Japanese Buddhist Monks during Gas Mask Drill

Image size: 1600 x 1024 pixel. 427 KB
Date: Saturday, 30 May 1936
Place: Asakusa Temple, Tokyo, Japan
Photographer: Unknown

Buddhist priests of the Senso Temple in Asakusa prepare for the Second Sino-Japanese War as they wear gas masks during training against future aerial attacks in Tokyo, Japan, on 30 May 1936. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily and to secure its vast raw material reserves and other economic resources, particularly food and labour. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, so-called "incidents". In 1931, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria by Japan's Kwantung Army followed the Mukden Incident. The last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, marking the beginning of total war between the two countries. Initially the Japanese scored major victories in Shanghai after heavy fighting, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanking. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior. By 1939 the war had reached stalemate after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, which performed harassment and sabotage operations against the Japanese using guerrilla warfare tactics. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day (December 8, 1941) the United States declared war on Japan.

Source :
https://teddymanyvanhpearlharbor.weebly.com/second-sino-japanese-war.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-before-the-war/100089/

The First Christmas of SS Division "Prinz Eugen"

Image size: 1600 x 1118 pixel. 437 KB
Date: Friday, 25 December 1942
Place: Yugoslavia
Photographer: Unknown

The first Christmas of the SS Volunteer Division "Prinz Eugen". Although the SS, being a pagan organisation, was essentially an opponent of Christianity – celebrating Christian holidays was nevertheless allowed within the organisation, because of the deep roots of this religion in Europe (that is, to avoid turning off the potential manpower). In the photo, the Banat ethnic Germans modestly celebrate their first and only peaceful wartime Christmas, before marching off to bloody battles across Yugoslavia. Their faces are already nostalgic and their thoughts directed towards home, to which most of them will never return.

Source :

http://bandenkampf.blogspot.co.id/2015/12/bk0118.html

Muslim Members of Handschar Division at Prayer during their Training in Germany

Image size: 1600 x 1086 pixel. 301 KB
Date: Tuesday, 9 November 1943
Place: Neuhammer, Silesia, Germany
Photographer: SS-Kriegsberichter Falkowski

Muslim soldiers from 13. SS-Freiwilligen-Bosnien-Herzegowina-Gebirgs-Division (Kroatien) at their morning prayer during Eid al Fitr celebration in Truppenübungsplatz (Training Ground) Neuhammer, 9 November 1943. The prayer was led by SS-Sturmbannführer Abdulah Muhasilović, the official Imam of the division, while behind him are two muslim officers from Handschar. Muhasilović would be replaced by SS-Obersturmführer Halim Malkoč in 21 October 1944 after led a mutiny at Cerna). The Division itself had at least nine Bosnian Muslim officers, the highest ranking of whom was SS-Obersturmbannführer Husejin Biščević Beg, who had been a Muslim officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army when Bosnia was under occupation. The romantic notions that Himmler had about the Bosnian Muslims were probably significant in the division’s genesis. He was personally fascinated by the Islamic faith and believed that Islam created fearless soldiers. He envisioned the creation of a Bosnian SS division constituted solely of Bosnian Muslims in a manner similar to the Bosnian divisions of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many of these soldiers came from Bosnia, and it was a conscious decision to fight the Communist Partisans and the nationalist Chetniks. The Nazis tried to cater to the Muslim religious needs of their recruits, but the soldiers themselves cared more about protecting their homeland (as promised by the Nazis), than anything else the SS and Himmler told them about racial equality/superiority to the inferior Jews. Riots and desertions were commonplace among the soldiers, often to the Communist Partisans led by Josip Broz Tito, who promised the soldiers amnesty if they joined the Partisans. The soldiers were only interested in protecting their homeland in Bosnia, so any incursions into Croatia or Serbia to help the Nazi allies or war effort there met with consternation among the soldiers, and even more desertions.

Sources:

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1977-137-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1977-137-20,_Bosnische_SS-Freiwillige_beim_Gebet.jpg

http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/muslim-waffen-ss-13th-division-1943/

Services in Hiroshima's Nagarekawa Church

Image size: 1600 x 1088 pixel. 409 KB
Date: Monday, 1 October 1945
Place: Hiroshima, State Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Photographer: Max Desfor

Minister leads services in Nagarekawa Methodist Church of Christ. The building, which was totally destroyed in the bombing, was only insured for 150,000 yen, about $500 in 1945 dollars ($5425 in 2005 dollars). Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto bartered, traded and cajoled donations of money and supplies to start rebuilding. When he wasn't doing that, he and four other ministers would walk around Hiroshima preaching to the community, which was angry at both the occupation and the Japanese government for the bombing and the terrible conditions that plagued Hiroshima for years afterward. An Emory University alumni, he contacted his friends in the United States for help. He visited the United States in 1948, touring Methodist congregations and telling about his efforts to minister to the Hiroshima community. This resulted in thousands of dollars in donations and a car. He began social services for people, especially women, who were disfigured by the bomb, and an orphanage. He brought the "Hiroshima Maidens" to the United States for surgery to treat their scars and wounds in 1955. 

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1094