A guide focused on primary source collections from government agencies, universities, museums, libraries, and historical organizations. First curated by Erin Owens and Kristina Claunch of Sam Houston State University.
Documents one university's response to the attack by implementing new policies, for example, military credit for students recruited midsemester and mandatory nursing training for all female students. (Indiana Univ.)
Japanese American Internment: Primary Source Collections Online
Includes historic photographs, documents, newspaper articles, letters, and other primary sources documenting Japanese-American immigration and life before, during, and after World War II. Covers early 1900s-1980s, with a strong focus on the World War II incarceration. (Densho non-profit organization)
More than 4,600 issues of 29 newspaper titles (in English, Japanese, or both) from camps in seven states, dated primarily 1942-1945. (Library of Congress)
This collection focuses on the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The collection includes 62 documents totaling 911 pages covering the years 1942 through 1962. Supporting materials include oral history transcripts and photographs courtesy of the National Archives. (Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum)
The Nuclear Vault: Resources from the Nuclear Documentation ProjectDe-classified documents, photos, info, related reading lists, and links related to nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon policies, nuclear crises, and nuclear proliferation (in the U.S. and around the world) from the 1940s through the present. (George Washington Univ.)
World War II: Primary Source Collections Online
The Civilian Public Service Story: Living Peace in a Time of WarThe Civilian Public Service was an alternative service option for conscientious objectors during WWII. This website's database provides details on all 12,000 men who served in CPS and info on more than 150 CPS camps in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Secondary-source essays provide background to rosters, photographs, etc. Site also provides many recommendations for further reading. (Mennonite Central Committee and the Center on Conscience and War)
FBI WWII FilesFBI documents on WWII topics, including Tokyo Rose, General MacArthur, Wernher VonBraun, detention, and more. (Note: Dates in the list of topics/files indicate when documents were put online, not when the content was originally created.) (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural PropertyLinks researchers to archival materials consisting of descriptions and often images of records related to cultural property that was stolen, looted, seized, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost during the Nazi era. Covers a broad range of cultural property from artworks to books and libraries, religious objects, antiquities, archival documents, carvings, silver and more. (U.S. National Archives and various international organizations)
Nuremberg Trials ProjectProject (still in progress) to digitize Harvard Law School's extensive collection of trial transcripts, briefs, document books, evidence files, and other papers related to the trial of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) and to the twelve trials of other accused war criminals before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT). (Harvard Law School)
Men and women participating in all theaters of operations. Experiences recounted include German and Japanese POW camps, Japanese-American relocation centers, Pearl Harbor attack, Bataan Death March, and more. (Univ. of Florida)
Comprehensive record of what life was like at the German prison camp. Includes POW's stories, photos, poetry, art, roommates, newspaper, accounts of the evacuation, as well as links on the guards and interrogators. Also provides the six extant issues of the POW newspaper POW WOW, Prisoners of War - Waiting on Winning, which was intended to be destroyed after reading.
Eighteen rare public health films from the WWII era, covering topics such as personal cleanliness, sexually transmitted diseases, tropical diseases, and the stress of war. All films include searchable transcripts and commentaries. All films are in the public domain and may thus be used without concerns for copyright infringement. (National Library of Medicine)
Veterans History ProjectThe Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. (Library of Congress)
Original books, booklets, magazines, manuals, newspapers, and documents relating to WWII, from many sides of the conflict. Includes US, British, Polish, German, Czech, Italian, Japanese, and Russian documents.
Operations orders, after action reports, intelligence analyses, logistics appraisals, and similar documents. Primary focus is on documenting operations at the tactical and operational levels of warfare. (Combined Arms Research Library, CARL)
