Podcasts about ww2

Historian and bookseller Edmund Goldrick on the hair-raising, forgotten tale of the escaped Australian prisoners of war who stumbled into another, hidden genocide, and tried to stop it.Early in the World War Two, Australian soldiers who had been captured by the Germans escaped by leaping from a moving train.They found themselves in unfamiliar territory, in the lands of Yugoslavia.The Australians on the run found themselves in the company of dangerous men, who planned to use the cover of war to commit genocide.One of the Australians fell in with a Serbian Royalist group, and when he discovered their leader's plans, he acted as a double agent in their ranks, determined to find a way to warn the Allies that their man in Serbia was determined to conduct mass murder.Anzac Guerillas is published by Hachette.Edmund will be giving a talk on Remembrance Day at the Goulburn Library, and again on Saturday, 6 December at Sydney's Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park.This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.It explores war, POWs, Germany, former Yugoslavia, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Catholic, Orthodox, Roma people, Jewish, Islamic, Chetniks, Partisans, genocide, civil war, death, escape, spies, double agents, allied forces, war crimes, international war tribunal, guerilla warfare, murder, assassination, holocaust, Italy, Greece, fascism, tyranny, Bosnia, Nazi, Hitler.To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Pete and Gary are returning to their roots in this special series ahead of the release of Season 8. The South Notts Hussars were a WW2 artillery unit, and Pete interviewed dozens of veterans from this unit during his time at the Imperial War Museum. This is their story.Pete's new book on Egypt and the Sudan, Chain of Fire, is available now. Get an autographed copy at https://peter-hart.sumupstore.com/Presenters: Peter Hart and Gary BainPublisher: Mat McLachlanProducer: Jess StebnickiVisit Gallipoli with Pete and Gary! Go to https://phbt.uk/ for more information!Become a member to listen ad-free and receive special bonus content for only £2 per month: https://plus.acast.com/s/pete-and-garys-military-historySupport the show with a one-off contribution: https://buymeacoffee.com/pgmhFind out everything Pete and Gary are doing at https://linktr.ee/pgmh Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Palestinian Arabs rose up against the British in 1936, what repressive tactics were used to quell the revolt? Who was the WW2 hero “Bomber” Harris, and why did he bomb Palestinians in the 1930s? How did Christians, Muslims and Jews who had once co-existed in the region turn against each other in a divisive civil war?  William and Anita are joined once again by Caroline Elkins, author of Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, to discuss how unexpected characters from the web of British imperial violence appear in Palestine during the Revolt of 1936-1939. Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com  For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Professor Jackson takes a step back to review themes from episodes 187 through 189 (War in Europe and America's Response), specifically the slow turn from isolationism to aid via Lend-Lease, and eventually to preparing for war.  Prof. Jackson's guests are Professor Lindsey Cormack, an associate professor of political science at Stevens Institute of Technology, and historian Lynne Olson, author of several books on WW2 including Citizens of London which chronicles the pivotal role played by three Americans who influenced the decisions of President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill—Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant. Olson emphasizes how these individuals navigated the complexities of diplomacy and public opinion, often against a backdrop of American isolationism and British skepticism, ultimately building a strong relationship that was essential for the war effort.  ____ Connect with us on ⁠HTDSpodcast.com⁠ and go deep into ⁠episode bibliographies⁠ and ⁠book recommendations⁠ join discussions in our ⁠Facebook community⁠ get news and discounts from ⁠The HTDS Gazette⁠  come ⁠see a live show⁠ get ⁠HTDS merch⁠ or become an ⁠HTDS premium⁠ member for bonus episodes and other perks. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Warrior Next Door and pleased to have collaborated with Ray Harris Jr. of The History of WW2 Podcast to discuss our Top Five Nazi Blunders of WW2! Please leave your top five on our website warriornextdoor.com or our facebook page!Support the show

Get one free month of service when you make the switch to Patriot Mobile and use Promo Code "WOLF"   https://patriotmobile.com/partners/wolfPatriot Mobile donates a portion of every dollar earned to organizations that fight for causes you care about.Patriot Mobile has exceptional 4G & 5G nationwide coverage and uses all the same towers the main carriers use. Patriot Mobile offers a Contract Buy-Out. This offer allows new customers to buy out a current device from their departing carrier and receive up to $500 per device applied as a credit on their phone bill. What kind of a reaction should you expect when you get behind the bar at a night club? Is it possible for the Army to take a joke at the safety briefing?  Find out, the answers to these questions and more on this weeks "sode" of The Cammo Comedy Show Podcast!If you have any funny military stories of your own that you would like to share, drop us a line at:stories@cammocomedy.com  or  Leave a voicemail at (531) 222-6146  Sadly, the voicemail will only record in 2 minute blocksWe are here to make you laugh, but behind this there is the imbedded philosophy of, "No One Left Behind." Sadly, 22 vets per day commit suicide, approximately 67,500 vets are homeless and thousands struggle with everyday life after service.  What we hope to accomplish is providing a fun place to gather that will have a similar feel to the conversations that happen at the VFW or American Legion between vets.  Since the latest generations of vets are not really going to these places anymore, we are making it happen online.  We believe that the sense of community will help some who struggle, while providing stories about the good times that we can all laugh at!An additional part of this show is capturing the oral history of the military over the past few decades, so if you happen to know a veteran who served during WW2, Korean War or Vietnam eras, we would love to hear from them.  Obviously, we want to hear stories from all eras, but we have special respect for the older generations.  

On the eastern front in WW2, there was before-Stalingrad, and after-Stalingrad. The fight for the Soviet city was among the most brutal and deadly in the history of warfare. So why not check it out from the losing side and follow a small group of soldiers in General Paulus' Sixth Army as they do everything to stay alive in an environment that was as close to hell on earth as there ever was... but with our jokes! Next week: freedom. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? You can always shoot us an e-mail at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠forscreenandcountry@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   Full List: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/war-movies/the-100-greatest-war-movies-of-all-time⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/forscreenandcountry⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/fsacpo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠d⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our logo was designed by the wonderful Mariah Lirette (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/its.mariah.xo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) Stalingrad stars Thomas Kretschmann, Dominique Horowitz, Jochen Nickel, Dana Vávrová, Martin Benrath, Sylvester Groth and Karel Heřmánek; directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Phil is in Australia this week, combining a holiday in some of his favourite cities with several talks about 1945 The Reckoning. But before he left he spoke to Roger Moorhouse about his fascinating new book on U Boats in WW2. Roger tells the story almost exclusively through the eyes of the German Navy, and the men who risked and very often lost their lives in submarines. It makes for a surprising new way of understanding a critical part of WW2. Roger's Book...https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/wolfpack-inside-hitler-s-u-boat-war-roger-moorhouse/aeed72f55fe732c4?ean=9780008644895&next=t&next=t&aid=12054Several Australia listeners have asked for a list of where Phil is speaking there. And so here are some opportunities to see him and say ‘G'Day'.Sydney with Chris Masters 12 October... https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/author-talk-1945-the-reckoning-phil-craig-tickets-1248763849289Sydney with Michaela Kalowski 12 October... https://events.humanitix.com/author-talk-and-book-launch-phil-craig-1945-the-reckoningCanberra with Christine Helliwell 15 October...https://www.awm.gov.au/the-end-of-the-second-world-warThere's also information and extracts from Phil's new book here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can order his book now on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia, India and NZ - and it is available all around the world as an e-book and an audio book...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=**We now have a Thank You button (next to the 'three dots') for small donations that help support our work**Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you'd like to get scandalous with? We're here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalM...*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to listen to on ALL major audio platformsThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Adventure: Two OSS Agents go into occupied Norway to blow up a key Nazi-controlled bridge.Original Radio Broadcast: August 20, 1950Originating in New YorkStarring: Berry Kroeger, Raymond Edward Johnson, Jerry Jarrett, Frank Barrens, Karl Weber, Joseph Julian, Ralph Bell.To subscribe to this podcast and, go to https://greatadventures.info/Become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.netSupport the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call at 208-991-4783Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter @radiodetectives

Pete and Gary are returning to their roots in this special series ahead of the release of Season 8. The South Notts Hussars were a WW2 artillery unit, and Pete interviewed dozens of veterans from this unit during his time at the Imperial War Museum. This is their story.Pete's new book on Egypt and the Sudan, Chain of Fire, is available now. Get an autographed copy at https://peter-hart.sumupstore.com/Presenters: Peter Hart and Gary BainPublisher: Mat McLachlanProducer: Jess StebnickiVisit Gallipoli with Pete and Gary! Go to https://phbt.uk/ for more information!Become a member to listen ad-free and receive special bonus content for only £2 per month: https://plus.acast.com/s/pete-and-garys-military-historySupport the show with a one-off contribution: https://buymeacoffee.com/pgmhFind out everything Pete and Gary are doing at https://linktr.ee/pgmh Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 a month.In this patrons episode we're taking some time to explore some of the background to our recent main feed show about colonialism, jazz diplomacy and the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat with a bitesize primer on the origins of the Cold War. Jeremy and Tim run it all the way back to 1917 to unpack the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the subsequent years of communist rule leading into WW2, and the musical expressions of this historic period. Along the way they discuss Soviet Realism, Modernism, formal experimentation in the arts, Stalin, the Monro Doctrine and the CIA. Elsewhere in the episode we hear about George Formby, Peter and the Wolf, the Red Army Choir, and ask whether any of us really like orchestral music. Tracklist:The Red Army Choir - The Internationale Billy Bragg - The Internationale Shostakovich - Symphony No.2 (October)Books:William Blum - Killing Hope

Of all the hundreds of interviews I've done with WWII veterans over the many years, this one ranks at the very top of the “truly remarkable” category. John Mestayer was a soft-spoken fellow, kind and courteous, and led an infantry platoon into combat in France with the 95th Infantry Division. He was the only WW2 veteran in my hometown who wore an eye patch—a wartime injury that stayed with him his whole life. Some said it was from a sniper bullet; others said it was from shrapnel. No one really knew, because he never talked about it--until 2003, when I interviewed him for the "To Honor Our Veterans" oral history project. This a story of faith, courage, leadership, and duty—and it speaks to the humility of that great generation.

As a part of our continuing effort to commemorate the incredible global story of WW2, we present our ongoing ‘Family Stories' series. This series tells YOUR relatives' stories of derring do - both on the front line and home front. In this episode we hear your tales of bucking broncos, Hogan's heroes, and adventures with The Chindits. With thanks to Norman Bell, Peter Finch, Will Hogan, Malcolm Allen, Jo Pool, and Chris Bryan. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access to podcast episodes, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Members also get priority access and discounts to live events. A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Email: wehaveways@goalhanger.com Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tuesday – Who is in charge of a Pop Warner football team, the coach or the dad? PBS is selling off Bob Ross paintings to fund their broadcasts. Orlando Storm of the UFL is coming in 2026. Rauce Thought's on the stigma of buying bagged cereal. We review Rauce's pick about the D-Day invasion during WW2 for WYDTN. It's Only Money with Scott Brown with Edgewater Family Wealth on your 401k. Plus, JCS News, JCS Trivia, Froggers Football Follow-up & You Heard it Here First. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Text me what you thought of the episode and what you'd like to hear about next! -Annie Perry Welcome back to the Luminary Podcast with your host Annie Perry. This week we conclude my Mastery series and stories from my European trip. We're discussing: Current energetic challenges and the up/down nature of Ascension right now.How to Acknowledge, Validate, Qualify yourself through these challenges. Gratitude Rampage for souls who have supported me recently What my Mastery trip was and wasn't; listening to the Light. Gridwork and WW2 clearings in Amsterdam, Netherlands and GermanyClearings in Zurich, Switzerland and Wealth Codes on Time/Money The enormous challenge of gridwork clearing & Past Life Resolutions in Italy. The Astral entity that didn't want me there and energy attacks in Rome. The flight home, energy protection and the deluge of incoming Codes. I'm glad you're here, don't forget to subscribe and share with a friend. You can find out more about my current offering by clicking the link below, visiting www.wellspringofficial.com or joining me on Instagram @eternal_annieENTER THE ASCENSION ACADEMYhttps://www.wellspringofficial.com/the-ascension-academyENTER THE PROSPERITY PORTALhttps://www.wellspringofficial.com/the-prosperity-portalCONNECT WITH ME: Wellspring Official https://www.wellspringofficial.com/wellspring-linksInstagram https://www.instagram.com/eternal_annie/ For those interested in: Ascension, Human Design, Gene Keys, Spirituality, psychic, ascension, manifestation, quantum healing, psychology, inner child, consciousness, galactic, galactic family, Pleiadian, Arcturian, Sirian, Psychic channel, galactic federation of light, esoteric, Lightworker, started, astrology, tarot, reiki, star family, chakra, energy healer, energy, energy worker, spiritual podcast, masculine energetics, feminine energetics, new earth, energy updates, channeled messages, channeling, wellness. Music: Electronic Downtempo Emotional Music | Earth by Alex-Productions | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx0_M61F81Nfb-BRXE-SeVA Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US DISCLAIMER: Information in this podcast is meant to be informative and is not professional mental health advice. Please seek professional help if you are experiencing anxiety, depression or any other physical or mental health medical conditions. Please use discernment and care when implementing any spiritual or physical practices described in this podcast. Some names may have been changed to protect privacy. All original ideas, voice and cover artwork is protected under copyright laws.

Tuesday – Who is in charge of a Pop Warner football team, the coach or the dad? PBS is selling off Bob Ross paintings to fund their broadcasts. Orlando Storm of the UFL is coming in 2026. Rauce Thought's on the stigma of buying bagged cereal. We review Rauce's pick about the D-Day invasion during WW2 for WYDTN. It's Only Money with Scott Brown with Edgewater Family Wealth on your 401k. Plus, JCS News, JCS Trivia, Froggers Football Follow-up & You Heard it Here First.

Hey guys, what you are about to listen to is basically a “what if” Japan performed Hokushin-ron instead of Nanshin-ron, ie: What if Japan invaded the USSR during WW2? Before I jump into it I just want to thank all of you that signed up for the patreon, you guys are awesome. Please leave a comment on this episode to let me know what more you want to hear about in the future. With all of that said and done lets jump right into it.   Part 1 The Geopolitical context   Ok so, one of the questions I get the most is, what if Japan invaded the USSR. I've actually already tackled this subject, albeit lightly with Cody from AlternatehistoryHub and once with my friend Eric. Its too complicated to give a real answer, a lot of this is guess work, though I really will try to provide hard numbers. I think off the bat something needs to be made clear since we are dealing with alternate history. I am not doing a “what if Japan developed completely different, or what if the IJA got their way in the early 1930's” no no, this is going to be as realistic as possible…even though this is batshit crazy.    Japan faced the decision of whether to go to war with the USSR in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. They held meetings, made plans, and ultimately it was decided they would not engage the Soviets. Our scenario will follow exactly what they did to a T, but when the made the decision not to go to war, we will see them go to war.    Now before I jump into our this timeline, I think its very important to explain the actual situation Japan faced in 1941. There were two major strategies that emerged during the 1930's within the Japanese military. Many junior officers in the IJA favored the Hokushin-ron “northern strike” strategy against the USSR. Many officers in the IJN with some in the IJA favored the Nanshin-ron “southern strike” strategy, to seize the resource rich dutch east indies by invading Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The idea of Hokushin-ron was to perform an invasion into Southern Siberia and outer mongolia ending around Lake Baikal where they would set up defenses. They had already tried to establish this during the Russian civil war as part of the Siberian Intervention, but failed to create a buffer state. From 1935-1939 there were 108 border clashes between the USSR and Japan. In 1938 one of these border clashes turned into quite a catastrophe, it was called the battle of Lake Khasan.  The Soviets suffered nearly 800 deaths, more than 3000 wounded, perhaps nearly 50 tanks were destroyed with another 100 damaged. The Japanese suffered about 600 deaths with 2500 wounded. The result ultimately was a ceasefire, but for the Kwantung army it seemed to them like a victory. In May of 1939 they had a much larger and more famous battle known as the battle of Khalkhin Gol.  During the early part of the battle the IJA sent 80 tanks crossing over Khalkhin Gol, driving the Soviets back towards Baintsagan Hill. Zhukov was waiting for the attack and sent 450 tanks and armored cars unsupported by infantry to attack the IJA from three sides. The IJA were practically encircled and lost half their armored units as they struggled to fight back as it withdrew. The two armies spared for the next 2 weeks along the east bank of the Khalkhin Gol. Problem was the Japanese were having issues getting their supplies to the area as they lacked motor transport while Zhukov whose army was over 460 miles away from its base of supply had 2600 trucks supplying them. On july 23rd the Japanese launched attacks supported by artillery and within two days they had consumed half their ammunition stores. The situation was terrible, they suffered 5000 casualties and made little progress breaking the Soviet lines. Zhukov then unleashed an offensive on august 20th using over 4000 trucks to transport supplies from Chita base. He assembled around 500 tanks, 550 fighters and bombers and his 50,000 infantry supported by armored cars. This mechanized force attacked the Japanese first using artillery and the aircraft as his armor and infantry crossed the river. The IJA were quickly flanked by the fast moving Soviet armor and encircled by August 25th. The IJA made attempts to break out of the encirclement but failed. They refused to surrender despite overwhelming artillery and aerial bombardment; by the 31st the Japanese forces on the Mongolian side of the border were destroyed. The Japanese suffered nearly 20,000 casualties, the lost 162 aircraft, 29 tanks, 7 tankettes, 72 artillery pieces a large number of vehicles. The Soviets took a heavy hit also suffering almost 25,000 casualties, 250 aircraft, 250 tanks, 133 armored cars, almost 100 artillery pieces, hundreds of vehicles. While these numbers make it seem the Japanese did a great job, you need to consider what each party was bringing to this fight. The Japanese brought roughly 30,000 men, 80 tanks and tankettes, 400 aircraft, 300 artillery pieces, 1000 trucks. The Soviets brought nearly 75,000 men, 550 tanks, 900 aircraft, 634 artillery pieces, 4000 trucks. There are some sources that indicate the IJA brought as many artillery rounds as they could muster from Japan, Manchuria and Korea, roughly 100,000 rounds for the operation. The Soviets fired 100,000 rounds per day. A quick look at wikipedia numbers, yes I know its a no no, but sometimes its good for quick perspectives show: USSR: Bomber sorties 2,015, fighter sorties 18,509; 7.62 mm machine gun rounds fired 1,065,323; 20 mm (0.80 in) cannon rounds expended 57,979; bombs dropped 78,360 (1,200 tons). Japan: Fighter/bomber sorties 10,000 (estimated); 7.7 mm (0.30 in) machine gun rounds fired 1.6 million; bombs dropped 970 tons. What I am trying to say is there was an enormous disparity in military production. And this is not just limited to numbers but quality. After the battle the Japanese made significant reforms. They increased tank production from 500 annually to 1200. The Japanese funded research into new anti-tank guns, such as the Type 1 47 mm. They mounted this gun to their Type 97 Chi-Ha tanks, the new standard medium tank of the IJA. Because of the tremendous defeat to Soviet armor they send General Yamashita to Germany to learn everything he could about tank tactics. But they simply could not produce enough tanks to ever hope to match 10% of the USSR. The Soviets had mostly been using T-26's, BT-5's and BT-7's who were crudely made, but made en masse. The Japanese would find most of their tank models with less effective range, less armor and some with less penetration power. It took the Japanese a hell of a lot more time to produce tanks, they were simply not on par with the Soviets in quantity or quality. Their tank tactics, albeit improved via Yamashita after 1939, were still nothing compared to the Soviets.  The major outcome of the battle of Lake Khasan and Khalkhin Gol was the abandonment of the hokushin-ron strategy and adoption of the nanshin-ron strategy. But, that didnt mean Japan did not have a plan in case they had to go to war with the USSR. Part 2 Kantōgun Tokushu Enshū Kantōgun Tokushu Enshū or the Kwantung Army Special Maneuvers was an operational plan created by the General Staff of the IJA for an invasion of the Russian Far East to capitalize on Operation Barbarossa. Here our story truly begin. Between 1938-1939 the IJA General Staff and Kwantung Army formed two “Hachi-Go” plans. Variants A and B examined the possibility of an all out war with the USSR beginning in 1943. In both plans they expected to be facing 60 Soviet divisions, while they could deliver 50 divisions, delivered incrementally from China and Japan. Plan A called for attacks across the eastern and northern borders of Manchuria while maintaining a defensive stance in the west. Plan B, much more ambitious, called for striking into the vast steppe between the Great Khingan Mountains and Lake Baikal, hoping to cut off the trans-siberian railway. If this was done successfully it was believed the whole of European Russia would be doomed to be defeated in detail. Defeated in detail means to divide and conquer. This battle would take place over 5000 kilometers with Japan's final objective being to advance 1200 km into the USSR. That dwarves Operation Barbarossa in distance, let that sink in. Both plans faced impossible odds. First of all the railway networks in Manchuria were not sufficiently expanded for such far reaching offensives, especially for plan B. Furthermore the 50 divisions required for them would be impossible to come by, since 1937 Japan was bogged down in a war with China. When Japan went to war with the west in 1941 she had 51 divisions. She left the base minimum in China, 35 divisions and tossed nearly 20 into southeast asia and the pacific. On top of not having the men, the IJA estimated a fleet of 200,000 vehicles would be necessary to sustain an offensive to Lake Baikal. That was twice the number of military vehicles Japan had at any given time. After the battle of Khalkhin Gol, plan B was completely abandoned. Planning henceforth focused solely on the northern and eastern fronts with any western advance being limited in scope. Now Japan formed a neutrality pact with the USSR because of her defeat at Khalkhin Gol and Molotov Ribbentrop pact between Germany and the USSR. The Molotov Ribbentrop Pact came as a bitter and complete surprise to Japan. It pushed Japan to fully adopt the Nanshin-ron strategy and this began with her invasion of French IndoChina, which led the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and United States to embargo her. The Netherlands Dutch East Indies refused to sell oil to Japan, the UK refused to sell oil from Burma and the US gradually cut off selling oil to Japan, with her oil exports alone being 80% of Japans supply, the rest from the Dutch east indies. The United States also placed an embargo on scrap-metal shipments to Japan and closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. 74.1% of Japan's scrap iron came from the United States in 1938, and 93% of Japan's copper in 1939. Other things like Rubber and tin were also off the table, as this was mostly acquired from British held Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.    Now the crux of everything is the China War. Japan was stuck, she needed to win, in order to win she needed the resources she was being denied. The only logical decision was to attack the places with these resources. Thus until 1941, Japan prepared to do just that, investing in the Navy primarily. Then in June of 1941, Hitler suddenly informs the Japanese that he is going to invade the USSR. The Japanese were shocked and extremely angry, they nearly left the Tripartite Pact over the issue. This unprecedented situation that ushered in the question, what should Japan do? There were those like Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka who argued they must abandon the neutrality pact and launch a simultaneous offensive with the Germans against the USSR. The IJA favored this idea….because obviously it would see them receiving more funding as the IJN was currently taking more and more of it for the Nanshin-ron plans. But this is not a game of hearts of Iron IV, the Japanese government had to discuss and plan if they would invade the USSR….and boy it took awhile. I think a lot of you will be very disappointed going forward, but there is no grand unleashing of a million Japanese across the borders into the Soviet Far East, in the real world there is something called logistics and politics.    The Japanese military abided by a flexible response policy, like many nations do today. Theres was specifically called the Junbi Jin Taisei or “preparatory formation setup”. Japan would only go to war with the USSR if favorable conditions were met. So in our timeline the Junbi Jin encountered its first test on June 24th when the IJA/IJN helped a conference in the wake of operation barbarossa. A compromise was made allowing the IJA to prepare an invasion plan if it did not impede on the nanshin-ron plans. There was those in the IJA who argued they should invade the USSR whether conditions were favorable or not, there were those who only wanted to invade if it looked like the USSR was on the verge of collapse. One thing agreed upon was if Japan unleashed a war with the USSR, the hostilities needed to be over by mid-October because the Siberian climate would hit winter and it would simply be impossible to continue. The IJA needed 60-7 days to complete operational preparations and 6-8 weeks to defeat the Soviets within the first phase of the offensive. Here is a breakdown of what they were thinking: 28 June: Decide on mobilization 5 July: Issue mobilization orders 20 July: Begin troop concentration 10 August: Decide on hostilities 24 August: Complete readiness stance 29 August: Concentrate two divisions from North China in Manchuria, bringing the total to 16 5 September: Concentrate four further divisions from the homeland, bringing the total to 22; complete combat stance 10 September (at latest): Commence combat operations 15 October: Complete first phase of war   The plan called for 22 divisions (might I add my own calculations of 20 divisions were pretty spot on), with roughly 850,000 men, including Manchukuo allies, supported by 800,000 tons of shipping. The Japanese hoped the Soviets would toss at least half their forces in the Far East, perhaps 2/3rd of their armor and aircraft against the Germans giving them a 2-1 superiority. Even the 22 divisions was questionable, many in the war ministry thought only 16 divisions could be spared for such a venture, something only suitable for mop up operations in the aftermath of a German victory along the eastern front. It was clear to all, Japan needed perfect conditions to even think about performing such a thing.    The War hawks who still sought to perform Hokushin-ron tried to persaude Hideki Tojo on july 5th to go through with a new plan using a total of 25 divisions. This plan designated “Kantogun Tokushu Enshu or Kantokuen” would involve 2 phases, a buildup and readiness phase and an offensive phase. On July 7th they went to Hirohito for his official sanction for the build up. Hirohito questioned everything, but gradually relented to it. The plan was nearly identical to the former plans, banking on the Soviets being unable to reinforce the Far East because of Germany's progress. The level of commitment was scaled down somewhat, but still enormous. Again a major looming issue was the Manchurian railways that would need to be expanded to accomodate the movement of men and supplies. This meant the construction of port facilities, military barracks, hospitals and such. Kantokuen would begin with a initial blow against the Ussuri front, targeting Primorye and would be followed up by a northern attack against Blagoveshchensk and Kuibyshevka. The 1st area army, 3rd and 20 armies with the 19th division of the Korean army would penetrade the border south of Lake Khanka to breach the main soviet defensive lines, thus threatening Vladivostok. The 5th army would strike south of Dalnerechensk to complete the isolation of the maritime province, sever the trans-sierian railway and block Soviet reinforcements. The 4th army would attack along the Amur river before helping out against Blagoveshchensk. Two reinofrced divisions would invade Sakhalin from land and sea. The second phase would see the capture of Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, Skovorodino, Sovetskaya Gavan, and Nikolayevsk. Additionally, amphibious operations against Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and other parts of the Kamchatka Peninsula were contemplated.   It was agreed the operation could only afford 24 divisions, with 1,200,000 men, 35,000 vehicles, 500 tanks, 400,000 horses and 300,000 coolies. The deployment of thse forces would mean the western front facing Mongolia and the Trans-baikal region would be pretty much open, so delaying actions would have to be fought if the soviets performed a counter offensive there. Air forces were critical to the plan. They sought to dispatch up to roughly 2000 aircraft cooperating with 350 naval aircraft to launch a sudden strike against the Soviet Far East Air Force to knock them out early.    The Soviet Far East had two prominent weaknesses to be exploited. Number 1 was Mongolia's 4500 km long horeshoe shaped border. Number 2 was its 100% dependency on European Russia to deliver men, food and war materials via the trans-siberian railway. Any disruption of the trans-siberian railway would prove fatal to the Soviet Far East.    Now as for the Soviets. The 1930's and early 1940's saw the USSR take up a defensive policy, but retained offensive elecments as well. Even with the German invasion and well into 1942, the Soviets held a strategy of tossing back the IJA into Manchuria if attacked. The primary forces defending the Far east in 1941 were the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal Fronts, under the command of Generals Iosif Apanasenko and Mikhail Kovalyov. The Trans-Baikal front held 9 divisions, including 2 armored, a mechanized brigade and a heavily fortified region west of the Oldoy River near Skovorodino had a garrison. The Far Eastern Front had 23 divisions including 3 armored, 4 brigades and 11 heavily fortified regions with garrisons including Vladivostok. Altogether they had 650,000 men, 5400 tanks, 3000 aircraft, 57,000 vehicles, 15,000 artillery pieces and nearly 100,000 horses. By 1942 the Vladivostok sector had 150 artillery pieces with 75 -356 mm calibers organized into 50 batteries. As you can imagine after Operation Barbarrosa was unleashed, things changed. From June to December, roughly 160,000 men, 3000 tanks, 2670 artillery pieces, 12,000 vehicles and perhaps 1800 aircraft were sent to deal with the Germans. Despite this, the Soviets also greatly expanded a buildup to match the apparent Japanese buildup in Manchuria. By July 22nd 1941 the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal Fronts were to be raised by 1 million men for august. By December it was nearly 1.2 million. Even the Soviet Far East Navy saw an increase from 100,000 men to 170,000 led by Admiral Yumashev. The Soviet Mongolian allies were capable of manning about 80,000, though they lacked heavy equipment.    Thus if this war broke out in September the Soviets and Mongolians would have just over a million men, with 2/3rds of them manning the Amur-Ussuri-Sakhalin front, the rest would defend Mongolia and the Trans-Baikal region. Even though the war against the Germans was dire, the Soviets never really gave up their prewar planning for how to deal with the Japanese. There would be an all-out defense over the border to prevent any breach of Soviet territory. The main effort would see the 1st and 25th armies holding a north-south axis between the Pacific ocean and Lake Khanka; the 35th army would defend Iman; the 15th and 2nd Red Banner armies would repel the Japanese over the Amur River; and other forces would try to hold out on Sakhalin, Kamchatka and the Pacific coast. The Soviets had constructed hundreds of fortified positions known as Tochkas along the border. Most of these were hexagonal concrete bunkers contained machine gun nests and 76 mm guns. The fortified regions I mentioned were strategically placed forcing the Japanese to overcome them via frontal attacks. This would require heavy artillery to overcome. Despite the great defensive lines, the Soviets did not intend to be passive and would launch counteroffensives. The Soviet air force and Navy would play an active role in defeating a Japanese invasion as well. The air force's objetice would be to destroy the Japanese air force in the air and on the ground, requiring tactical ground attack mission. They would also destroy key railways, bridges and airfields within Manchuria and Korea alongside intercepting IJN shipping. Strategic bombing against the home islands would be limited to under 30 DB-3's who could attack Tokyo, Yokosuka, Maizuru and Ominato. The Soviet Navy would help around the mouth of the Amur River, mine the Tatar Strait and try to hit any IJN ships landing men or materials across the Pacific Coasts.    Japan would not be able to continue a land war with the USSR for very long. According to Japanese military records, in 1942 while at war they were required to produce 50 Kaisenbun. A Kaisenbun is a unit of measurement for ammunition needed for a single division to operate for 4 months. Annual production never surpassed 25 kaisenbun with 100 in reserve. General Shinichi Tanaka estimated for an operation against the USSR 3 Kaisenbun would be needed per divisions, thus a total of 72 would be assigned to 24 divisions. This effectively meant 2/3rds of Japans ammunition stockpile would be used on the initial strike against the USSR. Japan would have been extremely hard pressed to survive such a war cost for 2 years.    Now in terms of equipment Japan had a lot of problems. During the border battles, Japanese artillery often found itself outranged and grossly under supplied compared to the Soviet heavier guns. Despite moving a lot of men and equipment to face the Germans, the Red Army maintained a gross superiority in armor. The best tank the Kwantung Army had in late 1941 was the Type 97 Chi-Ha, holding 33mm armor with a low velocity 57 mm gun. There was also Ha-Go and Te-Ke's with 37 mm guns but they had an effective range less than 1 km.   The Soviet T-26, BT-5 and BT-7's had 45 mm guns more than capable of taking out the Japanese armor and the insult to injury was they were crudely made and very expendable. Every Japanese tank knocked out was far greater a loss, as Japan's production simply could not remotely match the USSR. For aircraft the Japanese were a lot better off. The Polikarpov I-16 was the best Soviet fighter in the Far East and performed alright against the Nakajima Ki-27 at Khalkhin Gol. The rest of the Soviet air arsenal were much older and would struggle. The Soviets would have no answer to the IJN's Zero fighter or the IJA's high speed KI-21 bomber that outraced the Soviet SB-2. Japanese pilots were battle hardened by China and vastly experienced.   Another thing the Japanese would have going for them was quality of troops. The Soviets drained their best men to fight the Germans, so the combat effectiveness in the far east would be less. Without the Pacific War breaking out, some of Japan's best Generals would be brought into this war, of course the first one that comes to mind for me is General Yamashita, probably the most armor competent Japanese general of ww2.    Come August of 1941 those who still sought the invasion of the USSR were facing major crunch time. The IJA planners had assumed the Soviets would transfer 50% or more of their power west to face the Germans, but this was not the case. By August 9th of 1941, facing impossible odds and with the western embargos in full motion, in our timeline the Japanese Hokushin-Ron backers gave up. But for the sake of our story, for some batshit insane reason, the Japanese military leadership and Hirohito give the greenlight for an invasion on August 10th.   Part 3 the catastrophe   So to reiterate the actual world plan had    10 August: Decide on hostilities 24 August: Complete readiness stance 29 August: Concentrate two divisions from North China in Manchuria, bringing the total to 16 5 September: Concentrate four further divisions from the homeland, bringing the total to 22; complete combat stance 10 September (at latest): Commence combat operations 15 October: Complete first phase of war   So what is key to think about here is the events of September. The Battle for Moscow is at the forefront, how does a Japanese invasion in the first week or two of September change things? This is going to probably piss off some of you, but Operation Typhoon would still fail for Germany.  In our time line the legendary spy Richard Sorge sent back information on Japan's decision to invade the USSR between August 25th to September 14th. On the 25th he informed Stalin the Japanese high command were still discussing whether to go to war or not with the USSR. On September 6th Stalin was informed the Japanese were beginning preparations for a war against the west. Then on September 14th, the most important message was relayed to Stalin "In the careful judgment of all of us here... the possibility of [Japan] launching an attack, which existed until recently, has disappeared...."[15]    With this information on hand from 23 June to 31 December 1941, Stalin transferred a total of 28 divisions west. This included 18 rifle divisions, 1 mountain rifle division, 3 tank divisions, 3 mechanized divisions and 3 mountain cavalry divisions. The transfers occurred mainly in June (11 divisions) and October (9 divisions).    Here we come to a crossroads and I am going to have to do some blunt predictions. Let's go from the most optimistic to the most pessimistic. Scenario 1) for some insane reason, Stalin abandons Moscow and moves his industry further east, something the Soviets were actively preparing during Operation Typhoon. This is not a defeat of the USSR, it certainly would prolong the war, but not a defeat. Now that seems rather silly. Scenario 2) Stalin attempts transferring half of what he did in our time line back to Moscow and the Germans fail to take it. The repercussions of course is a limited counteroffensive, it wont be as grand as in our timeline, but Moscow is saved. Scenario 3) and the most likely in my opinion, why would Stalin risk moscow for the Far East? Stalin might not transfer as many troops, but certainly he would have rather placed his chips in Moscow rather than an enemy literally 6000 km's away who have to cross a frozen desert to get to anything he cares about.  Even stating these scenarios, the idea the German army would have taken Moscow if some of the very first units from the far east arrived, because remember a lot of these units did not make it in time to defend moscow, rather they contributed to the grand counteroffensive after the Germans stalled. The German armies in front of Moscow were depleted, exhausted, unsupplied and freezing. Yes many of the Soviet armies at Moscow were hastily thrown together, inexperienced, poorly led and still struggling to regain their balance from the German onslaught. Yet from most sources, and by sources I mean armchair historian types argue, the Germans taking Moscow is pretty unlikely. And moscow was not even that important. What a real impact might have been was the loss of the Caucasus oil fields in early 1942, now that could have brought the USSR down, Moscow, not so much, again the Soviets had already pulled their industry further east, they could do it again.   So within the context of this Second Russo-Japanese War, figure the German's still grind to a halt, they don't take Moscow, perhaps Soviets dont push them back as hard, but the USSR is not collapsing by any means. Ok now before we talk about Japans invasion we actually need to look at some external players. The UK/US/Netherlands already began massive embargoes against Japan for oil, iron, rubber, tin, everything she needed to continue her war, not just against the USSR, but with over 35 divisions fighting in China. President Roosevelt was looking for any excuse to enter WW2 and was gradually increasing ways to aid Britain and the Soviets.  Now American's lend-lease program seriously aided the USSR during WW2, particularly the initial stages of the war. The delivery of lend-lease to the USSR came through three major routes: the Arctic Convoys, the Persian Corridor, and the Pacific Route. The Arctic route was the shortest and most direct route for lend-lease aid to the USSR, though it was also the most dangerous as it involved sailing past German-occupied Norway. Some 3,964,000 tons of goods were shipped by the Arctic route; 7% was lost, while 93% arrived safely. The Persian Corridor was the longest route, and was not fully operational until mid-1942. Thereafter it saw the passage of 4,160,000 tons of goods, 27% of the total. The most important was the Pacific Route which opened up in August of 1941, but became affected when Japan went to war with America. The major port was Vladivostok, where only Soviet ships could transport non-military goods some 8,244,000 tons of goods went by this route, 50% of the total. Vladivostok would almost certainly be captured by the Japanese in our scenario so it won't be viable after its capture. Here is the sticky part, Japan is not at war with the US, so the US is pretty much free to find different Pacific paths to get lend-lease to the Soviets, and to be honest there's always the Arctic or Persian corridors. Hell in this scenario America will be able to get supplies easily into China as there will be no war in Burma, hong kong, Malaya and such. America alone is going to really ruin Japans day by increasing lend-lease to the UK, China and the USSR. America wont be joining the war in 1941, but I would strongly wager by hook or by crook, FDR would pull them into a war against Germany, probably using the same tactic Woodrow Wilson did with WW1. This would only worsen things for Japan. Another player of course is China. Late 1941, China was absolutely battered by Japan. With Japan pulling perhaps even more troops than she did for the Pacific war to fight the USSR, Chiang Kai-Shek would do everything possible to aid his new found close ally Stalin. How this would work out is anyone's guess, but it would be significant as I believe America would be providing a lot more goodies.    Ok you've all been patient, what happens with the war? Japan has to deliver a decisive knock out blow in under 4-6 months, anything after this is simply comical as Japan's production has no resources. The oil in siberia is not even remotely on the table. The Japanese can't find it, would not be able to exploit it, let alone quick enough to use it for the war. Hell the Italians were sitting on oil in Libya and they never figured that out during WW2.   So Kantokuen is unleashed with an initial blow against the Primorye in the Ussuri Front followed by an assault against Blagoveshchensk and Kiubyshevka. The main soviet lines south of Lake Khanka are attacked by the Japanese 1st area army, 3rd and 20th armies and the 19th Korean division. This inturn threatens Vladivostok who is also being bombarded by IJA/IJN aircraft. The 5th Ija army attacks south of Dalnerechensk in an attempt to sever the trans-siberian railway, to block Soviet reinforcements and supplies. The 4th IJA army fords the Amur river to help with the assault of Blagoveshchensk. Meanwhile Sakhalin is being attacked from land and sea by two IJA divisions.  Despite the Soviets being undermanned the western front facing Mongolia and the Trans-Baikal region is wide up to an attack as its only defended by the 23rd IJA division, so a limited counteroffensive begins there. The Japanese quickly win air superiority, however the heavily fortified Tochkas are not being swept aside as the Japanese might have hoped. A major problem the Japanese are facing is Soviet artillery. The Japanese artillery already placed along the borders, initially performed well, crushing Tochkas in range, but when the Japanese begin advancing and deploying their artillery units they are outgunned perhaps 3-1, much of the Soviet artillery outranges them and the Soviets have a much larger stockpile of shells. Airpower is failing to knock out soviet artillery which is placed within Tochkas and other fortified positions with anti-aircraft guns. Without achieving proper neutralization or counter battery fire, the Japanese advance against the fortified Soviet positions. The Soviets respond shockingly with counterattacks. The 15th and 35th Soviet armies with the Amur Red Banner Military Flotilla toss limited counterattacks against both sides of the Sungari River, harassing the Japanese. While much of the soviet armor had been sent west, their light tanks which would be useless against the Germans have been retained in the far east and prove capable of countering the IJA tanks. The Soviets inflict tremendous casualties, however General Yamashita, obsessed with blitzkrieg style warfare he saw first hand in the west, eventually exploits a weak area in the line.Gradually a blitzkrieg punches through and begins to circle around hitting Soviet fortified positions from the rear. The Soviets knew this would be the outcome and had prepared to fight a defense in depth, somewhat managing the onslaught.  The trans-siberian railway has been severed in multiple locations close to the border area, however this is not as effective as it could be, the Japanese need to hook deeper to cut the line further away. In the course of weeks the Soviets are gradually dislodged from their fortified positions, fighting a defense in depth over great stretches of land. Vladivostok holds out surprisingly long until the IJN/IJA seize the city. Alongside this Sakhalin is taken with relative ease. The Soviet surface fleet is annihilated, but their large submarine force takes a heavy toll of the IJN who are attempting Pacific landings. Kantokuen phase 1 is meeting its objectives, but far later than expected with much more casualties than expected. The Japanese are shocked by the fuel consumption as they advance further inland. Each truck bearing fuel is using 50% of said fuel to get to the troops, something reminiscent of the north african campaign situation for Rommel. The terrain is terrible for their vehicles full of valleys, hills, forests and mountains. Infrastructure in the region is extremely underdeveloped and the Soviets are burning and destroying everything before the Japanese arrive. All key roads and cities are defended until the Japanese can encircle the Soviets, upon which they depart, similar to situations the Japanese face in China. It is tremendously slow progress. The IJA are finding it difficult to encircle and capture Soviet forces who have prepared a series of rear lines to keep falling back to while performing counterattacks against Japanese columns. As the Japanese advance further into the interior, the IJN are unable to continue supporting them with aircraft and much of the IJA aircraft are limited in operations because of the range. The second phase of Kantokuen calls for the capture of Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, Skovorodino, Sovetskaya Gavan, and Nikolayevsk. Additionally, amphibious operations against Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and other parts of the Kamchatka Peninsula are on standby as the IJN fears risking shipping as a result of Soviet submarine operations. The sheer scope of the operation was seeing the tide sides stretching their forces over a front nearly 5000 km in length. At some points the Japanese were attempting to advance more than 1000 km's inland, wasting ungodly amounts of fuel and losing vehicles from wear and tear.  So what does Japan gain? Within the span of 4 months, max 6 months Japan could perhaps seized: Sakhalin, the Primorsye krai including Vladivostok, segments of the trans siberian railway, Blagoveshchensk, Kuibyshevka. If they are really lucky Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, Skovorodino, Sovetskaya Gavan, Nikolayevsk. Additionally, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and other parts of the Kamchatka Peninsula. What does this mean? Really nothing. Pull out a map of manchuria during WW2, take a pencil and expand the manchurian border perhaps 1000 km if you really want to be generous, that's the new extent of the empire of the rising sun. The real purpose of attacking the USSR is not to perform some ludicrous dash across 6000 km's of frozen wasteland to whittle down and defeat the Soviets alongside the rest of the Axis. It was only to break them, in late 1941 at Moscow there was perhaps a fools chance, but it was a fool's chance for Japan.  Japan has run out of its stockpiles of Kaisenbun, oil, iron, rubber, tin, all types of resources necessary for making war. Unlike in our timeline where Japan began exporting resources from its conquests in southeast asia and the pacific, here Japan spent everything and now is relying on the trickles it has within its empire. The China war will be much more difficult to manage. The lend-lease will increase every day to China. The US/UK/Netherlands will only increase pressure upon Japan to stop being a nuisance, Japan can't do anything about this as the US Pacific Fleet is operating around the Philippines always a looming threat. The Japanese are holding for a lack of better words, useless ground in the far east. They will build a buffer area to defend against what can only be described as a Soviet Invasion of Manchuria x1000. The Allies will be directing all of their effort against Germany and Italy, providing a interesting alternate history concept in its own right. After Germany has been dealt with, Japan would face a existential threat against a very angry Stalin. Cody from Alternate History Hub actually made an episode on this scenario, he believed the Soviets would conquer most of Japan occupied Asia and even invade the home islands. It would certainly be something on the table, taking many years, but the US/UK would most likely interfere in some way. The outcome would be so much worse for Japan. Perhaps she is occupied and a communist government is installed. Perhaps like in our timeline the Americans come in to bolster Japan up for the looming coldwar.  But the question I sought to answer here was, Japan invading the USSR was a dumb idea. The few Japanese commanders who pushed it all the way until August 9th of 1941 simply had to give up because of how illogical it was. I honestly should not have even talked about military matters, this all came down to logistics and resources. You want to know how Japan could have secured itself a better deal in WW2? 1941, the China War is the number one problem Japan can't solve so they look north or south to acquire the means to solve the China problem? Negotiate a peace with China. That is the lackluster best deal right there.    Sorry if this episode did not match your wildest dreams. But if you want me to do some batshit crazy alternate history stuff, I am more than happy to jump into it and have fun. Again thank all of you guys who joined the patreon, you guys are awesome. Until next time this is the Pacific War channel over and out. 

Did Daphne du Maurier design the paratroopers' maroon beret? Why was the defence of Malta so poor? What do the Army Air Corps do? Join James Holland and Al Murray as they discuss a broad range of topics in this show, including the hagiography of RAF ace, Sir Douglas Bader, and some top WW2 book recommendations. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access to podcast episodes, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Members also get priority access and discounts to live events. A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Email: wehaveways@goalhanger.com Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get one free month of service when you make the switch to Patriot Mobile and use Promo Code "WOLF"   https://patriotmobile.com/partners/wolfPatriot Mobile donates a portion of every dollar earned to organizations that fight for causes you care about.Patriot Mobile has exceptional 4G & 5G nationwide coverage and uses all the same towers the main carriers use. Patriot Mobile offers a Contract Buy-Out. This offer allows new customers to buy out a current device from their departing carrier and receive up to $500 per device applied as a credit on their phone bill. What kind of a reaction should you expect when you "Don't Travel Light?" Is it possible for the folks on Thailand to accomplish work?  Find out, the answers to these questions and more on this weeks "sode" of The Cammo Comedy Show Podcast!If you have any funny military stories of your own that you would like to share, drop us a line at:stories@cammocomedy.com  or  Leave a voicemail at (531) 222-6146  Sadly, the voicemail will only record in 2 minute blocksWe are here to make you laugh, but behind this there is the imbedded philosophy of, "No One Left Behind." Sadly, 22 vets per day commit suicide, approximately 67,500 vets are homeless and thousands struggle with everyday life after service.  What we hope to accomplish is providing a fun place to gather that will have a similar feel to the conversations that happen at the VFW or American Legion between vets.  Since the latest generations of vets are not really going to these places anymore, we are making it happen online.  We believe that the sense of community will help some who struggle, while providing stories about the good times that we can all laugh at!An additional part of this show is capturing the oral history of the military over the past few decades, so if you happen to know a veteran who served during WW2, Korean War or Vietnam eras, we would love to hear from them.  Obviously, we want to hear stories from all eras, but we have special respect for the older generations.  

Aussie genre filmmaking legend Kiah Roache-Turner is back with his latest flick, Beast of War, a WW2 story of soldiers fighting for their lives on a different kind of battlefield: the shark infested waters of the open ocean.In the above interview, Kiah talks about the journey to getting Beast of War on screen, how the impact of Spielberg meant that he had to shoot the film in Australia, and what creating the giant water tank to shoot in was like, plus much more.Beast of War is in Australian cinemas from 9 October 2025.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We'd also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Friday Night Live X Space on October 3, 2025, philosopher Stefan Molyneux analyzes the Bengal famine of 1943, linking its causes to colonialism and political mismanagement. He challenges simplistic narratives by emphasizing systemic failures and urges listeners to focus on shared human experiences. Molyneux advocates for autonomy over centralized governance and concludes with a call for historical awareness to foster justice and compassion, inviting audience interaction.SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON X! https://x.com/StefanMolyneuxFollow me on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@freedomain1GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK!https://peacefulparenting.com/Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!See you soon!https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025

Today's Adventure: A husband and wife team of geologists are recruited by the IRS to journey into Tibet to seek the favor of the Dalai Lama. They find themselves in competition with two Nazi officers.Original Radio Broadcast: August 13, 1950Originating from New YorkStarring: Louise Barclay; Grant Richards; Raymond Edward Johnson; Stefan Schnabel; Berry Kroeger; Janice Gilbert; Karl Weber; Ralph Bell; Jerry JarrettTo subscribe to this podcast and, go to https://greatadventures.info/Become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.netSupport the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call at 208-991-4783Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter @radiodetectives

Greg Palast - My mom would've kicked Pete Hegseth's Ass. Apparently Stephen Miller's dreams since childhood have been about torture and pain. Should someone like this be in power? Europe may be on the verge of a nuclear disaster. Plus Twelve Steps to National Collapse: A Blueprint for How Democracies Die. Finally there was an arrest in war torn Portland. And it was a MAGA influencer for fighting. Apparently MAGA is struggling with how peaceful Portland has been.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pete and Gary are returning to their roots in this special series ahead of the release of Season 8. The South Notts Hussars were a WW2 artillery unit, and Pete interviewed dozens of veterans from this unit during his time at the Imperial War Museum. This is their story.Pete's new book on Egypt and the Sudan, Chain of Fire, is available now. Get an autographed copy at https://peter-hart.sumupstore.com/Presenters: Peter Hart and Gary BainPublisher: Mat McLachlanProducer: Jess StebnickiVisit Gallipoli with Pete and Gary! Go to https://phbt.uk/ for more information!Become a member to listen ad-free and receive special bonus content for only £2 per month: https://plus.acast.com/s/pete-and-garys-military-historySupport the show with a one-off contribution: https://buymeacoffee.com/pgmhFind out everything Pete and Gary are doing at https://linktr.ee/pgmh Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Larz and Carz return to the God's Country for another searing chapter in the RHOSLC saga. But first, they discuss Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's shocking split and Tiffany Pollard's entry into her non-binary era. Back in Utah, the Queen of Sundance strikes back at the naysayers in the only way she can: planning a premiere party for an HBO Max original film. Angie K visits her 89-year-old father, who recounts his harrowing journey from Greece to Ellis Island during WW2, inspiring her to expedite her path to Greek citizenship. Bronwyn introduces us to her own ailing mother, the cruelest lady in all of Salt Lake, as Heather begins to renovate her at-home office/lady cave. Then, Lisa assembles the group at the austere Blue Sky Lodge, where she doms them in the board room with a lesson on lawsuit dismissals, misinformation, triangulation, and the time-honored tradition of shitting on the Wild Rose.Chapters:00:00:00 It's Locktober.00:02:16 Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's shocking split00:19:42 Tiffany Pollard is non-binary00:21:53 RHOSLC Recap!Listen to this episode ad-free AND get access to weekly bonus episodes + video bonus episodes by joining the SUP Patreon. Watch video episodes of the pod on Thursdays by subscribing to the SUP YouTube. Relive the best moments of this iconic podcast by following the SUP TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get one free month of service when you make the switch to Patriot Mobile and use Promo Code "WOLF"   https://patriotmobile.com/partners/wolfPatriot Mobile donates a portion of every dollar earned to organizations that fight for causes you care about.Patriot Mobile has exceptional 4G & 5G nationwide coverage and uses all the same towers the main carriers use. Patriot Mobile offers a Contract Buy-Out. This offer allows new customers to buy out a current device from their departing carrier and receive up to $500 per device applied as a credit on their phone bill. What kind of a reaction should you expect when you have a long day at the range? Is it possible for a guy to go grocery shopping and everything goes well?  Find out, the answers to these questions and more on this weeks "sode" of The Cammo Comedy Show Podcast!If you have any funny military stories of your own that you would like to share, drop us a line at:stories@cammocomedy.com  or  Leave a voicemail at (531) 222-6146  Sadly, the voicemail will only record in 2 minute blocksWe are here to make you laugh, but behind this there is the imbedded philosophy of, "No One Left Behind." Sadly, 22 vets per day commit suicide, approximately 67,500 vets are homeless and thousands struggle with everyday life after service.  What we hope to accomplish is providing a fun place to gather that will have a similar feel to the conversations that happen at the VFW or American Legion between vets.  Since the latest generations of vets are not really going to these places anymore, we are making it happen online.  We believe that the sense of community will help some who struggle, while providing stories about the good times that we can all laugh at!An additional part of this show is capturing the oral history of the military over the past few decades, so if you happen to know a veteran who served during WW2, Korean War or Vietnam eras, we would love to hear from them.  Obviously, we want to hear stories from all eras, but we have special respect for the older generations.  

Episode 220: This week we enlist in the ACA Army, when we review 2018's Overlord.Does the war time horror flick hold up?Check us out next week, as we get the blues for 2025's Sinners with special guest James of the Trey's Table Podcast.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/a-cut-above-horror-review--6354278/support.

Based on the true story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau whose wedding took place in the Plaszow concentration camp during WW2. Bau, Artist at War is a war drama/love story/espionage tale that needs to be told in this era where survivors are dying, and the Holocaust is slipping from memory. Using his artistic skills in the camps, Joseph stays alive and helps hundreds to escape. Miraculously, he finds love in the midst of despair. A love that will last a lifetime. Years later, when called to be a key witness in the trial of the brutal Nazi officer who tortured him and killed his father, he is thrust back into vivid memories of the Holocaust. Now, he calls upon this love and resilience of spirit to face the ultimate demon of his past.The film stars Emile Hirsch as Joseph Bau, as well as Inbar Lavi, Yan Tual, Adam Tsekhman and Josh Zuckerman. The film is directed by Sean McNamara.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

https://thecommunists.org/2025/09/01/news/history/remembering-china-role-global-antifascist-war-ww2/ China's enormous sacrifices during WW2 and its epic contribution to the defeat of fascism is routinely overlooked, as is the wider significance of the war in the east. The Chinese people's titanic struggle against Japanese imperialism played a vital part in the antifascist victory in WW2. Led by the communists, including revolutionary forces from Korea, this struggle also laid the groundwork for the victory of the Chinese Revolution in 1949, and for a string of other democratic and socialist revolutions that took place in east Asia in the following period. Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

Based on the true story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau whose wedding took place in the Plaszow concentration camp during WW2. Bau, Artist at War is a war drama/love story/espionage tale that needs to be told in this era where survivors are dying, and the Holocaust is slipping from memory. Using his artistic skills in the camps, Joseph stays alive and helps hundreds to escape. Miraculously, he finds love in the midst of despair. A love that will last a lifetime. Years later, when called to be a key witness in the trial of the brutal Nazi officer who tortured him and killed his father, he is thrust back into vivid memories of the Holocaust. Now, he calls upon this love and resilience of spirit to face the ultimate demon of his past.The film stars Emile Hirsch as Joseph Bau, as well as Inbar Lavi, Yan Tual, Adam Tsekhman and Josh Zuckerman. The film is directed by Sean McNamara.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

How republicans became so pro life? How many crayons did Jesse eat in the Marines and how did they get that reputation? How was there so much close combat in WW2? The fear of being stabbed. Follow The Jesse Kelly Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJesseKellyShowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's Adventure: An OSS agent in Italy finds himself in a compartment on the train has been double-booked, and his travel companion is General Rommel.Original Radio Broadcast: August 6, 1950Originating from New YorkStarring: Ralph Bell; Barry Kroeger; Jan Miner; Boris Aplon; Arnold Moss; Jerry Jarrett; Raymond Edward Johnson; Karl WeberTo subscribe to this podcast and, go to https://greatadventures.info/Become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.netSupport the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call at 208-991-4783Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter @radiodetectives

As temperatures drop and the days get shorter across North America and Europe here is  another chance to hear an epsiode originally recorded back in October 2022 when Chris and Ben Tracey discussed why Fall is, in their opinion, perhaps the best time of the year to reenact WW2 in the field. Let us know if you agree ? As ever, a very big thank you to all our Patrons for their support - we really couldn't do this without you ! Why not sign up and become one of our growing band of supporters with access to all of our Patreon exclusive content ! www.patreon.com/reenactorpodcast

On todays Episode I have WAR Historian, Fire Fighter & Civil War Reenactment Actor (Brice Witherow) back on the show again. We dive into WW2, & if Hitler really died or was it one of his doubles. Also the Fallen Angel Tech that was given to the Nazis and how they obtained it! LETS GO!!!! Ways to Support and Connect with Brice Witherow :  ✅https://www.instagram.com/bricewitherow?igsh=dnJpYTRkem43aTRh   Help a brother out and buy me a Coffee ☕️ (Monthly or one time donation keeps the show going): We know there is room for improvement and have decided to ask you (Our amazing listeners) to help the podcast grow! This will help with better audio, expedition funding, and much more!  ✅ https://venmo.com/u/cryptidwarfare     Email me:  Podcast Cryptidwarfare@gmail.com   Critter/Cryptid Control/Consulting  C.WOPPS@protonmail.com C.woperations17905@gmail.com         Help support our mission in giving you the best podcast on ? Anchor.fm/Spotify, iTunes, Podbean +   Make sure to give me a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review :). Thank yall!   ✅ Cryptid Warfare: https://www.instagram.com/cryptid_warfare_pod_cast/ youtube: www.youtube.com/@cryptidwarfare     Awesome Friends to Follow: The Cryptid Huntress: https://thecryptidhuntress.com/  Josh Monday: https://www.instagram.com/joshmonday_podcast/  Shannon Ray Davis : https://www.omegamanradio.com/ Randy Richey : https://christoutreachoklahoma.com/ Kevin (Where the Weird Ones Are Podcast) : https://linktr.ee/wheretheweirdonesare?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=ae3f5382-235d-49a1-8e57-2483c7d1db7d Ryley (Midwest Mythos Podcast) : https://linktr.ee/midwestmythospodcast?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=04c1a648-29eb-4e6d-adbb-2441c3b090cf Kenny boy (MidnightLycanthropy) : https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2F%40MidnightLycanthropy%3Ffbclid%3DPAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAafBNw3B-19HaJlPxdGB0VfH17137NnvwJv2d0iZJ8l0G8DypTXlGTR2fEbsgQ_aem_KKA8f2PLcCOoczwMXOB4Uw&e=AT07rj4AdwOF6DowVy0OYlwjRcfRWAfN0lPNUQya4he-PltGe_GStLBD70PAuUjHhRhJWXOkcrJlAHtqSMubcqDoGbdwT0_5seWfw1SAJat_UtcA4qSCTx0 Doc (Prometheus Lens Podcast) : https://prometheuslenspodcast.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAacMhzmC7J7zOPvpf_yE4WX3EqGp0tyIqrI6viGuq11ZSYnXKm9df90DHSy_2A_aem_KvXHR1mTOCOC0NYJhJS5eQ AG (Paranoiradio) https://l.instagram.com/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fparanoiradio.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DPAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaddqk8iVFqv0Z0gM3-i_-1OTwZzUA457zp47caz-HZ_JOsoE7axzP-JUQaOnQ_aem_uOpbs_YqSh38WecKxVCn_Q&e=AT1-3GftOpDYdmfDiZox6r63G3ZfBkissS0ZV5WiXzuZ85Hg2E8-4YGQWQz48ft8qR6GcLGPlPC9xot4OvZgtj9SpCeTRGEFButqr3lWFwvyy46JahmmC3k     Business Shout Outs:   C.W OPERATIONS & SURVIVAL  Owner & Operator : Drew M Critter Hitters / Monster Hunters for Hire email: c.woperations17905@gmail.com. or  C.WOPPS@protonmail.com    Tier1 Restoration  Brain Cochrans phone = 615-809-9839 https://tier1restoration.godaddysites.com/   Bearded Brothers Trucking  Danny Vega  https://vegabrostn.com/   BerryHill Window Cleaning  https://www.berryhillwindowcleaningtn.com/   New City Hustla (Clothes & Designs) Owner : Chris  Email: Newcityhustla@gmail.com  Phone: (615)-624-4078 https://www.instagram.com/newcityhustla?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==   The Tac Patch  https://www.instagram.com/thetacpatch_?igsh=MWFidzk3d2tib3Ztdw== https://thetacpatch.com/   FLatTopK9  Owner - Tim Russell  www.FlatTopK9.com   Stead Fast OverLand Owner - Jerrett Hudson https://www.instagram.com/steadfastoverland?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==   Black Wolf Tactical Solutions Group https://blackwolftacticalsolutionsgroup.com/ Email - blackwolftsg@gmail.com         Amazing outtro ? by my friend D & Andrew (Walking Lightly Tones Studios Music) as well as Paul and Amber. Check out CallhimD Spotify and Instagram give him a listen/follow https://open.spotify.com/artist/16BHUS6UGILgxsBEUxqQJ https://www.instagram.com/call.him.d?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Pete and Gary are returning to their roots in this special series ahead of the release of Season 8. The South Notts Hussars were a WW2 artillery unit, and Pete interviewed dozens of veterans from this unit during his time at the Imperial War Museum. This is their story.Pete's new book on Egypt and the Sudan, Chain of Fire, is available now. Get an autographed copy at https://peter-hart.sumupstore.com/Presenters: Peter Hart and Gary BainPublisher: Mat McLachlanProducer: Jess StebnickiVisit Gallipoli with Pete and Gary! Go to https://phbt.uk/ for more information!Become a member to listen ad-free and receive special bonus content for only £2 per month: https://plus.acast.com/s/pete-and-garys-military-historySupport the show with a one-off contribution: https://buymeacoffee.com/pgmhFind out everything Pete and Gary are doing at https://linktr.ee/pgmh Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

September 2025 In 1945, Britain celebrated VE Day in May and VJ Day in August, as the war - first in Europe and then the Far East - came to an end. For the staff of GC&CS and its larger worldwide network, this meant that the vital and exhausting work they'd been doing suddenly stopped. The lives of all of them had been changed forever, but each person's experience was different. Bletchley Park's Oral History archive is a treasure trove of Veterans' testimonies. In this It Happened Here episode, we will be digging into our sound archive to focus on how the workers reacted and what happened to them once peace was declared, in their own words. Our guide through these stories is Bletchley Park's Research Historian Dr David Kenyon. This episode features the following Veterans'. Nora Copleston Miriam Myland Mary Kenyon Ron Unwin Betty Lawrie John Statham Betty Flavell Fay Gold Joan Smeaton Gwen Page Dot Tuffin Kenneth Nicholson John Moseley Jimmy Thirsk Rena Stewart Mary Every Daphne Canning Betty Webb Lady Marion Body Margaret Thomas Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2025 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Enigma, #VEDay80, #VJDay80,

In WW2 a shortage of materials led to parachute silk often being recycled into knickers and vice versa. In honour of this the beans continue to send their underpants to His Majesty's Armed Forces today, even in peacetime. But who the blazes is using this precious commodity for recreational purposes and why? Luckily Tom of Bristol has suggested extreme sports as this week's topic so expect answers within.With thanks to our editor Laura Grimshaw.Join our PATREON for ad-free episodes and bonus/video episodes: www.patreon.com/threebeansaladTickets for our UK TOUR available here: https://littlewander.co.uk/tours/three-bean-salad-podcast/Merch now available here: www.threebeansaladshop.comGet in touch: threebeansaladpod@gmail.com @beansaladpod

It's Die Hard with dragons!After a summer hiatus, DIE HARD ON A BLANK is back with a vengeance and we're bringing the heat…because this week we're exploring Rob Bowman's 2002 monster mash REIGN OF FIRE, with the help of returning special guest Rob Hackett!As a young boy, Quinn Abercromby is visiting the construction of an underground tunnel in London, when he stumbles on a horrifying discovery – a dormant dragon – who attacks and kills the construction workers, including his mother. Twenty years later, what's left of humanity is hanging by a thread following the rise of the dragons, and the now adult Quinn (Christian Bale) is the de facto leader of a group of survivors, who have adjusted to their grim new reality and live a remote existence in a castle in Northumberland. However, their existence is disrupted by the arrival of mysterious American soldier Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), who claims to be a dragon slayer…and who might hold the key to humanity's salvation. As a top executive at James Wan's production company Atomic Monster (who recently merged with Blumhouse), Rob is uniquely positioned to provide expert insight into a film that falls somewhere between a blockbuster and a genre picture. The guys also discuss the history of dragons on film and in popular culture, the story's mythic underpinnings, and its exploration of different cultural attitudes to crises, as embodied by a Brit (Bale) and an American (McConaughey). Is this a WW2 analogy? Is it about post-9/11 gloom? Or is it just a kick-ass monster movie? The guys get into it all and much more! Damn it's good to be back!TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXQ2f3GAXAAt the time of release, REIGN OF FIRE is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV/iTunes, YouTube, Fandango and all the usual platforms, and is available on physical media from selected outlets!Click here to subscribe to our Patreon feed 48 HOURS OF BUDDY MOVIES!www.patreon.com/48hoursofbuddymovies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

https://thecommunists.org/2025/09/01/news/west-preparing-european-theatre-ww3/ Enhanced military budgets are putting west European economies on a war footing, and infrastructure required for transporting armaments is set to be upgraded. As was shown in WW1 and WW2, an increase in military spending can only sustain the economy for a brief period of time, and it requires that the military products being manufactured are used in order that they will then need to be replaced. The greater the percentage of an industrial nation's budget that is dedicated to the manufacture of arms, ever greater becomes the economic imperative to consume those military goods in war to keep the economy in motion. Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

Hello Youtube Members, Patreons and Pacific War week by week listeners. Yes this was intended to be an exclusive episode to join the 29 others over on my Youtube Membership and Patreon, but since we are drawing to the end of the Pacific War week by week series, I felt compelled to make some special episodes to answer some of the bigger questions.   Hey before I begin I just want to thank all of you who have joined the patreon, you guys are awesome. Please let me know what other figures, events or other things you want to hear about in the future and I will try to make it happen.   So as you can see the title of this episode is, Why did the Japanese perform so many Atrocities during the Pacific War. Phewww, its honestly a difficult one to tackle, for there are countless reasons. I had a university professor who taught; ancient and modern Japanese history, history of the Japanese empire and the Pacific War. He actually answered this very question in a single lecture and in many ways I found it to be one of the most illuminating things I ever learnt about the Pacific War. To truly understand the reasons why they did such horrible things, you actually need to learn the general history of Japan, particularly the changes from Tokugawa, to Meiji, to Showa. I am going to do my very best, but I know many of you might be asking “what were the worst things they did?”, not everyone takes a special interest into such a niche part of history. May I recommend for those with strong stomachs “the knights of Bushido” by Edward Russel that covers pretty much all the atrocities of the Asia-Pacific War. For those of you who like darker things, check out Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II by David Wallace and Peter Williams, absolute nightmare fuel.   I can't go through the entire history of Japan, but I think it's important to start off with the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. This was the first time the Empire of Japan fought a true war with a foreign nation, that being the Qing dynasty. At this point in time, there really emerged a sort of, to be blunt, race war. The Chinese had historically referred to the Japanese as “woren”, a racist term meaning dwarf. Now historically the Japanese had always revered the Chinese, kind of like in the way a little brother looks up to his big brother. In tokugawa Japan they would learn from the Chinese, but as the Meiji restoration began this dramatically changed. Japan watched as the Chinese were humiliating and abused by the western powers and failed to modernize. Meanwhile Japan emulated the best of the west, to modernize and become a great power themselves. In many ways, Japan saw itself become big brother and now China was little brother. The Meiji restoration had an element of nationalism built into it that would explode come the Show era. Japan for its entire history had this belief they were the “Yamato Race” dating back to the 6th century. Now while the Meiji restoration sought to emulate the west, they also emulated racism and propaganda, which in the 19th century was kind of a big deal. The Japanese government gradually began a long term campaign promoting the idea the Japanese, or Yamato people were superior to that of the other asian races. Who was the next big asian boy on the block? China, so it was inevitable they would direct a lot of racist attitudes towards the Chinese. During the first sino-japanese war, the Chinese, particularly Manchu had a habit of performing atrocities upon the Japanese. They would often cut off body parts of Japanese soldiers in grotesque manners and leave them to be found by their comrades. This was honestly a pretty typical thing of war in the region, but it did also have a racist element to it, the Chinese certainly saw the Japanese as lesser people. Just before the battle of Port Arthur, the Japanese found mutilated remains of the comrades, here is a passage from Makio Okabe who was there:   As we entered the town of Port Arthur, we saw the head of a Japanese soldier displayed on a wooden stake. This filled us with rage and a desire to crush any Chinese soldier. Anyone we saw in the town, we killed. The streets were filled with corpses, so many they blocked our way. We killed people in their homes; by and large, there wasn't a single house without from three to six dead. Blood was flowing and the smell was awful. We sent out search parties. We shot some, hacked at others. The Chinese troops just dropped their arms and fled. Firing and slashing, it was unbounded joy. At this time, our artillery troops were at the rear, giving three cheers [banzai] for the emperor.   The Japanese performed a massacre at Port Arthur, butchering perhaps up to 3000 Chinese civilians, some claim 10's of thousands and in full few of western war correspondents. It became a huge controversy that destroyed the image of the IJA internationally and hurt the Japanese governments efforts at riding themselves of unequal treaties with the western powers. The Japanese learnt a hell of a lesson and an Imperial Proclamation was made in 1894 stating that Japanese soldiers should make every effort to win the war without violating international laws. According to Japanese historian Yuki Tanaka, Japanese forces during the First Sino-Japanese War released 1,790 Chinese prisoners without harm, once they signed an agreement not to take up arms against Japan if they were released.   During the next major war the Japanese performed a dramatic 180, well at least to their enemy. During the Russo-Japanese War, over 80,000 Russian POWs were held by the IJA who were treated in accordance with the Hague conventions of 1899. The Japanese paid them for labor, housed them in conventional POW camps, made sure they received good medical treatment, ironically better than the Russians were capable of. The Japanese did all of this, making sure the foreign war correspondents wrote about it. It was a massive PR stunt in many ways. The Japanese were emulating how a world power should act, because they sought to be one. Meanwhile the Japanese swallowed their pride at being called yellow monkeys, as the prevalent Yellow Peril ideology was being pushed by Kaiser Wilhehelm and Tsar Nicholas II heavily. The Japanese treated the entire war like gentlemen and suffered horrific higher casualties than necessary because of it. But something many people don't take much notice of, because the IJA made sure of it, was they horrible treatment of the Chinese during the war.   Now the Russians in Manchuria looted, killed and raped many Chinese, pushed quite a bit by the Yellow Peril. The Chinese, certainly the Honghuzi bandits were working for the Japanese to attack them, so its not like they had no reasons. The IJA was more professional and had orders not to molest the Chinese, as they were helping the war effort, but this did not prevent it. The Japanese also looted, killed and raped Chinese. The Japanese would often wave it off as reprisals against potential spies. I only bring this up as it was very apparent, the Japanese treated the Russians much different than the chinese.   Fast forward to WW1, the Japanese had a battle against the Germans and Austro-Hungarians known in the west as the Siege of Tsingtau. The Japanese took up an identical methodology to the Russo-Japanese war with their approach to the Germans, but even took it a step further. After winning the siege, the Japanese seized nearly 5000 German POW's who were treated with a surreal amount of respect. They were brought back to Japan and housed for the rest of the war in 12 cities around Tokyo and Kumamoto. The POW's enjoyed humane treatment and a rather famous event occurred at the Bando camp where a large orchestra was formed of German POW's who toured the nation performing 100 concerts, lectures and plays. Evidence the Germans were treated well can be seen in the fact 170 prisoners never left Japan and sought wives and lives there. Now is this all a feel good love story, no, just like during the Russo-Japanese War, Japan was playing up the PR, for during WW1 they wanted official recognition as a world power and that of being racially equal to the whites.    Japan was officially recognized as a world power during the treaty of Versailles, but when Japan gave its racial equality proposal, President Woodrow Wilson of the US and Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes refused to allow it to pass, even though they received majority votes. Now The Japanese had been for a lack of better words, fucked over, during the first sino-japanese war when the triple intervention of France, Germany and Russia stole away their war earning of the Liaodong peninsula. During the Russo-Japanese war, Theodore Roosevelt limited the Japanese war gains and now here after WW1 the Japanese received another humiliation. To the Japanese, it was the last straw and it was a major reason they went to war with the west, who they viewed, and honestly rightfully so, would never see them as equals.   Ompf, lot of history there, but now we come to the Showa era, which was molded by the feelings of the past decades.   In 1937 Japan and China enter an unofficial war that saw one of the worst wartime atrocities in human history, the rape of Nanjing. It began on December 13th of 1937, lasting 6 or so weeks seeing the murder of possibly 300,000 civilians and pows, the mass rape of 20,000 and untold hardship upon the Chinese people. The Japanese followed this up with numerous other massacres in China such as the Changjiao Massacre claiming possibly 30,000 Chinese civilian lives, the Alexandra Hospital Massacre killing 200 patients and medical staff in Hong Kong, the Laha Massacre on Ambon island where 300 members of the Gull force were executed, the Bangka island massacre where 60 Australian and British soldiers and 22 Australian nurses were murdered, the Parit Sulong massacre in Malay where 150 wounded Australian and Indian POW's were executed, the Bataan Death march where negligence and brutality took the lives of 650 Americans and perhaps a possible 18,000 Filipinos, the Manila massacres claiming the lives of perhaps 54,000 filipinos including women and children in the Philippines, the Balikpapan massacre in the dutch east indies taking the lives of 78 Dutch Civilians, I can keep going and going. Where the Japanese went, massacres and horrors occurred.    Again if you really want to delve into these stories check out “the knights of Bushido”.   The Japanese also had the infamous special units like 731, who conducted horrifying experiments on civilians and POWs like vivisectioning live people without anesthesia, testing biological and chemical weapons on live people, the freezing peoples to study frostbite treatment and giving people sexually transmitted diseases to study. Lt General Shiro Ishii's unit 731 deployed plague infested fleas, cholera, bubonic plague and other nasty weapons upon Chinese civilians killing perhaps up to 500,000. This was seen during the battle of Changde and famously during operation Sei-go also known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign.    The Japanese also enacted the infamous “Sanko Sakusen / three all's policy : kill all, urn all, loot all” in retaliation to the Chinese communists Hundred regiments offensive in December of 1940. Sanctioned by Hirohito personally, it is thought this act resulted in the death of 2.7 million Chinese civilians. According to author Werner Gruhl 8 million Chinese civilian deaths could be attributable to the Japanese.     So then we come back to the big question, why? So now that I've covered the loose history for coherency sake I want to list here the largest reasons for the atrocities and by no means is this official categories or even all of them, I am simply stating kind of my top ones I guess you can say:   Treaties signed or not signed War strategy and indoctrination  Ultra-Nationalism and Racism Surrender & the Bastardization of the Bushido code The Brutality of the Japanese military Treaties signed or not signed   Yes its time to talk about treaties, yawn. Now I said previously Japan did sign the Hague Conventions of 1899 and would ratify them in 1907. The Hague conventions did contain laws for prisoners of war, protection of civilians. Alongside this, in 1894 an imperial proclamation was made stating Japanese soldiers should make every effort to win a war without violating international laws. More significantly Japan “signed” but unlike the majority of other world powers did not ratify the Geneva convention of 1929. Why? To be blunt, the geneva conventions did not really benefit the Japanese military from their point of view.   First the Japanese had a very specific perspective on surrendering, they simply did not do it, so they did not expect many of their soldiers to ever become POW's, so how would it benefit them to ratify such a thing? If they are not going to have many POW's, why would they burden themselves with upholding all the conventional laws for POW's they would obtain during war?  Another glaring reason involved aerial bombing. Many Japanese leaders, like Kanji Ishiwara, believed the home islands would be subjected to massive aerial bombing if a global war broke out. If Japan was subjected to aerial bombing and ratified the geneva convention, this meant they would have to take the pilots who were caught prisoner. The Japanese believed this would encourage further bombing. Lastly the convention had rules for POW treatment that literally contradicted how Japanese soldiers were treated by their own superiors. More about that in the last part about the military's brutality, but summarized, the Japanese army were abusive as hell and to sign such a thing would literally contradict how they did things.   Emperor Hirohito personally ratified a decision to remove certain constraints of the Hague Conventions when it came to the treatment of Chinese POW's in the directive of 5 August 1937. This notification advised staff officers to simply stop using the term "prisoners of war". They would refer to their enemy as bandits, guerillas and such, anything but soldiers so they would not have to take any prisoners, though they typically did not leave anyone alive in China regardless. The Geneva Convention exempted POWs of sergeant rank or higher from manual labor, and stipulated that prisoners performing work should be provided with extra rations and other essentials. The Japanese in the later half of the war would be starved of provisions and resources, thus its to no surprise they could not meet these demands, even if they sought to uphold them. I will note in 1942, Japan indicated they would “follow” the Geneva rules and would observe the Hague Convention of 1907 outlining the laws and customs of war. Yet this is like a verbal confirmation, it had no legal basis, something the Japanese particularly loved to do during the war.   According to Dr. William Skelton III, who produced a document entitled American Ex Prisoners of War for the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs, more POWs died at the hands of the Japanese in the Pacific theater and specifically in the Philippines than in any other conflict to date. For example in Germany, POWs died at a rate 1.2%. In the Pacific theater the rate was 37%. In the Philippines, POWs died at a rate of 40%.    Now these pieces of paper that were signed or not signed, what does this really matter when it comes to war, its obvious they were not upholding certain rules, but how did this quote en quote make them more brutal and perform more atrocities? Well here is the sticky thing, if you are part of the Japanese military and you know your nation did not ratify certain rules of war, this meant your enemy had no supposed legal basis to follow said rules against you either.    So I want you to think of two aspects of this. If your nation did not sign or ratify certain treaties, then you could not expect the enemy to respect such rules when it comes to you. But more importantly, what if the leader of your nation…just told you to believe that?    In early 1942, Great Britain, the United States of America and other great powers did officially let the Japanese know that they would, on their  part, observe all the provisions of the Convention and requested reciprocity. Japanese foreign minister at the time, Hideki Tojo gave a formal assurance that although Japan was not bound by the Geneva convention, the Japanese would apply it “mutatis mutandis” towards the Americans, British, Canadians, Australians and New Zealander POW's, note he most definitely did not extend this to the asiatic groups, nor the Dutch whom I guess he just forgot about. But this did morally bind Japan to comply with the convention. However the top brass of the Japanese military, notably Hideki Tojo in these cases, went out of his way to instill beliefs within the military as to what they should expect from the enemy. As you will see in the next points, this was basically a type of indoctrination.   War strategy and indoctrination    The leaders of Japan knew full well how unmatched they were in terms of resources and productivity before they began the war with the west. How could they possibly win the war? The IJN was dead set on a decisive naval battle, but for the IJA to compensate for their lack of resources, they believed their “spirit” would overcome the enemy. In many ways this spirit meant going above and beyond normal human endurance, to literally outperform the allies and notably to conduct the war with absolutely zero mercy. Once Japan lost the initiative in the war, after Guadalcanal, the IJA were forced to fight a war of attrition. Now they would prolong and exact maximum casualties upon the allies hoping to force them to the peace table. The idea was quite simple, the IJA would do everything possible to make the allies believe they would never give up and it would far too costly to defeat them. How does one go about achieving these aims? Well the IJA officers would tell you “by steeling your hearts”. To achieve all of this required extreme indoctrination.    Japanese children grew up in regimentation, they were desensitized to violence through tales of martial glory, and were taught that their purpose in life was to serve the emperor. Upon entering  military service, they were trained out of any individualistic spirit, and taught that compassion was a weakness and had no place in the field of war. The soldier's motto was faith equaled strength.  Faith being devotion to duty and service to the Divine Emperor. Apart from ideology and spiritual toughening, training in the Japanese Imperial Army was also extremely harsh and violent. This was not even particularly a special aspect of Showa Japan, it went all the way back to the Meiji era. From a young age children's education directed them, like a pipeline for military duty.   Now at the offset of the war, Hideki Tojo released the “Senjinkun” “instructions for the battlefield”. This was basically a manual for soldiers on how to conduct war. The document was used to establish standards of behavior for Japanese troops and improve discipline and morale within the Army, it also included things like a prohibition against being taken prisoner. It stated if you were captured by the enemy, because Japan did not sign or ratify certain treaties, you would be killed or tortured by the allies, and if you survived you and your family would face shame back home, and punishment resulting typically in 6 months of prison.   Here is a small excerpt from the document Those who know shame are weak. Always think of [preserving] the honor of your community and be a credit to yourself and your family. Redouble your efforts and respond to their expectations. Never live to experience shame as a prisoner. By dying you will avoid leaving a stain on your honor.   The purpose was basically psychological warfare, against their own army. Those like Hideki Tojo believed Japan could only defeat the resource rich Americans with spirit. Thus the manuals like Senjinkun demanded the forces not ever surrender, because the allies would do horrible things, it was shameful to do so and there were disciplinary actions for any who did. In 1942 the Army amended its criminal code to specify that officers who surrendered soldiers under their command faced at least six months imprisonment, regardless of the circumstances in which the surrender took place. This change attracted little attention, however, as the Senjinkun imposed more severe consequences and had greater moral force.   In a report dated June 1945, the U.S. Office of War Information noted that 84 percent of one group of interrogated Japanese prisoners, many of whom had been injured or unconscious when captured stated that they had expected to be killed or tortured by the Allies if taken prisoner. The OWI analysts described this as being typical, and concluded that fear of the consequences of surrender, “rather than Bushido,” was the motivation for many Japanese battle deaths in hopeless circumstances–as much as, and probably more than, the other two major considerations: fear of disgrace at home, and “the positive desire to die for one's nation, ancestors, and god-emperor.”   Something barely talked about in the west, was during the Pacific War, the Americans had a habit of taking human trophies. Human trophies were Japanese skulls, gold teeth, finger bones and such. The famous novel “With the Old Breed” by Eugene Sledge spoke of his personal accounts of these actions, its a rather gruesome and dark part of the war. Now some of these actions were publicized, despite the US military's efforts to quell and hush it down. Time magazine famously had an iconic photo of a woman whose enlisted boyfriend sent her home a Japanese skull. FDR also famously was given a letter opener carved out of Japanese bones. These stories were seized up greedily by the Japanese government who used them as propaganda to prove to their soldiers what would happen if they were captured. It had a profound effect as you can imagine. And this was not limited to Japanese soldiers. The propaganda machine would contribute at the end of the war to mass civilian suicides on Okinawa and Saipan.   Back to the POW subject. When it came to the treatment of POW's, Hideki Tojo began submitting in May of 1942 a series of memorandum, basic orders as to how POW's should be treated. “Prisoners of war can be used for the enlargement of our production and as military labor, white prisoners of war will be confined successively in Korea, Formosa and Manchuria. Superior technicians and high ranking officers -- Colonels and above -- will be included among the prisoners of war confined in Formosa. Those who are not suitable for use in enlargement of our production will be confined in prisoner of war camps which will be built immediately on the spot.Although the working of prisoner of war officers and warrant officers is forbidden by the Regulations of 1903, the policy of the control authorities is that under the situation of our country where not one person now eats without working they want them to set to work. It is desired that you give proper orders on this.The present situation of affairs in this country does not permit anyone to lie idle doing nothing but eating freely. With that in view, in dealing with prisoners of war, I hope you will see that they may be usefully employed. In Japan, we have our own ideology concerning prisoners of war, which should naturally make their treatment more or less different from that in Europe and America. In dealing with them, you should, of course, observe the various Regulations concerned, aim at an adequate application of them . . . At the same time, you must not allow them to lie idle doing nothing but eating freely for even a single day. Their labor and technical skill should be fully utilized for the replenishment of production, and contribution rendered toward the prosecution of the Greater East Asiatic War for which no effort ought to be spared."   Thus in the end as a grunt in the IJA you were led to believe: if I am captured I will be tortured, killed maybe turned into a letter opener, or someone will place my skull on their mantle. If I surrender and survive and make it back home, I will be severely punished and worst of all me and my family will be shamed. I could not expect any humanity from the enemy, because my nation did not sign or ratify treaties like the Geneva convention. More so, because my armies conduct was so unbelievably barbaric, I could only expect the very same from my enemy. It was a vicious cycle. You perform atrocities, expecting the enemy to do the same, and thus it just keeps perpetuating itself. Ultra-Nationalism and Racism   Now we spoke a little bit about the concept of the Yamato race, the Japanese were indoctrinated to believe they were a superior race and that their emperor was something akin to a living god. Until this war, the Japanese empire was on a hell of a winning streak going all the way back to the Meiji Era. For the first half of the Pacific war, the Japanese won nearly every battle. This led to something historians called “victory disease” that made them become somewhat arrogant and cocky, but it also made them feel “superhuman”. The allies' news reporting at the beginning of the war began to frantically refer to the Japanese as “supermen”or  “super jungle fighters”. Particularly because of the Malay campaign, the Japanese soldier just seemed to be tougher, could survive harsher jungle climates, even doing so with less food or war materials. The Japanese read the allied news reports and came to the conclusion that had been driven down their throats by their government, indeed the Japanese spirit was winning the war. The Japanese public ate this up in their propaganda and it perpetuated their ultra-nationalistic beliefs. The Japanese truly came to believe they were destined to rule the asia-pacific. Look at the results in China for example. Within a short amount of time they conquered much of China, though the public really had no idea how bad the China was bottled down by 1940. Then came the greater east asia co-prosperity sphere propaganda, which is an excellent example of their megalomania.    Yet alongside their ultra-nationalism, seen more strongly perpetuated against other Asian groups, the Japanese also indoctrinated their public with racism against them. The Yellow Peril of the 19th century and anti-japanese or anti-asian racism fueled the Japanese soldiers. The Japanese as a people had faced brutal racist hardships historically at the hands of the west, particularly from their point of view from America. There was the slights against them during the first sino-japanese war, the infamous triple intervention of france, germany and Russia stealing away their prize that was the liaodong peninsula. Then during the Boxer rebellion they faced racism, not being allowed to lead mutli national army formations, despite them being the lionshare of said military force. The Russo-Japanese war saw from their point of view, America stealing their war prizes. Last but not least, after WW1 they were told to their faces that they were a world power, but not racially equal. The Japanese faced anti-Japanese and anti-asian immigration laws when it came to America in the form of the gentleman's agreement and Australia's “great white Australia policy”. During the war, the American propaganda machine began pumping out racist caricatures of Japanese as rats, goggle eyed  bucktooth people, literal yellow monkey's.   For the IJA the pacific war in many was a holy war directed at the arrogant whites who had abused them for so long. This will probably sound controversial, but indeed, the pacific war was very much a race war. If you are not convinced of that, I recommend reading “War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War” by John Dower. The human trophy taking, anti-japanese bucktooth, rat people cartoon propaganda, history of racial abuse like the japanese concentration camps, the gentleman's agreement, the stealing of victories during the first sino-japanese war, russo-japanese war and ww1 all plagued the mind of a Japanese soldier. To them in many ways, the “whites had it coming”. Which is rather ironic given how the Japanese would treat the other asian racial groups they came into contact with. But such is the contradictory nature of the Imperial Japanese military.    The Japanese also held racist beliefs about the westerners. The Japanese soldiers were taught the allies were akin to demons or beasts. They were described often as “the hairy ones” or “anglo-American demons”. Taught these men would rape women and girls, stample upon the civilians they captured with the treads of their tanks. The marines were especially dreaded.  According to a story circulated widely among the Japanese on Saipan, all Marine Corps recruits were compelled to murder their own parents before being inducted into service. It was said that Japanese soldiers taken prisoner would suffer hideous tortures—their ears, noses, and limbs would be cut off; they would be blinded and castrated; they could also be cooked and fed to dogs. As silly as this may sound, do remember the Americans were taking human trophies so the Japanese propaganda machine had its evidence. Tons of photos of skulls atop american tanks for example were displayed to the Japanese public. Another famous one was the cartoon appearing in an American servicemen's magazine, which was later reproduced and translated in the Japanese press. It suggested the existence of “Japanese hunting licenses, promising open season on the enemy, complete with free ammunition and equipment—with pay!    In terms of how the Japanese exacted their own racism towards their fellow asians. During the War the Japanese dragged into forced labor, Koreans, Chinese and southeast asians. 670,000 Koreans were brought to Japan to work mines and heavy industry, around 60,000 of them died to harsh conditions. Between April 1943 to May 1945, 41,862 Chinese were sent to Japan to work, 2800 died before even reaching the home islands. 6872 died in the work sites again from brutal conditions. When it comes to southeast asian numbers are hard to pinpoint but its safe to say at least 300,000 Javanese, Malay, Burmese, Tamil and other groups were mobilized to construct the Burma-Siam railroad between October 1942 to november 1943 and 60,000 perished. This all went for the men, for the women, all those racial groups would face the horrors of becoming comfort women, historians estimate there could have been 50-200,000 pressed into it. But for the Japanese, believing their were superior to these other asiatic groups, groups whom they would publicly say were like children, they as the father figure would guide, well they simply abused them.   So in a contradictive fashion, the Japanese believed they were superior and could do horrible things to their Asian neighbors while simultaneously decrying the racism cast towards them by western powers as justification for their brutal actions against them. These types of feelings and perspectives molded the mind of the average Japanese soldier, dehumanizing others has always been a standard military practice afterall.    Surrender & the Bastardization of the Bushido code   I think this is one the vast majority of WW2 history buffs know, the Japanese perspective on surrender and the bushido code. In the book “military trials of war criminals in the Netherlands east indies 1946-1949” Fred Borch had this to say about the variable of bushido for the brutality   As Japan continued its modernization in the early 20th century, her armed forces became convinced that success in battle would be assured if Japanese soldiers, sailors, and airmen had the "spirit" of Bushido. ... The result was that the Bushido code of behavior "was inculcated into the Japanese soldier as part of his basic training." Each soldier was indoctrinated to accept that it was the greatest honor to die for the Emperor and it was cowardly to surrender to the enemy. ... Bushido therefore explains why the Japanese soldiers who were stationed in the NEI so mistreated POWs in their custody. Those who had surrendered to the Japanese—regardless of how courageously or honorably they had fought—merited nothing but contempt; they had forfeited all honor and literally deserved nothing. Consequently, when the Japanese murdered POWs by shooting, beheading, and drowning, these acts were excused since they involved the killing of men who had forfeited all rights to be treated with dignity or respect. While civilian internees were certainly in a different category from POWs, it is reasonable to think that there was a "spill-over" effect from the tenets of Bushido.   It is very true, the Japanese soldiers and sailors were taught Japan was a sacred nation. Traditional samurai values of bushido were merged with modern training and weaponry. The government propagandized the figure of the Emperor as a living god who embodied the Japanese state, the Kokutai. Emperor Hirohito and his family were the spiritual essence of Japan. To even show your back to the enemy let alone surrender was deemed cowardly and brought dishonor upon your family. As written by Inouye Jukichi in 1910, something read by many Japanese “The Japanese warriors looked upon it as shame to themselves not to die when their Lord was hard pressed . . . their own shame was the shame upon their parents, their family, their house and their whole clan, and with this idea deeply impressed upon their minds, the Samurai, no matter of what rank, held their lives light as feathers when compared with the weight they attached to the maintenance of a spotless name”.    Young men of Japan were taught that "The greatest honor is to die for the Emperor" Additionally precept the Japanese were taught that it is an ignominy to surrender to the enemy. The combined effect of these two precepts was to inculcate in the Japanese soldier a spirit of contempt for Allied soldiers who surrendered, which, in defiance of the rules of war, was demonstrated in their ill-treatment of prisoners. They made no distinction between the soldier who fought honorably and courageously up to an inevitable surrender, and the soldier who surrendered without a fight. All enemy soldiers who surrendered under any circumstance were to be regarded as being disgraced and entitled to live only by the tolerance of their captors.   Surrender was unforgivable under their code, drilled into them through the Imperial Japanese education system and military. When the Japanese would come across vast swathes of the enemy surrendering, particularly if the enemy used up all their ammunition killing their comrades and then surrendered, well it added fuel to their brutality. One only needs to look at the deaths due to Banzai charges, take for example the incredibly massive one at the battle of Saipan seeing around 4000 dead Japanese. IJA officers brought ancestral katana's to the war, the Japanese cut off the heads of the enemies as it was seen to be honorable. When faced with death, many chose to commit seppuku, the bushido propaganda was intense.    A brutal practice emerged in the Pacific island hopping campaign, whereupon wounded Japanese would pretend to be dead or surrender only to explode grenades upon allied forces coming closer. This began to be noticed by US marines during the battle of Guadalcanal and Australians in New Guinea. This began a vicious cycle . There were of course Japanese who would surrender. Hell the Koreans forced into service often did try to surrender, but they would all be hampered by something. Because of the actions of those Japanese feinted death and taking down allied soldiers with them, the allied soldiers gradually began a practice of not bothering to accept surrender. It became a self fulfilling prophecy. Many Japanese made the allies believe all they could expect was a grenade death, thus the allies became more brutal to them. This simply led the Japanese to conclude their government was accurate about how the allies would treat them, so more and more did not surrender. An absolutely horrible cycle that went on to the very end of the war, though the allies did figure out means to get Japanese to surrender more in the last year.    The Brutality of the Japanese military   I think this is probably one of the most important factors, and its also one the “normies” would not know as much about. The Imperial Japanese military, more so the Army, had what I can only describe as a built in system of abuse. As described to me by the same university professor I keep bringing up in podcasts, picture a literal pecking order. Going from the highest ranked general to the very bottom grunt. Imagine each one who is higher than the other, routinely physically abuses them. For example, it was very typical for a colonel to slap a major across the face, the major would then strike one of his captains, and the abuse would continue through the ranks to the grunts who would have no one to abuse, thus they turned to POW's or civilian populations. This was not just an accepted part of the Japanese Imperial Army it was indoctrinated.    From day one of basic training, IJA officers taught their men, races like the Chinese were their blood enemies and racially inferior. These were people the Japanese would rule over one day. The trainers would toss the boys into rigorous training activities involving physical violence towards another alongside the notion any orders given by a higher ranking officer was infallible and to be treated as if the divine emperor himself, the living god was giving it.    The Japanese army even taught methods of torture that would be employed in all areas they occupied. Among these tortures were the water treatment, burning, electric shocks, the knee spread, suspension, kneeling on sharp instruments and flogging. The Kempetai, were the ones doing the lionshare of these tortures. Other Army and Navy units, however, used the same methods as the Kempetai. Camp guards performed similar methods, local police forces organized by the Kempetai in the occupied territories also applied the same methods of torture. The Kempetai were administered by the War Ministry, trained at specialized schools who were maintained and operated by the War Ministry in Japan. Thus the conduct of Kempetai and the camp guards directly reflected the policy of the War Ministry.    The Japanese army leadership made sure recruits were physically and mentally abused, they were given strenuously duty tasks and pushed to their absolute limit. During the war given where they were deployed, take guadalcanal for example, the Japanese soldiers would be facing starvation as well. Being half starved, beaten and suffering the effects of war would drive anyone to perform horrifying acts. The life of a Japanese solider was simply at the whims of an extremely toxic management culture. The lowest ranking echelons received the lionshare of abuse and they took out their frustration with whomever they could find deemed lower than them, ie: POW's, civilians, etc.   All of these variables combined contributed to the creation of a military willing to perform just about any atrocity they thought necessary to win the war. It was a war they could not hope to win, but many of them went to their deaths trying to defeat the hands of fate. There are countless other reasons of course for the atrocities committed in cold or hot blood. Countless books have been written on this subject, please do check out the few I mentioned. With that again, a big thanks to you patreons, you guys are awesome. Please let me know what you think in the comments, and what you want to hear more about in the future. This has been the pacific war channel over and out.

Did you know that disease has been used to help people? In this episode we're going to discuss several cases in which disease, or disease research, was utilized to protect people from great harm. All of these cases occurred during World War 2, and were carried out by physicians doing their best to protect those targeted by The Third Reich, also known as the Nazis.

Apt Pupil - "I Wanna Know"We continue our Stephen King birthday party with a very challenging piece this week - APT PUPIL (1998). A young man's quest for historically accurate knowledge of a WW2 soldier's life and work in Nazi Germany consumes him and his subject alike as they jockey for power. We acknowledge this film is a tough watch, but we hope you enjoy our conversation about it. Support the show

Get one free month of service when you make the switch to Patriot Mobile and use Promo Code "WOLF"   https://patriotmobile.com/partners/wolfPatriot Mobile donates a portion of every dollar earned to organizations that fight for causes you care about.Patriot Mobile has exceptional 4G & 5G nationwide coverage and uses all the same towers the main carriers use. Patriot Mobile offers a Contract Buy-Out. This offer allows new customers to buy out a current device from their departing carrier and receive up to $500 per device applied as a credit on their phone bill. What kind of a reaction should you expect when you go to Navy Basic Training in the 1960s? Is it possible for the Army to eat at the chow hall and be normal?  Find out, the answers to these questions and more on this weeks "sode" of The Cammo Comedy Show Podcast!If you have any funny military stories of your own that you would like to share, drop us a line at:stories@cammocomedy.com  or  Leave a voicemail at (531) 222-6146  Sadly, the voicemail will only record in 2 minute blocksWe are here to make you laugh, but behind this there is the imbedded philosophy of, "No One Left Behind." Sadly, 22 vets per day commit suicide, approximately 67,500 vets are homeless and thousands struggle with everyday life after service.  What we hope to accomplish is providing a fun place to gather that will have a similar feel to the conversations that happen at the VFW or American Legion between vets.  Since the latest generations of vets are not really going to these places anymore, we are making it happen online.  We believe that the sense of community will help some who struggle, while providing stories about the good times that we can all laugh at!An additional part of this show is capturing the oral history of the military over the past few decades, so if you happen to know a veteran who served during WW2, Korean War or Vietnam eras, we would love to hear from them.  Obviously, we want to hear stories from all eras, but we have special respect for the older generations.  

On this episode, we are joined from all the way on the other side of the world by Emma Pei Yin to chat about her debut novel When Sleeping Women Wake, a historical fiction novel about three women who each find their individual paths to resistance during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during world war 2. Emma shares with how she was inspired to write the story after hearing about her grandfather's experiences as a resistance fighter in WW2 as well as how surprisingly difficult it was to find research about life under occupation from the Chinese perspective.Follow Emma on Instagram at @emmapeiyin and check out her debut novel When Sleeping Women Wake available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authorsSupport the Books & Boba Podcast by:Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perksPurchasing books at our bookshopRocking our Books & Boba merchFollow our hosts:Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)Follow us:InstagramTwitterGoodreadsFacebookThe Books & Boba September 2025 pick is A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu MandannaThis podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Guelph, Ontario author Karen Smythe about Karen's novel, A Town With No Noise (Palimpsest Press, 2025). Samara and J., a struggling young couple, are off to J.'s birthplace, Upton Bay, a small town turned upscale theatre and winery destination. Sam has been hired by an editor friend to write a promotional piece about the place while she and J. stay with his grandfather Otto, a prominent businessman in his day. But their visit does not go as planned. Sam's explorations of Upton's tourist attractions lead her to ugly truths behind the quaint little town's façade—discoveries that are counterpointed with vignettes of the town's wealthy, elderly ruling class, painting a different picture than the one Sam's friend expects her to provide. Tensions between Sam and J. worsen as J.'s true nature emerges and Sam begins to question both his values and his family's past—especially after Otto tells them stories about his time as a German soldier during WW2. Back in the city, Sam's opinions and judgments about what is right and wrong are tested when a shocking truth surfaces about her grandmother's flight from Norway after the war, profoundly changing Sam's understanding of who she is and who she wants to become. In A Town with No Noise, fact and fiction combine to ask difficult questions about the communities we build, questions that are as relevant today as ever: Who stays? Who is chased away? And who decides? About Karen Smythe: Karen Smythe is the author of the novel This Side of Sad (Goose Lane Editions, 2017), the story collection Stubborn Bones (Polestar/Raincoast, 2001), and the critical study Figuring Grief: Gallant, Munro, and the Poetics of Elegy (McGill-Queen's U.P., 1992). She lives in Guelph, Ontario. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Today's Adventure: An OSS agent goes behind enemy lines into occupied Holland to stay at his uncle's house.Original Radio Broadcast: July 30, 1950Originating from New YorkStarring: Les Tremayne; Lester Fletcher; Harvey Hayes; Jared Burke; Gordon Stern; Francois Grimar; Basil Langton; Patricia Courtleigh; Beulah Garrick; Victor ChapinTo subscribe to this podcast and, go to https://greatadventures.info/Become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.netSupport the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call at 208-991-4783Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter @radiodetectives

This episode is a release of our sister program The Adnan Husain Show. Adnan discusses a crucial history of US subversion of Syria's sovereignty even before the conclusion of WW2 starting with interference and covert operations by the OSS precursor to the CIA and then through the entire Cold War with Dr. Patrick Higgins, a Middle East historian, co-editor of Liberated Texts and member of the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective. His article "Gunning for Damascus: The US War on the Syrian Arab Republic" is mandatory reading and the state of the field on this dark history. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19436149.2023.2199487?scroll=top&needAccess=true#abstractart Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)!  www.patreon.com/adnanhusain  Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share!  Also available in video on YouTube:  https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com  www.adnanhusain.org

Ever wondered how the SS celebrated Christmas? This, and Heinrich Himmler's war on Christmas in our conclusion to Heinrich Himmler's life from birth up to the start of WW2.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What was The Dowding System? Why was Chain Home pivotal to the defence of Britain in WW2? How many hours of training did RAF pilots have on average? Join James Holland and Al Murray for part 2 of this new series on The Battle Of Britain as they explore the decisive aerial battles over Britain in summer 1940, and the dogged defence that stopped the Nazi warmachine. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access to podcast episodes, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Members also get priority access and discounts to live events. A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Email: wehaveways@goalhanger.com Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's Adventure: Two OSS agents are on a mission to bring in a captured Japanese colonel, but the mission goes awry, leaving the two men in a battle for survival.Original Radio Broadcast: July 23, 1950Originating from New YorkStarring: Jerry Lester; Larry Haines; Dan Ocko; Irene Hubbard; Raymond Edward Johnson; Karl Weber; Arnold RobertsonTo subscribe to this podcast and, go to https://greatadventures.info/Become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.netSupport the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call at 208-991-4783Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter @radiodetectives