The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the End of the Second World War

            Today is the 75^th anniversary of signing by the Japanese of their formal surrender to the Allied Powers, known as the United Nations, which ended the Second World War, the largest and bloodiest in history. 

A peace treaty between the United States and Japan was signed in 1953.  Japan and the Russian Federation, the successor of the Soviet Union, remain legally at war, as they have not concluded a peace treaty because of a dispute over certain islands occupied by Russia north of Japan.

            The war began in 1939 with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, although the Empire of Japan had already been at war with China since 1937; the Sino-Japanese War was subsumed in the Second World War.  Japan was one of the members, with Germany, of the Axis Powers, which sought global conquest.  Imperial Japan had already conquered considerable territories beyond its present homeland before the war as appeasement by the Great Powers and a lack of American leadership, which had not joined the post-First World War League of Nations, which left it powerless, had allowed the Axis to continue to commit aggression.  The Japanese fascist government conquered in the name of their Emperor, whom they revered as a god, committing some of the worst atrocities in history.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other territories in 1941 and the declarations of war by the other Axis Powers against the U.S. brought the Americans into the war on the side of the Allies, which proved to be a decisive factor in the defeat of the Axis.

The Japanese surrender was unconditional, except for being allowed to keep their Emperor as only a ceremonial figure.  Emperor Hirohito had urged surrender to the Allies to spare the destruction of Japan, particularly after the dropping of atomic bombs.  Surrender was unprecedented to the Japanese, who considered it dishonorable, but they generally obeyed their Emperor, except for a small-scale attempted military coup.  Some isolated Japanese forces who were unaware of the surrender continued to hold out, with combat lasting in the Philippines until the mid-1970s until the surrender of the last Japanese holdout.

The post-war U.S. benign occupation of Japan led to the end of feudalism, liberal democratic reforms and a pacifist constitution as the Japanese rebuilt successfully.  Japan has since been a close American ally, dependent on the U.S. for security, but maintaining significant defense forces and contributing other support.  The defeat of the Axis accelerated the end of colonialism with the independence of scores of states, although one territory liberated by the Americans from the Empire of Japan, the Northern Marianas, opted to become a U.S. commonwealth in 1986.

American leadership has led to a Pax Americana for three quarters of a century, especially in the Pacific, much of which was liberated from the Japanese by the Allies.  There have been no general conflagrations involving the Great Powers since the Second World War, after a three hundred-year period of regular general wars and numerous major wars between some of the Great Powers.  Although there were proxy battles during the Cold War, even major wars involving the Great Powers have been few and of limited direct engagement.  Despite Communism, Islamism and other continued threats, such as a recent surge in fascist-like ideologies, the world has increasingly experienced an unprecedented degree of peace and prosperity, especially since the mostly bloodless American and allied victory in the Cold War.  In contrast to isolationism, which failed to protect the U.S. from the fascist threat from the Axis Powers, American leadership has gained the U.S. increased security and prosperity.

We ought to be grateful for the great sacrifices by the Allied soldiers and their countrymen on the home front that led to victory and continue to honor their accomplishments by opposing aggression with a strong military deterrence and by promoting peace, freedom and prosperity.