So, our armed forces, at Iwo Jima, was fighting against...fascism??

[Roland99]

According to wet-behind-the-ears Cawthorn (R-NC)

[Eyeball_Kid]

1. A lot of books have been written about fascism in the 20s-40s.

There was a world-wide fascism movement that was spearheaded by Germany, Italy, and... Japan. All three used different variations of the same theme.

[TexasTowelie]

2. I wish that my father, who fought at Iwo Jima, was still alive.

Then I could ask him what argument was used to convince him and his fellow sailors to fight. I don't ever recall him using the word fascism during his 85 years--particularly the last thirty years when I was old enough to ask those type of questions.

[Roland99]

3. I'd always learned it was imperialism re: Japan

[Journeyman]

5. That, and racism . . .

[ananda]

8. My dad flew a fighter plane from an aircraft carrier.

He did his duty, and never spoke much about it
or his heroism because he thought the ones who
died were the real heroes.

Nearly 60 years later he married a wife who helped
turn him into a Fox news idiot... unlike my mother
who kept him in line somewhat.

What he would think about these past four years and
the events of yesterday, I'm not sure. I hope he would
have come back to his senses, but I'll never know for
sure.

[Ex Lurker]

4. Japan in the 30s-40s was ultranationalist and imperialist

it certainly could be called a form of fascism. Japan had an alliance with Germany and Italy, but the vast distances involved made any kind of coordination difficult. They exchanged what technology and raw materials they could, and a German U Boat flotilla operated out of a Japanese base in the Dutch East Indies. Germany would have loved for Japan to open a second front against Russia in the Far East. Japan, having fought a short, but bloody and inconclusive border conflict with Russia over Manchuria in 1939, was not interested.

[abqtommy]

6. Bottom line: while the Japanes during the WWII fighting were not technically Fascists they were

close enough that they were allied with European Fascists in Germany, Italy and other parts of Europe.
So yes, U.S. troops fighting in the Pacific Theater were fighting the Japanese and the Fascist Axis.
And remember that The Axis lost. Now here in 2021 we have to make sure that they lose again!

[Kaleva]

9. Not even close

It was a marriage of convenience. For example: Finland, an important ally of Germany, was a democratic republic.

[Klaralven]

7. From the 1860s on, the Japanese modeled themselves on the British Empire

During the development of modern Japan after the Meiji restoration, the British Empire was the most powerful nation on earth. The Japanese carefully studied the British Empire during their creation of the modern Japanese state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Japanese_Alliance