Cross-Strait Retired Generals Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Marco Polo Bridge Incident

Cross-Strait Retired Generals Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Marco Polo Bridge Incident 

Source: Taipei Newspapers

6 July, 2017

The Academic Conference on the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression will be held today at Nanjing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This conference is also an actualization of the many areas of consensus reached as a result of the 2015 Ma-Xi meeting; that is, to support and encourage joint use of historical materials, joint authorship of historical texts and joint advocacy of the spirit of the War of Resistance from both sides of the strait.

The organizers stated that “the aim of the conference includes: affirming the historical significance and contribution of the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, provide clarity with regard to the various battles fought during the resistance, analyze the inevitable collapse of Japan and the puppet regime in Nanjing headed by Wang Ching-wei (汪精衛), and to depict the events as a caveat to the present-day situation.” Also, both Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) and Fang Zuqi (方祖岐), who saw action in the war of resistance, were invited to the conference as keynote speakers.

The conference organizers received their guests at a banquet on the evening of 5th July, and during the address Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), chairman of the Mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council, stated that “history has taught us that a weak nation is bane for our cross-Strait comrades, while a strong nation is boon. The nation’s renaissance is the most dependable safeguard for the survival, development, prosperity, and dignity for all Chinese people, including our Taiwan comrades.”

[Editor’s notes: During World War II, Japanese militarists used a theory trying to justify its conquests in Southeast Asia. They denied it was aggression, saying that they only liberated those countries from Western colonial powers: the Philippines from the US, Malaysia, Singapore, and Burma from the UK, Vietnam from France, and Indonesia from the Netherlands. However, China was not a colony of any Western power at that time, so the Japanese militarists had to concoct another theory to justify their aggression in China. The following is the gist of their ridiculous and laughable theory: China used to be Japan’s teacher and mentor. Japan sent students to China starting from the Shui and Tang Dynasties, learning and copying many things from China. The period was called the Daiwa Reformation. But now according to Japanese militarists, China was no longer the China of yore. It was now a state of barbarians who needed education and the cultivation of the great Yamato nation. And since Japan proposed the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and this barbarian state rejected it, Japan had to launch a war of punishment. This is a page in Japan’s history which unfortunately has not been taught in Japanese school textbooks to the younger generations. For those who are interested in this history, please research this period in more depth.]

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