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The above image, taken from a Japanese propaganda booklet of the period, depicts the Japanese occupation of East Asia as the Japanese wanted it to be perceived: The Japanese Army and Navy give Allied soldiers and ships a good thumping, while also performing acts of kindness and generosity for the happy peoples they liberated, while a glum Winston Churchill and a distraught Franklin Roosevelt look on.

The reality of the occupation was quite different. It was remarkably brutal and remains a sore spot in relations between these countries and Japan to this day.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Miroirs
Composed in 1905 by Maurice Ravel. Public domain.
Performed by Olena Havyuk-Sheremet. Public domain. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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As the SS gradually emptied the Warsaw Ghetto, those who remained well understood they would be next. Many decided it would be preferable to go down fighting.

Meanwhile, 800 kilometers away, in Katyn Forest, the German Army uncovered a mass grave containing the bodies of more than 4,000 Polish Army officers murdered by the NKVD.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Adagio in G minor
Composed in 1958 by Remo Giazotto.
Performed by the Modena Chamber Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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The US atom bomb project was little more than a research project until the US entered the war.

Then it shifted into high gear. The US government invested in multiple plants built to isolate fissile material, while the scientists puzzled over the problem of how to build an atomic bomb.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Prelude in B♭ major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I.
Composed in 1722 by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Performed by Kamiko Ishizaka. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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The Western Allies invaded Sicily, though there was no small amount of friction between General Patton and the British commanders.

The invasion persuaded the top civil and military leaders in Italy that Benito Mussolini had gotten their country into serious trouble and had no idea how to get out of it. Therefore, he had to go.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Spy Music.”
Composed by Vincible17. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Despite all the effort and sacrifice the Wehrmacht gave in 1942, the Eastern Front in 1943 was barely any different. Adolf Hitler initiated planning for the German 1943 offensive, but even he had doubts as to whether the German Army was strong enough to seize the initiative yet again.

The crushing defeat at Stalingrad created doubts about Hitler’s leadership of the war. Germany’s Axis partners in Europe were looking for ways to distance themselves from Germany. Hitler held a series of summit meetings in Salzburg with leaders of the other Axis nations in an effort to shore up the alliance.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 6 in B minor, “Pathétique.”
Composed in 1893 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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RKO Radio Pictures, the smallest of the “Big Five” major studios, was a latecomer to Hollywood, and it developed a reputation for releasing second-rate pictures.

Despite that reputation, in the 1930s RKO introduced some of the biggest film stars of the time, including Fred Astaire and Katharine Hepburn, and produced two of the most famous movies of the time: King Kong and Citizen Kane.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin
Composed in 1848 by Richard Wagner. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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The American film industry of the Thirties and Forties, governed by the “studio system,” was a world leader in film production and influence.

Today we begin the first in a series of episodes discussing the US film studios and their notable productions of the period.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“The Yellow Rose of Texas.”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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The Japanese occupation of Burma put India on the front lines, and the nationalist movement in that country had to adapt to the new situation.

The influx of refugees from Burma plus foreign soldiers stationed in eastern India were among the factors that led to the Great Bengal Famine of 1943.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Field recording of street musicians in Rishikesh, India.
Recorded by Samuel Corwin and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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When Britain went to war, the BBC went to war along with it. The Corporation struggled to find its proper role in wartime.

The singer Vera Lynn became the most prominent entertainer in Britain and the most familiar voice on the radio, after Winston Churchill’s.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Stardust.”
Performed by the U.S. Army Blues. Public domain. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Stalingrad fell on February 2, 1943. Hitler promoted Sixth Army commander Friedrich Paulus to field marshal, a veiled directive to commit suicide, which Paulus refused to follow.

With Hitler increasingly distracted and stressed by the war, Joseph Goebbels began his own initiative to strengthen the German war effort.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Selig Sind die Toten” from Ein deutsches Requiem.
Composed in 1868 by Johannes Brahms.
Performed by the University of Chicago orchestra and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.