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Japan so desperately needed to destroy were out on maneuvers in the North Pacifi c and so were spared the
devastating damage suffered by the U.S. Fleet’s battleships.
The battle against Japan in the Asia-Pacifi c region, fought for over a decade by the Chinese and other
Asian countries, was just beginning for the United States and other western Powers.
In China and other countries, armed resistance to Japanese control continued, and as the U.S. brought its
economic and technological supremacy to bear against Japan, the tide of war began to turn.
As the war continued, Japan had captured a number of prisoners of war (POWs). However, because
Japan had not signed the Second Geneva Convention of 1929, Japan’s treatment of POWs was atrocious.
The number of U.S. and other Western nations’ POWs who died in captivity under the German and Italian
regimes was 4 %, compared to over 27 % of those held by the Japanese. Chinese POWs had an even higher
death rate. Many POWs were forced to work under inhumane conditions. They were often beaten and denied
essential medical care, and many were executed or died from diseases or malnutrition. In addition, the Japanese
government forced many civilians from occupied territories to work as slave laborers for the Japanese military
or for private Japanese corporations. Over 15 million people in China and other Asian countries died during
the war.
In the summer of 1945, the United States, with the concurrence of Great Britain and Canada, dropped
atomic bombs on Japan. The fi rst fell on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and the second on Nagasaki on
August 9. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, moving its troops against the Japanese
army in Northern China. Finally, on August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, forced to sign the surrender
documents aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Harbor. World War II was over.
In this unit, the students will study the aggression of Japan during the late nineteenth century and into
the twentieth century. It is vitally important that the students understand the chronology leading up to the
involvement of the U.S. and other Western powers in the Asian-Pacifi c Theatre of World War II. They will
need to comprehend that the war for the U.S. began in December of 1941, but had been raging for the
Chinese and other Asian nations since September of 1931.
Students will examine the growth of Japanese aggression in the Pacifi c beginning in 1931 with their attack
on China followed by their aggression against the other nations of Asia and the Pacifi c region.
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