Doing a project on WWII is quite an undertaking. I know since I remember my own way, way back in the Stone Age! The subject is sop large that you can only focus in on one segment.

I had uncles in the European theater and of course my Dad in the Pacific theater so both “wars” were interesting to me. I say both wars because tho they did overlap some WWII really was two separate wars.

If you do the Pacific an interesting fact: Japan has never apologized to the United States or China for their invasions. In fact, the Japanese have simply ignored the subject except to make themselves out to be victims of the big bad US for dropping the Atomic Bomb. We now know that several German scientist escaped to Japan after the defeat of Germany and were continuing their research in the production of an atomic bomb that Hitler had been conducting. Considering the actions of the Japanese thru out their invasion of first China and then their attack on Pearl Harbor I for one have no doubt that they would had been ruthless in the use of such a bomb if they had developed it before we did.

The Japanese are good allies now. In fact, because General MacArthur literally ruled Japan thru the reconstruction period Japan is very Americanized with a democracy and a way of thinking and a way of life that had been totally alien to their culture before this. Remember, the people actually worshiped their Emperor and believed him to be a God. The change after the war was really remarkable and a testament to the adaptability of the Japanese people. I guess this is why I chose to do my project on the Pacific Theater because I found the clash of two very different cultures so much more interesting.

The war in Europe was just one of getting rid of a mad man tyrant. There was no differences in the way of viewing the world between the combatants as the United States had been settled by Europeans. The interesting point is that Germany had by far the more outstanding and brilliant generals and would have actually won the war if not for Hitler’s interference with what his generals wanted to do. BB