Wartime lessons still need heeding
In sharp contrast to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s hint that his statement on Aug 15 may deviate from former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama’s statement admitting Japan’s war atrocities in World War II, Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito stressed the need to remember WWII “correctly” during a news conference ahead of his 55 th birthday on Monday. His words were seen by many as a rebuke to those right-wing political figures in Japan who insistently seek to whitewash Japan’s wartime atrocities.
In remembering the war correctly, the biggest lesson one can draw is that extremism and aggression are doomed to fail when those that oppose them unite.
Formed after the war, the Unit- ed Nations is the most representative and authoritative international organization, and it has helped maintain world peace and promote transnational cooperation over the last seven decades. And China remains committed to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday while chairing a UN ministerial-level open debate to reflect on history.
The UN Charter which features the principles of sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs and respect for territorial integrity, lays the legal foundation for global governance.
China’s reaffirmation of its peaceful stance and commitment to the UN Charter can be seen as an active response to today’s forces of extremism and its upholding of the postwar order.
On the one hand, highlighting the UN’s central role in keeping postwar global order, Beijing is showing its respect for the current international law and basic norms governing contemporary international relations.
On the other, abiding by the Charter also calls for relinquishing the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game, and the establishment of a new type of international relationship in which all countries resort to mutual respect and win-win cooperation. This is something that China has been wholeheartedly championing within the international community in recent years.
Confronted with power politics adopted by countries such as the United States, the right-wing provocations of Japan, and religious extremism across the globe, the UN must take the leading role in responding to them.
It should urge all countries to respect each other’s core interests and political systems. At the same time, the commemoration of the victory against fascism is not only about remembering wartime history, brutal as it was, but also staying alert to the vicious resurgence of rightism, extremism and terrorism.
Kneeling down at the monument to victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1970, the former West German chancellor Willy Brandt made a landmark step to forge Germany as a peaceloving modern nation that has learned its wartime lesson. In contrast, in 2013 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine which honors 14 Class-A World War II criminals.
Peace can’t rely on one-sided good wishes. It is high time to ban the visits to Yasukuni Shrine, as well as other extreme right-wing actions under international laws. International unity is needed more than ever to stand up for peace and justice. The author is a professor of international studies at Renmin University of China.