I really did learn a LOT about the living conditions of the Japanese people during WWII. I was not aware of the severity of the lack of resources that the Japanese people faced during the war and the role that women/mothers played in the anti-war sentiment that eventually led to the Japanese surrender. I will show pictures to my students about the starvation that resulted because of the rationing that limited most Japanese civilians. I will also let them know that the desperation was so severe that many people had to abandon their children because they had to evacuate or because they no longer had the resources to take care of them. This led to hundreds of thousands of children being separated from their parents.
I know I will be able to use this knowledge in my classes so that the students have a much better understanding of why how the Japanese lived in that time period and eventually why they had to surrender.