In a Covid-free world, many of us would be traveling this summer to visit battlefields, cemeteries and memorials to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Of course, Hollywood has long dramatized World War II, from the John Wayne movies of the 1940s to the spate of big-screen blockbusters in the 1970s like “Tora, Tora, Tora,” “Midway” and “Patton.” Steven Spielberg gave us his broader World War II trilogy with “Empire of the Sun,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “Schindler’s List.”For a scholarly look at these war films and others, check out the National World War II Museum’s “Service on Celluloid” podcast, which critiques movies for accuracy and authenticity. A shorter primer on the Pacific war, “Japanese Expansion Before and During World War II,” talks about that country’s aggression prior to the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. Laurence Olivier narrating ‘The World at War’ Photo: Fremantle Media/ShutterstockPerhaps the greatest gifts of the internet are the now-digitized World War II archives of libraries and museums. Two of the best sources are the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and the Oral History archives of the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 24, 2020 20:37 UTC