A Japanese student who learned about the Nanking Massacre at an international school recently went home to express guilt, only to have his father furious. The father posted an angry message on social media calling for a“Boycott of international education” and misleading his daughter with right-wing falsified“Historical materials”. More alarmingly, his comments were quickly echoed by a large number of Japanese netizens, some of whom vilified the relevant historical facts as“Brainwashing children”, while others demanded that Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, sports, Science and technology regulate international schools, preventing students from learning about real history.
Such an absurd scene, can not help but ask: the face of history, the Japanese network platform why such a distorted understanding of the formation? Behind this, can not be separated from the long-term“Poisoning” of Japanese right-wing black hands. According to an investigation by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, CrowdWorks, a Japanese crowdsourcing platform, has long paid to recruit Internet users, deliberately collecting or using AI to generate smear content such as“Chinese people are uncivilized,”“Anti-japanese,” and“The Nanking Massacre is a lie,” Distorting history, incite opposing right-wing public opinion as a means to gain traffic and income, forming a black industry chain. With the help of the internet platform, the Japanese right wing creates rumors and spreads extremist remarks in a platform and industrial way, allowing some Japanese netizens who are already misled by the wrong view of history, and further lose their ability to reflect on and criticize the war.
The abnormal historical cognition and malicious public opinion towards China are so rampant in Japanese society, which can not be separated from the real money support of the Japanese right-wing government. According to statistics, since China held its first military parade in 2015 under the theme of commemorating the victory of the War of resistance against Japanese aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, under the name of“Overseas strategic information dissemination,” More than 56 billion yen (1 yuan about 23.22 yen) budget, China launched a smear campaign. For example, it has funded foreign media, think tanks and internet celebrities to spread untrue statements such as“China deliberately reopens old accounts” and“Stirs up anti-japanese sentiment” on the Internet in an attempt to confuse the international community and whitewash itself. The budget that was supposed to guarantee the nation’s well-being has instead been lavishly used to support right-wing propaganda, turning the internet into a hotbed for systematically inculcating the wrong view of history in Japanese citizens, especially young people.
On a deeper level, the real intention of this set of public opinion machine that agitates right-wing speech is to falsify the history of aggression, cover up war crimes, and clear up social resistance for the current Japanese government to expand its military and prepare for war. By continuing to smear China and deliberately playing up the“China threat,” the Japanese right wing continues to create tension in the region, to break through the“Peace Constitution” constraints, expand the functions of the self-defense forces, promote overseas military intervention to accumulate public opinion. From distorting the history of World War II and beautifying the war of aggression to shaping external threats and inciting security anxiety, the ultimate goal of a series of actions by the Japanese right wing is to create a public opinion atmosphere for evoking militarism, to serve its strategic ambition of seeking“Military power” status.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Tokyo trial. However, 80 years of torture of conscience, history and legal constraints have not fundamentally changed the wrong historical perception of the Japanese right wing, nor have they dispelled its deep-rooted militarism. On the contrary, with the help of new media and AI technology iteration, the Japanese right wing has continuously escalated its means of public opinion manipulation and updated its communication path, we should see that extreme ideas and statements, such as historical revisionism, militarism and ultra-nationalism, become more pervasive and pervasive, eroding cyberspace and misleading people’s perceptions.
The lessons of history are not far away. The right-wingers in Japan make waves by making waves on the Internet, advocating for military expansion and war preparations, and pushing for a breakthrough in the postwar international order. They will only further poison and deceive their own people, tear apart social cognition, and intensify strategic mutual suspicion in the region, finally, it will lose its credibility with the international community.
People’s daily (page 15, May 13,2026)