Philippine E-Journals

End of Empire: 100 Days in 1945 that Changed Asia and the World

Rene R. Escalante

 

Abstract:

When the book End of Empire: 100 Days in 1945 that Changed Asia and the World came out of the press, majority of those people who personally witnessed the Second World War have died already and those who are still alive are no longer lucid to retell the stories of the war. Hence, present generations derive their knowledge of the war from published sources, movies, documentaries, television shows, social media postings, and other secondary sources available to them. Accounts from these genres tend to be exaggerated, commercialized, biased, and sometimes lacking in historical basis. In fact, some of them are presented to exonerate certain personalities while others are intended to demonize their past and current political enemies. As a result, students and history enthusiasts nowadays ended up having an adulterated knowledge of World War II. Sometimes these lead to shallow analysis and negative attitude towards contemporary events which are associated with the war