The picture shows Japan signing the instrument of unconditional surrender
As early as 1931, when Japan invaded and occupied northeast China, it had already started the prelude to an all-out war, and in 1937 Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China, and the world's large-scale anti-fascist war began, and after 8 years of arduous effort, the Chinese won the war with more than 35 million casualties and a consumption of more than 560 billion US dollars. The name of this war is different from country to country: China calls it the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which summarizes it as a just war of Chinese people against Japanese aggression; the United States calls it the Chinese War of World War II, which is part of the entire war against anti-fascism.
The picture shows a Japanese city after the bombing
It is not difficult to see from these descriptions that japan today does not seem to reflect on the war, or that they have completely stripped the war from their history and then turned themselves into a spectator to look at, they only see that Japan lost almost everything due to the defeat of the war, but did not reflect on the causes of the war and why they were treated the way they were treated. Describing this history in terms of the 15-year war shows that they do not feel guilty about it, but only as a piece of history, they are not reflecting on the war, but on the defeat, reflecting on why Japan lost that war and thus lost everything that caused the situation it is today.
Pictured is the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
The reasons for this attitude toward the war in Japan are extremely complex. The first is that Japan was not sanctioned in all respects after the war, but was supported by the United States shortly after the end of the war. After the end of World War II, the United States began to station troops in Japan, and hoped to build Japan into a bridgehead for the United States in the Far East to counter the Soviet Union, unlike the situation of the United States in Europe, in Asia, the United States lacked powerful allies, especially after one of its allies fled to a small island, so the United States strongly discouraged other Allies from liquidating Japan after the war, in order to help Japan save some strength to help the United States against the Soviet Union, after the Korean War, the Logistics-strapped United States began to arm Japan again. A consignment of equipment was provided to Japan to provide logistical support for the United Nations forces in the vicinity.
It was precisely this operation of the Americans that allowed the Japanese economy to recover rapidly after the war and restart japan's national industrialization. After the end of the Korean War, the United States relaxed some restrictions on Japan's military, allowing it to reorganize the "police reserve" formed in 1950 into the Japanese Naval, Land, and Air Self-Defense Forces, and with the return of Japan's military power, the Japanese right-wing once again had the upper hand in Japan's domestic political situation, and gradually laid down the Japanese left wing that came to power after the war to form a government, began to play down historical actions in Japan, and purged a large number of relevant history books and relevant parts of textbooks. The surviving soldiers living in Japan were also banned from speaking out.
The picture shows the Japan Self-Defense Forces
With the continuous expansion of the Cold War, the United States gradually felt the pressure of the Soviet Navy, especially the Soviet submarine force, the United States further relaxed the restrictions on the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Air Self-Defense Force, and even once used the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force as an off-the-regiment anti-submarine formation of the Us Seventh Fleet. As the situation in East Asia continues to develop, the United States has further relaxed restrictions on Japan, but how Japan should see the past wars and the role that Japan should play in East Asia today is a test of the wisdom of the Japanese people.
Author: Intelligence Officer