The Korean War, also known as the forgotten war , was one of the most brutal and violent wars of the 20th century. Less than five million people died during this war. My grandfather, Herbert Victor Sapper, was drafted during the time of the Korean War, but, he wasn’t sent to Korea, he was sent to Japan. Since my grandfather passed away in 1995, I gathered all of my information about my grandfather from my grandmother, Lelia Bell Sapper. Here is their story. My grandfather was sent to Japan in the year 1950. The Korean War was a few years after the surrendering and bombing of Japan. Japan and Korea were two separate things. Victor was sent to help re-build a hospital in Hokkaido Japan, the most northern island in Japan. My grandmother says he was made a Captain in the Medical Corps and a Paratrooper in the U.S. Army stationed in Japan during the Occupation following World War II. He was to rebuild a hospital in Japan. The previous hospital had been bombed in the war with Japan. They desperately needed another hospital, so the army chose Victor because of his background in medicine. Also, he was an expert linguist. He was able to learn languages fast and efficiently. “He didn’t write me anything about being a parachutist… but one day I got a great big fat letter containing all his logs. When I read this I thought I would lose my breath.” When stationed in Korea, he was required to train to become a parachutist. If he didn’t complete this, he would have to attend the Korean War, which no one would have wished to attend. He had to jump out of a plane five times to complete his training. My grandmother also told me this: “Fortunately he was a diver… if you didn’t stick to your training you could break your back.” My grandfather... ... middle of paper ... ...ailor, nature photographer and an accomplished watercolor artist known for his Oklahoma landscapes. He and his partner continued their clinic until 1994. As stated previously, he passed away in 1995. Works Cited Army.com. Accessed November 12, 2013. http://www.knox.army.mil/About/History.aspx. Halberstam, David. The Coldest Winter. Hyperion, NY: Hyperion, 2007. History.com. Accessed November 4, 2013. http://www.history.com/topics/korean-war. Koreanwar.org. Accessed November 4, 2013. http://www.koreanwar.org/. Life. Accessed November 11, 2013. http://life.time.com/history/life-in-korea-rare-photos-from-the-forgotten-war/#1. Newsok.com. Last modified January 27, 1995. Accessed November 12, 2013. http://newsok.com/dr.-h.v.l.-sapper/article/2490728. Sapper, Lelia Bell. Interview by the author. Oklahoma City, Ok. October 29, 2013.
War termination and the decision of when to negotiate peace are rarely effectively planned before a war. The Russo-Japanese War is one of a few historical exceptions. The Russo-Japanese War provides three enduring lessons about war termination in a conflict fought for limited aims. First, the most effective war termination plans are created before the war. Second, continued military and political pressure can effectively improve your position to negotiate peace. Third, common interests and compromise are required for durable peace.
The occupation of Japan was, from start to finish, an American operation. General Douglans MacArthur, sole supreme commander of the Allied Power was in charge. The Americans had insufficient men to make a military government of Japan possible; so t hey decided to act through the existing Japanese government. General Mac Arthur became, except in name, dictator of Japan. He imposed his will on Japan. Demilitarization was speedily carried out, demobilization of the former imperial forces was complet ed by early 1946.Japan was extensively fire bombed during the second world war. The stench of sewer gas, rotting garbage, and the acrid smell of ashes and scorched debris pervaded the air. The Japanese people had to live in the damp, and col d of the concrete buildings, because they were the only ones left. Little remained of the vulnerable wooden frame, tile roof dwelling lived in by most Japanese. When the first signs of winter set in, the occupation forces immediately took over all the s team-heated buildings. The Japanese were out in the cold in the first post war winter fuel was very hard to find, a family was considered lucky if they had a small barely glowing charcoal brazier to huddle around. That next summer in random spots new ho uses were built, each house was standardized at 216 square feet, and required 2400 board feet of material in order to be built. A master plan for a modernistic city had been drafted, but it was cast aside because of the lack of time before the next winte r. The thousands of people who lived in railroad stations and public parks needed housing.All the Japanese heard was democracy from the Americans. All they cared about was food. General MacAruther asked the government to send food, when they refus ed he sent another telegram that said, "Send me food, or send me bullets."American troops were forbidden to eat local food, as to keep from cutting from cutting into the sparse local supply.No food was was brought in expressly for the Japanese durning the first six months after the American presence there. Herbert Hoover, serving as chairman of a special presidential advisory committee, recommended minimum imports to Japan of 870,000 tons of food to be distributed in different urban areas. Fi sh, the source of so much of the protein in the Japanese diet, were no longer available in adequate quantities because the fishing fleet, particularly the large vessels, had been badly decimated by the war and because the U.
Futrel Frank Robert. The United States Air Force in Korea. Washington: N.p, 1983. Air Force Historical Studies Office. Web. 15 Apr. 2014
22. Muller, Eric,Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II . 2001, University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition
By 1938 Japan had invaded much of China and had taken over Nanking killing more than 42,000 civilians. The Chinese government never surrendered completely, and the war continued on a lower scale until 1945. During World War II, the Japanese military forced women from various different countries to work as comfort women to the Japanese soldiers. Trafficking in women is a form of sexual slavery in which women are transported across national borders and sold for prostitution, sex tourism, or migrant workers. Women were kidnapped or brought over under false pretenses thinking that they were being given jobs. The comfort women of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II are an extreme case of this institutionalized sexual violence against women. Through research and testimonies from comfort women survivors during World War II and former Japanese veterans, I attempt to show the ways that this has affected the intersection of colonial power, gender and class. I argue that the development of gender contributes to the construction of Japanese colonialism and the system of comfort women helped Japan as an imperial state gain power. The ideas of masculinity and femininity is what helped the maintenance of the Japanese military system and comfort stations made an impact in which Japan expanded its colonies by military means.
Suh, Jungbo 동아일보,“[만화]’원폭 잔혹성 폭로’ 日만화 국내출간 : 뉴스 : 동아닷컴.” Dong A, 14 sept. 2000. Web.
Even though none of my relatives were killed or tortured by the Japanese, I am still afraid. I am afraid that my vicarious wounds still linger inside me, affecting everything I do.
The Economic Effect on Japan during Post World War II. Japan’s economy was greatly affected by the atomic bombs dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan’s economic recovery as a result of this incident transformed Japan’s economic growth, which has become known as the “Economic Miracle.” The bombs caused Japan to reconstruct many more facilities in which the economy moved forward. The Economic Planning Agency, which used to be known as the Economic Stabilization Board, helped Japan to become one of the leading economic nations.
For the reunification of Japan to occur in the 1600’s, a new government system would have to be formed. The main goal of the government would be to stop the fighting between daimyo, local lords. Before the Tokugawa Shogunate took control, Toyotomi Hideyoshi became the dominate daimyo of Japan. But when he passed away it was Tokugawa Ieyasu who created an imperial rule by establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603. Even under the Tokugawa’s rule, the daimyo kept their own land and laws, just as long as every other year they stayed in Edo. Edo was the new administrative capital set up by the Shogunate. Even before Japan’s reunification, the society had been split into certain classes. When the Tokugawa had control the made these class systems
The Rise of Militarism in Japan During the 1930s Japanese militarism reached the peak高峰 in 1932-45. This era was called the "Dark Valley黑暗的深淵" in Japanese history. In its simplest meaning, militarism means prestige and greatness of Japan at the expense犧牲 of other countries, an aggressive foreign policy, dominance主導 and overall political control by military officers, a huge military budget, an intensiveåŠ å¼·çš„ armament programme as well as militarist attitudes of the people as a whole. The rise of Japanese militarism in the 1930s was due to many factors. Firstly, the emergence of Shintoism神é“æ•™ in the late Tokugawa era provided Japanese militarism with the ideological foundation.
The Korean War explicitly portrayed the atrocious battle between both the North and South side which gave the United Nations its military role for the first time, thus expanding the war from a domestic to an international scale. Sometimes called “The Forgotten War”, the Korean War was mainly overshadowed in historical terms by the conflicts that occurred before and after it, World War II and the Vietnam War. The Korean War had raged for years without a true resolution and after years of battles, even the compromise that was made was not a complete one. The current situation in North and South Korea is quite volatile. In order to apprehend the Korean War, one has to look at events that took place before the war, how the war was conducted and the aftermath of the War.
Freedom is not free. These powerful words resound in my mind as I admire the Korean War Memorial at the National Mall. Surrounded by several life size statues of soldiers in action I feel an odd sensation. I am either overwhelmed by emotion or completely drained of it; I cannot tell which. Staring into the smoky colored granite I see one thousand faces glaring back at me. At one instance I see the faces of thousands of soldiers’ faces reflected back to me. Seconds later, I swear I can see the faces of one thousand forgotten children looking deep into my eyes. These “children of the war” silently scream of one thousand different stories that have been forgotten or brushed aside for decades now. Abruptly, the children vanish and once again I see the soldiers, only now they are indignant. They bark at me with strong voices, “No, this was our forgotten war. We are the truly forgotten!” However, I disagree. These soldiers, now veterans, have earned this monument and have had their voices and stories heard. Yet, these “children of the war,” both Korean and Ameriasian, who grew up in Korea’s post war era of the 50’s and 60’s are the truly forgotten. They are forgotten because virtually no one realizes what their lives were like growing up; hence, no one recognizes the hardships and battles that many of these children faced. To fully understand these forgotten “children of the war” one must first listen to their story.
Japan is an island country located in eastern Asia. It is a small country compared to the other countries in the mainland. Despite its size and location, it is a very developed country. Japan is known for its geography, climate, religion, food and mostly for its popular culture that has influenced other parts of the world.
Kafka On The Shore, by Haruki Murakami, is an award-winning novel about the journey of a fifteen-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura, and an illiterate elder single man Satoru Nakata, on a race between time, their identity, and their destiny. The story set its scene in modern Japan, where Kafka Tamura grew up in a single-parent family, while Nakata lives alone with government subsidy in the same neighborhood of Tokyo. While this book narrates a story taking place in current days for the most part, it rewinds back to the old and powerful imperial Japan in several aspects. With a reference to an air raid on Yamanashi prefecture during the World War II and a victim who suffered from the consequences, Kafka On The Shore shows a strong tie between modern Japan and the original imperial Japan. Therefore, Kafka On The Shore is a modern reminiscence on Japan’s perplexing involvement in World War II, as well as a metaphorical depiction of the outcome of Japan from the war.
The Land of the Rising Sun, Japan, is an island located in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Surrounded by water, this archipelago is nearly 71% mountainous. The climate of Japan is fairly consistent creating a long growing season. Because of these specific geographic features, Japan’s culture has been impacted greatly. One of the largest sources of protein, for the Japanese, is fish. This source of protein is gained through the help of specific geographic features. As well as their diet, their source of relaxation and tranquility is made possible. Finally, a large growing season is promising as well.