Visitors view the stone lion statues on the Lugou Bridge in Beijing, China, July 6, 2026. /VCG
China on Tuesday marked the 89th anniversary of the Lugou Bridge Incident, often known as the July 7 Incident of 1937, which marked the beginning of your complete nation’s resistance towards Japanese aggression throughout World War II.
Following the incident in southwest Peiping (Beijing), town was captured by the Japanese military on July 29, 1937. Over 10,000 civilians have been killed or went lacking through the fall of town.
The fall of Peiping prompted the Chinese Kuomintang get together and the Communist Party of China to affix arms towards the Japanese aggression, marking China’s whole-nation resistance towards the invasion, which was well known as the primary battlefield towards Japanese imperialism and fascism throughout World War II.
Official information exhibits that greater than 35 million Chinese troopers and civilians died through the battle, accounting for almost 8% of China’s complete inhabitants in 1928.
A view of the craters left by the Japanese military once they attacked Wanping Town through the July 7 Incident, Beijing, China, July 3, 2026. /VCG
New proof
This 12 months additionally marks the 81st anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War in addition to the eightieth anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials.
Convened on May 3, 1946, the Tokyo Trials lasted for almost three years and concerned 818 court docket periods, 419 witnesses, 4,336 items of proof and greater than 48,000 pages of trial information. The proceedings uncovered Japan’s grave battle crimes, such because the Nanjing Massacre and the Bataan Death March, revealing the brutality and inhumanity of the Japanese army.
In latest days, newly launched archival supplies have offered additional proof of atrocities dedicated by the Japanese army through the battle, highlighting the significance of preserving historic reminiscence and studying from the previous.
A report archived on the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, authored by Japanese army surgeon Tsutomu Saito, confirmed that in 1938, Japanese forces used blood drawn from horses, sheep, canines, rabbits and chickens to conduct reside experiments on 23 prisoners of battle.
Moreover, historian Jin Chengmin’s e book “Black Box: Unit 731” was formally launched on July 5 on the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army. The e book presents beforehand unpublished archival supplies that reveal the germ warfare crimes dedicated by the infamous Japanese Unit 731 throughout World War II.
Experts attending the e book launch stated the publication contributes to the research of wartime historical past and promotes evidence-based historic schooling among the many public. They added that acknowledging documented information and reflecting on wartime atrocities present a basis for justice and lasting peace.
A histotrical {photograph} of Lugou Bridge. /VCG
Concerns over historic revisionism
However, efforts to protect historical past have confronted challenges. For a long time, Japanese authorities have tried to reshape narratives surrounding the nation’s wartime historical past.
In the most recent batch of highschool textbooks authorized by Japan’s schooling ministry to be used from the 2027 tutorial 12 months, sure historical past textbooks as soon as once more seem to downplay or deny Japan’s wartime wrongdoing, together with points associated to compelled labor and “comfort women.”
Kumiko Haba, professor emeritus at Aoyama Gakuin University, famous that the newly authorized textbooks additional cut back protection of the Nanjing Massacre and the difficulty of “comfort women.” She stated efforts to revise historical past textbooks in Japan have accelerated over the previous three a long time.
Lyu Yaodong, a researcher on the Institute of Japanese Studies on the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated revising historical past textbooks has lengthy been one in every of Japan’s customary ways for denying, downplaying and whitewashing its historical past of aggression. He added that outright denial of the historical past of aggression itself lies on the core of Japanese historic revisionism.
“When a generation is raised on a selectively edited version of history, its understanding of the brutality of war and a nation’s responsibility for past actions is inevitably incomplete,” Lyu stated. Such efforts, he added, not solely deprive youthful generations of the chance to obtain an correct historic schooling, but in addition undermine Japanese society’s capacity to be taught from historical past.
“Only by remembering history, resolutely opposing attempts to whitewash and overturn judgments on militarist aggression and crimes, and actively upholding the achievements of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War can the international community prevent efforts to erode the foundations of the postwar international order,” Lyu stated.
Source: CGTN