This week, 75 years ago, a U.S. federal judge upholds the legality of the government’s internment of Japanese-Americans as security risks. Photo shows newly arrived line up of Japanese-Americans at internment center in San Bruno, California. 1942. Photo by Dorothea Lange. Source: www.publicintelligence.net
By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
On August 28, 1942, a Japanese seaplane — catapulted from the deck of submarine I-25, cruising offshore — drops incendiary bombs over Oregon and starts a forest fire. In Europe, the RAF launches a massive raid against Nuremberg, Germany, killing 4,000 civilians and destroying over 10,000 houses. In France, German authorities order the arrest of any Catholic priests harboring Jews. On this one day alone, 1,000 Jews — including 150 children — are “deported” from Paris to the death camp at Auschwitz, in Occupied Poland.
U.S. Navy and Army personnel occupy Adak Island, in the Aleutians, on August 29, to begin establishing naval and air bases there. These will allow attacks against Japanese bases on the nearby islands of Attu and Kiska. In Switzerland, the International Committee of the Red Cross announces that Japan (which did not sign the 1929 Geneva Convention on Warfare) is refusing to allow free passage of ships carrying food, medicines and other necessities to American prisoners of war.
Working off intercepted and decoded German messages, the British Royal Navy on August 30 sinks the German vessel SS San Andrea and its cargo of tank fuel destined for the Afrika Korps. It is the fourth fuel-transport ship sunk off North Africa by the British in the last two days. Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich, and military conscription is introduced. The resulting general strike protesting the conscription order ends after the Germans shoot some of the strikers. In France, Catholic bishops publicly condemn the mistreatment of Jews, and their deportations to Nazi death camps.
Aircraft carrier USS Saratoga is attacked and damaged by a Japanese submarine off Santa Cruz Island in the Solomons on August 31. In North Africa, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel attempts to break through at El Alamein, Egypt, in the Battle of Alam Halfa. However, the 15th Panzer Division fails to penetrate the British Eighth Army’s lines, and sustains heavy casualties, losing about 30 tanks. In Greece, British commandos conduct a raid on the island of Rhodes. In Washington, Agriculture Secretary Claude Wickard announces that meat rationing will likely become necessary in the U.S.
On September 1, German Army Group A, in the Caucasus, captures the Black Sea port of Anapa. Axis forces fight their way into Stalingrad’s suburbs. In the U.S., a federal judge upholds the legality of the government’s internment of Japanese-Americans as security risks.
Japanese submarines begin raiding in and around the Indian Ocean on September 2. Submarine I-29 sinks the British cargo ship SS Gazcon in the mouth of the Gulf of Aden with a loss of 12 lives. In North Africa, Rommel — after suffering heavy losses from fierce Allied resistance — is forced to retreat to Bab el Qattara, Egypt, his starting point for the Alam Halfa offensive near El Alamein. The Axis forces now take up defensive positions, awaiting an Allied counteroffensive. In Occupied Poland, Nazi security forces in the Warsaw Ghetto begin the evacuation of over 50,000 Jews to extermination or concentration camps.
The Battle of Stalingrad begins on September 3, as troops of the German Sixth Army under Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus attack the center of the city. Civilian men and boys are conscripted by the Red Army to aid in Stalingrad’s defense. In the Pacific, Japanese forces occupy Santa Isabel Island, in the Solomons.
