China urged countries around the world to join hands in thwarting any attempt to revive militarism and Fascism, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Tuesday, noting that conniving at provocative words and deeds by Japan's right-wing forces in any form will only revive the ghost of militarism and put the people of Asia in danger again.
Spokesperson Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a daily press briefing, after multiple neighbouring countries voiced opposition to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks on China's Taiwan region and expressed open support for the one-China principle.
"Over the last century, under the pretext of 'survival-threatening situation,' Japanese militarists waged a war of aggression against China and other Asian countries, taking millions of lives and committing horrendous atrocities across the continent. During WWII, among the three mass killings of civilians committed by the Japanese military, over 300,000 were murdered in the Nanjing massacre, an estimated 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed in just one month in the Manila massacre, and the death toll of the massacre in Singapore was tens of thousands. It's documented in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East Judgment that the Japanese military created over 100 large-scale massacres in Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and other places," said Guo.
"Prisoners of war (POWs) from Allied nations were treated cruelly by the Japanese military, among whom 27 percent were killed after their capture. In the Bataan Death March, about 15,000 U.S. and Philippine POWs died under maltreatment," he said.
"Hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asian people and Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese military perished in building the railway connecting Thailand and Myanmar. Over 4 million Chinese workers forcibly recruited by the Japanese military died or injured because of overwork under brutal conditions. Women and girls from China, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia, the Netherlands and other countries and regions were brutally forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military as 'comfort women,'" said Guo.
"Japan's war crimes must not be erased and the verdict on its history of aggression must not be changed. Any tolerance on the provocative words and deeds of Japanese right-wing forces will only revive the specter of militarism and once again put the Asian people in danger. Countries have the responsibility and obligation to join hands in thwarting any attempt to revive militarism and Fascism, defending the outcomes of WWII victory, upholding the post-war international order and safeguarding world peace and stability," said the spokesman.
China calls for vigilance against resurgence of Japan's militarism
