Half a century has passed since the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. In the 1980's, historians both in Europe and in Japan began to concern themselves with the review and reappraisal of the studies on the Second World War up to now. At the same time, the steady flow of governmental documents released to the public, as well as the recent discovery of materials relating to the resistance movements, resulted in the publication of new positive historical works on the war and post-war period.
In most of these recent analysis, the following trends can be observed. Firstly, historians have tried to reconsider the meaning of the Second World War and post-war settlements in the light of their present standpoints. For example, while recognizing the reality of a Europe reduced by the Second World War to a minor role between two hegemonic powers, some European historians, however, tried to define a positive legacy to the war. As regard Japan and Asia, the relation between Japan's “war-aims” and a decolonized Asia, as well as that between the U. S. occupation policy and the ensuing Japanese economic growth were the object of many debates.
Another recent trend which can be observed lies in the growing tendency to research both the nature of the Second World War and the process of post-war settlements as objectively as possible, without relying exclusively on the preconceived notion of an “anti-fascist war” and a “cold war”.
The Second World War is said to have been an “anti-fascist war” by the Allied Nations. The idea of “anti-fascism” included many different war-aims for many different actors in the war. Therefore, it is important to recognize that this gigantic war was the sum of many separate wars fought with specific war-aims. The three great Allied powers each fought the war with their own views of the post-war world order, and as these started to contradict one another, the “Grand Alliance” got to be called “the Strange Alliance”. Small states and resistance movements also had their own ideas of the regional or national political orders which would be built after the war. But in most cases the ideas held by the small states and the resistance movements eventually clashed with those of the great powers, and were suppressed in the process of establishing the post-war world order.
It would, therefore, be very rewarding to examine these separate wars with their specific war-aims, which, needless to say, involved dozens of small nations in the context of their own historical background. As a result of such research, we should be able to deepen our understanding of both the nature of the Second World War and the fundamental characteristics of the post-war world order.
The purpose of this volume is to analyze various aspects relating to the ending of the Second World War, as well as the preconditions for a new world order. Contributors proceeded with their work taking the following points into account: (1) To examine the various wars along with the respective war-aims, and consider the meaning of the war for each of the actors (or states). (2) To consider the relation between the present position of these actors and both the nature of the Second World War and the post-war settlements. (3) To keep in mind the interrelationship between people's lives and the conduct of the war.
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