The whites always want to believe that "white is right":
{All this points to an analysis that many in the West may resist: that the Asia-Pacific War was an imperial war fought over imperial possessions by combatants devoid of clean hands.}
{There was no good and evil, on the combatant side at least. As one colonial master was as virtuous as another, precious little changed in the day-to-day lives of the only “good guys” within this narrative – the long-suffering people of Asia.
Appropriately, at the surrender of Japan, General MacArthur announced that with the signing of the “solemn agreement” of surrender, peace “may” be restored. The ambiguities contained within the word “may” made it a wise choice. The Asian region experienced precious little peace in the decades that followed. Western powers attempted to reinstate their colonies in defiance of Asian independence movements, and with force of arms.}
{The Western imperial presence – of conquest and subjugation – within Asia was buttressed on a diligently maintained myth of white superiority, a philosophy every bit as repugnant as that maintained by Imperial Japan.}
{It was known by several aliases – “The White Man’s Burden,” the “Civilizing Mission” or “Manifest Destiny.” But the principles were always the same: the right to rule on the basis of white skin.}
