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By May of 1942, the Japanese Army in Burma had reached the Indian border. Suddenly, the war was no longer a distant thing. India itself was threatened.

Indian nationalists hoped to leverage the war to aid the cause of independence, but at the same time, two and a half million Indians volunteered to serve in the British-led Indian Army.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Something Stirring”

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 above editorial cartoon, drawn in 1942 by Dr. Seuss, visualizes the fear many white Americans had that the Japanese-American community on the Pacific Coast of the United States represented a “fifth column” of saboteurs. It also gives a sense of the racism of the time.

Though there was zero evidence that Japanese-Americans, either citizens or residents, posed any kind of threat, the Roosevelt Administration ordered their removal from the West Coast and imprisonment in what were concentration camps in all but name.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

The Old Bachelor
Composed in 1691 by Henry Purcell. Public domain.
Performed by A Far Cry 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.

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In January 1942, a group of German government officials from various ministries and offices, met at a house on the Wannsee, a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. There they laid the plans for the mass murder of the Jewish population of Europe.

The letter above is from Reinhard Heydrich to Foreign Office undersecretary Martin Luther, informing him that the meeting, originally scheduled for December 1941, would be held on 20 January 1942. The letter is dated 8 January and was sent from Prague, where Heydrich had been installed in his new job as Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.

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• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor
Composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by the Davis High School Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

String Quartet No. 2
Composed in 1908 by Arnold Schoenberg. Public domain.
Performed by the Carmel String Quartet, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 Deed. 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.