What is Reddit's opinion of Second World War, The?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I don't know if it was a pact as much as Mao betraying Koumintang in an attempt to have Koumintang and the Japanese wear each other out, leaving the communist faction the strongest. It worked, and millions or tens of millions of Chinese civilians were the victims of that power play.

Source can be this book for instance https://www.amazon.co.uk/Second-World-War-Antony-Beevor/dp/0297844970

I don't know what the current Chinese official history says, but most likely not the truth. China is very afraid of any kind of historical facts undermining the legitimacy of the Communist party and their current and previous actions.

Varmasti vaimojen päiväkirjoista voisi lukea heidän kokemuksiaan sortovuosista, mutta niistä ajoista ja venäläistämispolitiikasta on jo muutenkin kosolti tietoa. Tärkeintä kai on ymmärtää koko kansan asema silloisessa poliittisessa ilmapiirissä eikä niinkään erityisesti miesten tai naisten asemaa ellei venäläistämispolitiikkaan ole samalla liittynyt sukupuoleen liittyviä piirteitä. En ollenkaan kiistä, että eikö olisi mielenkiintoista katsella "toisin silmin", mutta peruskoulussa ja lukiossa aikaa on rajallisesti käytössä. Ei siinä muutenkaan ehditä kuin pintaa rasputtaa. Tarkemman ja monipuolisemman tutkimisen aika on ehkä paremmin myöhemmissä opinnoissa ja vilpittömästi kannatan kulttuuritekoja, jotka vaikkapa kirjallisuudessa tuovat muita näkökulmia esille. Kirjahyllystäni löytyy Hitto, rouva unohtui, joka on ihan kelpo opus. Mainitsen vielä Antony Beevorin erinomaisen teoksen The Second World War, jossa ansiokkaasti nostetaan esiin siviilien ja naisten osuutta ja osumaa tuona aikana esimerkiksi päiväkirjamerkintöjen ja kirjeiden avulla.

> Germany did not just say to themselves "hey, since this war is happening, we might as well start wiping out this random race of people lol."

Indeed, I totally agree with you on this. And the anti semitism was rising in many places in the West (specially fast in Germany thanks to Hitler policies), but claiming that violence was required to stop the holocaust is revisionism as it was unknown by the majority of the world at that time. WW2 started about socio economics, not about avoiding genocide.

Surprising fact that I learnt quite recently is that although Nazis felt real hate towards the jews, killing them was way out of the equation at the beginning of WW2. They considered that idea abhorrent. They planed to just get rid of them sending them away (in particular to Madagascar) Hitler idea behind the war was not exterminating a race. It was about conquering more space for the "German master race" obtaining the territories that they considered that rightfully belonged to them (and some more) kicking the people that was previously living in them. The "problem" arised when after taking these territories, they realised that the previous inhabitants of those regions actually needed to go somewhere. And as the war became more and more exhausting. Nazis became more and more violent (even considering that fascism relies on violence) and ended up opting for the mass murdering of the people in concentration camps as well as the refugees coming from the East (or more specifically refugees that where overtaken by the German army advancing towards the East). Source

I got carried away. My point is: violence always leads to more violence. And it is stupid.

I learned this tidbit from Antony Beevor's book The Second World War.

The internet seems very sparse on information regarding such a remarkable story; searches on Google and DuckDuckGo only bring up short mentions at best just repeating the same few lines.

Apparently, Yang Kyoungjong was one of a few Korean nationals captured, and the only one of them to make it to the US, where he died in 1992, having never spoken a word of his past.