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In novels and films, in memorials and in the classroom, we constantly encounter its history and memory. However, this was not always the case. It was the specific context of the end of the Cold War that led to this shift. During the Cold War, when Western countries were locked into an alliance against the Soviet bloc, it was politically difficult to have a public discussion about war-era crimes against humanity, because Germany was a key ally.

This changed as the Cold War ended after the fall of the Berlin Wall in , and the crimes against civilian populations that were one of the hallmarks of the Second World War entered powerfully into public discourse.

The s was a key decade in terms of the public memory of the Holocaust, but that was nearly 30 years ago. Why, then, do we continue to talk so much about the Holocaust? Over the past two years, we have seen the return of populist politics globally, often accompanied by xenophobia, racism and a general rise in intolerance against ethnic minority groups.

At the same time, we have seen that anti-Semitism remains very much alive on both the extreme right and the extreme left — and as long as that is the case, we will fail to escape the grip of the Second World War. We are all too aware of where such ideas end. Rebecca Clifford is associate professor of modern history at Swansea University. Unsurprisingly, his proposal fell on deaf ears.

Eighty years on, most countries involved in the Second World War remain fixated by this particular conflict — especially the United States. It is taught extensively in American high schools. Many museums across the US are devoted to it, while many more allocate it generous space in their displays.

Each year, thousands of new studies are published on the subject, while novelists continue to choose it as a historical backdrop. Aside from the large number of television dramas and documentaries produced each year, there are now so many feature films on the subject — most of them American-made — that the full list spans multiple Wikipedia pages.

And this is not about to change. After tailing off in the late 20th century, the number of films about the Second World War produced each year is climbing again. Mainly because of the way this story is told. The American narrative is not only heroic — the country strides in to rescue Britain, arm Russia and liberate Europe — it is also satisfying, with justice meted out to the Japanese in response to the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on 7 December In addition, this conflict seems to be imbued with Manichean clarity.

Unlike modern-day wars on drugs or terror, there is no ambiguity about where or who the bad guys are, and when or how the conflict ends.

In our more fractured Trumpian age, perhaps the overwhelming allure of the Second World War is that it allows us to remember a time when millions of Americans set aside their political differences and came together as one. Henry Hemming is an author specialising in history and spying. Every country that took a direct part in the war has continuing memories of its traumas, and the Russian Federation is no exception.

The current Kremlin administration prolongs the preoccupation with the war that prevailed under communism. The dates are important. The Soviet Union did not enter the struggle against the Third Reich until it was attacked by Germany — indeed, Stalin and Adolf Hitler were allies in all but word before the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.

Once invaded, however, the country survived extraordinary tribulations before sending its armies to Berlin and overthrowing the Nazis.

Soviet troops soon advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, while Hitler gathered his forces to drive the Americans and British back from Germany in the Battle of the Bulge December January , the last major German offensive of the war. An intensive aerial bombardment in February preceded the Allied land invasion of Germany, and by the time Germany formally surrendered on May 8, Soviet forces had occupied much of the country.

Hitler was already dead, having died by suicide on April 30 in his Berlin bunker. President Harry S. Post-war Germany would be divided into four occupation zones, to be controlled by the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and France. Heavy casualties sustained in the campaigns at Iwo Jima February and Okinawa April-June , and fears of the even costlier land invasion of Japan led Truman to authorize the use of a new and devastating weapon.

Developed during a top secret operation code-named The Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb was unleashed on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. On August 15, the Japanese government issued a statement declaring they would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on September 2, U.

Although more than 1 million African Americans served in the war to defeat Nazism and fascism, they did so in segregated units. The same discriminatory Jim Crow policies that were rampant in American society were reinforced by the U. Black servicemen rarely saw combat and were largely relegated to labor and supply units that were commanded by white officers.

There were several African American units that proved essential in helping to win World War II, with the Tuskegee Airmen being among the most celebrated. But the Red Ball Express, the truck convoy of mostly Black drivers were responsible for delivering essential goods to General George S. Yet, despite their role in defeating fascism, the fight for equality continued for African American soldiers after the World War II ended.

They remained in segregated units and lower-ranking positions, well into the Korean War , a few years after President Truman signed an executive order to desegregate the U. World War II proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Civilians made up an estimated million deaths from the war, while military comprised 21 to 25 million of those lost during the war.

Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property. The legacy of the war would include the spread of communism from the Soviet Union into eastern Europe as well as its eventual triumph in China, and the global shift in power from Europe to two rival superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—that would soon face off against each other in the Cold War.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Food, gas and clothing were rationed. Communities conducted scrap Getting the perfect shot in wartime is not only about weapons. Moving cautiously, while its modern navy and army were still in the infant stage, Japan took over several groups of small islands not far from its homeland without having to fight for them.

By it was strong enough to challenge the weak and aging Chinese Empire. In July of that year Japanese naval guns fired on Chinese ships without warning. The successful war with China in —95 added Formosa and the nearby Pescadores islands to the Japanese Empire.

After defeating Russia in —05, Japan took the south half of Sakhalin and the southern tip of Manchuria known as the LiaotungPeninsula. In Korea was annexed. At the end of World War I, the victorious powers handed the Japanese a mandate over the former German islands north of the equator, one of the most important strategic areas in the Pacific. Twelve years later the Japanese began carving out sections of China, starting with Manchuria in On the eve of the present war, Japan seized control of Indo-China from defenseless France and reduced Thailand Siam to the status of a puppet.

There is nothing to be gained by reproaching ourselves for not having read the future correctly. But we can plan and act now to keep the sons of the men who are fighting Japan from having to do the job all over again. We know that the Japanese will be defeated. But though our victory will remove the immediate danger that threatened us in , it will not of itself make us secure against a repetition of that danger.

That will depend mainly upon our firmness and wisdom in handling Japan after the victory is won. A day will come when Japan will lie stricken and harmless. Then will be the time to employ the treatment that will cure the Japanese once and for all of the disease of creeping aggression.

To understand what has to be done to prevent another Pearl Harbor we need to know something of the motives which led the Japanese to stake everything on this greatest gamble in their history.

Americans have never before gone to war with a nation about which they knew so little. Since the people of this country have been too busy fighting Japan and the other Axis partners to spend much time investigating their history and politics.

For the purposes of this pamphlet the principal causes of Japanese aggression may be summarized as follows:. The Japanese actually believe that they are descendants of the gods, that their emperor is divine, and that they have a heaven-inspired mission to rule the world. To us the very ideas are absurd. But we must never forget that all Japanese children are instructed in these beliefs from the cradle and that many of the strongest of Japanese emotions are centered in them.

In recent years Japanese education and propaganda have featured a phrase supposed to have been used by the first emperor—eight corners of the world under one roof.

This has been interpreted to mean, in plain English, that Japan must dominate about a billion people in Asia and the Pacific area, and eventually rule the world.

This is no new idea to the Japanese mind. This could have been written yesterday. The speeches and writings of Japanese statesmen and superpatriots in modern times reveal dozens of similar warnings of their intentions. Six months later they did. It has been pointed out that highly organized worship of the state and its symbol, the emperor, is a comparatively recent development.

The official Shinto religion has been called an instrument to bring the people into line for an all-out war effort. The truth of the matter seems to be that the government did not create a new faith or loyalty. It merely made use of beliefs that the Japanese have held in a rather passive way for centuries. Universal schooling and cheap printing made the task easier, as did also the docility of the people and their ingrained respect for authority. The keynote of the Japanese character is loyalty rather than freedom and individuality.

To argue the merits and demerits of this philosophy is outside the scope of this pamphlet. But these beliefs and ideals of the Japanese people have made it easy for them to be led into war. In Japan the armed forces have won almost complete control of the government and the nation. Every department of the national life—industry, commerce, agriculture, education, the press, even religion—is subject to their will.

Japan was not always an out-and-out military dictatorship. For a brief period after the first World War there were indications that it was on the road to establishing representative government and was following the lead of Western nations in carrying out some badly needed social and political reforms. The Japanese constitution of provided the framework of a nineteenth-century monarchy modeled on Prussia.

At the head of the state is the emperor, assisted by his privy council. There is a cabinet, headed by the prime minister, and a parliament consisting of the House of Peers and the House of Representatives, the latter elected by the people. Actually, the emperor is a figurehead. He is worshiped, but he does not originate either policy or action. For centuries the imperial power has been in the hands of a few nobles, soldiers, or statesmen who had the strength to use it.

The makers of this system did not plan for or want popular government.