In 1941, New Mexico was an agrarian state with just over half a million people, many of whom lived without electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, or paved roads. However, the state provided more military volunteers per capita—including eight Medal of Honor winners—than any other state and had the highest casualty rate per capita in the country. New Mexico provided essential resources ranging from oil and coal to potash and copper. The state is often remembered for being the location where the first nuclear weapon was designed and tested in 1945, but more important at the time were the development of the proximity fuze and the testing of the top-secret Norden bombsight. The state also housed German and Italian prisoners of war, and, in one of the darkest moments in US history, incarcerated American citizens of Japanese descent in several concentration camps.
Written by New Mexico historians Richard Melzer and John Taylor, this book looks at New Mexico during the war years through the lens of the photographer, documenting the state’s valuable contributions to victory in World War II. The authors contend that the United States could not have won the war when it did without the vital contributions of what was then the country’s second-youngest state.