Naval mining of Japanese harbors; bombing of japanese aircraft plants; oil refinery targeted in Taiwan; Sarawak captured by Australian forces

World War 2 70th Anniversary - Exhibit and resources from Government Documents and Maps Department, UHM

June 21, 2015-June 27, 2015
Location: Government Documents

On June 26, 1945, the Charter of the United Nations is signed in San Francisco by 50 countries at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization. An integral part of the Charter is the Statute of the International Court of Justice. Aimed to preserving international peace and security, fundamental human rights, and promoting social progress, the Charter enters into force in October of 1945 after ratification. Missing among the signatories is Poland--a country which lost 5-1/2 million of its population, including more than 90% of its Jews. While Poland couldn't form a government in time, her representatives would sign later. Read this important charter here on the United Nations website.

As nations converge in San Francisco to sign the United Nations charter, the battle at Okinawa sees its commanding Japanese officers General Ushijima and Lt. General Cho commit ritual suicide, seppuku, for failure to defend this part of the Japanese homeland. Many surviving Japanese soldiers, for their part, hold grenades against their stomachs to prosecute a "poor man's hara-kiri"--as Americans would describe it. Okinawa is declared "secure" on June 22, 1945. An accounting of the staggering numbers of casualties, both Allied and Japanese, as well as the island civilians caught in the crossfire, would come later. But as was common, Japanese forces fatalities are some 90%; only 7,400 are captured. Even then, it may have been worse if not for the work of the American psychological warfare units before and during the invasion. A brief summary of this campaign can be found in Ryukus, published by the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

Newsmap. Monday, 2 July, 1945: week of 19 June to 26 June, V-E Day + 8 weeks, 185th week of U. S. participation in the war. Text describes action on various war fronts and is keyed to maps of Asia and the Pacific. Maps of Borneo and Southeast Asia. Relief shown by gradient tints. Inset shows the area of Borneo compared with the United States. Photograph of Balikpapan. Verso: Color illustration of woman with hammer in hand and four lucky horseshoes hanging around a service star, admonishing "Now--if he will just save some money--everything will be O.K."

View this map in print in the Map Collection reading room, ground floor of UHM Hamilton Library, the week of 21 June 2015
View this map online through the University of North Texas Digital Library ( http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc866/)

Notes: Newsmaps were color posters issued by the U.S. Army and the Government Printing Office (GPO) on Mondays during the World War II. They combine maps, images, and news from the previous week’s war effort.