Title: IDS Students' Difference On The Knowledge Between The Philippine

Side And The “Western” Side Of World War II

World War II was one of the most defining and world-changing events of the 20th century,
causing the death of 3 percent of the world's population. The Philippines was heavily affected,
with its capital, Manila, becoming the second most devastated city during World War II after
Warsaw, Poland. Approximately one million civilians perished. Many Filipinos gave their lives
to defend the homeland against Japanese invaders, ensuring the country's survival. However, in
today's understanding of a terrible event, particularly as another war in Europe has just entered
its ninth month, many of the younger generation prefers and is more familiar with war from the
perspective of Westerners. Although the Western Front arguably carries more weight than the
battle in the Philippines, the Southeast Asian theater was obviously more important to us
Filipinos because of its location and the effects it caused. However, many of us today,
particularly here at IDS, are more interested in the other side of the conflict.

This research aims to find which side of World War II are the students of IDS more familiar with.
(1ST LITERATURE)

A similar study was conducted among Danish, German, and Finnish youth. According to
ScienceNordic, a trusted English news source for broad scientific news on Nordic countries,
young people in the three countries (Denmark, Germany, and Finland) regard World War II as a
watershed moment in history. That’s about where the similarities end, however. On the part of
the Danes, they hailed the resistance against the Nazis as "heroic," while forgetting or ignoring
even the times they themselves collaborated with the Nazis themselves. The German youth were
more than aware of the crimes and atrocities their ancestors had perpetrated against the world.
Three out of five young Germans felt guilty about Nazism. Carlsten Yndigegn, associate
professor at the Department for Political Science and Public Administration at the University of
Southern Denmark, says: "German youth don’t neglect or explain away the Holocaust or
Germany’s responsibility as the aggressor in the war." It’s more that they don’t think that they
should personally keep feeling guilty about it. On the Finnish side, the young Finns don’t largely
think that Finland wasn’t allied with Germany at the time (which it was), but they focus instead
on things they have deemed heroic, like how their country staved off the Soviet invasion during
the Winter War and Continuation War. (How young people today view the Second World War,
Jex, 2018)

(2ND LITERATURE)
The Versailles treaty was among the major turning points in the build up to the war. The leaders
of the Allied forces such as Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Orlando of England, France and
Italy respectively, together with Woodrow Wilson wanted to sign a treaty that would foster peace
in the world. However, the British and French leaders had other motives in the treaty hence; they
altered its terms. Germans did not agree to this treaty, and this raised tension as Hitler promised
never to adhere to the terms.
The rise of Hitler to power was another cause of the war. He came to power in 1933 and began
building the military base of the nation. He also focused on increasing the armory of the country
such as building warships and developing an air force. Hitler had clear intentions from the start
of his reign to begin a war against the Allied forces.
Calvocoressi, P., Wint, G., & Pritchard, R. J. (1989)

(3RD LITERATURE)
 According to "The Conversation," a credible commentary and analysis news source, the
two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 left the country with a legacy of victimhood unlike
any other in human history—and unlike any other codified in law.In early 1946, US General
Douglas MacArthur brought in his staff to write the country’s new Constitution, which was
sanctioned on May 3 1947, stating amongst it that the Japanese "forever renounce war as a
sovereign right of the nation".
Unlike certain other axis belligerents, Japan has shown no intention of apologizing for its
acts in World War II and its pre-war aggression against neighboring countries. And most
worryingly of all, in contrast with Germany, Japan has historically offered postwar generations of
students very little education on its conduct in the war.
The Japanese school curriculum largely glosses over the occupations of Taiwan, China,
Korea and various Russian islands before the attack on Pearl Harbor; it essentially doesn’t teach
the details of the war in the Pacific and Southeast Asia until Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Rojulio Paul B. Apale

Jayford C. Bugtay
Katriel Ziv B. Lasmarias