Operation Blog is ACTIVE

OK students...this is the platform upon which students will share their knowledge and understanding of the great marker event of 20th century world history: World War 2. The rules are simple:

1. All students must make at least one post to this blog. Posts are in the form of reflections, opinions, links to articles, video, music, images, etc. Students must relate the nature of their posts to a theme of the conflict and make commentary.

2. All students must make at least one comment on another students post. Comments must be thoughtful, argumentative if inclined, insightful, or you my pose some question leads to another post by you or another classmate.

3. You must tag your post with the applicable theme(s).

4. Grades will be based on an holistic scoring scale which heavily weights the frequency and substance of posts and comments. Minimum participation equates to minimum scores for this class exercise.

Monday, March 22, 2010

End of Cold War

Explosion in Siberia, 1982

During 1974, USSR's spy, KGB got a mission to get a American new technology. That new technology was called Natural gas pipe automatic control software. USSR export 45% of natural gas in the world so they could earn billions of dollars. But in order to manage this system widely, they needed Natural gas pipe automatic control software which America owned. Therefore, USSR sent KGB to infiltrate in Canadian company which owns the software of natural gas. Eventually, their success on stealing the diskette developed Soviet Union in economy. But in 30 June 1982, in Siberia, there was enormous explosion that was caused by Natural gas pipe automatic control software. It was as huge as that people could see above the Earth's atmosphere. The fact was like thing. When America found Soviet Union finding the software, they decided to let USSR steals it but then, they put the virus called Trojan horse which can cause big explosion in sudden moment. It drove Soviet Union to breakup just in 70 years. This major event was a conspiracy of America to collapse USSR.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Campaigns and Posters


Why were there campaigns during the war?
The war meant that many things were going to be limited and rationed. As a result, posters/slogans were created to be a motivation and reminder for the population to avoid unnecessary consumption of food/clothes/equipment/etc. It encouraged them to turn to recycling, and saving whatever materials they could.

Some items that were recycled during WWII included:
Tins and Metal - For aircraft and tanks, weapons etc.
Boiled Bones - To make glue for aircraft and glycerine for explosives.
Kitchen Waste - For feeding pigs, goats and chickens.
• Paper - for munitions.
• Rubber - for tyres (ring-shaped protective covering around a wheel).

Examples of Slogans during the War:
'Careless Talk Costs Lives'
'Dig For Victory''Look Out In The Blackout'
'V for Victory''Hitler will send no warning'
'Save kitchen waste for the pigs'
'Mothers, send them out of London'

'Careless talk costs'
The slogan 'Careless talk costs lives' was launched on February 6, 1940. It was the slogan of a nationwide campaign that intended to prevent people from gossiping and allowing important information from getting into the hands of the enemy.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Is Hitler a woman?

This is a skull of Hitler. The DNA test was done this skull and because of the result, people get doubt about Hitler's death. There's a hole on skull which Hitler suicide by shoting gun on his head so it might be the Hitler's skull. But what happen is, the result of DNA test said that this is a skull of a woman. People couldn't believe the result and question about Hitler's death. No one could find any other corpse that might be the Hitler's in the bunker. Therefore, he might died in another place. But some people suggested that Hitler was a woman. By supporting this idea, everytime, the position of the Hitler's beard changed the position. Also, women who was a girlfriend of Hitler always suicide or killed. People predict about the death of the Hitler's women is because they found out Hitler was a woman or something else. It's all prediction so we cannot say exactly that Hitler was a WOMAN. But this article surely tell us that there's some secret stuffs about the death of Hitler. :D

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Disney 1943 Children's Education about Hitler


Disney was involved in American propaganda. The video was banned though. It was considered racist.

Donald Duck - Führer's Face


Disney was involved in American's propaganda. Most of these types of propaganda cartoons were banned due to racism.

We're Gonna Have To Slap The Dirty Little Jap - Carson Robison

The song was sang by an American country music singer and songwriter named Carson Robison during World War II. This song was part of American propaganda.




Lyrics (a bit of American racism from 1941 called “We’re gonna have to slap, the dirty little Jap”)

We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap
And Uncle Sam’s the guy who can do it
We’ll skin the streak of yellow from this sneaky little fellow
And he’ll think a cyclone hit him when he’s thru it
We’ll take the double crosser to the old woodshed
We’ll start on his bottom and go to his head
When we get thru with him he’ll wish that he was dead
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap
And Uncle Sam’s the guy who can do it
The Japs and all their hooey will be changed into chop suey
And the rising sun will set when we get thru it
Their alibi for fighting is to save their face
For ancestors waiting in celestial space
We’ll kick their precious face down to the other place
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap
And Uncle Sam’s the guy who can do it
We’ll murder Hirohito, massacre that slob Benito
Hang’em with that Shickle gruber when we’re thru it
We’ll search the highest mountain for the tallest tree
To build us a hanging post for the evil three
We’ll call in all our neighbors, let’em know their free
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

The song was considered racist these days, so don't sing it but you can listen to it.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Prisoners' Treatment




This is one of the few pieces of Japanese black propaganda that is known. The same text is in Japanese on one side and English on the other. The black letter appears to be from the Japanese Army and berates the Americans who they acknowledge treat the Japanese prisoners well, for implying that the Japanese do not treat the Americans the same way.The letter, addressed to “Americans,” tells the Japanese that they will be treated well when captured by the Americans, and then claims that Americans receive the exact same good treatment when captured by the Japanese. This, by the same barbaric military that killed American and Filipino prisoners during the Bataan Death March. Just as the Indians used to tell the British that they were civilized while the English were still painting themselves blue, the Japanese tell the Americans in part:

Even though you are our enemy we appreciate the good treatment you are giving Japanese soldiers…However, we cannot condone your wanton lies about Japan violating international law and treating American prisoners atrociously like barbarians…American prisoners in our hands are receiving good treatment and living a peaceful and happy life…

Our history is ten times older than yours. While your ancestors were roaming around as savages, Japan was already civilized. We are civilized much more than you Americans.

THE GREAT JAPANESE ARMY

The true purpose of this propaganda leaflet is to make the Japanese soldier think that his government has acknowledged the good treatment of Japanese prisoners of war and this make it easier for the solider to make the decision to surrender.

Civilians as a military target

In modern history, World war II was considered as the bloodiest war because of military targeting civilians, in which killed 50,000,000 civilians during the war, mostly from air raids, the Nazi Racial policy, starvation in Russia, and the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that effect the death toll.

One of the air raids was during the bombing of Dresden in the Operation Thunderclap in which the allies aimed to destroy the 'wills' Germany to fight. They dropped over half a million bombs which killed at least 35,000 people. Civilians were deliberately targeted by the bombing raids conducted by the British against German targets, this being British government policy during the conflict. American bombers tried to be more 'accurate' and only attack targets of some military value - industries, military targets - but still caused many civilian deaths.

In Russia (with highest number of deaths) there were millions of civilians who died. Some were targets of Nazi racial policy (Jews) and political motivation (communist party members). German military actions also killed many civilians such as the 1942 air raid on Stalingrad that killed about 60,000. Many civilians died of starvation to a large extent due to the Russian government policy of Scorched earth of destroying all food supplies they could during retreats. The Nazi racial policy or the Holocaust 'murdered' millions of Jews through out Europe. By forcing them out of their homes and imprisoned in the concentration camps and the camps were equipped with gas chamber which thousands at a time were killed with poisonous gas.

Another strategy of targeting civilians was the development of atomic bombs in the Manhattan project. Harry Truman ordered the military to use the atomic bombs against Japan. On 6 August, 1945, America dropped a bomb on the industrial city of Japan, Hiroshima and 4 days later on Nagasaki. It killed more than 200,000 people which were mainly civilians. Some of the people had long term effects from the radiation of the bomb and later died because of cancer.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Why Hitler dislike the Jews



  • Jealousy. Some Jews were successful and held "visible" positions in Austria and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. In the Great Depression. Germany was hit the hardest by the worldwide economic depression, and successful Jews were envied.

  • Some Germans believed that "Jewish bankers" were responsible for the Treaty of Versailles.

  • Jews became a scapegoat for Germany's economic problems. (According to this racist sentiment, "international Jewish financiers had plunged the world into a war and the Depression for their business profit.")

  • Hitler and many Nazis were influenced by the notorious anti-Semitic book called "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion."

  • Hitler lived in Vienna from 1907 to 1913 and those were the most difficult years of his life. Hitler was trying to become an artist or to make himself a name in field of arts. He was twice rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Art. He claimed that the professors that rejected him were Jewish ... [However, none of the members of the selection panel was Jewish].

  • The Nazis had a vision of an Aryan German race that did not include Jews and many other groups of people.
    Here is an example of Hitler's anti-Semitic racism from a speech given in Munich in July 1922: "His is no master people; he is an exploiter: the Jews are a people of robbers. He has never founded any civilization, though he has destroyed civilizations by the hundred...everything he has stolen. Foreign people, foreign workmen build him his temples, it is foreigners who create and work for him, it is foreigners who shed their blood for him."

  • Some say Hitler and the Nazis were opportunistic demagogues. Inciting hatred of the Jews was the means to an end. The Nazis used hatred of the Jews to unify the German people and create a new German empire. Nothing unites a people more than when they believe they are constantly under attack and fighting a common enemy. The Jews were convenient enemies. After propagating this idea of Jews being the scum of the earth so passionately, Hitler and the Nazis may have deluded themselves into believing it.
    Christianity had traditionally blamed the death of Christ on the Jews. One can see in the Bible the statement that the Jews demanded the death of Jesus, and said, "let it be upon our heads and that of our children." This became an excuse to abuse the Jews for more than a thousand years. It was not until the 1960s that the Catholic Church stated that the Jews were NOT to blame for the death of Jesus. Antisemitism was deeply embedded in European and American culture.

  • In the 1930s there was a lot of anti-Jewish feeling and resentment in the Western world. Many Jews who tried to escape the persecution in Germany were refused entry into the US and other European countries and also many countries further afield.
    Antisemitism has been rife throughout European history, largely because the Jews were a distinct, identifiable group, who did not integrate. (Those who really wanted to integrate converted.) Of course, many now see pluralism as a virtue, and a variety of ethnicities and religions as a positive thing. However, in the inter war period diversity was often regarded as divisive and "disloyal".

  • Another key element of a dictatorship is fear, and a visible scapegoat experiencing the wrath of the state is a good way to keep people from stepping out of line.
    Hitler stated: "The war is to be a war of annihilation". His henchman Heinrich Himmler declared: "All Poles will disappear from the world. . . . It is essential that the great German people should consider it as a major task to destroy all Poles."

  • The Jews did absolutely nothing to deserve the treatment they got. Like the Africans and the Indians the Jews were just picked for hatred and unjust things but again they did absolutely nothing!

  • Since the 1870s the Jews had been the object of a new wave of demonization and conspiracy theories. On the whole this wasn't taken too seriously in Germany, but in Austria anti-Jewish conspiracy theories were spread by extreme right-wing politicians and also by the Roman Catholic Church, which knew perfectly well that these theories were rubbish. Young Adolf was a server (altar-boy) and may have been influenced by this.
    Well, there were more "sub-humans", as Hitler called those poor people, than he could handle. He had to find ways to kill them without making it too obvious. That's when the real Holocaust started [1941]! He built extermination camps, where he could kill many thousands of people at a time.

  • Hitler blamed Germany's defeat in WWI on the Jews, and he hated them. When he took power he started rounding them up. He did the same when he started taking over other countries. He used the Jews, Poles, gays, gypsies, Russians and mentally challenged people as slave labor and then started to annihilate them in gas chambers. His reason - hatred. He classed the above mentioned people as sub human and basically in his Nazi world there was no place for the "sub human", only the Aryan (blonde hair blue eyed Germans)
    To understand the Holocaust you have to understand the Darwinian biology of the time. There was a growing sense, particularly since Ernst Haeckel, that there were those in society who were 'biologically' inferior and that for a 'fit' world to survive and thrive, those who were 'unfit' should be done away with. Instead of letting nature take its course, there was a unspoken sense that humans could take matters into their own hands. I am obviously not supporting this twisted logic, but that is a key to understanding how a number of things converged to create the nightmare of the century. [However, 'biological inferiority' is subjective. In Britain, for example, many Social Darwinists, especially those active in education, were most impressed by the achievements of Jews in schools and universities and concluded that they were a 'superior breed' ... This view was to some extent echoed in Nazi conspiracy theories, which painted a picture of diabolically cunning Jews].

  • Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I.
    Not only did Hitler thank the Jewish doctor who treated his mother, apparently he allowed the doctor to escape Nazi Germany without repercussions. (Doesn't sound like he was too angry at the man).

  • He didn't only kill Jews. He killed Communists, liberals, homosexuals, gypsies and many other groups, including millions of victims of warfare. Why he did is up for debate, but I'd guess a mixture of antisemitism and stereotypes of the as Jews as Communists, subsersives and all kinds of other things - as a means to an end. A common way to gain power is to spread fear and panic about an enemy (real or imaginary), stir up hatred and present yourself as the only person able to 'save' the country

What was Germany's reaction to the Treaty of Versailles?

The terms attached to the armistice of November 1918 had been harsh.

As for the reaction to Versailles, Germany was not allowed to negotiate at all at the Paris Peace Conference ... Scheidemann, the German Prime Minister (as he was called at the time), Gustav Noske (Defence Secretary) and many others wanted to refuse to sign the dictated treaty.
In practice, this would have forced the Allies and above all the French (with their mutinous and increasingly left-wing army) to have ended the armistice and continued World War 1.
However, the German Army said it was in a very bad condition and in no position to fight for the foreseeable future. In these circumstances, Scheidemann (and some others) resigned. At Versailles Rantzau-Brockdorff told the Allies that the treaty was unworkable but ultimately signed under protest.
Here are some interesting facts listed about World War II, regarding the U.S Military.
The number of U.S. armed forces personnel who served in World War II between Dec. 1, 1941, and Dec. 31, 1946 was 16.1 million.
The average length of active-duty by U.S. military personnel during WWII was 33 months.
The proportion of U.S. military personnel who served abroad during WWII was 73%.
The average time U.S. personnel served overseas during WWII was 16 months.
The number of U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines killed in battle in WWII was 292,000.
The number of other deaths sustained by U.S. forces during WWII was 114,000.
The number of U.S. troops wounded during WWII was 671,000
5.7 million World War II veterans were counted in Census 2000. The census identified the period of service for World War II veterans as September 1940 to July 1947.
The estimated number of WWII veterans living in California in 2002 was 475,000, the most in any state. Other states with high numbers of WWII vets included Florida (439,000), New York (284,000), Pennsylvania (280,000), Texas (267,000) and Ohio (208,000).
The proportion of WWII veterans among the Clearwater, Fla., civilian population age 18 and over in 2000 was 5.4%. Other large places (100,000 or more population) with high concentrations of WWII vets were: Cape Coral, Fla. (5.1 percent), Oceanside, Calif. (4.3 percent); and Scottsdale, Ariz.; Pueblo, Colo., Metairie, La., St. Petersburg, Fla.; Santa Rosa, Calif.; Mesa, Ariz.; and Independence, Mo. (all around 4 percent).
The estimated number of women in 2002 who were WWII veterans was 210,000. These women comprised 4.4 percent of WWII vets.
The proportion of all veterans in April 2000 who were WWII veterans was 22%.
The median age of WWII veterans when the last census was conducted was 76.7.
The number of WWII veterans in 2002 who received compensation for service-connected disabilities was 440,000, about half the number in 1990 (876,000) and nearly two-thirds less than the nearly 1.2 million disabled WWII vets in 1980.
The projected national expenditure for veteran’s benefits in 2004 was $62 billion.