World War Research Articles

LANGUAGE OF TOTALITARIANISM: NATIONAL LINGUISTIC POLICY IN FASCIST ITALY AND MILITARIST JAPAN

When it comes to creating a notorious ideology, in the hands of those in power, language becomes a tool for consolidating a nation. Fascist Italy and militarist Japan are prime examples of the use of language as a means of uniting people in the name of proclaimed “new” values and ideals. In the present article the authors provide a detailed analysis of language policy in both countries: from the initial desire to unite the inhabitants of the country with the proclaimed order under the aegis of a single nation by means of language, to open hostility to any manifestations of heterogeneity, in particular to regional dialects or dialectal variants of the literary national language, to an open struggle against loan words, even those that had already been firmly established or consolidated in the domestic language. The study attempts to trace what changes happened to Italian and Japanese languages when intransigent parties had come to power with their ideologies; to analyze to what extent the language policies of Italy and Japan in the 1st half of the 20th century are similar and to what extent they differ; and we also summarise the results of such restrictive language policies after the World War II resulted in the said politicians’ defeat.

Poverty, Development and Hunger in a Global Age

This paper opines that the issues of poverty, development, and hunger have become increasingly prominent since the end of World War II. It stresses that in the early phase, this occurred as decolonization failed to bring about economic and social progress in what was then portrayed as the Third World, at the same time that industrially advanced Western countries were experiencing historically unprecedented levels of economic growth. As global economic disparities widened, some argued that colonialism had given way to ‘neocolonialism’, political domination having been replaced by more subtle but no less effective economic domination. Others heralded the emergence of a ‘North–South divide’. This paper emphasizes that in this context, bodies as different as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on the one hand, and a host of development Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and activist groups on the other, came to view the task of reducing the gap between rich countries and poor countries as amoral imperative. However, the paper stresses that poverty, development, and hunger are complex and deeply controversial issues. It examines the orthodox mainstream understanding of poverty, development, and hunger, and contrasts this with a critical alternative approach. Consideration is given to how successful the development orthodoxy has been in incorporating and thereby neutralizing the concerns of the critical alternative. The paper then closes with an assessment of the likelihood of a globalization with a human face in the twenty-first century.

Building a Nation at War: Transnational Knowledge Networks and the Development of China during and after World War II, written by J. Megan Greene

Building a Nation at War: Transnational Knowledge Networks and the Development of China during and after World War II, written by J. Megan Greene

Fallen Tigers: The Fate of America’s Missing Airmen in China During World War II, written by Daniel Jackson

Fallen Tigers: The Fate of America’s Missing Airmen in China During World War II, written by Daniel Jackson

Justice Denied and Forgotten: The Hidden History of Alaska's World War II Internment Camps

Justice Denied and Forgotten: The Hidden History of Alaska's World War II Internment Camps

A critical overview of Zainichi Korean films since 1945

ABSTRACT This paper gives an overview of the history of Zainichi Korean films from 1945 to the present and explores the historical environment and popular demands that drove the production of major works. After World War II, the Zainichi Korean community took on the challenge of film production for the first time on the strength of GHQ’s favorable policies and cultural solidarity with the Japanese socialists. This challenge, which began with newsreels and documentary films, soon entered a long period of stagnation due to the political upheaval of the time, a conflict with GHQ, and deteriorating relations with the Japanese Communist Party. In the 1970s, Zainichi films gradually began to revive, centering on the documentary genre, thanks to Zainichi Korean directors who had learned production skills under progressive Japanese filmmakers. As the mini-theater boom in the 1980s created an environment in which small-scale, non-mainstream films could be distributed and consumed in Japan, Zainichi films gradually expanded their scope through the production of various drama films. At last, the Zainichi Korean film genre finally began to establish itself firmly in Japanese film history. In particular, after the 2000s when the Korean Wave (Hallyu) phenomenon became noticeable in Japan, female directors and South Korean directors emerged to capture minor and workaday issues from multifaceted perspectives, and the general public in Japan enthusiastically consumed their works. Zainichi Korean films continue to strive to embrace both social issues and mass appeal.

Plastic Surgery Contributions to the World Wars: Historical Foundations for Modern Craniofacial Techniques.

Plastic surgery played a crucial role during the World Wars. Surgeons dedicated their careers to reconstructing facial injuries and residual deformities incurred during combat. Times of unprecedented trauma led to rapid innovation in plastic surgery, with invaluable impact on practice today. Pioneers such as Harold Gillies are well-known for their work. There are numerous additional contributors who deserve wider recognition. A literature review was performed to identify key surgeons who treated soldiers' craniofacial injuries during World Wars I and II. Biographical information, country of practice, and technical contributions to plastic surgery were compiled. Nineteen plastic surgeons were identified who contributed significantly to craniofacial surgery during the World Wars. These surgeons were: Albéric Pont, Archibald Mcindoe, Arthur Mowlem, Harold Gillies, Hippolyte Morestin, James Barrett Brown, Jaques Joseph, Johannes Esser, John Staige Davis, John Reese, Otto Lanz, Paul Tessier, Robert Ivy, Suzanne Blanche Gros Noël, Thomas Kilner, William Kelsy Fry, Varaztad H. Kazanjian, Vilray P. Blair, and Vladimir Petrovich Filatov. Fourteen were active during WWI. Nine were active during WWII. Notable technical developments were made in maxillofacial fracture fixation, bone grafting, rhinoplasty, dental prosthetics, flap-based coverage, skin grafting, and burn reconstruction. Plastic surgeons played an unheralded role in managing the disfiguring craniofacial injuries of World Wars I and II. By treating tens of thousands of war victims, these surgeons contributed not only to the rehabilitation of soldiers but also to the advancement of craniofacial surgery and the establishment of plastic surgery as a distinct subspecialty.

European culture, World War, Russian Revolution. Pathways and prospects for rethinking

The author shows that the First World War was a cultural phenomenon in its broad, creative and historical sense. At the same time, the war turned out to be the personification of the crisis of European culture as an existential whole. This affect Russia, which torn between the Europeanized culture of the upper classes and the archaic consciousness of the lower classes.

António Lopes Ribeiro e António Ferro: cumplicidades cinematográficas e os projectos de internacionalização do cinema português

António Lopes Ribeiro was a major figure in Portuguese cinema for over three decades. In this paper, I intend to present and analyse the projects in which he was involved with the aim to create a national cinema with international projection, during the 1940s, and in particular during the Second World War. In order to guarantee the economic sustainability of the Portuguese film industry and continuous production, Lopes Ribeiro believed that distribution needed to be expanded beyond the traditional markets, namely, the colonies and the Portuguese emigration communities in Brazil. I will demonstrate how these internationalisation plans were only able to be materialised with the direct support of political power, examining his connection to António Ferro, the director of the organisation that oversaw cinema, the National Propaganda Secretariat/ National Secretariat of Information. Finally, I will look at the reasons why his projects for Portuguese cinema failed. Methodologically, this research draws on documents from the National Secretariat of Information and the Salazar archives, as well as other primary sources, mainly newspapers and magazines specialising in cinema, as well as a set of letters written by Lopes Ribeiro to António Ferro, from the Quadros Foundation.

Juliette Pattinson and Linsey Robb, eds. British Humour and the Second World War: “Keep Smiling Through” New Directions in Social and Cultural History. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. Pp. 232. $115.00 (cloth).

Juliette Pattinson and Linsey Robb, eds. British Humour and the Second World War: “Keep Smiling Through” New Directions in Social and Cultural History. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. Pp. 232. $115.00 (cloth).

Romanian water-cure resorts and the state before the Second World War: health, leisure and public-private partnership

ABSTRACT Romanian water-cure resorts were established in the mid-nineteenth century following the discovery of thermal waters. The Romanian state and prominent politicians sought to create modern spa resorts (like those established a century before in France and Germany) by allocating funds and implementing public policies and laws to develop bathing establishments for more people who suffered from different ailments. The local spa resorts could promote health tourism with active support from the state and public-private partnerships. Therefore, the two water-cure resorts analysed in this article, Băile Herculane and Băile Govora, with different histories and evolutions, designed modern medical treatments and leisure activities in the interwar period, encouraging wealthy people and people of modest income to spend a holiday and ‘take the cure’ (drinking and bathing) at these resorts.

Resisting the Canvas of Soviet Ideology: Analysing Dissent and Despair in Albert Mkrtchyan’s ‘The Song of the Old Days’ (1982)

This article examines Albert Mkrtchyan’s Soviet Armenian film, ‘The Song of the Old Days’ (1982), within the context of resistance against prevailing Soviet ideology. Set against the backdrop of World War II, the film diverges from traditional war-centric portrayals to explore the profound consequences of conflict on the inhabitants of a small Armenian town. Through deliberate scenes, it critiques the dissatisfaction with the ruling party and portrays a desperate search for meaning amid ideological despair. The film challenges the ‘Big Other,’ highlighting how individuals turn to alternative means such as religion and age-old rituals in times of despair. A satirical portrayal of a Communist Party event and the emotional resonance of a folk song serve as powerful instances where the film confronts and questions Soviet propaganda. By juxtaposing the film’s imagery with mass-produced Soviet posters, such as comparing the ‘Motherland calls!’ poster to the collective mother figure in the film, named Mother Armenia, this analysis unveils a nuanced critique of the disparity between propagated ideals and reality.

Communities in Western Classical Plague Literature

The portrayal of communities in plague literature has become a focal point of post-pandemic literary studies. The Decameron, A Journal of the Plague Year, and The Plague are seminal Western plague literary works set against the backdrop of plagues in the 14th, 17th, and 20th centuries, respectively, each reflecting different paradigms of community shaped by their respective eras. During the Renaissance, humanism was prevalent, which influenced Boccaccio's The Decameron to depict communities grounded in a sense of human compassion. In the 17th century, with the rapid development of capitalism in England, Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year portrays the impact of capitalist expansion on various communities during the Great Plague of London. The devastation of World War II brought significant upheaval to humanity, and the absurdity of modern society presented both challenges and opportunities for the communities in Camus' The Plague. These communities not only reflect the diversity of social life in different eras of Western society but also offer insights and lessons for fostering harmony in contemporary human society and building a shared future for humanity on a global scale.

„Eine Sprache ausstellen“

Abstract In their attempt to reposition Germany in an international context after World War II, actors from both the fine arts and the literary scene turned to the idea of art as a universal language. Two major projects that shaped the West German cultural sphere in the 1950 s and 1960s – the contemporary art exhibition documenta 2 and Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s anthology Museum der modernen Poesie – placed this idea at their conceptual core. The debates surrounding these projects show, however, that the notion of art as a universal language was as contested as it was compelling. In close readings of paratexts, including previously overlooked archival material, it becomes evident that very different conceptualizations of monolingualism and community are attached to the idea in each context. Evaluating these differences through the lens of translation studies, curatorial studies, and political theory enables a more nuanced discussion of the concept’s post-war renaissance and its ideological implications.

Preparing for war by fostering alpine winter tourism: Hermann Czant and his ideas on infrastructure for fighting in high altitude

Neither in historiography of alpine (winter) tourism nor in that on the First World War in mountainous regions has (Austro-)Hungarian mountaineer and officer Hermann Czant received a lot of attention, although he was amongst those, who promoted alpine winter tourism not least as an important training for military operations in a war in mountainous terrain such as the Alps or the Carpathians. This article analyses the ideas of Hermann Czant on the relationship between mountaineering, future military operations in high altitude and the construction of infrastructure in mountainous terrain and claims that he was probably looking for recapturing the Carpathians lost by Hungary in 1918–1920 through the fostering of alpine (winter) tourism and the building of infrastructure related to this process. At the same time he was very much aware of the integrative as well as disintegrative impact of the building of infrastructure in a mountainous environment. Therefore human agency and conduct took precedence over more or less permanent civilian or military infrastructure in such areas.

Main channels and consequences of the influence of war on educational inequality in society

A new, difficult and tragic research page is opening in domestic sociology – a detailed study of the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war on all spheres of life of Ukrainian society, its social structure, institutional transformations, economic capabilities, political organization, as well as the daily life of citizens. An integral component of both the institutional structure of society and the everyday life of citizens is the sphere of education with its inherent and constantly reproduced educational inequality. A large-scale war has the potential to quickly and for a long period of time disrupt social order and change established patterns of social inequality in society, particularly in education, unevenly distributing stratified negative effects. With the beginning of large-scale hostilities, the educational infrastructure of Ukraine has suffered almost the greatest destruction since the Second World War. Schools and preschool education institutions have suffered the greatest damage and destruction. A large number of families with their children have been forced to move internally or externally, thus temporarily interrupting the opportunities for children’s education. The article summarizes the results of research in various countries that have experienced short or long-term periods of international or civil wars, which made it possible to identify the main channels of the war’s impact on educational inequality and the corresponding short- and long-term effects of the war. Seven main direct and indirect channels of the war’s impact on educational inequality have been identified, including the destruction of educational infrastructure; lack of teachers due to internal and external displacement, recruitment into the army or death; reduction of state expenditures on education; movement of a large number of adults and children; redistribution of power and wealth in society; the growth of poverty, the reassessment and change of priorities regarding education within the family; deterioration of children’s physical and mental health, malnutrition, stress, trauma, feeling of insecurity. Short- and longterm effects on the educational achievements of children are formed through channels of influence, which take the form of stratified educational losses, a decrease in family expenditures on education, as well as losses in the future lifetime income of individuals.

THE GEOPOLITICAL AWAKENING OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

The article analyses the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the geopolitical transformation of the European Union (EU). It examines the key changes in the EU's security, energy and international relations strategy, as well as the development of its strategic autonomy and role in supporting Ukraine. The study is based on the analysis of scientific sources and political articles related to the EU's foreign policy and security mechanisms. A comparative analysis of the EU's decisions on sanctions, energy security and military assistance to Ukraine is used. Expert assessments of the geopolitical situation and economic consequences of the war are also taken into account. The article contributes to understanding the role of the Russian-Ukrainian war as a catalyst for the EU's political and strategic awakening. In particular, it highlights the development of the EU's strategic autonomy in response to its energy dependence on Russia and the growth of defence cooperation between member states. The author also explores how the war has contributed to the consolidation of European identity and the strengthening of the desire for global leadership in the face of current international challenges. The author notes that the Russian-Ukrainian war has accelerated changes in the EU's approach to foreign and security policy. The EU has strengthened its strategic autonomy, increased economic sanctions against Russia and mobilised resources to support Ukraine. At the same time, the war has shown the need to develop energy resources independent of external suppliers and to increase the EU's internal defence capabilities. Ukraine's integration into the European space has become an important strategic direction of the EU's policy. An important aspect has been the strengthening of European defence cooperation, which demonstrates the EU's desire for greater independence in security matters. Ukraine's integration into the European space is becoming one of the key directions of the EU's foreign policy, which may accelerate the process of Ukraine's accession to the Union in the future. The author also draws attention to the fact that the issue of strengthening the EU's defence capabilities affects the problem of the international security system, which today, as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war, is undergoing the greatest transformations since the Second World War.

Civilian Casualty Management in World War II: A Case Study of Plymouth's Halwell Street Mortuary.

On the eve of the Second World War, Britain prepared for the likelihood of civilian mass casualty events by directing Local Authorities to requisition property for mortuaries and to staff these facilities. In Plymouth, a lumber yard on Halwell Street served as the city's principal wartime mortuary. The scale of the German Luftwaffe's aerial assault in the spring of 1941 presented challenges. Plymouth's largest civilian mass casualty incident occurred at Portland Square on 23 April. Although Plymouth followed Ministry of Health guidance in preparing for treating civilian war dead, the intensity of the German campaign overwhelmed those plans and compelled officials to adapt. As part of its oversight, Plymouth also had to facilitate the burial of air raid victims. This paper presents a local case study concerning the treatment of civilian war dead to explore the role mortuaries played in the management of large-scale civilian fatalities on the British home front.

"The Politics of Paranoia": Wyndham Lewis’s Critique in Left Wings Over Europe: Or, How to Make a War About Nothing (1936) Based on Richard Hofstadter’s Ideologies

The current paper explores Wyndham Lewis’s critique of left-wing ideologies in his 1936 work Left Wings Over Europe: Or, How to Make a War About Nothing, through the analysis of Richard Hofstadter’s concept of "the paranoid style in politics." Hofstadter’s theoretical framework provides a practical structure for understanding Lewis’s vehement opposition to socialism and communism. In Left Wings Over Europe, Lewis represents leftist ideologies as destabilizing forces responsible for inciting conflict and navigating Europe toward needless war, particularly in the context of rising tensions leading to World War II. Not only does this research analyze how Lewis’s paranoid narrative aligns with Hofstadter’s insights, highlighting how Lewis's portrayal of leftist movements reflects broader fears of subversion and ideological warfare in 1930s Europe. but also explores how Lewis’s personal experiences and political anxieties shaped his critique, offering insight into the role of political paranoia in shaping intellectual and cultural discourse during times of upheaval. Ultimately, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how paranoia influences political thought, particularly in moments of crisis.

Introduction: migration and the First World War

ABSTRACT Studies of the nineteenth-century era of mass migration tend to conclude at the outbreak of the First World War. But what happened to these migrants and to patterns of migration during industrialised warfare? This special issue brings together two fields: migration history and First World War studies. We explore the fates and experiences of the large diasporic populations who found themselves in nations recently determined belligerent or neutral, where allegiances and enemies were newly defined. This introduction considers how migration history might inform approaches to First World War studies: who counts as a migrant in this period and how this was impacted by war. The issue consists of articles which address experiences of mobile populations and the infrastructure of mobility in this period. By addressing diverse ethnic and racial populations, including intersections of gender, the articles begin to explore the war as a period of ‘race-making’ and hybridity, where rather than just an acceleration of existing trends, new attitudes and ideas about identity, belonging and patriotism came to light. By considering how policies and processes of migration changed because of the conflict, authors contemplate war as a period of borders shifting and solidified, of immigration regimes tightened or newly controlled, often in tension with existing understanding of citizenship or home.