WW2 From the Japanese Perspective | Animated History

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Sources:
"Chinese Victory: Changteh is Lost and Won in Battle Called Most Decisive in Three Years". LIFE. 21 February 1944.

Grand Strategy and Military Alliances (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2016).

Japanese-German Relations, 1895-1945: War, Diplomacy and Public Opinion (United Kingdom: Routledge, 2006).

The Japanese Navy in World War II: In the Words of Former Japanese Naval Officers, Second Edition. (United States: Naval Institute Press, 2017).

Dickinson, Frederick R. World War I and the Triumph of a New Japan, 1919-1930 (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Ienaga, Saburō. The Pacific War, 1931-1945: A Critical Perspective on Japan’s Role in World War II, 1931-1945 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978).

Iriye, Akira. The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific (United Kingdom: Routledge, 2013).

Kuromiya, Hiroaki. Stalin, Japan, and the Struggle for Supremacy Over China, 1894-1945 (United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Group, 2023).

Marston, Daniel (ed.). The Pacific War: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Oxford: Osprey Press, 2011.

Matsusaka, Yoshihisa Tak. The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-1932 (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001).

Mimura, Janis. Planning for Empire: Reform Bureaucrats and the Japanese Wartime State (United States: Cornell University Press, 2011).

Paine, S. C. M. The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Porter, Edgar A. and Porter, Ran Ying. Japanese Reflections on World War II and the American Occupation (Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2018).

Rottman, Gordon L. and Anderson Duncan. Japanese Army in World War II: Conquest of the Pacific 1941–42 (United Kingdom: Bloomsbury USA, 2005).

Tanaka, Toshiyuki. Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II (United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

Thorne, Christopher. The Limits of Foreign Policy: The West, the League and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931-1933 (United Kingdom: MacMillan Press Ltd, 1972).

Wetzler, Peter. Hirohito and War: Imperial Tradition and Military Decision Making in Prewar Japan (United States: University of Hawaii Press, 1998).

Wright, Derrick. Pacific Victory. Tarawa to Okinawa 1943-1945 (United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing Limited, 2005).

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[TheArmchairHistorian]

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[marcello]

Imagine being a Japanese soldier and remaining isolated on a small isle unaware of what's happened to the rest of the world till the 1970s.

[DeliveryDemon]

My great granddad Feser was at Pearl Harbor on the USS California. After the bombing, he was reassigned to the USS Aragon, and saw action at every battle of the Pacific except for Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. He later went on to fight in Korea. I never knew him, sadly, as he died before I was born

[naythancruz]

You should do the Napoleonic retreat from Russia from the french soldier's perspective. I think that would be very interesting. Keep it up Griffin 🙏

(Edit): OMG thanks for all the likes, hopefully Griffin could one day make this happen 👍

[iKvetch]

I was kind of surprised not to see any mention of the incident between Japan and the USA that involved the USS Panay river gunboat. It definitely caused a lot of anti Japanese sentiment in the USA, and could have led to war between the 2 if FDR had felt the USA was ready to fight.
It is also surprising that there was no mention at all of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact of April 1941. That had a huge impact on the course of the war, and I am frankly a bit shocked that Armchair would leave it out entirely.

[jackw]

Damn, I'm always amazed by how good the artwork is. Let the artists know their hard work doesn't go unnoticed.

[SimoHayha]

How did Japan go from war crimes to cute anime girls it's like they pulled a Michael Jackson on the world lol

[snowade]

my great grandfather was drafted to the imperial japanese army, he escaped through a small sewer few hours before his unit was sent to the Battle of Okinawa, he told my dad that none of his comrades came back home (he is from korea)

[mustafaalwan]

Mishima’s novel ‘runaway horses’ provides great insight into the Japanese mind and psyche during the interwar period .

[aozoratenwa]

I was waiting so long for a video on Japan, and I'm kinda mixed. The full documentary on Germany takes 1h30 but this video on Japan is a 17min one-shot. Sure it is very well made and sums up everything very well, but it kinds of feels rushed. Even the end is kind of abrupt. I don't think this video does enough to really highlight the Japanese role in WW2. It's even shorter than the video on Italy (one of the best btw).
I hope that this was just a summary video and that the team plans on other videos on the pacific theater that will go more in-depth, like a video on the quality of the Japanese navy like you did on the Kriegsmarine.

[Numba]

Sometimes I think the scale of the Pacific and Sino-Japanese theaters get overshadowed by the war in Europe and Africa, but man, WW2 was just horrific all around. Thank you for another interesting episode.
God be with you out there everybody. ✝️

[whispro]

It should be noted that at the battle of midway, the divergence of forces to the Aleutian Islands may have been a secession to the army who wished to expand the defense perimeter. The army and navy did NOT get along or agree in the Japanese government at the time and bothe of them often had to sacrifice parts of their plan to the other just so the plan could be carried out.

[foxtrotbibi]

Have you taken a look into World War Two from the Norwegian perspective? You should also try taking a look at the fighting in Myanmar and Thailand.

[napoleon]

"The rise of the japanese empire"
from backwater to global powerhouse on par with European powers would be an interesting topic.

[daehr]

Griffin I just gotta say, your voice is one in a million. So clear. Deep. Concise. You should definitely look into voiceover work, I'd love to hear you narrate a Ken Burns documentary.

[Not_the_Soviet_Union]

You should talk about the rivalry between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy.

[Inuzumi]

The stupidly fast rise of japanese naval force is scary as hell. They went from nothing to competing with Britain and the US. Would like you to do a video centered about it like you did with the Kriegsmarine.

[colegilbert]

That early intro with the rising sun's beams shining over Asia is so menacing but cool at the same time!

[peterfan]

I thought this was meant to be from the Japanese perspective - "What atrocities?" "We are the liberators from the Colonial rule."

[JamesDPoetry]

I’ve always thought a civil war from the slaves perspective would be interesting and important as a relatively overlooked subject