War in the Pacific

Today in class we started watching a movie about the fighting that occurred in the Pacific during World War II.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army took control over the vast majority of the Pacific.  In the Philippines, roughly 70,000 Americans and Filipinos were taken prisoner, forced to march to prison camps.  This march was known as the "March of Death" because the Japanese would torture and kill some of the prisoners because the camps they had were not big enough for all 70,000 people.  Conditions in Japanese prisoner of war camps were far more difficult than German camps.  The Japanese were better than the American soldiers initially because they had more experience in war because of their fight against China, they were better trained, and because of their idea of death before surrender.  This relates back to Samarai codes, and even though everyone fighitng in WWII was fighting until their death, the Japanese took this more seriously because of the honor and dignity that came with dying in battle and the humility and shame that came with surrender.