Japan during World War II

World War II was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945 which involved most of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. In a state of total war, the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant action against civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it was the deadliest conflict in human history, with over seventy million casualties. Japan lacked many of the natural resources needed to feed its industries. Instead of expanding trade, the Japanese expanded their empire. The Japanese seized Manchuria in 1931, and began a war against China in 1937. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull shut off American trade in an effort to force the Japanese to end their hostilities against China. This made the Japanese even more aggressive. They had long coveted the resource-rich British and Dutch colonies of Southeast Asia, and as the U.S. trade embargo tightened, the Japanese increasingly looked southward for raw materials and strategic resources. Japan was struggling a lot during this time and the people had many things to deal with. The people of Japan did not live very well. Police would go in their home to get gold, sliver, and metal to make bullets. They would also rob them and steal their stuff if you were not home. A lot of Japanese people were killed and many of them had to suffered during the war. One of the biggest wars of all time was Pearl Harbor. In December 1941, Japan attacked the Allied powers at Pearl Harbor and several other points throughout the Pacific. Japan was able to expand their control over a large territory that expanded to the border of India in the West and New Guinea in the South within the following six months. The atomic bomb was also used during this time in the city of Hiroshima and it was used against civil population in history. Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb over the city of Nagasaki. In total, about a quarter of a million people were killed by the two bombs. Hirohito was the leader of Japan or also known as Emperor Shōwa. During World War II, ostensibly under Emperor Shōwa's leadership, Japan formed alliances with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, forming the Axis Powers. They teamed up and all of them killed millions of soldiers and it was a very bloody war. The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought hostilities in World War II to a close. Allied civilians and servicemen alike celebrated V-J Day, the end of the war. However, some isolated commands and personnel from Japan's far-flung forces throughout Asia and the Pacific islands refused to surrender for months and years after, into the 1970s. Since Japan's surrender, historians have debated the ethics of using the atomic bombs.

1936 olympics

The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games had been handed to Berlin before the Nazis came to power but now it was the perfect opportunity for Hitler to demonstrate to the world, how efficient the Nazi Germany was. It was also the perfect opportunity for the Nazis to prove to the world the reality of the Master Race. The Berlin Olympic Games gave the Nazis an opportunity to show off to the world as 49 countries were competing bringing with them their assorted media. The Nazi Germany team had been allowed to train fulltime thus pushing to the limit the idea of amateur competition. Germany's athletic superstar of the time was Lutz Lang, a brilliant long jumper who easily fitted into the image. By far the most famous athlete in the world was Jesse Owens of America, an African American and therefore, under Nazi ideology, inferior to the athletes in the German team. The vast Olympic stadium was completed on time and held 100,000 spectators. 150 other new Olympic buildings were completed on time for the event. The anti-Semitic posters that had littered Germany before the games had disappeared. Signs that stated "Jews not welcome here" were not longer visible and anything was done to ensure that the Games went smoothly and caused no upset. In fact, the upset was caused in the stadium itself. The 'racially inferior' Owens won four gold medals; in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4 x 100m relay. During the Games he broke 11 Olympic records and defeated Lutz Lang in a very close long jump final. Lang was the first to congratulate Owens when the long jump final was over. There were 10 African American members of the American athletics team. Between them they won 7 gold medals, 3 silvers and 3 bronze, more than any national team won in track and field at the Games, except America itself. Hitler refused to place the gold medal around Owen's neck.

The real question was why were the olypmics more about the politics than the joining of the wrold to play these great games. The 1936 Summer Olympics were controversial due to the Nazi regime that came to power after the city's selection. Adolf Hitler regarded it as his Olympics and he took them as a chance to show off the post-First World War Germany. In 1936, a number of prominent politicians and organizations called for a boycott of the 1936 Summer Olympics, which had been awarded to Germany before the Nazi regime came to power. The Popular Front government of Spain decided to boycott the games and organized the People's Olympiad as an altermative with labour and socialist groups around the world sending athletes to the effort. However the Spanish Civil War broke out just as the games were about to begin. The United States considered boycotting the games, but ultimately decided to participate. Nazi propaganda promoted concepts of "Aryan racial superiority," however African-American athlete Jesse Owens did not face segregation and discrimination in Germany that were normal in the United States at the time. So the big emphisis was on germany and the nazis more than the great games. The olypmics are for the world to come together as one and show off what they have to offer.