2. When does WWII Begin?
• September 18, 1931: Mukden Incident
• July 7, 1937: Marco Polo Bridge
Incident
• September 1, 1939: Invasion of Poland
– March 15, 1939: Seizure of Czechoslovakia
– 1935-36: Italian Invasion of Ethiopia
• September 1940: Tripartite Pact
– October 1936: Anti-Comintern Pact
• December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor
3. Even More Total War
• The total committment of
human, economic and social
resources to the pursuit of military
success.
• The targetting and destruction of
economic and human resources
beyond the battlefield, including
civilian populations.
• Approx. 2/3rds of WWII deaths: Civilians
4. Air War
• Jet engine aircraft
• Aircraft carriers
• RADAR
• air defense networks, anti-aircraft artillery
• Missiles: German V-1 and V-2 rockets
• Tactical and Strategic Bombing
• Incendiary weapons
• Atomic weapons
5. Sea War
• Aircraft Carriers
• Submarines and U-Boats
• Torpedoes
• SONAR (and RADAR)
• Japanese Gyokusai (Shattered Jewel)
attacks, a.k.a. Kamikaze (Divine Wind)
6. Land War
• Tanks, automobiles and mobile artillery
– Bewegungskrieg (War of Movement, aka
Blitzkrieg) - motorized armored divisions
with close air support
– Maginot Line - French Fortifications
• Combined Land/Sea/Air operations
• Compact Radio Communications
• Automatic weapons
7. Science and Technology
• Physics
– RADAR, SONAR, Atomic Weapons, Missiles
• Bombing Optics
• Computers
– Scheduling
– Census and Conscription Data
– Code making/Code breaking
• Chemical Replacements (ersatz)
– nylon/polyesters, margarine, bakelite
plastics, synthetic rubber
8. War Crimes and
Crimes Against Humanity
• “War is its rules. It is the rules of warfare that
give the practice meaning, that distinguish
war from murder and soldiers from
criminals.” - Martha Finnemore
• As in past wars, post-war treaties redefine
many tactics accepted in wartime as
unacceptable in future conflicts
• Unlike past wars, post-war War Crimes trials
target activities not previously defined as
illegal: genocide, aggression
9. War Crimes Trials
• Nuremberg
– Crimes Against Humanity
– "Just following orders," a.k.a. the Nuremberg
Defense, explicitly rejected, creating individual
culpability for execution of policy.
• Tokyo International Military Tribunal for the
Far East
– Violation of 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact as
underlying criminal act
• "Victor's Justice"?
10. Genocide
“By “genocide” we mean the destruction of a nation
or of an ethnic group. ... genocide does not necessarily
mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except
when accomplished by mass killings of all members of
a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated
plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of
essential foundations of the life of national groups, with
the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The
objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of
the political and social institutions, of
culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the
economic existence of national groups, and the
destruction of the personal
security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of
the individuals belonging to such groups.”
- Raphael Lemkin (1943)
11. Atrocities: Japan
• aerial bombardment of Chinese cities
• "Rape of Nanjing" and other violence
against occupied civilian populations
• "Comfort women" - forced prostitution
• biological and chemical warfare
• treatment of POWs - biological and
chemical experimentation, camps and
executions; illegal labor; "Bataan Death
March"
• Battle of Okinawa: civilian sacrifices, either in
attack, forced suicide or execution
12. Atrocities: Germany
• aerial bombardment of British cities
• abuse of occupied populations
• biological/medical experimentation
• Cultural Theft from individuals and
public collections
• Mass murder:
Holocaust, genocide, ethnic cleansing
13. Atrocities: Allied
• US
– internment of Japanese-Americans
– bombardment of Japanese cities: Tokyo firestorm
and ATOMIC WEAPONS
– unwillingness to take prisoners in Pacific theater
– Poor treatment of German POWs in immediate
post-war.
• British: terroristic bombardment of German
cities, esp. Dresden (firestorm) and Berlin
• USSR: mass execution of Nazi POWs;
widespread rape and murder of German
civilians; cultural theft; abuse of Japanese
POWs
14. Mitigating Factors?
• "they did it first"
• Differences of scale and intent
– Utility: Ending the war more quickly kinder
than waging it fairly?
– Avoiding cultural treasures, at least in
Japan
– Reconstruction and Democratization;
Heavy investment in rebuilding
• Apology, discipline, rectification.
15. Sources
• Background Image: Grumman TBF-1C Avenger
torpedo bomber (1942) model at Smithsonian
Air&Space Museum. Picture by Jonathan Dresner
– http://www.flickr.com/photos/jondresner/
• http://secondworldwar.co.uk/index.php/fatalities
• Martha Finnemore, "Rules of War and Wars of Rules:
The International Red Cross and the Restraint of State
Violence," in Constructing world culture: international
nongovernmental organizations since 1875, ed. John
Boli, George M. Thomas, Stanford UP, 1999, p. 163.
• Raphael Lemkin’s Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws
of Occupation – Analysis of Government – Proposals
for Redress, (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, 1944), p. 79 – 95.
