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Axis occupation policies varied widely, especially German policies. One consistent them with the Axis was economic exoloitation and efforts to annex some areas and suppres foreign elements in those areas. Here German racial policies had a major impact. In line with Holocaust actions, Generalplan Ost, and the Hunger Plan. The goal becme to murder all Jews that came into their hands (including those working in war industries) and to substantially reduce the Baltic and Slavic population and convert the survivors to slave labor. While Germany, Italy, and Japan were the principal Axis countries, smaller countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania were given their own occupation zones by the Germans. Axis policies were in one sence nesitated by the fact that they launched the War withouth the industrial or resource base needed to conduct global war. The War was launched to obtain the resources needed to wage war and thus the industry and resources of the occupied countries were an important part of the Axis war plan. For a range of reasons, this did not work as the Axis countries planned. The Germans did make considerable use of Western Europe (especially France) to support their war effort, but failed to use the coveted resources of the East when the Red Army did not collapse as anticipated. The Wehermacht was sent into the East without supplies. Barbarossa was designed on the basis of living off the nds with disaterous results for the civilian populatiion from whom food and other supplies were taken. The Japanese in the Paific did seize their Southern Resource Zone with needed resources like oil and rubber. Getting the resources back to the Home Islands, however, proved a very difficult undertaking as the U.S. Navy perfected its submarine campaign on the Japanese Marus. Axis racial policies (especially German and Japanese) proved deadly and were persued irrespective of economic concerns or impact on the war effort.
Germans occupation policies varied geographically depending largely on the racial makeup of the occupied countries. German racial policies had a major impact. In line with Holocaust actions, Generalplan Ost, and the Hunger Plan. The goal becme to murder all Jews that came into their hands (including those working in war industries) and to substantially reduce the Baltic and Slavic population and convert the survivors to slave labor. The goal was to turn Eastern Rurope into a vast German colony. In the West, the goal was more economic and political. The Germans also wanted to exploit the economies and make political changes, but not to reduce the population--with the exception of Jews. And here the Germans exploted Axis allies as well as occupied countries. The German policies were nesitated by the fact that Hitler launched the War withouth the industrial or resource base needed to conduct global war. The War was launched to obtain the resources needed to wage war and thus the industry and resources of the occupied countries were an important part of the Axis war plan. For a range of reasons, this did not work as the Germans planned. The Germans did make considerable use of Western Europeean (especially France) industrial caoacity to support their war effort, but failed to use the coveted resources of the East when the Red Army did not collapse as anticipated. The Wehermacht was sent into the East without supplies. Barbarossa was designed on the basis of living off the nds with disaterous results for the civilian populatiion from whom food and other supplies were taken. The resources of the East were used to support the Whermacht in the Eastern Front, but the anticipted resources proved much smaller than anticipated. very little got back to the Reich to support the War economy. The primacy of racial policies should not be neglected. Hitler pursued deadly racial policies even when they interfered with the German war effort.
The Japanese after the outbreak of the War in Europe discussed for 2 years how to best take advantage of the situation. Their Chinese adventure proved to be a never ending struggle and enormously expensive. There were already extensive discussions within the military that dominated the Government concerning the two principal options open to them, strike North at the Soviet Union or South at the Americans and British. Hitler's decesion to ally Germany with the Soviet Union with the NAZI-Soviet Non-Agression Pact (August 1939) undercut the Strike North Faction. This led to the ascendity of the Strike South Faction and the decision to seize the Southern Resource Zone (SRZ), even if it meant war with the United States. The SRZ had all the resources that the Japanese miklitary most desperately needed, most importantly oil. The United States largely decided the debate when after several years of diplomatic efforts to convince the Japanese to withdraw from China, the Roosevelt Administrationed embargoed oil exports. This forced Japan to either make peace and withdraw from China or mAke war. They launched the War in a daring carrier attack on Pearl Harbor. In a spectacular military campaign, the Japanese managed to seize the largely undamaged SRZ in only a few months and with minimal losses. The SRZ which not only had oil, but other vital resources like rubber, tin, and rice. The Japnese system for exploiting the SRZ was the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. In had ahen propagand venner of 'Asians for the Asians', but in fact was even more explotitive thn the Western colonial regimes and without their growing legl system. Japanese Occupation policies not only were grossly explotive, but proved deadly in the occupied areas, especially China. There were also terriblr famines created in the Dtch East Indies, Tonkin (northern Indochina), norther Burma, and other areas. This was similar to the German occupation of Europe where the NAZIs instituted a Hunger Plan with the policy objective of starving millions. The Japanese did not have the same objective, but starvation was the result of mismanagemnent and incomptence. Their primary objective was getting the the SRZ resources back to the Home Islands to support their greatly expanded war effort. This proved, however, a very difficult undertaking, especially after the U.S. Pacific Fleet perfected its submarine campaign on the Japanese merchant marine (Marus). Axis racial policies (especially German and Japanese) proved deadly and were persued irrespective of economic concerns or impact on the war effort. The principal victim of Japanese racial policies were the Chinese.
While Germany, Italy, and Japan were the principal Axis countries, smaller countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania were given their own occupation zones by the Germans. While historians focus on German occupation policies, some of these countries conducted terrible attrocities in the areas they occupied. Jews were the most common, but not the only targets.
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