World War II was stained with blood, concentration camps, and death. Before it, World War I had left countries in shambles and many were still recovering from its damages. Germany was in shambles, but it took a more offensive approach to get back what they had lost. As Hitler’s aggression began to worsen, nations around the world began to plan for the result. The United States intended to stay out of it, but soon they found themselves arming Britain, they had picked the allied side. Meanwhile, the Japanese, who were angry at the United States overinvolvement in China sided with Germany. The set-up was complete. Great Britain, France, The United States, and the Soviet Union faced off with the vengeful Germany, Italy, and stubborn Japan-who would
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At war, soldiers had the options of killing or being killed. The Japanese soldiers especially believed this and followed bushido- the code of no surrender. They would rather die and take as many American soldiers down with them as possible. Prior events like Pearl Harbor festered an even stronger hate between the Americans and Japanese to a point of mercilessness. Soldiers would shoot the wounded Japanese, take their gold teeth, or play with their corpses. E.B. Sledge wrote in his passage “Tales of the Pacific”, “I saw this Jap machine-gunner squattin’ on the ground: One of our Browning automatic riflemen had killed him. Took the top of his skull off...It had rained all night and the rain had collected inside of his skull... I noticed this buddy of mine just flippin’ chunks of coral into the skull about three feet away...This was just a mild-mannered kid who was now a twentieth-century savage” (Sledge). War hardened soldiers into doing unthinkable and crude things that they would normally never do. To survive a savage war, they had to become savage themselves. They were out there fighting each other like animals with no compassion for the enemy. The once heroic image of war ended up making them lose their civilization and sometimes even morals. A war of this magnitude left soldiers asking themselves what they had gotten themselves into. It was not glorious, it converted many of them into killing machines, not
At war, soldiers had the options of killing or being killed. The Japanese soldiers especially believed this and followed bushido- the code of no surrender. They would rather die and take as many American soldiers down with them as possible. Prior events like Pearl Harbor festered an even stronger hate between the Americans and Japanese to a point of mercilessness. Soldiers would shoot the wounded Japanese, take their gold teeth, or play with their corpses. E.B. Sledge wrote in his passage “Tales of the Pacific”, “I saw this Jap machine-gunner squattin’ on the ground: One of our Browning automatic riflemen had killed him. Took the top of his skull off...It had rained all night and the rain had collected inside of his skull... I noticed this buddy of mine just flippin’ chunks of coral into the skull about three feet away...This was just a mild-mannered kid who was now a twentieth-century savage” (Sledge). War hardened soldiers into doing unthinkable and crude things that they would normally never do. To survive a savage war, they had to become savage themselves. They were out there fighting each other like animals with no compassion for the enemy. The once heroic image of war ended up making them lose their civilization and sometimes even morals. A war of this magnitude left soldiers asking themselves what they had gotten themselves into. It was not glorious, it converted many of them into killing machines, not