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John Falter was a Nebraska artist who applied his talents to the war effort, producing numerous recruiting and incentive posters while on active duty with the U.S. Naval Reserve.
Born in Plattsmouth and raised in Falls City, Falter gained fame for his cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post. Throughout the war, he continued to work as a free-lance commercial artist, though most of his commercial works also addressed patriotic themes.
Between 1942 and 1946, Falter produced a body of work impressive ... Read more
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Even before America entered the war, production for it had begun. In Omaha, for instance, the Martin Bomber Plant was commissioned in September 1940 — well over a year before Pearl Harbor. Other plants were commissioned across the country to build bombs, tanks, rifles, and other weapons, some for sale or "loan" to other countries and some for our own stockpiles.
Although many Americans felt that we were isolated from the war, ... Read more
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There are very few people who have seen an atomic bomb explode — or who would want to. But in 1955, there were several Nebraskans who were among the 5,800 civilian and military witnesses to an atomic test blast. The civilians were there by choice, while most of the military observers had been ordered there. The experiment was known as Operation Cue.
Operation Cue was not the first attempt to test the effects an atomic explosion would have on buildings and ... Read more
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What is it like to be born and raised an American, but to be considered an enemy because of where your parents were born? That’s what happened to many Japanese Americans in World War II.
Racism and war hysteria motivated the U.S. government to forcibly move more than 120,000 Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans from their homes on the west coast to internment camps between 1942 and 1945. Nebraska’s central location kept its Japanese American citizens comparably safe from this process, ... Read more
