By Zhou Xin
The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-fascist War. Commemorative events were held by countries around the world to commemorate the martyrs and cherish peace. As the aggressor and defeated nation, Japan has gone so far as to use diplomatic channels to hinder the participation of relevant countries in China's commemorative activities, claiming that the commemorative events focus too much on history and have anti-Japanese overtones, and that the participation of leaders should be carefully considered.
Such conduct by the Japanese government starkly contradicts its proclaimed postwar commitment to a "peaceful nation." Coupled with its frequent military expansion and the widespread propagation of revisionist historical narratives, it once again underscores Japan's utter lack of remorse for its wartime crimes.
Repeated Erosion of the Pacifist Constitution
After WWII, under the guidance of the US, Japan promulgated the 1947 Constitution of Japan . It explicitly stipulates in Article 9 that "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." This constitutional provision has served as the legal cornerstone of Japan's narrative as a "peaceful nation." However, fundamentally, this transformation was not entirely voluntary but a passive choice forced by defeat.
As the international landscape evolved, the US came to regard Japan as a forward-deployed pawn to implement its Indo-Pacific strategy and intervene in regional affairs, an objective that conveniently aligned with Japan's long-standing pursuit of so-called "national normalization". With the connivance of the US government, Japan began to stride on the road to expand its military. In 2024, Washington and Tokyo announced what they called the largest upgrade of the Japan-US security treaty in more than six decades, transforming the alliance from a defensive partnership characterized by US dominance and Japan's subordination into a military alliance that is both offensive and defensive. The role of the Japan Self-Defense Forces has shifted from providing logistical support to US forces to taking on a more offensive posture.
The Japanese government has sought to package its military expansion as a "contribution to peace," while completely abandoning its commitment to "exclusive self-defense." In recent years, Japan has conducted extensive military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region alongside the US, Australia, Canada, the Philippines, and India, and exported weapons to countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, and Ukraine, openly signaling its ambition to re-emerge as a major regional military power. In its proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, the Japanese Ministry of Finance has requested a defense allocation of 8.85 trillion yen, setting a new historical record. The Tokyo Shimbun commented, "Eighty years after WWII, has the government already forgotten the lessons left by the war that ultimately led to devastation due to military expansion?"
Rampant Distortion of Historical Narratives
In Japan, there has long been a faction that denies or even glorifies acts of aggression, attempting to falsify historical facts and rehabilitate war criminals. In 2021, the Japanese government, through a Cabinet decision, ruled that terms such as "military comfort women" were "inappropriate textbook expressions" and demanded revisions to related educational materials. To this day, it still refuses to compensate the victims of the comfort women system. Currently, the two most widely used junior high school textbook publishers in Japan (together covering nearly 80% of schools) present Japan's wartime responsibility in a highly evasive manner. When addressing the Nanjing Massacre, they refer to it as the 'Nanjing Incident,” even claiming that the number of victims remains "undetermined and still under study." Some Japanese history educators have pointed out that earlier textbooks explicitly stated "the invasion of Japan into China," but such expressions have now been replaced with terms like the "Manchurian Incident"or the "Sino-Japanese War," effectively blurring the true nature of the conflict.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII, a moment when Japan should reflect on its wartime crimes and firmly commit to the path of peace. However, Japan's actual conduct tells a different story. On August 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender, large numbers of parliament members and even sitting cabinet members visited Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Class-A war criminals. The customary practice, since 1995, of the Japanese prime minister delivering a postwar statement every ten years was broken this year. Due to domestic conservative opposition, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was unable to issue an 80th-anniversary statement, and even expressing a "personal view" faced heavy obstacles. The far-right political party Sanseitō, which denies Japan’s history of aggression, achieved major victories in the Upper House election. Some so-called historians openly referred to September 2 as "Asia Liberation Day," falsely claiming that Japan waged war to "liberate Asia" and calling for an end to Japan’s so-called "self-flagellation historical view."
Eighty years after the war, such erroneous words and deeds continue to recur, and these distorted narratives have become rampant within Japan. They are not only shocking but also reveal a troubling pattern of selective amnesia and systematic whitewashing of militaristic history in Japanese society. This challenges the postwar international order, affronts human conscience, and provokes all those who cherish peace.
Forgetting history is tantamount to betrayal. If a nation lacks the courage to face its past honestly and reflect deeply on its mistakes, how can it hope for a future of peace? Like the Chinese people, the Japanese people surely do not wish to see another war. It is hoped that more voices of peace and reason will emerge within Japan, and even more that the Japanese government will translate its commitment to the path of a "peaceful nation" into concrete actions, thereby earning the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.
Editor's Note: Originally published on news.gmw.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.