The final book in Phil Craig’s trilogy, 1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World, follows an Indian family with two boys divided by the opposing side they chose to fight for. [Phil Craig]

Now, Craig has rounded off his WW II saga with the recent publication of 1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World. Brimming with poignant first-hand accounts and untold stories, the already well-received book confronts the realities of Far East colonialism in the war’s final months and the immediate aftermath. Among the topics examined are the “rather shameful and foolish things” carried out by the British in the name of imperial agendas, says Craig himself.

Nuance, however, is a key factor throughout the volume, as the bestselling writer explains after sitting down for a Legion Magazine exclusive.

Best-selling author, Phil Craig, also hosts The Scandal Mongers Podcast with Andrew Lownie. [Phil Craig]

The whole trilogy is my love letter to the greatest generation. While largely about the British people, there are quite a few Australians, Americans and, yes, Canadians in all three books. There’s lots here that’s celebratory, with many a heartwarming tale of courage and sacrifice, but I try to keep that in balance with newer material.

I hope 1945: The Reckoning is a little bit more politically relevant than my earlier books. In the 20 years since the last one was published, much has changed in the way we think about empire, colonialism and race, not least in the Far East. So, I intended to dig into the difficult and confronting stories of what really happened.

The propaganda of the Allies, which really starts with the Atlantic Charter [a 1941 declaration on Anglo-American war aims], is echoed throughout the ensuing years, especially with [Supreme Allied Commander] Eisenhower’s words just before the [June 6, 1944] D-Day landings. We’re talking about values from liberation to self-determination to a new world order remade without tyrants, where all people can choose how they want to be governed. However, if you examine some of the facts on the ground—especially in the Far East—there’s quite a lot of stuff going that doesn’t sit well with 1941’s Atlantic Charter or any of that [Allied] propaganda.

And it’s not just the Brits doing it. The U.S. under Roosevelt, but especially under Truman, began to change its mind about empire, partly because it was, in a sense, becoming an empire of sorts itself while the shadow of the Cold War era loomed.

On confronting the legacy of colonialism

There are several examples [of prevailing colonial attitudes] in the book.

A very good example is the enormous campaign waged in Vietnam—then French Indochina—to put the French back into power. This is not only run by the French themselves but also British—mostly Indian—forces. They released thousands of Japanese prisoners of war, gave them rifles, and sent them into battle against Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnamese militia—who had been allied to America weeks earlier.

It’s a moral catastrophe, I would argue, not to mention a diplomatic madness that was destined to set up the entire region for 30 more years of conflict in which the Americans and Australians would get involved, and tens of thousands would die.

Similarly, the new Dutch government in Holland—despite the country having just been liberated itself—tried to reclaim its possessions in the Dutch East Indies, and the British went along with it. A large army was sent in and, once more, thousands of Japanese PoWs were armed and sent into war to put old empires back in charge.

I think the British are especially in love with the idea of being the underdog. We’re talking about the Blitz. We’re talking about Dunkirk and Dad’s Army and rationing and holding on by our fingertips against the Nazis. There’s certainly truth to that in some ways, but the rest of the world never saw Britain like that—and never would.

We weren’t the underdog if you were living in the Far East. We were the overdog. We were scary and very powerful. And once you start to see Britain through the eyes of its enemies and, indeed, its subjects, you see it from a fresh perspective.

On discourse surrounding Indian Independence   

People occasionally talk crudely about being anti-British or pro-British. I’d argue that my book is very pro-British Indian Army and actually takes a swing at a man quite famous in India called Subhas Chandra Bose—often framed in India as the hero of independence to the point that Kolkata’s national airport bears his name.

Bose established the Indian National Army that fought with the Japanese against the British because he thought it was the best way to liberate India. He’d spent a year or so in Berlin with Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler and other architects of what became the Holocaust because he decided the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I contrast his life with a man called General Timmy [a nickname for Kodendera Subayya Thimayya], who also believes in Indian independence but nevertheless serves in the British Indian Army because he doesn’t trust Bose, he doesn’t trust the Japanese, and he doesn’t believe the way to attain independence is by letting the Japanese win. Despite his own beloved brother choosing to serve in Bose’s Indian National Army, General Timmy stays loyal to the British during the war.

The British Indian Army later pulled off one of the greatest victories of World War Two and actually created the core institution necessary for true independence. It’s quite a shame to me that that’s not really honoured or remembered much in India, whereas Bose, whose campaign was an utter disaster, is still venerated as a hero.

On his hopes for readers

I would like readers to understand the name behind The Reckoning. I’d like them to understand what’s truly going on [in the Far East in 1945]. I’d equally like them to appreciate the sacrifice and courage not just in 1945 but throughout the war, while finding admiration for men like General Timmy and other figures like Major Ben Wheeler—a Canadian doctor and PoW enslaved by the Japanese at a copper mine in Formosa (present-day Taiwan) who treated the untreatable in awful conditions.

Running parallel in a minor key, however, I hope readers see the cynicism and the lingering colonial muscle memory that came with slightly shady decision-making. We need to be able to process that in order to understand what actually happened and why certain people [in the Far East] still look at [the British] the way they do.

Much of what I discuss in 1945: The Reckoning goes back to that famous phrase that I believe all historians should always have printed on a T-shirt: warts and all.

This abridged interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.