How was World War 2 a cause for revenge?

Answer 1

All of the Europeans and the countrymen of the Allied Nations had great reason for revenge.

The war to defeat the Germans was not conducted for the reasons of revenge by the Military Leaders. Their motivation was to defeat the Nazis and to liberate the occupied, oppressed nations of Europe, Africa and the Soviet Union.

The Soviets want to defeat the Nazis but they had a very strong sense of revenge since the Nazis killed 20 million of their people in the Soviet Union and on the Eastern Front.

There were other individuals who wanted revenge, particularly Jews, Polish and other Europeans. They had good reason since the Nazis committed horrendous atrocities and genocide against their people.

Most of the Americans did want revenge against the Japanese for what they did by bombing Pearl Harbor, capturing the Philippines, attacking the Midway Island and Coral Sea area.

The purpose for total war against the Japanese was for more important reasons than merely revenge. They had to put a stop to the Japanese taking over all the Asian nations and their allied nations. The US Government also had demanded the Japanese stop the wholesale murders of the Chinese civilians in Manchuria, Korea, and the rest of China. The US had placed an oil embargo on Japan when the Japanese refused to stop their atrocities and murdering during the 1930s. The Japanese felt justified for their actions and intentions. Once they did attack the US the Japanese had to be stopped. The Doolittle Raid when the US sent 16 bombers to bomb mainland Japan that was for revenge, the morale of the US civilians and military forces. It was also to let the Japanese know that the US could and would bomb the Japanese on their own home turf or anywhere.

The Nazi viewpoint of the War was retaliation against the Eastern and Western European nations because of the aftermath of World War 1. They were basically forced to signed the Treaty of Versailles due to their own ability to continue to wage war. The Treaty destroyed the morale of the nation, the economy and their military force. It also harmed the nation politically. Therefore the military leaders of the Nazi forces had great reason to exact revenge. Adolf Hitler did want revenge but his motivations were different from his military leaders. He wanted to fulfill his grandiose ideas of the Third Reich and the 1000 year reign and all his ideas of eliminating all the Jews. He wanted land and Natural Resources for his Aryan people.

The Japanese viewpoint was not only to destroy the the US Navy (to prevent the US from defending the Dutch East Indies and other Asian Nations) but also to exact revenge for the oil embargo and to take over Asian nations with natural, raw resources.