World War II became more brutal as time went on. The first way in which the war’s brutality increased was that the Pacific’s battle environments were harsher than those in Europe. The battle environment in Europe may have been cold, but soldiers could always wear more layers to keep warm. The battles on the Pacific islands took place in very hot and humid environments, which could exhaust soldiers at faster speeds than the cold environments. These humid environments were hosts to plenty of mosquitos, which carried harmful diseases. The Final Solution is another way in which the war became more brutal as time passed. The Final Solution was much more radical than Germany’s previous moves against the Jews, because this move was an attempt to more or less eradicate all Jews. The Jews faced much more gruesome deaths in the death camps of The Final Solution, than a simple bullet through the head which happened in the earlier stages of the war. Brutality increased with the implementation of strategic bombing. Once the strategic bombing began, civilian deaths rose much higher than during the earlier stages of the war.
The brutality tended to be one sided in certain battles, but in the sum total of the war, brutality was shown on both the Allied and Axis sides. The American’s were hit harder by the hot and humid environment than the Japanese were, because the Japanese were more accustomed to these difficult environments. The Final Solution was one-sided brutality on Germany’s part. The brutality from strategic bombing was spread out across both the Allied and Axis sides. In general, the brutality increased on both the Allied and Axis sides as the war progressed.
Josh Springfield 