BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- As air-raid sirens wailed in Chinese cities on Friday to commemorate the September 18 Incident, alarm bells should toll for a dangerous rise of Japanese neo-militarism today.
On Sept. 18, 1931, Japanese troops blew up a section of the railway near China's Shenyang city and later that night launched surprise attacks against Chinese military barracks in the city, marking the start of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
Japan's imperialist aggression during World War II inflicted untold suffering on the people of China and the rest of the world. Remembering history is all the more relevant and necessary to cherish and safeguard peace today, as rising neo-militarism in Japan is posing a threat to world peace and stability again.
Over the years, Japanese right-wing forces have tried to break free from the postwar international arrangements. They have been trying every possible means to deny and distort history, and even whitewash the crimes committed during Japan's war of aggression, including revising history textbooks and indoctrinating the Japanese people with a wrong perception of history.
Japan has been accelerating its remilitarisation, drastically readjusting its security policy, increasing its defense spending for 14 consecutive years, relaxing its restrictions on lethal arms exports, developing and deploying offensive weapons, and going farther down the wrong path of military buildup. Its ambitions were laid bare when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made remarks that implied the possibility of Japan's armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait in November last year.
Only by learning lessons from history can one avoid repeating mistakes. What Japan should do is to face up to its history of aggression, reflect on its war crimes, and make a complete break with militarism. This is the correct choice that serves the fundamental interests of the Japanese people.
Today's China is no longer what it was 95 years ago. The country has bid farewell to its old era of poverty and weakness and is advancing on its unstoppable course toward national rejuvenation. Its economic aggregate has ranked second in the world for years, and its people's armed forces have achieved leapfrog development, giving the nation solid confidence to safeguard peace.
Adhering to peaceful development, China will stand together with peace-loving countries in the world to firmly hold back the malevolent emergence of Japanese neo-militarism and prevent the tragedies of history from being repeated. ■
