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Background In the 1930s, the Empire of Japan made a series of aggressive military actions in the Pacific region aimed at expanding their territory. The Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, China in 1937, and French Indochina in 1940. During this time, the Japanese military conducted a series of violent attacks on the civilian population of China. The famous "Rape of Nanking" or Nanking Massacre took place at the hands of the Japanese in 1938, where an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians were killed. During this time, the United States condemned the military aggression of the Japanese and provided material aid to the Chinese in the form of $28 million. Though the United States was not yet willing to use military force to stop Japanese expansion, it was clear that they were the one potential obstacle that the Japanese had to overcome in order to dominate the Pacific. The Japanese "Gamble" By 1941, with Germany and Italy seizing control of mainland Europe, Japan was determined to acquire the colonial holdings of the weakened European powers (France and Great Britain). With the United S...
In 1937, Japan started a war against China, in search of more resources to expand its empire. In 1941, during World War II, Japan attacked America. This is when the Allies (Australia, Britain etc.) then declared war on Japan. Before long the Japanese started extending their territory closer and closer to Australia and started taking surrendering troops into concentration camps where they were starved, diseased and beaten.
When most American people think of Germany, they think of sports cars made for the autobahn, sauerkraut, Adolf Hitler, and the Holocaust. Compared to Germany, when most American people think of Japan they think of sushi, Godzilla movies, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was such a significant event in history that almost 70 years after it came to an end, today’s younger generations often associate former Axis controlled countries with the war. People around the world are filled with disgust and immense hate when they hear the name Hitler, mainly because of his leadership under the Holocaust; which was the discriminatory mass genocide of 11-17 million people, the vast majority of which were European Jews. Hirohito, former Emperor of Japan, should strike a similar bell with people when they hear his name because Japan carried out genocide on Chinese civilians and soldiers in World War II. Japan’s attack on the Chinese city of Nanking, was one of the most atrocious events in history. This event has been named both the Nanking Massacre and the Rape of Nanking. The torturous, violent techniques used by the Japanese army upon Chinese civilians and soldiers including dehumanizing them, addicting them to drugs, and other perverse and violent acts, are some of the most grosteque methods ever recorded that could only be thought of by sadistic Japanese soldiers. The events committed by the Japanese army in Nanking, are equally as disgusting as the acts that Nazi Germany committed and should become a major topic involved with World War II in the future, despite the lack of light shed on it in the past for various reasons.
Townsend, Susan. "Japan's Quest for Empire 1931-1945." BBC News. BBC, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
of the rape of a 14 year old girl by twenty GIs ... in front of the
On March 16, 1968, in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam, specifically My Lai, the United States military was involved in an appalling slaughter of approximately 500 Vietnamese civilians. There are numerous arguments as to why this incident even had the capacity to occur. Although some of the arguments seem valid, can one really make excuses for the slaughter of innocent people? The company that was responsible for the My Lai incident was the Charlie Company, and throughout the company, there were many different accounts of what happened that reprehensible day. Therefore, there are a few contradictions about what had occurred, such as what the commanding officers' exact instructions for the soldiers were.
The rape of Nanking occurred during World War II by the Japanese onto Chinese civilians. Nanking was a newly established capital in the Republic of China that was a part of the plan of attack for the Japanese to assert its power in Asia. While the Chinese had them outnumbered greatly, the Japanese utilized the power of deception in order to make their way into the city of Nanking. For example, the soldiers would promise the Chinese fair treatment if they were to stop resisting the invasion. This plan worked exceptionally well, as the captives believed what they were told and allowed the Japanese to tie them up. Very few actually resisted the attacks and simply hoped they would be treated better by the Japanese if they complied.
The war in Asia had its roots in the early 1930s. Japan had expansionist aims in Eastern Asia and the Western Pacific, especially in Indochina2. In July of 1940 the United States placed an embargo on materials exported to Japan, including oil in the hope of restraining Japanese expansionism. Nevertheless, tensions remained high in Asia, and only increased in 1939 when Germany ignited World War II with an invasion of Poland. America’s determination to remain isolated changed abruptly following Japan’s “surprise attack” on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. Military strategists and politicians poured the majority of American war effort into the European theater, and before the United States could fully mobilize most of South-East Asia had fallen to Japan, including the Philippines. Slowly, the United States recaptured the many small islands invaded by Japan, including Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. These “Japanese forces waged a stubborn, often suicidal battles were ferocious; although the Americans won each, resistance.” They demolished the Japanese fleet and establis...
Do to the great depression of 1930 the world was economically on its knees throughout most of the 30’s and early 40’s. This had great impacts on trades between many countries to include the US and Japan. Prior to this point, the US had been primarily importing silk from the Japanese and we had been exporting oil and coal commodities to them. The Japanese had felt it was a better option to seek elsewhere for the needed resources to increase their military footprint at the brink of World War II. Already at the verge of war with the Chinese, in 1937 the Japanese decided to force a war at Manchuria, China. In their minds this would be an outlet to seek those resources.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor the road to war with Japan started in the 1930s. The Empire of Japan was trying to expand its empire through the Pacific and China. In 1931 Japan conquered Manchuria, which was part of China and began an unsuccessful campaign to take over the rest of China. Japan allied themselves with Nazi Germany in 1940. At that time the U.S. had economic and political interests in East Asia. The U.S. added China with financial and military help along with strengthening its own military presence in the Pacific. They cut off shipments of raw materials and oil to Japan. Japan was very limited in their natural recourses and perceived the America’s embargo on oil and aid to China as a threat. Japans response was to conquer resourc...
Prior to this attack, Japan had issues with the United States and other large government countries starting in 1915. Japan put its “Twenty One Demands” on China, giving Japan a bigger status in parts of the country. When the United States enforced the Open Door Policy, Japan’s demands were no longer enforced. Later, the Great Depression in the U.S. made Japan’s economic problems worse; they were dependent on international trade since their island country had only few natural resources. To add to their list of problems, Japan was overpopulated and many countries, mainly the United States, had denied entry of Japanese immigrants. Japan’s military leaders thought the only way to solve the country’s issues was to invade China. After several aggressions against parts of China, the United States had issued a policy to limit economic sanctions against Japan, refuse the recognition of Japanese military conquests, and equal military and economic assistance for China. Japan blamed foreign interference for China’s refusal to give in to Japan’s terms. The Japanese then wanted to find a way to block foreign assistance from getting to China, so they could then take over the country. In 1940, Japan saw Germany as a strong and reliable country to team up with because of their lightning victories. At the time, there were territories in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific that were controlled by large power European countries, such as France, the Netherlands and Britain. It was bel...
...he Chinese knew that they could not fight the Japanese until they worked together, however Chiang did not stop fighting the communists. According to Ebrey, “In 1936 troops that had been driven out of Manchuria by the Japanese were ordered by Chaing to blockade the Communists in Yan’an. When Chiang came to Xi’an, they kidnapped him and refused to release him until he agreed to form a united front with the communists against Japan.” (Ebrey, 450). Now working together, Chiang started to defend China against Japan. However, the Japanese forces still could not be stopped and on December 1937, Japan, “went on a rampage, massacring somewhere between 40,000 and 300,000 civilians and fugitive soldiers, raping perhaps 20,000 women, and laying the city waste.” (Ebrey, 450) Japan absolutely destroys the city of Nanking and this period becomes known as the Rape of Nanking.
Prior to the Meiji Restoration, the Western powers viewed Japan as the backward nation because “in terms of military strength and economic development, Japan was indeed far behind the Western nations” (Hane and Perez 84). The Meiji government feared that Western nations would colonize Japan because they had already done it to other Asian countries by using military forces (Hane and Perez 84). The Meiji government’s fear came out to be true when the Western powers imposed unequal commercial treaties on Japan. Because of these unequal treaties Japan was “deprived of the right to regulate tariffs, and Western residents in the treaty ports were granted the privilege of extraterritoriality” (Hane and Perez 84).
When 1937 arrived, Japanese soldiers raided China’s capital of Nanking and began to mass murder citizens. A sole leader of the Japanese Imperial Army was non-existent. There were many of people in power such as generals who allowed these behaviors to occur. Baron Koki Hirota, Foreign minister at the time, proceeded to do nothing while being well aware of the Japanese’s persecution of the Chinese. These unsympathetic murders of those who were thought to be Chinese soldiers as well as woman, children and elderly. This massacre lasted between the 1937 and 1938. Within this time 300,000 Chinese citizens were viciously killed. This genocide is called Rape of Nanking because of raping the woman before killing them. Most likely this group was selected because the second world war happened in Asia. This was significant because a country was able to kill half the population of another. I believe the reason of this Genocide was for Japan to take advantage of China while expand Japan. Most likely the Japanese wished to exterminate China’s entire population.
Japan's attacking China in 1937 is a crime against humanity. On July 7, 1937, Japan attacked Beijing using a missing soldier as an excuse, without no official declaration to war against China. On December 13, 1937, Japan started a series of massacre in Nanking, which resulted in a casualty of 300,000. During the three-month-long massacre, Japanese army kill for pure fun, and their crime include brutal rape of innocent women, beheading civilians as competition, and murder newborn babies. Unit 731 of Japanese army used Chinese people as human test subjects to develop chemical weapon to win the war. They performed amputation and poison gas test on innocent Chinese civilians. When the war reached stalemate, and Japanese troops suffered from hunger, they kill war prisoners and eat the bodies. Japanese officers forced Chinese women to be "comfort lady" for the troops. While the name sounded great, reality was that these "comfort ladies" ended up raped by Japanese soldiers over and over again until death. (Yoshimi 146) These were all crime against h...
The Rape of Nanking, also known as the Nanking Massacre, was a six-week period when mass numbers of Chinese men and women were killed by the Japanese. Embarrassed by the lack of effort in the war with China in Shanghai, the Japanese looked for revenge and finally were able to win the battle. The Japanese moved toward the city of Nanjing, also known as Nanking, and invaded it for approximately six months. Even though the people of Nanjing outnumbered the 50,000 Japanese, they were not as masterful in warfare as their opponents. Chinese soldiers were forced to surrender to the Japanese and the massacre began in which around 300,000 people died and 20,000 women were raped.