I know that Imperial Japan raped and forcibly prostituted countless non-Japanese women, but what were their policies in dealing with native Japanese women who were attacked? Did they punish soldiers for such crimes?

I'd also be interested to know how Nazi Germany's military dealt with men who raped German women.

After they lost WW1 how did they recover well enough to fight WW2 against the rest of Europe?

And now after losing 2 world wars, how did they recover to become a dominant economy on modern times?

In stories written during the 1700's, 1800's, and further back, little mention is made of teeth, but there must have been regular problems with teeth. Having been completely sidelined by tooth pain in this modern era, I wonder how people dealt with an abscessed tooth in the past. The pain would have been just as dazzling for them, and their painkillers would have been much more limited.

Did people just pull teeth that went bad?

What sort of tools did they use? What tools would they have used prior to the invention of pliers?

Did people just expect regular dental pain as they aged and tolerate it?

These men lived in a world dominated by Britain. They lived in a transplanted English society. Modern films seem to always depict our forefathers speaking in modern American accents but isn't it more likely that the men mentioned in the subject question spoke with a heavy British accent??

I live in Australia and every source of water I've seen -- be it river, lake, billabong or creek -- has been a uniform shade of brown. How did the Indigenous Australians (and, by extension, the early European settlers) find clean water to drink?

Due to Russia's massive expanse of territory and cultures ranging from European to Slavic to Middle Eastern to Asian, it seems like Russia should have split into various states. Why has this not happened? How has Russia managed to keep their hold on so much land and so many cultures without fracturing?

EDIT: Wow, awesome answers and great discussions going on. Learning a ton. Historians rock.

Mostly asking after the sort of time concepts like nation-states and patriotism had first emerged though.

From 1871-78 Bismarck enacted the Kulturkampf in the now unified Germany. I was just wondering what he wanted to achieve in this repression of the catholic faith. I understand who he was targeting, but I'm confused by what he wanted to achieve.

If so, was there a punishment against the Jews who committed any such acts? I understand the Soviet Union didn't punish Jewish retribution against ethnic Germans, but I am curious if the French, British or Americans did.

As women are often overlooked in textbooks (in this case, swedish historic economist Lennart Schöns book "en modern svensk ekonomisk historia - tillväxt och omvandling under två sekel"), I'm trying to find examples of female individuals who have played a part in economic history. Women are rarely given names, individuals are overlooked and instead "women" are talked about as a group or masse.

Beatrice Potter Webb is one, but who else?

Is there something within Islamic theology/tradition that can explain the reason for Umar's belief on this?

I know that up until the late 18th century, both China and Korea were very resistant to the european mathematics and science. China had a series of revolts, reforms, and revolutions in the late XIX - early XX century, and Korea remained mostly closed to foreign powers until annexation in 1909.

So when/how were european mathematics introduced into the two nations? I mean both the concepts (like calculus) and the symbols (arabian numerals and +/- signs).

Were the nobility opposed to this as well? Did the academia of the region accept these new ideas? How long would it take until the public would become familiar with this concept, or learn about it in school?

Just looking at the Battle of Fraustadt in 1709. 9400 Swedes vs 20000 Russians which ended with 1500 Swedish casualties versus 15000 Russian casualties. Battle of Narva is another excellent example of this with 1914 casualties on the Swedish side and 9000 killed and 20000 captured on the Russian side.

I understand that these battles were also up to the circumstances (Snowstorm at Narva). Yet it seems that these desiscive victories were almost a norm until around the Battle of Poltava and from what I can tell this repeated through out the war.

EDIT: I mean the Great Northern War.

I had a presentation in school today about Scotland, and I said that the failure of the Darien Scheme (colonization of Panama) was the most important reason. However, she said it wasn't. Is there a better answer I could have given? What is the most important reason?

Why do US military forces not go on parade marches like those of other countries? Is there a historical reason for this?

edit: Sorry I mean Muslim regions/empires not islam the relgion