[世界史の理解]

2023年03月02日

The big theme in the World War II division of the Takasugi World History Institute is whether it was really a war that would doom the complete defeat of Japan, Germany and Italy from the beginning. The fact that they started a war even though they knew they would never fail to lose leads to the idea that they really didn't want or were forced to go to war, that Japan, Germany, Italy were also a damaged country, and that they were not to blame. It was a feature of the interwar period that there were many things that could work very favorably for Japan, Germany and Italy, such as anti-socialism due to the establishment of the Soviet Union, the fact that most of Asia and Africa were colonies on the Allied side, the anti-war consciousness that was particularly strong among people in Britain and France, and American isolationism. The idea of the institute is that the defeat of Japan, Germany and Italy was not decisive from the beginning in World War II, but that it was a defeat due to a fatal mistake in policy and judgment of the times and a lack of preparedness. The countries that signed the Joint Declaration of the Allied Powers would be called the Allied Powers, as many as 26 original members, but it also included the signing by the exile governments, which were already occupied by Germany, such as Belgium and the Czech Republic. On the other hand, the Axis countries were only 8 countries (Yugo is only 2 days), but neutral countries in the war period were usually closer to Japan and Germany, so in the end it would not be so different in number from that of the Allies. In addition, I would like to add that the countries that participated in the war on the Allied side usually had powerful factions of pro-Japan and pro-Germany.