The 80th anniversary of the War against Fascism is not just a ceremonial remembrance; it is a stark reminder that the legacy of World War II continues to haunt our world. Forgetting the past is the quickest way to repeat it.
The defeat of fascism was neither inevitable nor easy. It required immense sacrifice, unprecedented unity, and the moral clarity to confront tyranny. The Soviet Red Army’s relentless push in Europe, China’s resistance against Japanese aggression, and the courage of countless ordinary people, including Filipinos, were decisive. This global effort reminds us that resisting hegemonism and domination today requires the same cooperation, rooted in shared values and historical truth.
Yet historical memory itself is under siege. In Japan, commemorations downplay wartime aggression, sidestepping the duty of apology. In the West, World War II is often narrated as a triumph of liberal democracies, with little acknowledgment of the Soviet Union, China, or working-class movements that bore enormous sacrifices. Such selective remembrance sanitizes history and blinds us to the roots of why WWI happened in the first place.
Lessons
The ideological lessons of fascism remain painfully relevant. Fascism thrived on economic despair, social dislocation, and the seductive promise of restoring national greatness. These conditions are not buried in history. They resurface today in new forms, including rising populism, resurgent nationalism, and deepening inequality, all compounded by a dangerous quest for hegemony and dominance by a superpower.
The U.S. and its allies in the collective West increasingly pursue strategies of military buildup, economic coercion, and geopolitical containment. While framed as “competition,” these policies risk fueling confrontation that the world can ill afford. The anxiety is real: could great power rivalry sleepwalk us into a third world war? The mere prospect is unimaginable. Peace is not simply desirable. It is imperative.
Commemoration must therefore be more than ritual. To say “never again” is to resist the drift toward militarism, hegemony, and domination. It requires teaching history in full, not in fragments, and rejecting revisionism wherever it appears, whether in denial of atrocities or the romanticization of fascist leaders. It means building international cooperation that prioritizes human dignity over spheres of influence, and it demands the courage to challenge hegemonic ambitions that endanger us all.
Conclusion
The flashpoints of our time, from the South China Sea and the volatility of the Taiwan Strait, to the Korean Peninsula and Eastern Europe, demand the same moral clarity and solidarity that once defeated fascism. We must ask ourselves: do we retreat into suspicion, arms races, and division, or do we choose the harder path of cooperation, justice, and peace?
The legacy of the anti-fascist struggle is not sealed in archives or museums. It is a compass for navigating today’s turbulence and geopolitical challenges. The generation that won that war left us more than victory; they left us a lesson: to resist domination and insist on peace as humanity’s ultimate lesson.
Source: The Lobbyist
https://www.thelobbyist.biz/perspectives/article-details/prime%20insight/the-80th-anniversary-of-the-war-against-fascism-memory-hegemony-and-the-imperative-of-peace
