Kwantung Army

Japan’s Road to War

By Eric Hammel

Japan’s road to World War II was a long one. Throughout the late 19th century, the island nation broke out of its feudal past on a path to modernity with a ruthlessness and singlemindedness that would have scared Western nations had they been paying attention. Read more

Kwantung Army

The Fall of Beijing, 1937

By Jiaxin Du

Most people think that World War II broke out on September 1, 1939, when the Wehrmacht crossed the German-Polish border. Read more

Kwantung Army

Armored Strike at Nomonhan

By Phil Zimmer

General Georgi Zhukov had arrived at the Mongolia-Manchuria border in the early morning hours of June 5, 1939, after a grueling three-day trip from Moscow. Read more

From Around the Network

  • Australian, New Zealand, Dutch, and British prisoners of war lay track on the Burma-Thailand “Death Railway” near Ronsi, Burma, 1943. More than 12,000 Allied POWs and tens of thousands of Asian civilian workers died while working on the line. The Japanese needed the railway to supply Japanese forces in occupied Burma and exploit that country’s natural resources.

    WWII

    Building Burma’s Notorious “Death Railway”
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  • Red Army scouts report the findings of a recent foray to locate the Germans in the northern Caucasus. The Germans were not uniformed against the harsh Russian winter and suffered tremendous casualties as a result.

    WWII

    Russian Commanders: Marshal Semyon M. Budenny
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