WWII

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Face up to history
Akahata editorial

Today, July 7, marks the 68th anniversary of the Lugouqiao Incident that signaled Japan's total war of aggression against China.

In Japan, with Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro insisting that he will continue to visit Yasukuni Shrine, his cabinet is caught in a diplomatic stalemate. The task now is for the public to raise its voice based on the facts of history.

Day to remember

The start of Japan's total war against China is not discussed as widely as the end of WWII on August 15 or the start of the Pacific War on December 8. However, July 7 is a day that the Japanese people should remember as the day when Japan expanded its attack in northeast China into a full-scale aggression to the whole of China by sending in more than one million troops. The Japanese army committed atrocities on a large scale, causing immeasurable suffering to the Chinese people.

On July 7, 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army holding nighttime field exercises near Lugouqiao in the outskirts of Beijing attacked Chinese forces allegedly in retaliation for a shooting. A ceasefire agreement soon came into force, and this could have prevented the war from expanding. However, the Konoe Cabinet decided to send more troops to China to carry out a total counterattack. In August, the Japanese government issued a statement expressing its determination to "take decisive steps to chastise the Chinese forces for their brutality, ostensibly with the aim of urging the Nanking Government to reflect on their attack."

Emperor Showa (Hirohito) put the blame onto the Chinese, saying, "The Republic of China, without understanding Japan's true intentions, has dared to stir up trouble leading to the incident." He insisted that the use of force was to force the Republic of China to reflect on their act and thereby establish peace in East Asia.

In order to resist Japan's aggression launched under the pretext of "punishing China," the Communist and Nationalist parties joined together to wage the anti-Japanese war and called for an all-out national resistance.

The imperial Japanese government's pretext for the aggression was totally untenable. Notwithstanding this, Yasukuni Shrine is still maintaining that "China was to blame," just as the imperial Japanese government did. The "New History Textbook" published by Fusosha explains that the expansion of war was triggered by an incident in which two Japanese soldiers were shot to death in Shanghai, thus trying to convince readers that China was to blame for causing the Japan-China war.

Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine visits amount to endorsing the argument justifying the war of aggression. If the history textbook glorifying the war of aggression is imposed on schools, it will make children's future hopeless.

On July 6, the Osaka District Court rejected the former Japanese war orphans' demand that the Japanese government compensate them for being abandoned in China toward the end of Japan's war of aggression. While recognizing that they suffered "disadvantages" and "mental pains" as former war orphans, the judge ruled that there is nothing illegal on the part of the state concerning its failure to bring them back home earlier and to fulfill its responsibility to support their life in Japan.

In this lawsuit, the plaintiffs criticized the government for announcing the "wartime deaths" of war orphans instead of carrying out a search for surviving war orphans in China, and that this announcement prompted the government to later stop all efforts to search for the war orphans. This further delayed their return to Japan, they argued. However, the judge concluded that the state was not responsible for the delay on the grounds that damages from the war should be shared equally by all the people. Such a court ruling would have been avoided if Japan faced up to the history of Japan's war of aggression.

For survival and peace

Japan in the past sent in its citizens to China as part of the national policy of promoting the war of aggression. After the war, it abandoned them by arbitrarily concluding that they were dead. The lack of the Japanese government's remorse for the war of aggression has made the people's suffering even more severe. The Japanese government must face up to Japan's wartime past and stop justifying the war of aggression. This is an important task for ensuring that the Japanese people can live in peace.
- Akahata, July 7, 2005