After seeing the new movie DUNKIRK directed by Christopher Nolan last night, I wanted to recommend it to you readers. Like the top film critics, I found this film technically flawless and emotionally extremely powerful. The film's soundtrack by Hans Zimmer kept me on the edge of my seat. In September 1939, Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland resulted in a declaration of war by France and Great Britain. A British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was sent to help with the defense of France. What followed was eight months of  "phoney war" with no major battles.  With protection of the fabled Maginot Line and the Ardennes forest, the Allied expectation was that Germany would initiate an attack against France through Belgium as it had in WWI. German General Erich Manstein, however, decided to advance through the Ardennes Forest directly into Northern France on a route perceived by the Allies as as impenetrable. The unexpected, lightning movement by the Wehrmacht swiftly cut off hundreds of thousands of Allied troops. The only escape route was the sea. On May 24, 1940, British and French troops were trapped between advancing German Panzer columns and the English Channel. Unexpectedly, the Germans halted their advance for an unexplained 48-hours, allowing the Allies to dig in, establish a defensive perimeter and initiate evacuation plans at Dunkirk. Over eight days, 338,226 soldiers were rescued by a make-shift fleet of >800 civilian and naval craft. Reportedly, weather conditions limited both RAF and Luftwaffe air combat. Britain's limited deployment of naval vessels in the Dunkirk rescue may have been due to lack of available ships, the shallow draught of Dunkirk harbor--or possibly a reluctance, during a time when the invasion of England seemed imminent, to deploy precious capital ships to a dangerous rescue operation. The most inspiring thing about the Dunkirk evacuation was the maritime response of  brave and courageous British civilians. In the film, the Jericho Trompete sirens of the Luftwaffe Junker-87  Stuka (Sturzkampfflugzeug) emit a terrifying shriek that builds as the dive bomber approaches the target. Some have criticized the failure of French generals during the Fall of France. Nevertheless, many ordinary Frenchmen fought bravely and honorably at Dunkirk. As British and French troops awaited evacuation on the beach, French soldiers 40 miles southeast of Dunkirk, put up stiff resistance against an overwhelming Wehrmacht force, allowing the Allies time to prepare.  

Vichy France propaganda cartoon about the allied bombings of France. A Jewish radio announcer in London broadcasts the imminent arrival over France of Allied Liberator aircraft. US planes, flown by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Popeye, Goofy and Felix the Cat, drop bombs killing innocent French civilians.   Vichy France Between June 1940 and May 1945, 1,570 French cities and towns were bombed by Anglo-American forces. The total number of civilians killed was 68,778 men, women and children.

Similar to their Japanese and American counterparts, Nazi propagandists populated their wartime cartoons with animal characters. Here in der Störenfried (the troublemaker), when the rabbit father finds the fox threatening his children, the Luftwaffe (wasps) and Wehrmacht (dogs?) come to the rescue.      

In September 1940 the U.S. Congress passed the Burke-Wadsworth Act,  the first peacetime draft of men aged 21-36 years in the history of the United States. In November 1942 the draft ages were extended to ages 18-37 years for the war effort. Until 1943, due to racist concerns about a mixed-race military, blacks were not drafted. In 1943  a "quota" was imposed, meant to limit the numbers of blacks drafted to reflect their numbers in the overall population (~ 10.6 %). Initially, blacks were restricted to "labor units," but as the war progressed, they were finally used in combat. By war's end, approximately 34 million men had registered and 10 million had been inducted into the military.    

image via: tumblr_kxqjyiaO7Y1qaz1ado1_500.jpg 500×697 pixels. Low-priced monthly magazines were very important in Imperial Japanese culture with over 3,000 periodicals published for all age groups (60 for women). By 1940,  leading intellectual publications such as Chuo Koron (中央公論 Central Review) were forced to abandon their former (liberal) stand and align themselves with the current conservative political reform Shintaisei (New National Structure).  

In contrast with Japan's graceful homogeneity, American culture was diverse and comparatively unrefined .