Stars and Stripes, which published its first newspaper in the Pacific on May 14, 1945, is celebrating its 80th year of serving the military community in the theater. (Stars and Stripes)
Contact Ombudsman Jacqueline Smith at smith.jacqueline@stripes.com
The fierce fighting raged on the Japanese island of Okinawa in the final months of World War II. In the middle of that horrific three-month battle, on May 14, 1945, the first issue of Stars and Stripes Pacific was published to tell the news.
Not the news as seen only from the government’s point of view. The news reported by Stars and Stripes was for, and of, the military community. What did service members need to know, what was their reality on the ground? For 80 years Stars and Stripes Pacific has continuously published and adhered to that purpose. It is called “the soldiers’ newspaper.”
“From the fiery days of World War II to the Cold War standoff in Korea, from the Vietnam War to the long fight against terrorism, Stars and Stripes has been the eyes and ears of those who serve,” wrote Stripes’ Publisher Max Lederer Jr. in an essay marking the 80th anniversary. “Our journalists have embedded with troops, walked the streets of post-war Japan, and documented the changing face of U.S. military strategy across the Indo-Pacific.
“Through it all, our mission has remained the same: to report the facts, give voice to the men and women in uniform, and help their families understand the sacrifices they make,” he wrote in a special section commemorating the anniversary. “One principle has never changed: our commitment to independent journalism.”
That unyielding commitment and “invaluable” and “indispensable” service is recognized in a U.S. Senate resolution, introduced Nov. 7 by Sens. Reuben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
The resolution “commemorates this important milestone in the history of an important institution of the United States and congratulates and honors the men and women of Stars and Stripes, past and present, who have so diligently served the United States military community.”
The first issue, only eight pages, was printed in Honolulu and described a daylight 90-minute raid on Nagoya, Japan, by 500 B-29 bombers that must have seemed relentless. The page-one story was from the United Press news wire service; before long Stripes had its own reporters on Okinawa.
Within five months, Stripes was printing the newspaper in Tokyo. It is difficult to picture what that must have been like back on Oct. 3, 1945, in a country devastated weeks earlier by two atomic bombs.
An editorial staff of 19 soldier newsmen “wedged into working space so narrow that typewriter carriages regularly crashed into elbows” in an office area requisitioned at the Japan Times, that only days before had been publishing anti-America propaganda, as noted in a history of the first 40 years (“Stars and Stripes Pacific, The First 40 Years: 1945-1985”). News stories went from “typewriter and teletype, to editor before they were lowered on a jerry-built dumbwaiter, a bucket on a string, to printers” who formed hot lead into words on linotype machines. After a few more steps, the output was rushed by jeep or motorcycle blocks away to the Asahi newspaper press where circular plates were made and the newspaper finally printed.
What would those workers think to see the Stripes of today, which delivers the news digitally in a continuous 24-hour operation from central headquarters in D.C. to Stars and Stripes Europe in Kaiserslautern, Germany, to Stars and Stripes Pacific in Hardy Barracks, Tokyo, to an estimated 1.4 million readers a day? Still, though, challenges remain with delivering the printed paper to troops in battle areas.
As I’ve been reading about Stripes’ Pacific history of 80 years ago rooted in the ravages of war, I find it difficult to reconcile the images with the country I experienced last year when visiting Stripes Pacific headquarters and nearby military bases. All the Japanese people I met were unfailingly polite and welcoming.
The bond forged in peacetime among Stripes, the military community and the Japanese is strong. So much so, that the U.S. military relief efforts involving 24,500 service members after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and resulting tsunami as high as 90 feet, was referred to as Operation Tomodachi, which is the Japanese word for “friends.” (By the way, the Stripes’ headline the day of the tsunami was “Hell And High Water.”)
The legacy of Stripes Pacific includes journalists covering the Korean conflict and the Vietnam War and reporting from the Philippines and Guam, among other places.
Stars and Stripes’ history goes back well before the Pacific arena. The first issue can be traced to Nov. 1, 1861, in Bloomfield, Mo., during the Civil War. Gen. John J. Pershing reinstituted the newspaper as a weekly during World War I and since World War II Stars and Stripes has published continuously in times of fighting and of peace.
Senate Resolution #491 refers to Stars and Stripes “as ‘the hometown newspaper’ for members of the Armed Forces, civilian employees, and family members stationed around the world.” Both senators who introduced the resolution, members of the Armed Services Committee, have served in the Marine Corps; Gallego deployed to Iraq in 2005 and Sullivan retired in 2024 as a colonel after 30 years.
Gallego recalled reading Stars and Stripes while in Iraq — it was the only newspaper they got.
I’m not surprised. So many veterans I’ve spoken with since becoming Stripes’ ombudsman are quick to tell of how much the newspaper meant to them as a source of credible news and a connection to home.
“Thousands of servicemembers around the world read it for the kind of stories that just isn’t covered anywhere else,” Gallego elaborated in a statement. “Now more than ever, it’s vital that we protect independent, trusted journalism for those who serve.”
Gallego gave meaning to the word “protect” when five years ago as a House of Representatives member he joined a bipartisan effort to save Stripes from defunding by the Defense Department. The news organization is within the Defense Department but is editorially independent.
The resolution commemorates Stripes’ service of “honoring the men and women in uniform, preserving our shared history, and strengthening the spirit of the military community,” Sullivan said in his statement. The resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee where I hope it is approved and will be sent to the full Senate for a positive vote. It will underscore the importance historically and today of Stars and Stripes delivering uncensored, balanced news to the American military community around the world.
