World War II Database

In Jan 2025, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order in opposition of diversity, equality, and inclusion in American society. Complying to that order, Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth ordered the removal of various pieces of information that the president would deem inappropriate. As the result, photographs and articles on WW2 history were marked for removal from Defense websites and social media. A list of material to be deleted or already deleted included information such as:

• Portuguese-American Marine Harold Gonsalves who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest American military award, for selflessly jumping on a grenade thrown by the enemy, sacrificing himself in order to save two fellow Marines on the island of Okinawa, Japan in 1945.
• African-American Tuskegee airmen, who served with distinction during WW2; 300 Tuskegee airmen who were still alive in 2007 were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the US Congress, the highest honor that the US Congress can bestow.
• Japanese-American soldiers of the US Army 442nd Regimental Combat Team, many of whom volunteered to serve despite being imprisoned in internment camps simply for their ancestry; the unit would go on to become the most decorated unit in US Army history.
• The B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay, famed for having dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan; it is suspected that the bomber was swept up in the administration's anti-equality stance simply due to its name.

For more information:
Associated Press: War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon's DEI purge
The Hill: 5 notable images flagged in Pentagon's DEI purge
Honolulu Civil Beat: Army Wipes 442nd Combat Unit Off Its Website Amid DEI Purge
Military.com: The Medal of Honor Recipient Erased in the Pentagon's DEI Purge

Addendum, 19 May 2025

The US Department of Defense issued an official memorandum on 26 Feb 2025 that specifically noted "By March 5, 2025, Components must take all practicable steps, consistent with records management requirements, to remove all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)". The memorandum, in its entirety, can be found at these following two locations:

1. US Departmet of Defense website: https://media.defense.gov/2025/Feb/27/2003652943/-1/-1/1/DIGITAL-CONTENT-REFRESH.PDF
2. Archived on WW2DB: https://ww2db.com/media/20250226_USDOD_digital_content_refresh.pdf

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5.  C. Peter Chen says:
19 May 2025 09:56:50 AM

Thank you for your comment anonymous of 19 May 2025. However, there was indeed an official announcement. Please see the 26 Feb 2025 memorandum posted by the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, hosted on the US Department of Defense website:

https://media.defense.gov/2025/Feb/27/2003652943/-1/-1/1/DIGITAL-CONTENT-REFRESH.PDF

Specifically, "By March 5, 2025, Components must take all practicable steps, consistent with records management requirements, to remove all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)" as seen in the second paragraph of the memorandum.

We will add this official information to the main news article above as an addendum, thank you very much for pointing out that we missed posting the link to one of the main sources!