Space Battleship Yamato ( 1977 ) And The Silent Services ( 1988-1996 ) Essay

In “A Perspective on the War Crimes,” Shigetoshi Iwamatsu argues that the tragedies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unparalleled war crimes and unnecessary acts of cruelty. He advocates the elimination of nuclear arms and opposes nuclear energy sources. The argument for defining the use of the atomic bombs as “without parallel in world history” is largely Iwamatsu’s belief that they were an unneeded extreme, likely motivated by racism.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1944 thriller Lifeboat was released in America when the nation as a whole was holding its breath. The Second World War was still being fought in the Pacific and in Europe, with many Americans eager to see their loved ones come home and regain a sense of normalcy. Wartime America was permeated with propaganda encouraging civilians to donate to the war efforts, and to also build a hatred towards the enemy. “Nazi” and “Japanese” became strong, captivating words that when spoken sucked the air out of a room. In the White House and Capitol Building, government higher-ups wanted to push the evilness of the Axis nations. To convince the public to help defeat these nations, their atrocities and disregard for democracy were constantly put on display. In Lifeboat, Hitchcock uses the power of cinema and storytelling to explore the humanity of this “enemy of society,” and how someone’s actual character compares to how propaganda has painted them.

In the essay “The Scar,” the author Kildare Dobbs reports the parallel stories of Emiko; a young Japanese girl and Captain Robert Lewis; a U.S. army Captain harrowing events of Aug 6/1945 in Hiroshima, a day that forever changed their lives. Emiko, a 15 year old “fragile and vivacious” Japanese girl lived an hour’s train ride away from Hiroshima, in a town called Otake with her parents, her two sisters and brother. At that time, her youngest sister was extremely sick with heart troubles, her 13 year old brother was with the Imperial Army and her father was an antique dealer. Emiko and her 13 year old sister Hideko traveled by train daily to Hiroshima to their women’s college. Captain Robert Lewis was the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, a U.S.

“Farewell to Manzanar” After the disastrous event of Pearl Harbor, many Japanese families were suspected of contributing to the bombing and betraying the United States. In the book, “Farewell to Manzanar”, the authors, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James Houston, portray damaging influences of WWII and its consequences by discussing Jeanne's life before and after the internment camps. As the internment camps concluded, some rights of the Japanese residents were cut which impacted their lives drastically. When Jeanne revisits Manzanar with her family, she explains how her Papa’s life had ended there, although he lived a few years after coming out of camp.

officials eventually began to recruit these internees into the American army. Not only was WWII a war about political alliances and geographical sovereignty, but it was also a war about race and racial superiority throughout the world. Propagating this idea, Dower (1986) argues, “World War Two contributed immeasurably not only to a sharpened awareness of racism within the United States, but also to more radical demands and militant tactics on the part of the victims of discrimination” (War Without Mercy: p.5). In elucidating the racial motivations and fallout from WWII, Dower helps one realize the critical role that race and racial politics played during the war and are still at play in our contemporary world. An analysis of this internment process reveals how the ultimate goal of the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans and the United States’ subsequent occupation of Japan was to essentially “brainwash” the Japanese race into demonstrating allegiance to America.

In Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War by Akira Iriye, the author explores the events and circumstances that ended in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an American naval base. Iriye assembles a myriad of primary documents, such as proposals and imperial conferences, as well as essays that offer different perspectives of the Pacific War. Not only is the material in Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War informative of the situation between Japan and the United States, but it also provides a global context that allows for the readers to interpret Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to it how they may. Ultimately, both Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Pacific War between

When authors write about World War II, most set their stories in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, but few would give a moment of thought to the atrocities perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army in East Asia and the Pacific region. However, Laura Hillenbrand has brought us this heavily neglected side of the tragedy. By following the vicissitudes of a USAAF lieutenant named Louis Zamperini in her bestseller “Unbroken”, she pays tribute to all ex-POWs and soldiers that lost their lives on the Asian battlefield.

In conclusion, the Japanese are a resilient and honor bond people who know when they are beaten. This along with all the other statements mentioned in this paper goes to show that Japan would have surrendered if the bombs were not dropped. Although funding the War would have been much harder to do. Many more Americans and Japanese soldiers would have died as well. But, in the end the bombs didn’t need to be

With the arrival of WWII came the arrival of change. Jeanne Wakatsuki’s memoir, Farewell to Manzanar illustrates the countless struggles that Japanese Americans faced during World War II. Distrust among the white Americans and Japanese Americans was at an all time high due to the war in the Pacific Ocean with Japan. With the American government encouraging wartime propaganda, the Japanese were dehumanized and ultimately forced to move into internment camps. Farewell to Manzanar explores the resilience of the human nature by illustrating the struggle of prejudice in a WWII era America.

This disassociation allows for the whole sale slaughter of people with moral justification. The unforeseen byproduct of this disassociation, as Cameron points out, can be seen in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when many veterans consigned their wives to the kitchen. The intended product of this disassociation, however, was to kill Japanese soldiers. The Marines would reap the benefits of this first in the Guadalcanal campaign of 1942. With the U.S. Marines of First Division engaged in a life or death struggle against their Japanese opponents, the cartoonish portraits of four-eyed, slow Japanese soldiers burned into the American Marine’s mind kept them from thinking about the enemy as men who are carrying pictures of their families eerily similar to the pictures that were carried by Americans. Using the invasion of Peleliu as a backdrop for his analysis, Cameron expands upon his analysis of the individual Marine to the collective thought of the organization. The U.S. Marine self-image caused Marine units on Peleliu to charge head-first into the waiting Japanese defense with foolhardy, head on assaults which they stubbornly pressed. The Marine Corps, even through their hyper-masculine indoctrination, had not prepared their Marines any better than their U.S. Army counterparts on the island. Before Peleliu, the perception of combat had been that of a clean affair due to the romanticized images of World War I. After, due to Tom Lea’s reporting of events, the

The Second World War precipitated devastation across the globe with forty-four gruesome months dedicated to combat. Extending as far as three decades previously, tensions brewed between the United States and the Japanese Empire as two superpower military strategies developed in preparation for an unforeseen – yet paradoxically predictable – clash yet to occur. Expectedly, this massive conflict attracts historians in droves. An expansive quantity of literature exists to delineate cultural, political, and especially military characteristics of World War II in the Pacific and East Asian theater; from small-scale infractions in the Philippines to the calamitous firebombing of Tokyo, historical archives outline each step of the consequential war

In his work “Right to Kill, Right to Make Live” Takashi Fujitani compares and contrasts the Japanese treatment of colonialized Koreans leading up to World War II with the American treatment of the Japanese residents following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This work highlights how both the Japanese and the Americans treated the Koreans and Japanese Americans, respectively, and offers several different viewpoints. Thus, this work is exceptionally important and provides incredible insight into both cultures and the harsh reality of wartime. Additionally, Fujitani also explains how the Korean and Japanese populations are still influenced today.

Throughout World War II, many atrocities and acts of inhumane treatment was felt throughout East Asia. Nations like China and Korea had felt the bitter sting of Imperial Japanese rule on many occasions throughout the war. Ranging from forced labor, massacres, and attempts to systematically wipe out national identities. The article (Upcoming Abe speeches seen as rehearsal for WWII anniversary statement, The Japan Times) talked of a possible outcome of how Prime Minister Abe presented his speeches for the 70th anniversary of World War II. It further elaborated on how modern day China and Korea were still waiting for a proper apology from Abe’s government for its past wartime transgressions. Even in the modern era, the dramatic events of World War II have had detrimental effects on East Asian diplomatic relations, ideals of governance and outlook on western society to this very day.

As many consider these wounded men lost causes, Doss worked through the day and night to revive his fellow men. As dozens of wounded men rappel down the cliff, the units belows are shocked, and Doss’ courage inspired the American army to finish the battle which led to the surrender of the Japanese on the Island of Okinawa. The film flawlessly embodies two major themes of the AP United States History curriculum: (1) American and National Identity and (2) Culture and Society. Therefore, considering that the film takes into account the role of ideas, beliefs, social mores, and creative expression of Desmond Doss, the theme of Culture and Society is extremely applicable; In addition, the theme of American and National Identity embodies the movie because of the focus on the values that have developed, as well as on topics such as foreign policy, assimilation, and American

Few would question this has been the situation. Important documentation is hard to get, Tanaka clarifies, because of the persisting characterization of authority Japanese military and pastoral archives from the period, and in addition the way that Japan has no opportunity of data enactment to empower specialists to obtain entrance. Different scientists have additionally indicated conservative endeavors in Japan to "quiet" the "solace" ladies issue in Japanese historiography.[2] The prominent Australian student of history Gavan McCormack portrays the development of the "solace" ladies issue as a sexual orientation shift in the center of war reflections, where 'men government officials, troopers, researchers have characterized and talked about the issues, from the mid 1990s, and following fifty years of hush, ladies started to intervene'.[3] It is fascinating to note McCormack's depiction of these exercises as "intercessions" to the talk on war reflections. This evidently harmless decision of term serves to underscore what number of, both inside and outside of Japan have been perturbed by the "solace" ladies issue. On account of this volume, Tanaka endeavors to separate himself from the