Investigate devastation wrought by Japan on Manchuria and China during the Great Depression
In September 1931 the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Manchuria, and refugees fled their burning cities. From “The Second World War: Prelude to Conflict” (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.In June 1942, one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, U.S. naval airplanes stopped the advance of the Japanese Imperial Navy near Midway Island. From “The Second World War: Allied Victory” (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.In September 1940 Imperial Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Why?
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Spanish Republicans, abandoned by the democracies and relying on aid from the communists, carried on a losing struggle against fascism. From The Second World War: Prelude to Conflict (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)An introduction to William F. Friedman, the breaker of the Japanese Purple code in World War II. Friedman learned cryptanalysis while investigating the hypothesis that Francis Bacon wrote the plays of William Shakespeare; encoded clues in the printed text supposedly proved Bacon's authorship.
Transcript
[Music in]
NARRATOR: Japan's answer to the economic blizzard of the depression was war.
First an invasion of Manchuria, and then China.
Japan had few natural resources and a rapidly increasing population. She determined to take the raw materials and "living space" that she wanted, by force [music out]. Western reaction was disheartening, the League of Nations protested, and President Hoover applied meaningless "moral sanctions." Not surprisingly, the Japanese ignored both the League, and Hoover. The campaign went well, and the militarists became the controlling factor in Japanese politics.
As usual, it was the ordinary people who paid the price [music in]. The orgy of burning, looting, and mass murder which accompanied the Japanese onslaught aroused anger and sympathy in the democracies, but no action.
This bloody war would drag on for 13 bitter years, and through it all moved the refugees. But the very poor and the helpless remained--too threatened, too frightened, or too helpless even to move.
[Music out]
NARRATOR: Japan's answer to the economic blizzard of the depression was war.
First an invasion of Manchuria, and then China.
Japan had few natural resources and a rapidly increasing population. She determined to take the raw materials and "living space" that she wanted, by force [music out]. Western reaction was disheartening, the League of Nations protested, and President Hoover applied meaningless "moral sanctions." Not surprisingly, the Japanese ignored both the League, and Hoover. The campaign went well, and the militarists became the controlling factor in Japanese politics.
As usual, it was the ordinary people who paid the price [music in]. The orgy of burning, looting, and mass murder which accompanied the Japanese onslaught aroused anger and sympathy in the democracies, but no action.
This bloody war would drag on for 13 bitter years, and through it all moved the refugees. But the very poor and the helpless remained--too threatened, too frightened, or too helpless even to move.
[Music out]