By Xu Yizhen
December 13 marks China's 12th national memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre. The annual national memorial day serves as a deafening alarm bell reminding us that historical tragedies must never be repeated.
On December 13, 1937, the invading Japanese army captured Nanjing and launched a frenzied massacre lasting for six weeks. Three hundred thousand Chinese compatriots were brutally killed, with an average of one life lost every 12 seconds. The 1,218-page judgment produced by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East specifically elaborates on the atrocities committed by the Japanese invaders during the "Attack on Nanjing" and the "Nanjing Massacre". The Archives of Nanjing Massacre was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in October 2015. This period of history has long become a shared memory of all mankind.
War crimes cannot be erased, and the history of aggression cannot be whitewashed. Any attempt to deny or distort this period of history is a blatant provocation to human conscience and justice. This year, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders has further collected a large amount of new evidence of the atrocities committed by the invading Japanese army. Any sophistry will easily be debunked in front of the solid evidence.
However, some right-wing forces in Japan have been acting retrogressively on historical issues. They deliberately evade and obscure war crimes, even attempting to prettify the history of aggression and shirk historical responsibilities. All their moves, from questioning the number of victims of the Nanjing Massacre, revising textbooks to downplay Japan's war crimes, to visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted class-A war criminals are enshrined, reflect their extremely wrong attitude towards their history of aggression, which seriously hurt the feelings of the people of Asian victim countries, including China.
Furthermore, right-wing politicians in Japan continue to hollow out the pacifist Constitution, attempting to break away from the post-war system. In recent years, from hyping up so-called "external threats", taking the opportunity to significantly adjust security policies, to increasing its defense budget every year, easing restrictions on weapons exports, and seeking to develop offensive weapons and equipment, Japan has gone further and further down the dangerous path of military expansion. After taking office, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi brazenly reversed the course of history. After falsely claiming that a "Taiwan contingency" could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, she even attempts to stir up the so-called "undetermined status of Taiwan" argument. Any leniency and indulgence towards the various provocative moves of right-wing politicians in Japan will only bring the specter of militarism back to life and put the people of Asia in danger again. All countries have the responsibility and obligation to join hands to resist schemes to restore militarism and fascism and jointly safeguard the hard-won victory of World War II.
Bearing history in mind is not to perpetuate hatred, but to create a better future. In those years, in the face of the extremely vicious Japanese invaders, the unyielding Chinese people fought gallantly, making tremendous contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. Today, as a responsible major country, China will unhesitatingly take the important responsibility of maintaining world peace, and will never allow militarism to make a comeback. Historical tragedies must never be repeated.