World War II On Topic

In this special season of World War II On Topic, The National WWII Museum will explore J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the history and ramifications of the atomic bomb. 

In this episode, Jason Dawsey, PhD, and John Curatola, PhD, historians with the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, discuss the legacy of the Manhattan Project.

To read more visit our Manhattan Project topics page: www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/manhattan-project

In this special season of World War II On Topic, The National WWII Museum will explore J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the history and ramifications of the atomic bomb. 

The anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima was August 6. In this episode, we hear from two extraordinary people who experienced the bombing, albeit from vastly different perspectives. While much has been written and said on the subject, these are firsthand recollections, excerpted from the oral histories given by Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk and Ittsei Nakagawa.

Van Kirk was the navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He was the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew before his death in 2014.

Nakagawa was a Japanese American from California who got stuck in Japan due to the war. He was there, in Hiroshima, on that fateful day and survived to tell his experience.

These oral histories were recorded by the Museum and provide a first-person look into the lives of those who experienced these amazing and terrifying events.

To read more visit our Manhattan Project topics page: www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/manhattan-project

In this special season of World War II On Topic, The National WWII Museum will explore J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the history and ramifications of the atomic bomb. 

In this episode, Jason Dawsey, PhD & John Curatola, PhD, historians with the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, discuss the film Oppenheimer, released July 21, 2023.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer was adapted from the biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Jason and John explore the history behind the movie, its accuracy, and its influence.

To read more visit our Manhattan Project topics page: www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/manhattan-project

In this special season of World War II On Topic, The National WWII Museum will explore J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the history and ramifications of the atomic bomb. 

In this episode, we take a closer look at Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project. While a lot of interest is rightfully set on Oppenheimer, Groves proves to be an interesting character and pivotal player in the development of the bomb.

During the Museum’s 2015 International Conference, Dr. Robert Norris, author of Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man, spoke about Groves and his role in the Manhattan Project. The lecture featured in this episode was edited for length, but the entire session, also featuring author Richard Frank and host Dr. Conrad Crane.

To read more visit our Manhattan Project topics page: www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/manhattan-project

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

At the 2012 International Conference on World War II, we were privileged to listen to a conversation between renowned author, Rick Atkinson and World War II Veterans Walt Ehlers & Gerhard Hennes.

Walt served in the 3rd Infantry Division of the US Army in North Africa. He then served with the 1st Infantry Division in Normandy where he performed actions that were later awarded the Medal of Honor.

Gerhard was in the German Afrika Korps and was captured in North Africa, becoming a Prisoner of War for the remainder of the War.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/ikH0nKNA4W8

This is World War II on Topic: Veteran Voices. This episode is a collaboration between the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy and the Curatorial Services Department.

Back in May 2021, when Senior Curator, Kim Guise, had a conversation with WWII Veteran and Concentration Camp Liberator Alan Moskin.

Moskin was a member of the 66th Regiment of the 71st Infantry Division and participated in the Liberation of the Gunskirchen concentration camp in May 1945. He discusses his pre-war life, wartime experiences, and being a part of an innovative exhibit installation, Dimensions in Testimony: Liberator Alan Moskin, an interactive biography from USC Shoah Foundation.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here:

This is World War II On Topic: Veteran Voices. This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Media Center and  Education Department.

Back in 2020, Seth Paridon had a special conversation with Medal of Honor Recipient and Museum champion, Hershel “Woody” Williams to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Woody shares his experiences and memories of the brutal 36-day fight, as well as his postwar efforts to establish a Memorial to Gold Star Families in all 50 states.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/GkVAcUkxUpk

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

At our 15th International Conference in 2022, we had the privilege to hear from Nicole Spangenberg in conversation with the Institute’s Senior Historian, Dr. Steph Hinnershitz. 

Nicole, as a teenager working with the French Resistance, assisted with daring missions to aid her country in the struggle against Nazi occupation. From delivering supplies and messages for her local resistance network to providing aid to wounded partisans, Nicole’s work is an important reminder of the crucial role women played in the fight against fascism.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/xJuiavDlVEQ

This is World War II on Topic: Veteran Voices. This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Education Department and The Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War & Democracy.

In April 2020, Dr. Tyler Bamford, who was serving as the Institute’s Leventhal Research Fellow, had a conversation with Museum Volunteer and World War II Veteran, Steve Ellis.

Steve served in the US Navy from 1944 to 1946 aboard LST-751. He took part in the campaigns to liberate the Philippines and survived Japanese Kamikaze attacks. Here he recounts those harrowing experiences.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/K3tQii64-W0

Welcome to a special season of World War II on Topic: Veteran Voices. Where we listen to firsthand accounts from those who lived through the war.

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War & Democracy.

At our 2022 International Conference, we were “lucky” to hear from Veteran John “Lucky” Luckadoo, who was interviewed by Dr. Donald Miller, the author of  “Master’s of the Air.”

Lucky served as a pilot and copilot with the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, also known as the “Bloody Hundredth.” He flew a total of 25 missions over targets in France and Germany.

Lucky shared some of his experiences with the Mighty Eighth and memories of flying these daring missions.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: Masters of the Air, the Bloody 100th and John “Lucky” Luckadoo

In April of 2021, Research Historian, Kali Martin, discussed the three services, that were all under the Department of the Navy, with each branch incorporating women reservists in a unique way.

In 1942, the US Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard opened their ranks to most women. Despite more stringent enlistment requirements put on women, compared to their male counterparts, by the end of the war, more than one hundred 15 thousand women had joined the WAVES, SPARS, and Women Reservists.

If you would like to view the original lecture, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/7OU_tIv276k

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

Today we are traveling back to August 20th, 2021, to a conversation with Dr. Jeffrey H. Jackson, Professor of History at Rhodes College, about his book, “Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis.”

The book and the program focused on the story of an audacious anti-Nazi resistance campaign conducted by a pair of unlikely women—Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe—whose love story and artistic sensibility made their daring actions possible even while living under Nazi occupation.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/6X-4FTmwz_Y

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Education Department.

Back on November 3rd, 2021, Dr. Zachary Isenhower gave a lecture entitled: “Defining Patriotism: Native Military Figures & the Long Fight for Equality.”

Dr. Isenhower is an Instructor at Louisiana State University teaching Native American History.

The lecture explored how the history of Native military service illustrated Native struggles for equality, as well as the contradictions and ironies of how white Americans viewed Native military service and citizenship.

If you would like to view the original lecture, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/ESA7ve1OOLM

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War & Democracy.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, join us for a conversation from July 2020 with Dave Gutierrez, author of Patriots From The Barrio.

Patriots From The Barrio is a true World War II story of the men that served in the US Army's all Mexican American Combat unit, Company E, 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division.

The 141st Regiment is the oldest fighting unit in the state of Texas and traces its roots back to the Texas Revolution. Deployed to North Africa in April 1943, Company E took part in the Allied landing at Salerno, Italy, in September 1943 and fought at San Pietro, the Rapido River, Cassino, Anzio,  and Rome.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/tjiks86J41A

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War & Democracy and The Media & Education Center.

Today we are taking a listen to a discussion we hosted during our Memory Wars: World War II at 75 and Beyond virtual conference, held in March of 2022. 

It was chaired by our own Research Historian, Dr. Jason Dawsey and featured guests Dr. Omer Bartov, the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University, and Dr. Alexandra Richie, Professor at Collegium Civitas.

This discussion goes into how the War ravaged the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The latter then suffered Soviet occupation for the next 50 years. The panel compares and contrasts the complex, often irreconcilable ways in which Eastern Europe and Russia remember the war.

This conversation has extra weight because it took place about one month after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/_h83NljG8eY

Today’s episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

In February 2022, Dr. Jason Dawsey, Research Historian for the museum, talked with Dr. Yoshikuni Igarashi, one of the country's leading authorities on postwar Japan.

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced to the Japanese people that the Japanese Government had agreed to the Allies’ terms laid out in the Potsdam Declaration,

This left many questions about the future of Japan and America’s role in it.

Jason and Yoshi covered: How did the deep animus between Imperial Japan and the United States during the War transform into a lasting postwar alliance? How did the authoritarian Japanese state transition into a democracy? How did the Japanese respond to the experience of defeat, occupation, and then restoration of independence in the decade after World War II? And much more.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/238F64SQGvU

Today’s episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy and The Media & Education Center.

We are going back to 2020, when Dr. Ed Lengel, then the Museum’s Senior Director of Programs, hosted a webinar with President Harry Truman’s grandson - Clifton Truman Daniel -  and Paul Sparrow, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Director.

They presented Roosevelt’s and Truman’s roles in the Manhattan Project 

and the dramatic race for atomic power. 

The Manhattan Project’s success would have been impossible without President Roosevelt’s committed leadership, and President Truman’s decision to employ the weapons.

This culminated in the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, 1945. 

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/9f67sx2moBE

Today’s episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

Richard B. Frank, renowned Military historian, author, and Presidential Counselor at the Museum delivered the keynote address at the Museum's 2011 International Conference on World War II.

Richard’s first book, Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle, won the US Marine Corps’ General Wallace M. Greene Award, and his most recent book, Tower of Skulls, is the first in a trilogy on the war in the Asia-Pacific Theater.

On August 7, 1942, the US mounted its first major amphibious landing at Guadalcanal. This campaign proved a strategic turning point for the United States in the war with Imperial Japan.

If you would like to view the original presentation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/iFKQQYulHgA

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

Today we are traveling back to a 2020 Meet-the-Author webinar between our own Research Historian, Dr. Jason Dawsey, and Dr. Victoria de Grazia, the Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia University and author of The Perfect Fascist: A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini’s Italy.

Dr. de Grazia discussed her book, which tells the story of fascist, Attilio Teruzzi, a war hero turned commander of Mussolini’s Black Shirts, and how the personal became political in the fascist quest for manhood and power.

If you would like to view the original conversation, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/c1u-3KrQfx8

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

We are taking a trip back to 2020 where our own Research Historian, Dr. Jason Dawsey had a discussion with Dr. Michael Neiberg, the inaugural Chair of War Studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College.

This conversation commemorated the anniversary of The Potsdam conference, which started on July 17, 1945.

Doctors Dawsey and Neiberg review how leaders, after the War, confronted the task of rebuilding a new international order. 

Key parts of this wide-ranging conversation cover the rise of Bolshevism and fascism after 1919, the invention of the atomic bomb, and the emergence of the Cold War and how world leaders dealt with these major challenges.

If you would like to watch the original conversation, you can do so here: https://youtu.be/eFGL_KKOAgQ

On June 2, 2020, we had a roundtable discussion on the significance of D-Day and its legacy. Led by Dawn Hammatt, Director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, the roundtable features historians Dr. Allyson Stanton instructor at Gogebic community college, Dr. Benjamin Schneider instructor at George Mason University and Dr. Tyler Bamford, the National WWII Museum’s inaugural Sherry and Alan Leventhal Research Fellow.

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum.

On February 22, 2021, Dr. Rob Citino, the Museum’s Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian, had a conversation with Shirley Ann Higuchi, the Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.

Shirley’s American-born parents were children when they were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center during World War II. Her mother inspired her to author “Setsuko's Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration.”

This week we are going back to June 29, 2020, when Museum Librarian Wesley Lucas led a discussion with author Joshua Levine on his book: “Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture.”

This was the companion piece to Christopher Nolan’s film “Dunkirk” the 2017 blockbuster, on which Levine served as historian and advisor on.

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

Today we are traveling back to February 27, 2012. Where we had the pleasure of hosting best-selling author James (Jim) Hornfischer, so he could discuss his book, “Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston.” For which earned Jim the United States Maritime Literature Award.

Jim was a dear friend and frequent speaker at the Museum, and though we were all saddened by his passing in 2021, we are honored to be able to continue sharing his vast knowledge and passion for the subject of the US Navy in World War II.

This episode is brought to you by the Museum’s Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

Today we are listening to Dr. Rob Citino, the Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian here at the Museum, and author/ historian Anthony Tucker-Jones.

Anthony joined us on December 1, 2021 for the annual Orlin Russell Corey Memorial Lecture, a partnered program with the Churchill Society of New Orleans.

Anthony discussed his latest  work “Churchill, Master and Commander: Winston Churchill at War.”

Welcome to a new podcast series where we revisit some of our most riveting and educational discussions on World War II. This episode, titled Victory in Europe: One Year Later, is brought to you by the Jenny Craig’s Institute for War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum.

Today, we are taking a visit back to May 7, 2021, when Dr. Rob Citino, the Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian at The National WWII Museum, sat down with Jeremy Collins, the Director of Conferences and Symposia, for the commemoration of V-E Day. By May 7, 1946—a year after the Germans surrendered in Reims to the Allied forces—what had changed in Europe? How was the Allies’ relationship with the Soviet Union? Citino and Collins discussed this and much more.