Many Japanese were stunned when war was declared, but early victories in Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore quickly turn to exultation. Japanese boys were taught the martial code of the Samurai,

ferocious and devoid of pity, for enemy or self. But by 1942 Japan was fighting for survival. By 1944 Japan was fighting shortages of food, metal and fuel. Scarcity of manpower condemned

Japanese women to unfamiliar laboring. Continued allied bombing killed a further 250.000 and rendered 8 million homeless. But worse was yet to come.