Folks, I would like to preface this article with a quick request. I can be contacted at the e-mail address listed below, or by phone - my number is in the book. Specifically, I am looking for additional perspectives from World War II, wherever they may have occurred. Even something as simple as a weekly trip to Monroe is a chapter in American history that does not deserve to be forgotten.
Continuing on last week's discussion, we will further study the world events that led up to World War II. Here in the United States, families in the Midwest were partaking in weekly delights like shopping on the Monroe Square each Saturday evening. It was during this time that Ken was perpetually involved in picking beans for the family, Carol picked enough strawberries to purchase a $2 dress, and Jim spent his summers working on his uncle's farm just outside Madison. For the most part, growing up in America during the 1930s invited a routine sense of normalcy. Financially, times were tough, but families maintained cohesion, stuck together and prospered.
Elsewhere in the world, daily life was a struggle for survival. In Russia, a bitter civil war erupted between the counter-revolutionary Whites and the Bolshevik Reds, with the Bolsheviks emerging victorious. Although formally recognized as the ruling party of Russia elsewhere in the world, tensions remained high within the country, especially between the millions of peasants and the Bolshevik government. Communist-style war requisition practices caused the deaths of SEVEN MILLION Russians during the 1920-21 famine. Peasant uprisings were squashed with excessive brutal force. In many cases, entire villages were burnt to the ground with all inhabitants executed, while neighboring citizens were forced to watch as a reminder not to oppose the Bolsheviks.
Up to the start of World War II, Russia experienced her own set of holocausts. Consider this: 15 MILLION Christian Russian Kulak farmers were exterminated from 1924 to 1930. Additionally, 7 million Ukrainian farmers starved to death from 1930 to 1933, and 12 million Russian political prisoners were destroyed from 1919 to 1949. By contrast, in all of World War II, approximately 13 million Americans were enlisted in all branches of the military combined.
Elsewhere in the world, China was experiencing her own Civil War. An upcoming Marxist named Mao Zedong was undermining the Chiang Kai-shek government. Mao believed that, when united, the peasants could work together to overthrow the authorities. He possessed limitless faith in the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, and began establishing peasant-based communist governments and, with the aid of military commander Zhu De, Mao was able to manipulate the peasants into a politicized guerrilla force. By early 1928, this "Peasants' and Workers'" army employed some 10,000 troops.
Starting in October 1934, Mao's force began its legendary Long March. Totaling 100,000 souls, this force was comprised of Communist soldiers, political figures and party leaders, and trekked over 12,000 kilometers across southwest and northwest China. Mao's Long March snaked across the countryside, crossing 11 provinces, 18 mountain ranges, and 24 rivers. The end result of this march was that Mao gained unrivaled control of the Communist party, and re-established guerrilla strategy. The Long March ended in southern Shaanxi Province when some 30,000 survivors and recruits arrived in October of 1935. China's Communist movement was headquartered at Yan'an, and continued to grow successfully for the next 10 years. One of the main external forces contributing to the growth of China's Communist party was the rising aggression of Japanese forces.
Folks, you may ask why I took the time to point out the civil unrest occurring in China and Russia during the 1920s and 1930s. I did this, because there are a set of striking similarities between Germany and Japan, and their situations leading up to World War II. As we learned last week, Germany was an incredibly prosperous country until the Great War, both socially and economically. The Treaty of Versailles severely limited Germany's post-war economic development, even stripping her of lands to which she felt entitled. Similarly, Japan was an up-and-coming industrial nation during the 1920s and 1930s. A tiny island-nation in the Pacific, Japan was severely limited by its inability to secure essential natural resources. Both nations looked across their borders to lands abundant in resources, yet unable to establish civilized rule. Germany looked east, to Austria and Czechoslovakia, and actually acquired all of those lands by March 1939. Germany did so largely without a fight, since France and Great Britain did not want to repeat the atrocious bloodshed of World War I. They believed that if Hitler could be appeased, war could be avoided.
Elsewhere in the world, Japan was making small claims to neighboring territories. Hungry for raw materials and burdened by a growing population, Japan seized Manchuria in 1931 and established the puppet regime of Manchukuo headed by Emperor Puyi. Keep in mind that at this time, all of China was embroiled in a massive civil war; Chinese forces were tied up fighting Communist guerrillas, while Japan walked right past the Great Wall, and into northern China and her coastal provinces.
Thus, with relatively little world resistance, both Japan and Germany were able to make small claims to neighboring territories. As we will see next week, formal resistance to these forces would soon follow. Still, it would be four years until these conflicts would be brought to American soil.
- Dan Wegmueller of Monroe writes a weekly column for Friday editions of the Times. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.
Continuing on last week's discussion, we will further study the world events that led up to World War II. Here in the United States, families in the Midwest were partaking in weekly delights like shopping on the Monroe Square each Saturday evening. It was during this time that Ken was perpetually involved in picking beans for the family, Carol picked enough strawberries to purchase a $2 dress, and Jim spent his summers working on his uncle's farm just outside Madison. For the most part, growing up in America during the 1930s invited a routine sense of normalcy. Financially, times were tough, but families maintained cohesion, stuck together and prospered.
Elsewhere in the world, daily life was a struggle for survival. In Russia, a bitter civil war erupted between the counter-revolutionary Whites and the Bolshevik Reds, with the Bolsheviks emerging victorious. Although formally recognized as the ruling party of Russia elsewhere in the world, tensions remained high within the country, especially between the millions of peasants and the Bolshevik government. Communist-style war requisition practices caused the deaths of SEVEN MILLION Russians during the 1920-21 famine. Peasant uprisings were squashed with excessive brutal force. In many cases, entire villages were burnt to the ground with all inhabitants executed, while neighboring citizens were forced to watch as a reminder not to oppose the Bolsheviks.
Up to the start of World War II, Russia experienced her own set of holocausts. Consider this: 15 MILLION Christian Russian Kulak farmers were exterminated from 1924 to 1930. Additionally, 7 million Ukrainian farmers starved to death from 1930 to 1933, and 12 million Russian political prisoners were destroyed from 1919 to 1949. By contrast, in all of World War II, approximately 13 million Americans were enlisted in all branches of the military combined.
Elsewhere in the world, China was experiencing her own Civil War. An upcoming Marxist named Mao Zedong was undermining the Chiang Kai-shek government. Mao believed that, when united, the peasants could work together to overthrow the authorities. He possessed limitless faith in the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, and began establishing peasant-based communist governments and, with the aid of military commander Zhu De, Mao was able to manipulate the peasants into a politicized guerrilla force. By early 1928, this "Peasants' and Workers'" army employed some 10,000 troops.
Starting in October 1934, Mao's force began its legendary Long March. Totaling 100,000 souls, this force was comprised of Communist soldiers, political figures and party leaders, and trekked over 12,000 kilometers across southwest and northwest China. Mao's Long March snaked across the countryside, crossing 11 provinces, 18 mountain ranges, and 24 rivers. The end result of this march was that Mao gained unrivaled control of the Communist party, and re-established guerrilla strategy. The Long March ended in southern Shaanxi Province when some 30,000 survivors and recruits arrived in October of 1935. China's Communist movement was headquartered at Yan'an, and continued to grow successfully for the next 10 years. One of the main external forces contributing to the growth of China's Communist party was the rising aggression of Japanese forces.
Folks, you may ask why I took the time to point out the civil unrest occurring in China and Russia during the 1920s and 1930s. I did this, because there are a set of striking similarities between Germany and Japan, and their situations leading up to World War II. As we learned last week, Germany was an incredibly prosperous country until the Great War, both socially and economically. The Treaty of Versailles severely limited Germany's post-war economic development, even stripping her of lands to which she felt entitled. Similarly, Japan was an up-and-coming industrial nation during the 1920s and 1930s. A tiny island-nation in the Pacific, Japan was severely limited by its inability to secure essential natural resources. Both nations looked across their borders to lands abundant in resources, yet unable to establish civilized rule. Germany looked east, to Austria and Czechoslovakia, and actually acquired all of those lands by March 1939. Germany did so largely without a fight, since France and Great Britain did not want to repeat the atrocious bloodshed of World War I. They believed that if Hitler could be appeased, war could be avoided.
Elsewhere in the world, Japan was making small claims to neighboring territories. Hungry for raw materials and burdened by a growing population, Japan seized Manchuria in 1931 and established the puppet regime of Manchukuo headed by Emperor Puyi. Keep in mind that at this time, all of China was embroiled in a massive civil war; Chinese forces were tied up fighting Communist guerrillas, while Japan walked right past the Great Wall, and into northern China and her coastal provinces.
Thus, with relatively little world resistance, both Japan and Germany were able to make small claims to neighboring territories. As we will see next week, formal resistance to these forces would soon follow. Still, it would be four years until these conflicts would be brought to American soil.
- Dan Wegmueller of Monroe writes a weekly column for Friday editions of the Times. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.
