Winter 2020
Fallen, but not from history
A new project memorializes the stories of Washington State University alumni and students who died in World War II. » More ...
World War II
Winter 2020
We put them through
After World War II at Washington State College and other institutions, wives were honored for work outside the classroom, from earning money to support their households to caring for their young children. The practice dwindled and disappeared with changing times and gender roles. » More ...
Winter 2020
Briefly noted
Books by alumni and faculty of Washington State University » More ...
Fall 2020
An Eye for Injustice: Robert C. Sims and Minidoka
Review of An Eye for Injustice: Robert C. Sims and Minidoka, published by WSU Press » More ...
Summer 2020
Keys of my life
As a teenager, Carla Peperzak was a Dutch Resistance fighter. Now a WSU history professor is helping share her story. » More ...
Spring 2018
At Home with Ernie Pyle
Edited by Owen V. Johnson ’68
Indiana University Press: 2016
A glimpse into the life and times of American journalist and Indiana favorite son Ernie Pyle, as seen through an extensive collection of Pyle’s folksy newspaper columns stretching from his student days in 1921 until his death by sniper fire during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.
The homespun Hoosier, as Pyle was known, grew up in small-town … » More …
Summer 2017
Honored and Dishonored Guests
Westerners in Wartime Japan
W. Puck Brecher
Harvard Univ. Asia Center: 2017
There was little surprise when the Japanese military police arrested and imprisoned a number of British and U.S. citizens on their soil after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Some, like the Reverend Samuel Heaslett, were held and interrogated for a few months, then released and eventually sent back to North America. However, outside prison walls, Western … » More …
Spring 2017
The 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor
A personal history by Fred Kamaka ’51
The morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 proved to be clear with just a few clouds scattered above the Hickam Field/Pearl Harbor area. It would be extremely hot by 4 p.m. in the afternoon, the time scheduled for our Sunday parade for that month. During breakfast the cadets sitting at my table were all discussing the parade, for the competition between companies would be keen this year. It meant a lot to me as I was assigned to lead my squad for the competition from my company. My classmate, Rowland Melim, and I were dining room orderlies for … » More …
Spring 2015
After the war: Mud, floods, and modernization
After World War II, Bill Fitch left the Army, packed his duffel in Seattle and, with the U.S. government’s guarantee of free college tuition, headed to Pullman. When he and Al Smith, a fellow veteran and high school classmate, arrived at Washington State College, they found themselves on a campus crowded with thousands of GIs.
Spurred by unprecedented growth in student numbers from the “GI bulge” in the late 1940s, the small rural state college was becoming a modern higher education institution, and a decade later would bloom into a full-blown university. Wave after wave of student-veterans, a faculty newly empowered to govern itself, and … » More …
Fall 2015
The Pacific War and Contingent Victory: Why Japanese Defeat Was Not Inevitable
Michael W. Myers
University Press of Kansas: 2015
Conventional wisdom among scholars of World War II claims that Japan would inevitably lose the Pacific War to the United States and the Allies. They base that belief on greater American military and economic power and a U.S. strategy that forced the war against Japan on a path to unstoppable Allied victory. Myers, a professor at Washington State University’s School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public … » More …