T. MacNamaraHISTORY 106Exam Three – Study GuideWorld War II in the PacificWorld military situation as U.S. enters warJapan had victory over US at pearl harbor. German had rapid victories over France. Soviet citieswere under siege. And US had to decide to focus fight on Europe or Japan that just attacked us.US was in a period of isolationism before pearl harbor attack, Japan thought their best bet atbringing back their economy was to expand their military and their power, so they attacked.“Europe first”Germany had killed at least twice as many Americans as the Japanese had. Mainly just that theUS decided to fight this part of the war first.Also known as “Germany first”. Strategy agreed upon by US and UK, they would use theirresources to subdue Nazis in Germany before worrying about Japan.Japanese motives for Pearl Harbor attackThey were over confident after their victory over Russia in 1905, belief that the US wouldremain neutral and would still not join the fightThey had several purposes, one was to destroy important American fleets to prevent us frominterfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch Indies and Malaya. Was also to buy time forJapan to build up more power and military.US missionaries in Japan are telling the Americans about the atrocities done by Japan; US givesChina supplies. Japan decides to attack US since they figure they'll have to fight them anywayBataan: surrender and death marchUS soldiers surrender at Bataan, and the Japanese have a long death march to Japanese camps,any that lagged behind were bayonetted, and many died along the way.This was the forcible transfer of Filipino and American prisoners of war. Around 65 miles’march. Around 10,000-20,000 US and Filipino deaths on the march, many more Filipino thanAmerican.
Japanese view of American national characterJust saw America as this greedy Uncle Sam type figure. America was commercial culture andJapan was militaryJapan saw America as a nation of cowards, unable to fight. Viewed us as not unified. Viewed theUS as materialistic animals that only cared about money and possessions.“Good German” and contrast with JapaneseWell we saw Germans as fairly equal people that were thinking people that were evil, where aswe viewed Japanese as inferior minded almost mindless monkeys.US troops see German soldiers as individuals. They see Japan soldiers as an unthinking herd,insane and suicidalJapanese battlefield behaviorLike super human machines. They would never surrender and if they did it would usually be atrap of some kind. They all strived for extreme honor, so they would often do effective suicideattacks.Japanese went hard af in the war. They were all about killing as many Americans as possiblewithout considering their own death as the cost. Metal af.
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Term
Spring
Professor
Tho Tran
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