In one of the 1944 issues of the magazine, there was a feature story about the U.S. invasion of a small Pacific island called Peleliu. LIFE Magazine artist Tom Lea accompanied one of the first waves of marines that invaded the shore. He witnessed first-hand what the war was like up close, and he used his art skills to paint the invasion of the island for publication. The feature story contains color photos of his paintings showing what the scene of the invasion looked like when he was there. On one page, there is a photo of a painting of an American soldier with green and black on his skin. He is standing in a war barge looking to the right off the page while the scene behind him shows mass destruction. In the background, there is a massive cloud of smoke with several fires burning on the beach. The caption of the painting reads, “Gripping the steel side of a landing barge, a war-painted Marine stares through the smoke of exploding shells toward beachhead of Peleliu.” The painting takes up the top third of the page in the issue. In the middle third of the page, there is the feature story that describes the work of artist Tom Lea.

The story is actually written by a different writer, who includes quotes from artist Tom Lea to help tell the story of his illustrations. Based on Lea’s illustrations, he seemed to be unafraid of depicting graphic war material for the readers to see. The bottom third of the page of this feature story is a painting by Lea that has so much packed into one illustration. He included terrified facial expressions of soldiers as they dodged Japanese bullets while storming the beach. There are war planes flying overhead while the soldiers sprint inland from the shore away from the burning war barges and fallen planes. At right, a hit U.S. landing craft burns. In the background of the painting, there is a bright explosion that shows the soldiers getting hit, while others are seen dead on the ground. 

In this way, this publication displayed the themes of freedom of the press, the content of news, and journalism as a representation of society. Just as Alexander Gardner captured photos that helped bring the Civil War to life for Americans, illustrations showing the brutal realities of World War II gave Americans a view of the war that they could not get from other forms of media at the time, such as a standard newspaper or radio broadcast. 

Publishing graphic illustrations of war battles certainly reflected the difficult times that the United States and its allies had to endure during the war. During the early 1940s in the United States, illustrations in magazines such as LIFE provided an essential addition to the news regarding the war that reflected another side of American journalism that allow the readers to feel as if they are actually participating in the war.