The Super Summary of World History (61 page)

Japan
Taken
Over
By
Militarists

Japan’s power expanded during World War I. By astute diplomacy Japan joined the victor’s side early on, and by rendering a minor amount of assistance managed to gain a bonanza of territory from Germany and China. Japan’s economy prospered during the war and during the 1920s. Japan had tried a parliamentary-style government with a Diet (the legislature) and a prime minister; however, all was not well with the government as the military continued exerting more control over decisions than desired by the civilian authorities. Radical elements in the military murdered two prime ministers who attempted to stop the war in China, but the civilian government held on tenaciously in an unsuccessful attempt to limit military influence.

As Japan prospered the military’s control waned; however, after the stock market crash of 1929 Japan’s prosperity vanished. Japan depended on external trade, and as the world markets failed so did Japan’s economy. As in Europe, this economic downturn helped radical elements expand their influence in the government. Eventually, the army and navy took complete control of the civilian politicians. The prime minister found his appointments subject to approval by the army, as the army controlled the cabinet. Japanese parliamentary government was a dead, rotting corpse by May of 1932. The militarists expanded the war in China and decided Japan must attack the Western Allies blocking Japan’s control of resources in the South Pacific. After France fell, believing the West remained focused on Hitler, Japan moved to improve her economic and military position by seizing key territory in Indo-China and the Pacific.

Japan’s desire to conquer China put her on a collision course with the United States of America. Japan attacked the United States mainly because it refused to acknowledge Japan’s claims to China,
[210]
continually demanded Japan stop murdering the Chinese, and wanted Japan to surrender Chinese territory won since 1937.
[211]

The
Future
Goes
Dark

Popular opinion about the future of the West soured in the 1930s. The Great Depression continued and memories of the Great War haunted everyone. In 1900 the future appeared brilliant, now it emerged dark and menacing.

The Impressionist art movement started bringing new vigor to the art world. The normally bright and colorful paintings of the Impressionist, made outdoors when possible, emphasized the immediate and the present. Previous art emphasized the classical world and great moments in history and not the actions of everyday folks. The pre-Impressionist painters normally worked in a studio, spending long hours perfecting the paintings so everything looked very lifelike. The Impressionist changed everything by recording seemingly unimportant events going on around them, working outside, and making paintings look like a bunch of paint splotches close up; however, when the viewer stood back, the paint splotches blended together by the eye transformed the painting into a glorious burst of originality, color, and substance.

After WWI art trends began to change, and a world of disjointed darkness, often with unrecognizable features, started to flow from the painter’s brush. Painting no longer bound itself to realism. Abstract painting started before WWI (about 1910) and foresaw the disruption of the modern world long before it happened. After WWI, life’s lack of meaning became a major theme in art. Another art form became important in the pre-WWI years—the motion picture. The stars of the silver screen became worldwide icons making enough money to qualify as royalty. The movies set forth popular themes such as romance, comedy, the futility of war, or living in the modern world. The dictators used the new art form for propaganda to keep the populace believing the party line. Governments used this instrument of the modern world for the modern purposes of suppression and mind control. Worst of all, it worked.

Science, so obvious in motion pictures, became more evident in everyday life. Overnight, it seemed, the world invented skyscrapers, electricity, hot water heaters, cars, inside plumbing, better medical care, wonder drugs, flushing toilets, vacuum cleaners, and a host of other modern tools and conveniences. During the Great Depression many great public works projects started construction, such as the Hoover Dam in the United States, and the autobahn in Germany.

The world was a strange mix of worry and wonder. The stress on society by the new fast-changing world, the frightening nature of world politics, the wonder of science and its fantastic accomplishments, the warnings coming from artists and writers of pending chaos, and the seemingly unending economic misery all swirled together creating a disconcerting world.
Predictability
was
gone
. Recall the world of ancient Egypt, the steadfastness of it all with the unchanging centuries slipping easily into history’s vastness. The ability to adapt may be humanity’s best trait, but that adaptation was accomplished over long spans of time. Now humans were adapting in months to titanic changes.

From
1850
to
1950
, the changes were staggering. From fire light to light bulbs, horses to cars, balloons to jet aircraft, muskets to machine guns, dirt roads to paved roads, stage plays to movies and then television, brooms to vacuums, wash boards to washing machines, and much more. A person born in 1850 and living to the age of one hundred would see all these changes if they lived in the United States or Europe. A person living in Egypt in 2000 BC could live to the age of five hundred and never see any change (except a Pharaoh or two).

This review only scratches the surface of the changes going on after 1919, but this is the Super Summary so we cannot go too far. The tenor of the age was one of change and great improvement; but the long shadow of WWI, the Great Depression, and the darkening clouds of WWII put the stamp of uncertainty on the era. Once the dictators were in power, the world became ever more frightening and ever more deadly.

Let Us Learn

The Great Depression teaches us economies fail, often very fast. Even a stable economy can collapse with blinding speed. It also taught us the financial world is very complex and very important. Have some money in a safe place in case of economic decline. Trying to spend your way out of debt, or into prosperity, is folly. Two American presidents and their super educated advisors made that mistake. Learn from their errors. If hard times hit, cut spending. Do not follow the government’s example; they never get it right anyway.

The depression era shows we are all captives of our theories. Recall that the economists of the 1930s analyzed the crisis through the prism of their assumptions (theories). Many people never try to figure out what theories (assumptions) they use for analysis. For example, what is your theory of human nature? Are people fundamentally good or evil? Does life operate on cause and effect relationships; that is, if one is good to someone will they be good back? If we work hard, will rewards follow? Each of these questions, among others, discloses theories concerning life. Be aware of the theories binding your thought processes.

Watch events in other countries, because even small far away occurrences can affect the entire globe. The murder of one man plunged the world into the hell of World War I. Hitler came to power after winning one German election and torched the world. Stay alert to world events and unusual trends.

Watch for big trends and try to analyze them. A trend to worldwide dictatorship is not good. A trend toward bank failures should raise your concern. Very large trends usually have large impacts. Population trends within various nations, and the world, often foretell of critical changes.

Finally, the interwar era teaches that aggressors
must
be
immediately
confronted
, and if war is necessary to prevent their exploitation, then war it must be.
If
one
wants
peace
prepare
for
war
. What seems like an ideological oxymoron is actually a primer on human nature. The strong will take advantage of the weak. The prepared will crush the unprepared. So it has been, so it is now, and so it will always be. To forget these facts is folly.

Books and Resources on the Great Depression
and the Rise of the Third Reich:

See
http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1939.htm
for excellent information on the state of European affairs just before WWII.

See
http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blygd24.htm
for excellent history and photographs of the Great Depression

Books
on
the
Great
Depression
and
the
Rise
of
the
Third
Reich:

The
Rise
and
Fall
of
the
Third
Reich
, William L. Shirer. The classic, but not so easy to read.

The
Coming
of
the
Third
Reich
, Richard J. Evans, 2005, Penguin.

The
Third
Reich
in
Power
, Richard J. Evans, 2006, Penguin. I like this book. It records many laws that were on the books under Hitler’s murderous regime. It records the nightmarish existence under the Nazi regime.

The
Gathering
Storm,
Winston Churchill. Churchill is always easy to read, but beware of some of his concepts. Churchill was very English and very supportive of the concept of the English Empire.

FDR’s
Folly,
How
Roosevelt
and
His
New
Deal
Prolonged
the
Great
Depression,
Powell, J., 2003, Three Rivers Press. I actually enjoyed this book more than
The
Forgotten
Man
by Shlaes.
FDR’s
Folly
gives more economic background.

The
Forgotten
Man,
Shlaes, Amity, 2008, Harper. Excellent, but concentrates on personalities in the place of more economic facts.

The
Politically
Incorrect
Guide
to
the
Great
Depression
and
the
New
Deal
, R. Murphy, Regnery, 2009. Like all PIG books this one will raise your consciousness about the Great Depression, and may raise the hair on the back of your neck as well.

Against
Leviathan,
Government
Power
and
a
Free
Society
, Higgs, Robert, 2004, The Independent Institute. Wonderful book. A must read.

Churchill, Hitler, and The Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost The World, Buchanan, P., Three Rivers Press, 2009. For a completely different take on the run up to WWII.

 
Chapter 15

World War II 1939 to 1945

The Second World War shattered the world. After the war Europe was spent, its power and glory evaporated in an orgy of violence created by technological advances and new ideologies of hate and murder harnessed by cruel dictators. After the Second World War, new nations took the world’s center stage, and these nations’ ideology and governmental forms were diametrically opposed. The “Cold War” started immediately after WWII, involving new nations in a new kind of war and competitive diplomacy.

How
Many
Dead?

Estimates of the number of dead vary greatly, but deaths from battles (military) were
at
least
65
million
between the USSR, Germany, United States of America, United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan. Estimated civilian deaths not associated with battles are
over
35
million
. The number killed in China is unknown, but it would be millions. In Japan, the total dead are unknown although there are good estimates. In my opinion, the Soviet Union understated its death toll by at least one-half to hide their casualties from the West. After the fall of the Soviet Union scholars examined the archives to try to determine the total number of Soviet deaths in WWII. Most think fifty million (50,000,000) citizens of the USSR were killed (
At
the
Abyss
, T.C. Reed, Ballantine Books, 2004, p 296). If this number is accepted then the death toll from WWII exceeds 100 million.

In addition, wars in Ethiopia, Spain, Korea, Manchuria, and China prior to the “official” start of WWII add hundreds of thousands to the count. China suffered immeasurably during the war. The Japanese launched yearly “rice offensives” at harvest time, stealing the rice crop for shipment to Japan. The number of Chinese dying from starvation because of Japanese actions would be hundreds of thousands at least. The numbers who starved or died of neglect in Eastern Europe after WWII are not included in the official count in spite of dying as a direct result of the war. Although reasonable estimates put the total dead at about 65 million, this number is probably low. In my opinion, WWII destroyed well over 100 million lives worldwide, especially if fatalities in conflicts like Korea, China, Spain, and Finland before the war are counted, and deaths from noncombat causes suffered immediately after World War II from starvation, disease, and wounds are included (for example, radiation sickness).