11 - How to Assess World War II in World History: One Japanese Perspective

Summary

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORLD WAR II IN MODERN HISTORY

This chapter assesses the impact of World War II through the following lenses: (1) World War II as a fight between democracy and Fascism; (2) winning World War II meant independence from colonial powers for many countries; and (3) World War II as another fight by democracy against tyranny. The chapter assesses the legacies of World War II especially as they relate to East and Southeast Asia. Lastly, it attempts to make a combined assessment from all these three lenses.

THREE FACES OF WORLD WAR II

Democracy against Fascism

That the United States played a leading role in defeating Fascist allies in World War II is the standard narrative about the significance of World War II (Butow 1954, 1961; Gaddis 1987; Leffler 1992; Ikenberry 2000). According to this version, World War II was the war of democracy against Fascism embodied by Germany and Japan. All the Allied Powers fought against them, and the Soviet Union ruled by the Communist Party contributed no less immensely to the defeat of Fascism. Hence democracy was taken in a broad sense of the word. In other words, any kind of anti-Fascism was democracy, including anti-Fascism by people's democracy, which was actually totalitarian rule. That was the broad understanding on the basis of which the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and China were convened at Yalta in 1945 (Yergin, 1978). They were all also victors in World War II. France and China were not as strong as they wished in fighting this war in the first place. Yet to bring the semblance of unity and solidarity of all Allied Powers to the fore, the United States wanted to include all these five as parties to the Yalta accord. All five became the permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations, which was founded in 1945.