SDHF Newsletter No.61 Legacy of the Greater East Asia War

Legacy of the Greater East Asia War that Supports Postwar Japan
by EZAKI Michio, political analyst

November 1st, 2013

Mr. EZAKI Michio, writes that turmoil and conflict in Asia did not end with the Greater East Asia War in August 1945. Japan forcibly ended foreign colonialism in Asia and Asians declared independence, yet Europeans and Americans rush in to fill the void at the end of the War. As an ironic twist, Mr. Ezaki points out that while Europe and America were reasserting their supremacy over their former colonies, with countless Asian lives being lost in the process, Japan was accused of being an “aggressor” and tried for “crimes against peace” at the Tokyo Trials.
For those who have forgotten, Mr. Ezaki reiterates how the indigenous Asian peoples rejoiced upon the arrival of the Japanese and the departure of the Americans and Europeans. For example, leaders of post-war India and Indonesia have expressed their appreciation of the Japanese in training and arming their people. Furthermore, Mr. Ezaki describes how, after the end of the Greater East Asia War, the Allies waged their own “aggressive war” against Asia. The murderous attempts by the Dutch to reclaim Indonesia as its colony, what they called “police actions,” were merely a different shade of “aggressive war”. After three and a half years of conflict, between an ill-equipped Indonesia militia against modern European military machines (of the British as well as the Dutch), hundreds of thousands of Indonesian lives were lost. As if the lives lost and property destroyed were not enough, the Dutch audaciously sued the Indonesians for damages as the price for independence. It was not until 2005 that the Dutch finally recognized Indonesia’s 1945 Declaration of Independence.

　*Summary:　 https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/102_S2.pdf
*Full text:　 https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/102_S4.pdf
*Author profile:　 https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/102_S3.pdf

Sincerely,

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Secretary General
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact