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August 15 this year marks the 79th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender. The war of aggression and colonial rule launched by Japan brought profound disasters to many countries and dragged its own people into the abyss. After the end of World War II, Japan should remember history and cherish peace. However,Japan's right-wing forces have never given up the dream of becoming a military power. On the one hand, they try their best to cover up and glorify their acts of aggression and highlight their image as victims. On the other hand, they step by step undermine the peace constitution and try to get rid of the post-war system. Japan's various actions have caused concern in the international community and deserve high vigilance.

Wrong historical view is rampant

Every year on August 15 and other important occasions, a group of Japanese right-wing politicians openly visit the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Class A war criminals of World War II. The Yasukuni Shrine is a spiritual tool and symbol of Japanese militarism's foreign wars of aggression. Japanese politicians' visits to the shrine have been strongly opposed by peace-loving people in Japan and the international community, and have repeatedly led to tensions between Japan and its neighboring countries.

This year, Japan has repeatedly exposed the issue of large-scale visits to the Yasukuni Shrine by Self-Defense Force personnel. First, it was revealed that Kobayashi Hiroki, deputy chief of staff of the Ground Self-Defense Force, led dozens of Self-Defense Force members to collectively visit the Yasukuni Shrine. Then, Japanese media dug up that the commander of the Maritime Self-Defense Force Training Fleet, Yasuki Konno, led 165 graduates of the Maritime Self-Defense Force Officer Candidate School to collectively visit the Yasukuni Shrine in May last year. His photo was published in the internal publication of the Yasukuni Shrine with the caption "official visit".

Public servants' visits to the Yasukuni Shrine are suspected of violating the principle of "separation of religion and politics" stipulated in the Japanese Constitution. The Japanese Ministry of Defense has clear regulations prohibiting Self-Defense Force members from visiting shrines and other religious facilities as a unit or organization. However, in the face of public doubts, the Ground Self-Defense Force said that the visit was a personal act of taking leave and was not illegal. It only gave a minor punishment on the grounds that the visitor used a government car; the then Chief of Staff of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, Yoshinori Sakai, responded that the relevant incident was a "personal visit" and the Maritime Self-Defense Force "did not intend to investigate."

Analysts pointed out that the Self-Defense Forces were exposed for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine and its leadership condoned and condoned it.This shows that the erroneous historical view represented by the Yasukuni Shrine has deeply penetrated the Self-Defense Forces, which is Japan's armed force, and we deserve high vigilance.

In addition, Otsuka Kaifu, a former admiral of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (the highest rank in the Maritime Self-Defense Force), became the 14th chief priest of the Yasukuni Shrine in April this year. This is the first time that a former general of the Self-Defense Force has taken up this position, while during World War II, the chief priest of the Yasukuni Shrine was retired Army General Takao Suzuki. Analysts pointed out that this "coincidence" is disturbing.

Covering up historical stains

In April this year, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan reviewed and approved the junior high school history textbook "National History Textbook" published by Reiwa Publishing House.The textbook vigorously promotes the "Imperial History View" and denies the fact that Japan forcibly recruited "comfort women". This is the first time it has been approved, which means that this "toxic" textbook may enter middle school classrooms next year.

In 1993, the then Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, Yohei Kono, issued the "Kono Statement", admitting that the Japanese army was directly involved in setting up "comfort stations" in the Korean Peninsula and China and forcibly recruiting local women to serve as "comfort women", and apologized and reflected on this. However, the "National History Textbook" openly sang a different tune, saying that "comfort women" "worked for pay" and that "the Japanese army did not forcibly capture Korean women."

How did such a textbook pass the review? Toshio Suzuki, a representative of the 21st Century Children and Textbooks National Network in Japan, pointed out in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the Japanese government has long been tolerant of historical revisionism, attempting to reverse the national historical cognition with textbooks that distort the truth and beautify history. The result is that children's understanding of Japan's colonial rule and war of aggression has been misled, and xenophobia against China and South Korea has been fostered.

Matsuoka Tamaki, president of the Japan Memories Association, which has insisted on investigating and publicizing the historical truth of the Nanjing Massacre, told Xinhua News Agency that the part of Japanese elementary school history textbooks related to World War II contains more than a dozen pages of content about the victims such as the atomic bomb bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the air raid on Tokyo, but there is almost no description of Japan's crimes of aggression, let alone the Nanjing Massacre.

Under the guise of building a "beautiful country" proposed by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan has been trying to whitewash its historical stain of aggression. To this day, Japanese teenagers know little about war responsibility, and the memory of war crimes is fading fast...

A Peace Constitution

In recent years, Japan has used the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, the Ukrainian crisis and other issues to exaggerate tension and create panic, positioning China as "the greatest unprecedented strategic challenge". It has taken the opportunity to significantly adjust its security policy, increase its defense budget year by year, and continuously relax arms export restrictions, repeatedly breaking through the restrictions of the peace constitution.

Japan has broken many military taboos and continuously broken through the principle of "exclusive defense". In December 2022, the Japanese government adopted three new security policy documents: the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Force Preparation Plan.It proposed that Japan will strive to possess the policy proposition of "capability to attack enemy bases".According to the document, Japan plans to increase its total defense spending to about 43 trillion yen in fiscal years 2023 to 2027, nearly 1.6 times that of the previous five years.

In March this year, the Japanese government decided to allow the export of next-generation fighter jets jointly developed by Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy to third countries, and further revised the "Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment" and its implementation guidelines, opening the door to exporting weapons to third countries.

Since 2022, Japan has signed reciprocal access agreements with Australia, the United Kingdom and the Philippines, forming a "quasi-alliance" relationship. Japan has also strengthened its collusion with NATO, attempting to "invite the wolf into the house" and introduce NATO into the Asia-Pacific region. During Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's visit to the United States in April this year, the two sides elevated their defense relations to an unprecedented level.

Japan's actions are contrary to the "exclusively defensive" concept of its peace constitution and pose a security threat to East Asia. Former Japanese Foreign Ministry official Sunaki Hiroshi pointed out that the disputes between Japan and its Asian neighbors could have been resolved through diplomatic means, but the Japanese government blindly catered to the demands of the United States and embarked on a dangerous path of expanding its arms. Japan should now seriously consider what kind of policy can bring real security to Japan.

Source: Xinhua News Agency