In 1945: The Reckoning, Phil Craig presents a powerful and nuanced account of the climactic final year of World War II, focusing not only on the battlefield, but more importantly, on what came after: the dramatic reordering of global power, the beginning of the end of the British Empire, and the seeds of the modern postcolonial world. Best known for his work in television and earlier books co-authored with Tim Clayton, Craig here combines historical rigour with cinematic storytelling to bring to life a turbulent, morally complex year that shaped the rest of the twentieth century.
The title The Reckoning is apt. The year 1945 marked not merely the end of war in Europe and Asia; it was the moment when the consequences of global conflict became clear—for nations, empires, ideologies, and individuals. Craig does not limit himself to the grand strategies of the Allied powers or the dramatic set pieces of military triumph. Instead, his focus is deliberately global and often personal, examining how the war’s end marked a moment of reckoning for colonial subjects, occupying powers, and the architects of empire.
One of the book’s central themes is the hypocrisy and brutality of imperial power in the wake of a war fought, ostensibly, for freedom and democracy. Craig’s greatest achievement is in laying bare the contradictions at the heart of the British Empire’s conduct in 1945. While Britain positioned itself as a liberator of Europe and a beacon of civilisation, it was simultaneously fighting to retain control over its colonies, often through violent and repressive means. In India, Craig highlights the rift within a military family—KS Thimayya, who would be Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, whose brother was with Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army. This microcosmic tale reflects the wider tensions between imperial loyalty and nationalist aspiration.
The book is especially valuable for its treatment of the often-overlooked theatres of war and their political consequences. For example, Craig examines Australia’s controversial military operations in Borneo in 1945—operations undertaken with limited strategic justification but with clear political overtones, designed to assert imperial presence in the region before the Japanese surrender and growing American influence could challenge British and Australian claims. Similarly, his accounts of British forces in Indochina and Indonesia arming Japanese prisoners of war to suppress local independence movements is a stark reminder that the moral clarity of the war against fascism did not translate into decolonial policy.
What makes 1945: The Reckoning stand out is not just its revisionist angle, but its narrative structure and tone. Craig does not write as an academic historian weighing abstract forces; he writes as a documentarian, interested in character, motive, and lived experience.
Craig’s portrayal of the British Empire in 1945 is unflinching. He exposes the desperation of a fading imperial power attempting to cling to influence in a world that had fundamentally changed. The end of the war revealed the empire’s declining economic and military power, as well as the growing assertiveness of colonial populations. Britain’s reliance on former enemy soldiers to quell independence movements in Southeast Asia is treated not only as a strategic blunder but as a moral failure. It is in these sections that Craig’s voice becomes most critical, and rightly so. He argues convincingly that Britain’s inability to reckon with the realities of its diminished global standing contributed to prolonged conflict and suffering in the years immediately following the war.
While the book is clearly informed by postcolonial historiography, Craig avoids polemic. His criticism is supported by thorough research, and he allows the complexities of history to speak for themselves.
If there is a drawback to Craig’s approach, it lies perhaps in the book’s structure, which occasionally jumps rapidly between different global locations and storylines. While this reinforces the global scope of the events unfolding in 1945, it can also make the narrative feel slightly disjointed at times.
This is a vital book for anyone seeking to understand the complex legacies of World War II and the end of the British Empire. It challenges comfortable myths about the war and its aftermath, emphasising that victory did not bring clarity or justice for many people around the world. By focusing on the global south—India, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific—Craig reminds us that 1945 was not merely a moment of triumph but a profound reckoning with power, responsibility, and change. It is a sobering, humane, and necessary history.