By Wang Sen

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on August 6 attended the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. As stated in his speech, "The tragedies that ravaged Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never be repeated. While continuing to firmly uphold the 'Three Non-Nuclear Principles', Japan will lead the efforts of the international community to bring about 'a world without nuclear weapons.' This is Japan's mission as the only country to have experienced the horror of nuclear devastation in war."

The speech by Shigeru Ishiba this time, while continuing the annual practice of advocating the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles," which also known as the principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons, cannot reverse Japan's recent trend of "turning to the right." New populist parties such as the emerging Sanseito have entered the political stage, openly advocating nuclear armament and winning substantial public support in the Upper House election. At the same time, voices calling for nuclear sharing with the US have repeatedly emerged within Japan.

Since the end of WWII, right-wing forces in Japan have sought to completely overturn the verdicts of the Tokyo Trials and return to the ranks of political and military great powers. In recent years, Japan's security strategy has shown a clear departure from the postwar requirements and a tendency to violate the pacifist Constitution. Since the end of 2022, the Fumio Kishida administration has officially adopted the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Defense Strategy (NDS) and the Defense Buildup Program (DBP). These policy documents propose that Japan will work toward acquiring capabilities to strike enemy bases and other such measures, thereby breaking through the constraints of the pacifist Constitution and abandoning the "exclusively defense-oriented" commitment. They also significantly relax restrictions on arms exports, going even further than the policies of the Shinzo Abe administration. All these moves run counter to the "peace concept" that Japan claims to uphold.

Shigeru Ishiba's latest remarks also reveal the long-standing serious one-sidedness in Japan's commemoration of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. The Nanjing Massacre, the infamous Unit 731, the inhuman "Three Alls Policy" (kill all, burn all, loot all)... the monstrous crimes committed by the Japanese invasion forces in China shocked the entire world. Yet for decades, Japan has deliberately chosen to "forget" history, using atomic bombing memorial events to craft an image of itself as a victim of WWII, while avoiding any discussion of the causal link between suffering nuclear attacks and waging wars of aggression abroad.

Japanese militarism was a modern ideology and institutional system centered on military expansion, characterized by extreme nationalism and an aggressive, warlike nature, which brought immense disaster to the peoples of Asia and the world. However, under US indulgence and protection, Japanese militarism was never fully purged after WWII, and instead has persisted and operated in new forms and by new means.

Judging from Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru's speech and the prevailing public sentiment in Japan, the country still lacks sufficient awareness of the grave suffering its war of aggression inflicted on the nations of Asia. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Japan should deeply reflect on history, draw lessons from the past, thoroughly eliminate the pernicious legacy of militarism, and avoid going further down the wrong path.

(The author is a distinguished research fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.)

Editor's Note: Originally published on china.com.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.