Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Seventy-years ago, on November 9, 1942, forty-nine year old Allen W. Dulles arrived in Bern, Switzerland to head up the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operations in Switzerland. Dulles was lucky to be in Switzerland. His train passed from Vichy France into Switzerland only minutes before the Germans … Continue reading Allen Dulles and No. 23 Herrengasse, Bern, Switzerland, 1942-1945
By Jason Clingerman 70 years ago today, Japanese Americans at the Tule Lake Relocation Center celebrated a harvest festival by wearing costumes. At the Tule Lake Relocation Center, later the Tule Lake Segregation Center, over 24,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned because of suspected disloyalty to the U.S. government under Executive Order 9066. Starting in 1943, Tule … Continue reading Halloween at the Tule Lake Relocation Center
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. One clear, chilly evening this week fifteen years I was alone in the foothills above the town of Ascona, Switzerland, wondering “how in the world did I end up here?” The answer begins in December 1996, in the wake of revelations about Switzerland having dormant bank accounts of … Continue reading An American Archivist at Ascona, Switzerland, October 1997
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Seventy years ago, on September 19, 1942, one of the most important intelligence organizations in the Southwest Pacific Area was created and not long afterwards its commander, Sidney F. Mashbir, arrived in the theater to take command of it. This was the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, … Continue reading Seventy Years Ago: Colonel Sidney F. Mashbir and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), September-October 1942
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Nancy Yeide, head of the Department of Curatorial Records at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., in December 1997, began doing provenance research on the NGA’s holdings to ascertain whether any of the works of art had provenance problems. In the wake of the revelations … Continue reading The National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, and Art Provenance Research
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. On September 7, 1946, the OMG (Office of Military Government) for Greater Hesse informed OMGUS (Office of Military Government, U.S.) that the Marburg Central Collecting Point closed its career on August 19, when the military guard was relieved following transfer to the church of its last charge, the … Continue reading The Office of Military Government for Greater Hesse and “Operation Bodysnatch”
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. T/Sgt. Edward Mitsukado, a Nisei interpreter with the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), code-named Galahad and usually referred to as Merrill’s Marauders (named after Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, its commander) “Somewhere in Burma” in mid-June 1944 decided to write a letter to the Commandant of the Military Intelligence Service … Continue reading A Letter from “Somewhere in Burma,” June 1944
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. During the first days of August 2012, at the National Archive in College Park, MD (Archives II), I looked at three archival boxes that were labeled as Captured Korean Documents. They were Japanese documents, bound together in small groups of pages by the Allied Translator and Interrogator … Continue reading From Rabaul to Stack 190: The Travels of a Famous Japanese Army Publication
By David Langbart During World War II, many American military personnel, primarily aircrew, found themselves trapped behind enemy lines. The MIS-X Section of the Captured Personnel and Material Branch of the Army's Military Intelligence Service handled matters dealing with escape and evasion (E&E) out of hostile areas and intelligence operations relating to Allied prisoners of … Continue reading Identification in World War II China: Friend or Foe?
By Robin Waldman In June 1941, W. G. Campbell launched a sweeping investigation. As the Commissioner of Food and Drugs for what is now known as the Food and Drug Administration, he commanded all his Chief of Districts to determine, once and for all, the composition of . . . chocolate milk. In a letter … Continue reading It (perhaps) does a body good
