Japan
The forgotten Holocaust:
Japanese War Crimes in WWII
Japan in WWII
What do the Japanese want in
Asia?
 What resources does a
country need to be a powerful
country?
 Why even think about
attacking the United States?
 Why would you want to do a
sneak attack and throw
the first punch?










The Japanese were being taught
that they were the purest or
“master race” in Asia
They were super nationalistic –
BANZAI! Die for their country
Believed the Emperor was a god
In the late 1800s they
modernized and militarized
Japan had the largest, best
equipped army, navy and airforce
They defeated Russia in a war in
1905 and took colonies in Korea
and China
Solution to solving their
country’s economic problems?
TAKE LAND in Asia and get
their natural resources
In 1931 they attacked Manchuria,
China and ruled it
Later, they attacked all of China
Japan’s goal:
to be master of an Asian
Empire







Japan’s goal: to be master of an Asian Empire
Similar to the fascists in Italy and
Germany the Japanese were
being taught that they were the
purest or “master race” in Asia
Solution to solving their
country’s economic problems
TAKE LAND in Asia and get
their natural resources
How? : MILITARIZE!!! – build
ships, airplanes, submarines,
tanks, etc.
In 1931 they attacked Manchuria,
China and ruled it
Later, they attacked all of China
The only military threat they saw
to their dreams of Empire was
the United States navy docked at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Historical Background










Origins “Nippon”
Migration-”pure” Asians
Emperor
Proud/nationalistic
Sacrifice for country
Written language
Religion of Shintoism
Bushido (code of the warrior)
Beautiful death
Kamikaze
Why modernize
and expand??






Keep pace with the
European Imperialists
(our own Asian Empire)
Militarism and
shipbuilding puts people
to work
We’re an island – we need
our own “lebensraum”
Manchuria, China has lots
land, minerals and
resources
The Dutch East Indies
have OIL!!!!
Our only serious threat is
the U.S. Navy docked at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Why did the
Japanese attack
Pearl Harbor?

Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor because …

1. the US had the only navy that
could threaten their plans in
Asia

2. The US controlled the
Philippines and would probably
get involved anyway

3. throwing a surprise “first
punch” and sinking a big part of
the US fleet would give Japan a
head start in their conquest of
Asia
Pearl Harbor








Sunday morning December 7th
1941
3:00 a.m. Japanese sub
periscope seen
6:10 1st wave 183 Japanese
planes take off
6:45 a.m U.S. destroyer sinks
Japanese mini-sub trying to
enter Pearl Harbor but
commanding officer is playing
golf so doesn’t get the
message until later
7:03 Radar operators pick up 50
or more planes coming in –
supervisors say that it is a
group of B-17s flying in from
California
7:55 Japanese planes start
bombing airplanes at Hickman
field
8:10 Japanese planes reach
Pearl Harbor and start bombing
8:54 second wave of 167 planes
reach Hawaii and continue
bombing
Results of the attack on Pearl Harbor












The attack sank four battleships (two of
which were raised and returned to service
late in the war) and damaged four more.
Only the battleships U.S.S. Arizona, Utah
and Oklahoma were lost The Japanese also sank or damaged three
cruisers, three destroyers, and one
minelayer
18 ships in total
188 planes destroyed
2, 390 killed (over 1,000) on the Arizona
1,178 wounded
Japanese lost 29 planes
BUT the Japanese
Did NOT get the aircraft carriers Yorktown
and Enterprise
Japan failed to blow up the Fuel storage
tanks that held 190 million gallons
Did not destroy docks and maintenance
yards

Most feel that the Attack was a huge mistake

It wasn’t all that damaging and
It brought a PISSED OFF AMERICA in

The USS Enterprise/USS Yorktown
The USS Arizona: then and now
Anti-Japanese propaganda







Japan’s goal: to be master of an Asian Empire
Similar to the fascists in Italy and
Germany the Japanese were
being taught that they were the
purest or “master race” in Asia
Solution to solving their
country’s economic problems
TAKE LAND in Asia and get
their natural resources
How? : MILITARIZE!!! – build
ships, airplanes, submarines,
tanks, etc.
In 1931 they attacked Manchuria,
China and ruled it
Later, they attacked all of China
The only military threat they saw
to their dreams of Empire was
the United States navy docked at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Closing Activity:
Finish these sentences





1. Japan’s goals in Asia were…
2. The reason Japan attacked Pearl Harbor
was…
3. Some details about Pearl Harbor were…
4. Places that Japan attacked after Pearl
Harbor were
5.
Douglas MacArthur:


The Supreme Allied
Commander of U.S.
forces in the Pacific.
Was ordered to leave
the Philippines when
the Japanese
invaded
commented when he
was leaving
“I shall return”
He did!
Bataan Death March: 90,000 American and
Philippino soldiers forced to walk 70 miles to
prison camps in the north. 10,000 died
BELLWORK
Thursday, April 1st
Quotes of the Week:
“To the victor go the
spoils” – old saying
 What to do:





Prepare an answer for these
questions
1. who was the supreme
allied commander of forces
in the Pacific?
2. what’s the story of his
quote, “I shall return” ?
3. What was the American
strategy in the Pacific?
4. How were the Japanese
extreme?
Battle of Midway





Huge 3 day naval
battle between Japan
and USA.
Planes did all the
fighting
Japan loses 4 aircraft
carriers
Japan’s westward
advance is stopped
Turning point in the
naval battle for the
Pacific
Battle of Midway





Huge 3 day naval
battle between Japan
and USA.
Planes did all the
fighting
Japan loses 4 aircraft
carriers
Japan’s westward
advance is stopped
Turning point in the
naval battle for the
Pacific
“Island hopping”


“hopping” over
heavily defended
islands and taking
smaller islands to use
as bases to advance
their way closer to the
Japanese mainland
An island is an
“unsinkable aircraft
carrier”
B-29 “flying fortresses” bombers
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima
Native American Code talkers




Upon arriving to America
as a refugee fleeing Hitler
Albert Einstein wrote a
letter to FDR informing
him of the German work
on an Atomic bomb.
FDR offered Einstein
leadership over the
“Manhattan Project” the
U.S. project to develop an
atomic bomb before the
Germans
Einstein declined
Sadly, FDR died on April 12th 1945 just 18 days before
Hitler killed himself. His vice-president Harry Truman
became president and made the decision to drop the
Atom bomb on Japan
July 1945- The first atomic test explosion
in the desert of New Mexico
“little boy”
the bomb dropped on
Hiroshima and its effects
“little boy”
the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and
its effects



HIROSHIMA
On August 6, 1945 the
nuclear weapon Little
Boy was dropped on
Hiroshima by Enola Gay,
a U.S. Air Force B-29
bomber which was
altered specifically to
hold the bomb, killing an
estimated 80,000 people
and heavily damaging
80% of the city.
In the following months,
an estimated 60,000
more people died.
“fat man”
the Atomic Bomb dropped over
Nagasaki
Nagasaki

On 9 August 1945, Nagasaki was the target of the
world's second atomic bomb attack at 11:02 a.m., when
the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated
39,000 people were killed outright with another 75,000
believed to have died of bomb-related causes in the
decades that followed. The Nagasaki bomb, codenamed "Fat Man", dropped by the Boeing B-29 Bockscar
was more powerful (22 kilotons of TNT as opposed to
15) than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days
earlier ("Little Boy"), and was an implosion-type
plutonium bomb, whereas the Hiroshima bomb was a
gun-type uranium bomb. The primary target for attack
was Kokura, but the bomber pilot found it to be covered
in cloud. The industrial areas outside Nagasaki were the
secondary target and so, despite a more powerful bomb,
the devastation visited upon Nagasaki was less severe
than that experienced by Hiroshima, owing to Nagasaki's
mountainous topography.
Use It! /










No, don’t Use it
1.US submarines are surrounding and starving Japan
2.It will make the US look barbaric and uncivilized
3.The Japanese tortured and raped their prisoners
4. A demonstration might scare Japan
5.An invasion of Japan will cost too many Americans
6. It will screw up the environment
7. Russia is going to come and take land in Asia
8. It cost over a billion dollars to make
9. It will actually save more Japanese lives
10.Hitler is defeated. Britain and Russia are coming to
help the US – Japan is alone
To Drop or not to drop

FOR dropping the bomb

Japan never surrenders
Japan rejected the ultimatum
to surrender “or else”
It will end the war quickly
Prevent an bloody invasion of
Japanese mainland
Payback – Karma
It will save lives (both sides)
Spent billions – curiosity
Scare the Russians and show
the world who’s “top dog”

















AGAINST dropping the
bomb
Make the US look “barbaric,
savage, brutal, dirty, sick”
Japan was surrounded
The whole world was against
Japan
Radiation
Screw up the environment
Innocent people
Info that Japan was talking
about surrender
Over the top “evil”
The scientists were saying that
we should give a
demonstration

"...the Japanese were ready to surrender and it
wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
Dwight D. Eisenhower - commander at D-Day
What, I asked, would his advice have been? He replied that he
saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The
war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United
States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of
the institution of the emperor." Norman Cousins, The
Pathology of Power, pg. 65, 70-71.
The Japanese surrender and MacArthur
takes over in Japan






MacArthur was the
leader of the American
occupation of Japan
He de militarized Japan
Helped them write a new
constitution
Helped revive their
economy
Made Emperor Hirohito
admit that he wasn’t a
god
August 11th 1945 Japanese Emperor
Hirohito announces that Japan will
surrender – ending WWII
Japanese war Crime trials
Warrior Traditions
The Nanking Massacre


December 13th 1937 –
February 3rd 1938
6 weeks of war,
murder, rape, and
heroics
The Beginning of the horror




Massive bombing
No prisoners (90,000)
First kills
“bayonet practice”
Twisted thinking
Sport

Japanese commanders
used "killing competitions"
as a way to boost morale.
They organized news
reporters to appraise the
winners 2nd Lieutenants
Mukai and Noda, who
killed 105 and 106
Chinese people,
respectively
Children
Perversion:



conservative
estimates put the
number of rapes at
about 20,000
The math of that is
about 476 rapes a day
Most women were
simply killed
afterwards
John Rabe: The good Nazi




The year was 1937 –
The Nazis hadn’t
started their attacks
yet.
Eyewitness
Set up a safety zone
Saved thousands of
lives
Other sick perversions



Japanese “doctors”
conducted hundreds of
“experiments” on prisoners
They also tested a number
of biological and chemical
weapons on China.
Turning loose thousands
of plague infested rats in
cities in China
WMDs that included:
plague, typhus, cholera,
anthrax, poisoning wells
Why?