‘Peace’ in the Far East¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter, ‘Peace’ in the Far East, argues that the conclusion of the Pacific War represents not a genuine peace but a reconfiguration of imperialist rivalry, with the United States and the Stalinist bureaucracy manoeuvring to seize the spoils of Japanese collapse. The core contention is that the richest prize of the global conflict—the resources, markets, and strategic positions of Asia, home to over half of humanity—is now up for grabs, and the great powers are already preparing for the next world war against one another.
The chapter makes several key claims. First, American imperialism aims to convert the Pacific into an American lake by grabbing former Japanese-held islands. Second, Stalin’s bureaucracy seeks to restore the position of tsarist Russia before the 1904 Russo-Japanese war, evidenced by the seizure of the Kurile Islands and the treaty with Chiang Kai-shek, which grants domination of Manchuria and control of Port Arthur and Dairen. This treaty is presented as a cynical manoeuvre to balance American pressure on China, while simultaneously betraying the Chinese masses who looked to Russia as a workers’ state. The Chinese Stalinists, who claimed control over areas containing 90,000,000 people, are to be handed over to Chungking control, curbed and hamstrung as a reserve weapon for Stalin’s foreign policy.
The chapter draws on the historical context of pre-war imperialist competition in Asia, particularly the rivalry between Japan, Russia, and the Western powers. It situates the current manoeuvring within the logic of inter-imperialist conflict: having knocked out Germany and Japan, the great powers are now preparing for war against their former allies. A notable polemic is directed against the Stalinist campaign for a ‘hard’ peace for Japan, which the chapter denounces as vile chauvinist propaganda, equating it with the earlier Vansittart campaign against the German people. This is contrasted with the interests of American imperialists who, seeking a counterweight to Russia in Asia, wish to preserve the Japanese social structure and use Japanese capitalists as a satellite. The chapter argues that the British and American capitalists will soon find common language with their Japanese counterparts, just as they did before the war. Beneath these rivalries, the chapter insists, the downtrodden masses of Japan and Asia have been stirred to hatred of all oppressors, and only the programme of the Fourth International—a Federated Socialist Soviet Asia—can bring genuine peace and plenty.