct unbecoming and reckless endangerment thrown out there. But no one got hurt, and because of the loss, we were able to take the town two days sooner."

[pagesofthesea]

V-E Day, 79 years ago

"I say that in the long years to come not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we’ve done and they will say “do not despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny, march straightforward and die if need be-unconquered.'"

PM Winston Churchill, May 8, 1945

"Let us not forget, my fellow Americans, the sorrow and the heartache which today abide in the homes of so many of our neighbors—neighbors whose most priceless possession has been rendered as a sacrifice to redeem our liberty."

President Harry S. Truman, May 8, 1945

"Célébrons votre victoire : victoire de Mai, victoire radieuse de printemps qui redonne à la France la Jeunesse, la force et l’Espoir."

General de Lattre de Tassigny, Commander of the Free French Army, May 9, 1945

[joyfulmagic]

"Barnes, you are a thorn in my side. Do you know that?" (Bucky)

@agentnamed

Bucky chuckled, looking down then flashing Peggy his baby blues. "What kind of thorn am I? Since I've always wanted to be compared to a rose," he jested, smiling cheekily at Agent Carter. He adored his best friend's lover, even helping her sneak around with Steve without getting in trouble.

[ofgunsandlipstick]

@audaxbellator || cont'd

The vulnerability in his voice warms Peggy's heart. She knows he's still not quite at home in his skin now, but still reaching for her is nearly too much to bear. She reaches up, cupping his cheek in her hand. "I won't let you," she promises him, eyes locked on his, "even if I thought for a second it was a concern, which, to be perfectly clear, my darling, I don't." She steels her next words with conviction so he can't doubt her. "I trust you, Steve."

[ofgunsandlipstick]

Peggy frowned slightly, seeing the trepidation in her brother's face. Clearly she hadn't gotten the whole of the story. Peggy nodded. "There's a conference room down the hall. We can close the door there. Is that private enough?"

The sigh of relief that left Michael, was audible.

"I know, I promise I will explain everything but not here, is there somewhere private we can go?" Michael wasn't sure if his captors were listening even now. Surely, they'd noticed he was free, and he didn't want to risk his sister more than he already had by explaining everything out in the open.

Plus, he knew if they were alone, Peggy could let her emotions show, as could he.

[deadpresidents]

Vice President Harry S. Truman playing the piano as 20-year-old actress Lauren Bacall looks on at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on February 10, 1945. Later in life, Truman would tell a biographer that: "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician -- and, to tell the truth, there's hardly a difference."

At roughly the exact same time, approximately 5,259 miles away from Washington, D.C., the big three Allied leaders of World War II -- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt (whose health was rapidly failing) -- were wrapping up their monumental summit at the Yalta Conference in Crimea to discuss plans for the post-war division and occupation of a defeated Nazi Germany.

Two months later, on April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt was dead and Truman succeeded to the Presidency after his brief Vice Presidency. Before April was over, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were also dead, the United Nations had been officially established, Allied troops began finding and liberating concentration camps, and the war in Europe ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany in early May. All of these remarkable historic events occurred within a matter of weeks, and sometimes just a few days or even a few hours apart.

[theworldatwar]

A German PzKpfw V Panther tank rumbles through the streets of Rome - Italy 1944

[ofgunsandlipstick]

Peggy couldn't wipe the smile from her face as she tilted up onto her toes, leaning up to meet his kiss. Her eyes drift close and she loses herself in him.

One of his hands frame the side of her face. Steve takes a breath, his gaze landing on her lips. He leans in, eyes closing as he presses his lips to hers gently.

[rockyp77mk3]

GIs examine a Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg. This was a manned version of the V-1.

This version was developed late in the war and may have been intended for suicide attacks on the advancing Allies.

[carbone14]

Deux marins de l’US Navy après une nuit à célébrer la fin de la guerre contre le Japon - San Francisco - Californie - Etats-Unis - 15 août 1945

©SJSU University Archives Photographic Collection

Colorisation par JM

[todaysdocument]

At the beginning of WWII, Naval Intelligence officers concluded that there were around 10,000 Japanese Americans who could pose a threat to the U.S.

Army General DeWitt used his authority to incarcerate 120,000. 

U.S. v Korematsu, Exhibit Q, April 30, 1943. 

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States

Series: Criminal Case Files

File Unit: United States v. Korematsu

Transcription: 

Edward J. Ennis

Director

Exhibit Q

Department of Justice

Alien Enemy Control Unit

Washington

April 30, 1943

[stamp] DEPARTMENT OF [illegible]

SEP 1[illegible] 1951

DIVISION OF [illegible]

ATTORNEY GENERAL [end stamp]

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SOLICITOR GENERAL

RE: Japanese Brief

Last week with our draft of the [underlined] Hirabayeshi [end underlined] brief I transmitted to Mr. Raum somematerial which I thought he would find helpful in obtaining a background view of the context of this case. In particular, I sent him a copy of Harpers Magazine for October 1942, which contains an article entitled [underlined] The Japanese in America, The Problem and the Solution, [end underline] which is said to be by "An Intelligence Officer". without attempting to summarize this article, it stated among other things that:

1. The number of Japanese aliens and citizens who would act as saboteurs and enemy agents was less than 3,500 throughout the entire United States.

2. Of the Japanese aliens, "the large majority are at least passively loyal to the United States".

3. "The Americanization of Nisei (American-born Japanese) is far advanced."

4. With the exception of a few identified persons who were prominent in pro-Japanese organization the only important group of dangerous Japanese were the Kibei (American-born Japanese predominantly educated in Japan).

5. "The identity of Kibei can be readily ascertained from United States Government records."

6. "Had this war not come along at this time, in another ten or fifteen years there would have been no Japanese problem, for the Issei would have passed on, and the Nisei taken their place naturally in American communities and national life."

This article concludes: "To sum up: The  'Japanese Problem' has been magnified out of its true proportion largely because of the physical characteristics of the Japanese people. It should not be handled on the basis of the [underlined: individual], regardless of citizenship and [underlined: not] on a racial basis." (Emphasis in original.)

I thought this article interesting even though it was substantially anonymous. I now attach much more significance to it because a memorandum prepared by Lt. Con. X. D. Ringle, who has until very recently been Assis-

[handwritten in bottom right corner] #8 [end handwritten]

[page 2]

tant District Intelligence Officer, 1th Naval District, in charge of naval intelligence in that district (which includes Los Angeles), and who was formerly Assistant District Intelligence Officer in Hawaii, has come to my attention. A comparison of this memorandum with the article leaves no doubt that the author of the Harpers article is Lt. Com. K. D. Ringle. There are many long passages in the first person relating to personal experiences which are identical in the two writings.

  In addition I am informed entirely unofficially by the persons in the Office of Naval Intelligence that Lt. Com. Ringle in fact was lent to War Relocation Authority to prepare a manual on the background of the Japanese who were being evacuated from an Intelligence or security viewpoint, for the use of the WRA personnel. After this memorandum was prepared permission was obtained to abstract it and publish it anonymously in Harpers. Thus the Harpers article, which clearly indicates that the method of evacuation was wrong and that it would have been sufficient to evacuate not more than 10,000 know Japanese and that it would now be sage to release all but not more than 10,000 presently identified Japanese, was written by a Naval Intelligence officer who was on duty from 1940 until very recently in the Los Angeles area, from which approximately one-third of the evacuation came.

  I have furthermore been most informally, but altogether reliably, advised that both the article and the WRA memorandum prepared by Lt. Com. Ringle represent the views, if not of the Navy, at least of those Naval Intelligence officers in charge of Japanese counter-intelligence work. It has been suggested to me quite clearly that it is the view of these officers that the whole evacuation scheme was carried out badly and that it would have been sufficient to evacuate the following three groups:

1. The Kibei.

2. The parents of Kibei.

3. A known group of aliens and citizens who were active members of pro-Japanese societies such as the Japanese Navy League, the Military Virtue Society, etc.

Since the naval officers believe that it was necessary to evacuate only about 10,000 people they could have identified by name, they did not feel that it was necessary to evacuate all of the Japanese. Presumably, they did not make this view known fourteen months ago for the reasons that Secretary Knox was at that time greatly exercised about the Japanese Fifth Column and that, since it was the Army's problem, it was safer to keep quiet than to brave the political storm then raging.

In retrospect it appears that this Department made a mistake fourteen months ago in not bringing the Office of Naval Intelligence into the

[page 3]

controversy. I suppose that the reason that it did not occur to any of us to do this was the extreme position then taken by the Secretary of the Navy.

   To have done so would have been wholly reasonable, since by the terms of the so-called delimitation agreement it was agreed that Naval Intelligence should specialize on the Japanese, while Army Intelligence occupied other fields. I have not seen the document, but I have repeatedly been told that Army, before the war, agreed in writing to permit the Navy to conduct its Japanese intelligence work for it. I think it follows, therefore, that to a very considerable extent the Army, in acting upon the opinion of Intelligence officers, is bound by the opinion of the Naval officers in Japanese matters. Thus, had we known that the Navy thought that 90% of the evacuation was unnecessary, we could strongly have urged upon Gen. DeWitt that he could not base a military judgment to the contrary upon Intelligence reports, as he now claims to do.

Lt. Com. Ringle's full memorandum is somewhat more complete than the version published in Harpers and I think you will be interested in reading it. In the past year I have looked at  great numbers of reports, memoranda, and articles on the Japanese, and it is my opinion that this is the most reasonable and objective discussion of the security problem presented by the presence of the Japanese minority. In view of the inherent reasonableness of this memorandum and in view of the fact that we now know that it represents the view of the Intelligence agency having the most direct responsibility for investigating the Japanese from the security viewpoint, I feel that we should be extremely careful in taking any position on the facts more hostile to the Japanese than the position of Lt. Com. Ringle. I attach the Department's only copy of this memorandum.

  Furthermore, in view of the fact that the Department of Justice is now representing the Army in the Supreme Court of the United States and is arguing that a partial, selective evacuation was impracticable, we must consider most carefully what our obligation to the Court is in view of the fact that the responsible Intelligence agency regarded a selective evacuation as not only sufficient but preferable. It is my opinion that certainly one of the most difficult questions in the whole case is raised by the fact that the Army did not evacuate people after any hearing or on any individual determination of dangerousness, but evacuated the entire racial group. The briefs filed by appellants in the Ninth Circuit particularly pressed the point that no individual consideration was given, and I regard it as certain that this point will be stressed even more, assuming that competent counsel represent appellants, in the Supreme Court. Thus, in one of the crucial points of the case the Government is forced to argue that individual, selective evacuation would have been impractical and insufficient when we have positive knowledge that the only Intelligence agency responsible for advising Gen. DeWitt gave him advice directly to the contrary.

[page 4[

In view of this fact, I think we should consider very carefully whether we do not have a duty to advise the Court of the existence of the Ringle memorandum and of the fact that this represents the view of the Office of Naval Intelligence. It occurs to me that any other course of conduct might approximate the suppression of evidence.

  As I have said, my information that the Ringle memorandum represents the view of the Office of Naval Intelligence has come to me informally. I feel, therefore, that we have an obligation to verify my informal information. I believer that we should address an inquiry to the Secretary of the Navy, making reference to the Ringle memorandum, and stating that we have been advised that this represents the Navy's view and asking the Secretary if in fact the views of ONI, at the time of the evacuation, coincided with Com. Ringle's.

 The Ringle memorandum originally came into my possession from WRA and we noticed the parallel between the memorandum and the article in this office. Attorneys for WRA furthermore are among the persons who have advised us that the Ringle memorandum represents the official Navy view. In view of the fact that any other information which I have obtained is highly confidential, I would prefer to refer in a letter to Secretary Knox only to WRA.

  I have prepared for your consideration a draft of a letter which you might wish to send to Mr. Knox.

Edward J. Ennis

Director, Alien Enemy Control Unit

Attachment