Haille Selassie “Haile Selassie was an emperor of Ethiopia whose influence as an African leader far surpassed the boundaries of his country. Although his popularity declined near the end of his sixty-year reign, Selassie remains a key figure in turning Ethiopia into a modern civilization.” In 1931 Selassie began to develop a written constitution (a system of basic laws of a country) to symbolize his interest in modernization and intention to increase the power of the African government, Haile Selassie's efforts were cut short, however, when Benito Mussolini's Italian army invaded the country in 1935. The Italian military used superior weaponry, airplanes, and poison gas to crush the ill-fated resistance led by the emperor. After the …show more content…
Hirohito became emperor when his father died in 1926. The emperor was regarded as divine by many Japanese. In reality he had little power, with civilian and increasingly military officials deciding national policy. He reluctantly supported the invasion of Manchuria and the war against China, and attempted to encourage cooperation with Britain and the USA. However, he had no choice but to approve the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that led to war between Japan and the United States in December 1941. Despite his lack of enthusiasm over the decision to go to war, he was pleased with the Japanese military and naval successes that followed. He frequently appeared in military uniform to raise morale. By the spring of 1945, the defeat of Japan seemed imminent. The Japanese government was deeply divided between military leaders who favoured continuing the war and civilians who wanted to negotiate for peace. Hirohito appears to have favoured peace. Following the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hirohito insisted that Japan surrender. On 15 August 1945, he made a radio broadcast announcing the end of the war - this was the first time the people of Japan had heard the voice of their emperor. Some Allied leaders wanted to try Hirohito as a war criminal. General Douglas MacArthur, who was in charge of the United States' occupying forces in Japan, felt it would be easier to introduce democratic reforms if Hirohito
* Stress is "a force that is external in nature that causes strain upon the body, both physical and emotional."
Furthermore, if the true intention for the use of bombings was to end the war quicker as declared by the President Truman, then the war could really have ended months earlier without the bombs. This is because, in January 1945, General Douglas MacArthur informed President Roosevelt that the Japanese had offered peace overtures to end the war (Trohan, 1986, as cited in Weber, 1997). The terms were virtually similar to the Potsdam Declaration, but, with emphasis that the Emperor must not be touched. The Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested (Weber, 1997). I believe that if the U.S. had not insisted on unconditional surrender and was willing to permit the Emperor to remain in place; the end of the war could have been brought forward as the Japanese would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many innocent civilians.
Had he chosen a different alternative , the world as we know it today might not have been the same and the balance of powers of the world would be extremely different. “The losses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki assuredly were horrific, but they pale when compared to the estimates of 17 to 24 million deaths attributed to the Japanese during their rampage from Manchuria to New Guinea. The historian Gavan Daws accurately described "Asia under the Japanese" as "a charnel house of atrocities." During the months of war following the attack on Pearl Harbor, reliable estimates establish that between 200,000 to 300,000 people died each month either directly or indirectly at Japanese hands. The historian Robert Newman tellingly reveals that "the last months were in many ways the worst; starvation and disease aggravated the usual beatings, beheadings and battle deaths. It is plausible to hold that upwards of 250,000 people, mostly Asian but some Westerners, would have died each month the Japanese Empire struggled in its death throes beyond July 1945." (Yes: Truman’s Simple Decision). It was clear that the Japanese war machine had to be stopped, the atomic bomb was the fastest way to draw the war to a close and prevent the deaths of thousands of Americans. While the instantaneous destruction of entire cities and their occupants is without a doubt horrendous, It was the by far the best of a multitude of other
The first atomic bomb that Japan was to get a glimpse of was on August 6th, 1945, during World War II in the city of Hiroshima. The explosion annihilated 90 percent of the city; without hesitation killed 80,000 people. More than tens of thousands of people would have eventually died due to radiation exposure. Within three days of the attack, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb in another location known as Nagasaki, killing an estimation of 40,000 people. Hirohito, Japan’s emperor announced his country’s unequivocal surrender in WWII in a radio address on August 15th, in allude to the calamitous power of “a new and most cruel bomb.” President Truman had to make one of hardest pre arrangements that he had ever faced. Truman based this decision off of the results of to justify the cost of the Manhattan project, in response of
After the dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki on August 9 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of
One contributing factor towards the bombing of Pearl Harbor was Japan’s desire to be recognized as a world power. This is explicitly expressed in Document A, which states, “The ideals of Japan… are represented by the principle that the benevolent rule of the Emperor may be extended so as to embrace the whole world. The way of the [world] is to be loyal to the Emperor in disregard of self… ” This idea was not a mere suggestion, but rather it was a plan. Proven by Documents B and C, Japan managed to occupy nearly all of East Asia’s coast and “declare its policy to establish a new order” in the span of approximately five years.
Once the war crime tribunals started, the Americans, led by MacArthur, went into action counseling high ranking war criminals on how to help save the Emperor. The US at this time had opened an investigation into the Emperor’s war responsibility and the SCAP began to organize the overall defense so that the Emperor would not be implicated or indicted. MacArthur had been steadfast in his defense of the Emperor through many diplomatic cables stating that there was very little evidence linking the Emperor to the war effort. In one cable MacArthur responded to the investigation by stating that “investigations have been conducted” and “no evidence was found that connected Hirohito to political decisions during the past decade, (Dower 1999).” MacArthur then focused on the importance of
Almost immediately after joining the fight, the emperor sent his troops out to French Indochina to expand his rule. This decision backfired when the United States (US) and Great Britain reacted by withholding oil and steel. Because Japan relied on these resources, Hirohito decided to gather his military and send them to take over the Dutch East Indies, which had an abundance of oil. This choice brought about a battle between Japan and the US with Great Britain. After a year, he allowed the government to carry out their forming plan of attacking America. On December 7th, 1941 Japan attacked and bombed the US naval base located at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Only one day later, the US joined the war out of hostility toward and damage from the Japanese. Through Hirohito's rule, Japan began to expand and gain more military power. Japan had land in the Dutch East Indies, British Singapore, New Guinea, and the Philippines. The feeling of victory came upon Japan; joining the war started to look like a beneficial choice for the
The two historical documents, Narrative of Lavinia Bell written by an anonymous author in the Montreal Gazette and the Letter to an English Abolitionist by James Henry Hammond, shared their strong opinions on the important issue of slavery. These documents were written in the 1800’s during an era of progressive changes. One can identify similarities and many differences in their opinions, motives, and goals for their writings. I believe Bell’s account was written to show the perspective of slaves’ brutal view, compared to Hammond’s letter justifying slavery and the rights of the slaveholders.
The decision to use the atom bomb had a few moral dilemmas for President Truman. Some of these were unleashing a new massive destructive weapon for the first time that would take the lives of thousands, but this would possibly end the war. On April 12, 1945 President Roosevelt suddenly died and Harry Truman became the president of the United States. Just after becoming president Germany had just been defeated ending the war in Europe.
On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb named Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion was huge, the city was destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were killed. Despite witnessing the terrible destruction of the bomb on Hiroshima, Emperor Hirohito and Japan still refused to surrender. “ When Emperor Hirohito made his first ever broadcast to the Japanese people on 15 August 1945, and enjoined his subjects 'to endure the unendurable and bear the unbearable', he brought to an end a state of war - both declared and undeclared - that had wracked his country for 14 years.He never spoke explicitly about 'surrender' or 'defeat', but simply remarked that the war 'did not turn in Japan's favour'. It was a classic piece of understatement. Nearly three million Japanese were dead, many more wounded or seriously ill, and the country lay in ruins,” http://www2.gvsu.edu. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Again the devastation was
In December of 1941, Japanese forces bombed the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This attack killed over 2,000 and injured a small amount under that. This was the last reason to convince the United States to enter the war, and they did so just the next day. From this day, a day that will live in infamy, the United States, and Japanese were at a war with each other in the Pacific Theater. Japan kept prisoners of war and starved and beat them. Japan, with their culture of determination and dedication to their country, were refusing to give up. Harry S. Truman assumed the role as President after the death of FDR. Truman was presented with a hard situation. After learning the United States was capable of producing an atomic
First what made his decision ethical, Truman gave Japan ample warning time. As the Japanese knew they would be bombed in a few days, they immediately warned civilians to evacuate thirty-five cities. With that being said, for example, “About 1 million leaflets fell on the targeted cities whose names appeared
Japan was thought to be capable of a bitter fight even to the end of the war so in the spring of 1945 the idea of a nuclear bomb to avoid homeland invasion was the most attractive to some US policy makers. In June of 1945 Japan rejected the early surrender proposal offered and instead chose to fight and have a chance at keeping the Imperial house safe and warrior traditions intact but later on July 26th, 1945 a formal warning called the Postdam Proclamation was issued to Japan. This message stated that Japan’s surrender was necessary and if it failed to happen the Japanese would face “prompt and utter destruction.” No reference was made to the royal house or the emperor’s conditions and the only guidelines for the next Japanese government were
Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia nobly. He looked for the betterment of his people, and the modernization of his country. He wanted his country to benefit from the implementation of good education can do for a country. He brought Ethiopia into the international scene by helping Ethiopia to be accepted into the League of Nations in 1928. He made the world understand that his country lived and bled like all others when he pleaded for help against the Italians in Geneva in 1936. He held his people in regard when he drafted Ethiopia‘s two constitutions in 1931 and 1958. Selassie wanted to pull Ethiopia out of its archaic existence and matriculate it into modernity.