Forgotten armies :

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

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" Forgotten armies : "
Kraljic, Tatjana Genoveva Ursula.

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Record Number	:	1096096
Doc. No	:	TLets425363
Main Entry	:	Kraljic, Tatjana Genoveva Ursula.
Title & Author	:	Forgotten armies :\ Kraljic, Tatjana Genoveva Ursula.
College	:	London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
Date	:	2005
student score	:	2005
Degree	:	Ph.D.
Abstract	:	The 'brutalisation of warfare' - the employment by soldiers and armies ofviolence disproportionate to their military objectives in violation ofinternational law - occurred widely and to varying degrees during the SecondWorld War. Yet historians have been notably divided over its causes. Oneschool of thought has located the source of atrocities in battlefield dynamics,while others have argued that racism and racist propaganda lay at the root ofwartime barbarism. The Allied campaign in Burma and India - the object ofthis thesis - offers an opportunity to examine the development of brutal is at ionin a hitherto neglected context.The thesis first investigates general patterns of exceSSIve combatbrutality during World War II, arguing that the images that armies held of theenemy largely determined his treatment, and that the development of enemyimages was a theatre-of-war-specific process rather than one pre-determined bycultural stereotypes, as argued by John W. Dower and others. Next, an analysisof British troop morale illustrates the initial lack of motivation for fighting theJapanese, and shows how the British command's countermeasures helped shapethe troops' view of the enemy. The thesis then considers the impact of Japanesemilitary culture on the fighting, and argues that the Japanese military ethos andthe resulting combat methods alone sufficed to foster ever-increasing brutality.A further element of analysis is the colonial context of the campaign, whichmade race a highly sensitive issue and limited the influence of white racism onthe development of brutalisation. The final chapter turns to the Americancombat experience in the theatre and analyses the differences and parallelsbetween British and American attitudes toward the campaign and the enemy.The thesis concludes that Japanese military conduct ultimately fuelledbrutalisation by convincing Allied troops that retaliation - however unlawful -was morally and militarily justified.
Added Entry	:	London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)