Seven decades of peace in the Pacific

Sixty-nine years ago today, Sept. 2, 1945, the world’s most devastating war came to a sudden, cataclysmic and unexpected end, providing for the preservation of a unified Japan and an unprecedented era of self-determination and decolonization in the Pacific.

The Soviet Union had joined the war against Japan on Aug. 9, intent on capturing Hokkaido, the northernmost of the main Japanese islands; the British Empire was poised to attack Japanese forces on the Malay Peninsula on Sept. 9 and on Nov. 1 the United States was prepared to land hundreds of thousands of war-weary men on Kyushu—an invasion that would have dwarfed Normandy. However, an unusual wartime collaboration between American and British science and industry brought the war to a end before the British and America invasions were launched and before the Soviet Union could land troops on Hokkaido. As a result Japan was neither invaded nor partitioned, as had been Germany only months before.

Because of the respect shown to the Japanese imperial system by the United States during the surrender and occupation of Japan, the postwar American leadership was able to work with the Japanese leadership to help reconstruct their nation under democratic principles, to rebuild a vibrant Japanese economy, to regain a position of respect in the family of Pacific nations and to establish a strong alliance with the United States that continues to provide for economic development and political stability in the Western Pacific ’til this day.

Unfortunately, there were been bumps in the road to total peace in the Pacific. The “Strange Alliance” that President Roosevelt forged with the Communist Soviet Union at the outset of WWII in Europe was successful, in that Soviet participation in the war against Germany was critical, as was that of China and England. However, following the defeat of Germany in May 1945, World War II slid into the Cold War as the Soviet Union ignored the precepts of decolonization as envisioned in the United Nations Charter and established Communist-backed puppet governments in its wartime-captured European territories. Then Mao Zedong won the civil war in China and established the People’s Republic of China as a Communist State in 1949, and regional confrontations developed in Korea (June 25, 1950 – July 27, 1953) and Vietnam (1946 to 1975), wherein the United States and other democracies attempted to block Communist expansion in Southeast Asia. Korea ended in a stalemate at the 38th Parallel and Vietnam became the first war America ever lost.

Nonetheless, the rest of the Pacific has enjoyed seven decades of peace. Harry S. Truman signed the United Nations Charter on Aug. 8, 1945, Washington, D.C. time, inducing an era of decolonization and self-determination in the Pacific that has proceeded, slowly but steadily, along previously unparalleled lines. On July 4, 1946, as pledged by Roosevelt in 1936, the former U.S. territory of the Philippine Islands became the Republic of the Philippines. Although the young republic had a rocky beginning, born as it was in the aftermath of war, the RoP has become the standard bearer of democratic self-development among Southeast Asian nations. And in 1954 Chiang Kai-shek successfully established a democratic government in Taiwan, aligned with the United States, and now participates actively in Pacific economic development projects.

Under the watchful eye of the United Nations, all the Trust Territories of the Pacific, including the Strategic Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, concluded their acts of self-determination. Japan returned to the Pacific as a trading partner and established the visitor industries that are now enjoyed by the former territory of Hawai’i (statehood in 1959), the self-governing U.S. territory of Guam (1950) and the Northern Mariana Islands (Commonwealth in 1978). The former territory of Alaska, a vital Pacific Rim partner, also gained statehood in 1959 and now influences Pacific Island development programs. And, of course, Vietnam was reunified in 1976 and is now a major trading partner with the United States.

Then, in 1990 the Soviet Union collapsed as the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. The Cold War was over (in a sense finally bringing WWII in Europe to an end). American casualties in Korea and Vietnam were vindicated; Germany was reunified and the fear of a nuclear holocaust that had haunted three generations of the world’s youth finally dissipated. And now, both Russia and China are doing significant business in the Pacific Islands.

Maintaining peace in the Pacific remains problematic: the continuing thorny situation presented by a divided and confrontational Korea, disputed islands in the South China Sea, self-determination for the U.S. territory of Guam and American Samoa, fishing rights among Pacific Islanders, exploitation of seabed minerals and subsea geothermal energy, and the effects of global warming on low-lying atolls.

Fortunately, the general peace that has prevailed in the Pacific since the end of World War II has allowed Pacific Islanders to gain higher education and to become exposed to international concerns, so much so that today’s indigenous Pacific Islanders are representing their own people’s concerns in regional policy-making bodies, and doing it quite effectively.

So, as our children climb on a school bus today, Sept. 2, 2014, let’s not forget that they do so because of the price that was paid by the men and women who served in uniform during World War II, many of whom did not live long enough to have children. And most important, let us remember that it is now the responsibility of this generation to protect peace in the Pacific so that our children’s grandchildren will have the same opportunity to enjoy a similar peaceful day on the opening of school on some Sept. 2, far in the future. (Don  A. Farrell)

Don A. Farrell is a CNMI historian and author of numerous history books about the Northern Mariana Islands.