Sunday 5 August 2018

Australia, US and Japan must compensate the Pacific Island Countries for World War II damages

by Lucas kiap

Thanks to China for opening the eyes of Australia, US and Japan to suddenly realize their mistakes of neglecting the Pacific Island countries.

Australia, US and Japan used the Pacific Island Countries as a battleground during the world War II. Our lands, seas, resources and people were used to their advantages. The Pacific Islanders were never a party to their World Wars. Without their consent, our forefathers were subjected to foreign occupiers who illegally occupied their territories by force.

After the war, they all left without properly compensating the Pacific Islanders for the damages caused to their land, seas and lives. They never made any concrete efforts to build the Pacific Island countries, their infrastructures and economies to be parity with theirs. They left these vulnerable small countries to their own downfalls.

Instead these vulnerable small countries were neglected and continuously exploited through their AID programs. Their foreign AID programs are nothing but a smokescreen of their continues presences in the Pacific to promote their own strategic interests and continues exploitation of resources.

Thanks to China for breaking this vicious cycle of cheating and exploiting by these three great powers.

Sensing the vacuum in the treatment of these pacific island countries, China competing with the US as a world super power aggressively pursues the opportunity by allowing the small pacific island countries have access to infrastructures funds through their Belt and Road Initiative.

Finally exposed, Australia, US and Japan are now joining forces to counter China's influence in the Pacific by establishing an infrastructure fund like that of China's Belt and Road Initiative for Pacific Island Countries to get soft loans for infrastructure development.

They had opportunities but only reacting after the Chinese are building infrastructures to open up economic windows and promote economic growth for these small Pacific Island countries through their Belt and Road Initiative.

I believe Australia, US and Japan still owe the Pacific Island countries compensation for the damages caused to their lands, seas, and lives. Instead of reacting and countering the Chinese to offer infrastructure loans to these vulnerable small States, they should offer the funds free to build the much needed infrastructures as a compensation for the World War II damages.

For Papua New Guinea, the country still lacks a national road network system to connect and integrate all provinces to open up economic windows in each of the provinces. For the start, Australia, US and Japan should fund the country's national road network system.

We can only and then know who is genuine and who is not.

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Comments by Peter Komon 

Thanks for sharing Lucas. This is an interesting topic that is being debated.
I personally disagree with this view that, the US, Japan and Australia should pay compensation or make war reparations to the Pacific Islands, above and beyond the aid they give. Here is why.

Notwithstanding a sense of duty and kinship forged by the conflict, I do think these countries, especially the US and Australia sacrificed a lot more toward the war effort both in resources and human lives. Their involvement resulted in the Allied victories in Africa, Asia and Europe.

The outcome of the war has led to democracy flourishing throughout most parts of the world, including the Pacific.

Obviously it’s not a perfect world but, it is a question of the lesser of two evils: what would the geopolitical environment be like had the Allied forces lost the war? What would it have been like had Australia claimed neutrality? Would the Japanese Empire have left the vast Australian continent alone?

China itself and Korea were under Japanese military occupation, especially around Manchuria. Would China be where it is now had the Allied forces lost the war?

Would the world be any better than what it is now had Germany and Japan won the war? We can only speculate but there are two many variables and issues at stake.

Some who argue for this case premise it on weak assumptions e.g. would Japan be what it is now: a vibrant democracy, unshackled from feudalism and the whims of a deified Emperor, to be the world’s third largest economy?

For us, and the people of the Pacific, it is true we had no choice in the matter. We were ignorant of the grander geopolitical issues. But the question is, would we have remained unharnessed? Probably not.

Proponents also ignore human nature and their thirst for conquest and domination: human history is riddled with the remains of men’s proven desire to reach beyond their horizon to conquer new lands.

I think the outcome of WWII has made us an equal and independent member in the congress of nations today. We have self-governance and freedoms that I doubt would have been afforded to us had events taken a different turn.

Before we argue whether the main belligerents of WWII owe us war reparations, we need to properly honour our own heros who died during or after the War and, ensure their sacrifices are maintained in posterity. We can do that by including our own stories of our war experience in our education system.

We need to make the best use of our freedoms that were secured by others, not just Papua New Guineans in a global conflict and, we need to take stock of how much Australia has given so far to PNG.

Sure, much of Australian aid may be tied but, how different would Chinese aid really be?

The only points of difference are perhaps, ethics and values. Australia or even the US would probably be more transparent in their dealings with PNG.

In any case, all nations have their self-interests to protect and pursue. No nation is truly altruistic. Whoever is pushing this agenda needs to do so with an independent arbiter.

May be The Hague. Just sharing my views.



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