#OnThisDay, 25 Mar 1941, the first WRNS arrive at Bletchley Park in the UK. They operate the Bombe machines used for decoding German Enigma machine messages. Their work helps shorten World War 2.

7.3: They Sent Us to Camp: My Family's Experience of Internment During WWII

If you meet a Japanese American, it’s also a pretty good bet, they probably won’t spontaneously start talking about what they or their family went through, how they feel about it, and how they or their family recovered from the ordeal.

I (Christina) wanted to rectify that by sitting down with my old friend Chie Furuya, whose parents (as tiny children), grandparents, and other family members were “sent to camp”, to ask her about it. The answers and stories she had for me were both fascinating and unexpectedly heartening. Her people are a resilient, cheerful people and I feel like there are life lessons for all of us here, in terms of withstanding and recovering from severe injustice (and coming out on top).

Ariel’s addition to this episode description is to point out that Japanese internment occurred in Canada in the early 20th century as well. We (by which she means Canada, or perhaps so-called Canada, as she likes to call it) aren't some bastion of anti-racism and tolerant plurality (if we ever were). Check out our blog post for links for further edification if you are interested or want to know more about the Canadian side of the story.

https://youtu.be/nI3FJIJNkak

#OnThisDay, 24 Mar 1944, Éliane Plewman is arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France after six months operating as a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French resistance. A courier carried messages and equipment around their network.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #EuropeanHistory #SOE

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#OnThisDay, 19 March 1944, Yvonne Baseden parachutes into Nazi-occupied France as a Special Operations Executive radio operator. The British SOE supported the French resistance. Radio operators ran the greatest risk of discovery as their position could be triangulated when they were transmitting.

Baseden was captured and sent to Ravensbrück.

She was the subject of the first regular UK edition of This Is Your Life in 1955.

“Once, with hand-grenades in my shopping bag, I travelled in a train so full that I had to stand against a German NCO.”

#OnThisDay, 18 Mar 1943, Francine Agazarian arrives in Nazi-occupied France to be a courier in the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French Resistance.

#BattleOfBritain #JohnHemingway #ww2 #pilot #Spitfire #hurricane #fighterpilot #UK #Britain #UnitedKingdom #Germany #WorldWar2 #battle #history #heroic #hero
This is so sad, hugely significant and such a massive loss. We owe them so much, and I hope future generations never forget it.
I picked up this signed book years ago, and it’ll always be one of the most treasured on my bookshelf…

'End of an era': Last surviving Battle of Britain pilot dies https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1z42pkj8o

USAAF P-51 Mustang aircraft escort B-29 Superfortress’ on a mission over the Pacific Ocean - 1945 #ww2 #worldwar2 #pacificocean #pacific #p51 #p51mustang #mustang #b29 #superfortress

It wasn’t just terror: The Nazis won the cultural battle in a year.

For the National Socialists, everything was political.

All forms of culture — from theatre and cinema to painting and literature — were turned into instruments of propaganda and antisemitism.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20250314-it-wasnt-just-terror-the-nazis-won-the-cultural-battle-in-a-year?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

Lee Miller, the photojournalist who brought dignity to those who suffered during WWII.

The photos she took and the words she wrote in ‘Vogue’ magazine were and remain an indictment of the Holocaust

https://mediafaro.org/article/20250312-lee-miller-the-photojournalist-who-brought-dignity-to-those-who-suffered-during-wwii?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#OnThisDay, 11 Mar 1942, the current Waterloo Bridge in London partially opens. The construction force included many women, giving it the nickname “the Ladies Bridge”.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #LondonHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/england-built-by-women/

Dutch children give flowers to the crew of an US M5 Stuart light tank from the 744th Tank Battalion - Netherlands, October 1944 #ww2 #worldwar2 #stuarttank #stuart #tank #dutch #netherlands

"Cette nuit-là, entre minuit et cinq heures du matin, les forteresses volantes de l’United States Army Air force déversent sur les quartiers populaires de la capitale japonaise dix fois plus de bombes que la Luftwaffe lors du grand incendie de Londres en 1940. La superficie détruite sera quant à elle quinze fois plus importante. Les bombardements de zone, visant prioritairement les civils, deviendront la norme après-guerre en Corée, au Vietnam et dans les conflits de décolonisation. "

Un massacre qui a fait plus de 100000 morts.

Le bombardement de Tokyo du 10 mars 1945: l'apocalypse oubliée
#worldwar2 #crimedeguerre #japon
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/connaissances/20250309-le-bombardement-de-tokyo-du-10-mars-1945-l-apocalypse-oubli%C3%A9e

Very early #OnThisDay, 3 Mar 1944, Denise Bloch and Eileen Nearne arrived, separately, into occupied France as wireless operators for the British Special Operations Executive. The SOE supported the French resistance in sabotaging Nazi operations.

Both women were arrested by the summer. Denise was killed in Ravensbrück. Eileen escaped but never recovered her health.

Very late #OnThisDay, 28 Feb 1944, Madeleine Damerment parachuted into occupied France to be an agent for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE worked with the French Resistance.

She was French, and had previously run escape lines for downed airmen. She escaped France in 1942, and then chose to return.

She was immediately arrested as the network had been betrayed. She was executed at Dachau in Sept 1944.

#OnThisDay, 22 Feb 1943, Sophie Scholl is sentenced to death and immediately executed, alongside her brother and a friend, for distributing anti-Nazi literature at her university in Munich, Germany.

Her cellmate said her last words to her were “how can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause... It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go.”

On this day in 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.
The executive order put hundreds of thousands of people into concentration camps.
The vast majority of the people imprisoned were Japanese-American, though some were German-Americans and Italian-Americans were also imprisoned.
Japanese-Americans who were not imprisoned in the camps faced violence and discrimination.