Nigeria Times

By Wu Minchao

The year 1945 marked a great turning point in history. After 14 years of resistance in China, nine years in Ethiopia, six years in Britain, France, and other Western European countries, and four years in the Soviet Union, the United States, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, the world finally secured victory in the World Anti-Fascist War.

Eighty years on, commemoration and reflection of this triumph must not only recall its historical significance, but also revisit the background in which the war began. Only through such analysis can we fully understand the profound sacrifices made by the forces of justice and draw lessons for safeguarding peace and development today.

The war had two epicenters: Europe and Asia. For English-speaking countries, the European story is more familiar. Yet in Asia, Japan was the engine of aggression, casting its long shadow over the region.

After the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century, Japan embarked on the path of external expansion. In 1894, it launched the First Sino-Japanese War, seizing Taiwan and the Penghu Islands. It later encroached upon China’s northeastern territories and sovereignty through the Russo-Japanese War. In 1931, Japanese militarists brazenly staged the September 18 Incident, igniting the first flames of fascist aggression worldwide. China thus entered a phase of partial resistance, which also marked the opening of the World Anti-Fascist War.

In 1936, Japan and Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, with Italy joining the following year. This convergence linked the Eastern and Western sources of conflict. 

A year later, Japanese militarists deliberately provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident, unleashing a full-scale invasion of China. From that moment, the entire Chinese nation mobilized in total resistance, opening the main Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War. 

From a global perspective, China was the first country to confront fascist aggression. While many nations, including the United States and the UK, were still pursuing policies of appeasement toward Germany, Italy, and Japan, China had already opened a large-scale anti-fascist front. By the time war broke out in Europe in 1939 and in the Pacific in 1941, China had already withstood Japanese militarism for eight and ten years, respectively.

Corresponding to the two epicenters of war were two main theaters: the European theater and the Asian theater. Japan’s invasion of China was the defining feature of the Asian theater. The Chinese battlefield effectively thwarted Japan’s strategy of a swift conquest and delayed its overall war of aggression in the Asia-Pacific. It was not only the main battlefield in Asia but also the main Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War – an indispensable pillar of ultimate victory.

Throughout that arduous war, the entire Chinese nation fought for survival, national rejuvenation, and the cause of justice for humanity, making immense sacrifices and tremendous contributions. Over 14 years of resistance, China suffered from more than 35 million military and civilian casualties, with direct and indirect economic losses exceeding $600 billion. Chinese forces tied down and fought the bulk of Japan’s military strength, killing more than 1.5 million Japanese troops. At the same time, China’s protracted resistance greatly depleted Japan’s national power and resources, becoming a decisive factor in the eventual downfall of Japanese fascism.

The Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was of global significance. It strategically coordinated and supported the Allies’ strategic actions in Europe and the Pacific, while constraining Japan’s strategic cooperation with German and Italian fascism.

By resisting the main forces of Japanese militarism for 14 years, China dragged Japan into a prolonged quagmire. This endurance thwarted Japan’s “northward advance” against the Soviet Union, sparing the latter from a two-front war, and delayed Japan’s “southward advance” into Southeast Asia, undermining its scheme to unite with Germany and Italy in pursuit of world domination.

Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledged China’s pivotal role, stating: “Without China – or if China had been defeated – countless additional Japanese divisions would have been deployed elsewhere. Japan could have seized Australia and India unimpeded, then advanced into the Middle East.”

In January 1942, China, the United States, the UK, the Soviet Union, and 22 other anti-fascist countries jointly signed the Declaration by United Nations, marking the establishment of the international anti-fascist united front and laying an important foundation for final victory.

China’s struggle was part of a global effort. Peace-loving nations provided vital support, including Soviet and American aviators who fought courageously in Chinese skies – many making heroic sacrifices. Anti-fascist fighters from North Korea, Vietnam, and even Japan joined the Chinese people in battle. Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune and Indian doctor Dwarkanath Kotnis gave their lives treating the wounded. John Rabe of Germany and Bernhard Arp Sindberg of Denmark saved thousands of refugees during the Nanjing Massacre, recording and exposing Japanese atrocities. The noble character and sacrifice of these international friends, together with the Allies’ decisive role in hastening the end of the war, will always be remembered by the Chinese people.

Seen from the perspective of the global fight against fascism, the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression holds an irreplaceable place in history.

More importantly, through this life-and-death battle between justice and evil, light and darkness, freedom and enslavement, China reestablished itself as a major country in the world. The Chinese people won the respect of all peace-loving nations, and the Chinese nation earned a noble reputation. It demonstrated China’s unshakable determination to pursue independence, freedom, and liberation.

Victory in the World Anti-Fascist War belonged collectively to China and all the Allies. Today, as 80 years ago, China remains committed to working with all peace-loving nations and peoples to defend global peace, stability, and development.

(Wu Minchao is a special research fellow at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)

By Zou Haodan

The victory of World War II was not only a military triumph over the Axis powers, but also initiated an unprecedented process of accountability and moral reflection in human history.

From Nov. 20, 1945 to Oct. 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg convened the Nuremberg Trials. From May 3, 1946 to Nov. 12, 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East held the Tokyo Trials. These two landmark undertakings of international justice established three principal charges – crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – breaking decisively with the pre-war international legal tradition of “state impunity” (shielding states from accountability). They proclaimed that launching a war of aggression (a crime against peace) was no longer an abstract act of state, but an international crime that demanded personal criminal accountability.

Yet in the aftermath of these trials, Germany and Japan, though both defeated, took sharply divergent paths in acknowledging and reflecting upon their war responsibilities.

Between 1946 and 1949, trials of war criminals were conducted across the United States, Germany (both the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic), Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. These trials prosecuted a wide range of collaborators, including doctors, judges, diplomats, military commanders, and corporate executives. To this day, Germany, in collaboration with the international community, continues to pursue legal accountability for surviving Nazi perpetrators to the present day.

In 1946, German philosopher Karl Jaspers argued in his book “The Question of German Guilt” that the responsibility confronting Germans extended beyond legal accountability to encompass political responsibility, individual moral choices, and even a metaphysical reckoning for the nation as a whole. Only through profound moral reflection, Jaspers insisted, could Germany truly return to civilization. 

Three years later, in 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany adopted the Basic Law, which, together with a series of binding provisions, established the so-called “defensive democracy,” a constitutional framework designed to forestall the resurgence of extremist forces.

Over subsequent decades, German society gradually transformed the recognition of war responsibility into an enduring culture of education and collective memory. Anti-Nazi historical education became central to transmitting this memory across generations, while memorials and museums in public spaces served as focal points of remembrance. In this way, memory of war guilt became internalized into Germany’s national identity. Through sustained education and collective reflection, Germany rebuilt trust with Europe and the broader international community.

Japan’s trajectory starkly diverged. Following the Tokyo Trials, it failed to create an independent judicial system for further responsibility, creating a legal vacuum in moral reckoning. During the Cold War, government-sponsored “amnesty” initiatives systematically reintegrated war criminals into public life. This bypassing of societal self-examination resulted in a persistent accountability deficit within Japan’s historical memory.

Parallel to the Tokyo Trials, Allied military tribunals across Asia and the Pacific prosecuted thousands of individuals for conventional war crimes (classified as Class B and C offenses). Between 1945 and 1952, about 5,700 individuals were indicted; around 4,400 were convicted, and roughly 920 were sentenced to death. Most of the defendants were mid- and lower-ranking officers and soldiers directly responsible for atrocities. 

While Japanese media initially reported extensively on these trials, their visibility diminished as the Cold War intensified. Many convicted war criminals were later reintegrated into society, some even recasting themselves as mere “scapegoats of state policy” and denying responsibility for their crimes. This collective forgetting prevented Japanese society from developing a comprehensive understanding of the systemic nature of its wartime atrocities.

Japan’s war memory has long remained deeply divided. On the one hand, public opinion in victimized countries, along with segments of Japan’s intellectual community and civil society, stressed Japan’s role as an aggressor and demanded acknowledgment of atrocities such as the Nanjing Massacre and the “comfort women” system. On the other hand, other segments of Japanese society maintained a “victim mentality,” framing the national war narrative around the atomic bombings and Tokyo air raids, thereby reinforcing Japan’s identity as a victim of war. 

This unresolved tension between “perpetrator” and “victim” narratives has never been reconciled within Japanese society. Instead, it evolved into a long-standing divide that shaped post-war Japanese political culture and profoundly affected the country’s foreign relations and national image.

The historical experience of the anti-fascist trial system illustrates that legal accountability, intellectual reflection, and institutional safeguards are closely interconnected. Without sustained legal mechanisms, reflection risks remaining superficial; without institutional and educational reinforcement, historical memory risks fading or being distorted. 

Germany, through persistent accountability, reflection, and institution-building, gradually regained the trust of the international community. Japan, by contrast, has failed to take a consistent stance  on historical issues, leaving deep scars across East Asia and exposing itself to continuing criticism and scrutiny from the international community.

The true significance of confronting historical guilt lies not in bearing it perpetually, but in ensuring that such tragedies are never repeated.

(Zou Haodan is a special research fellow at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)

By Chen Xiang

On October 24, 1943, on the beach of Aitape in northern New Guinea, Australian soldier Leonard George knelt in the sand, blindfolded and bound, awaiting execution by Japanese military officer Yasuno Chikao. Behind him stood Japanese guards and a crowd of local villagers compelled to witness the scene.

This photograph of that moment, later discovered by American forces and published in Australia, stunned the Australian public. It exposed the brutal reality of Japanese atrocities during World War II: there was no pretense of humane treatment for prisoners of war; instead, captured Australian soldiers across the Southeast Asian battlefield were subjected to forced labor under punishing conditions, and those deemed too old, ill or weak were executed without hesitation.

Leonard George’s unyielding stance in the photograph became a symbol of defiance, galvanizing patriotic sentiment across Australia. It inspired Australian and American troops to mount a decisive counteroffensive against more than 100,000 Japanese troops in New Guinea, eventually thwarting Japan’s ambition to use the island as a springboard for invading Australia.

Australia’s struggle against Japan was not only a fight for national survival but also a contribution to the global effort to defeat fascism. While Japan pursued its “northward and southward expansion strategies,” the bulk of its ground forces were bogged down in the Chinese battlefield, leaving its naval and air forces to spearhead the “southward advance.”

Following the fall of Southeast Asia, Japan turned its sights on resource-rich and strategically positioned Australia. On the Malay Peninsula, 130,000 British and Australian troops were forced to surrender, and over 8,000 of the 15,000 Australian captives perished under brutal mistreatment. In February 1942, Japanese bombers struck Darwin, inflicting severe civilian casualties. In 1943, Japan launched an assault on New Guinea, defended by Australian troops, in a bid to sever supply lines between the United States and Australia and pave the way for conquest.

These acts of aggression provoked outrage among the Australian people. From a population of barely 7 million, more than one in seven Australians joined the fight. Their determination reflected both national resolve and the global urgency of resisting fascist aggression.

The conflict between Japanese militarism and Western countries also shaped the course of war. Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan’s growing economic and military strength fueled a doctrine of expansion, cloaked in Pan-Asianist rhetoric that justified aggression against China and other Asian countries, and propelled the nation down the path of militarist expansion to dominate the Pacific Rim. 

Japan firmly opposed the U.S. Open Door Policy, and under the sway of extreme nationalism and militarist indoctrination, its soldiers became fervent agents of aggression. Placing Japan’s interests above all others, they targeted not only Asian countries but also Western powers. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor epitomized its drive to achieve supremacy in the Pacific.

The joint resistance of China and Australia against Japanese aggression highlighted the historic significance of the international anti-fascist united front. In December 1941, Japan launched the Pacific War, occupying Southeast Asia within six months. With the establishment of the international anti-fascist united front, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and others placed greater importance on China’s role as the main theater in the East. 

In the early stages of the Pacific War, as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia suffered repeated setbacks, China’s prolonged resistance tied down the majority of Japanese ground forces and a considerable portion of its naval strength, limiting Japan’s ability to expand southward.

In the summer of 1942, Japan’s high command sought to seize Port Moresby to cut off U.S.-Australia strategic communications. The campaign collapsed, hampered by overstretched forces still entangled in China and severe logistical constraints. The failure marked the Allies’ first land victory in the Pacific War. By 1943, after setbacks at Midway and Guadalcanal, Japan urgently needed reinforcements, but its main forces remained mired in China, which greatly eased the island-hopping campaigns of the U.S., British, and Australian forces.

At the same time, Australia’s resistance against Japan made an important contribution to the global fight against fascism, providing crucial strategic support to both the Chinese battlefield and the Southeast Asian front. During the Pacific War, nearly 1 million Australians served across Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia. Their sacrifices weakened Japan’s strength, halted its advance, and provided crucial military and logistical support to the Allied forces.

Eighty years on, the joint resistance of the Chinese and Australian peoples remains a powerful reminder of the importance of international solidarity against aggression. The sacrifices made in the struggle for independence and justice underscore the importance of preserving historical truth. Attempts by Japanese revisionists to recast aggressors as “victims,” glorify aggression, or deny atrocities must be firmly rejected. The lessons of the war remind us that maintaining the current international order and safeguarding world peace are shared responsibilities of all humanity to prevent the recurrence of past tragedies.

(Chen Xiang is a special research fellow at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)

By Wu Xian

The World Anti-Fascist War was a just war waged in the 1930s and 1940s by the Allies together with all anti-fascist forces worldwide against the aggression of the Axis powers – Germany, Japan and Italy – and their satellite states.

The United Nations (UN) was founded on the great victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and stands as the common achievement of the Allied nations. It plays an important role in maintaining international peace and advancing global governance structures forged in the post-war era.

As a principal Allied Power, China took part in the entire process from the UN’s preparation to its establishment. 

In January 1942, China joined the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the UK in leading 26 nations to sign the Declaration by United Nations in Washington, D.C., cementing the global anti-fascist coalition. 

In October 1943, China, the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the UK signed the Declaration of the Four Nations on General Security at the Moscow Conference, jointly calling for the creation of a “general international organization” (later named the UN) to maintain international peace and security, with China as one of the original signatories facilitating its adoption. 

At the November 1943 Cairo Conference, China helped shape the Cairo Declaration with the U.S. and UK, establishing key legal principles for the post-war order alongside the Potsdam Proclamation.

During the August-October 1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference, China collaborated with the U.S. and UK, and the Soviet Union to draft the UN Charter framework. 

In February 1945, the Yalta Conference established the fundamental structure of the UN and confirmed China as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. 

From April to June 1945, the Chinese delegation participated in the UN Conference on International Organization, signed the UN Charter, and in October the UN was officially founded.

China has contributed many concepts and proposals with distinctive Chinese characteristics, which are rooted in its historical traditions and development practices. Notably, it has consistently championed the interests and aspirations of smaller and vulnerable nations. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, proposed by China, evolved into a guiding framework for implementing the UN Charter’s purposes. These principles established practical guidelines for resolving international disputes and advancing greater democratization of international relations. 

More profoundly, China’s participation gave the UN greater universality and representativeness, and strongly promoted decolonization and modernization globally. 

China has continuously enriched the content of the UN Charter through its actions, upheld the international system with the UN at its core, and opposed unilateralism and hegemonism. 

In safeguarding world peace and security, China has dispatched more than 50,000 personnel to 30 UN-authorized peacekeeping missions worldwide. It steadfastly advocates political solutions, promotes dialogue among equals, and opposes the use of force or sanctions bypassing UN Security Council authorization. 

Significantly, China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity have both been written into UN General Assembly resolutions, serving as a connectivity platform benefiting 172 countries and international organizations, and as a key pathway to addressing global governance challenges. 

China has significantly advanced South-South cooperation through dedicated funds benefiting over 60 countries and 30 million people. The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and New Development Bank further delivers vital financial support to developing economies, accelerating regional prosperity.

In global climate governance, China has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, promoted the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and taken the lead in driving a global green transition.

Remarkable progress has been made in poverty reduction, with China becoming the first nation to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. The country met the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s poverty reduction target 10 years ahead of schedule. Its contribution to global poverty reduction exceeds 70 percent. 

Moreover, China is the second largest contributor to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping assessments, and its China-UN Peace and Development Fund has supported nearly 180 projects benefiting over 100 countries, making solid contributions to world peace and development.

Over the past eight decades, the world has witnessed profound changes. From the blood-stained Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War to being the first country to sign the UN Charter; from championing national self-determination for emerging countries to fully supporting the sustainable development of developing nations; and from breaking the zero-sum mentality for easing regional conflicts, to advancing the Global Security Initiative for safeguarding the post-war international order—China, as a responsible major country, has always stayed true to its original aspiration. It has made important contributions to safeguarding world peace, promoting common development, and addressing global challenges. 

Today, China continues to pursue its modernization to foster shared global prosperity, inject certainty into a turbulent world, and contribute wisdom and strength to the cause of human peace, progress, and development. 

(Wu Xian is a special research fellow at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)

By Zhu Yueying, People’s Daily

This 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. Amid ongoing efforts to confront historical truths in Japan, dedicated individuals have spent decades documenting wartime atrocities driven by conscience and justice.

Across Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and other cities, Japanese scholars, lawyers, journalists, and monks have spent decades piecing together archives, interviewing witnesses, and documenting war crimes committed by Japanese militarists during World War II.

For many years, Japanese scholar Makoto Matsuno has personally financed the collection of archives on Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare army during World War II, and materials on Japan’s bacteriological warfare, donating them on several occasions to China. He has received little support in Japan, yet he has no regrets: “My goal is to reconstruct the historical truth as fully as possible and to prevent future tragedies.”

Among those reckoning with history is Hideo Shimizu, conscripted into the notorious Unit 731 at age 14 in 1945. After participating in war crimes, he endured decades of poverty with only elementary education. In 2024, the 93-year-old traveled to China to publicly apologize for Japan’s bacteriological warfare atrocities. “My life demonstrates how militarism destroys individuals,” Shimizu reflects. “Now I implore the Japanese government to acknowledge the truth.”

Ordinary citizens also bear witness. For nearly three decades, the Zijin Grass Choir from Japan has sung about the atrocities committed by the Japanese army during the Nanjing Massacre. Most members are elderly, some battling illnesses or confined to wheelchairs, yet they persist in conveying through songs their belief in peace and their call for justice. Like the resilient Zijin grass, often referred to as the “flower of peace” both in China and Japan, they bloom with unyielding hope, carrying the weight of memory through the years.

Yet their efforts starkly contrast with official evasion. For a long time, some Japanese officials have downplayed or distorted wartime record. On April 16, 2025, newly approved junior high school textbooks by publisher Nichibun and Kyoiku Shuppan reduced the 1937 – 1945 war of aggression against China to a single sanitized page, obscuring Japan’s militarist aggression across Asia.

This denial persists despite historical milestones. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued the landmark “Murayama Statement,” acknowledging that Japan’s colonial rule and aggression had caused “tremendous damage and suffering” to many countries, and expressed “deep remorse and heartfelt apology.”

Thirty years later, new voices continue to call for acknowledgment of historical truth. “Japan must sincerely repent for aggression and uphold its promise of ‘never again to wage war’ to coexist peacefully with its neighbors,” said Takakage Fujita, secretary-general of the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement.

Yokichi Kobayashi, son of Kiyoshi Kobayashi, a captured Japanese soldier who joined the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party of China, said, “The repentance of one nation is more important than the forgiveness of another. Only a country that dares to reflect can truly earn the respect of the world.”

Katsutoshi Takegami, a descendant of Japanese invaders from the wartime Unit 1644, affirmed with resolve: “In my lifetime, I will continue exposing the historical truth to the world to prevent history from repeating itself.”

Japan can only transcend by confronting it. The courageous Japanese individuals embody the greatest reverence for history and a deep sense of responsibility for the future. Their voices may be faint, yet like sparks of light, they pierce through the fog of history, awakening more people to face the past and hold fast to peace.