(Photo, above: Times Square, VJ Day, August 14, 1945.  The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made – to the afternoon of August 15, 1945, in Japan, and, because of time zone differences, to August 14, 1945 (when it was announced in the United States and the rest of the Americas and Eastern Pacific Islands) – as well as to September 2, 1945, when the signing of the surrender document occurred, officially ending World War II.)

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

FDR and Churchill at the White House portico, Christmas Eve, 1941.

Saturday 905P Eastern Time:   Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 by Stanley Weintraub; 1 of 4 Kirkus Reviews, 4/15/11

“A vivid 11-day account of a World War II holiday…A master chronicler, Weintraub’s moody, intensively researched play- by-play narrative traces the final days of 1941. Ruminations, anecdotes and creatively reimagined scenarios crisply capture all of the minute details of the time and sequences of events…Erudite, sweeping and contemplative—classic Weintraub.”

Library Journal, 10/1/11

“This is a more human World War II book, not of policy details, but of people trying to figure out how to proceed, with the focus on two titans of the Western Alliance (who both enjoyed a good smoke and a drink)…This stirring book is recommended for all history buffs and general readers interested in this human—and holiday—take on the war.”

Saturday 920P Eastern Time:   Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 by Stanley Weintraub; 2 of 4

Saturday 935P Eastern Time:  Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 by Stanley Weintraub; 3 of 4

Saturday 950P Eastern Time:   Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 by Stanley Weintraub; 4 of 4

USS Yorktown, Battle of Midway, June 1942.

Saturday 1005P (705P Pacific):  The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea by Walter R. Borneman; 1 of 4 "They were completely different in temperament and personality, but the U.S. Navy's four five-star admirals in World War II shared a sense of vision, devotion, and courage. Walter Borneman has written a rousing tale of victory at sea." (Evan Thomas, author of The War Lovers )

"This is Walter Borneman at his best. The portrait of the forgotten admiral, Leahy, is worth the whole book. But there's scarcely a page where a reader won't learn something unexpected, and occasionally shocking." (Thomas Fleming, author of Time and Tide )

"Walter Borneman's decision to tell the gripping story of America's war at sea through the prism of the relations between her four greatest admirals is inspired. The four very different temperaments and personalities of these giants of the US Navy, their rivalries, interactions and comradeship, make for a compelling tale...There's more about true leadership in these pages than will be found in a library of lesser books." (Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War )

Saturday 1020P (720P Pacific):  The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea by Walter R. Borneman; 2 of 4

Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 1944

An F6F-3 "Hellcat" fighter lands aboard USS Lexington(CV-16) during the "Marianas Turkey Shoot" phase of the battle, 19 June 1944.
Note manned 40mm guns in the foreground, and 20mm guns along the starboard side of the flight deck.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives

Saturday 1035P (735P Pacific):  The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea by Walter R. Borneman; 3 of 4

Saturday 1050P (750P Pacific):  The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea by Walter R. Borneman; 4 of 4

Battle for Tinian Island, 1944.

Saturday 1105P (805P Pacific):   BATTLE FOR TINIAN, THE: Vital Stepping Stone in America's War Against Japan by Nathan Prefer; 1 of 2 In July 1944, the 9,000-man Japanese garrison on the island of Tinian listened warily as the thunder of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, Army and Air Corps, descended on their neighboring island, Saipan, just three miles away. There were 20,000 Japanese troops on Saipan, but the US obliterated the opposition after a horrific all-arms campaign. The sudden silence only indicated it was now Tinian's turn.By the time the US 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions switched their sights to Tinian, the island had already been bombarded for a month; meantime both sides had learned their lessons from the previous island-hopping invasions. The Americans had learned the arts of recon, deception, plus preliminary firepower so as not to suffer the huge casualties they'd suffered at Saipan, Guadalcanal, and Tarawa; the Japanese, for their part, had learned not to contest US strength on beaches but to draw it further inland where terrain and bomb-proof fortifications could assist.When the battle for Tinian finally took place the US acted with great skill. Historian Samuel Elliot Morrison called it "the most perfectly executed amphibious operation of the entire war." Nevertheless, the Japanese resisted with their usual stubbornness, and the already decimated US Marines suffered hundreds of more casualties.During the battle Japanese shore batteries were able to riddle the battleship Colorado, killing scores, plus make multiple hits on a destroyer, killing its captain. On the island itself the US used napalm for the first time, paving the way for Marines painstakingly rooting out strongpoints. One last Banzai attack signaled the end to enemy resistance, as Marines fought toe-to-toe with their antagonists in the dark.In the end some 8,000 Japanese were killed, with only 300 surrenders, plus some others who hid out for years after the war. But those Japanese who resisted perhaps performed a greater service than they knew. After Tinian was secured the US proceeded to build the biggest airport in the world on that island-home to hundreds of B-29 Superfortresses. Among these, just over a year later, were the Enola Gay and Boxcar, which with their atomic bombs would quickly bring the Japanese homeland itself to its knees.

Saturday 1120P (820P Pacific):  BATTLE FOR TINIAN, THE: Vital Stepping Stone in America's War Against Japan by Nathan Prefer; 2 of 2

Saturday 1135P (835P Pacific):   Final Victory: FDR's Extraordinary World War II Presidential Campaign by Stanley Weintraub; 1  of 2 Publishers Weekly, 3/26/12

“Weintraub paints a vivid portrait of the public mood and of FDR literally willing himself to victory with a relatively unknown running mate, Harry Truman…Historically satisfying, bringing the events to life with telling anecdotes, Weintraub’s book portrays a political icon determined to make his mark on America and the world in the twilight of his life.”

FDR at Fenway Park, last campaign, November 4, 1944.

Kirkus Reviews, 5/15/12
“In this well-researched, engaging history, Weintraub effectively brings the players to life, portraying the public and private faces of the witty, indomitable FDR and his opponent, the stiff, humorless New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey…Weintraub shows how Roosevelt, despite his illness, was still a force to be reckoned with…A well-drawn political history of FDR’s last days.”

Saturday 1150P (850P Pacific):  Final Victory: FDR's Extraordinary World War II Presidential Campaign by Stanley Weintraub; 2 of 2

Saturday/Sun 1205A (905 Pacific):  Red Blood, Black Sand: Fighting Alongside John Basilone from Boot Camp to Iwo Jima by Charles W. Tatum; 1 of2 Chuck Tatum is a WWII Marine who trained under legendary Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone and fought with him on Iwo Jima. There, Chuck received the Bronze Star for firing a machine gun from the hip while single-handedly covering the retrieval of two wounded comrades. Red Blood, Black Sand is one of four credited sources upon which the HBO mini-series The Pacific is based. Now eighty-three years old, Chuck sees this book as his final act of service, so readers will never forget the heroes he watched fight, live, and die on “the island that God forgot and gave to the Devil.”

Evacuation Iwo Jima, February-April, 1945.

Saturday/Sun 1220A (920 Pacific):   Red Blood, Black Sand: Fighting Alongside John Basilone from Boot Camp to Iwo Jima by Charles W. Tatum; 2 of 2

Saturday/Sun 1235A (935P Pacific): The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II by Lawrence Verria, George Galdorisi and Foreword by David Hartman; 1 of 2 On August 14, 1945, Alfred Eisenstaedt took a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, minutes after they heard of Japan's surrender to the United States. Two weeks later LIFE magazine published that image. It became one of the most famous WWII photographs in history (and the most celebrated photograph ever published in the world's dominant photo-journal), a cherished reminder of what it felt like for the war to finally be over. Everyone who saw the picture wanted to know more about the nurse and sailor, but Eisenstaedt had no information and a search for the mysterious couple's identity took on a dimension of its own. In 1979 Eisenstaedt thought he had found the long lost nurse. And as far as almost everyone could determine, he had. For the next thirty years Edith Shain was known as the woman in the photo of V-J DAY, 1945, TIMES SQUARE. In 1980 LIFE attempted to determine the sailor's identity. Many aging warriors stepped forward with claims, and experts weighed in to support one candidate over another. Chaos ensued.

For almost two decades Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi were intrigued by the controversy surrounding the identity of the two principals in Eisenstaedt's most famous photograph and collected evidence that began to shed light on this mystery. Unraveling years of misinformation and controversy, their findings propelled one claimant s case far ahead of the others and, at the same time, dethroned the supposed kissed nurse when another candidate's claim proved more credible. With this book, the authors solve the 67-year-old mystery by providing irrefutable proof to identify the couple in Eisenstaedt's photo. It is the first time the whole truth behind the celebrated picture has been revealed.

Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the celebrations he did not have an opportunity to get the names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the faces of either person involved in this embrace and several people have claimed to be the subjects. The photograph was shot just south of 45th Street looking north from a location where Broadway andSeventh Avenue converge. Soon afterward, throngs of people crowded into the square and it became a sea of people.

The authors also bring to light the couple's and the photographer's brushes with death that nearly prevented their famous spontaneous Times Square meeting in the first place. The sailor, part of Bull Halsey's famous task force, survived the deadly typhoon that took the lives of hundreds of other sailors. The nurse, an Austrian Jew who lost her mother and father in the Holocaust, barely managed to escape to the United States. Eisenstaedt, a World War I German soldier, was nearly killed at Flanders.

Saturday/Sun 1250A  (950P Pacific):  The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II by Lawrence Verria, George Galdorisi and Foreword by David Hartman; 2 of 2

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Music (using New York City broadcast times)  

9:00 hour:    Tora Tora Tora.; 10:00 hour:  Pacific.; 11:00 hour:  War.; midnight hour:  Thin Red Line.

Washington, D.C., FDR funeral, April, 1945.