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VOL 36 • NO. 9
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August 2015
WW II ended 70 years ago
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By Bob Rives It was 1939 when Hitler started World War II. It took six years before Japan, under the weight of two atomic bombs, stopped fighting. Peace returned Aug. 14, 1945 -- 70 years ago this summer. Even in inland Kansas, the war was real. When Japan attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, Kansans suddenly faced shortages ranging from gasoline to bubble gum. Women went without nylon hose and went to work in defense industries. One umpired in the National semipro baseball tournament. Kids bought and sold war bonds. Families harvested Victory Gardens. Scraps of metal and paper were gathered to use in the war. Chrome plated car bumpers were replaced with wooden planks. Guns from Civil War memorials were melted to make new ones. Even before Japan’s surprise attack, the Kansas National Guard was called to service. The 137th Infantry Regi-
ment joined the rest of the 35th Infantry Division, ultimately in Europe where 1,018 died in action. Nearly 5,500 Kansans were killed. Thousands suffered life-altering wounds. Most casualties were high school and college age. One of the first wartime bases was in Wichita. Municipal airport became Wichita Army Air Field in 1941. The 127th Observation Squadron, the air wing of the state’s National Guard, was sent there. Equipped with only six planes, four of them tiny observation models, the base opened the door for a flood of military installations. Among them: 12 air bases, two Navy bases, two forts and 16 POW camps. Centered in Wichita, defense plants built 25,865 planes. Landing craft were built in Leavenworth and Kansas City. Explosives and ammunition were crafted in three cities. Kansas was a leading source of walnut for gunstocks. Kansas’ farms strained to keep up with the demand for food. In towns that had suffered
Photo by Rob Howe
‘The land of the free, and the home of the brave.’ through the Depression, workers, not menial, demeaning jobs, and some jobs, fell in short supply. neighbors shunned them as unpatriNot everyone supported the war, otic. however. Many had strong moral obA Wichita man took part in the jections, particularly Mennonites. They war’s final action. In August 1945, had descended from people who fled Lt. Joseph Marnett navigated a B24 Germany and Russia to avoid military bomber on a low level flight over service. Tokyo Bay to see if Japanese guns Draft laws allowed the devout to were silent. The guns tracked the become Conscientious Objectors, but plane’s flight, he said, but did not fire. they paid a price. They were assigned See WW II, page 20
Women gained right to vote 95 years ago
Jean Schodorf, three By Ken Stephens members of the League Mary Knecht’s mother, of Women Voters WichJoan Maughlin Horton, was ita-Metro, have helped 4-years old when the 19th put together several Amendment, giving women celebratory events for across the nation the right the passage of the 19th to vote, became the law of Amendment. the land on Aug. 26, 1920. The trio agrees that no Horton told Knecht legislation of such importhat she and Knecht’s tance would ever become great-grandmother, Emma law today with as little Belle Maughlin, and two of fanfare as did the 19th Knecht’s great aunts went to a creek near their home in Photo by Ellen Estes Amendment. Seventy-one years after Sylvia, Kan., to pick cattails. Mary Knecht in a women’s right to vote was Later they soaked the Riverfest parade first proposed at a meeting cattails in kerosene and of women suffragists in Seneca Falls, used them for torches in a parade to N.Y., Congress passed the amendment celebrate the 19th Amendment that and sent it to the states for ratification. evening A little over a year later, in August Today, Knecht, Ellen Estes and
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1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, giving it the two-thirds majority of states required to become law. Tennessee’s certification reached Washington, D.C., by train in the early hours of Aug. 26, 1920, and made its way to the home of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, who took a few minutes to review legal details and then signed it without ceremony. There were no reporters, no photographers and no leaders of the women’s suffrage movement present to witness it. Kansas and Wichita, Knecht said, have a tradition of being in the forefront of the women’s suffrage movement.” Jane Brooks of Wichita served See vote, page 4
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