Theme Of Ideology In Iris Chang's Rape Of Nanking

The key trait of ideology enabled totalitarian governments to commit atrocities the most during World War II because it made it clear who the enemy was, justifying the inhumane government actions. Ideology is a common totalitarian trait, set by the state, that can be defined as a set of beliefs that are expected to be followed and approved of by citizens to practice nationalism for the state. During the 1930s, during the Japanese invasion of China, Japan’s military had total domination over the government, which led to a society with right-wing patriotism/imperialist Japan, violence, and weakening democratic and socialist forces. One Japanese ideology that led to an atrocity is the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which encouraged the

This demonstrates ideology because the Japanese government controlled the school systems and the children were being indoctrinated with imperialist ideologies. Additionally, children were taught absolute obedience to the emperor and state so they had no voices. This leads to Japanese citizens strongly believing that Chinese people were the enemy. The Japanese citizens followed this belief from a young age, which made them much less likely to rebel against totalitarian ideas. This brought the Japanese government closer to asserting total control over their citizens. This event then led the Japanese, military-controlled government, to order the Japanese soldiers to execute "All prisoners of war…[by] divid[ing] the prisoners into groups of a dozen and shoot[ing] [them] to kill separately” (Chang, 1997). In late 1937, over six weeks, the Imperial Japanese Army Force performed mass murder and rape in Nanjing, Manchuria, later recognized as the atrocious, Rape of