Japan Press Weekly

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2007 July 4 - 10 [HISTORY]

The task now is to face up to Japan’s responsibility for the war of aggression - On 70th anniversary of the Lugouqiao Incident

Akahata editorial

July 7 marks the 70th anniversary of the Lugouqiao (Marco Polo Bridge) Incident that paved the way for Japan’s full-scale war of aggression against China.

With the so-called “Manchuria Incident” in 1931, in which the Japanese Army attacked Liutiaohu in Northeast China, Japan started its war of aggression against China. Japan used the Lugouqiao Incident as a pretext for expanding it to the whole of China. On July 7, 1937, Japanese forces carried out a nighttime training exercise at a site close to where Chinese troops were being deployed. Japan alleged that someone fired at its forces and that China was responsible for this attack. Using this as the pretext, the Japanese Army advanced deep into China, grabbed its territory, and killed an enormous number of Chinese people.

The task now is for Japan to face up to the historical fact that Japan carried out the full-scale war of aggression against China and to learn lessons from this so that Japan will never again fight wars of aggression.

Pro-Yasukuni forces’ distortion of history

The pro-Yasukuni Shrine forces, who insist that Japan’s past war of aggression and colonial rule were just, are asserting that Japan did not carry out aggression by citing various “facts” in connection with the “Manchuria Incident” and the “Nanjing (Nanking) Incident”. They say that the Lugouqiao Incident was a plot engineered by China or that “both Japan and China are to blame.” Clearly, these arguments are designed to conceal the heart of the matter that the incident took place in the course of Japan’s full-scale aggression throughout China.

The problem was that Japanese forces were being deployed and carrying out military training exercises in the outskirts of the Chinese capital of Beijing. The incident could not have happened if Japanese troops had not been deployed there in the first place.

At the House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting on October 5, 2006, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo argued that The Final Protocol (of 1901) Relating to the Boxer Rebellion (North China) Incident regarded the stationing of foreign troops (in China) was legal. This is a sheer distortion of historical facts.

The right to station troops provided for by the 1901 protocol between China and 8 powers that had maintained troops in China was exclusively for the purpose of “maintaining free traffic” between Beijing and sea ports. It was unjustifiable of the Japanese Army to use the firing incident that took place after Japan’s unilateral military action as the pretext for expanding its war of aggression.

Who fired at the Japanese troops remains unclear. The fact is that Japanese and Chinese forces deployed in the region had concluded a ceasefire agreement so that the incident could be settled as a local case. Notwithstanding this, the Japanese imperial government and military at the time scrapped this ceasefire agreement. Alleging that all these incidents were part of China’s well-planned anti-Japan military campaign, Japan sent its troops into China from Japanese forces stationed in Korea, the “Guandong Army” in Japanese-held Manchuria in Northeast China, as well as major units from Japan. This is how Japan started an all-out aggression against China. It is clear that the Japanese government and military used the Lugouqiao Incident to begin waging a full-scale war of aggression.

No one can deny the historical facts. Accepting responsibility for the past war of aggression against China and other Asian countries was what Japan had to do to become a member of the international community after World War II. Japan must stop trying to justify its past war of aggression and colonial rule of Asian countries and must accept responsibility for its past war of aggression.

Stop turning Japan into a ‘war-fighting nation’

It is grave that the argument distorting and fabricating historical facts is closely connected with the desire to again turn Japan into a “war-fighting nation.” By campaigning to justify the war of aggression, the “pro-Yasukuni” forces have been working hard to make it easier for the Self-Defense Forces to take part in overseas military operations.

The Abe Cabinet, mainly composed of “pro-Yasukuni” forces, is intent on sending Japanese forces abroad to join U.S. forces in military operations by adversely revising the Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9. The international community, in particular Asian nations, is increasingly concerned about these dangerous moves. We will pass a severe judgment in the House of Councilors election on the Abe Cabinet that justifies the war of aggression! A JCP advance in the election as a party that has long opposed wars of aggression will deal a heavy blow to the “pro-Yasukuni” forces. - Akahata, July 7, 2007