Conversation

RE: https://mastodon.social/@IndyMediaAus/115587031935636383

The Euro or Westerncentric view of history is so fraught.

World War II is said to have started in September 1939, after the UK & France declared war on Germany, after their invasion of Poland.

And yet Japan, one of the Axis powers, had invaded Manchuria in 1931, and remained in occupation until August 1945. Their occupation there was even more brutal than in SE Asia, in the same way that Nazi Germany’s attacks in Russia were so much more brutal than in Western Europe.

Both China & Russia have very good reasons to feel extremely defensive about Japan & Germany/Western Europe.

That doesn’t justify Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine, but it does help to explain how easily propaganda can be used to whip up fear in Russia & China. And that is something western countries need to try harder to understand.