Victor E. Delnore papers
Collection — Multiple Containers
0560-GWP
Lt. Colonel Victor E. Delnore commanded the Allied Occupation Forces in Nagasaki Prefecture from 1946 to 1949. As head of the Nagasaki Military Government Team, Delnore supervised early efforts to rebuild the atomic bomb-ravaged city of Nagasaki and to restore peace and stability throughout the prefecture. The Victor E. Delnore Papers include policy statements, directives, speeches (most notably his 1948 address at the historic first Nagasaki ceremony... commemorating victims of the atomic bombing), personal albums, photographs, letters, newspaper articles, and documentary films. The albums and several of the other items were farewell gifts to Delnore upon his departure from Nagasaki.
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8.33 Linear Feet (Three flat boxes and five letter size Hollinger boxes.)
153 Photographic Slides : color
187 Megabytes : ISO Media, MP4 Base Media v1
7 Videocassettes (VHS)
2 Items (Photo album and scrapbook)
50 Photographs (B&W, color, sepia)
English
Japanese
The Delnore’s papers include policy statements, directives, speeches (most notably his 1948 address at the historic first Nagasaki ceremony commemorating victims of the atomic bombing), personal albums, photographs, lantern slides, letters, newspaper articles, and documentary films that highlight the sensitive and challenging nature of his work in post-war Japan.
Materials doanted in 2018 are related to the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony in Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 2014 and related events that Patricia Delnore Magee attended with her family. Materials include correspondence, newspaper clippings, certificates, a couple of pamphlets and a book, History of the 13th Armored Division (1992).
Victor E. Abdelnour (June 27, 1914-May 24, 1998) emmigrated from Jamaica to Worcester, MA in 1916 at age two, accompanied by his parents who were of Lebanese dissent. He became a US citizen in 1932, shortening his last name to Delnore in 1937.
He attended North High School, graduating in 1932 and immedately enrolled in the Citizens Military Training Corps (CMTC) until 1935. He became second Lieutenant in the US Army, eventually moving up the ranks to Lieutenant Colonel by 1944. From January 1945 to May 1945, Delnore served in World War II on the European front as the Commander of the 46th Tank Battalion in 13th Armored Division. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Silver Star for heroic battlefield actions in Germany, as well as the Purple Heart for his battlefield wound. He was numbered among the Allied Occupation Forces that took part in the liberation of many POW camps in Germany and Austria.
From 1946 to 1949, Delnore served as the Commander of the Nagasaki Military Government Team, supervising early post-war efforts to restore peace and stability in Nagasaki Prefecture. While complying with orders from the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), at the same time Delnore championed the rights of the Nagasaki citizenry. One of his primary goals was to foster mutually respectful relations between the Americans and the Japanese. His efforts earned him the admiration of his soldiers and of the Japanese people, who praised him for his leadership, fair-mindedness, and courage.
From 1949 until 1969, when Delnore retired from active military duty as Colonel, he served in various US-based and international military assignments including Ft. Leavenworth, KA; Ft. Monroe, VA; Quantico Marine Base, VA, Camp Lejeune, NC, Hague, Netherlands, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and Ft. Meade, MD.
Delnore earned his undergraduate and masters degree from the University of Maryland in 1965 and 1969 respectivly. He married Catherine Margaret Abdelmaseh and they raised three children together: Victor, Patricia, and Catherine.
In 1971 Delnore moved back to Massachusetts where he taught history at Middlesex Community College near Boston, and Assumption College in Worcester. He was twice named “Teacher of the Year.” In his retirement, Delnore devoted many hours each week to volunteer work at Veterans Centers in Worcester and Fort Devens, as well as at the Boylston Historical Society and in his Catholic parish in Worcester.
He died in 1998 in a nursing home after having suffered a fall and brain injury complecaited by his longtime debilitation from Parkinson’s Disease.
In 2001, Delnore’s World War II-era letters to his wife Catherine were edited, annotated, and published by their daughter Patricia, published under the title Victor’s War (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company).
In August 2011, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) produced and aired an documentary film, “Victor’s Plea for Peace: An American Officer in Occupied Nagasaki,” that examined Delnore’s heroic work in Japan.
This collection contains audiovisual materials. Items that cannot be used in the Special Collections reading room or are too fragile for researchers require that a digital copy be made prior to use. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit.
This collection was donated to the University of Maryland Libraries by Patricia Delnore Magee on July 14, 2012. She donated additional materials in 2014, 2017, and 2018.
Digital copies of this collection’s scrapbooks are available at http://digital.lib.umd.edu/ in the University of Maryland's Digital Collections.
In March 2025, the Victore E. Delnore papers were fully processed. Documents were unfolded with staples and tape removed, and rehoused in acid-free boxes. The photo albums scanned and placed in appropriate-size boxes with pins and tape were removed. Scrapbook pages were removed from their bindings, had pins removed, and wrapped in tissue paper. Photos and slides were put in photograph sleeves and placed in their own box. Empty tubes that contained documents and the metal box that contained the slides were kept for their artifactual value.
Born-digital files copied from DVDs to local access network storage with Grsync. Videos converted from Video Object File (MPEG-2 subset) to H.264+MP3 (MP4) with ffmpeg. Original Video Object Files and DVD data files discarded.
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