TRU Blog

TRU Blog

WWII 70: Marching to Victory | September 2, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: The Formal Surrender of Japan
September 2, 1945

It is Sunday, September 2. Some 280 Allied warships and thousands of troops are staged in Tokyo Bay. On the deck of one vessel, the battleship USS Missouri, General Douglas MacArthur and 50 other Allied leaders are assembled. It is not a battle they have prepared for, however, but a brief ceremony. The men aboard the Missouri are about to witness Japan’s formal surrender. Read More

WWII 70: Marching to Victory

WWII 75: Marching to Victory | August 9, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: The Bombing of Nagasaki
August 9, 1945

Visitors to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum can view a unique artifact that speaks to the revolutionary power and danger of the weapon that destroyed Nagasaki and helped end World War II.
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WWII 75: Marching to Victory

WWII 75: Marching to Victory | August 6, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: The Bombing of Hiroshima
August 6, 1945

At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber opened its bay doors over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and released a solitary bomb. Forty-four seconds later, it exploded 1,900 feet above the city. This single explosion brought the Second World War into its final phase and revealed to the world a new and devastating weapon.
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WWII 75: Marching to Victory

WWII 75: Marching to Victory | July 26, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: 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 75: Marching to Victory

WWII 75: Marching to Victory | July 16, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: 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 75: Marching to Victory

WWII 75: Marching to Victory | July 5, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: How Children Helped Win the War
July 5, 1945

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

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WWII 75: Marching to Victory

WWII 75: Marching to Victory | June 26, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: 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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WWII 75: Marching to Victory

An Update on the Truman Library’s Renovation | June 12, 2020

There is no better place in the United States to tell the story of America’s 33rd president than the Truman Library. And there is no better time to share Harry Truman’s life and legacy.

When the Midwestern farm boy who never went to college assumed the presidency in the final months of World War II, he inherited a worldwide catastrophe. With his “Buck Stops Here” leadership, he created post-war order at home and abroad. The new Truman exhibition will explore these achievements, from the Truman Committee and the Truman Doctrine to desegregating the military and recognizing Israel, for a 21st-century audience.

As the renovation completion date comes into view later this year, the Truman Library is looking more and more like the finished project. Here are a few renderings from the fly-through presentation alongside photos of the current progress. It’s exciting to see our plans become a reality.

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An Update on the Truman Library’s Renovation