A History Teacher Reacts | "10 Myths You Still Believe About WW2" by All Time 10's

[Music] hey youtube welcome back to another history teacher reacts video at mr. Terry so continue my quest for historical knowledge here on the Internet alright today's video is 10 myths you still believe about World War 2 by I think it's called all-time tens soon as we really popular video I think you and I just checked here was 1.7 million views and people love top tens right I'm a sucker for him - everyone loves lists I know if it's just the categorization and then you're always trying to rank things people always have an opinion about those sort of things but I thought this would be a lot of fun to check out cuz there's plenty of myths in history right I'm interested to know what they are putting his myths and we'll see if we can talk about those as they go if you like the original video go down below and give them a like and subscribe over there if you liked it feel like we're doing here and you want to follow along with me I love to have you as a subscriber as well enable those notifications if you want to know and live streams and live premieres happen alright let's jump in ten myths you still believe about World War two we'll see do you believe these or did you believe these two I guess we should say all right let's check this out 10 myths you still believe about World War two well gap number 10 nukes ended the war accepted wisdom is that the war concluded let's think about this first and then we'll do it loop's but ended the war I mean the war in the Pacific because the treaties gonna be having a few days of later okay see what I go with this I mean I was he didn't end in the West the war was over in Europe before the atomic bombs were used in Japan with Hiroshi Shima and Nagasaki prompting the Japanese Empire to surrender in fear of future nuclear annihilation barters with all things historical it's not quite so simple now just hypothesize one thing that we people definitely put out as the threat of Russia I mean their invasion because the plan was that of course after the European war was over that Russia as well the Americans and and other allies would then turn to Japan so I know that's a thing that maybe it's not solely one thing they Tomic bombs but now on the eve of Russia basically declaring war in Japan that that had motivation to under if that's where they're going with us let's see some historians have argued that while those bombings were historic for their individual destructive potential consistent air raids on Japan in 1945 had already killed 200,000 people yeah and put monstery close to breaking point people forget this the fire bombing that was devastating before the atomic bombs were reused and ready of bombing a lot of these cities I had again a lot of wood structures and just set ablaze some of these Japanese cities that predated that and of course with the atomic bombs it becomes so much more prevalent that people remember that but a lot of people forget the the bombing raids before that wait that's in addition to the fact that the Soviet Union entered the conflict just hours before the Nagasaki strike that invasion defeated Japan's prestigious Kwantung army and left the country in a vulnerable spot this is one of the classic things for people that are a little bit more reluctant to say that the atomic bombs were justified was that you saw there that Russia had just technically declared war on Japan a few hours before so would that have lead simply within a few days maybe or something like that the Japanese to surrender that they never really had the chance of a true threat of Russia entering the war being a part of that even before maybe an actual physical invasion happen because of course people they say about the atomic bomb is that it was just fired based on the fact that it avoided some of the hand-to-hand combat sorry the you know head-to-head combat that would of course leave to an incredible amount of lives with an actual invasion of Japan but was there enough time I guess to process or give I guess a chance if you want to call it that for Japan to to really think about this right now that Japan Russia had just barely declared war or the judean were the Americans too quick to act upon that that's a classic debate that that is very common it's argued that this move had a much greater impact on the decision to call it quits since surrendering to the US was preferable to allowing Stalin to violently remove the Emperor but no that's true I don't think we're that perspective with with with the Japanese going oh my god like Stalin if we're gonna get invaded by somebody or have somebody oversee us yeah maybe it'd be better to be the Americans than you know a maniac like Stalin that would make sense but again they only had hours before the bomb was used to really even consider that I guess and Hitler's iron fist on top of being pure evil everyone remembers Hitler as the archetypical dictator who ruled both the public and the military to unwavering loyalty but you might be a little bit off with the second one since Hitler's military was actually pretty disobedient Navy Grand Admiral Eric reader was said to have had hour-long shouting matches with the Fuhrer in defiance of him and there are even reports of naval officers having to drop their Nazi Party membership in order to sign up since the Navy prized country over party and that's not to mention Wilhelm Canaris an admiral who leaked axis secrets and used his position of authority to help plan the failed plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 and not least of all the army consistently ignored Hitler's order to stop absorbing so-called racially inferior Russian troops into German ranks you know I've been you know I always think it's interesting you hear about the attempted assassination plots against Hitler that had failed those are always kind of interesting and you know when you study a bunch of them you think you get you come to think that it was very it would have been very possible and now would not have been unlikely or surprising if that had actually gone through eventually accepting 700,000 soldiers to fight for the Nazis by 1942 number eight it was a single worldwide conflict what does that mean now one 1942 number 8 it was a sing I mean what I gotta do think about what they think of this worldwide conflict rather than a separate bunch I mean the the thing of course you could bring up a lot of people bring up is that how the Japanese invasion of China in the early mid 30s should be much more closely tied to what people perceived as world war two right a lot of people like to think it's you know just just the invasion of Poland right but four years before that that you happen to use had involved and had involved that both sides yet but that Stephanie some doesn't get enough talk about is the context of the Japan and China inter encounter in the big picture of what World War two is gonna be was a single worldwide conflict there's a good chance that when you think of World War two you imagine a consolidated campaign of good against evil between 1939 and 1918 any war thought when you dig a bit deeper it wasn't just axis versus Allies it was a nebulous and messy cluster of individual conflicts for one thing historians don't even agree when the whole thing kicked off other than Poland in 1939 some point to the 1937 outbreak of the second sino-japanese war has been 1935 Italian Ethiopian conflict oh yeah and as [ __ ] that's another one people totally forget is Italy's capture of Ethiopia that's a that's it I think a fascinating story in the bigger picture because decades before that the Italians had failed to get Athiya Ethiopia before that it's a classes thing about the the age of the new imperialism that everywhere in Africa got colonized by foreign European power except for Ethiopia they were able to defend themselves who they defend themselves against Italy because they wanted controls from that territory and the Red Sea and then when Mussolini and them are doing is doing what the Italians had failed to do decades before and with that by people totally forget about that that in a way might be the first act of aggression by the Axis powers was the invasion of Ethiopia it's also one of the things that people criticize heavily for for the League of Nations that were threatening sanctions and stuff but actually did nothing when Italy did this it was like the first thing that they failed to intervene on long before you know the onch loose with Germany and Austria and take over Czechoslovakia the Rhineland and all these other things that were against the Treaty of Versailles barback as the border skirmishes between Japan and the Soviet Union in 1932 and the Axis forces didn't even have the same goals Mussolini supported Hitler's policies but sought to bolster his own colonial goals in Ethiopia and Japan didn't share Nazi social views despite it shift to the far-right even signing a non-aggression pact with the USSR while Germany was fighting it no Stalin you made an on aggression pacts with all kinds of people you know with Hitler like people to know about the Japanese one either so he was trying to you know be against the war for for so many things and focus more on I guess the Soviet stuff that way but we know what happens later those treaties and and then they absolutely the Soviets will invade and take other lands you know after the war even signing a non-aggression pact with the USSR while Germany was fighting it number seven German mechanization orders Nazi Germany has a reputation as a military juggernaut with highly advanced two divisions of Tanks as the driving force of the war effort but the reality of Hitler's army was that it was actually one of the least mechanised forces in the war people often look at the blitzkrieg capture of France to show Germany's military advancements and but 119 of the 135 divisions involved in the offensive used cavalry rather than armored vehicles compare that to the UK which was almost entirely mechanized by 1939 and often when Germany did well okay so yeah I mean not everything was completely made obsolete I mean their horses were used even in World War one to bigger extent than people thought but we also know that journey had to conserve resources - that was the the biggest thing that I guess a lot of people say held Germany back long term was was the resources you couldn't fully do oil production or petroleum powered or whatever machines because Germany was didn't have enough oil it's one of the reasons they probably went down to places like Stalingrad and the Caucasus region because they had fuel so you can't have everything be mechanized because there's not enough fuel to do that so you're kind of forced to use you know cavalry if you need to because you couldn't mechanize as much as maybe they're saying even if you want it to boast of a large mechanized force in battles it will be made of seized French and Soviet tanks so where did the mechanization myth come from well Germany has to explode propaganda department and it would make sure to over exaggerate the few tank heavy divisions it did possess in films giving the impression that they represented the army at large sneaky mr6 the axis could have won yeah I did a video did a video reacting to the the alternate history hubs thing about could Germany could not win the war get Lodge one sneaky number sick and I really did fall and and support their thesis that Germany did not have the resources to make this victory possible not the victory that they were look like they were doing they'd have to redefine what a victory looks like if victory is taking over Russia taken over all mainline Europe than though that was not possible to not have the resources to do that sort of thing so I'm on the side of this that yeah and I don't I don't know how many people really think the axis could have won in general and on the European front or the Pacific front so I mean I know there's some people that do for sure they even had a poll on my channel that you probably still see it's probably still up as good Germany of won the war the axis could have won people generally believe that World War two was a struggle down to the wire between axis and Allied forces to the point where the West could have all been speaking German now barting truth Germany's chances appeared to have been exaggerated as World War 2 legend grew the historical consensus is that the axis is failure wasn't a matter of if but of when the early capture of France gave many the impression that Germany was an unstoppable bulldozer through your understandable it's creeks warfare merely functioned as a short-term tactical advantage rather than an effective strategy to defeat the Nazi strongest adversaries the you okay the USA and the USSR that's particularly true of the Soviets who were out producing the Nazis in terms of supplies and equipment to a point where they could never win a protracted assault Hitler himself knew that a quick capture of Russia was his only chance which cleared that World War one - you could argue that had Germany succeeded in the Battle of Britain less Western resistance could have led to a victory over Russia but in 1942 it was likely game over number five in it together lemon for anyone who's not familiar there's an idea that everyone in the UK put aside their considerable class differences to get through the war together it wasn't uncommon to hear that people from all walks of life would gather in the tunnels of the London Underground to escape German v2 bombs over the city but in reality only around 70,000 of the city's 8 million residents hid in the tunnels and they were mostly working class since wealthier people had their own bunkers and on top of that bombed buildings were regularly looted and counterfeit stolen and fraudulent ration books ran wild but the British government knew that morale was key to the war effort since keeping up supply lines was incredibly important to sustaining the army so it pushed the narrative of togetherness despite considerable divides and resentment it has a narrative though that hold togetherness it's a point of pride I mean it makes sense why the British to do that is like you know we come together in these times of crisis all right keep calm and carry on and that sort of thing so that's spending more of a patriotic narrative I guess than anything when everyone's you never know what's gonna be ever truly unified FDR predicted Pearl Harbor wonder will see be this because there's definitely the criticism that there was Intel beforehand that a attack on Pearl Harbor could be possible not or an attack in general like attack could be possible didn't know exactly when or where that's a criticism but did FDR have some exclusive knowledge let's see now before Franklin D Roosevelt predicted Pearl Harbor there's a popular and long-standing conspiracy theory that Franklin D Roosevelt was fully aware of the impending Japanese might happen so harbors but refused to prevent it in order to create a pretext for entering the war but I I bet this comes more retro actively because you see a lot more of these criticisms of knowing well knowing in advance of potential attacks by using him anyways as a way to encourage war it happened with like the Lusitania World War one that they were going into zone they should have been doing plus the Americans were smuggling stuff with Lusitania same with Gulf of Tonkin and so it's happening with like the Vietnam War it happening with the Korean War these incidences that get into the war that are criticized for not being handled the right way or intentionally misleading but that's different topic no matter how many documents are Declassified so what I mean when he means is that since I happen in the future people thought it was more likely that had happened in the past which is illogical but historians dismiss the idea as utter nonsense according to Rob Sortino of the national World War two museum and Neff Diaz biographer Sean Edward Smith there was no evidence of any such correspondences passing through one pretty deep Katty crippling Japan through economic sanctions rather than warfare documents uncovered in 2011 did show suspicions over Japanese residents spying in Hawaii but nothing predicted an attack on US soil if anything there was worry over US bases in the Philippines but no one in the u.s. believed Japan would be audacious enough to send a fighting force that far across the Pacific number three Churchill was a hero which is such a polarizing figure people loved him or hated enemies though people hated him and loved him at different times he was he was totally different totally polarizing figure I mean they don't want him originally and then bring him in when Chamberlain kind of fails to deal with Hitler bring him in and then what's the war's over they boot out Churchill like alright thanks for winning us to the war but you're not the one that's gonna give us peace that's that seemed to be kind of the opinion cincher chill is fondly remembered as Britain's greatest prime minister and the hero behind its military victories he was a great wartime leader but many even at the time felt that he wasn't up to the job of you know actually being Prime Minister in 1944 a Conservative member of parliament called sir cuthbert headland said never was a party so leaderless as the Conservative Party is today in reference to Churchill's lack of domestic governance outside of the war effort not to mention that he was seen to have troubling views even for his time like advocating chemical warfare comparing Muslims to rabid dogs and and they are talking about happened India and starvation millions in India that happened denying black people had been wronged by slavery the most damning evidence is that as soon as the war ended Churchill lost the 1945 election by a historic landslide probably because he didn't have the policies to compete with Labour's national health service number to America wha America we won World War one we won World War two well everyone else in the background is screaming their heads off common knowledge especially if you're American is that the u.s. army swept in to save a European military that was lagging in the face of German aggression and more the USA's contribution to the war effort can't be understated it would just be forced to claim that they want it all the interpretation of the win the big thing they say is wouldn't it would would the Germans have lost without America and most people would say yes because the Soviets were already beating the Germans before America even joined up grossly downplays the efforts of the USSR for example soldiers and the Western Front spent a combined sixteen point five million months fighting whereas Eastern Front soldiers spent 406 million between them that's 25 times as long yeah you're gonna piss off a lot up here and especially gonna piss off the Russians if you say it was America that won the war they're gonna go ahead and show you a graveyard and see who paid the price right and who turned the tide of the war first and at 11 million casualties the USSR suffered more death than the other combatant nations in Europe combined and that's not to mention Stalingrad which is considered one of the bloodiest battles in history with nearly 2 million combined casualties the Soviet victory proved a major demoralizing force for Hitler in the later years of the war number one only the axis connected wok definitely a myth yep let's see what they get into the prevailing view of World War two was that of the just virtuous Allied soldiers versus the cruel treacherous axis hey we all know the victors get to write the story right and you can write it any way you want when you win there's no one to stop you after all the Nazis were responsible for one of the greatest atrocities in history with the Holocaust and while the Allied powers never even came close to genocide in the war there were shameful moments that have gone largely overlooked despite being a matter of record few people are aware of the us's actions during its Pacific occupation where forces murdered thousands of Japanese soldiers it could have been taken prisoner routinely mutilated dead Japanese soldiers by the the accepted kind of belief is that POWs you shouldn't kill if people surrender you do not kill them uuugh prison them you don't prisoners of war you don't you don't execute that is just seen as international kind of military expectations stabbing their corpses with bayonets and decapitated them to use their mutilated dead Japanese soldiers by stabbing their corpses with bayonets and decapitated them to use their skulls as souvenirs and women in Okinawa Japan claim that sexual abuse was widespread among US forces during the occupation some academic estimates suggest as many as ten thousand victims and that's not to mention the coton massacre of twenty-two thousand polish nationals in 1940 by Soviet secret police all of which is harrowing to say the least people are never gonna say there are some of those the other Russian atrocities in the East say get overshadowed yeah for sure that's why where you gonna get the biggest grievance against this argument that is on the Axis powers that was ten myths you still believe about World War two which one surprising ways in comments and make sure to LIKE and subscribe and while you're at it like they'd like the Germans win they defeat America and in in London or just England check out this great all-time tens video on screen right now okay alright everybody what did you think what did you think about these Biss for these things that you had believed in fair enough do you think they are things that people actually believed in any thoughts on any of the things that they brought up legitimacy of them and some of the things that they kind of hypothesized I'm feel free to get discussions going down or the best place to have discussions is in our discord server if you've not joined our discord server you definitely should there'll be a link down below that you can join we've over 4,000 people in there they have a lot of active historical knowledge and are very active and wanting to talk so I'd love to have you over there if you have not but yeah yeah I think we can get some discussions about this stuff about the myths a lot of these things I definitely seen active on those message boards and discord so I'm sure you could jump into that for sure all right a few plugs on the way out if you like this video give them a like and subscribe so you can see more stuff I love these kind of videos and it looks like maybe they do is my first time to his channel that looks like they do some other history stuff maybe we'll check that out if that's something you would that you would like to see one other plug if you would like to support this channel another way you could become a patreon member I'm starting at simply $1 a month to join that supports the channel and also gets you involved in polls for videos that get featured on this channel and it's a great way to have a little more say in this and being a community and support our channel but first and foremost us thank you for being here and being a part of our community and hopefully loving history as much as I do all right with that we'll go out and into here see ya [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 951,069

Keywords: react, history, world war 2

Id: ISUDKXdhJXg

Length: 23min 32sec (1412 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2019