Japan’s Global War Vision Unravels

S1, E1: Explore the complex motives that led Japan into World War II and its risky challenge of American power. Professor Mark Ravina focusses on four Japanese officials who foresaw defeat in early 1944 and unsuccessfully urged the emperor to capitulate. Study the massive, decisive attack by the Soviet Union on Japanese forces in August 1945, roughly simultaneous with the US dropping of the atomic bombs.