WWII 80: Highlights from the Truman Library

The Potsdam Declaration
July 26, 1945

By July 1945, Japan was defeated nearly everywhere except in the hearts and minds of the Japanese. Even as the Japanese Empire crumbled and the suffering Japanese prepared for invasion, military leaders reminded their people that national honor prohibited surrender to the Allies.
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WWII 80: Highlights from the Truman Library

The Potsdam Conference
July 17- August 2, 1945

What do you do when you’re about to win a war and your mightiest ally seems just as dangerous as your enemies?
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WWII 80: Highlights from the Truman Library

The Trinity Test
July 16, 1945

At 5:29 AM on July 16, 1945, an enormous explosion rocked the bleak desert of southern New Mexico. The cause of the blast was a device called the Gadget, which exploded with the force of forty million pounds of TNT. It produced intense heat, a light brighter than the sun, and a mushroom cloud 7.5 miles high that glowed yellow, then red, then purple. People felt the shockwave 100 miles from ground zero, and newspapers reported that a blind woman 150 miles away asked: “What’s that brilliant light?”
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WWII 80: Highlights from the Truman Library

How Children Helped Win the War
July 5, 1945

World War II was a total war. Those who were not soldiers conserved, raised money, boosted soldiers’ morale, worked in manufacturing, and contributed to the war effort in countless other ways. Even young people participated.

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Independence Day 1951

ON JULY 4, 1951, Washington, D.C. held a grand celebration marking the 175th anniversary—the demisemiseptcentennial—of the Declaration of Independence.

At 9:30 p.m., President Truman delivered an address that still has the power to thrill, challenge and inspire. Amid rising global tensions, he spoke of American unity, the defense of freedom, and the improbable birth of a democratic republic at a time when monarchs ruled the world. Following his remarks, a fireworks display (billed as the nation’s largest) filled the night sky. Read More

WWII 80: Highlights from the Truman Library

The United Nations
June 26, 1945

Popular depictions of World War II concentrate on paratroopers, goose-stepping Nazis, Holocaust victims, tanks, aircraft carriers, and other symbols of the world at arms and the deaths of millions of people. But violence was not the war’s only legacy.

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY

President Harry S. Truman Signs into law the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948

JUNE 12, 1948

TODAY, we dig into the archives to explore one of President Truman’s most consequential acts as commander in chief.

On this day in 1948, he signed into law the Women’s Armed Services Integration (WASI) Act. For the first time in American history, women were permitted to serve as permanent members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the newly formed Air Force. Read More

Margaret Truman Daniel—A Unique Privilege

ON FEBRUARY 17, 1924—a wintry Missouri day—Harry and Bess Truman celebrated the birth of their daughter.

Two years earlier, Harry Truman’s haberdashery business in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, had failed. Now, he was taking classes at the Kansas City School of Law by night and serving as a county court judge by day. There was nothing to hint that this humble family from Independence, Missouri, would one day occupy the White House. Or that Margaret would grow to be an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, author, radio and television personality, and New York socialite.

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WWII 80: Highlights from the Truman Library

Civil Rights
June 5, 1945

President Truman knew that victory in WWII depended on the full participation of “all available workers regardless of race, creed or color.” When Congress abruptly dropped appropriations for the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) – the agency in charge of protecting Americans from discrimination in defense industries or government – in the spring of 1945, Truman launched an impassioned defense of the FEPC and civil rights.

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WWII 80: Highlights from the Truman Library

Victory Gardens
June 2, 1945

Although Nazi Germany had surrendered weeks earlier and the Japanese Empire was near collapse, President Truman sent a strong message to Americans on June 2, 1945 about winning the war…and winning the peace.

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