ABSTRACT
The period from 1931 to 1945 started off with the Great Depression and ended with the deaths of sixty million people worldwide in the Second World War. The Depression was unprecedented in its global reach and in the depth of economic dislocation it produced. Economic disasters helped to fuel extremist policies in a number of industrialized countries. Immediately following the Depression, World War II produced far greater levels of suffering. Both the Depression and the war led to major changes in gender relations as governments and civilians responded aggressively to economic and military crises. In Japan, Korea, and China, the effects of these turbulent years were not limited to the time in which they occurred. They also produced long-lasting changes in the post-World War II era. Depression and war forced great suffering on men, women, and children alike.
