Monday, June 18, 2012

What social, political, and economic characteristics differed from both sides during World War 2? Need a Venn diagram.

For this question, I will address both the Allied and Axis powers.
During World War 2, the most powerful Allied members were the United States, China, the Soviet Union, and England. For the Axis members, we have Japan, Italy, and Germany.
In a seemingly curious alliance, the Soviets stood with the United States and England, countries that had free societies. Both the United States and England accorded their citizens political, social, and economic rights that Soviet citizens could only dream of.
Now, back to the Soviets and Germans. The Soviets, of course, were Stalinists and staunchly Communist. On the other hand, Nazi Germany was anti-communist. Although the two countries shared similar ideals, especially in the importance of utopian biopolitics, they differed in other respects.
Now, I will address the subject of utopian biopolitics. Both the Soviets and Germans believed that the state had every right to decide reproductive policy for its citizens. Stalin and Hitler maintained that the citizenry must be managed through a centralized health-care system. These two leaders were obsessed with the national birthrates in their respective countries. They championed the importance of motherhood, as a service to the state, of course; it was the duty of the mother to birth future soldiers.
Where the Soviets and Germans differed was in their focus: The Germans, under Hitler, wanted an Aryan nation, a racially-pure society. Hitler espoused institutional racism. Non-Aryans were Untermenschen (inferior peoples), while Aryans were Ubermenschen (the master race). Both Hitler and Stalin believed in the Darwinist "survival of the fittest" ideology, but Hitler went a step further. He maintained that only Aryans deserved the glory of being the "fittest." Thus, all German state reproductive policies were focused on racial purity.
Hitler believed that it was his duty to cull his country and the world of genetically impure peoples. This rationalization for an "optimal" racial pedigree led to the Holocaust. For his part, Stalin also leveraged state power to foist his reproductive policies on his people. However, he and Hitler differed in another regard. While Hitler endeavored to cleanse his society of the Untermenschen, Stalin targeted the Chechens and Ingush minorities because they occupied strategically important regions of the Soviet Union.
The Soviets were just focused on propagating Stalinist socialism throughout the world and were prepared to use violence to fulfill this objective. However, the Germans focused on being violent at the reproductive level in order to fulfill their racial objectives. They sterilized and eliminated homosexuals, the disabled, Untermenschens, and the mentally ill, conducting mass murder in the name of eugenic science and racial purity. As for the Soviets, they eventually rejected eugenics as a "fascist" science. For more differences between Germany and the Soviet Union during World War 2, please refer to the links and sources below.
Now, I would like to discuss the other members of the Allied and Axis powers: China and Japan. During World War 2, China sided with the Allied powers, while Japan formed part of the Axis powers. Politically, the Japanese favored a nationalist-militarist ideology. The Japanese government saw itself as a liberating force, especially among Asian countries. It widely promoted what was called the Amau Doctrine, the idea that Japan was privileged to act as a unilateral peacekeeper in Asia.
It can be argued that the Amau Doctrine was not wholly altruistic in nature. After all, China had the raw materials Japan needed for its manufacturing industry. So, it is no surprise that Japan became obsessed with China. Historians have documented Japanese atrocities in China during World War 2, so I will not get into that here. However, I want to stress an important difference between China and Japan during World War 2; while the Japanese were obsessed with the idea of dominance over other Asian cultures, the Chinese did not share this ideology. This is the main reason China lent its support to the Allied powers during World War 2.
Based on these differences, you may be able to draw your own Venn diagram showing the differences between the Allied and Axis countries in political, economic, and social terms.
Sources:
1) Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared by Michael Geyer and Sheila Fitzpatrick.
2) Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison by Ian Kershaw and Moshe Lewin.
3) Power across the Pacific: A Diplomatic History of American Relations with Japan by W. Nester.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1900_power.htm

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