War and Society Caught in the Crossfire—Civilian victims of war --Massacres, Strategic Bombing 2. Women at War -- ‘Comfort Women’ --Women soldiers 3. Everyday Life during Wartime --rationing, material deprivation --Life under occupation 4. Soldier’s Experiences of War

Japanese Invasion of China Starts in the early 1930s, formal war of invasion launched in 1937 By 1945—20 million Chinese civilians dead, along with 2-3 million military deaths Major atrocities committed by Japanese military against Chinese civilians: --The Nanjing massacre 1937

The Japanese Empire

The Nanjing Massacre, 1937 Six weeks of terror in the city of Nanjing, the capitol of China, beginning in December 1937 200,000-300,000 civilians murdered An estimated 20,000-30,000 rapes Major source of tension today between China and Japan—right wing Japanese politicians deny/downplay this event

Unit 731 Secret Japanese biological and chemical warfare unit Conducts testing on POW’s and Chinese civilians Bacterial bombs dropped on Chinese civilian targets Amnesty granted to Unit leaders after War in exchange for data

U.S. Strategic Bombing of Japan Architect of the bombing campaign: General Curtis Lemay Incendiary bombing of Tokyo: March 9-10, kills 80,000 With Hiroshima and Nagasaki as part of the campaign—87 percent of the urban targets are residential areas Over 600,000 Japanese civilians killed

The “Comfort Women” Systematic program of sexual slavery, enforced by the Japanese military in the late 1930s-early 1940s Empire-wide military brothel system Unknown numbers of Korean, Chinese, Pilipino, Indonesian women forced into sexual slavery “Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women” (clips from this documentary on Youtube)