摘要：A researcher of the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army arranges archives at

A researcher of the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army arranges archives at the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, December 12, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

By Yang Bojiang

The year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Beginning with the September 18 Incident in 1931, fascist powers such as Japan, Germany and Italy launched the largest global war of aggression in human history. This unprecedented catastrophe inflicted immense suffering on human society and civilization. A total of 61 countries and more than 2 billion people were drawn into the conflict, with over 90 million military and civilian casualties worldwide.

Among all the theaters of World War II (WWII), the Asian front began the earliest, lasted the longest and made some of the greatest contributions. Positioned on the frontlines of the Asian battlefield, China was the main force resisting Japanese militarist aggression. The Chinese people played a pivotal role in safeguarding peace for mankind and upholding international justice, leaving an enduring legacy that history will never forget.

Japanese militarism was the root cause of the war in Asia. After a period of frenzied aggression, it ultimately met its downfall. On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito issued the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War, announcing Japan's unconditional surrender and acceptance of the provisions of the Potsdam Proclamation.

However, with the onset of the Cold War, a shift in U.S. policy toward Japan, and changes in Japan's domestic political landscape, many of the reforms and postwar transformations that Japan had begun were left incomplete. Japan's reflection on its war of aggression and the responsibilities it bore was far from thorough.

Following the Cold War, dramatic shifts in the international order and the collapse of Japan's so-called 1955 System led to an overall rightward shift in society. Revisionist interpretations of history gained momentum. Right-wing conservative forces began to openly deny or even glorify Japan's wartime aggression, attempting to whitewash militarism and rewrite historical narratives. As a result, the Japanese government's stance on historical issues regressed.

In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of Japan's defeat in WWII, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued a statement expressing "deep remorse and heartfelt apology" for Japan's colonial rule and acts of aggression. However, 20 years later, in 2015, late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's statement marking the 70th anniversary of the war's end took a markedly different tone. He emphasized that "Japanese people born after the war should not be obligedto apologize for wartime actions," deliberately sidestepping Japan's militarist aggression and colonial history toward its Asian neighbors.

Abe even advanced the notion that "there is no established definition of aggression." Yet international law has long provided clear definitions of aggression. These include the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, the 1946 United Nations General Assembly resolution, the 1948 verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the 1974 United Nations resolution on the definition of aggression.

Abe's claim that aggression remains undefined, alongside outrageous remarks by figures such as Toru Hashimoto, who argued for the "necessity" of wartime "comfort women," and Taro Aso, who suggested that Japan could "learn from the Nazis" when amending the constitution, amount to blatant provocations against international law. These are not merely distortions of history, but also affronts to basic human morality. They inflict a second wave of harm on the countries and peoples that suffered under Japanese aggression and constitute a profound insult to human dignity.

Though the war grows more distant with time, its memory does not fade. On the contrary, as the dust of history slowly settles, more truths are beginning to surface.

A researcher of the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army arranges the original Japanese medical journals at the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, December 12, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

On August 13, 2017, Japan's public broadcaster NHK aired a special documentary titled Unit 731: Elite Doctors and Human Experimentation. Using rare audio recordings from Soviet war crimes trials and firsthand interviews, the documentary reconstructed the reality of Unit 731's secret development and battlefield use of germ weapons in China.

The documentary revealed that human experimentation conducted by Unit 731 involved not only Japanese military personnel but also elite figures from Japan's medical community. While many military officers were punished after the war, the responsibility of these elite doctors and the prestigious institutions they represented remains ambiguous.

Some of them even received recognition from the academic community after the war. The names of several top universities and well-known medical institutions featured in the documentary remain highly prominent today, as do some of the individuals who were later honored within the scientific community.

On August 15, 2022, the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, located in Harbin of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, publicly displayed for the first time a critical document titled the Roster of Personnel of the Kwantung Army Chemical Department. This roster contained the names of 414 members of "Unit 516 in Manchuria," an affiliate unit responsible for the development of chemical weapons.

This important archival material, shedding light on Japan's wartime chemical weapons program and its use in actual combat, was originally held by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In 2017, it was transferred to the National Archives of Japan. It was only through international research and verification efforts by the Exhibition Hall’s research team that this document was ultimately obtained.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is a cabinet-level department of the Japanese government, and the National Archives of Japan is a state-run institution directly under the Cabinet Office. The fact that such evidence was long stored under official auspices but remained concealed from public view reflects the Japanese government's long-standing posture of deliberate neglect and concealment when it comes to historical records exposing the crimes of militarist aggression.

In December 2024, the Chinese edition of Chemical Warfare: An Investigation of Atrocities Committed by the Japanese Army in China was officially published. The work, edited by Professor Emeritus at Rikkyo University, Awaya Kentaro, was based on a comprehensive, multidisciplinary field investigation of Japan's chemical warfare activities.

Then, in March 2025, Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Yamazoe Taku presented historical records in the National Diet documenting human experimentation by Unit 731. He called on the Japanese government to confront its past honestly and acknowledge historical facts.

Reality has repeatedly reminded us that history must not be forgotten, that right and wrong must be clearly distinguished and that justice must be upheld. Restoring the truth is the greatest form of respect we can show to history. It is also the first step toward safeguarding the hard-won fruits of victory, upholding international justice and defending peace and stability.

Yang Bojiang, a special commentator for CGTN, is the director of the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and President of the Chinese Association of Japanese Studies.

来源：中国网一点号