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One Shot: The World War II Photographs of John A. Bushemi

Ray Boomhower, Indiana historian and author, explores the career of a man who specialized in "photography from a rifle's length vantage point" for "Yank: The Army Weekly" magazine of World War II.

American GIs who participated in the invasions of such far-flung Pacific Ocean locations as New Georgia, Makin, Tarawa, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok during World War II could always count on a blistering reception from the Japanese forces defending those isles. They could also depend on their efforts being documented for their fellow soldiers and folks back home by a good-natured, talented photographer from Gary, Indiana: John A. Bushemi.

In his program "'One Shot': The World War II Photograph of John A. Bushemi," Ray E. Boomhower, Indiana historian and author, will explore the career of a man who specialized in "photography from a rifle's length vantage point" for Yank: The Army Weekly magazine during World War II. Bushemi's work with his ever-present Speed Graphic camera earned for him the distinction of being the "outstanding combat photographer" for the magazine, noted its managing editor Joe McCarthy. That distinction came as no surprise to those who knew Bushemi in Gary, where he had received numerous awards for his work as a photographer for the Gary Post-Tribune. While working for the newspaper, he had earned the nickname "One Shot" for his uncanny ability to capture even the fastest action with just one click of his camera’s shutter.

Boomhower will examine the life of this son of Sicilian immigrants who worked in Gary’s steel mills for a time to earn enough money to buy his first camera. He will also discuss Bushemi’s work, from his early days photographing soldiers training at the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to his frontline assignments among the grizzled American forces who engaged in the bitter fighting against the Japanese in the Pacific Theater. 

Covering the invasion of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands on February 19, 1944, Bushemi and other correspondents became the target for a series of Japanese knee-mortar shells. Shrapnel from the shells hit and mortally wounded the photographer. As navy surgeons frantically attempted to save Bushemi’s life onboard a transport ship, the photographer gave his epitaph, telling Miller: "Be sure to get those pictures back to the office."

Boomhower is senior editor at the Indiana Historical Society Press, where he edits the IHS's quarterly popular history magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. He is the award-winning author of nineteen books, including biographies of such Hoosier notables as Gus Grissom, Ernie Pyle, Lew Wallace, May Wright Sewall, Juliet Strauss, and John Bartlow Martin.