Photo of the Day

Reading the paper on Sept. 21, 1941.

Negotiations with Japan on reaching a settlement in Japanese-American relations have hit a ‘virtual stalemate,’ although talks will continue in hopes that an eventual resolution can be reached.

Left: US Secretary of State Cordell Hull escorts Japan's negotiators to the White House, Nov. 17, 1941. Right: View from a Japanese aircraft of the first wave of the Pearl Harbor attack, Dec. 7, 1941.

Japan has insisted on having a special status in East Asia which would give it rights of control over major Chinese ports and northern provinces.

In return, Japan would abandon plans for a push further south and relinquish claims in French Indochina.

The US has rejected this proposal.

Left: Japanese pilots receive final orders for the raid on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. Right: Pilots take off from a Japanese carrier to attack Pearl Harbor.

The US is unwilling to grant Japan any special status and has placed half of the US naval fleet on standby in the Pacific.

There is concern that, if the Nazis succeed in defeating the Soviet Union, an emboldened Japan will escalate its aggression in Asia, drawing America into a two-ocean war.

Left: German soldiers on the road on the outskirts of Kyiv, Sept. 1941. Right: A column of captured Red Army soldiers and refugees near Kyiv, 1941.

Bitter fighting rages in the northern suburbs of Kyiv, which, in 1941, was a part of the Soviet Union.

Nazi forces have lost 150,000 men in Ukraine, but are sending in a quarter million more troops as reinforcements.

Left: German armed post on the Kyiv main street Khreshchatyk, 1941. Right: Column of Kyiv Jews on their march toward the Babi Yar ravine where they will be executed, Sept. 29, 1941.

The Soviet Army has pledged to make the Nazis ‘pay dearly’ for Kyiv.

From the Soviet newspaper Red Star:

“The [Soviet] gunners at Kiev are fighting the enemy until death.

“The Red Army is sparing no efforts to inflict the greatest possible losses upon the German hordes.”

Meanwhile, the German army said it was ‘mopping up’ in Kyiv and has entrapped 200,000 Soviet soldiers in a pocket to the east of the city.

The Nazi siege of Leningrad/St. Petersburg lasted 872 days. 750,000 people died.

As the Luftwaffe continued its attack in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, the US and Great Britain announced they will provide aid to the Soviet Union immediately.

While former US president Herbert Hoover declared aiding the communist Soviet Union a mistake, Soviet newspapers said the aid decision was ‘a turning point in this gigantic struggle.’

Left: members of the French resistance listen to coded radio messages with Allied instructions for future activities. Right: Nazi troops execute a French resistance fighter.

The Nazi-aligned Vichy government in occupied France has executed thirty-five Frenchmen so far.

First Communists and then Jews were targeted, but now, the government warns that the punishment will extend to all classes of people involved in or instigating reprisals against Nazis.

As further punishment for partisan activities, Paris has been placed under an 8:00 PM curfew.

Photos taken by a German photographer for a Nazi magazine intending to show happy Parisians living under Nazi occupation.

Sabotage and anti-Nazi demonstrations have increased in the Netherlands, where partisans operate under the banner, “The More Chaos the Better.”

Norwegian workers have adopted a ‘go slow’ tactic even as Nazi occupation forces arrested hundreds in Bergen.

Left: Elegantly dressed Jews wearing yellow stars at the Kistarcsa concentration camp in Hungary, 1944. Right: Nazi troops raise the swastika over Athens, 1941.

As Berlin’s Jews began wearing the Star of David badge in compliance with a Gestapo order, the American Jewish Congress denied that American Jews were clamoring for US entry into the war.

Meanwhile, the RAF mounted one of its biggest daylight raids, striking targets over Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and France.

British aircraft were also active in the Mediterranean war zone, striking targets in Benghazi and Tripoli, sinking two Italian troop ships.

In Greece, officials warn the population faces starvation this winter due to Nazi looting of Greek food supplies and the killing of Greek dairy herds.

For the week, the Germans lost fifty-three fighter aircraft while the RAF lost eight bombers and thirty-three fighters.

Left: FDR with his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, who died on Sept. 7, 1941, with FDR at her side. Right: Senator Gerald Nye.

President Franklin Roosevelt signed a new tax bill, the largest in US history, which will bring in an estimated $3.5B in revenue to pay for the nation’s rearmament.

Senator Gerald Nye, Republican from North Dakota and a leader of the Congressional isolationist bloc, has urged ‘all loyal Americans’ to oppose FDR’s foreign policy, which he claims is intended to bring the US into the war against its will.

Left: Honoré Daumier, 'Advice to a Young Artist,' 1865/1868. Center: Dodgers' manager Leo Durocher. The 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers won their first pennant in 21 years and went on to lose to the New York Yankees in the World Series. Right: Sam Snead.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington announced the acquisition of its first work of nineteenth century French painting.

The Brooklyn Dodgers lead the National League pennant race by two games after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday in a two-game set.

And finally, golfer Sam Snead had a bad round at the Hurst Invitational in Philadelphia yesterday, falling into a three-way tie for the lead with Billy Burke and Tony Penna.

But after his bad second round score of 74, Snead will have rounds of 69 and 65 on the final day to win the tournament by 8 strokes and take home the $1,500 first prize.

‘You gotta believe.’ — New York Mets, 1973

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I’ll see you on Monday.

— Brenda

Banner image: Sam Snead.