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Avoiding the return of Japanese militarism

Source: Xinhua | July 26, 2014, Saturday | Online Edition

United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China, the conference culminated in the Potsdam proclamation which sought to establish a peaceful global system aimed at avoiding a return to militarism.

Schloss Cecilienhof palace in Potsdam, Germany. It was here that the allied powers held the Potsdam conference nearly 70 years ago.

On July 26th, 1945, US President Harry Truman, UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin gathered to make the crucial decisions that would end the Second World War. After the conference, China, the UK and the US jointly issued the Potsdam Proclamation outlining the terms of Japan’s surrender.

According to the Proclamation, the Allies supported the elimination of Japanese militarism which they said “misled Japanese people into the conquest." It also said that "Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and such minor islands," as had been announced in the Cairo Declaration two years ealier.

Japan rejected the Allies demands and refused to surrender. The US responded by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and August 9th, 1945.

The staggering loss of life led Japanese Emperor Hirohito to finally accept the Potsdam Proclamation and declare Japan’s surrender.

The surrender ceremony was held on September 2nd, aboard the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri, marking the end to the second World War.

Nearly 70 years have passed since the Potsdam Proclamation was issued but its principles still hold relevance today.

"The Potsdam Proclamation explicitly said that all the territories that Japan took from China before the World War II shall be restored to the Chinese. Northeast China and Taiwan were included," Matthias Simmich, Deputy Curator of School Cecilienhof said.

That view was echoed by another German historian Jorg Morre.

"As a historian, I want to say, my Japanese counterparts have every reason to re-examine, study and analyze the war time period. More importantly, they must understand that confusing the truth will bring a kind of moral controversy to the society," Jorg Morre, Curator, German-Russia Museum Berlin-Karshorst said.

People always say history repeats itself. That is may be why it is so important to examine and reflect on it even today.

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