POSTWAR: A Global History of the Second World War's Legacy

In his chapter “Reconstructing the Hiroshima Maidens” from his book Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America, David Serlin argues that the 1950s event that brought Japanese women to the United States for reconstructive plastic surgery should be seen as a product of the influence of the Western powers on how the Japanese people reconstructed their …

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Image is Nagasaki, not Hiroshima, oops.

The United States government has one motive; protecting America at all cost. The picture above is a reminder that the government will shape things to their liking. That often means making the hardest decisions from dropping atomic bombs to giving drugs to soldiers. Afterwards to lessen the severity the government shapes the story. Media has […]

As Japanese soldiers lied in wait of an impending invasion by Russians, Chinese, and American soldiers, they were, most of them, united by their national fervor for the emperor and Japan. Many of them had trudged through some of the most gruesome battles of the war and had not even heard the news of the …

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    World War II was a war that changed the world entirely. Some places lay in ruins. Some places were victorious. However, the places that were in ruins faced a long road to recovery. One that even today in 2017, people are still on. World War II introduced weapons the world had never seen …

Continue reading “Wages of Destruction: Reconstructing the Japanese.”

In every war there is always a multitude of perspectives. World War II was no different, particularly in regard to the US use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the traditional US opinion is that dropping the bombs was a necessary evil that eventually saved more lives than it took, the Japanese however, […]

World War II was the bloodiest war ever to happen throughout the course of history. Technology that was created during the time period aloud for more destruction than every before. The atomic bomb that was drop on Hiroshima was a great example of how technology played a major factor in helping World War II to …

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The destruction of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in addition to the tragic loss of life also left survivors to sift through the emotional and mental ruins that they found themselves left with.Dower’s argument is that the American academic study was always based upon the elite and powerful individuals that dominated history (Dower …

Continue reading “The Reconstruction of Hiroshima’s Physical and Emotional Ruins”

In understanding the aftermath of World War II and all of the activity that surrounded it, it is important to think of the concepts of rebuilding versus replacing. To rebuild is to “build again after being damaged or destroyed” while replacing is to “take the place of something old, broken, or inoperative”. While many cities […]

The photo above is of two guards at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum located in Peace Memorial Park. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city of Hiroshima and is an example of the city’s new ideals after its reconstruction. After the city’s destruction many sought to interpret it as a …

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