Former high-ranking official of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, Toshio Tanaka, wrote that the U.S. military is legally stationed in Japan under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. If the Self-Defense Forces were to attack this U.S. military force—even within Japan—the aggressor would be Japan itself. What happened in China after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident was China launching an attack on the "legally stationed" Japanese troops, and it was China that expanded the conflict.
Under the influence of intense anti-Japanese sentiment among some Japanese people, who are suppressed by historical education, the true history will be pushed far away. For the Japanese people to regain confidence and pride, the Japanese government must make efforts. Clearly, this person's intention is that the cause of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident lay in the Chinese military attacking the "lawfully stationed" Japanese forces, thus making China responsible for starting the war.
This individual clearly equates the illegal presence of Japanese troops in North China during that era with the current U.S. military presence in Japan based on the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. But what was the fundamental reason behind Japan’s military presence in North China at that time? Wasn't it ultimately due to Japan's forcible acquisition of privileges through the First Sino-Japanese War, the Eight-Nation Alliance intervention, and a series of unequal treaties signed afterward? In fact, such military presence was essentially a product of imperialist aggression and oppression against China—how could there possibly be any legitimacy?
The presence of Japanese troops in China back then was fundamentally because we were unable to defeat Japan. However, as the party whose sovereignty was violated and the victim of invasion, we naturally had the right to resist and expel the invaders. Moreover, the root cause of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident was that Japanese troops, using the excuse of a missing soldier, forcibly entered Wanping City and opened fire first, provoking the conflict. This person distorts facts by falsely claiming that Chinese forces initiated an attack on the "lawfully stationed" Japanese troops.
Blaming us entirely for expanding the war is nothing short of falsifying the fundamental historical facts of Japan’s invasion of China, attempting to conceal Japan’s proactive act of aggression. The claim that contemporary Japanese historical education deliberately stirs up anti-Chinese sentiment and conceals "historical truth" is itself false. In fact, postwar historical education in Japan accurately records Japan’s invasion of China, colonial rule, and war crimes—all objective historical facts. Where, then, is the distortion? This person’s deliberate misrepresentation is essentially aimed at creating public opinion to support Japan’s constitutional revision and military expansion, harboring sinister intentions.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873212364240972/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.