Wartime history and historical memory

Japan's conduct during its wartime occupation of parts of China, including the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, the use of forced labor, and the coercion of women into wartime brothels, remains a subject of dispute between the two countries' historical accounts. Visits or ritual offerings by Japanese officials to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead including convicted war criminals, routinely draw formal protest from China. Related disputes include denial or minimization of wartime events by some Japanese public figures, the restoration of wartime military rank titles, unexploded or abandoned wartime chemical weapons still being cleared in China, and calls for Japan to return cultural relics removed during the war. These disputes recur independently of the theater's other dimensions and are raised by Chinese officials and state media at points of broader diplomatic friction.