Don Tow's Website

Below is the keynote speech that I presented at the recent Biennial Conference of the “Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia” (GA).  The conference was held on November 15-16, 2014 in Milpitas, California.

Good morning. First of all, I want to thank the conference organizers for organizing this important conference and for arranging such an interesting and relevant program. On the one hand, I am honored to have been asked to give the Keynote Speech. On the other hand, I am concerned that I may not be able to live up to your expectations. But I will give it my best try.

The topic I was asked to speak is “The Opportunities and Challenges of Preserving the True History of Sino-Japanese War in the 21st Century.”

Larger Implications of This Issue:  First, I think that this topic is actually broader than the words may imply on the surface. It is not just the matter of finding out what really happened in Asia during WWII. Let me explain. I think that deep down in their hearts, most historians who have studied this subject generally speaking know what happened in WWII in Asia, in particular, about the atrocities that occurred all over Asia. However, because of the political positions of their governments and political leaders, often they are reluctant to say and write what they really think since that could adversely affect their career or their ability to get research funding. When you couple that with the Western mass media which reflects closely the position of their governments, the end result is that the true history of WWII in Asia is almost never taught in high schools, and most Westerners know very little about what happened in Asia during WWII. And whatever they know may be very much incorrect or distorted. It is not just that the students don’t know, even the teachers of world history usually also don’t know. Therefore, the topic of preserving the true history of the Sino-Japanese War is very much related to the state of the West-China relationship, especially the U.S.-China relationship.
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It seems that recently we read in the news almost on a weekly basis that the U.S. seems to be involved in some sort of serious turmoil or unrest in some part of the world. It may be in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, East China Sea, South China Sea, Ukraine, Okinawa, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. It is true that some of these unrest were caused by other countries or parties who have very narrow partisan interest and treat others with extreme cruelty and without regard to the value of a human life. It is possible that some of these unrest were not caused by actions of the U.S., and the U.S. was just responding to try to protect the safety of her citizens and the interests of her country.  At least that is the impression one gets from reading the U.S. press and listening to the words of our country’s political leaders.

However, if we probe deeper, the causes and effects are no longer so clear. For example, did the U.S.’s 2003 military ouster of President Saddam Hussein on the pretense of getting rid of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction help to trigger a lot of the upheavals in the greater Middle East region? Did the U.S.’s long-standing policy of containing/surrounding/weakening China and U.S.’s collusion with a revived-militaristic Japan that refuses to acknowledge WWII historical truths help to trigger the tensions in East Asia? Did the U.S.’s long, unequivocal, staunch support for Israel help to trigger almost 70 years of unrest in the Middle East? Even in Ukraine, didn’t the U.S. play an important role in overthrowing the legally elected former President Viktor Yanukovych and replaced him with the current pro-West President Petro Poroshenko have anything to do with Russia President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine?  In other words, is the foreign policy of the U.S. in the long-term best interest of the U.S.? [1]

Perhaps the U.S. needs to reassess her foreign policy with an objective analysis and a new perspective of how does the rest of the world look at the U.S.  Perhaps she should look back at more than 150 years ago on how Ambassador Anson Burlingame  helped to reshape American foreign policy, first as the U.S.’s Ambassador to China 1861-1867 and then as China’s “Ambassador to All the Treaty Powers (including the U.S.)” 1867-1870.  [2]
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