Latest news with #ImperialJapanese
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Honors 81st Anniversary Of Guam's Liberation From Japan
President Donald Trump marked the 81st anniversary of Guam's liberation from Japanese occupation with a message honoring the American forces who reclaimed the Pacific territory on July 21, 1944. The Presidential statement emphasized America's continued commitment to defending its territories and interests through military strength. 'As Imperial Japanese forces tried to hold their ground, they struggled to withstand the full might of the U.S. Armed Forces,' Trump said in his White House message. The battle for Guam lasted three weeks across challenging terrain. American forces fought through jungles, caves, and rugged hills to regain control of the strategically vital island. The victory positioned U.S. forces within striking distance of ending the war in the Pacific. The liberation came at a steep cost. More than 1,200 service members and over 1,000 Guam residents died during the campaign. Trump characterized the 1944 victory as 'a bold reassertion of American sovereignty at a time when our future and our freedom were in peril.' 'Under my leadership, the United States remains committed to upholding a foreign policy of peace through strength,' the president stated. He pledged that America would 'never waver in defending our interests, our citizens, our territory, and our glorious way of life from all enemies, foreign and domestic.' The liberation ended nearly three years of Japanese occupation that began December 10, 1941. Guam served as a crucial base for subsequent American operations in the Pacific theater.
Bangkok Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Should the US join China's WWII event?
The latest Victory Day parade in Moscow marking the 80th anniversary of Germany's independence defeat in May will be bookended in the upcoming September with a commemorative parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing marking the defeat of Japan. Of the "Big Five" victor nations, only the leaders of China and Russia will be on the rostrum, with no confirmed plans for US, UK or French leaders to attend. Two leading Chinese opinion leaders, Jin Canrong of Renmin University, formerly of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Wang Xiangwei, former editor of the South China Morning Post, have suggested that China should invite the US to join the event at Tiananmen. This tantalising possibility was flagged by internet maven Wang Zichen in his Pekingnology newsletter Nice try, guys. This is a bold gesture at a time of immense diplomatic turmoil, a time when it's worth a try to think out of the box, but it's unlikely to work. Any gathering at which Vladimir Putin is party to will project mixed messages and crossed signals at odds with the spirit of the original victory against global fascism. Winners of the war never tire of the narrative that Germany and Japan were the bad guys, on the wrong side of history, but both those countries have transformed themselves beyond recognition. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged triumphant in 1945, of course, with immense leverage between them in shaping the peace of the post-war world order. But the fleeting solidarity enjoyed in that moment of victory was frittered away as the two very different nations turned competitors, contenders and Cold War adversaries in the rush to determine who controlled what and where and on whose terms. China was on the winning side, but its legacy is most pronounced as a victim nation. Its losses under Imperial Japanese aggression were among the most catastrophic in history, with estimates of 35 million dead or more, and while it is natural that China should want to celebrate the moment that the horror of Japanese occupation ended, China did not end it. Some will argue the horrific bomb dropped on Hiroshima did the job, others credit the Soviet Union's late but formidable arrival in Manchuria. Chinese of all political factions fought bravely and made great sacrifices, but China was part occupied, part battleground and part rump state. The KMT in Chungking offered continuity of governance, but were not winners on the battlefield. Chiang Kai-shek's family ties and diplomatic links to the US gave him a seat at the table at the Cairo Conference and subsequent discussions about reordering a broken world order. It is fitting and proper that China should be among those who salute the march of history in 1945. But what about Britain? Under Winston Churchill's leadership, the UK correctly perceived Adolf Hitler to be the enemy of all mankind, even before the Nazi's went on the rampage and began to pound London with bombs. In the face of an insuperable threat, the UK, like China, did its best to delay the march of armies it couldn't singlehandedly stop. What both did, significantly, was to communicate to the world that fascism was everyone's struggle. Long before the US entered either the Pacific or Atlantic theatre of the war, Washington was beseeched with pleas from old friends in both China and England to pay attention, to lend support, to get involved. Both frontline countries did much to convince the more powerful but geographically isolated US to join in. Of the five big powers, France got a seat at the table despite its collaboration with the Nazis because of Charles de Gaulle's guerrilla war against the Nazis. France surrendered to Nazi occupation under the guise of cooperation, only to turn on them when US intervention became a game-changer. A similar pattern of biding time took place in the vast swathes of China. Much of the coast was occupied directly by Japan, such as in Manchuria, or indirectly ruled under the aegis of pro-Tokyo collaborationist Wang Jingwei. Today, as several serious regional wars are already raging across the globe, the spectre of world war cannot be entirely dismissed. Commemoration of World War II can offer a useful perspective if the ceremonies are not hijacked for partisan benefit or are tone-deaf to the past. The presence of Mr Putin as a guest of honour at the Beijing parade, presents a problem. No one can deny the great contribution to victory that was made by the USSR in bringing the World War to an end in 1945, but the past is another country. Furthermore, the absence of the US, Britain and arguably France, makes for a lopsided affair. It becomes instead a commemoration of convenience, serving present needs without really taking an honest look at what the fight against fascism was fighting against. In the Western press, Mr Putin has been compared to Hitler, and as historically inaccurate as that may be, Mr Putin did recently invade Ukraine upon which he continues to wreak death and sow hatred. Russia's blatant aggression has put all of Europe on edge, setting into motion some of the same dynamics seen in continental Europe when the Allies grappled with the rising German threat of the 1940s. Another reason why it's worth being sceptical about the US joining China and Russia to praise the heroism of a bygone struggle against fascism is the confused state of affairs in the US at this time. Donald Trump, self-styled strongman leader of the US, has introduced elements of fascism to his authoritarian ruling style at home and abroad. Oblivious to the nuances of history, he recently crowed about the success of his attack on Iran, comparing it to dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Finally, there is the question of where Germany and Japan, the two aggressor nations so soundly defeated by the Allies and Soviets in 1945, stand in today's world. It's one thing to crow about victory over the bad guys while the smoke is still clearing, but the smoke cleared 80 years ago and the world is a very different place now, with Germany and Japan rule-bound, cooperative, diplomatic and peace-abiding. Sad to say, the two aggressor states of World War II are in many ways exemplars of the post-war peace, while the Allied victors, especially Russia and the US, are looking more and more like aggressors these days.
NHK
7 days ago
- General
- NHK
South Korean court annuls provisional order on book about 'comfort women'
A court in South Korea has annulled a decade-old provisional order to bar the publishing of a book on those referred to as wartime comfort women, unless some descriptions in it were deleted. A district court in Seoul issued a provisional order in 2015 regarding the book "Comfort Women of the Empire," published in 2013 by Park Yu-ha, professor emerita at Sejong University. The court annulled the order on Tuesday. The order targeted descriptions such as that the relationship between the women and the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military was akin to that of "comrades." Park was charged with defamation. But last year, a high court acquitted her, saying the book should be viewed as an academic argument and cannot be considered defamation. Park posted on social media that her book, which had been sold with 34 sections edited out, can now be put back to its original form.
Boston Globe
21-06-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Today in History: June 21, US Constitution becomes law
Advertisement In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his mechanical reaper. In 1893, the first Ferris wheel opened to the public as part of the Chicago World's Fair. In 1942, an Imperial Japanese submarine fired shells at Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast, but caused little damage. In 1954, scientists of the American Cancer Society presented a study to a meeting of the American Medical Association in San Francisco, Calif., which found that men who regularly smoked cigarettes died, particularly from lung cancer, at a considerably higher rate than non-smokers. In 1964, civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Neshoba County, Miss. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. (Forty-one years later, on this date in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman, was found guilty of manslaughter in their deaths; he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, where he died in January 2018.) Advertisement In 1982, a jury in Washington, D.C., found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan, Press Secretary James Brady, Washington D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled, in Texas v. Johnson, that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment. In 1997, the WNBA made its debut as the New York Liberty defeated the host Los Angeles Sparks 67-57. In 2004, the aircraft SpaceShipOne made the first privately funded human spaceflight. In 2010, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born US citizen, pleaded guilty to charges of plotting a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square. (Shahzad was later sentenced to life in prison.)
Miami Herald
27-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
China Reviving World War II Airfield in America's Backyard
A groundbreaking ceremony held on a remote Pacific island marked the start of a project—spearheaded by a Chinese state-owned company—to revive a World War II-era airfield. The project, launched on the atoll of Woleai in the Federated States of Micronesia, is approximately 400 miles south of Guam, a U.S. territory and military hub considered key to Washington's ability to project power in the Asia-Pacific. Micronesia is one of the South Pacific's Freely Associated States—along with Palau and the Marshall Islands—whose defense and broader stability is guaranteed by Washington. But with the U.S. prioritizing funding elsewhere, China has made inroads in this region through infrastructure projects. The islands lie along the so-called Second Island Chain, a string of islands Washington has long viewed as strategically important to containing a rising China in the event of a wartime scenario. Western analysts have raised concerns that this activity could eke away at the U.S. military's position in the Pacific, given Beijing's policy of military-civil fusion that enables the People's Liberation Army to co-opt these dual-use facilities. Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department and Chinese Embassy in Micronesia with written requests for comment. The Woleai runway was built by Imperial Japanese forces during World War II, but has long fallen into disrepair due to lack of funding. The project was launched with fanfare Monday in a joint effort by China's Shandong Hengyue Municipal Engineering and Micronesia's Department of Transportation. Micronesian President Wesley Simina traveled in person to attend the ceremony. The airfield will be a major boon to locals, who currently rely on dayslong boat trips to reach the nearest airstrip. It's also expected to support health care, business development, and education in the region. Cleo Paskal, a non-resident senior fellow at the neoconservative think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that while $2 billion has been invested in Micronesia's Yap State, outer islands like Woleai have been neglected. "Getting to the groundbreaking of the Woleai runway reconstruction was only possible by traveling for four days on a transport ship from Yap—a ship provided by China aid. The president arrived on a patrol boat provided by Australia. The U.S. was nowhere to be seen," Paskal wrote in a social media post. "Tomorrow is Woleai's high school graduation. Don't expect to see any U.S. government representatives there either," she wrote. "The Chinese will be there though. Showing up is (more than) half the battle." Domingo I-Kwei Yang, assistant research fellow at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, wrote in a recent report: "China aims to establish a Southern Link, connecting Asia and South America via Pacific strategic infrastructure hubs. Control over Pacific ports, airstrips, and ICT systems could serve dual-use purposes, enabling transit, logistics, and expanded influence in the U.S. backyard." The Pentagon said in its 2024 report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China [PRC]: "Since 2015, the PRC has probably viewed engagement and deliberate corruption in the Pacific Island countries as an opportunity to expand its regional influence, press countries to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, increase influence with regional security forces, and advance the PRC's responsible great power narrative." Elsewhere in the Pacific, the U.S. military is reclaiming another World War II-era airfield on the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands, part of efforts to bolster the Second Island Chain as its Chinese rival closes the power gap. Related Articles Satellite Photos Show British Aircraft Carrier Heading Toward PacificChina Denies Ukraine's Russia Weapons ClaimPhotos Show New US Missiles Sent to China's DoorstepChina Warns US Ally Over Plan To Take Back Strategic Port 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
