Casualties of War: Deaths


Some of the deaths from the Bataan Death March

It is an understatement to say that lots of people died in the Asia and Pacific Front of World War 2. Compared to the Western Front, the North African Front or the Italian Front, the Asia and Pacific Front, and the Eastern (Russian) Front of the war was known for the particular brutality of which they were fought.

Almost every major battle of the Asia and Pacific Front was fought with no-holds barred. This was evident as Japanese would suffer 97-99% casualty rates in the battles of Tarawa, Peleliu, Okinawa and Iwo Jima as they refused to surrender. Japan was known to also carry out sanctioned massacres such as Sook Ching and the Nanking Massacre.

Grul (2007) estimated that that the Pacific War resulted in the deaths of 20 million civilian deaths, with 100,000 deaths in Malaya and Singapore alone. The Allies suffered about 4 million military deaths.

Japan itself suffered 1 million civilian deaths, and more than 2.5 million military deaths.

Such massive deaths left Asia and the Pacific with lots of rebuilding post-war, and a drastically change political landscape for the future.

References

Grul, W. (2007) Imperial Japan's World War Two 1931-1945

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