September 3, 1945 – Victory of Chinese Resistance Against Japanese Aggression

China’s Role in World War II Second to None

He Yingqin, right, representing the Chinese government, accepts Japan’s surrender document in Nanjing, September 9, 1945. It had been signed days earlier on the USS Missouri in Tokyo.

September 3 marks the 78th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese aggression in the World Anti-Fascist War. China made outstanding contributions to the cause of liberating humankind from the scourge of Nazi fascism and Japanese militarism. With exceptional courage the Chinese people faced the brutality of the Japanese imperialists, pinning down some 1.86 million Japanese soldiers – 50 per cent of its total force. Estimates put the number of Chinese killed in the war at more than 14 million people. One hundred million became refugees.

Between 1939 and 1945, China suffered the loss of some 2.2 million troops, second only to the Soviet Union amongst the Allied countries, which lost 7.5 million. If the toll of those killed or wounded is taken from 1931 when the Japanese first invaded Manchuria, then it comes to more than 35 million people lost as a result of Japanese atrocities by the time they were defeated on September 2, 1945.

Today, to its shame, Canada joins the U.S., Britain, Australia, France and other countries in promoting sinophobia and remaining silent about the Chinese holocaust while engaging in self-serving propaganda about the European holocaust to denigrate the role of the communist-led resistance both in Europe and Asia.

The promotion of sinophobia is a matter of serious concern for Canadians at this time and stands must be taken to defeat it. It is a despicable racist approach to the problems which face societies and the world today, and is used to disinform the people about their causes and solutions.

Approximately 1.8 million Canadians are of Chinese descent, accounting for more than 5 per cent of Canada’s total population. China is the second top source country for new permanent residents, the third largest source of tourism, and Canada’s second largest international student source country. In Canada we are one people.

The government must be held to account for its promotion of racism and sinophobia under the self-serving guise of opposing “foreign interference” in the electoral process — while permitting the U.S. to dictate what happens in Canada. Like the promotion of Islamophobia before this, which criminalized no end of youth and people of Arab and Muslim background, its promotion of sinophobia is also used to put the intelligence agencies in open control of decision-making at the level of legislatures and ministries and to incite bashing of those of Chinese origin. It is a criminal policy which is used to disinform and disorient the polity.

Despite the absence of the official voice of the government of Canada to congratulate the Chinese people on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of China, Canadians greatly admire the heroism and death-defying courage of the Chinese people. They pay homage to their sacrifice and express their profound gratitude for their major contribution to the worldwide achievement of defeating Nazi-fascism and Japanese militarism to which Canadians, Quebeckers and Indigenous Peoples of this country also contributed with their lives.

On this occasion, we also pay our deep respects to Canadian doctor and communist Norman Bethune who gave his life to the fight against the Japanese occupiers in the harshest conditions of the war against the Japanese militarists.

The Japanese people are themselves currently waging an important battle to stop the current-day Japanese militarists who are coming under U.S. dictate to justify rescinding the Japanese Constitution’s Article 9 which prohibited Japan from maintaining military forces after World War II. The people of Okinawa and all over Japan are demanding the closure of U.S. military bases and an end to Japan’s participation in anti-China and anti-Korea provocations.

At the Victory Day Parade held in Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, veterans of the People’s Liberation Army were reunited for the first time in decades with veterans from the Kuomintang (KMT) with whom they fought to defeat the Japanese occupiers 70 years earlier.

Veterans participate in celebration of 70th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan, September 3, 2015.

Prominently featured in the parade was the Bethune International Medical Phalanx, a brigade of female medical soldiers named after Canadian surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune to honour his contribution to the Chinese people’s fight against the Japanese aggressors. China continues to hold high the profound internationalism of Dr. Bethune and his brilliant contributions as a battlefield surgeon, anti-fascist and communist.

For 14 years, from 1937 to 1945, the Chinese people fought tenaciously, courageously and heroically and they won the great victory of their War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the first complete victory by China in its resistance to foreign aggression in modern times. It crushed the plot of the Japanese militarists to colonize and enslave China and put an end to China’s national humiliation of suffering successive defeats at the hands of foreign aggressors. The Chinese people will never forget that or permit its repetition.

This great victory also marked the full victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. The peoples of the world will never forget that either.

On this occasion, we honour all those who laid down their lives to achieve that victory.

Symposium on the occasion of 78th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan, September 3, 2023