By M Santhananaban
It was exactly 80 years yesterday since the official end of World War Two in Asia.
Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on 15 August 1945 – less than 10 days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Both countries on the Korean peninsula, which bore the brutal brunt of Japan’s cruellest colonial control for 35 years, marked the 80th anniversary of their liberation yesterday.
South Korea and Japan only normalised bilateral relations in 1965 – 20 years after Japan surrendered. Japan had also occupied Taiwan for half a century from 1895.
When the Japanese invade and occupied Malaya, they used some Korean conscripts. In Malaya they focused mainly on rounding up able-bodied men to build the Death Railway. Some 300,000 men, including POWs were captured.
Most of them appear to have perished due to the harsh and inhuman conditions of work on that dreaded project. A few thousand emaciated survivors returned, mostly on foot, after the war.
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People in Malaysia who would have clear firsthand memories of those painful years would be in their nineties today. Most of us have learnt of Japanese atrocities from our parents as well as from books and films. Yet a whole generation of people in this nation have grown up on a diet of a “Look East” programme
Malaya had the British to contend with both before and for a dozen years after World War Two.
Prior to granting independence, Britain had extracted from Malaya’s leaders two commitments.
The first was to safeguard the returns from British investments in Malaya.
The second was to be in the forefront of the international fight against communism.
For these and other valid domestic considerations, relations with the Soviet Union could only be established in 1967 and with the People’s Republic of China in May 1974.
The Agong made a significant six-day visit to Russia on 5–10 August, most interestingly at a time when Moscow is locked in a critical standoff with the West over Ukraine.
People in Malaysia must relish and safeguard the nation’s independence and sovereignty. The country’s leaders and diplomats must be well equipped to discern encroachments and threats to the nation’s territorial integrity and to its freedom, to act in the best interests of the country.
Independence in its fullest sense must ensure peace, unity, meaningful progress and prosperity for everyone in Malaysia.
Dato’ M Santhananaban is a former ambassador with 45 years of public sector experience.
The views expressed in Aliran’s media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran’s official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran’s official position.
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