Lessons from WWII
Prof. Iko Toshiya of Tsuru University made the point that, after WWI, Japan attempted to disguise its intended aggression towards China under the cover of international laws. When civil war broke out in China, Japan took military measures on the pretext of protecting its interests in the country, ostensibly waging aggressions in the interests of “self-defense.”
“The world today is completely different from it was during WWI and WWII. The hegemony of certain superpowers persists, but under economic globalization it is no longer manifest in contention for colonies, labor, land, and other resources, but instead secured through exports of capital, commodities, services, and management expertise, as well as the establishment of transnational corporations. Mutual openness between countries is an important check on wars,” Shen Yongxing, a research fellow at the Institute of World History, under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said. He added that countries around the world are now more closely knit than ever before. War anywhere, therefore, has ripple effects on other parts of the planet. The UN Security Council, its peace keeping missions, and other international peace organizations and campaigns are also strong anti-war tools and forces.
Defending the Post-WWII International Order
At the end of WWII the allies, including the U.S., the Soviet Union, U.K., China, and France, reached a broad consensus on key issues such as coordination of their relations, penalization of the Fascist axis powers, and foundation of an international organization – the UN. Appropriate actions were accordingly taken, and the post-war international order took shape.
“The post-WWII international order was established with the goal of preventing another world war and sustaining universal and lasting peace and security. It is based on prosecution of militarist crimes and eradication of the roots of militarist aggression. Widely ratified international laws, including the Atlantic Charter, Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Declaration, and Declaration by United Nations, are the bedrock of this order, and the cooperation and unanimity among big powers within the collective security mechanism of the UN constitutes a guarantee of its function,” Zhou Xiaoning of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences said. He believes that the world today still needs broad international cooperation built on the basis of cooperation between big powers to share risks.
Sylvanus Nicholas Spencer of the University of Sierra Leone said that the cruelty and brutality of WWII exposes the dark side of human nature, but the conduct of social development since testifies to the triumph of the humanitarian spirit.
“It is regrettable that, due to the demands of the Cold War, the U.S. failed to bring Japan fully to account after WWII. It not only made peace with Japan, debarring the involvement of Russia and China, but also unilaterally handed over to Japan the Liuqiu (Ryukyu) and Diaoyu islands. In recent years Japan has accelerated territorial contentions with neighboring countries, gravely undermining the international order,” Zhou Xiaoning said.
Shinzo Abe has throughout 2014 accused China of challenging the current international order, an assertion that Prof. Lü Jie of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Academy refutes as the complete reverse of the truth. In modern history the headspring of Asian wars has always been Japan. Though the country formulated a pacifist constitution after WWII, its intentions to challenge the Yalta System remain a ceaseless undercurrent. The country’s expansionist ambitions have expanded significantly, particularly since Shinzo Abe was reelected as prime minister, so stoking further tensions in East Asia.
As Wu Enyuan of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), sees it, the Cairo Declaration laid the foundation for post-war treaties that concern Japan as well as the international order, in particular the order in Northeast Asia. But the right-wing forces in Japan have geared up efforts to revise the pacifist constitution and to deny its war crimes. “This actually amounts to denial of the outcome of WWII, and reveals Japan’s intention to restore its political and military prowess and subsequently dominate the political situation in East Asia,” Wu said. He added that this move is also part of the U.S. strategy of containing China through Japan, and which introduces a new factor of instability into the situation in the Asia-Pacific and the world at large.
“Elements of the Cold War still exist in Asia because of the shift in U.S. policies towards Japan. The Abe administration is building a net to contain China, a maneuver which is more a manifestation of the U.S.-Japan alliance in the 21st century than a revival of Japanese militarism,” Nakayama Toshio said. He hence proposes global advocacy of the Chinese philosophy of harmony to buttress world peace.
