Research Guides: U.S. History: Primary Source Collections Online: WWII, Pearl Harbor, Atomic Bomb, Japanese-American Incarceration

Pearl Harbor: Primary Source Collections Online

Audio Recording of President FDR's Speech Following the Pearl Harbor Attack
(FDR Presidential Library and Museum)
Revisions of President FDR's Pearl Harbor Speech Before Delivery
(National Archives)
Pearl Harbor Photographs and Overview
(Naval History and Heritage Command)
Pearl Harbor Photographs Photos by Bob Landry, a Life photographer who made it to the scene not long after the attacks. (TIME Magazine)
Archives of Indiana University's Administrative War Council 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 Incarceration: Primary Source Collections Online

Densho Digital Archive 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)
FDR and Japanese American Internment Materials from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, intended to reflect many sides of the issue.
Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive
The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley
Japanese American Internment Camp Newspapers 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)
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA)
(Univ. of California)
The War Relocation Authority & the Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II 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)
Japanese Relocation Documents from DocsTeach
(National Archives)
U.S., WWII Japanese Americans Incarcerated in Confinement Sites Courtesy of the Irei Monument Project, a memorial to all persons of Japanese ancestry incarcerated during WWII in confinement sites run by the Department of Justice, U.S. Army, Wartime Civil Control Administration, and the War Relocation Authority. (Ancestry.com)

Dropping the Bomb: Primary Source Collections Online

Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb - Online Documents from the Truman Library & Museum
(Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum)
Atomic Bomb Decision: Documents on the Decision to use Atomic Bombs on the the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Compiled documents from National Archives and other sources. (Gene Dannen, independent researcher)
Atomic Energy & Nuclear History Learning Curriculum Digital exhibit with selected archive materials on The Manhattan Project, Civil Defense, Nuclear Engineering, and other topics. (Oregon State Univ.)
Atomic Heritage Foundation: Key Documents Documents the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age. Several links on this page point to the Directory of Documents, Directory of Photographs, etc.
Hiroshima: Rare Film Footage After the Atomic Bombs
(CNN)
The Nuclear Vault: Resources from the Nuclear Documentation Project De-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 War The 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 Files FBI 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)
Footnote.com Historical Documents Historical military photos, news accounts, case files about war crimes, accounts of air battles, and more. (Footnote.com)
Hawaii War Records Depository Photos
Photos of life in Hawaii during World War II. (Univ. of Hawaii)
Homefront Photos
(National Archives, via Flickr)
International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property Links 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)
Latest Films of the War in Italy, 1943 Video (Office of War Information)
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Military Situation Maps, 1944-45
(Library of Congress)
Nuremberg Trials Project Project (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)
Oral History Collection 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)
Posters
(Univ. of North Texas)
Prisoners of War: German Prison Camp Stalag Luft I 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.
The Public Health Film Goes to War 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)
Ration Coupons on the Homefront, 1942-1945
(Duke Univ. Libraries)
The Real Rosie the Riveter Project: Oral Histories of Women Laborers during WWII
(New York Univ.)
Veterans History Project The 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)
Video Footage (Various), From Pearl Harbor to D-Day
(National Archives and Records Administration)
War Comes to America Video (Army's Office of the Chief Signal Officer)
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Wartime Press - Digital Archive of WWII Publications 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.
Women's Bureau Photographs
(National Archives, via Flickr)
Women Airforce Service Pilots Digital Archive Digital collection of materials from the official Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) archive at TWU in Denton, TX. (Texas Women's Univ.)
WWI and WWII Propaganda Posters 520 posters from 1914-1945, the start of World War I to the end of World War II. (Washington State Univ.)
WWII Field Manuals
Archival copies of WWII field manuals in PDF format.
WWII Operational 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)
World War II: Video from the AP Archive

Holocaust

For sources on the Holocaust in Europe, refer to our WWII research guide:

WWII Research Guide - Sources on the Holocaust

Sources from Other Countries

Want to find more sources on WWII from other countries? Look here by country:

World History: Primary Source Collections Online