Will Japan continue down the road to self-destruction?
2026-06-19 12:29:37 source：CGTN
Jun 17, 2026
China suffered under the brutality of Japanese militarism more than any other nation on the planet. There were over 35 million victims in China alone due to Japanese aggression during World War Ⅱ. In 1937, Japanese occupiers carried out the horrendous slaughter in Nanjing: the Nanjing Massacre of around 300,000 victims, including women, children, and other civilians. The ruling Japanese administration has never apologized for its barbarism in Nanjing. Yet Japanese aggression and expansionism did not begin in 1937. At the end of the 19th century, in 1895, Japanese forces seized the provinces of Shandong and Liaoning in China, and forced the surrender of Taiwan to Imperial Japan. Taiwan was to remain a brutalized colony of Japan until 1945.
Ironically, Japanese industrialization and technological development in the 1870s, under the Meiji Restoration, was achieved in partnership with American policies. At that time, American foreign policy was dedicated to development, especially in Asia, unlike the present American foreign policy of containment and dominance. However, as Japan achieved these excellent technological and industrial developments, instead of sharing these benefits with its neighbors in a spirit of harmony for the common good of humanity, Japan turned these technological developments into an imperial battering ram directed outward against its weaker neighbors and so-called adversaries.
This imperial arrogance and built-in self-instilled superiority have not disappeared. Therefore, Japan's current direction of remilitarization is once again showing its ugly head. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is joining the United States and a "Global NATO" for out-of-area deployments, part of the AUKUS alliance among the UK, the US, and Australia. This new military alliance will include Japan and the Philippines, and even an "independent Taiwan," aimed at containing China.
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