History, Conflict, and Contexts: Remembering World War II in Asia

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

    Abstract

    As in Emily Brontë's dreams, war has flowed through Asia in the past century like wine through water. Be they interstate conflicts, intercommunal violence, social revolutions, or struggles for sovereignty, wars have transformed political structures, changed territorial boundaries, and reshaped the regional order. In particular, World War II, which strides the twentieth century like some malignant colossus, had a profound impact on the region. Estimates of its human cost vary, but it probably caused at least twenty-three million deaths in the Asia-Pacific (Wikipedia 2015a).2 Politically, it shattered the hold of the European powers on their colonial subjects, triggered the wave of post-war decolonization, and established the bipolar balance which dominated international and regional relations for almost fifty years.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationMuddy Boots & Smart Suits: Researching Asia-Pacific Affairs
    Editors Nicholas Farrelly, Amy King, Michael Wesley and Hugh White
    Place of PublicationSingapore
    PublisherISEAS Publishing
    Pages95-109
    Edition1st
    ISBN (Print)9789814459785
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

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