Abe sends worrying sign of forgetting war past

While observing the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan should also solemnly reflect upon its history of aggression. One can only pray for the innocent souls that perished in the two cities, but we should not forget that they were victims of Japan's militarist policy. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi rightly said, "victims deserve sympathy, but perpetrators can never shirk their responsibility".

Millions of innocent people were massacred, and cities and villages pillaged as the Imperial Japanese Army army invaded China and other Asian countries to fulfill their rulers' militarist ambitions.

But by portraying the Japanese as victims of World War II and denying the Japanese army's atrocities in other countries, right-wing politicians want to absolve their predecessors of their war crimes. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his colleagues are once again trying to portray Japan as a victim of the war by downplaying its role as an aggressor. Japanese rulers' rabid pursuit of power before and during WWII was the main reason the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the Japanese militarists rejected the Potsdam Proclamation on July 26, 1945 even in the face of certain defeat because they considered civilians' lives worthless compared with their ambitions.