HONG KONG, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) — Senior Japanese officers paid homage to the infamous Yasukuni Shrine Saturday, the 81st anniversary of Japan’s unconditional give up in World War II, sparking widespread outrage throughout the worldwide neighborhood, particularly Asian international locations and areas that endured brutal Japanese aggression.
Governments, historians and observers throughout Asia have sounded the alarm over Japan’s rising neo-militarist tendencies, calling on Tokyo to face its wartime crimes honestly and by no means cross the underside line of peace.
JAPAN’S DISTURBING MOVES
On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi carried out a distant act of worship towards the infamous Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 convicted Japanese Class-A conflict criminals from World War II and stands as a logo of the nation’s militarism and wartime aggression.
Earlier within the day, she made a financial providing to the controversial shrine in her capability as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, whereas a number of cupboard ministers and senior politicians paid visits there, triggering robust criticism from peace advocates in Japan and past.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Japan mentioned Saturday that Japanese political leaders’ newest strikes involving the infamous Yasukuni Shrine represent a critical problem to the victorious outcomes of World War II and the post-war worldwide order.
China urges the Japanese facet to deeply mirror on its historic crimes, earnestly study from historical past, honor its dedication to peaceable growth, take actual actions to interrupt with militarism, halt harmful strikes towards remilitarization, and keep away from inserting itself within the defendant’s seat of historical past as soon as once more, the spokesperson mentioned.
South Korea on Saturday additionally expressed its deep remorse over Japan’s strikes, saying that the federal government can’t however deplore the truth that accountable leaders of Japan as soon as once more forgot historical past and repeated anachronistic acts by sending choices to or paying tributes on the Yasukuni Shrine, which glorifies Japan’s previous wars of aggression and enshrines conflict criminals.
ALARMING HISTORICAL DENIALISM
Observers famous that Japanese politicians have launched systematic historic distortion to downplay and even whitewash Japan’s wartime crimes in an alarming remilitarization push.
An NHK March survey uncovered eroding historic consciousness: 48 % of Japanese respondents mentioned that they had no data that Japan launched aggressive wars in opposition to its Asian neighbors. Former NHK anchor Tomoyoshi Kimura warned this ignorance poses extreme dangers.
“For Japanese people, being born after the war cannot become a reason to claim there is ‘no need for reflection,'” Kimura mentioned. He expressed concern that Japanese society is drifting towards a harmful historic amnesia, the place many individuals neither perceive nor want to study concerning the nation’s wartime previous, warning that the shortage of primary historic consciousness has now reached a surprising degree.
Decades of cross-border analysis have uncovered irrefutable wartime atrocities. Singaporean historian Lim Shao Bin’s analysis previously decade has centered on Unit 9420, a lesser-known organic warfare unit of the Japanese Imperial Army that “created an entire production line for germ bombs in Singapore and what is now Malaysia.”
“More than 80 years have passed, and only now are we beginning to realize how much Japan still hasn’t told us,” Lim mentioned.
Thailand carries heavy scars from the notorious “Death Railway.” Forced by Japanese troops, over 60,000 Allied POWs and a whole lot of 1000’s of Asian laborers constructed the 415-km line in simply over a yr. More than 100,000 died from overwork, hunger and illness.
“Most of the Japanese I met said they knew nothing about it; if they hadn’t come to Kanchanaburi, they would have had no idea that their country had committed such brutal crimes in Thailand,” mentioned native resident Somporn Ajirasak.
Kim Joo-Yong, director of the Institute of Korea-China History and Culture at Wonkwang University, cited three irreparable traumas: the suppression of the March 1 Independence Movement on the Korean Peninsula in 1919, the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 and systemic navy sexual slavery often known as “comfort women.”
“Those are historical facts,” Kim mentioned. “But historical denialists are still passing distorted accounts of the past on to younger generations.”
DON’T LET HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF
For Lim, documenting the historical past of Unit 731 and its affiliated items is just not merely an train in reconstructing the previous. It can be about understanding the warning indicators that precede future conflicts.
Japan’s historical past of navy enlargement, he argued, demonstrates that preparations for conflict usually start years earlier than open hostilities. “The international community must remain vigilant,” he mentioned, including that there ought to be more practical supervisory mechanisms for former aggressor states to stop related tragedies from taking place once more.
“A country cannot portray itself merely as a victim while evading the harm it inflicted on others. A nation with genuine moral integrity ought to set an example for peace by courageously shouldering its historical responsibilities,” mentioned Tan Kok Wai, a Malaysian member of parliament.
Tan famous that Japan’s enlargement of its protection business, stepped-up arms manufacturing and enhanced sustained fight capabilities in 2026 are deeply disturbing and worthy of shut vigilance.
“Even in 2026, Japan has yet to truly break away from the imperialist era, which is deeply unsettling,” Kim mentioned.
Noting that this yr marks the eightieth anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trial, Jiang Bin, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, on Saturday urged Japan to genuinely study the teachings of historical past and cease appearing in opposition to the tide of historical past.
“If Japan persists in pursuing neo-militarism and becomes a source of instability threatening regional peace, it will once again face the judgment of justice and history,” Jiang mentioned.