All language subtitles for _World.War.II.Total.War.S01E01.720p.HDTV.x264-CBFM

Total war.

Is all encompassing

the war without
boundary or limitation.

Bomb

advanced.

Confronting whole populations
with impossible choices.

Manufacturer of web the
transformed industry in the workforce.

Area bombing
campaigns reduce cities to.

Just doomed
populations to starvation.

Racial policies

sponsored campaigns of genocide.

Heart of this conflict were.

Me three people

the would reveal both the best.

And worst of humanity.

People whose lives
were lost or mortgaged

to the demands

of.

Peace that from

the first world war.

People across the globe of

raw and grieving.

How to the been the
war to end all wars.

Far more destructive war lay
in they're not too distant future.

In the nineteen
twenties and thirties

the fragile peaks
began to falter.

Syrian crisis.

Sino-Japanese war.

Spanish civil war.

Each in their own way

provided glimpses
of the water come.

Nature of war had been
shifting from limited warfare

towards total war
for many years.

The military scholars
and philosophers

sort of way to describe
this new kind of warfare.

Nineteen twenties.

The influential prussian general

and military scholar

Carl Von clausewitz.

Developed his concept

of absolute war.

And his mind and
absolute rule was a wall

where there was no
limited political objective.

The entire destruction of the enemy states
if necessary the total eradication of

their independence.

On classmates thoughts absolute what was
unlikely he thought the strain it with place

in society is would
cause them to collapse

but of course he had not foreseen the
development of enormous nation states

by the Turner the
twentieth century.

Von clausewitz
theory of absolute war.

Anticipated some
of the realities of war

almost one hundred
years after he wrote it.

But when the first world war

introduced the world
to warfare dominated by

the industrial strength
of the combatants.

It was far more destructive

than anything from concerts

could have imagined.

Scale is like nothing we've
ever seen before in war

and so the
casualties that follow

but it's more than just the army's
it's about how economies immobilized.

First time you have major
command economies the year

where the government
directs the production

to support the war effort.

There's a huge change in high society
approach is the creation of economic wealth.

General erich ludendorff.

Nominally German first
quartermaster general

and effectively
overall commander.

Dubbed the new kind of conflict

total war.

It was the first world war that alerted
ludendorff and others to the possibilities of

total war.

But it was the second world war

that would demonstrate
its catastrophic potential.

Signal will fits the idea of are

or even more certain the first.

Whereas in the first
world war the states

at the well developed

able to.

Leads into the field

lack certain features

that the second
world war states.

In the second world war you
have clearly totalitarian state

Nazi Germany Soviet Russia.

Even imperial Japan who could
mobilize that populations on a level never

seen before.

Total war encompassed
different dimensions.

Elements of title what to do with the level
of technology and destruction that was

deployed in the military action.

Others were to do with the way in
which civilians were exposed to violence.

And different countries engaged in different
aspects of that title water different

extents.

Exposure to the different
aspects of total war

would depend on time and place.

When the war ended

the cities of the united
states were intact.

Those of Germany.

In ruins.

Both Germany and
Australia were combatants.

But the degree to which those living
in each country experience total war.

Very densely.

Citizens of dresden
saw the city destroyed.

People of Melbourne.

Were untouched.

The extent to which was dominated
the economies of each country

committed to the
war effort also varied.

Germany for example
actually didn't mobilize

its economy very
effectively in a total way

until relatively
late in the warp.

Britain started that
process much earlier.

The most complete
mobilization of the homefront

was in the Soviet union.

Where the true
nature of total war

was made clear by
the German invasion.

It was a struggle for existence.

And a society had to go all in.

Right from the beginning

if you endorsed the
notion of total war you were

breaking down restrictions on the kind of
means that can be used to achieve victory.

I think

total warheads

several key features

it is a war that

is

seen as an existential struggle.

The nations that are
involved see it as.

A question of
survival or annihilation.

Any methods that are needed.

To win that struggle
are considered to be.

Legitimate.

Total war did not
emerge spontaneously.

It evolved through the conflicts
of the years between the wars

which included and gathered
together elements of total war.

With each conflict

people across the world
became accustomed to.

Perhaps desensitized to.

The unrestrained violence

of total war.

When the second world war
when global in nineteen forty one.

Billions of people would
become embroiled in the struggle

for total victory.

Or total defeat.

Origins of the commitment
to total warm and total defeat.

Can be traced back to the
armistice of nineteen eighteen.

The first world war ended.

On November eleventh nineteen
eighteen at least in the west

but in fact fighting wet
are longer and in the east

and I think that's something
we should always remember.

What happened then

is that the leaders.

Of the victorious allies

had to meet and had
to decide how to deal

with what was it

catastrophic
situation in Europe.

As.

In nineteen nineteen.

Europe was chaotic.

The great continental empire
that had for better or for worse

moved over Europe.

Habsburg

hohenzollern.

Romanov

ottoman.

Oregon.

Aftermath of the great war
had left parts of Europe stopping.

It a globalized and
industrialized warfare

on a scale never seen before.

And then at versailles.

Leaders from nearly thirty nations came
together to establish the terms of the peace.

But I think they would
very much in their minds

of those who went to the Paris
peace conference in nineteen nineteen

was to try and avert.

Another catastrophe like the
one they just come through.

Peace at the end
of the first world war.

Was in many ways an illusion.

Treaty of versailles signed on the
twenty eighth of June nineteen nineteen.

Was one of fight treaties formulated
in the Paris peace conference.

The terms of the treaty was
seen as unnecessarily harsh

the war guilt cause which placed the
blame for the war squarely at German feet.

At numerous toxic consequences.

The payment of
billions in reparations.

Loss of territory
and population.

Most of all her colonies

and restrictions on the
size of the German army.

And on the creation of weapons
and munitions among them.

Sci

left a legacy of
resentment in Germany

that was to prove
disastrously fertile.

It was

surprising how many people during the
making of the treaty of versailles we're

looking forward and saying well.

The Germans are going to be.

They're going to be
vengeful there is going to be

a new war in due course.

Shocked by the
severity of the terms.

Many Germans believed
it's punitive measures

are unfair.

Treaty became widely known

as the diktat.

Another legacy of the last that would
have far reaching consequences for the

mobilization of the
population for total war.

And later insistence on
total unconditional surrender.

Was the doce social agenda.

On stepped in the back legend.

The stab in the back met was a belief that
Germany had never actually been defeated

in the first world war that

armies were still in the field and and
hadn't been overthrown by the allied armies

and that it was any of
those people at home

socialist the Jews the

you know that the elements who
are effectively against the states

who had brought Jeremy to a city situation
where they were forced to negotiate peace.

This was a myth

but it was a very convenient myth and
this played out in a very powerful way

in the rise of the right in the
nineteen twenties and thirties.

Hitler and the Nazi party
capitalize on rising resentment.

The abolition of the treaty
was a key platform for the party.

And.

Then

the be and they met.

A man.

I think that

I think.

As

Hitler also vowed to create

levens from.

Living space for
the German people

land lost in the treaty
would be regained

and more added.

The ideological concept that Germany
needed to expand its territory to thrive.

Was not new when
Hitler wrote about it

in mind kmf.

It's actually

turn of the century even late
nineteenth century thinking

about empires.

And this idea that the future
belongs to those powers

that have the great spaces
the mass populations

and the industrial
resources at hand.

What Hitler's belief
that Germany's destiny

the and expanding
its territory to the east

could only be done
through conquest.

The implications of the treaty of versailles
on Germany in the nineteen twenties and

nineteen thirties

a clear.

But the Paris peace conference

also had broader
global implications.

One of which was the formation

of the league of nations.

Idea of collective security

was thought to offer
protection against war.

A measure of protection
against the possibility

of another great war.

The league was the brainchild
of US president woodrow Wilson

and he petition
for its inclusion

in the treaty of versailles.

Woodrow Wilson

put a great deal of faith in the league
of nations he felt it provide a way of

settling disputes of nations of the world
working together grown also providing

collective security so that an attack on
one member of the league of nations it'd be

seen as an attack.

On them all.

And it was

a very idealistic type of international
institution but I think there was strong

support for the time.

The league was established on
the tenth of January nineteen twenty.

And.

Despite popular support and president
Wilson's enthusiasm for the league.

Opposition in congress from those who did
not want america are embroiled in another

European crisis.

Meant that the United States

never joined.

Now if the United States joined the league
of nations will never know but the history

of the nineteen twenties and nineteen
thirties might have been a bit different.

The league's ability to
enforce collective security

was tested repeatedly
during the interwar years.

One of the greatest
tested faced.

With Japan's invasion

of manchuria.

Euro centric view of
the second world war

is that it began in
nineteen thirty nine.

But war was being
fought in the east

long before Hitler
invaded Poland.

Invasion of manchuria
in nineteen thirty one

was perhaps the first step
on the long road to world war.

Zara Stein as a.

Story and at Cambridge calls the period
from nineteen twenty nine to nineteen thirty

three the hinge years.

Ease of the years that

make things different.

Japanese military
movement manchuria

in nineteen thirty one

in defiance of Otis from
their own civilian government

and the civilians
are increasingly

helpless to stop

the Japanese militarists.

Japan had a presence in manchuria
from the early twentieth century.

When victory in the
Russo Japanese war

had secured for Japan control
of the Leah dong peninsula.

And with it

the south manchurian railway.

Neutrality of the area was
also important to Japan.

To serve as protection for
their colonial interests in Korea.

Which Japan had formally annexed

in nineteen ten.

Manchurian incident began with an explosion
along a section of the south manchurian

railway

on the night of
September eighteen

nineteen thirty one.

The explosion was created as a pretext
for invasion by offices of the Japanese

kwantung army.

Acting independently from the
authority of the government in Tokyo.

It'd been planned by to
relatively junior officers

but

within the space of
about five to ten days

they managed to occupy
large parts of the region that is.

About the size of France
and Germany combine

so this was really one of the
most daring military actions

that has been seen really
in the twentieth century.

Now

many people asked why why didn't
the international structures why didn't the

international community do more at that
time why didn't the Americans take action or

the British or the
league of nations.

Lack of food is causing
great starvation.

No leap agent to.

Give aid as best they can.

Chiang Kai shek.

Head of the nationalist
government in China

offered limited resistance.

The leading the league of
nations would resolve the conflict.

At

the

moment.

O'clock your my.

Career.

Or.

The league investigated

and label Japan the aggressor

but the international community

was not inclined to
become actively involved.

All of Europe's great countries
had gone through a deeply traumatic

and terrifying experience

with wall and their doorstep.

The likelihood that they
would threaten or go to war

for.

A very far of
country in east Asia

which they didn't
regard as a serious ally.

Was something that
I think at the time

few politicians
would eventually.

Japan rejected
the league censure

and refused to return
manchuria to China.

And.

A.

In.

It.

Might be offended.

In march nineteen thirty three.

Japan abandoned the league.

Clearly undermining its capacity

for enforcing
collective security.

In there is an international

kind of almost applause.

Of what Japan is doing.

We look at.

International magazines
both British and Japanese

the deal with the idea of

imperial development
or colonials

there's constant
British discussion of

the actual impact that
Japan is having in east Asia.

Manchuria or mantra cool

as it was renamed
by the Japanese

who set up a puppet regime
under China's last emperor.

Remained in Japanese hands.

Until the Japan's defeat
in nineteen forty five.

Invasion of manchuria show Japan

and other aggressive nations.

That there would be
minimal consequences

for violating the
league's rules.

And then

was dangerous.

Because Japan was
not the only nation intent

on expanding her borders
in the nineteen thirties.

And.

In October nineteen thirty five Italy
invades Ethiopia and insists on doing it in a

dramatically fascist.

Fashion with a massive

army and with the use of
method the superior air force.

The Italian
invasion of Ethiopia.

Then known as at the senior.

Fulfilled what Benito
him Mussolini referred to.

As natural expansion.

Il do j

believed Italy should
be an imperial power.

And colonization of
the independent Ethiopia

offered a chance
to build his empire.

It also offered agricultural land in the
country's fertile cotton growing regions.

It's possible

to argue that

when machine he
decided to invade.

Virginia Ethiopia.

And conquered

the response of

the Italian empire.

And the other powers
failed to stop in.

The this is a turning point
the the one such happened.

You're on the march now
to Japanese aggression to

Germany aggression and so on.

And you're on the march for

second world war

the pretext for the invasion

was an incident at.

In December
nineteen thirty four.

When Somalis serving Mussolini

fight on the Ethiopians.

Ethiopians returned fire

and this was Mussolini's
conscious belly.

For mobilizing his troops.

Standing on a room and balcony.

Mussolini announced
the invasion of Ethiopia

on the second of October

nineteen thirty five.

Through surges in
east Africa a lot of

to start liking.

He sends a message

and Italy and the world
knew that meant wall.

In Ethiopia

civilians quickly
became targets.

They were terrorized
on the ground

as well as from
aerial bombardments.

Which began within days
of the opening of hostilities.

Worse was to come.

On December twenty
six nineteen thirty five.

Mussolini agreed to
the use of poison gas.

Before the year was out.

Privileges had been
drenched with mustard gas.

Women and children

the frail and aged were
intentionally targeted.

The skin burned.

Livestock killed

and water supplies poisoned.

Mussolini denied using
gas against civilians.

Listen to eating claim that the.

Frightful wounds that the
Ethiopians got from the poison gas

that it was just
a form of leprosy

and they weren't really using
poison gas against the Ethiopians at all

the trouble was that the democracies tended
to connive because they didn't want to

force the issue into

a shooting war.

In fact we had
retrieved from Ethiopia

a canister of poison gas marked in Italian
so we knew exactly what was going on

and we therefore as I say

in a sense colluded with.

The Italian

atrocities in Ethiopia.

More widespread use of gas
against civilians in Ethiopia.

Demonstrated that the moral
boundaries protecting noncombatants.

Were being obliterated.

Unrestrained violence
against civilians.

Was becoming normalized.

Civilians were fair game

as part of military tactics

and as the capital for
countless retribution.

And so in a way it's
the Ethiopian war I think.

That turns Mussolini
into a bad dictator.

When lots of people in nineteen
thirty two would have still thought a will

for Italians at least
he's around the good.

Dictator.

In a decent baba

in February
nineteen thirty seven.

Italian army and factors
para military forces.

Page through the city.

In retribution for an attempt
on the life of the fascist governor

general will do for graziani.

Which then produces a typical assault
on the main sort of repository of Ethiopian

history at the
monastery called Deborah

bonus way the Italians destroy
the monastery kill a month

the history is a
classic example of.

European saying well
blacks can't have history

on a Europeans have
history so bad luck.

At home Mussolini work to mobilize the
Italian economy for his war of civilization

and liberation.

One campaign called for wives to donate
their wedding rings to the war effort.

The many enthusiastically did.

Queen a lehner

made a ceremony
of donating hurrying.

At not inaugurate it'll
his wedding ring day

and exotic women in
Italy to sacrifice everything

for the fatherland.

Mussolini recognize that the
need to mobilize the economy

and when the support
of the population at home.

Where key elements of modern war

but Italy was far from being an
industrial power of the first rank.

And the mobilization of resources
for the abyssinian adventure.

And for involvement
in the Spanish civil war.

Fatally undermined
Mussolini's capacity

to fight a total war in
alliance with Hitler's reich.

At.

The league of nations
condemned the Italian invasion.

But sanctions failed to
make any real difference.

The import of mules
and camels was banned.

But not cars and lorries.

France and britain tried to negotiate
a plan with Ethiopia and Italy

that would see two
thirds of Ethiopia to Italy.

But both parties rejected it.

I think we need to remember
the the great powers.

In this case britain and France

where imperial bows to.

And.

Hard for them to say
to most of any hang on

we got big empires but
actually you can't have one.

And they tried to stitch a deal with him
said he would have influence in Virginia

into bits of territory and zone because
typically used to carving out parts of Africa

in their own interest.

The abissinia crisis

following Japan's
invasion of manchuria.

Further undermined
collective security.

And the credibility
of the league.

When the emperor haile
selassie abandoned Ethiopia.

He Autumn was reluctantly
granted asylum in London.

He made an appearance
at the league of nations.

And was greeted by
jeering Italian press.

And others who turned their
backs in protest at his appearance.

Finally when the scene settled.

He told those assembled.

You abandoned US to Italy.

This he asserted

was a terrible precedent

of bowing before force.

And a foreshadowing
of things to come.

It is US today he
told the league.

It will be you tomorrow.

It was so focused on

Hitler I'm not going to is the impact
he had on the other politicians that.

We forget I

the

Mussolini was

for many years and much more important
figure he was a fascist dictator for eleven

years for Hitler came to power.

He was generally viewed in much international
huh searches is a serious politician

also serious threat
ach in some way.

In may nineteen thirty six

Mussolini announced victory
to gb entertain the crowds.

Italy had destroyed
primitive villages

and intentionally targeted
civilians with bombs and guess.

It used war to
expand its territory.

Drawer on the agricultural
resources of occupied land.

And mobilize its own economy

to support the war effort.

Europe watched.

As.

As Mussolini was declaring
victory in abyssinia.

Spain was falling
into a brutal civil war.

That would profoundly
affect the lives of civilians

and prepare the
path towards total war.

Conflict which grew
from a failed military coup.

Was a complex struggle for
between centralism and regionalism.

Nationalism and republicanism.

Left and right.

Authoritarian and
libertarian viewpoints.

Tour the country apart.

What we can stay in
terms of the Spanish will

and the international
context is the Spanish civil war

was absolutely in its origins.

Spanish war.

A narrow.

Domestic conflict.

And that held good

both of the origins

and for maybe the first

two two weeks of the civil war

and thereafter.

Spain became a battlefield

in an international law.

Italy and Germany
supported the nationalists.

The Republicans found
support in the Soviet union.

And both sides
attracted adventurers

idealists and fanatics

from all over the world.

Most famously on
the republican side.

In the form of the
international brigades.

And terms of both
Hitler and Mussolini.

It's often said.

You know that what they did.

Was

ideological

in of supporting and

the fascist.

The

it was also about

experimenting with
new military equipment.

Which to an extent it was.

But the key thing

that was behind the
thinking of both of them

was to undermined
britain and France.

There were no simple
alliances in this war.

And everyone including civilians

were both targets

and potential enemies.

One of them as technical
aspects of the civil

war is the arming of
the autodesk call a.

The youngest revenant
arms is not as as binance

benefits when he
leaves hospital at I got.

The crowd stand
to attention but.

As a fourteen year

veteran

to is when

it comes out to report for duty.

The concept of a fifth
column emerged in this war.

National this general

Emilio

of down.

Moving on Madrid with
his for call a mommy.

Described the fifth
column of supporters.

Already in Madrid

undermining his opposition.

The idea of fifth columnists

later fueled fear

and the persecution
of enemy aliens

in the second world war.

In Spain

savage reprisals
against opponents

and suspected opponents
were carried out by both sides.

Campaigns of fear and terror

were intentionally employed.

Threads of rape what
broadcast over the radio.

And those whose
families had played.

Were killed.

As nationalist forces
moved through an area.

Anyone perceived as having shown
loyalty to the popular front government.

Was in danger.

Left wing parties in
Madrid setup checkers.

Revolutionary tribunals

that he'll trials of assault.

And

those they convicted.

While on the right.

Nationalist purge committees

executed those with
liberal sensibilities.

War not only endangered
the lives of civilians.

It.

A labour and the homes.

The defensive Madrid involved
large scale civilian mobilization.

Anticipating

that which would be
enacted in Leningrad

and other cities during
the second world war.

The community prepared for war.

Women and children created
barricades from rocks and stones.

Buildings were requisitioned.

Unions four battalions.

I tried to set in the government
analytics or champion

and attached to the
US out of the rebels.

When the battle for the
city turned to stalemate.

The nationalists resorted
to aerial bombardments.

Almost all of the residential
areas were bombed.

It was and ultimately fruitless
attempt to break morale.

But a very instructive rehearsal

the future action.

As far as Hitler was concerned

his participation in the Spanish civil
war had been immensely beneficial.

They managed to trial
a number of military

tactics which would
be used in the blitzkrieg

in Poland first
and then in France.

That did actually been used I mean
the culminates even if you like Walker

cut that when the dolby trial.

Bombing of guernica

began with a single bomber on the afternoon
of Monday the twenty sixth of April

nineteen thirty seven

the main church bell rang out
in the morning of the air attack.

Refugees

troops in the town
civilian population

made their way to the refuges.

The German condo legion

had more firepower then all the air
force's of the first world war combined.

And one bummer from
it's experimental contract.

Wreaked havoc on
the center of town.

Wants it had passed.

People emerged from the
shelters to help the wounded

and was surprised
when fifteen minutes later

the full experimental
squadron flew over.

Dropping its bombs.

Then at five fifteen

the town was carpet bombed by three
squadrons operating in twenty minute relays

for two and a half hours.

In centuries blanketed
the city in flames

as in the skies above.

The precursor
to the loo for the.

Brothers destruction
for the water come.

A lot of military equipment

hi tech military equipment
had been tested in Spain.

So for Hitler

the consequences were positive.

As far as multiple any

was concerned it was that
much more complicated issue.

While level he gained.

The the foreign policy
and the propaganda

triumphs

but at a huge cost.

Italy and sends may maybe
eighty thousand troops.

High number of casualties.

As it used.

About half of its naval fleet

and almost all of it's.

Better for.

Large amounts of equipment.

Were left be high hide
when the Italians left Spain.

For the rest of the world

Spain offered a glimpse
of the total war to come.

It was a war fought with
a labor of the people.

Marked by destruction

they did not discriminate
between combatant

and noncombatant.

Battlefield.

And suburban street.

The consequences of total war

were also becoming clear.

The situation for the hundreds of
thousands of refugees who fled Spain

was dire.

France offered some asylum.

But conditions in the
hastily assembled camps

were terrible.

No running water all the trains.

In some camps refugees dug
holes in the ground for shelter.

The cost of supporting refugees
was in the millions of francs per day.

And the French
government faced opposition

from those opposed
to admitting refugees.

France face to
foreshadowing of the crisis

that would overrun Europe at
the end of the second world war.

In the pacific to

a humanitarian
crisis was unfolding.

Japan's war against
China paused.

Following the
annexation of manchuria.

In nineteen thirty seven.

It flared catastrophically

when Japan launched
a full scale invasion.

World war two broke
out on the seventh of July

nineteen thirty seven.

This is not a date the European history
and is generally a tribute to this event

but I think there is a
very strong case that

actually the second
world war began in Asia

and particularly weird
shooting between

locally Garrison Chinese

Japanese troops.

At a breach called lugo chow

that in the west as
the Marco Polo bridge.

When cease fire
discussions failed.

China mobilise for
war against Japan.

A war that would
temporarily hold the civil

war being fought between
Chinese nationalists

and communists.

Who came together to form a
united front against invasion.

I think it's fair to say
that chiang Kai shek

on the nationalists

were

well aware that an
invasion was very

likely.

And

increasingly in the mid-nineteenth
touches they had made

preparations however

they were

significantly outnumbered and

outgunned.

By the

Japanese.

Japanese had a huge
advantage in terms of mechanized

divisions.

In terms of

artillery

and particularly in terms of.

Power.

Japan hope to move quickly to neutralize
and contain the conflict in northern China.

This worked initially.

Vaping is Beijing
was then called

and

engine fell quickly after
intense aerial bombardments.

They expected to be
a quick lightning war

they'll probably and either with

a collaboration is Chinese
regime doing their will

or even a full scale invasion
and occupation of China.

So they a greatly surprised

angered when the initial phase of fighting
to rather longer than they had thought.

Chunk I shared the leader
of the Chinese government.

Had never believed that a war
with Japan will be quick or easy

and he had made
plans for an extended

protracted war

that will probably involve

withdrawal

into the interior of China

for quite a long period of time

until international assistance
could be persuaded

to come China's way.

Jenkins shake

to Shanghai as the place where he
would make a stand against the Japanese.

Once a small fishing village

by nineteen thirty seven

Shanghai it become a vibrant international
center for commercial affairs.

It was home to universities.

European banks in
Florida and factories.

On the fourteenth of August

black Saturday.

Bombers of the Chinese air force sit
down to target Japanese naval assets.

Including the Japanese ship

izumo.

The two pilots inadvertently drop
their bombs on the wrong targets.

Hitting one of the busiest
civilian areas of the city.

The palace hotel and
the shopping district

Avenue Edward the seventh

were hit.

International settlement

thought to be safe.

Was a scene of destruction.

I.

Soon enough Japanese aerial
bombardment also began.

With attempts to
capture the city.

Leading to.

Him on the streets.

On the twentieth of October.

The international
settlements of suffered again.

When a Japanese
bombed it to dream car.

Fighting in Shanghai demonstrated
to the international community.

The indiscriminate
nature of aerial warfare.

International concession areas
were not specifically targeted

but nonetheless
suffered casualties.

After further fighting
around suit your creek

and following the landing of a Japanese
amphibious force at honcho obey.

Ching realized his troops
could not hold the city.

The fighting in Shanghai he

was to

brutal Japanese losses.

About forty thousand.

Soldiers in Chinese losses
were probably around

two hundred thousand.

When the Japanese landed in Hong jae
just south of Shanghai they break through

the lines

and advance very very
quickly towards nanjing.

Nanjing

also known as named king.

Was a culturally
significant city for China.

Renowned for its architecture

it had been China's capital
under numerous empires.

And in nineteen thirty seven

was the national capital under
the leadership of chiang Kai shek.

At cultural significance

would offer no
protection in total war.

Has been written

by Chinese Japanese and western scholars
about the nanjing massacre at really stands

out is the most egregious
example Japanese.

Atrocities in China of which.

As.

On the seventh of December.

Ching recognizing the
inevitability of losing the city.

Left for the country's interior.

In the days leading to its for.

Panic and golf nanjing.

Residents played to the public buildings
and colleges in the designated safety zone.

In anticipation of the
Japanese advance.

Twelfth of December was a
clear and relatively peaceful day.

Hillary was firing.

No way rights.

But by nightfall

the city was in flames.

The Chinese defense had buckled.

And the defending troops have
been given orders to abandon the city.

Before leaving

the troops at many
buildings light.

A common practice in total war.

By the time the Japanese
army into the capital.

It was already burning.

When Japanese troops arrived

a new level of
brutality and violence

erupted.

Getting from Shanghai to

nanjing was not particularly
pleasant said there is an argument.

That the brutality of war

breeds further potential mate

these actions

like.

I think it's fair to say

that

there was probably
a breakdown in

certain areas of Japanese
command during the period.

From the first hours

until the middle of
January nineteen thirty eight

the people of man gene
endured unrestrained violence.

Homes were repeatedly invaded.

Women rate.

Man suspected of being
soldiers mutilated and killed.

Corpses lined the streets.

Few in the city was safe.

One witness wrote
that up to one thousand

women and girls were
assaulted in one night.

I think where we are with
dimension musket as I think

we are with many other

similar

events

around the world.

Is not perhaps to look at

the Moscow was a whole

but to think about why would
a social group of soldiers

commit certain actions.

In the Japanese case.

I think there's an
intersection of both ideology

and a certain kind of
military governance.

The Japanese military
were immensely powerful

and had incredibly racist denigrate
tree attitudes towards the peoples of

east Asia

over which they were
gradually annexing territory.

Nanjing was a foretaste of the impact of
Japan's imperial ambitions would have on

civilians

in occupied territory

as the war continued.

It also demonstrated the influenced the
military had achieved over Japan's governing

structures

by nineteen thirty seven.

It's important to remember Japan's was a
part of a long run expansion of Japanese

influence throughout
the east Asian.

Region.

The over the course
of the interwar period

as military control over
Japan has increased

and became more radicalized
and the willingness to give

a military essentially abusive
free reign over civilian population

did not seem problematic

and it didn't seem that it was
threatened Japan's reputation

in a modern wartime
environment in the world in which

all the power seemed willing

to see wars encompassing
these kinds of strategies.

There are no definitive
casualty figures for

the number of people
who died in nanjing.

The scale of slaughter

can only be
tallied in estimates.

But most Scottish now

would accept that between two hundred
and three hundred thousand people.

Died the fact is we will we will never
know we simply don't have accurate records

two hundred three hundred
thousand DC accepted figure.

Violence was used as a deliberate weapon
of war against the civilian population.

An element of total war

that would soon be employed
elsewhere in the Asia pacific region

and in Europe.

After the fall of man June.

The Chinese
nationalists smooth to

on.

The Japanese advance
through China continued.

And by June
nineteen thirty eight.

The position that one.

Was under threat.

Considering his options for
defense of a temporary capital.

Chiang Kai-shek made a decision that
profoundly affected the people of who none.

On way.

In jiangsu provinces.

I

he ordered the Chinese nationalist armies
to breach the types of the yellow river.

Would use water

instead of soldiers
to defend the city.

Floods did followed

have been described as perhaps the
single most environmentally damaging act of

warfare

in world history.

It wasn't possible to wall
the Chinese population

in

at fault chiang Kai shek

was.

Concerned that were Japanese
spice across the countryside.

The flood eventually

affected something
like fifty four thousand

square

kilometers.

It killed old.

Up to half a million people.

With

forty five million

refugees created

by this flood.

The diversion of the river
to lay the Japanese advance

but it did not defeated.

The Chinese defenses resident.

It impedes but doesn't stop the
Japanese or cost of stream tanks at all.

And

bought the nationalist
government time to withdraw

and relocate its capital
to southwest China

in the city of Chongqing.

Uan.

Fill in October
nineteen thirty eight.

Flooding of the yellow river

chose the extent to which strategy
can ignore the fate of civilians.

The sino-Japanese war previewed numerous
aspects of the total war that Europe would

experience.

Another example is the
bombing of challenging.

As the Japanese advanced.

People fled their homes
in search of safety.

Many flee to shrunk June.

Remote enough for Chang
to have made it is capital.

Remote.

But not safe.

If we want to see a place
that best represents take to

in China.

Chung

is is is probably that place.

At the beginning of the
war the Japanese targeted

factories munitions
infrastructure.

They were interested

primarily in weakening

the ability of the Chinese

to respond to their tax.

When it became apparent

that

China was not going to surrender the chiang
Kai shek was not going to come to the

negotiating table.

And the war became
more protracted.

Japanese tactics
changed and they

embarked on the
type of terror bombing

that machines
like nature and and.

Attacks on the third and fourth
of may nineteen thirty nine.

Marked the beginning of a
campaign of terror from the air.

The estimate saw throughout the whole
period that challenging was under attack

something like nine
thousand five hundred

aircraft dropped over
twenty thousand bombs.

On the city.

And something like
fifteen thousand people.

Were killed.

Japanese refine the
strategy of guernica.

In the strategic bombing raids.

Way or the bombing of
guernica lasted a day.

Chongqing.

Endured repeated attacks
over a period of two years.

Fear was amplified by
incendiary bombs and delay fuses.

And it spread to Europe.

In nineteen thirty two

British prime minister
Stanley Baldwin

had spoken of
the fear of the air.

The direct threat to civilians
that bombers posed.

Bummer

he had famously said.

Will always get through.

And it seemed that the
experience of Madrid.

Of guernica.

Shanghai.

Injunction.

Proof Baldwin right.

When people look today.

Newsreel footage or
photographs of the war in China.

In its first two or three years
ninety thirty seven to thirty nine.

I think what might strike them
is not so much its strangeness

but it's familiarity.

The city of to change the
temporary capital of China

being bombed.

Digging

trenches

in the streets of Shanghai during
the desperate battle for that city.

The sending of refugees
from the vulnerable cities

to the interior

the eerie thing is these
things were happening in China.

Before

they happen in the west.

And therefore let me think about the
experienced that we associate with the war in

the west.

Even something as
iconic as the blitz in London.

We should remember
that those experiences.

Shared in China.

Often.

Chinese with their first.

When the second world
war broke out in Europe.

Many aspects of total war

were all may be familiar.

Abissinia crisis.

The Spanish civil war.

And the sino-Japanese war.

Had rejected his portions.

Of the total war to come.

The world had borne witness
to terror bombing campaigns.

Unrestrained violence
against civilians.

To incalculable numbers of
refugees displaced by war.

One witness

and if it had not exactly
shrugged his shoulders.

It had resigned
itself to one fact.

This is what more now meant.

As the nineteen thirties war on

and the inability of
the league of nations

to maintain collective
security became clear.

Hopes for a lasting peace.

Disintegrated.

Mussolini to power.

Stand

took power.

Spain erupted.

Hitler and the Nazi
party Rose to power.

And Japan's imperial intentions

became increasingly clear.

Economies and populations across
the globe began to mobilize for a war.

That the used
between the was a job.

Would be decided
on the battlefield.

Cities.

And in the factories
and down the minds.

And in the homes and classrooms.

And on the streets.

The farms.

It would be.