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Lam Woon-Kwong

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war. China suffered tremendously during the conflict.
Japan's military action against China began in 1931 when it seized three provinces in the northeast. The following year, the Manchukuo was set up to run the newly colonised region. Puyi, the last emperor in the Qing dynasty that ruled China before the 1911 revolution, was made the figurehead of the puppet state.
By the time Hitler raided Poland in 1939, thus starting the second world war, China had been fighting Japan for eight years, all by itself and with millions of casualties.
Why had other world powers tolerated Japan's aggression for so long without any attempt to stop it? They would certainly have done so in the earlier part of the century, not out of justice but out of greed to prevent the spoils of the war from being taken by Japan alone.
The reason was the havoc caused to Western powers by the first world war. Four empires were worn down by that devastating war: German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman. The British empire remained intact, but considerably weakened. The French Republic lost nearly an entire generation of its men.
The United States returned to its withdrawal mode after president Woodrow Wilson failed to impose his vision of post-war world order onto Europe. It left a power vacuum in Asia that Japan alone filled.
The demise of the German and Russian empires was also convenient for Japan since the two powers used to operate in northern China and checked Japan's every move jealously.
Besides, the Russians and the Chinese warlords were busily engaged in their respective civil wars. The ambition of the Japanese army thus went beyond containment. It brushed aside its hesitant civilian government and put into action military plans to occupy China and other strategic parts of Asia in time, culminating in the concept of the so-called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere with Japan as dominator. The rest of the history is well known.
For 70 years, the world has managed to stay away from another global war. It is not because we have learned the lessons well from the previous two wars. That we have learned little is evident from the fact that nuclear weapons in the possession of world powers can destroy our planet a hundred times over, yet military budgets continue to grow faster than what they spend to salvage the world from overheating and environmental poisoning.
Ironically, it is the fear of mutual destruction through nuclear warfare that has managed to keep venture-seeking political leaders in check. Rather than merely reminiscing about past agonies or long-gone glories, we should seriously reflect on how we may contribute collectively to preventing such disastrous acts from recurring in the future.
Lam Woon-kwong is convenor of the Executive Council


On Second Thought: 70 years on, the world has still not learnt lessons of war

A celebration for the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, in Wuhan, central China. Photo: Xinhua

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By the time Hitler raided Poland in 1939, starting the second world war, China had been fighting Japan for eight years


On Second Thought: 70 years on, the world has still not learnt lessons of war

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}By the time Hitler raided Poland in 1939, starting the second world war, China had been fighting Japan for eight years

By the time Hitler raided Poland in 1939, starting the second world war, China had been fighting Japan for eight years