HW Please Include the Focus Question 6.8 Were the War Crimes Trials After WWII Fair? At

HW – Please include the focus question 6.8 Were the War Crimes Trials after WWII fair? at the top of the page. Take notes on the following reading. Then, answer the question at the bottom of the page in at least one paragraph. AFTERMATH OF WAR While the Allies celebrated victory, the appalling costs of the war began to emerge. The global conflict had raged in Asia since Japan invaded China in 1937 and in Europe since 1939. It had killed as many as 75 million people worldwide. In Europe, about 38 million people lost their lives, many of them civilians. The Soviet Union suffered the worst casualties - more than 22 million dead. But numbers alone did not tell the story of the death and destruction. In the aftermath of war, new atrocities came to light. Horrors of the Holocaust. During the war, the Allies knew about the existence of Nazi concentration camps. But only at war’s end did they learn the full extent of the Holocaust and the tortures and misery inflicted on Jews and others in the Nazi camps. Walking skeletons stumbled out of the death camps with tales of mass murder. It is estimated that six million European Jews had been killed, along with additional 5 million non-Jewish victims. Other Wartime Atrocities The Holocaust stands as the starkest example of wartime inhumanity. Several other incidents, however, also stand out as especially brutal aspects of World War II. The Japanese invasion of Nanjing in 1937 involved mass shooting and terrible brutality. As many as 250,000 Chinese were killed, and the incident became known as the Rape of Nanjing. In the Philippines, Japanese soldiers forced American and Filipino prisoners of war on a march up the Bataan peninsula. Along the way, prisoners were beaten, stabbed and shot. This event became known as the Bataan Death March. In Poland, Soviet troops subjected thousands of Poles to imprisonment, torture, and execution. The firebombing of Dresden, Germany by the British and American Air Forces between February 13 and February 15, 1945 remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to create a firestorm in the target city. This technique makes use of incendiary bombs to start a massive fire, and in Dresden, this campaign destroyed the entire city. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb code-named "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The second use of a nuclear bomb occurred three days later when a device code-named "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The use of the weapons, which resulted in the immediate deaths of at least 120,000 individuals (mostly civilians) and about twice that number over time, was and remains controversial — critics charged that they were unnecessary acts of mass killing, while others claimed that they ultimately reduced casualties on both sides by hastening the end of the war. WAR CRIMES TRIALS At wartime meetings, the Allies had agreed that Axis leaders should be tried for “crimes against humanity.” In Germany, the Allies held war crimes trials in Nuremberg, where Hitler had staged mass rallies in the 1930s. A handful of top Nazis received death sentences. Others were imprisoned. Similar war crimes trials were held in Japan and Italy. The trials showed that political and military leaders could be held accountable for actions in wartime. Yet the war crimes trials did not address crimes against humanity committed by the Allies. The war crimes trials served another purpose as well. By exposing the savagery of the Axis regimes, they further discredited the Nazi, fascist, and militarist ideologies that had led to war. Yet disturbing questions haunted people then, as now. Many people wondered how such terrible massacres could have occurred, and how ordinary people had accepted and even collaborated in the war crimes. The Allies tried to address those issues when they occupied Germany and Japan. The United States felt that strengthening democracy would ensure tolerance and peace. The western Allies built new governments with democratic constitutions to protect the rights of all citizens. In German schools, for example, Nazi textbooks and courses were replaced with a new curriculum that taught democratic principles.

After you have finished your notes, answer the following question in at least one paragraph: What is a war crime? War itself may be seen as a crime against humanity. How do we decide that certain acts are criminal?