The government of Japan has reportedly asked European and Asian leaders not to attend China’s military parade and other events to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II.
Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Sunday that the Japanese government wants to prevent “China’s interpretation of history from spreading.” China’s version of history has “anti-Japanese overtones,” beginning with the fact that China often refers to the war as “The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.”
Tokyo is also suspicious that China will turn its World War II commemoration into a platform for advancing its geopolitical agenda. China is hosting a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on August 31 and September 1, with China’s “no-limits partner” Vladimir Putin expected to be in attendance. The Russian president will most likely remain in China for the World War 2 events.
Another important attendee at the summit will be Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India and China have long been regional rivals, having fought violent clashes along their contested Himalayan border in recent years, but India has lately been mending fences with China and moving into Russia’s orbit under pressure from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it will encourage SCO members to move beyond “cultural wars” and the “Cold War mentality,” which is code for accepting the Chinese regime’s dismal view of human rights and its revisionist version of history.
“In today’s world, outdated mindsets of hegemonism and power politics still have influence, with certain countries attempting to prioritise their own interests above others, seriously threatening world peace and stability,” said Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin. He did not name the “certain countries” he was denigrating, but clearly meant the United States.
It seems like a safe bet that Taiwan will take Japan’s advice and skip Beijing’s World War II propaganda festival. The Taiwanese have been increasingly critical of China’s WWII history in recent years, portraying the outcome of the war as an unhappy trade of Japanese imperialism for Communist Chinese aggression.
“During the Republic of China’s war of resistance against Japan, the People’s Republic of China did not even exist, but the Chinese communist regime has in recent years repeatedly distorted the facts, claiming it was the Communist Party who led the war of resistance,” Taiwanese policy maker Chiu Chui-cheng, head of the Mainland Affairs Council, remarked on August 15.
“History affirms that the War of Resistance was led and won by the Republic of China,” Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said at a commemorative concert last Thursday.
The Republic of China (ROC) is the Taiwanese government. The Chinese Communist version of history claims Beijing recaptured Taiwan from Imperial Japan in World War II, and is merely waiting to take full possession of the island.
The Diplomat noted on Monday that the governments of both China and Japan tell the story of World War II differently than they did in previous generations.
China used to portray Imperial Japan as the hapless pawn of international capitalists and the ROC as inept bumblers who offered little effective resistance until the Chinese Communist Party joined the fight. China’s new nationalist narrative is kinder to the forerunners of the ROC, although it still falsely claims the Chinese Communist Party did the heavy lifting against Japan while dwelling extensively on Japanese brutality. The goal is to tell a story of a united Chinese people triumphing over Japan’s evil — and China’s propaganda depicts Japan as an enduring threat that could rise to menace the Pacific again.
Japanese media and education, meanwhile, have lately tended to downplay atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking, especially as Japanese territorial disputes with China have intensified.
During the 70th anniversary event in 2015, the late Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said new generations of Japanese citizens should not be “predestined to apologize” for the war fought by their grandparents.
Chinese dictator Xi Jinping responded by insisting that young people should be indoctrinated with “correct historical views” and “take the lessons of history to heart.” Abe therefore encouraged Western leaders to skip China’s victory parade, and most of them did not attend.
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