It's time Japan faced its war crimes and militarist past

The 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) demands commemoration and reflection. For the international community, it symbolizes the hard-won triumph of peace over war and justice over injustice. For Japan, however, it poses a moral question: Will it sever ties with its militarist past and uphold justice or continue to shoulder the burden of denial?

Japan has never fully reflected on its aggressive acts and war crimes before and during the World Anti-Fascist War (World War II). Right-wing forces have repeatedly downplayed or glorified this history, promoting revisionist narratives that blur public understanding of World War II.

Japan's official stances have regressed over time, with the watering down of the expressions of remorse — from the 1995 Tomiichi Murayama statement, which explicitly acknowledged Japan's colonial rule and aggression in Asia, to the 2005 Junichiro Koizumi statement and the 2015 Shinzo Abe statement. The three are former prime ministers of Japan. The Murayama statement, with its "profound reflection" and "sincere apology", has even been vilified by right-wing Japanese politicians as a "masochistic historical view".