This website was created and maintained from May 2020 to May 2021 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Stars and Stripes operations in the Pacific.
It will no longer be updated, but we encourage you to explore the site and view content we felt best illustrated Stars and Stripes' continued support of the Pacific theater since 1945.
Our History
Our History
The cost of newsgathering
Pacific Stars and Stripes has lost two reporters in two wars — one a 37-year old veteran, the other a youngster only 24. I knew one only slightly and the other not at all.
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Muroi Norio, Librarian
Preserving Pacific history: Stripes librarian spent 40 years among the archives
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Exclusive coverage of Olympic doping scandal catapulted former Stars and Stripes staffer’s career
Among them was former Stars and Stripes Pacific sports staffer Shelley Smith, who was about to get a huge career boost thanks to all that was breaking: “Ben Johnson has been caught taking drugs and is expected to be stripped of his 100-meter gold medal, according to International Olympic Committee sources,” the bulletin read from The Associated Press and other news services and sources.
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The Pacific stars of Stripes
Stars and Stripes was meant to be a GI’s newspaper, so it should come as no surprise that many of the publication’s standout journalists were active-duty service members. Stars and Stripes’ Pacific staffers went on to work for “60 Minutes,” draw for Marvel Comics and snap photos for Life magazine.
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Hal Drake, Reporter
A native of Santa Monica, Calif., Drake served 10 months in the Korean War as an artilleryman, viewing up close the carnage on Heartbreak Ridge. He applied for one of a handful of reporting jobs at Stars and Stripes and joined the Pacific staff in July 1956.
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After wartime terror and defeat, a life rebuilt around America
Toshi Tokunaga Cooper and her coworkers listened on the radio as Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allies on Aug. 15, 1945.
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A look back at Stars and Stripes' 75 years in the Pacific
TOKYO – For 75 years Stars and Stripes reporters across the Pacific have covered wars, revolutions, natural disasters and the political changes tha
