Major Problems document summaries

Claudia Richoux, APUSH P6

Document 1
This document talks about the Rape of Nanking, when the Japanese came to the city of Nanking
and just ravaged it. The Japanese raped, murdered, and destroyed, and treated the Chinese like rats.
All the documents are from the point of view of foreign missionaries, who were horrified at the rape
and murder being perpetrated against the Chinese. The context of this was Japanese racial supremacy
and imperialism, where the Japanese were trying to conquer basically the entire Pacific because they
thought everyone else was inferior.
Document 2
In this document, the nurses who were at Pearl Harbor talked about their experiences and how
everyone worked together to save lives after the bombing. The Americans were worried about each
other, and were working as fast as they could to save the injured while being afraid of capture. These
documents are in the context of Pearl Harbor during WWII, which happened because America declared
an oil embargo on Japan, and Japan got revenge. The purpose of these documents is to share stories of
the horror of war, and the cruelty of the Japanese attack.
Document 5
This document depicts a happy family crowded around a thanksgiving turkey. It implies that the
family has enough to eat, and is not living in fear or oppression, because they are celebrating their
culture and can afford a veritable feast. The context of this picture is during WWII, when many people
were being oppressed by invading armies, and Roosevelt had just made his Four Freedoms speech,
specifically talking about freedom from want. The purpose is to convince people to want to fight for
their freedom from want, probably young men who the government wanted to enlist.
Document 6
Here, a Japanese American talks about her experience in the Japanese-American internship
camps. She talks about the unsanitary and degrading conditions, along with how the experience caused
her family to fall apart because they really didn't have a home. The point of view is of a woman who
was interned during WWII, so she had a slightly bitter tone about having her childhood and family
taken from her. The audience is the American public, who needed to know what their government had
done to their fellow citizens.
Document 9
Dwight Eisenhower, the leader of troops in Europe, was talking about the concentration camps
that he saw in Germany, and all the cruelty seen there. The people told him about the cruelty and
starvation that had happened there, and he saw corpses dead of starvation piled up. The context of this
was after WWII, when the Americans were coming from the West to liberate everyone that had been
oppressed by the Nazis. His purpose was to prevent future holocaust denial by providing proof that it
happened.