Chinese communists forces enter the vacuum left in Manchuria by the departed Japanese.

Mao Zedong, adapting Marxist-Leninist philosophy to Chinese realities, champions the role of the peasantry in successful social revolutions.

Fighting in China between the Nationalists and Communists becomes open civil warfare in 1946.

The US commences war crimes trials for Japanese military leaders in June 1946.

General Douglas MacArthur’s occupation administration promoites democratic government throug h a 1946 constitution that makes the emperor a constitutional monarch while denying him his former divine status.

The US, as sole occupier, dissolves large banking and industrial combinations and institutes land reform in an effort to decentralize economic power.

The Philippines gain independence from the US on July 4, 1946.

President Manual A. Roxas heads the new republic.

The communist-dominated HUKS peasant party appropriates land in central Luzon.

The French return to Indo-China in 1946.

Vietnam’s Viet Minh guerrillas, who have spent the past five years fighting their Japanese overlords, do not welcome a replacement set of foreign masters.

Britain dissolves the Straits Settlements crown colony in 1946.

Penag and Malacca become part of the Malayan Union; Singapore becomes a separate crown colony; and Labuan becomes part of North Borneo;