Lessons From Wars Pg. 2
Page two
On this page you will find lessons about:
- The Vietnam War
- Japanese Detention Camps
Vietnam War
“The lesson of the war is perhaps that it is impossible to impose all will over people who don’t want to.” An anonymous Vietnam Veteran
From the late 1800's to the end of the year in 1939, Vietnam was ruled by the French. In 1940, during WWII, Japan invaded the country of Vietnam. A group called the Viet Minh tried to fight off their country’s invaders: the French and the Japanese.
Ho Chi Minh was the leader of a Communist group called the Viet Minh that wanted to make Japan and France leave their country. Ho Chi Minh was greatly loved by the people in his country because he was a freedom fighter. The USA and Vietnam both fought against the Japanese after the Japenese were defeated, the French tried to control Vietnam again, so a war between the French and Viet Minh broke out in 1946. In 1954, the Viet Minh finally defeated the French army at the battle at Dien Bien Phu. After that the country was divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The capitol of South Vietnam was called Saigon, and the capitol of North Vietnam was called Hanoi.
In 1957 in South Vietnam a communist insurgency arose called the Viet Cong. They attacked the south Vietnam villages and the South Vietnam armies. The Viet Cong had Vietnamese guerillas and normal forces in their infantry.
The South Vietnam army called ARVN, was supported by the USA. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnam army wanted to take over South Vietnam, and could make it a communist country. The Vietnam War started samll, but quickly became a major war that threated world peace. Communitst countries supported the Viet Cong and ARVN, and the USA and it's allies supported South Vietnam.
Vietnam War Part 2
Beginning in the 1950's the USA sent military advisors to help South Vietman. In South Vietnema there was competition for a leader and finally a leader was chosen named Ngo Dinh Diem. But he was assassinated on November,2 1963, and then was succeeded by Duong Van Minh. In 1967 a new president was elected. He was Ngyen Van Thiev, an army general.
The Viet Cong was highly supported by North Vietnam, and they still continued their attacks and raids. In 1965, US president Lyndon B. Johnson sent large numbers of troops to help the southern government. As a result all of the troops in South Vietnam were able to regain control of most of the country.
In 1968 during the Tet religious period there was a major Viet Cong attack on thirty South Vietnam cities. Large numbers of Viet Cong were slaughtered. Nevertheless, the mass scale of the uprising convinced the United States to withdraw from the war. The war continued until the USA withdrew its support in 1973. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire, but before long the North Vietnames communits started the war again. North Vietnam took over the entire South Vietnamese government in April, 1975.
Citations
Gilbert, Marc Jason. "Vietnam War." World Book Advanced. 2009. 24 March 2009 <http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar585370>.
Japanese Dention Camps
The lesson is that you shouldn’t hold innocent people against their will for crimes of war that they didnt commit.
In February, 1942, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 that authorized the military to take more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry out of their homes on the West Coast and send them to camps far inland from the Pacific Coast. This was two months after the Japanese Air Force bombed the USA’s naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, and many people in the U.S.A thought that Japanese-Americans would try to send confidential information to the Japanese Army to help them win the war. These camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers, and people lived in crowded barracks. Most of them lost their personal property, homes, businesses and farms when they were sent to the camps on very short notice. They were kept there under guard for the duration of the war. Even though they were denied their rights and freedom, most Japanese-Americans remained loyal to the USA, and no one was ever found guilty of spying. In fact, many of the young men volunteered to serve in the American armed forces. In 1943 when the armed forces finally allowed them to serve, thousands signed up, including more than 1200 from the camps. However, the Japanese-American soldiers were kept in segregated units and were only allowed to fight in Europe.
Japanese camps p. 2
World War II Prisoner of War Camps
In 1929 the Geneva Convention was held in the country of Switzerland. The agreement signed at the Geneva Convention said that P.O.Ws in the future would have to be given certain rights, including the proper medical care for war wounds and any ailment that might come up; nourishing food, and any mail that came from their family, friends or other people. The Convention also said that the neutral governments and neutral agencies should go and inspect the P.O.W camps to see that every thing was in order.. During World War II the Germans would treat the British, French, and American P.O.Ws (Prisoner Of War) properly, but the Russian P.O.Ws were not treated the same way as the British, French, or American P.O.Ws,. The Germans were brutal to the Russian P.O.Ws. The Russians were equally brutal toward German P.O.Ws. But both sides treated Polish P.O.Ws brutally. In theory some rules governed in treatment of P.O.Ws so some of the prisoners were ok. The Soviet Union, however, had never signed the Geneva agreement, and also, the Japanese government never ratified it. These two very large powers processed millions of prisoners during the years of the war, and did not always follow the Geneva agreement. Although there were a lot of acts of kindness the Japanese were still very cruel to their prisoners.
camps continued p. 3
In Japan there was an ancient code called the Bushido that made all the soldiers fight till their last breath and to not even think of giving up hope. Probably because of this, the Japanese guards looked at the prisoners of war (P.O.Ws)as cowards and treated them badly. When the garrison fell in the city of Singapore in February, 1942, 61,000 British, Dutch and Australian soldiers had to surrender to the Japanese armies. They were then put to work to start working on building a two 260-mile long railroad that went from the Burma to Thailand. It went over mountains, through dense jungle and over streams and rivers. It was known to the P.O.Ws as the “Death Railway.” It was estimated that least at 15 million people were P.O.Ws and many thousands died and were never re-united with their families. More than 70,000 American and Filipino P.O.W.s had to surrender to Japanese forces after the fall of Bataan in April, 1942 and the fall of Corregidor in May, 1942. They were held in miserable conditions in prison camps spread throughout the Phillipines and in labor camps in Japan. It has been estimated that the majority of the Americans and the Filipinos alive at the time of surrender did not live to see the end of the war.
Citations:
"Wikipedia". <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/> accessed March, 2009.
Internment camp Pic.
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