Pulps and the War:Army-Navy Flying Stories, Summer, 1943

I don't have the entire magazine, unfortunately, but I was able to get one story from it, called Private War. 'Lieutanants Roberts and O'Malley prove that two Yanks to a Jap platoon makes just about the right odds!' goes the subtitle to the story.

Two U.S. planes are out on patrol, running very tight on fuel, when they spot some Japanese shipping.

1. There's a reference to the Japanese as 'brown-bellies,' which is the first time I've seen this kind of terminology used.

The brave U.S. pilots, even knowing that they will not have enough fuel to return to base, decide to attack the Japanese boats.

2. Reference is made to the U.S. planes being heavily armored. The Japanese Zeros were not, which caused them to tend to explode when hit in the fuel area.

3. During the battle, one of the Japanese pilots seems to be trying a kamikaze attack, trying to ram one of the U.S. planes. This is well before the kamikaze became a regular form of attack for the Japanese military.

4. One of the Japanese boats, a troop carrier, is destroyed, with maybe a thousand men killed. 'There was, perhaps, a thousand or more men aboard her, but war was not a matter of mercy. The Japs had shown none at Pearl Harbor. They were entitled to none here.'

This helps to show just how deeply the attack on Pearl Harbor had affected the U.S. psyche. The level of hate against the Japanese continued to increase as more Americans died, and as word of some of the atrocities began to leak out. Later in the war, both sides basically fought without mercy.

5. '...Robert's job was to annihilate. Each one of those Japs who went down meant an American, Dutch, British or Chinese life saved.'

The planes land safely on the ocean, and the two pilots then go onto an island where there are Japanese and Americans held prisoner by them. They encounter one of the Japanese: 'Roberts gave the man a sudden push, then brought down the butt of his gun. The Jap's skull crunched.'

6. As to the prisoners, the Japanese mistreatment of prisoners is shown several times. A Japanese officer says: 'I'll show you pigs a yellow man is as good, or better, than a white.'' This refers to one of the themes of the war, a battle between the White culture and the Yellow culture.

7. Later, the prisoners are freed. 'Men swarmed out of the barracks. Weak and pale from the ordeal of capture and virtual torture, they nevertheless closed in on other Japs who surrendered. Roberts did not attempt to dissuade them. They had a certain amount of fun due them.'

In other words, even though some Japanese actually surrendered, one of the pilots was going to allow the former prisoners to work their captors over, their 'fun.'' Again, this shows some of the viciousness of the war situation, and this, again, was well before the end of the war, a time during which the viciousness grew even more.

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