Yank The Army Weekly
YANK also covered the home front -- the dream of overseas GIs. Although the United States suffered no wartime damage, the war was still the overriding fact of American life. In a story about his own furlough Sgt. Ralph Boyce wrote about a party he attended where every conversation concerned somebody "out there." Boyce asked whether anyone spoke of anything else; "Very seldom" was the reply.
The magazine's April 27 sports page reflected the manpower shortage, reporting the story of Pete Gray the St. Louis Brown's one-armed outfielder. This issue also printed a sports service record, listing the whereabouts of the real major leaguers, including Lt. Bill Dickey, Pfc. Enos Slaughter, and the World's Heavyweight Champion Sgt. Joe Louis.
YANK had no woman shortage. Every week the magazine published a full page pin-up of a famous star or hopeful starlet, including Ester Williams, Ann Miller, and Lucille Ball. The Statue of Liberty turned up as the VJ-Day issue pin-up girl. YANK outdid itself for straightforward writing when the magazine described Jane Russell as "5 feet 7, has brown hair and brown eyes, weighs 122 pounds and has a bust."
YANK could also take on the disturbing home front topics like Pvt. James P. O'Neill's article "The Nisei Problem." Pvt. O'Neill brought out the injustice of the incarceration of loyal Japanese-Americans, particularly when he juxtaposed the internment camps against the Nisei 442nd Regiment's combat record.
More powerful was the fictional short story "Welcome Home" by Sgt. Len Zinberg. The main character seems to be a typical returning GI, except that people neither smile nor speak to him. You can feel the rush of excitement and anticipation as he comes closer to his former home, a home he dreamed about while fighting his way through Europe. But the GI fails to find the warm house of his youth, instead he finds a dilapidated hovel with a large sign across the front -- "Keep out! No damn Jap rats wanted here." The GI was Nisei.
With the atomic bombs and the surrender of Japan, the war everyone assumed would go on for at least another year finally ended. Most of the GIs would be going home, as would YANK. The magazine continued publishing to year's end, covering such topics as, reconversion, separation, and the occupation of Germany and Japan. But YANK was just marking time along with its GI readers.
YANK had no place in the regular army anymore than the temporary soldiers the magazine served; they were both too distrustful of authority and too independent for the rigidity of the army bureaucracy and cast system. Both the magazine and its readers yearned for discharge.
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