China marks 89th anniversary of whole-nation resistance war against Japanese aggression

Various activities were held across China on Tuesday to commemorate the 89th anniversary of the beginning of the country's whole-nation resistance war against Japanese aggression.

The July 7th Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident, which occurred in 1937, is recognized as the start of Japan's full-scale invasion of China, and China's whole-nation resistance against Japanese aggression.

Following the incident in southwest Peiping (Beijing), the city was captured by the Japanese army on July 29, 1937. Over 10,000 civilians were killed or went missing during the fall of the city.

A commemorative ceremony was held at the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing on Tuesday morning.

Yin Li, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, presided over the ceremony.

At 09:00, the ceremony began with China's national anthem. Poems were recited and songs were performed by students from the capital to express the younger generation's resolve to faithfully follow the Party, carry forward the spirit of the heroes and martyrs, and advance China's modernization.

Attendees offered floral tributes and bowed to pay their respects to those who had laid down their lives in fighting the Japanese aggression.

Air-raid sirens rang in northwest China's Shaanxi Province and north China's Hebei Province to remind people to remember history and think of danger in time of peace.

In Nanjing City, east China's Jiangsu Province, representatives from all sectors rang the Peace Bell at the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre Victims by Japanese Invaders to remember revolutionary martyrs and the victims in the massacre.

The Nanjing Massacre, following the Japanese troops' capture of Nanjing, the then Chinese capital, on Dec. 13, 1937, left more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers killed.

In Shenyang City, northeast China's Liaoning Province, students vowed to carry forward the revolutionary spirit in front of the Broken Calendar Monument at the September 18th History Museum.

On the night of Sept. 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army bombed a section of the South Manchuria Railway near the Liutiao Lake on the northern outskirts of Shenyang. The Japanese blamed Chinese troops for the act and used this as a pretext to attack Beidaying, where the Chinese Northeast Army was garrisoned, and then bombarded Shenyang.

The September 18th Incident and the subsequent resistance on the Chinese side marked the beginning of the Chinese people's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, a significant part of the World Anti-Fascist War.

In Harbin City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crime by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army unveiled an archive, which is a core criminal evidence that proves that the chemical warfare of the Japanese invaders was a premeditated, organized and systematic state crime.

In Yangquan City, north China's Shanxi Province, people visited the Hundred Regiments Offensive Memorial Hall, where over 470 historical pictures and more than 200 exhibits present the glorious history of the CPC leading the military and civilians to fight the Japanese aggression together.

The Hundred Regiments Offensive was a bold and unprecedented counterattack by the Eighth Route Army, led by the CPC, that not only disrupted enemy operations but also galvanized national morale during the darkest days of World War II.

Launched on the night of Aug 20, 1940, the operation involved an astonishing 105 regiments -- hence its later name -- and continued for over five months, ending in January 1941. Over the course of 1,824 engagements, the offensive inflicted more than 20,000 Japanese casualties.

Military troops across China also held commemorative activities, including remembering revolutionary martyrs in cemeteries, visiting history and military museums, and reviewing the oath of joining the Party.

China marks 89th anniversary of whole-nation resistance war against Japanese aggression

Singaporean scholar Lim Shao Bin, who has been studying World War II history and the Japanese army's wartime atrocities, has shed light on Japan's extensive network of bacterial experiments in Southeast Asia -- alongside its germ-warfare crimes in China -- through his research.

In 2025, Lim published a collection of historical records compiled by Singaporean and Chinese scholars, "Oka 9420 Unit, Japanese South Army BW Troops", bringing together nearly a decade of archival digging, exposing Japan's wartime inhumane atrocity to the public.

Lim's interest in Japanese germ warfare was sparked by Nobuyoshi Takashima, an honorary professor at Japan's University of the Ryukyus. In Feb 2016, Takashima took Lim to the outskirts of Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and pointed out a building that had been used for Japanese army's experiments involving plague bacteria.

"Professor Takashima took me to the site and pointed out to me that this building was the factory where Japanese Army Unit 731 produced those plague bacteria bombs. I was really shocked. I never imagined that Unit 731 would be so close to my doorstep. After that, I started my research trying to find out what Unit 731 was doing in Singapore and across Southeast Asia," Lim said.

To facilitate its aggression in the Pacific theater, the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II began deploying a biowarfare troops unit in Southeast Asia in March 1942, similar to the notorious Unit 731 in northeastern China's Harbin.

In May, a biowarfare unit was formed in Nanjing, China, and was dispatched to Singapore a month later. The detachment, publicly known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group, was referred to as the Oka 9420 Unit within the Japanese Imperial Army, according to historical records.

"On March 30, 1942, a military order was issued, and all troops began preparations to establish the Oka 9420 accordingly," Lim said.

Through his research, Lim found out why the Japanese army needed to build Oka 9420 in Southeast Asia despite already operating Unit 731 in China.

"Around Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, temperatures stay at about 30 degrees Celsius year-round, with humidity reaching 80 to 90 percent. For the bacteria cultivators in Harbin, Singapore and Malaysia were almost like paradise: they didn't have to spend much money, and fleas could survive simply by being placed on the ground. That's why the Japanese army decided to move their cultivation base to Singapore and Malaysia," Lim said.

The Singapore-based biowarfare unit crept into what are today Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. Records show one of its central missions was raising rats and cultivating plague-infected fleas.

"Their goal was to cultivate large quantities of plague bacteria in preparation for bombing the U.S. West Coast. The Japanese army was cultivating the equivalent of about five tons of fleas, and Singapore was one of the important plague cultivation centers," Lim said.

The Japanese army established mass production lines for plague fleas in Singapore and Malaysia, and then transported those fleas to Bangkok, sealed in glass bottles, according to witnesses. Based on that evidence, Lim deduced that these flea bombs were likely intended for use in the China-Burma-India Theater.

"The fleas sealed inside the glass bottles have a lifespan of only 20 to 30 days, so the bombs must be dropped quickly before the fleas die. I suspect their goal was to disrupt the Yunnan-Burma Road, cutting off supplies donated by overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia from reaching China," Lim said.

The unit destroyed a large amount of equipment and materials after Japan's unconditional surrender in 1945, and many members hid their identities, according to Lim.

Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing in China during World War II.

Singaporean scholar's study exposes Japan's bacterial experiment network in Southeast Asia