It always amazes me the number of Russians that died in WWII. I didn't realize that China lost 15 million.

China had a huge amount of refugees as well. Most of their deaths were civilian inflicted by a combination of the Japanese and hunger/disease.
There was a good book about the Chinese in WWII a few years back called Forgotten Allies.

The amount of death and destruction in that decade of WWII is staggering. The quickness with which society advanced after WWII is pretty impressive as well.

I am pretty sure Stalin killed about a third of the Russians that were killed in WWII..

THIS^^^^ and then some!
If Stalin didnt like what you or what you were doing and you were in Russia either as a citizen or worked for their government, you got "terminated".

Those Chinese deaths were at the hand of the Japanese. They were brutal beyond belief. Bastards.

And then on MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND our big eared POTUS goes there and gives a speech at Hiroshima. On MEMORIAL DAY weekend!

He says he is from Hawaii. Why didnt he go there and give a speech at pearl harbor? Because he hates America and if there is ever an opportunity to tell other countries how bad we are he jumps at the chance.

Compared to what happened in Russia...our casualties are small...

Russia also just sent waive after waive of men to stop Germany. They used bodies more than bullets.

I am surprised by the low UK and Italian numbers. But, we didn't bomb Italy like we did Japan and Germany.

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making some other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

George S. Patton

This right here!

I was at Pearl Harbor the week before Memorial Day, he could have give his speech there...LOTS of Asian people at Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese wanted Us in the War obviously so Our grandparents generation gave them what they asked for. The A- Bomb had to be used to make the Japanese people lose their will. No apology should ever be given over using the A-Bomb.

If you're into reading, get the book Alchemy of Air. It tells the story of the guys behind the Haber-Bosch process (allows us to create synthetic Nitrogen fertilizer from air) that basically paved the way for the world's population to be fed. Of course at the time these guys were in Nazi Germany so it helped fuel the rise of Hitler as well. Really good book. The author, Thomas Hager, also wrote one about the advent of the first antibiotics, which also changed the world.

Because he's from Kenya.

Exactly what I was thinking.

"We're gonna hold 'em by the nose and kick 'em in the ass."

I would have thought that Japan would have lost more people, especially with the two A-bombs.

With the technology Germany was developing in the 30 & 40's, if Hitler was more patient, he'd taken this world over in the 50's. JMO

None of the war was fought on main land Japan. So, they didn't have the civilian casualties other than the bombs.

If he had listened to his military leaders,the world would certainly be different today.

One very important thing to remember is that those were *Soviet* deaths not strictly Russian deaths. And most were civilian not military deaths.

Russia proper was only partly conquered by the German Wermacht. By contrast Belarus and Ukraine were completely overrun and wiped out.

Also, the 25 million number is questionable, and 20 million is probably closer to reality.

Here are the all important numbers for deaths of the Citizens of the Soviet Union

Ukraine/Ukrainians: 8 million ( 25% of the population)
Belarus: 3 million ( 60% of pop)
Russian: 5-6 million
Asiatics conscripted from east of the Urals: 3-4 million.

Current Russian political powers try to equate Soviet losses with Russian losses which is incorrect.

Bump

25 (actual 20) million "Soviets" does NOT = 25/20 million "Russians".

For the record.