Today July 7, remembering Japanese atrocities: China marks 77th anniversary of anti-Japan war 1937

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A grand gathering is held to mark the 77th anniversary of the beginning of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressions at the Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressions in Beijing, capital of China, July 7, 2014. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

China marks 77th anniversary of start of anti-Japan war

July 7 incident: String of events leading up to 1937 fight

Next Monday marks the 77th anniversary of the July 7 incident, or the "Lugou Bridge Incident&qu...A grand gathering is held to mark the 77th anniversary of beginning of Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressions in Beijing, July 7, 2014.

July 7 is an anniversary that should be remembered by both Chinese and Japanese.

Seventy-seven years ago, at Lugou Bridge, known as Marco Polo Bridge to the Western people, Japanese troops attacked Chinese defenders in the nearby fortress town of Wanping, marking the beginning of the eight-year Anti-Japanese War.

Civilians were killed by gunfire, bombs, gas and biological weapons; women were raped; forced laborers were tortured to death.

It was a devastating tragedy not only for China, but also for Japanese people.

Ignoring objections from peace lovers at home, warmongering fascists initiated the war, leaving Japanese soldiers to shed their blood away from their motherland and women and children deserted back home. Those people who provoked the war marked their own country with humiliation in history.

What's more, 77 years later, the Japanese government still fails to introspect on what it did in the past and cherish the current peace.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet endorsed a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution on Tuesday for the right to collective self-defense, the latest move in challenging the international bottom line. A Japanese person even set himself alight in protest.

From the slapstick of the "nationalization" of China's Diaoyu Islands by the former Japanese government, to Abe's ridiculous visit to the Yasukuni Shrine and to the pacifist Constitution reinterpretation, right-wingers in Japan have initiated a series of provocations.

War is hell, but there are always devils who try to spark war and trample peace under foot.

Born in an island country with limited natural resources, Japanese people are respected for their diligence and energy-saving awareness. However, there are always a small number of people who attempt to loot the resources of other countries by way of invasion, bringing catastrophe to neighbors including the Korean Peninsula, India, Vietnam, the Philippines and China.

Decades have passed. With the common efforts of government leaders and civilians who cherish peace, China and Japan have greatly strengthened economic ties and cultural exchanges by putting hatred behind them. But some in Japan are now always trying to disturb the international postwar order by ignoring history, something no peace lover in either country wants to see.

China has a deep-rooted culture of seeking peace and expects the Abe government to stop its provocations. Otherwise, they will have to take their medicine.

Japan frays nerves of neighboring countries



For the Chinese people, July 7, 1937 was a day when one of their worst nightmares began, as it marked the beginning of the eight-year-long China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese empire, where many reckless militarist policies were born, invaded China and some Southeast Asian countries, causing huge pain to Asian people.

Seventy-seven years later, the psychological wounds of the Chinese people have not been fully healed, as Japanese rightists have repeatedly denied its atrocities of the aggression and taken a provocative approach in addressing ties with its neighboring countries.

Even worse, these wounds are once again touched recently as the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 1 approved a resolution that would allow the country to exercise the so-called "collective self-defense right" by reinterpreting its pacifist Constitution, despite strong protests from home and abroad.

According to the war-renouncing Article 9 of the country's Constitution, Japan has been banned to exercise the right to collective self-defense after World War II due to its heinous war crimes to Asian countries.

However, the resolution would enable Tokyo to fight for "countries with close ties" with Japan even though Japan itself is not under attack, which signals that the Japanese government has shifted its previous restrictive postwar security policy to a more proactive one.

It is by no means the first time that the Abe's administration irritates its neighbors and stirs up regional tensions by adopting provocative policies.

In recent years, Tokyo has tried hard to strengthen its military buildup and seek military expansion amid festering historical and territorial disputes with neighboring countries, including the attempt to revise its national defense policy in late December last year.

Right-wing Japanese politicians have repeatedly watered down Japan's history of aggression and visited the notorious Yasukuni Shrine that honors the country's war criminals, which has further alarmed regional countries including China and South Korea.

The Japanese government has played up hard the so-called China-threat theory, and dressed up itself as a victim of Beijing's peaceful development, paving the way for the country to develop its self-defense forces.

However, what Abe has done is equivalent to playing with fire, as he is leading his country down a dangerous path.

As a relatively small island country with scarce natural resources, it is really unwise for Japan to engage in big-power geopolitics and aggressions against its neighbors.

As the provoker and defeated country of the World War II, Japan should learn from the lessons of the wars and give up its attempt for better warships and missiles as its recklessness would affect Asia as a whole.

Beijing always tries to develop a strategic partnership of mutual benefits with its neighboring country, but a dangerous Tokyo has wasted many precious chances to build sound bilateral ties amid its endless provocations.

As one of the important players in Asia and on world arena, it is high time for Japan to face up to its aggression in history and pursue the path of peaceful development instead of angering the region with rounds and rounds of irresponsible words and provocative policies.

Sources: China Daily/Asia News Network

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UNESCO accepts Nanjing Massacre, comfort women documents

More Video:  UNESCO accepts Nanjing Massacre, comfort women ...

China said on Thursday UNESCO has accepted its application to register records of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and Japan's wartime sex slaves on the Memory of the World Register.

The documents listed by China are first-hand materials that recorded Japanese invaders' atrocities in Nanjing from Dec. 13, 1937 to March 1, 1938, including the slaughter of Chinese soldiers and civilians and the conscription of "comfort women", said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a daily press briefing.

The documents fit the criteria of the register, she said, adding that they should become the common memories of mankind and be cherished and protected by all mankind.

China submitted the application to cherish peace, respect human dignity and prevent the tragic and dark time from happening again, she said.

Japan has opposed the application.

The Japanese government's opposition shows its false reading of history, Hua said, adding that China will not drop its application.

She urged Japan to face up to, remember and correctly tackle issues left over from history, instead of attempting to deny or even whitewash its aggression history.

"We hope the Japanese government shows remorse for its past and corrects its misdeeds with sincerity and concrete actions, to create a peaceful future with its Asian neighbors and people of the world," she said.

Created in 1997, the Memory of the World Register protects the world's documentary heritage.

Historians estimate that 200,000 women were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese forces during WWII, most of them from countries invaded by Japan at that time. - Xinhua

UNESCO listing helps to remind Japan of brutal history 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that China has submitted an application to UNESCO to list archives related to the brutalities committed by the Japanese military during WWII on the organization's Memory of the World Register.

At Tuesday's regular briefing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said these archives are precious historical documents concerning the Nanjing Massacre and comfort women. Expectedly, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga responded acidly, saying his government "will lodge a protest and ask China to withdraw the application if there is a political intention behind it."

It seems that Japanese right-wing politicians have lost their logic. History is history, and misdeeds done against entire humankind cannot be undone. The right wing's attempt to protest against authentic materials that can prove Japan's wrongdoings in the past only demonstrates their cowardice in the face of historical facts. China won't compromise on this matter as the atrocities perpetrated by Japanese troops are unarguable. They are globally confirmed facts. It would be a self-degradation if these Japanese rightists keep lying to themselves and the world.

The reason why Japanese right-wing groups swell with arrogance, to some extent, stems from the lack of global condemnation of their misdeeds. Compared with the attention of the world to what the Jewish people went through during WWII, there are fewer eyes focused on how East Asian victims suffered under the iron heel of the Japanese military.

This asymmetric attention leaves China at a disadvantaged position when arguing with Japan on historical issues. Some Western countries, which have a prejudiced view of China's rise, are taking an ambiguous attitude toward Japan over historical issues.

In the last few years, China has been looking to the future and chosen not to be disturbed by historical rifts when developing relations with Japan. However, as Japan's right deviation keeps speeding up with Shinzo Abe in office, China must realize that historical issues, a key component of the Sino-Japanese relationship, must top the agenda.

In this case, it is necessary for China to lead the world community in reviewing what a rightist, imperialist Japan did to East Asia and the rest of the world decades ago, and let them know the consequences of allowing a resurrection of the Japanese right wing. The more international support China can acquire, the less breathing space these Japanese rightists will have. -

By Liu Zhun Global Times

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UNESCO receives Chinese bid for listing of Nanjing documents China is applying to UNESCO to list 11 sets of documents relating to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre on the Memory of the World Register.

China confirms 'comfort women’ docs given to UNESCO

China has submitted applications to UNESCO to preserve the archives that confirm the suffering of "comfort women", in order to make them part of the Memory of the World Register.

“By applying for the inclusion of precious historical documents related to the Nanjing Massacre and Japan's forced recruitment of the ‘comfort women’ in the register, China intends to commemorate history, treasure peace, uphold the dignity of mankind, and prevent such offences against humanity, human rights, and human beings from ever happening again.”

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying confirmed the news at a regular press conference on Tuesday.

When asked whether the Chinese government has applied for the inclusion of relevant files and documents, Hua said that Memory of the World Register is an important initiative launched by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which collects manuscripts and rare documents preserved in libraries and archives as well as oral historical records of worldwide significance.

China has been active in making applications to the Memory of the World Register and currently has nine documents listed on the register. What has been submitted on this occasion is a series of authentic, rare and precious documents with historical significance, which meet the standard of application.

The application follows recent comments by leading Japanese politicians and academics casting doubt on the plight of the comfort women.

The Japanese Imperial Army had a policy of forcing women captured in occupied lands to work as sex slaves in military brothels.

What is Memory of the World Register?

UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme is an international initiative launched to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, the ravages of time and climatic conditions, and willful and deliberate destruction.

It calls for the preservation of valuable archival holdings, library collections and private individual compendia from all over the world for posterity, for the reconstitution of dispersed or displaced documentary heritage, and for increased access to and dissemination of these items.

This documentary heritage serves as a mirror, reflecting the diversity of language, ethnic groups and culture, and also the memory of the world.

However, much documentary heritage is fragile, and we are losing memories every day. UNESCO has therefore launched the program as a way to preserve and promote documentary heritage, which can be a single document, a collection, a holding, or an archive that is deemed to be of such significance as to transcend the boundaries of time and culture.

As of June 2013, there were 299 items of international significance from 100 countries included in "Memory of the World”. China has nine documents listed on the register. They are:

Ancient Naxi Dongba Literary Manuscripts
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2003.

Ben Cao Gang Mu ( Compendium of Materia Medica)
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2011.

Golden Lists of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Examination
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2005.

Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon)
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2011.

Official Records of Tibet from Yuan Dynasty China, 1304-1367
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2013.

Qiaopi and Yinxin Correspondence and Remittance Documents from Overseas Chinese
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2013.

Qing Dynasty Yangshi Lei Archives
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2007.

Records of the Qing's Grand Secretariat - 'Infiltration of Western Culture in China'
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 1999.

Traditional Music Sound Archives
Documentary heritage submitted by China and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 1997. - (People's Daily Online)

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Asia future at risk if Obama sends wrong signals to Japan

US President Barack Obama steps from the Air Force One as he arrives in Tokyo, Japan on April 23, 2014. Obama began a four-country trip through the Asia-Pacific region on Wednesday. (Left)

Future hangs in the balance

The US president should persuade Japan's right-wingers of the error of their ways during his trip to the region to ensure stability.

After undergoing nearly seven decades of development since the end of World War II, Asia has already taken on a new look, witnessing not only the rise of a group of industrialized countries and regions during the latter part of the 20th century, but also the emergence of a number of economies that have grown to be the engine of global economic growth in the new century.

However, Asia's development is still unbalanced.

First, Asia's political cooperation is out of step with its economic dynamism. Political trust, particularly in East Asia, is still severely lacking. The actions and comments of Japanese right-wingers, who go so far as to complain of injustice when it comes to the Tokyo Trials and try to strengthen the country's control of territory it annexed illegally during its imperialist past, have undoubtedly sown the seeds of deep mistrust among East Asian countries.

Second, in the context of the strained relations between some countries in the region, some Western media have been hyping speculation that the Asian economy might slow further. It is true economies in East Asia have recently experienced moderate or medium-speed growth after years of high-speed expansion. But this tendency is in line with the law of development, and also is connected to the fatigued global economy. Even so, the development speed of Asia's emerging economies still far exceeds that of Western developed countries, and their momentum is increasingly reshaping the global landscape.

Because of the existence of various rifts and the lack of mutual trust, the region is in desperate need of candid dialogue. The trust deficit in Asia has affected the progress of regional economic cooperation, but at the same time it also suggests that there is great potential for further economic, investment and trade cooperation in the region, including the construction of regional free trade areas.

Asia needs to accumulate constructive positive energy, give full play to the spirit of countries being in the same boat, and effectively alleviate regional tensions to change the negative factors into positive elements. Moreover, Asia should oppose any shortsighted actions to set up small cliques.

Currently in Asia, there are serious differences between those countries adhering to unity and cooperation to benefit all and those trying to form cliques and factions to benefit themselves. It is Japan that is leading such divisiveness, as it has tried to piece together an Asian version of NATO, and antagonized its neighbors by clinging obstinately to its denial of historical facts and even embarked along the road of glorifying aggression.

Any responsible power must go all out to contribute to regional peace and stability based on human morality and justice. As a great power with tremendous economic and military presence in the region, how the United States sets out its Asia-Pacific position will make all the difference to Asia's stability and development. Whether Washington will offer constructive cooperation to Asian countries' efforts to enhance mutual trust and erase the doubts of its intentions has a direct bearing on regional peace, as well as the US' own strategic interests.

Thus the eyes of the world are focused on US President Barack Obama's four-nation trip to Asia that began in Japan on Wednesday.

If the US can aim high and think big and cooperate sincerely with countries in the region to establish a common security and trust mechanism that is suitable to the characteristics of the Asia-Pacific region, it will surely receive a share of Asia's peace dividend and be genuinely welcomed among Asian countries.

However, if the US is unwilling or unable to contribute to Asia-Pacific stability, and instead takes sides in the region's various historical and sovereignty disputes, it will be hard for the country to become the kind of responsible power that can benefit Asia. If the US only looks at short-term interests and sits watching Japan turning its military ambition into reality step by step, not only will the troublemaker's interests be ultimately damaged, but also those of the US.

History has repeatedly shown us that a country that employs a policy of appeasement will eventually shoot itself in the foot.

The author is a professor and associate dean of the Institute of International Studies, Fudan University.

Contributed by Shen Dingli  China Daily

Japan reassured over Diaoyu

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) waves next to Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after dinner at Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant in Tokyo, April 23,2014  (left)

US President Barack Obama started his four-nation Asia tour on Wednesday by overtly supporting Japan over its disputed territory with China, which experts say will exacerbate the already tense situation in East Asia.

In a written interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun published on Wednesday, Obama stated that the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea fall under Article 5 of the Japan-US Security Treaty, which obliges the US to protect Japan if there are conflicts over Japan-administered territories. He also supported moves by Japan to ease self-defense limits in his remarks.

"We oppose any unilateral attempts to undermine Japan's administration of these islands," Obama said, adding that the US engagement with China "does not and will not come at the expense of Japan or any other ally."

While Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been seeking to ease the restrictions on its collective self-defense rights prohibited by Japan's Pacifist Constitution, Obama welcomed Japan playing a greater role in international security.

"I commend Prime Minister Abe for his efforts to strengthen Japan's defense forces and to deepen the coordination between our militaries, including by reviewing existing limits on the exercise of collective self-defense," Obama said, requesting Japan's Self-Defense Forces "do more within the framework of our alliance."

This is the first time that an incumbent US president has made such open remarks in support of Japan.

"Abe, more than any of his predecessors, has made headway on what Washington has long wanted from Japan, to become a more assertive partner in regional security," Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan Campus, told the Global Times.

Obama, who is making the first full state visit to Japan by a US President since 1996, is expected to assuage worries by Tokyo and other allies regarding his commitment to their defense, without hurting vital US ties with Asia's biggest economy - China.

Such assurances are likely to be high on the agenda when Obama meets Abe at a symbolic summit on Thursday.

"If Obama intends to improve relations with China, he is likely to antagonize the ally. To the extent that he improves relations with the allies, he'll antagonize Beijing," Kingston said, adding that Obama is on a "mission impossible."

"Obama wants a better relationship with Beijing, but he thinks that Beijing also needs to think about modifying its behavior," Kingston noted.

Shi Yinhong, director of the Center on American Studies at the Renmin University of China, said the remarks are intended to warn China while reassuring Japan and other US allies of its security guarantee, which has been under suspicion due to the way the US has dealt with the Ukraine issue.

"Japan will be very satisfied this time. But this will encourage Tokyo to step up its confrontation with Beijing," Shi told the Global Times, adding that it will further strain tensions in Asia and even damage Sino-US relations.

Japan has ramped up its military surveillance capabilities on its westernmost island of Yonaguni, which is close to the Diaoyu Islands, by starting construction of a radar unit on Saturday.

Reiterating that the Diaoyu Islands are an inherent part of China's territory, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said China is strongly opposed that the islands being part of the security treaty, which was reached during the Cold War and should not damage China's sovereignty and rightful interests.

Obama and Abe are also keen to show progress on a two-way trade pact. This is seen as critical to a broader regional deal that would be one of the world's biggest trade agreements and is central to Obama's "pivot" towards Asia.

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WWII 'slaves' sue Japan firms

About 700 people who were forced to work in Japan during World War II filed a lawsuit in east China's Shandong Province on Tuesday, demanding both an apology and compensation from two China-based Japanese companies.

more Images for Japanese WWII forced labour

LiveLeak.com - Chinese sue Japanese companies over slave labor in WWII, asking for 1 million yuan compensation per person

Four representatives on behalf of the former laborers signed a letter, authorizing a legal aid team to file the lawsuit at Shandong Higher People's Court.

Mitsubishi Corporation (Qingdao) Ltd. and Yantai Mitsubishi Cement Co., Ltd., which are accused of forcing laborers from Shandong to Japan to work during the war, are being sued 1 million yuan (160,700 US dollars) per victim in compensation. The laborers also want a written apology published in major newspapers in China, said Fu Qiang, executive head of the legal aid team and head of Shandong Pengfei Law Office.

Fu said the two Mitsubishi companies are not directly connected but affiliated to the original perpetrator, Mitsubishi Materials Corp in Japan.

"The two companies are foreign-owned enterprises in China, and subject to Chinese law," said Fu.

This is the second time the laborers have brought a compliant to court. In September 2010, six laborers, on behalf of 1,000 Chinese from Shandong, brought a lawsuit against the two companies. The court refused to accept the case.

Around 40,000 Chinese, one-fourth of whom were from Shandong, were forced to work in Japan during the war. Of these workers, 7,000 died in Japan. Thirty-five Japanese companies are believed to have been involved in forced labor from 1937 to 1945, when Japan invaded China.

Quoting government figures, Wang Wanying, one of the four representatives and son of a victim, said out of 1,500 laborers brought to Japan from Shandong's Yuncheng County, only 130 people returned home alive.

"My father was lucky enough to survive," said 55-year-old Wang. "We will carry on to seek justice," he said.

Japanese courts have rejected all compensation claims in 15 lawsuits filed by forced Chinese laborers since the 1990s, saying that a 1972 bilateral agreement nullified Chinese rights to seek war-related compensation.

However, former Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, said in March 1995 that although China had discarded national reparations, the government did not abandon its people's rights to demand compensation.

On March 26, nine former laborers filed a lawsuit against Coke Industry Co., Ltd. of Japan, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and the Japanese government at Tangshan City Intermediate People's Court. They are requesting compensation. A decision to accept the case has not been made yet.

On March 18, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court accepted a lawsuit against Coke Industry Co., Ltd. of Japan and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation over the matter, the first such case to be accepted in China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Japan should seriously address issues of forced labor, take a responsible attitude and seriously treat and properly handle the issues left over from history. - Xinhua

Japan, reverting to its history’s infamy !

The ghosts of Japan’s imperial past have returned to haunt the nation, its government, and the other countries in this region.

IF anyone still doubts the controversies about Japan’s current nationalistic urges, news reports and media commentaries in the region clearly confirm they persist.

Nations sometimes have leaders who shoot themselves in both feet and then promptly stuff them in their mouths. Japan’s current leaders have lately outdone all these others before.

Opinion leaders in the region have recently noted the excesses of right-wing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, its various indiscretions, and the reactions to them.

Much in the simmering controversies, notably in South Korea and China, comes courtesy of Abe’s team in Tokyo’s establishment. He, his deputy Taro Aso and some of their appointees have actively stoked the embers of regional contention.

Abe, the nationalist grandson of imprisoned Nobosuke Kishi, a suspected “Class A” war criminal, had briefly served as prime minister before without much controversy.

But by courting contempt this time in trying to rewrite history and defiantly visiting Yasukuni War Shrine honouring war criminals to proclaim that Japan did nothing wrong in World War II, Abe got the trouble he risked getting.

Aso himself is a “veteran” in provoking controversy. As foreign minister before, he was even more defiant and unapologetic than Abe, and has lately called on Japan to learn from Nazi Germany.

Their appointees such as chairman Katsuto Momii and governor Naoki Hyakuta of public broadcaster NHK have likewise made outrageous comments about Imperial Japan’s atrocities.

Momii said the sex slaves that Japanese troops made of Korean women was a common occurrence of any country at war, earning a rebuke from the United States.

Hyakuta championed Imperial Japan, denying that the Nanjing Massacre ever happened.

Abe’s choice of other controversies at the same time included efforts to rewrite the post-war Constitution to make it less conciliatory, revising past apologies for the war, and hardening Japan’s claims to disputed maritime territories.

The result: aggravating relations with South Korea and China. Although China-Japan relations are often said to be fraught because of Japan’s horrific wartime incursions, Tokyo’s relations with Seoul are even worse.

Even at the height of activism against US imperialism decades ago, Japan remained the biggest sore point for Koreans.

Now Abe is even less popular among South Koreans than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with two successive Presidents – and conservative ones at that – underscoring this position.

In a Korean press commentary on Thursday, Abe was described as having “become by far the most hated Japanese head of government for Koreans in recent decades”.

With 82% of Koreans convinced that Japan has not atoned for its sordid past, others have called Abe by worse names.

But have Abe and his inner circle learned anything from all this? They have offered retractions and apologies when pressed, but remained firmly set in their views.

Yet it need not be so. It was not like that for many years before.

In the 1990s, NHK invited me to give a seminar to regional news correspondents at its headquarters in Tokyo.

I was then holding a fellowship at a Japanese policy research institute to examine the prospects for regional cooperation, which happened to be a time of some regional ferment.

I introduced South-East Asia’s history and cultures without mentioning the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan, because there was no need to. Yet a young newsman later approached me to say he knew of Japanese war crimes despite all the denials.

A senior NHK staff who shared the taxi with me later explained that the common image of a constantly apologetic Japanese people was a misleading stereotype. Wherever these NHK people have gone today, they do not seem to be represented in its board.

Around that time, “maverick” Japanese historian Saburo Ienaga was entangled with the Japanese government in several court cases over an accurate depiction of Japan’s role during the war.

In Tokyo’s clumsy attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities, the Education Ministry rejected Ienaga’s school textbooks. As he arrived at the courthouse to take on the authorities, he was cheered by a supportive Japanese public.

The Japanese public has repeatedly been more enlightened and liberal than any nationalistic government or self-proclaimed “liberal” party.

Commentators put this difference down to a flawed and dysfunctional political system, despite a mantle of democracy.

A recent commentary excused Japan in otherwise unfavourable comparisons with a contrite Germany because of “cultural” differences. However, while Germany assists in the international pursuit and prosecution of Nazi war criminals, Japan has the Yasukuni Shrine glorifying such criminals instead.

The commentary added that Germany was different in being offered full membership of a European community.

Actually, Japan was offered both membership and leadership of an East Asian Economic Grouping, when its economy was stronger and China’s ascendancy was still in its infancy, but Tokyo rejected it outright.

It was further said that like Germany, full atonement is best done in groups. But very much unlike Germany, there are groups in Japan that continue to deny wartime atrocities and – like Hyakuta and his ilk – insist that Imperial Japan had done Asia a favour with invasion and occupation.

Hardly anyone who has suffered Japanese wartime occupation would believe that tale. Japanese forces had never invaded North-East or South-East Asia only to grant independence to the countries there.

Among these reactionary and revisionist groups was a far-right party that had organised an international conference in Tokyo to argue these points some two decades ago.

As I entered the hall as an observer, I was swiftly introduced to a war veteran who had proudly published a book to “prove” that the Nanjing Massacre was a myth.

When former Malaysian foreign minister Tun Ghazali Shafie spotted me in the hall, he came over to assure me that everything was under control and that the Malaysian embassy had a staff present to take notes.

I looked around and saw a young Malaysian diplomat trying to make sense of the proceedings.

The organisers had invited foreign speakers like Ghazali to endorse their views, to which he hastened to reply that all he meant was that the region should look to the future together rather than dwell on the problems of the past. They did not seem to take note of the nuances.

Such extremist groups remain active in Japan, and have become even more vocal and visible than before. Observers note that they have lately moved from the margins to the mainstream of Japan’s body politic.

What is the sum total of their impact on Japanese officialdom? How far has their influence strayed beyond Tokyo?

Earlier this month, a Japanese diplomat based in Kuala Lumpur reviewed some of these issues with me in a private discussion.

He was a youngish, liberal-minded officer about the same age as the NHK news correspondent who confided in me in the 1990s.

In the course of our discussion I mentioned that although South Korea and China are often cited as griping about Japan’s militarist past, people in South-East Asia who had also suffered Japanese imperialism feel the same without necessarily announcing it to the world.

He expressed surprise, not knowing before that anyone in this region had suffered anything under Japan during the war.

Tokyo’s history deniers and revisionists seem to have scored some success after all.

Contributed by Behind The Headlines Bunn Nagara, The Star/ANN

• Bunn Nagara is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.
• The views expressed are entirely the writer's own 

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An utterly unrepentant Japan opening up past wounds derail peace diplomacy

Whatever declarations Japanese leaders may make about the aims of their visits to the Yasukuni Shrine being only to honour their war dead, the acid test is whether victims of their past aggression believe them.

THE recent visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Yasukuni Shrine has provoked a very negative reaction in China and South Korea.

While less strident, other countries like the United States and Singapore also did not approve of the visit. The former expressed disappointment while the latter stated that it regretted the visit.

At the heart of the disapproval is the belief that such a visit indicates that Japan has not come to terms with its past of aggression in Asia. Many compare this unfavourably with Germany where it is very unlikely, if not inconceivable, that the highest German political leader will ever make a public visit to a shrine of Adolf Hitler or of any top Nazi leader.

How valid is this comparison?

It is first necessary to state that the issue is somewhat more complicated than a clear-cut case of an utterly unrepentant Japan and a completely contrite Germany. The Japanese public are deeply pacifist. While it is true that they have caused tremendous destruction in Asia, they themselves have been profoundly scarred by the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Moreover, there are many Japanese, parti­cularly those in the teachers’ unions, progressive intellectuals – especially from the older generation – and others, who are unequivocal in their condemnation of their country’s record in the Second World War.

Germany, for its part, did experience some neo-Nazi manifestations, especially in the eastern part of Germany just after reunification. And there was the controversy over the visit of President Reagan to a cemetery in Pitburgh in 1985 where some of Hitler’s Waffen SS were buried.

Helmut Kohl, then Chancellor, despite protests from many Jewish personalities, insisted that Reagan together with Kohl himself, not cave in to the protests. The Germans argued that many German cemeteries have buried SS officers. Moreover, many of these SS men were innocent young men forced to join the SS at a young age.

Such aside, it is nevertheless clear that in the main, the Germans have come to terms with their recent history. They have clearly acknowledged they did wrong under Hitler and have vowed not to resurrect the Third Reich.

They have, in addition to giving substantial reparations to their victims, made many convincing gestures of contrition, one of the most dramatic being that of the then Chancellor, Willi Brandt, going down on one knee in a monument in Poland in 1970 honouring the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during the Nazi era.

The Japanese on their part are much more ambivalent. Their apologies have been hedged about by many qualifications, and often when made by one leader refuted by statements and actions of other leaders.
And, more dramatically, some of their highes­t political leaders have visited, and intend to continue visiting, the Yasukuni Shrine where many class one war criminals have been enshrined.

Whatever the declarations the Japanese may make about the aims of their visits to Yasukuni being only to honour their war dead, the acid test is whether their war victims believe them. In this, the Chinese and Koreans do not. On the other hand, the victims of the Germans do.

The most dramatic recent example is the plea by the Polish foreign minister in 2011 to the Germans to take leadership of a federal Europe!

One can hardly expect a Chinese or Korean leader to ask for Japanese leadership in Asian affairs!

There are three reasons why both differ in their approach to their recent history. One consists of what they actually, or believe they actually, did.

Amidst the horrors of war the Germans unleashed, they went on an extermination of Jews and other groups which could not be justified by the exigencies of war or by any other wrongs that others may have been inflicted on the Germans. Such an extermination was a clear-cut case of genocide.

Many Japanese, on their part, argued that they committed no such genocide in Asia, and what atrocities Japanese soldiers committed were not a result of policy but of the stress of war. Moreover, in their colonial conquests, they were only following the examples of the Western colonial powers. In some places like South-East Asia, they helped their liberation movements.

While there is some degree of truth in the Japanese argument, some heinous crimes such as the human experimentation by their notorious Japanese Unit 731 and the testing of bacteriological warfare in parts of China cannot easily be justified as due to the strains of war.

While the Western comparison over colonial conquests may seem valid, it cuts no ice with those countries colonised, like Korea and China.

In fairness, some Japanese scholars acknowledge that whatever the Western example, they were wrong in colonising these two countries. Hopefully, such acknowledgement can be one basis for reconciliation between Japan and their Northeast Asian neighbours.

The second reason, somewhat related to the first, is the lack of a regional grouping the Japanese could identify with or be a member of. Germany had a regional organisation, the European community, they could, if not subordinate themselves to its regional aims, use as the focus of their attempt not to repeat their past.

In the words of one of the greatest 20th century German intellectuals, Thomas Mann, Germany should strive for a European Germany, not a German Europe. Asia is too diverse, culturally and economically, and still filled with bitter war memories, for Japan to identify with.

Third, the de-Nazification campaign in Germany was quite thorough. Few Germans, if any, with Nazi connections were allowed to occupy significant governmental and private posts in post-war Germany.

Japan was different. While in the initial stages, the Americans, who basically dominated Allied policy (there was more non-American input in running post-war Germany), intended to purge Japan of those involved in Japanese aggression in Asia, they subsequently relented by allowing many to assume positions of influence in a post-war Japan. (Abe’s maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi who was Prime Minister in the 1950s was one of them.)

The US needed an anti-communist, strong Japan against communism in Asia, especially China. It is thus difficult for post-war Japanese governments consisting of many who committed aggression in Asia and who could have influenced their successors to acknowledge they did wrong.

It would now seem that those inclined to the denial that Japan committed aggression are gaining momentum in Japan. It would be a sad day for Japan and for Asia that a Japan which had made a lot of headway in its peace diplomacy after the war would have that peaceful image destroyed by becoming clearly unrepentant about its past.

- Contributed by Lee Poh Ping, a Senior Research Fellow, Institute of China Studies at Universiti Malaya.

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Japan Prime Minister Abe’s Yasukuni visit deals blow to Japanese-US ties

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's shameful visit to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine on Thursday strikes a serious blow against US-Japan relations. The visit was completely unnecessary and directly flouted friendly and constructive advice from the Obama administration. Americans should view the present Cold War era alliance with Japan as not only unnecessary but in fact counterproductive given the trend of rising militarism in Japan.

Often people in the US and in Europe perceive that WWII started in Europe with Hitler's attack on Poland in 1939. But the fact is that the road to WWII started with the Japanese invasion of China in September 1931.

Then 10 years later, the Japanese treacherously attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Americans will never forget this day of infamy and betrayal.

Abe's visit to the notorious shrine is a direct affront to US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden who both have worked hard to calm tensions over issues in the East China Sea. Just recently, Biden on his visit to the region encouraged the creation of joint Sino-Japanese mechanisms for crisis management.

Obama and Biden are doing their best to respond to a changing world and to the emerging multipolar international system. They have been acting in good faith toward Japan on the basis that Japan is believed to be a friend.

The American people have not held a grudge against Japan about WWII. But the increasing militarism and unacceptable behavior of leaders such as Abe may well bring back memories of WWII and cause perspectives to change.

My godfather served in the US Navy during WWII. He fought in the Pacific. I remember as a child in the 1950s hearing about his participation in the Battle of the Coral Sea. He returned home after the war and lived out his days in San Diego, California. I still have some letters he wrote to my late parents during the war.

A cousin of my father was not so fortunate. He did not return from his duty in the navy in the Pacific as he died from a kamikaze attack against his ship.

There was never once that I recall a negative word about Japan or the Japanese in my family's household. The war was over and that was that. Soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen on both sides had done their duty for their respective countries. Time to move on, was the feeling Americans had.

This generous attitude of many in the older generation of Americans can change as Americans of the present generation and future generations reflect on WWII. The insulting behavior of Japanese politicians such as Abe, combined with Japan's trend toward militarization and extremism, may well open eyes and dispense with a heretofore "polite" attitude. The world has seen the results of such trends before.  American opinion, if betrayed, turns rapidly.

Has Japan ever really sincerely apologized for WWII? Germany so apologized and the memory of Nazi horrors is seared into German consciousness. It has consistently demonstrated its good faith through its economic integration in Western Europe and through its constructive and peaceful foreign policy. 

Abe's shameful behavior shows Japan's official attitude for the entire world to see. He is the prime minister of Japan. He is not a private citizen making a personal religious commemoration for spirits of the war dead.

Washington must reflect carefully on its national strategy and the Asia-Pacific component. So far, the unimaginative policy has been to continue the Cold War alliance structure and to revamp US relations with the region on the basis of increased military power projection to encircle a rising China.

The Abe shrine visit should be a clear warning to Washington that this strategy is deeply flawed and not sustainable.  The US alliance with Japan and Japan's rising militarism may well prove fatally counterproductive.

Contributed by Clifford A. Kiracofe

The author is an educator and former senior professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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Yasukuni glorifies Japan's inglorious past

Japanese Ghost: Yasukuni Shrine

In the field of diplomacy, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could be better described as "Downturn Abe".

His visit to the Yasukuni Shrine is a calculated rebuff to those in Japan who seek better diplomatic relations and warms the hearts of those who want Japan to be a major military power and jettison any constitutional restraints preventing this.

The Yasukuni Shrine does not serve the same purpose as Arlington National Cemetery in the United States, or the Cenotaph in the United Kingdom. No bodies are buried at Yasukuni Shrine. Japan's head of state refuses to visit. Indeed, no emperor has set foot inside the shrine since 1975, three years before the souls of war criminals were interred there by Shinto priests. News of the enshrinement was kept quiet for months.

The late emperor Hirohito refused to go there after convicted war criminals, seven of whom were hanged, were secretly enshrined in 1978, joining about 2.5 million other Japanese who died in battle in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hirohito had paid his respects at Yasukuni eight times after the war but made his final visit in 1975 by which time, according to palace documents, he became disillusioned with the way the shrine was being managed and what it was trying to represent.

His son, Emperor Akihito, has never visited.

Japan does have a national cemetery, with the remains of the war dead, in Chidorigafuchi, just up the road from Yasukuni. Few politicians visit.

Yasukuni has a specific role: It pays homage to, and celebrates, unapologetic militarism. This piece of Tokyo real estate, close to the Imperial Palace, with its broad avenue lined by cherry blossom trees, is considered holy ground by extreme nationalists.

It is a shrine dedicated to glorifying war, empire and unrepentant militarism.

It is a privately run shrine that enjoys the close patronage of the Japan Association of War Bereaved. The association has, and continues to enjoy, close ties to the governing Liberal Democratic Party.

The Yushukan museum, attached to the shrine, is a land of make-believe for militarists. It claims that Japan was forced into war by the US, and that Tokyo waged an honorable campaign to free Asia from white European colonialism. This time frame, conveniently, leaves out the rapacious behavior of Japanese troops in China before Pearl Harbor.

A Zero fighter aircraft greets visitors at the museum's entrance. No mention is made of the Nanjing Massacre or the razing of Manila. A giant mural depicts the Battle of Tokyo Bay. No battle ever took place.

During World War II, a ballad popular with Japanese troops heading off to fight had the following refrain: "You and I are cherry blossoms of the same year. Even if we're far apart when our petals fall, we'll bloom again in the treetops of Yasukuni Shrine."

Abe is nurturing the roots of those cherry blossom trees.

By Tom Clifford, a senior copy editor of China Daily USA

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Japan PM Abe's visits to Yasukuni glorifying Japan's war criminals, stirs new tension in Asia!

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (2nd L) is led by a Shinto priest as he visits Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo December 26, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

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Serious consequences warned after Abe pays war tribute

Shinzo Abe stunned the international community on Thursday by making himself the first sitting Japanese prime minister in seven years to visit a shrine that honors 14 World War II Class A war criminals among the country's war dead.

The abrupt move — widely viewed as rewriting public memory on Japan's militaristic past — enraged Japan's victimized neighbors including China and South Korea and disappointed Japan's traditional ally the United States.

Observers said the hard-core nationalist Abe is ruining the stability of Northeast Asia and that he seems to believe it is worthwhile to sacrifice honesty about history in order to revitalize Japan's assertive style of expansion before World War II.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Masato Kitera to lodge a strong protest on Thursday. Beijing vowed zerotolerance for Abe's touching the bottom of the bilateral relationship, and for betraying the commitment of his government and his predecessors, he said.

Japan must bear "full responsibility for the serious political consequences" of the visit, he said, adding Abe's action has pushed Japan in an "extremely dangerous" direction.

The shrine used to serve as a spiritual tool and symbol of Japanese militaristic aggression, and Abe's pilgrimage is "a flagrant provocation against international justice", Wang said.

South Korean Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong said in a statement that "our government cannot repress lamentation and rage over Abe's paying of respects at the Yasukuni shrine, which glorifies its colonial aggression and enshrines war criminals".

A few hours after Abe went to the shrine, the US Embassy in Japan released a written statement saying that "the United States is disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors."

Washington hopes that Japan and its neighbors will "find constructive ways" to deal with sensitive issues from the past, the statement said.

Yang Bojiang, deputy director of the Institute of Japan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Abe's visit will deal a heavy blow to Japan's international image and further isolate the country.

"Abe is risking support from within both Japan and the United States, and his political life will come to an earlier end," Yang warned.

Japan has strained its diplomatic relationships with China, South Korea and Russia in the past two years because of disputes over islands and historical issues, and the situation has also been a headache for Washington.

James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, said, "there is almost nothing a Japanese prime minister could have done that would have inflamed tempers more along the Japan-China-South Korea-US axis than to make this visit".

"Americans who visit the ‘historical' museum at the shrine (as I have done) will note its portrayal of Japan being "forced" into World War II by US economic and military encirclement," Fallows wrote in his latest online article.

Abe is deliberately stirring up the situation to "make sure the tension does not fade away", said Feng Wei, a professor of Japanese studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"Because there will be no more excuses for his plan of revising Japan's pacifist Constitution if there is no tension in Japan's neighborhood," Feng said.

The visit was made as Abe's public support this month dropped to a record low since he retook office last December.

Akihiro Nonaka, a professor at the School of Political Science at Waseda University in Tokyo, said "the enshrining of the Class A criminals is unconstitutional, according to Japan's Supreme Court".

"He does not show respect for the countless Asian people who died in the war," Nonaka added.

Zhou Yongsheng, a professor of Japanese studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said what is behind Abe's pilgrimage is the accelerating pace of the Japanese government in seeking a right-wing style of governing, which is "bringing a huge threat to regional peace".

"As Abe is bent on eliminating all legislative restrictions against Japanese armed forces waging a war, the international community will be unable to rein in Japan from taking such a dangerous step," Zhou warned.

- China Daily USA

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Defeated Japan ought to honor terms dictated by Cairo Declaration in post-war world order

As the world is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Cairo Declaration Sunday, it is high time that Japan observed the terms dictated by the historic document.

 

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at the Cairo Conference in Cairo, November 25, 1943.

Chinese embassy marks 70th anniversary of Cairo Declaration

Declaration supports China´s Diaoyu Islands sovereignty CCTV News - CNTV English

On Dec. 1, 1943, the Cairo Declaration was broadcast in a communique on radio in Chongqing, Washington and London, setting the tone for an imminent end to the most destructive war in human history.

The landmark document, issued by China, the United States and Britain, voiced the determination of the Allies of World War II to continue military actions until Japan's unconditional surrender.

It also set goals for the post-war order, in which Japan shall restore all the territories it has stolen from China, including Taiwan. The Diaoyu Islands, which for recent years Japan has claimed as its own territory, was then affiliated islands of Taiwan.

The Cairo Declaration serves as a cornerstone of the post-war order in East Asia. By incorporating history, international law and bilateral treaties, the document laid the foundation for regional peace.

On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration, issued by the United States,Britain and China, reaffirmed that the terms of the Cairo Declaration would be carried out, and stipulated that "The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine."

By signing the Instrument of Surrender a month later, Japan specifically accepted the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration, which incorporated the terms of the Cairo Declaration.

The normalization of Sino-Japanese relations was also achieved within the framework of the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration. In the Sino-Japanese Joint Communique inked in 1972, Japan agreed that "it firmly maintains its stand under Article 8 of the Potsdam Declaration."

Six years later, in the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1978, the two countries pledged to strictly observe the principles in the joint communique, and vowed that "they will use peaceful means to settle all disputes and will refrain from the use of force or the threats of the use thereof."

The post-war order in East Asia, which has weathered the vicissitudes of time, remains steadfast in its commitment to the restoration of territories seized or occupied by invaders, as well as the international status of those countries that fell victim to Japan's aggressive war.

On such basis, East Asia has quickly emerged from the ashes of war to become enviable economic powerhouses of the world. Amid overall peace, Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore as well as many Southeast Asian countries and regions have witnessed spectacular growth in past decades.

The Cairo Declaration, as well as other related documents, have served as legal guardians for economic prosperity in East Asia.

To ignore these documents and allow the then militarist invaders maintain their stolen land would defy the post-war East Asian order, risk a resurgence of the once rampant Japanese militarism, and breed historical resentment in countries, on which Japan's war of aggression had wreaked havoc.

China loves peace and needs a peaceful environment for its domestic development. It is Japan that has provoked the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands, and heightened regional tension to challenge the post-war order.

Despite the strong opposition from China, Japan, on Sept. 10th last year, unilaterally announced its "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands, riding roughshod over the declaration.

Over the past year, Abe's government has turned a blind eye to the evidence presented by the Chinese government and the testimony given by Japanese witnesses, and refused to recognize the agreement to "shelve the disputes" over the islands issue, which was struck by the two sides in 1970s.

If Japan would not even admit the dispute, how could dialogues and negotiations be launched to seek a settlement?

To amend Japan's current pacifist peaceful constitution and beef up its military muscle is the major factor behind the Abe administration's hell-bentness on having its own way.

As stipulated in its post-war pacifist constitution, Japan has no right to wage war. The so-called "China threat" is a lame excuse Japan has invented to break the restraints imposed by the constitution.

What's more, the Abe administration takes an apathetic stand on war crimes Japan committed some 70 years ago.

Provocative remarks and actions, such as quibbling with the definition of "aggression", sparing no efforts to revise the country's war-renouncing constitution and visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, have been repeatedly brought up by the prime minister.

The dispute over Diaoyu Islands has thus borne heavily on Japan's understanding on its aggressive and militarist past, its intention to amend the pacifist constitution and the post-war order in East Asia dictated by the Cairo Declaration.

The post-war order in East Asia and in the Asia-Pacific at large, as prescribed by the Cairo Declaration, serves not only as an warning and caution against the catastrophe of war and a penalty on war crime perpetrators, but also an important gateway toward the hard-won regional peace, all of which entails a regular and in-depth review of the historic document.- Xinhu

Experts say Cairo Declaration establishes post-war world order

The Cairo Declaration, issued by Britain, China and the United States in 1943, is of great significance in rebuilding the international order after the end of World War II, experts said.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the declaration, which stated that all the territories Japan had stolen from the Chinese should be restored to China, experts at home and abroad called on the international community to jointly safeguard the established international order.

The most important significance of the Cairo Declaration is that major territories seized by Japan since 1895 should be restored, said Michael Schaller, a regents professor of the University of Arizona.

He said the declaration included a determination that Japan should "give up virtually all the territory it had acquired by force since 1895 and 1914, including northeast China, the island of Taiwan and nearby islands ... and Pescadores."

"When Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration ... as part of its agreement to surrender, it acknowledged that in doing so it was also accepting the terms of the Cairo Declaration ..." added Schaller, who is also a member of the Society for the Historians of American Foreign Relations.

"I don't think there was any ambiguity or confusion about the fact that Japan would need to surrender all territories it had seized on the Asian mainland and Taiwan. I don't think that even today's strident Japanese nationalists question that," he said.

Dan Plesch, director of the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London, said the Cairo Declaration was the culmination of a success for China during World War II.

"This in turn was only made possible because of the heroic resistance of the Chinese people to Japanese aggression," he said.

In regard to the role played by the declaration in post-war reconstruction and today's world order, Plesch said the document was an important agreement that led to the end of World War II.

"Its content, particularly with respect to Japan, was part of the settlement which enabled the war to come to an end with the Japanese surrender," he said.

Plesch said that as the declaration stipulated the solution to territorial and border issues, any defiant moves are "potentially highly destabilizing with respect to international order."

Huang Dahui, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said that in face of Japan's flagrant defiance of the post-war order set up by the Cairo Declaration and other documents of international law, the international community should have a better understanding of the declaration to ensure obedience to relevant terms.

The Cairo Declaration stated in explicit terms that "all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa (Taiwan), and Pescadores" shall be restored to the Chinese, he said, adding that the Diaoyu Islands, then administrated by Taiwan, should be included in the returned territories.

The Japanese government, however, took a unilateral action to "nationalize" the Diaoyu Islands in a move not only to severely infringe upon China's territorial sovereignty, but also to publicly challenge the outcome of the world anti-fascist war and the post-war international order, Huang said.

The three signatories of the Cairo Declaration -- Britain, China and the United States -- should work together to ensure the implementation of the document and safeguard the fruits of the victory, he said. - Xinhua

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