Sequence of Events
Spetember 18, 1931 - Japan invades Manchuria
March 4, 1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States
June 12, 1938 - Richard Mahard and Marian Neir are married
September 1, 1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland
September 1941 - Richard Mahard begins teaching at Denison University
December 7, 1941 - Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
June 1942 - The Battle of Midway
July 1943 - V-12 cadets arrive at Denison's campus
June 6, 1944 - D-Day, Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy
December 16, 1944 - The Germans launch the counterattack known as the Battle of the Bulge
April 23, 1945 - Mahard's first offical day as a soldier in the United States Army
April 28, 1945 - Benito Mussolini executed. Mahard arrives at Camp Atterbury near Indianapolis, Indiana
April 30, 1945 - Hitler commits suicide. Mahard boards a train headed to Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington
May 3, 1945 - Mahard arrives at Fort Lewis
May 7, 1945 - Germany surrenders to the Western Allies
May 28, 1945 - Mahard begins basic training at Fort Lewis
July 7, 1945 - Mahard finishes basic training
Late July 1945 - Marian comes to live in Washington to be closer to Mahard while he stays to receive further specialist training at Fort Lewis
August 6, 1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
August 9, 1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
August 1945 - Mahard and Marian drive cross country from Fort Lewis to Fort Myer in Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
September 2, 1945 - Japan surrenders
December 5, 1945 - Mahard leaves Virginia to begin his journey to Japan
December 9, 1945 - Mahard arrives at Hamilton Army Airfield, near San Francisco, California
December 25, 1945 - Mahard celebrates Christmas with two former Denison students: Richard Harvey and his wife, Donna. Richard Harvey was in the service and it did not seem as though he or his wife planned on returning to Denison after the war.
December 26, 1945 - Mahard and his companions finally take off in a plane bound for Japan, making stops on a few Pacific islands along the way
January 1, 1946 - Mahard arrives in Japan
May 14, 1946 - Mahard is discharged from the Army
June 3, 1946 - Mahard leaves Japan on the ship Goucher Victory
June 13, 1946 - Mahard arrives by ship in Seattle, Washington
September 1946 - Mahard resumes teaching at Denison