It was odd reading about world history and realizing that I am living and was living within the timeframe of some of the occurrences that are considered significant events in world history. I was a child during the Cuban missile crisis. I can remember the tremendous concern my parents had about the Soviets, as their warships were heading towards Cuba. I recall there was a lot of discussion regarding the blockade and how everyone in my family circle was very ready to defend this country. I did not understand at the time the devastation that would have resulted had a “nuclear-tipped missile” been launched against this nation. I am truly grateful that the late President John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev were able to reach a compromise that resulted in Cuba removing the nuclear missiles in return for America’s promise not to invade Cuba.
I wish that this class was a bit longer than 10 weeks. I find myself wanting to learn so much more about the various events in history, especially about World War II. I did not realize that the total death toll was estimated at 60 million people, approximately six times the deaths in World War I (Strayer p 648). While the extermination of six million Jews seemed horrible, a death toll of 60 million is horrendous. Strayer indicates that 50% of those deaths were civilian casualties (p 649). Strayer also conveys that the German military personnel fulfilled Hitler’s instructions knowing that “soldiers guilty of breaking international law…will be excused” (p 649). How is it that these rulers/leaders think so little of human life?
In my mind, World War II began with the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. However, the other fact that I learned in this reading is that World War II actually began in Asia rather than in Europe, specifically in China in 1939. In the late 1920s and the 1930s, Japan’s military became more powerful and its expansion ambitions more prominent. Japan had acquired Manchuria, a large area in northeast China, after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. However, Japan felt threatened by China’s increase in its nationalism. So Japan’s military, acting independently, seized control of Manchuria in 1931 and renamed this state Manchukuo. This action military angered the Western powers, and Japan withdrew from the League of Nations. This action resulted in Japan distancing itself from its Western allies, and aligning itself, instead, with Germany and Italy. Japan attacked China in 1937 and this conflict, the beginning of World War II, lasted eight years.
Interestingly, as the war with China unfolded, the worldview of Japan had hardened (Strayer p 645). Because of a series of international agreements in the early 1920s that curtailed Japan’s naval force in comparison to Britain’s or the United States’ force, plus the anti-Japanese immigration policies in the United States, Japan became convinced that European racism prevented the West from acknowledging Japan as an equal power. This sentiment, coupled with Japan’s dependence on foreign goods (especially American goods such as iron, machine tools, oil and copper), the British, French and Dutch colonial presence in southeast Asia, and the Soviet Union’s presence in northern Asia, Japan felt that its national survival was at stake. In 1940 and 1941, Japan began its military operations in the French, British, Dutch, and American colonies of Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and the building of the Japanese pacific empire began. While Japan insisted that it was “creating an Asia for Asians” and freeing the continent from European dominance, Japan clearly was interested in Asia for its resources.
I now have a better understanding as to why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941. Strayer indicates that” Japanese authorities undertook the attack with reluctance and only after negotiations to end American hostility to Japan’s empire-building enterprise proved fruitless” (647). He also indicated that an American oil embargo was imposed on Japan in July 1941. With American opinion of Japan as an aggressive, oppressive, and a threat to US economic interests in Asia, Japanese leaders felt that they had two choices: accept America’s terms which would probably reduce them to a second or third ranked world power, or go to war. Japan chose war.
The other fact I learned was just how close Hitler and Nazi German came to bringing all of Europe and much of the Mediterranean basin under its rule. I learned that the United States joined the war against Germany in 1942, rather than my initial impression of 1941. Strayer indicates that war was central to the Nazi phenomenon. “Nazism was born out of World War I, the hated treaty that tended it [the Treaty of Versailles], and the disillusioned ex-soldiers who emerged from it [war]” (p 648). The Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I, stated that Germany undergo the following: Lose its colonial empire and 15% of its European territories; was required to pay large reparations to the victors; had to accept sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war. This treaty resulted in immense resentment in Germany. It was one of the disillusioned soldiers who stated, “It cannot be that two million Germans should have fallen in vain…we demand vengeance“ (p 632). The soldier’s name was Adolf Hitler. At the same time that Japan was launching its attacks against China in 1939, Hitler and Germany launched its attacks on Poland. So began World War II in Europe.
I read with interest Chapter 22 and its discussion regarding communism. I remember always having concerns regarding communism and the threat our nation faced. I remember well in 1989 how delighted I was for the peoples of East and West Berlin as the wall that prevented the residents of communist East Berlin from escaping to the West was torn down. I remember reading in the newspapers how peoples of Berlin took pieces of the wall with them as souvenirs.
I was in high school during the Viet Nam era and remember several classmates enlisting or being drafted to fight the threat of communism. As I recall, Viet Nam never was declared a war by Congress. Rather, the United States provided military support in the form of a police presence. I recall being told by friends who did return home that soldiers could not initiate fire, only return it. I did not know that America was defeated at the hands of the Vietnamese…I would like to learn more about this undeclared war, as well.
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