Question

Compare and contrast the rise and fall of Germany and Japan during the period of World War II.

Answer 1

Germany had been on the losing side in World War I, and the terms of the Peace of Versailles were very punitive toward Germany.  Battling Depression worse than experienced elsewhere, and wanting to restore their national pride, the rhetoric of Hitler and the Nazis was appealing to the German people.  They followed Hitler as their Führer (leader), and Germany became eager for expansion and conquest.  Hitler overreached, however, when he undertook invasion of the Soviet Union.  Germany fell in World War II because ultimately it could not win against the numbers and resolve of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front and the United States joining the war on the Western Front.

Japan had been growing in power since the start of the 20th century, and had been one of the nations on the winning side in World War I.  Japan saw their emperor as a godlike figure and his will was to be followed.  Japan pursued imperial ambitions by attacking Korea and China, and eventually overreached by attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor.  Japan did not have the strength to withstand the United States, especially once the US developed atomic weapons.  

Both Germany and Japan sought more control of more territory and resources, and both committed atrocities driven by racist views.  Germany killed millions of Jews in the Holocaust.  Japan pursued a racist agenda against the Chinese, as exemplified by the Nanking massacre.