With Hitler’s rise, we see a rabble-rouser,
The ‘Nazis’ consolidating – from a grab-bag of discontents,
The Weimar Republic’s own decisions and power
Ineffective, unable to stop rising unemployment.
Nationalism became embraced with such adulation,
Preying upon Germany’s WW I disgrace,
The notion that Jews held too much station,
And a Great Depression, the ‘nail in the coffin.’
Japan was certain that territorial expansion
Would solve their Depression, economic blues, give them clout.
When they were called to account for it by the League of Nations,
They stonewalled the inquiry – and then walked out.
The U.S. responded to Japan’s aggressions abroad by embargoing trade,
So Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack plan was their secret ‘trap laid.’
June Edvenson 