Japan's Emperor Akihito will abdicate on April 30, and the 59-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito will succeed the next day, May 1, when Japan's era name will also be changed to Reiwa.
The abdication, succession, and era name change of the emperor are major events in Japan, and we also expect That Japan to completely abandon militarism in the new emperor era and recognize the deep suffering that was brought to the people of Asian countries, especially the Chinese, during the Second World War.
Japan has experienced more than 200 era names since the use of the era name as a fixed era, and for ordinary Chinese citizens, there is no need to remember each era number, but there are two that we need to remember: Meiji and Showa.
Meiji is the era name of the 122nd Emperor mutsuhito of Japan (reigned from 1867 to 1912), which is the Meiji Emperor we are familiar with. During his term of office, Japan completed the capitalist revolution and embarked on the road of outward aggression and expansion, and China was the first country it invaded. In 1894, Japan launched the Sino-Japanese War, China was defeated, and was forced to cede the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan Island and affiliated islands to Japan, and compensate Japan for 200 million taels of silver (later increased by 30 million taels of "ransom fee").
Huge reparations from China spurred Japan's greedy ambitions, and by the time of Emperor Showa, there had been open armed aggression against China.
Showa was the era name of Hirohito, the 124th Emperor of Japan (reigned from 1926 to 1989). During his reign, the Japanese army launched the "918 Incident", forcibly occupying three northeastern provinces of China and plundering the rich resources of northeast China. Later, an all-out war of aggression against China was launched, and the Japanese army did no evil everywhere it went, and robbery, adultery, and massacre left China with countless miserable towns and villages.
The crimes committed by the Japanese army in the Meiji and Showa eras are too numerous to describe, and while we are in normal relations with Japan, we must not only remember our suffering, but also cheer up from the suffering, and strive to be strong, so that our descendants will no longer have tragedies.
We remember these two era names not to provoke hatred against Japan, but to remember our history of suffering, cherish today's peaceful and happy life, and strive to be strong so that our descendants can avoid tragedies. At the same time, we also hope that Japan will completely abandon militarism, truly embark on the path of peace, and never again regard the "Yasukuni Shrine" as a sacred place.