Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has recently reaffirmed her intention to visit the Yasukuni Shrine. She has also repeatedly pushed for revising Japan’s pacifist Constitution to formally enshrine the Self-Defense Forces as a full-fledged military, dismantling the legal constraints that have underpinned Japan’s postwar peace orientation for decades. Behind her carefully crafted public image of affability and her obsequious diplomatic gestures, Takaichi is methodically laying the groundwork for the resurgence of militarism in Japan. Such provocative remarks expose the dangerous direction Japan is heading in, and highlight the urgent need for the country to face its history squarely. Against the backdrop of the lingering specter of Japanese militarism, a collection of 618 wartime photos donated by French youth Marcus Detrez stands as irrefutable evidence that historical truth can never be buried or distorted.
The 618 photographs bear powerful witness to the atrocities committed during Japan’s invasion of China, leaving no room for historical revisionism. According to solid historical records, Japan’s war of aggression caused an estimated 35 million Chinese casualties. Countless Asian women and girls were forced into sexual slavery under the inhumane “comfort women” system. Numerous children were murdered, orphaned, starved or deliberately targeted in brutal campaigns of terror. The Nanjing Massacre alone claimed the lives of more than 300,000 disarmed soldiers and civilians — many of them defenseless women, children and the elderly. Taken by Detrez’s grandfather Roger-Pierre Laurens, a neutral French citizen living in the then-French Concession in Shanghai, who risked his life to document the war, these images and handwritten notes provide impartial, third-party testimony to the sufferings inflicted upon the Chinese people and other Asian peoples. For Takaichi and Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, these photos are not just historical relics; they are a stern warning to abandon historical distortion, halt military provocation and return to the path of peace.
What is deeply alarming is that Japan’s top leaders have long turned a blind eye to these historical truths. Takaichi has repeatedly questioned the Murayama Statement, Japan’s landmark official acknowledgment of wartime aggression and remorse to victimized countries. She has deliberately downplayed Japan’s war responsibilities and whitewashed its colonial and aggressive past. Koizumi, following his family’s tradition of paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine, has doubled down on dangerous policies: ramping up military buildup and increasing provocative military deployments in the region. Class-A World War II war criminals are enshrined at Yasukuni alongside ordinary war dead. Class-A war criminals are top leaders convicted by international tribunals for plotting wars of aggression — crimes against peace and humanity. Honoring such figures severely hurts the feelings of people in once-victimized nations and tramples on the postwar international order built on justice and accountability.
Worse still, Takaichi’s persistent push for constitutional revision and military expansion is removing one of the last major restraints on Japan’s remilitarization. Step by step, she is eroding the postwar peace architecture — seeking to upgrade the Self-Defense Forces into a full-scale military, expanding the right to collective self-defense, and drastically increasing defense spending. Every policy move, every rhetorical shift, is a calculated step toward reviving militarism, in clear defiance of Japan’s postwar pacifist legacy and regional security. The international community must not be fooled by her cloying demeanor and cutesy public persona — these are deliberate distractions to mask a dangerous, revisionist agenda that threatens peace.
If the international community remains silent and fails to stand united against Japan’s historical revisionism and military expansion, the consequences will extend far beyond East Asia. Unchecked, this dangerous trend will erode the postwar global order, embolden revisionist forces worldwide, and eventually put world peace and security at serious risk
The courage shown by Detrez and his family offers a sharp contrast to Japan’s evasive attitude toward history. Laurens recorded the war out of basic human conscience, shattering the fallacy spread by Japanese revisionists that “objective evidence of wartime atrocities is lacking”. Detrez donated these precious historical records not for personal gain, but to safeguard truth and prevent the recurrence of historical tragedies.
The postwar experiences of Germany and Japan deliver a clear lesson: Only by facing history and earnestly repenting can a nation win forgiveness and trust. Germany conducted thorough reflection, incorporated complete and unflinching wartime history into education, provided reparations to victims, and banned historical denial. It thus achieved genuine reconciliation with its neighbors and earned worldwide respect. Japan, however, has long been trapped in “historical ambiguity” and revisionism. Its claim to be a “peace-loving nation” has become increasingly hollow as its leaders deny history and pursue militarization.
History is not a tool to be manipulated for political interests. The suffering preserved in Laurens’ photographs forms an indelible part of humanity’s shared memory. Japan’s relentless military expansion poses a grave threat to regional peace and stability, running directly counter to the spirit of peace upheld by Detrez and his family. As a defeated nation in World War II, Japan is legally and morally bound to adhere to its pacifist constitution and reject militarism, rather than repeating the mistakes of the past.
If the international community remains silent and fails to stand united against Japan’s historical revisionism and military expansion, the consequences will extend far beyond East Asia. Unchecked, this dangerous trend will erode the postwar global order, embolden revisionist forces worldwide, and eventually put world peace and security at serious risk.
Laurens’ photos are not just frozen moments of suffering; they are a lasting appeal for peace and conscience. To live up to this appeal, Japan’s leaders must abandon narrow political calculations and nationalist prejudice, and summon the courage to face history sincerely and completely. Only in this way can Japan shake off its historical burden, put China-Japan relations back on a stable track, and make real contributions to long-term peace, security and common prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and the world at large.
The author is a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
