WW-2 Impact on Asia – UPSC GS1

It is said that in some ways the Second World War is yet to end in Asia. Elaborate why. (200 Words)
September 2, 1945 is a red letter day in world history as on this date the Japanese surrender became official and it is recognised as the date of the ending of the Second World War.
But technically the war has not yet ended as the Russians and Japanese are still fighting over the ‘Kuril’ islands, the Chinese celebrating the day after the aforementioned date as a Victory over Japan day, the Japanese are constantly egged to apologies for the atrocities their grandfathers had committed more than 70 years ago.
  1. The controversies of the Sino-Japanese war that took place due to the invasion of Manchuria by Japan has now been aggravating. This is due to the Chinese celebration of the victory over japan.
  2. There have been instances of cold war between the Asian nations especially China south Korea and Japan.
  3. India and Pakistan have fought many wars with each other – Kargil war, India Pakistan war of 1971etc. There have been ceasefire violations, cross border firing and mouth wars between both the nations.
  4. India and China relationships have also seen many ups and down especially after the indo Chinese war of 1962 at the time of Chinese aggression in India.
An obvious way in which the second world war is still going on is observable in the fact that the wrongs of the war are exhumed and politicised. “By Gones are not allowed to be bygones”- on the other hand are refreshed every other day. The Chinese and Japanese are still embroiled in South China sea and other disputes. It seems that both countries are still to come out of WW II mindset. On the other hand in economic terms Japan and Russia are collaborating greatly but the disputed Kuril islands occupied by Russia during World War II are a bone of contention between the two nations. As such no peace treaty is signed between the two nations till now.
In West Asia Israel emerged as a nation after the WW II. It has sculpted space for itself at the expense of the Arabs. The ongoing conflict between the two are a living legacy of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis. That the current generation of Japan has grown up totally detached from the WW II militarism and Japan has not fired a bullet in anger since then should be highlighted. It is time the ghosts of WW II were buried forever and the whole gamut of post war relations is rethought in the new light of possibilities.

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