Leading Chinese historians and experts have said that the Japanese invasion of China in 1931 should be recognized as the true beginning of World War II, a correction not only for academic accuracy, but a reckoning with fascist accountability and a safeguard of peace in the world.
According to them, World War II did not start with a sudden European explosion in 1939, but with escalating regional conflicts across the world years earlier, and even with Japan's bombardment of Beidaying barracks near northeast China's Shenyang City in 1931. Hence, China became the first battlefield in the worldwide fight against fascism.
"Different from WWI, WWII wasn't a sudden outbreak in one location, nor did opposing military blocs declare war on each other within days. It emerged from a series of escalating regional conflicts," said Lin Limin, director of the Chinese Institute for History of World War II.
As the first to shatter the post-World War I international system, Japanese fascists were not stopped by the League of Nations, the United Nations' precursor, emboldening European warmongers.
To this day, Eurocentric World War II narratives, by obscuring Japan's initiation of aggression, have allowed historical evasion by the country's right-wing factions. Only by fully restoring World War II's historical and geographical scope, can humanity safeguard peace and advance a shared future, experts highlighted.
"The Japanese invasion (of China) in 1931 shattered the post-World War I Versailles-Washington system, igniting the chain of aggression that became WWII. It [China] became the first battlefield of the global fight against fascism. Leading historians like Russia's Georgii Kumanev recognizing 1931 as the [second] world [war]'s start isn't just historically accurate - it corrects the Eurocentric 1939 narratives. Crucially, remembering history means honoring not just 1939's full-scale outbreak [of WWII], but the first spark of resistance and China's pioneering role in confronting resist aggression," said Wang Qi, director of the Institute for Sino-Russian Strategic Cooperation at Tsinghua University.
Japanese invasion of China marks accurate beginning of WWII: experts
