Spotlight on patriotic education in China after stabbing of Japanese boy

Wartime history lessons seen by some as playing a role in stirring violent acts

- Lim Min Zhang

On Sept 18, China commemorated the 93rd anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 with a promise to "never forget national humiliation", a long-running slogan used by state media and the government in publicity materials.

Museums unveiled new artefacts from the "war of resistance against Japanese aggression", as the 14-year period until the end of World War II is known in China. Students attended assembly talks and wrote reflective essays.

Influencers uploaded tearful videos of themselves visiting historical sites, such as the Datong Mass Grave Memorial in Shanxi province, which commemorates the 60,000 miners tortured or killed at the Datong coal mine during the war.

"This video might make some people uncomfortable, but I feel every Chinese citizen has the responsibility to finish viewing it. Because this is a pain for our nation that is impossible to get rid of," said a content creator who went to the memorial. She has more than 18 million followers on Douyin.

That same day, a Chinese man in Shenzhen stabbed a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy, who later died of his injuries. It was the second such attack in China involving Japanese nationals in three months.

It was the most serious of a string of anti-Japanese incidents in China in recent years, spurred by the remembrance of wartime history between the two countries which remains an emotionally fraught topic for the Chinese. The Japanese invasion spread to the rest of China from 1937, and by 1945, when the war ended, millions of Chinese had died.

In the aftermath of the attack on the boy, then Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa asked her counterpart, Mr Wang Yi, to conduct a full investigation, provide a clear explanation to Japan and implement preventive measures.

Mr Wang said China will handle the "isolated case" in accordance with the law and urged Japan to view the issue calmly and not politicise it.