Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 84

Kim Il-sung

From the Korean Movie: 백두산 전편 (Mount Paektu – First part)

The words in the film are from the North Korean poet Cho Ki-chon‘s epic poem Mt. Paektu written in 1947. The poem relates the (possibly exaggerated?) story of the guerilla fighter Kim Il sung in the 1937 Battle of Pochonbo against the Japanese. The poem compares the heroic “Commander Kim” with the volcanic Paektu Mountain, a continuing metaphor in North Korean propaganda today.

Kim Il-sung was born on April 15, 1912, in Mangyondae, near Pyongyang, Korea, and went on to become a guerrilla fighter against Japanese occupation. Kim also fought with the Soviet army during World War II and returned to his home region to become premier of North Korea, soon setting in motion the Korean War. He was elected country president in 1972, and held the position until his death on July 8, 1994.

1. Kim Il Sung 金日成    (il=“sun”; sung= “to achieve/become/fulfill”)     (1912–1994)

2. Kim Jong Il: 金正日     (1941–2011)

3. Kim Jong Un: 金正恩 (jong= “just/righteous”)    (1984-present)

Part of the first Kim’s given name was passed on to the second Kim, and the other part of the second Kim’s given name was passed on to the third Kim.

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Hermes Rocket Project

The American Hermes Missile Project began in 1944 in response to Germany’s rocket attacks in Europe. After the war, with the help of captured German rocket scientists, General Electric assembled V-2 rockets at the White Sands, New Mexico Proving Grounds. The first Project Hermes V-2 launch in April 1946 reached only 3.4 miles altitude. The maximum altitude reached by the project in 1946 was 114 miles.

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The Rescued Film Project

The Rescued Film Project recovers unclaimed rolls of film from the 1930s to 1990s.

These recently-discovered photos from an unknown WWII soldier show every day events that may give you a sense of time and place: The Rescued Film Project

In what year and to where do you imagine he was deployed?

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The Iron Curtain

In  March 1946, as the Green Lecturer at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill delivered a lecture entitled the “Sinews of Peace” that  became known as the “Iron Curtain Speech.”

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an “iron curtain” has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”

 

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Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor

Press this link for more photos published by Alex Q. Arbuckle that are rare and interesting from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor December 7. 1941.

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Hirohito’s Not the Sun God Anymore

As the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur ordered the Shinto religion disestablished and its concept that the Emperor Hirohito was descended from Japan’s sun goddess to be disavowed.

The Humanity Declaration was an imperial rescript issued by the Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) on New Year’s Day 1946 in which he denied being a living god,.Under the new constitution of Japan the Emperor would be described as “the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people,”

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Central Intelligence Agency

OSS Via WW2Podcast

Shortly after the end of WWII, the U.S. wartime intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services, was dissolved by presidential order. However, despite opposition from competing forces including the U.S. military, State Department and FBI, President Truman established the National Intelligence Authority in January 1946.

In 1947, the National Security Act established the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency .

 

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Chinese Civil War Resumes

The Chinese Civil War  fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC) began in 1927. After a temporary truce to collaborate in the fight against Japanese aggression in China, the civil war resumed in 1946.

  The Chinese Civil War (1927-1937 & 1946-1949) Timeline created by hibbaawan

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New Website Pages: TIMELINE TOPICS BOOKS MOVIES WWII WEBSITES

This Enemy in the Mirror website now has new pages:

TIMELINE

 

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TOPICS
Alliances   Atrocity/Crime   Colonialism Consciousness/Emotion  Countries  Culture        Disaster  Economy  Government

Health  Homefront  Military

Propaganda  Transportation  Wars

 

 

RESOURCES




Books

                 

Movies

          

WWII WEBSITES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ENIAC – Fast Electronic Computer

During WWII, the U.S. Ballistics Research Laboratory was handling the complex calculations of range tables that were needed for new artillery. In 1942, physicist John Mauchly proposed an all-electronic calculating machine in a memorandum entitled “The Use of High Speed Vacuum Tube Devices for Calculating.”

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), developed from 1943 -1945, became the first large-scale computer to run at electronic speed without being slowed by any mechanical parts. Completed in 1946, ENIAC had 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 6,000 switches, and 10,000 capacitors.  Able to perform 5000 additions per second, ENIAC was much faster than any existing device of the time.

Thinking beyond its military applications, Mauchly realized the ENIAC  technology could be applied to the private sector. In 1946, Mauchly and his chief engineer J. Presper Eckert designed the first general-purpose computer for commercial use: UNIVAC.

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