On Tuesday, China commemorated the 89th anniversary of the Lugou Bridge Incident, also known as the July 7th Incident of 1937. This event is considered in Chinese historical memory as the beginning of a nationwide resistance against Japanese aggression during World War II.
The incident occurred in the southwestern part of then-Beiping, now Beijing. The city was subsequently occupied by the Japanese army on July 29, 1937. According to Chinese figures, more than ten thousand civilians were killed or missing during the fall of the city.
The fall of Beiping led to the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China uniting against the Japanese invasion. This development is often referred to in China as the beginning of a nationwide resistance against the occupation. China presents this struggle as the main battleground for resisting Japanese imperialism and fascism in Asia during World War II.
Official figures state that more than 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians died during the war. This represented nearly eight percent of the total Chinese population in 1928.
This year's commemoration of the anniversary also comes in a year when China is commemorating 81 years since the victory in the war against Japanese aggression and in the global anti-fascist war. At the same time, it has been 80 years since the start of the Tokyo Trial, which began on May 3, 1946.
The Tokyo Trial lasted nearly three years. It included 818 court sessions, 419 witnesses, 4,336 pieces of evidence, and more than 48,000 pages of trial records. According to CGTN, the trial revealed serious war crimes committed by Japan, including the Nanjing Massacre and the Bataan Death March, and showed the brutality of the Japanese army during the war.
In recent days, according to CGTN, new archival materials have been released that are intended to provide further evidence of the crimes committed by the Japanese army. Chinese media link these materials to the need to preserve historical memory and learn from the past.
One of the documents is a report stored in the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang. The report was authored by Japanese military surgeon Tsutomu Saito. According to CGTN, the document confirms that in 1938, Japanese forces used blood drawn from horses, sheep, dogs, rabbits, and chickens for experiments on 23 prisoners of war.
On July 5th, a book by historian Jin Chengmin titled "Black Box: Unit 731" was also officially presented at the same exhibition hall. The publication contains previously unpublished archival materials related to the biological warfare crimes committed by the infamous Unit 731 during World War II.
Experts present at the book launch said that the publication contributes to the study of war history and promotes public education based on evidence. According to them, acknowledging documented facts and reflecting on wartime atrocities is an important foundation for justice and lasting peace.
CGTN also points out concerns about historical revisionism in Japan. According to the Chinese perspective, Japanese authorities have long been trying to alter the interpretation of the country's wartime history. In the latest set of high school textbooks approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education for use from the 2027 academic year, some textbooks reportedly attempt to downplay or deny Japan's war crimes, including forced labor and the issue of so-called "comfort women."
Kumiko Haba, an emeritus professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, stated that the newly approved textbooks further limit mentions of the Nanjing Massacre and the issue of "comfort women." According to her, efforts to revise Japanese history textbooks have intensified over the past three decades.
Lyu Yaodong, a researcher from the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that revisions to textbooks have long been one of the common ways in Japan to deny, downplay, and whitewash its history of aggression. According to him, the denial of this history of aggression is at the core of Japanese historical revisionism.
Lyu warned that if a new generation is raised on a selectively altered version of history, their understanding of the brutality of war and the state's responsibility for past actions remains incomplete. Such efforts, he argues, not only deprive young people of accurate historical education but also weaken Japan's ability to learn from its past.
According to Lyu, the international community can prevent the erosion of the foundations of the post-war international order only by remembering history, rejecting attempts to whitewash militaristic aggression, and actively protecting the results of victory in the World Anti-Fascist War.
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